CosmeticDemocracy.com

“Severe” is actually mild. Those that overuse the term, like to define it for the rest of us. It is past time for the 99% to re-appropriate our own vocabulary, and use it as we  see fit to describe a world of living beings, not just of things and territories.

I’d first like to make clear these thoughts on the Manning “case” that Prof. Cohn writes about:

What MORE could you do FOR your country than expose the lies and deceit meted out by usurping power brokers at the top.

ALL the talk about the Founding Fathers, freedom, the Constitution, Bill of Rights and so on which functioned as a socio-political “glue” and Narrative for over 2 centuries, is personified by the selfless acts of Bradley Manning, a man to be respected, admired, emulated — and FREED.

Published on Sunday, December 25, 2011 by CommonDreams.org

Bradley Manning: A Hero, Not a Traitor

by Marjorie Cohn

The end of U.S. military involvement in Iraq coincided with Bradley Manning’s military hearing to determine whether he will face court-martial for exposing U.S. war crimes by leaking hundreds of thousands of pages of classified documents to Wikileaks. In fact, there is a connection between the leaks and U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq.

When he announced that the last U.S. troops would leave Iraq by year’s end, President Barack Obama declared the nine-year war a “success” and “an extraordinary achievement.” He failed to mention why he opposed the Iraq war from the beginning. He didn’t say that it was built on lies about mushroom clouds and non-existent ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. Obama didn’t cite the Bush administration’s “Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq,” drawn up months before 9/11, about which Former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill reported that actual plans “were already being discussed to take over Iraq and occupy it – complete with disposition of oil fields, peacekeeping forces, and war crimes tribunals – carrying forward an unspoken doctrine of preemptive war.”

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also defended the war in Iraq, making the preposterous claim that, “As difficult as [the Iraq war] was,” including the loss of American and Iraqi lives, “I think the price has been worth it, to establish a stable government in a very important region of the world.”

The price that Panetta claims is worth it includes the deaths of nearly 4,500 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. It includes untold numbers wounded - with Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – and suicides, as well as nearly $1 trillion that could have prevented the economic disaster at home.

The price of the Iraq war also includes thousands of men who have been subjected to torture and abuse in places like Abu Ghraib prison. It includes the 2005 Haditha Massacre, in which U.S. Marines killed 24 unarmed civilians execution-style. It includes the Fallujah Massacre, in which U.S. forces killed 736 people, at least 60% of them women and children. It includes other war crimes committed by American troops in Qaim, Taal Al Jal, Mukaradeeb, Mahmudiya, Hamdaniyah, Samarra, Salahuddin, and Ishaqi.

The price of that war includes two men killed by the Army’s Lethal Warriors in Al Doura, Iraq, with no evidence that they were insurgents or posed a threat. One man’s brains were removed from his head and another man’s face was skinned after he was killed by Lethal Warriors. U.S. Army Ranger John Needham, who was awarded two purple hearts and three medals for heroism, wrote to military authorities in 2007 reporting war crimes that he witnessed being committed by his own command and fellow Lethal Warriors in Al Doura. His charges were supported by atrocity photos which have been released by Pulse TV and Maverick Media in the new video by Cindy Piester, “On the Dark Side in Al Doura – A Soldier in the Shadows.” [http://vimeo.com/33755968]. CBS reported obtaining an Army document from the Criminal Investigation Command suggestive of an investigation into these war crimes allegations. The Army’s conclusion was that the “offense of War Crimes did not occur.”

One of the things Manning is alleged to have leaked is the “Collateral Murder” video which depicts U.S. forces in an Apache helicopter killing 12 unarmed civilians, including two Reuters journalists, and wounding two children. People trying to rescue the wounded were also fired upon and killed. A U.S. tank drove over one body, cutting the man in half.

The actions of American soldiers shown in that video amount to war crimes under the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit targeting civilians, preventing the rescue of the wounded, and defacing dead bodies.

