Monday, November 08, 2004

For everyone who can't shake the depression,  this editorial in The Nation offers hope.  Now, get out there and do something. ". . . we are angry about what the election of George W. Bush portends for the country. Bush's victory will tighten the grip of the Republican Party's virtual monopoly on the institutions of the federal government. The checks and balances on presidential power contemplated by the country's Founders are in tatters. Bush's election gives him the chance to shape the Supreme Court to his purposes: two branches of the government possibly lost in a single election.  Roe v. Wade and a host of other protections of basic human rights are at risk. Bush is bound to try to assist the Christian right in its fantastical efforts to "Christianize" public institutions. Further inroads into the liberties of Americans are likely, through a "Patriot Act II" and other legislation as well as by executive fiat. In the near term, a terrible acceleration of the violence in Iraq may be in the offing. In the longer term, new aggressive wars may be launched. The transfer through regressive tax cuts of hundreds of billions more from the poor and the middle class to the rich and the super-rich has been announced. Anger should lead to action. TV anchors and the candidates themselves call for a new civility and ask the public to "come together" as one people. Pay no attention. The progressive movement in this country has suffered a huge reversal. But the struggle for the country's future--and its very soul--was anything but settled. It will be renewed at a higher level of intensity, and for higher stakes. There must be a fierce, protracted resistance in defense of democracy." 1:23:39 PM    comment [] It is not an exaggeration to say today that the most powerful nation on earth is in the grip of an ideological administration – backed by a vast network of right-wing think tanks, media outlets and attack groups – that can neutralize any political enemy with smears, such as the Swift boat ads against John Kerry’s war record, or convince large numbers of people that clearly false notions are true, like Saddam Hussein’s link to the Sept. 11 attacks. The outcome of Election 2004 also highlights perhaps the greatest failure of the Democratic/liberal side in American politics: a refusal to invest in the development of a comparable system for distributing information that can counter the Right’s potent media infrastructure. Democrats and liberals have refused to learn from the lessons of the Republican/conservative success. Click here to read more of the excellent article by Robert Parry.  It's time to learn quickly and make serious changes. 1:10:21 PM    comment [] Just a taste of what's coming: USA Today is reporting that the CIA has assigned dozens of case officers and analysts to work with FBI agents throughout the USA in the most extensive deployment of intelligence officers on domestic soil in the spy agency's history. The CIA was created to gather foreign intelligence and is prohibited by law from participating in intelligence-gathering operations against U.S. citizens. It also has no law-enforcement powers. Intelligence and FBI officials say that the CIA officers are not involved in criminal investigations. The Associated Press reports that a warning sticker in suburban Atlanta science textbooks that says evolution is "a theory, not a fact" was challenged in court Monday as an unlawful promotion of religion.  The disclaimer was adopted by Cobb County school officials in 2002 after hundreds of parents signed a petition criticizing the textbooks for treating evolution as fact without discussing alternate theories, including creationism.  The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1987 that creationism was a religious belief that could not be taught in public schools along with evolution. Reuters reports that  Global warming is heating the Arctic almost twice as fast as the rest of the planet in a thaw that threatens millions of livelihoods and could wipe out polar bears by 2100.  The UN publishes a list of countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol--the US hasn't signed the agreement.  12:08:43 PM    comment [] TODAY'S UNFILTERED TALKING POINT: That nagging question…Was the election stolen?  Just six days after the election, stories of electronic voting machines behaving badly crawl across the national press.  Some democrats are ready to move on from the election and revitalize the party. But most of us are not quite ready to throw in the towel. So.. now do we proceed? First.. we need focus.. chances are we won’t make Thursday’s deadline to challenge the election.. so we’re in Watergate mode now.  We need Deep Throats.. Whistleblowers.. Insiders.. and Information. If you know anyone like that, contact the folks at BlackBoxVoting.Org.  Make sure you don’t mix that up with blackboxvoting dot com.. they’re a fake site pretending to be the good guys. 10:59:07 AM    comment [] Some hard core right wingers with whom I had been exchanging spirited emails before the election are outraged over my 11/4 posting about how Bush won the election and their responses were unsettling, to say the least.   Anyone who doesn't identify with the direction our country took last Tuesday should be very uneasy and work hard to change it.  America is being led on a very dangerous course by extremists. Being part of the "majority" (by a few points, and that it still open to debate) doesn't mean you're right and it certainly doesn't mean you have a mandate.  10:22:42 AM    comment [] Read today's Washington Post story detailing how the Republicans used evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics to win the election.   According to surveys of voters leaving the polls, Bush won 79 percent of the 26.5 million evangelical votes and 52 percent of the 31 million Catholic votes.  The Bush campaign is accused of leading churches to violate laws against partisan activities by tax-exempt organizations, and even some of the White House's closest religious allies said the campaign had gone too far. 10:14:35 AM    comment []

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