Speaking of Carlin...

"They'll get it all from you sooner or later." (Apparently it will be sooner.)

Michael Moore responds to Joe Lieberman

And now if I may, I'd like to respond to Michael.

If you haven't noticed already, I don't watch the conventions. I didn't watch the DNC and I'm certainly not going to poison my spirit by watching the RNC. The Democrats may have mostly forgotten their ideology (think Roosevelt,) but the GOP is now tilting wildly in the direction of fascism. And their product stinks.

My response to Michael Moore? The reason Joe Lieberman and McCain, and every other Republican bash you in public is because you have the nerve to uncover holes in the 'product.' You are successful when you comment on the fact that their product doesn't deliver. They've spent millions in advertising to promote their product and conceal its true crappiness, and they aren't going to let you walk in off the street with a movie camera and reveal the truth without a strong counter-attack.

The product is in fact, garbage. You reveal the fact that it doesn't work, has never worked (despite the advertising,) and that the money-back guarantee was always bogus. You are discrediting their product, and so they are now working hard to discredit, or marginalize or harrass you -- all tested corporate battle tactics.

The GOP is so obsessed with corporate business and the market, that they have literally become a corporation themselves, with a name brand and a product. Their product is terrible (for everyone but the top 1% of the economic pyramid,) but they keep selling it to the struggling masses through a carefully crafted advertisement plan. That, and a whole lot of intimidation.

The long term goal is to run their competition out of business; or simply buy them out - Joe Lieberman being an excellent example - so that their lousy product is the only one on the market.

They've already bought the media, so as to keep their advertising campaign on the air 24/7, while subtly bashing anything that threatens their product under the guise of 'covering the news.' If the actual news of the day shows their product in a negative light, they simply withhold this news or make up an alternate reality. Spin is in.

Its just business, Michael.

But Michael... you just won't play. You don't like their product, and you won't join their corporation. And so of course they see you as The Competition. The Competition must be hit and hit hard, at every opportunity.

You are actually advocating something that isn't even a product; a dangerous (to their product) mindset that they hope to eventually stamp out with their corporate world view. Democracy.

Perished from the earth

Over a hundred years ago, Abraham Lincoln gave one of the most stirring speeches in American history:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Surely the American Civil War as a time of much greater fear and terror than anything we have ever known in our sheltered, spoiled lifetimes.

And yet President Lincoln never demanded that the people BE AFRAID, never cut Congress out of the loop. He created a bipartisan cabinet of brilliant minds to guarantee that the best interests of the nation would be upheld, even at the cost of his own personal comfort (many of them hated him, and openly looked down on him because of his humble background.)

This was no rich men's pawn. This was a president. This man was one of us; and he believed in us.



Lincoln suspended habeas corpus when riots broke out in cities all across the North, and threatened the safety of the masses. (We citizens have never really liked our wars... have we?) And Lincoln later lifted it. We will find out today if our Senate thinks the current suspension of habeas corpus is worth lifting... without a single American city in flames, or even one lawless riot rampaging through our streets. Yes, we will see.

Lincoln was trying to save our nation... not destroy it for his own, personal gain. Lincoln believed in the dream of our nation's founders.

Democracy. Liberty. Justice.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

Yes, wars will do that. Quite a lot of 'testing' goes on during wartime. 58,168 Americans died in the Vietnam war. 54,246 Americans died in Korea. 407,316 Americans died in WWII. 116,708 Americans died in WWI.

558,052 Americans died in the American Civil War, in the course of only 4 years... out of a total national population of about 30 million (today we have a population of 300 million.) Imagine the impact on society, on towns, cities and farms all across America. And imagine... they didn't toss out the Constitution - and Lincoln still conferred with Congress before going to war.



The South fought to form their own, new Constitution; the Union fought to defend the current. Each side was, in their way, fighting for their vision of America... just as today, angry voices on the right and angry voices on the left all fight for their own vision, their own American reality.

We disagree on everything else, but we all do love our country.

Unfortunately for us, corporations do not love our country. They want to rule our country. They want ever more money, ever more power, ever more control. But no, they do not love anything... but money.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Already they have raised up a monied aristocracy that has set the government at defiance. - Thomas Jefferson

Commercial shackles are generally unjust, oppressive, and impolitic. - James Madison

We were warned. We have been warned by everyone; from Jefferson to Eisenhower. We didn't listen. We were lured by trinkets and toys, and capitalism grew and grew, until at last it ate democracy.