Obama proudly took credit for ending U.S. military involvement in Iraq. But he had tried for months to extend it beyond the December 31, 2011 deadline his predecessor negotiated with the Iraqi government. Negotiations between Obama and the Iraqi government broke down when Iraq refused to grant criminal and civil immunity to U.S. troops.

It was after seeing evidence of war crimes such as those depicted in “Collateral Murder” and the “Iraq War Logs,” also allegedly leaked by Manning, that the Iraqis refused to immunize U.S. forces from prosecution for their future crimes. When I spoke with Tariq Aqrawi, Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations, at a recent international human rights film festival in Vienna, he told me that if they granted immunity to Americans, they would have to do the same for other countries as well.

Manning faces more than 30 charges, including “aiding the enemy” and violations of the Espionage Act, which carry the death penalty. After a seven day hearing, during which the prosecution presented evidence that Manning leaked cables and documents, there was no evidence that leaked information imperiled national security or that Manning intended to aid the enemy with his actions.

On the contrary, in an online chat attributed to Manning, he wrote, “If you had free reign over classified networks… and you saw incredible things, awful things… things that belonged in the public domain, and not on some server stored in a dark room in Washington DC… what would you do?”

He went on to say, “God knows what happens now.  Hopefully worldwide discussion, debates, and reforms… I want people to see the truth… because without information, you cannot make informed decisions as a public.“

Manning has been held for 19 months in military custody. During the first nine months, he was kept in solitary confinement, which is considered torture as it can lead to hallucinations, catatonia and suicide. He was humiliated by being stripped naked and paraded before other inmates.

The U.S. government considers Manning one of America’s most dangerous traitors. Months ago, Obama spoke of Manning as if he had been proved guilty, saying, “he broke the law.” But Manning has not been tried, and is presumed innocent in the eyes of the law. If Manning had committed war crimes instead of exposing them, he would be a free man today. If he had murdered civilians and skinned them alive, he would not be facing the death penalty.

Besides helping to end the Iraq war, the leaked cables helped spark the Arab Spring. When people in Tunisia read cables revealing corruption by the ruling family there, they took to the streets.

If Manning did what he is accused of doing, he should not be tried as a criminal. He should be hailed as a national hero, much like Daniel Ellsberg, whose release of the Pentagon Papers helped to expose the government’s lies and end the Vietnam War.

Marjorie Cohn, a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and past President of the National Lawyers Guild, is the deputy secretary general for external communications of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. She is the author of Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law and co-author of Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent (with Kathleen Gilberd). Her anthology, The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration and Abuse, is now available. Her articles are archived at www.marjoriecohn.comArticle printed from www.CommonDreams.org

Source URL: http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/12/25

On Friday, November 4, 2011, Paul Krugman published in the New York Times an article entitled, “Oligarchy, American Style” which pointed to the increasing concentration of wealth and power in the US. We definitely need more critical thought in our media. While Krugman is not the only “liberal” economist or columnist to recently come out swinging about the crisis in which the US, and frankly the world, finds itself, I was prompted to write this response, which might easily have been addressed to other commentators who are now increasingly concerned with the nation’s economic and political health and welfare, and disturbed by seeming inaction in Washington.

Well, it’s “awful nice” when someone with a reputation comes out and says the truth. Thank you, Paul.

In terms of the Reality of this situation, however, this seems to be a case of Too Little Too Late.

Why this late warning? The situation has become DIRE. It has been growing dire for … decades. What here was not calculable, predictable, visible long ago?

Why DIRE?

… because “Decision-Making” in America has become largely a question of Commerce and arm-twisting (when not neck-twisting — to the snapping point). People — many people — actually DIE due to this oligarchic little secret about who gets to decide nearlyeverything (food, water & air quality, medical treatment, what flows in our bloodstreams, who goes to jail, who can get into school, who gets a job or a house, should we go to war, etc.). Lobbyist-driven, rubber-stamping Congress Folk put on a spectacle, but who gets truly represented in this show? I don’t think it’s you or me.

