Never so ashamed

[Vexatious Ape]

Not feeling so proud about being an American—haven’t since the dreadful 04 elections. Now all the talk in the media and around the proverbial water cooler is: gas prices, and immigration. This past Sunday CBS ‘s 60 Minutes did a story about a former CIA agent, Tyler Drumheller, who said that the Bush Admin had been warned that Iraq possessed no WMD programs, and that they weren’t interested. Apparently neither is the American people, all they give a rats ass about is how much money they’re pouring down the tank, and what the fuck is up with all these Mexican’s coming here spreading pine straw and mowing lawns.
If this was a reasonably sane, healthy country, the only thing people would be yammering about is the 60 Minutes story. Here’s the link:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/21/60minutes/main1527749.shtml



Now I read that Intel Vice Chairman Senator Jay Rockefeller wants to interview Rice, Tenet and Powell aides as part of a Senate inquiry into whether or not they were lying their asses off during the propaganda campaign for the war in Iraq. (At least someone is interested in this—guess being a Rockefeller you don’t worry too much about gas prices) He’s being rebuffed by the Christian fascist Chairman Senator Pat Roberts of—where else—Kansas. Truth tellers and truth seekers get the shaft in this country; just ask Joe Wilson and his wife. Here’s the link:

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Senate_Intelligence_Committee_Chairman_denies_access_0427.html

Does it matter that these mendacious bastards in the Bush Admin buffaloed us into a war that has turned into a disaster? Who cares about the thousands of dead Iraqi children or the American soldiers getting killed and maimed all for what? That’s far to abstract for the typical American mind to be troubled with. $3 dollars a gallon? Out come the torches and pitchforks. Substantial influx of hard working brown people? Round the bastards up and ship them back home.
What a country.

[babylonsister]

1. Pathetic, isn't it.

And a sad welcome to DU to you, Vexatious Ape. :hi:

People may be aware, but they get loud when it effects their pocketbooks.

[acmavm]

3. That's why no gas in their tanks will get more attention than

any other/more scandal(s) that comes out of Washington.

[file83]

2. America is doing a heckuva job....

...we share the same disappointment.

[Union Thug]

4. I haven't been proud since 1980...

...when RAYgun escalated the war on the working class and poor, and began dismantling every positive step forward this country has made sincd FDR.

[BrklynLiberal]

5. I cannot tell you how many people I know who were not pissed off until gas

prices shot up! Nothing bothered them until then! Amazingly pathetic!:mad: :grr: :nuke:

[smomfr]

20. Remember ¨IT´S THE ECONOMY STUPID¨ ¨?

How about this ¨IT´S THE PRICE OF GAS STUPID¨. Let´s take anything we can get, if it grabs people´s attention.

[ugarte]

6. The right wingers' anti-Mexican rhetoric is having its predictable effect

among the simple-minded and the haters. It's become patriotic to hate Hispanics.


http://www.adl.org/main_Extremism/immigration_extremists.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_1

[hvn_nbr_2]

15. Yep. Mexican immigrants are this year's gay marriage. nt

[Joe Fields]

7. This is a subject that is a sore spot with me, also.

There probably isn't a day that goes by, that either I don't think these very thoughts, or write about it in DU, or discuss it with my wife. It's disgusting, how Americans are always able to fixate on what the MSM want them to fixate on. Like robots, or lemmings, or Stepford people.

[Junkdrawer]

8. You put your finger on the biggest problem we have as a Nation...

As long as we get what we want, we look the other way when it comes to foreign policy.

And here's the irony: we're about to lose our jobs, our rights, and our liberties for just this reason. We let a class of imperialists become so powerful that now WE are expendable.

[bluethruandthru]

9. We need to do what we can to get the MSM to focus

on the really important things. When you see a newscast or talk show spending time with the latest on Tom Cruise or Natalee Holloway...call or e-mail them and let them know that you'd rather they covered something substantive. As long as we keep watching the crap...they'll keep it coming.