But back to Gettysburg. Back to the battlefield.

We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

We are engaged, once again, in a war. But this war was never about freedom. This war was never about ideals; although the money powers spun it a way that would inspire yet another generation of idealistic, patriotic warriors to fight.

This war has always been about money.



We are daily met on a battlefield of a war. We just haven't yet awakened as a nation to the true nature of our war; and exactly who it is that has declared war on us.

We are misled, co-opted, enslaved... more and more, every day. Our freedom is being stolen from us at every turn by the money powers that lurk in the shadows; the powers that pay for our politicians, own our media, and call the shots. The money that wields the real power behind the scenes in Congress.

Do we think -- do we really think, for one moment, that anything we see is happening without their consent?

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced.

And how do we do that exactly? How do we end this 'perpetual war' that was declared against our will? This war... this endless war that will kill generation after generation of American and 'enemy' warriors alike, along with untold millions of innocent civilians...while destroying our very democracy in the process?

How do we resist this 'war beast' that is intent on killing us?

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Ah, father Abraham... that is the crux of the matter. That is the heart of everything. Because you see, we no longer are a government 'of the people, by the people, and for the people.' That government has indeed, as you once feared, perished from this earth. It happened in increments. It happened with a bill here, an amendment there, and many, many signing statements. It happened while we went to work, went to school, eat, watched TV and slept. It happened quietly and in back rooms.

All across this country, people are demanding justice, demanding the removal of this lawless presidency. For some reason, the Democrats - who we elected to 'make it right' and save our democracy - refuse to act. Most of them refuse to even listen to the voices of the people.

Even Senator Feingold who I have held in the very highest esteem and never once doubted - not for a moment - seems to believe that impeachment is not worth the time.

How can saving our Constitution and our balance of power in government, not to mention our own voice - the voice of the people - how can this not be worth the time?

Lincoln would have thought it worth the time.



Yesterday, Senator Feingold posted a diary on Daily Kos. He responded to the many angry impeachment comments that completely flooded his last diary on Kos. He restated that he feels that impeachment is not a good use of time.

I fully respect the anger and frustration many Americans feel with this Administration. I share much of it. But on balance, I think Congress’s time is much better spent ending the war in Iraq, conducting the oversight that was absent for the last six years, and advancing progressive legislation.

When I try to contact anyone about impeachment (congressman or senator,) I hear much the same... only unlike Senator Feingold, (who did approach us in good faith and is listening,) they speak to me as if talking to a small, confused child. It is as though I must be some left-wing radical to even broach the subject of impeachment. I have to tell them that I actually LEFT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OVER THIS before they stop and listen.

I will never belong to any party, ever again. I have lost all faith in parties. Party before nation? NEVER. I put the onus on the Democrats to restore that faith by doing something - anything - to save my country from slipping into a fascist dictatorship.

And perhaps the Democrats are satisfied to have a Democratic dictator rather than a Republican. Perhaps that is the deal that was brokered behind our backs. As long as the uniform is blue instead of red... and the right party 'wins.'



NO.

This was a government built on the rights and the voice of the people; and no one gives a damn about us anymore except when we're actually voting, excepting of course that our elections are now broken too.

And do you know why that is? Because lobbyists now outnumber lawmakers 24-1.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. - Thomas Jefferson

Why would Congress give a damn about us? We don't pay their way... the corporations do. Perhaps the money powers who own the candidates and the media (except for a couple of mavericks - the ones who are ignored by the media by some strange coincidence;) perhaps these king makers told the Democratic party that they will not receive any endorsements - any money - for next year's election if they push through with impeachment.

Has anyone considered this?

These corporations are growing fat on the Bush Administration's policies, on this contractors' war, on land giveaways, cutbacks on corporate oversight, plundering of the environment, union-bashing, corporate tax cuts... this is pig trough heaven for the corporate world. In fact, corporate lobby representatives now oversee every single oversight agency; and corporations now make the rules and 'police themselves.'



And that is why I now believe that we will never, ever get this back; this government of the people. The whole thing has already gone too far under Bush and Cheney; the corporations will never give up all of this power now. And no one in Congress (other than Dennis and a handful of others) has the courage to stand against them.