So, what are we supposed to DO now if we want to save this “Democracy-Thingy” you say is now threatened?

During, lo, these decades of growing political encroachment on our lives and successive governments by the one-tenth-percent, exactly which of our political institutions even mentioned the danger to the Public, or suggested Resistance, or offered a Remedy? The Democratic Party — in which you and so many others seem to rely for “fairness” or something — not only did NOT point out to America that this derailment was taking place, but instead, chose to cover up the situation — PLUS they silenced or attacked anyone who dared bring up this uncomfortable topic of lost freedoms and usurped decision-making. To complicate this compromise, the “lesser-of-two-evils” party never saw a War-Machine Handout Benefit they didn’t just love, bless their patriotic souls. Trying, ever soooo hard, apparently, to keep America safe.

Anyone who commented on this sorry situation AS it was actually occurring over the decades, was ignored, called a kook or worse. Much worse. Witness Ralph Nader, Noam Chompsky, Howard Zinn, Cynthia McKinney, Dennis Kucinich and others. So, now that the house is ON fire, we get liberals suggesting maybe it’s time we to lighter clothing because the heat is getting a bit intense. Thanks.

So. WHAT Democracy is it, Mr. Krugman, that is in danger of being lost, hmmmm? Are we talking abut the same thing here? The one I know about, the one outlined in our Constitution, has been absent a LONG time…

The Debt Ceiling “dilemma” is just the latest red herring served the American consumer public. More brutal, but just one more.

We have suffered decades, nay generations, from the fallout of the McCarthy Era which destroyed the thinking and analysis which could have created alternative organizing and ways of thinking to prevent where we are now.

Hate to disappoint so, my loyalist friends, but the role of the Democratic Party from its duplicitous dealings with labor unions and the working class to its abandonment of ERA, to its waffling on abortion, to its support of unbridled aggression, its unwillingness to clean up or punish real polluters, or treasury thefts for all that matter, its cutting deals with banking, pharmaceutical, agribusiness, insurance, telecoms, and arms giants, its embrace, or acceptance of, executive crimes, violations of the Constitution and torture — ALL of this, and more (if this weren’t enough) — is what has made this current “debt crisis” scenario possible. They have crippled all attempts at denouncing, much less stopping, the real culprits, refusing to identify our very real homegrown enemies. In this guise, they simply will NOT encourage any opposition, much less resistance. “Holding out hands to the ‘other side’,” they tell us, is a good thing. For WHOM, we must wonder. THAT is what has led us to this sad juncture.

All the while, Republican-leaning ideologues and corporate globalists painted their pictures, wrote their narratives, and cheered all along the way, using the media conglomerates at their disposal.

Dem leaders, on the other hand, swept their own paths clear of any folks aware enough or ready enough to speak out and actually DO something about our situation (Dennis Kucinich, Michael Moore, David Swanson, etc.). No sir, none of them “troublemakers” to interfere with an orderly process (of WHAT, we must ask).

This brought us, full of fireless, useless “hope,” to this deadly crossroads; and even today are afraid to say WHO is the real enemy of Democracy. It’s not determined by the rank ‘n’ file, but many of them still march loyally in lock-step, opening the way for Leaders who long ago sold out.

Without the heritage of those silenced by McCarthy & friends to help them “see” the world and its machinations, today’s Dems think they understand “loyalty”, but know nothing of History or its consequences.

We need to hear from new voices NOW and/or become them ourselves to find lasting solutions.

There IS no healthcare system in the US.

Now before you get all hot under the collar about what may seem to be hyperbole here, think a moment about the second part of that term: CARE.

What we DO have is Pharmaceutical Care and Insurance Care.

I take “care” here to mean genuine, heartfelt concern, and more than a desire, but a systematic effort to achieve a positive outcome, no matter the obstacles. That is what’s missing in our “healthcare.”