[babylonsister]

11. We've been e-mailing for years. They listen to their

corporate masters, not to the people they're supposed to be informing (with some noted exceptions).

[Vexatious Ape]

14. I do... but maybe I should do it a lot more.

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

10. Kick!

[Jane Austin]

12. Only partly true.

I share completely your dismay that ALL Amercans have have not acted to stop these travesties.

I am confounded that so many people seem to be unconnected from the many evils our own country has perpetrated on the world.

However, there is a very large fraction - - albeit less than 50% of people - - who agonize over this situation and who, to varying degrees, work hard to stop the harm done in our name.

Perhaps it is only 20%. Maybe more. Maybe less. Almost everybody here at DU feels this acutely.

But since when in human history have most people been good and empathetic and morally guided in thought and action?

Never, that's when.

We may even be making progress, however slowly.

[ItsTheMediaStupid]

13. People are brainwashed. They don't know what they don't know.

The republican noise machine on cable news and AM radio is designed to keep the wingnuts ignorant while convincing them they are well informed.

It is also designed to keep them scared of any minority that comes along, except for the occasional Aunt Jemima (Condi Rice) and Uncle Tom (Colin Powell), who they love because they are subservient.

[ninkasi]

16. It's deeply troubling to me, as well

I hear people who just a month or two ago were still trying to justify their glorious leader, now use profanity because now THEY are feeling the effects of gas prices. What do they think Iraqis have been going through for three years now? At least Americans can go to the gas station without worrying about being shot at, or kidnapped, or blown up by a bomb.

The same people are acting as if 12 million immigrants magically appeared overnight, and are now grumbling about the loss of American jobs. Have these same people noticed that their Republican president, and his wealthy buddies have not imposed any real punishment on the businesses that hire illegal aliens? Why aren't they up in arms about all of the jobs outsourced to India and China?

I hope people notice that the more bellicose the Bushistas are about bombing Iran, the more gas prices rise. I wish they would realize that privatization is funneling money straight from the printing presses directly into Halliburton's coffers, and we taxpayers are footing the bill. You'd think that they would be upset over all of the no-bid contracts that burn through money, an don't deliver the goods.

They bought into the idea that to be against the war in Iraq was to be unpatriotic, and un-American. Have they ever considered just how much fuel this war is using, and that that might account for some of the obscene increases? I hope they can begin to focus on not just gas prices and immigration problems, and take a careful look at each and every one of Bush's actions, which are bankrupting our nation, giving more and more to the rich at the expense of the rest of us, and their thoroughly corrupt way of doing business.

I wish we had our country back, Vexatious Ape, just as you do. I wish I could be proud of my country again. I wish that America could go back to being viewed as the source of good, and an example to follow.

[shamrock]

17. opinion

Most people are just so darned busy trying to make ends meet (two jobs anyone?) and deal with the problems of living day-to-day that they don't even have time to focus on politics. They're told that the media is lying, the Dems are lying, the Pubs are lying, all the leaders on both sides are crooked and lying, so who do they believe? When they make an effort to get involved they start getting bombarded with insults, from BOTH sides. Let's see, why don't we make a list of the name-calling and insults that fly from BOTH sides, here are just a few:
unpatriotic
Saddam lover
hater
racist
fat
lazy
bigot
baby killer
f##ker
a**hole
greedy
stupid
ignorant
liar

and the list, the LONG list, goes on. Top that off with doubts about whether their vote is even counted, the ugly insults and accusations back and forth between parties about just about everything. Some people find it all so sickening that they want no part of it. If Joe Blows opinion is different than yours, it's almost guaranteed that you have a 'special' name for him . And when all else fails, BLAME THEM, the lazy, uninformed (insert your own curse word here)! Am I ashamed of us, YES!

[rodeodance]

18. I just asked Sen. Rockefeller to continue to work on this matter-Here:

http://rockefeller.senate.gov/services/email.cfm

[glitch]

19. Don't feel so bad about being an American, check out DU's Election Reform

forum. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203