One of the starkest Lincoln quotes I've ever seen was written in a letter to an officer during the Civil War. Some people have insisted Lincoln didn't write it, but a historian tracked it down and verified. I was floored when I saw it. How could he have... forseen this? But since that day, I have read many other warnings, going all the way back to our founding fathers. This danger has been looming since the very beginning of our nation.

I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. - Abraham Lincoln

If even Senator Feingold says 'do nothing,' it must be because he cannot see any way that Democrats can win next year without keeping impeachment off the table. And what on earth... would make a man like Senator Feingold, who so obviously loves the Constitution and agrees that these tyrants deserve to be impeached; what would make him suggest that impeachment was a bad use of time?



Perhaps the threat of continuing, lawless Neocon rule.

The sad thing... is that if this is true, and it is all about campaign finance: the Democrats are being played.

The corporations will never allow the Democrats to take over Congress or the White House unless they agree to keep things just as they are now. The corporate world will never give up a single tool in their presidential toolbox. I had nothing at all against Hillary; nothing at all... until she became lost in Rupert Murdoch's shadow. And of course Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. And Times Warner. Why would Hillary concern herself with listening to me? I will never have that kind of money.

But I still doubt that they really want Hillary; they'd much rather have a greedy Neocon like Fred Thompson.

I'm imagining a different scenario. I expect they will tell the Democrats to toe that line just a little too long... until the people become increasingly enraged and disaffected.

Then they will toss the people an independent candidate to split the weakened, Democratic vote. And of course, the gravy train will go right on, as if nothing ever happened. Giuliani or Fred Thompson. Probably Thompson because he was a lobbyist. Who better for the new corpocracy?

I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country. - Thomas Jefferson

Do I sound cynical? Machiavelli called this hundreds of years ago. Jefferson foresaw it during the birth pangs of our nation. Adams predicted that our fledgling democracy could not survive, but would eventually 'commit suicide.'

It must have leapt while we weren't looking.

If we've lost Senator Feingold, we've lost our Democratic Congress. And they were all we have to represent us in these dark, dark days.

We have no Lincoln... except the one with the tired, sad eyes, staring out from the dusty, faded pictures of our past. The man, the president of the people; who saw the future, and is perhaps still trying to warn us across time and space.

The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise -- with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country. - Abraham Lincoln

Its the corruption, stupid (and the war!)

The bell tolls for the GOP

Hey you - yes you, sulking in the corner there...all wrapped up in your American flag and clutching your bible. You still don't get it, do you?

Oh you 'get' that Americans are leaping off the sinking GOP ship at an alarming rate (a realistic rate, when you consider how angry we are out here.) The number is now especially high in the military, where polls show that 46% now lean Republican (down from 60%,) and the number is in a 'free fall. Returning troops are spreading the word that the Iraq war cannot be won, and more and more are openly outraged with Bush and his surge.

But as long as you allow Bush to remain in power - and his corruption continues unchecked by you Republicans yourselves (the Democrats are all over this now;) the GOP will slide right off the approval cliff.

Fix it yourselves

I believe the only hope you have of surviving as a viable party, is to remove Bush and Cheney from the White House yourselves; via Impeachment (or the threat of it.)

If you wholeheartedly embrace reality -- the Constitution, the rule of law, the will of the American people, and bipartisan cooperation -- you can save your party. If you continue to stand by Bush and support this war, and condone the many illegal deeds that are finally surfacing under unflinching Democratic probing, you will lose. And lose big. Perhaps even permanently (or until the Democrats become the next tyrannical power-brokers.)

The country would be better served if it had two reasonable parties, accountable to the people. These parties should act as oversight over one another, so as to maintain some equilibrium in politics. Any party that becomes too powerful will become a pawn for special interests - our government is now completely infested with corporate lobbyists, and they are equal opportunity employers.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely - and absolute power has eaten the GOP alive.

Getting a new 'brand'

Sadly - but of course, predictably - the GOP pundits are still asking the wrong questions.

How to restore the GOP brand? "That's what we're struggling with, honestly," said Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). "Do you positively brand yourself, or do you negatively brand the other side?"

I hate to break it to you Shelley, but its a little late to 'negatively brand the other side'... not while Bush is in the White House. And we are sick to death of your smear campaigns, your 'swift-boating,' and your hate-spewing Coulter-geists.

Americans are turning against smear campaigns, especially in light of the background information we all have on how the GOP plans their attacks. We know what you're up to Rove... hell, everyone now knows: now that your papers are leaking out, we even know the order in which you plan to wage your attacks.