Taken THAT way, we can see the systematic care that actually does abound is to assure and ensure successful diagnoses and treatments for investments and bottom lines. So, THAT’s where the “care” is focused. In our “system.” The rest is secondary.

In a country where the pervasive conservative thinking loves to mock what is considered the “liberal” syndrome of “throwing money at a problem,” it is ironic to see how the tables are reversed when it comes to the Health Biz.  Free-marketeers constantly justify huge profits in medicine, somehow connecting personal wealth generated by for-profit health enterprises as necessary to provide the funding and motivation for applying medical treatment to the population. Mess with the profits, it is plaited by the titans of MegaGlobalHealthCorp, Inc., and no one can expect (or afford, they claim) good care.

The double irony of course is that, even WITH very healthy bottom-lines in the associated health businesses, the level of care given and received in the US by ordinary citizens falls far below that of other industrialized nations, and frankly, far below the expectation of individual patients and their families. The only things the US health “system” has over the other industrialized nations, in fact, are … the soaring cost to the users — and the soaring profits to the owners/operators!

Well, I suppose if you want full disclosure, you should add the soaring numbers of deaths related to non-treatment …

Copious documentation shows a startling lack of treatment, inadequate treatment, treatment denied even in the face of documented symptoms and needs. Why? Because — and this is central here — the “needs” of the providers are first in line in the order of importance. The “caring” is with assuring profit. Healthcare as an all-out effort to achieve wellness and recuperation from illness and ailments, is the industrialized product that is “delivered” to consumer/patients — when warranted or authorized for the “health” of the delivery companies.

As purely business, it’s simple, even brilliant: more patients, more procedures and treatments = more profit. Health Services — Voila: the perfect product! Ya’ never run out, and you can charge whatever the market will bear.

A corollary we should be aware of: This Windfall Machine automatically perceives that any general improvement in the environment, or in decreasing risks and pollutants, or in promoting healthier diets, is bad for the bottom-line! Even if this is only perceived subliminally, it destroys any human-centered model of Health Care, because such a “system” does not benefit when people are well. The premise is upside-down, counter-productive, and… deadly. It’s time, like other societies have done, that we wake up to this terrible flaw in thinking.

Anything which puts a space, hesitation, or barrier, even, between a recognized illness and seeking a solution for it, carves away pieces of Care, and renders it unworthy of the term.

My father ended up in an adult living facility upon undergoing diagnosis for an inoperable brain tumor. His greatest frustration was an inability to express himself verbally, though he tried very hard to do so. This was in the early period of so-called HMO’s (Health Maintenance Organizations), so he was assigned what they called a “primary care physician.”  When, at a visit to that doctor in charge of my father’s care, I asked if he could receive some speech therapy to help his anguished state and to allow him better to communicate his needs, I was told, “If I were to recommend that therapy, the insurance company would accuse me of ‘being too much on the side of the patient’!!”

That this physician felt at all that he was somehow advocating between two poles of judgment and behavior (“for his patients” or “for his employer”)  illustrates a kind of brainwashing performed by the insurance industry on their “hired hands,” the doctors, a fact seminal in the breakdown of  the health system in our nation.

That we have allowed this to happen would be pitiful enough as a society. However, we have not even “allowed” it in the traditional sense. What we have done is permitted and empowered those corporate interests profiting from the health industries, to set the terms, themselves. We have sat by mutely while abdicating our democratic and constitutional rights to be informed fully and to participate in the making of legislation to regulate our society in the form that WE, the citizens, see fit.

Without adequate access to news and information, we as citizens cannot perform this role even if we would be prepared to do so. Elections, the near-sacred process used in democracies to chose our representatives who are charged to legislate for the betterment of our society as WE see it, has become one more ground for investment for those institutions that see “healthcare” as a windfall business with an ever-growing captive market.

Again: More patients, more procedures and treatments = more profit. Legislators that would upset the balance by reducing toxic environments or curtail questionable residues in our food and water may well be whom the majority of Americans want to see in office, but clearly are not the kind of legislators the Health Business would like to see. Therefore a good part of their well-thought-out Business Plan includes “investing” in elections, supporting “friendly” candidates, while funding veritable armies of lobbyists. The recent Supreme Court decision of Citizens United vs. the FEC has now opened the floodgates for corporate-controlled elections for the foreseeable future. Essentially: R.I.P., USA (1776 - 2010).

Unless Americans do something drastic like head to the streets like Egyptians*, we stand little chance to influence, much less participate meaningfully in ANY conversations that define how or whether the US will ever have a true SYSTEM of Health Care that adequately diagnoses and treats all its citizens.

Restoring the right to determine our Health Future to the Citizens must be seen as central to the process of having real national security and a truly functional democracy. The very health of the nation is at stake.

* Note: this was written prior to the appearance and spreading of the Occupy movements.

No need for Participation–just ‘Cooperation’: On Your Knees!

Put on a uniform. Harden yourself to kill the enemies of democracy for the Homeland — just don’t expect to find much democracy when you come home. Not any more.

After one single person determined the outcome of the 2000 election in the United States (upholding a 537 vote margin for W), now the Supreme (sic) Court drops the other shoe: whatever was left of ‘the People’s Voice’ will in the future drown in a sea of corporate speech — again, by one vote.

Corporations deserve to be heard; it’s only fair, right? You can hardly hear what corporations want to say, what with all those public service messages and townhall meetings filling our airwaves. Right?

We send thousands to fight, kill, and perhaps die in foreign lands, and spend untold billions — to the detriment of our own peoples’ health, welfare, housing, education and economic future — ostensibly to bring to those abroad ‘the benefits of democracy.’ Even when joining that fight is voluntary (though via a socially skewed recruitment policy), thousands sign up to fight whomever they are told is amassing threats against the U.S.

Funny — why go to all that bother over there when it only takes apparently just one person to topple the democratic structure here…and no one even seems to notice!

Do we willingly stand by and give one person all that power, and simply obey their decision, even if it costs us all our voices? Have we given them such power? Or have they taken it? Do we simply accept passively that kind of abuse? Corporate America is chuckling … and sharpening their knives. Land of the Brave … or of the damned Foolish?

Read the rest of this entry »

 I am no economist, but it seems to me that this “financial emergency” is fundamentally a CRISIS OF DEMOCRACY. There is nothing in this “bailout” scenario that has not been predicted and avoidable for decades. People with experience and sane and healthy analyses who spoke and wrote of the dangers were ignored, ridiculed or scorned. Certainly not given airtime nor column space in major media to explain their concerns or to connect the dots.

There is absolutely NO intention of this “government” and the corporate lobbyists that fund and write the legislation for them, who influence and buy legislators, and who “regulate” their own ventures, to allow the People either:

1. first-hand, un”regulated” or uncensored knowledge of what actually goes on, or what/how/by whom decisions are made.

 

2. a free press that engages the public and discusses and questions situations as well as alternatives.

 

3. a free electoral system that allows such a simple notion as alternative views and political organization (i.e. other parties) with both the right and “permission” to speak freely and in the open and with access to the public’s airwaves.

 

Forget Public Funding of Elections.

The “Free Marketeers” who have so brazenly lied to us, lo these decades (centuries?), about their ideology and intentions, admit no Free Market of Ideas, eliminating candidates from National Debates, allowing no television time for smaller candidacies (as nations such as Brazil and Mexico somehow manage to do), preventing any real dialogue, exchange of ideas IN MUCH THE SAME WAY AS their Phony “Free Market” Rules and rigged games they play, that ALWAYS end up with us, the taxpayers, bailing out the failed “plans” (schemes?) AFTER the usually unpunished perpetrators have taken out and stashed away their private profits. It’s time to realize: this is a wholesale Criminal Enterprise masquerading as a government, while bad-mouthing ANYTHING representing truly democratic or representative ideas of the governed.