Its not working anymore. It's disgusting. We aren't hate-filled partisans like you, and we're sick of receiving hate mail directed at the representative we just elected -- that guy who's finally listening to us.

Just ask the residents of Jerry McNerney's district (California's 11th: formerly Oilslick-Pombo's neck of the woods.) These poor people are now subject to an endless stream of McNerney-bashing leaflets - stuffed right into their mailboxes - and in spite of the fact that McNerney (#3 on Rove's attack list,) only took office in January.

I received this email from the McNerney campaign yesterday:

"It’s only March, 2007. But it might as well be November, 2008.

Yesterday, our campaign got hit with a one-two punch. First, a scandalous House hearing unearthed a secret document from a deputy of Karl Rove revealing that the GOP “architect” is targeting me as #3 on his political hit list.

Then, the National Republican Congressional Committee carried out Rove’s hit yesterday with “The Real Jerry McNerney” -– launching a slick Swift Boat-style web site that smears my record of service to you in Congress. The NRCC plans to promote this deception site by spamming voters in our district with over 100,000 e-mails."

This is exactly this sort of behavior that will sink the GOP like a rock. Slander doesn't work anymore Karl; it just pisses people off, and they will turn on you. Harassing us - and the candidate we elected to office - makes us angry. Seriously -- it does. Stop doing it. Just stop.

Getting that minority vote

"We have to win back the confidence we lost in '06 from swing voters and ticket splitters," said Mehlman. "The way you do that, in part, is by being a party that is less reliant on white guys and expands its support among Hispanics, among African-Americans."

Once again, this racist thing. As though simply buying the votes of Hispanics and African-Americans will do the trick - its not like you have to actually represent them.

So many of you GOP truly do not get it yet. Perhaps you cannot get it. You are so conditioned to the 'show' that you forgotten what real integrity even looks like: or why you'd even want integrity if it doesn't serve partisan positioning or help the 'bottom line.'

Hispanics and African Americans are never going to vote GOP - who do you think has been hit the hardest by Katrina and those GOP budget cuts? Guys -- you blew that one last year, and blew it on a massive scale. Right now, the only voters you can really count on are those 5% of the rich, White guys to whom you gave the tax cuts.

Until you consider - really consider - becoming a party with ethics, we want no part of you. Until you stop defending and enriching only the already wealthy and fat corporations at our expense, we want no part of you. Until you stop covering up for this maniacal and renegade president and his rampant corruption, not to mention his illegal occupation of Iraq, torture and those secret camps - we want no part of you. Until you choose to tell the truth, on the first try, without subpoenas to drag it out of you - we want no part of you. Until you start to at least see the Middle Class, and admit that our nation needs both Middle Class and working class to remain strong, healthy and able to dream some sort of American dream (or at least survive here;) we want no part of you. Until you stop creating wars for profit, and condoning partisan corruption in your ranks, we want no part of you.

We liked Ike

I suggest you take a look at Eisenhower. I suggest you look back through your party's history to another time; a time before you were completely compromised by greed and corporate interests. I suggest you remake yourself in earnest... not just in appearance. Appearance isn't going to fly this time. Too many skeletons clacking around in White House closets and GOP legislative offices, with more emerging every day.

Oh, and if you really want to win friends and influence people before 2008... remove Bush and Cheney from office.

That's right, you heard me: remove them. Impeach them. Toss them out. Don't leave this for the Democrats, because they will gain support each day those men remain in the White House. They aren't going to Impeach - not if they can grow in strength and contributions by showing Bush and Cheney for what they are, and still leave them there to draw our ire.

You know this, you just lack the will to 'eat your own.'

But think about it... haven't they been eating you this entire time? Do they care about your re-election hopes? Do they really care about your party, any more than they care about the will and welfare of the American people? Have they ever consulted with you before starting wars or making sweeping policy changes? Do they share intelligence with you, converse honestly with you (or anybody else?)

Of course not. You are partisan pawns - nothing more.

Cut them loose, and you may... may yet float back up to the top.

Lincoln warns of 'corporations enthroned'

"We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war is nearing its end. It has cost a vast amount of treasure and blood. It has indeed been a trying hour for the Republic; but I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed.
I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. God grant that my suspicions may prove groundless."

- letter from Lincoln to (Col.) William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864.