The enemies of democracy are not conspiring to smash aircraft into our symbols of power. They are circulating freely in the corridors of our Capitol and White House. They sit behind microphones and in front of cameras that blanket the nation with innuendo, false images of humanity and science, disinformation, vitriol and hatred. They take what they want, prey on the weak, and plot to silence those who might object. They cover their actions and trails with emotional rhetoric spread by giant media networks with whom they share power. This is not democracy in ANY sense of the word. It is a Cosmetic Democracy at best.

A Thousand Plagues, too, on the folks like Nancy Pelosi and her duplicitous and traitorous gang of enablers who use the romantic and nostalgic falsehoods of a supposed Democratic Party “legacy” of supporting working people to quietly shut up, shut down and neutralize the efforts of exactly those elements in our society (anti-war movement, veterans, women’s groups, labor, impeachment advocates, etc.) who actually WOULD stand up for our REAL democratic principles.

We must also question the sense of all those people of good will, still IN the Democratic Party (or so self-identifying), who have willingly allowed themselves to be used and fooled time and time again, accepting “lesser-of-two-evilism” as the Norm and Rule, having demanded NOTHING of the duplicitous neo-liberal usurped “leadership” of that political party, and having lowered both their expectations and their pants to that “leadership”, without getting a single meaningful concession in their favor that supports the American People or our Constitution.

This has gone on for decades now.

Those of you who have tolerated and even supported this should be ashamed and embarrassed. You have willingly allowed the oligarchy of this nation to use the artifice of a “second flavor” of Capital, the Democratic Party, to fool, use and abuse both you AND this nation, wasting your time and our democratic potentiality.

If you truly are progressive, it is time to take up the real and active defense of Democracy, insist on Impeachment (there is still time), restore the Constitution (there may be still time), and BAIL OUT of that phony Party to build a new one with its feet firmly planted in Democracy.

This may hurt some to realize, but…it is too late for the Democratic Party — they have already effectively betrayed the nation. They have stood by and watched (when not aiding and abetting) the worst elements of our society rape and pillage our nation and ravage others across the globe — and done nothing — other than shout down those who begged them to act on behalf of the people.

There IS NO legacy to save.

This whole supposed “government,” propped up by officials of both “Official Parties” is really an illegal occupation of Governmental Positions and Roles by people who hate government because when it works, it represents ordinary people. They work hard to see representative government destroyed and replaced by an oligarchic-corporate fiat in the guise of government, touting “freedom” and “democracy” as no more than brand names and slogans.

Tom Engelhardt of TomDisptach.com in a recent article “The Ponzi Scheme Presidency - Bush’s Legacy of Destruction” (http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/06-3#comment-1108019), compared the Bush regime and legacy to that of earlier empires such as the Assyrians, but with no similar commitment to counting the bodies.

Engelhardt’s account of death and destruction is enlightening, and on mark. He writes this as an epitaph, understandably eager to consign it all to the past, but it is not that easy.

I decided to ask a few questions of that author…

———————

What’s this use of the PAST TENSE, Tom? Wishful thinking? Too much holiday champagne?

You write as though this is over now, what with the election and all.

Have you forgotten how this killing plan and machine was being put together in the background during the Clinton Administration?

Then, the Bush Administration actions all occurred with virtually no political opposition. The “new bosses”, the Democrats, did not have the temerity, while it was happening, to call “foul” about any of the numerous visible crimes, the shredding of the Constitution, nor did they question the lies and no-bid contract that made these killing fields possible.

Nor did they listen to their own constituency about the war and healthcare, or even lift a finger to support democracy and the vote by investigating several clearly stolen elections.

You think it is OVER? You think it CAN be over without ever examining, analysing, nor denouncing and punishing those who made all this policy, thievery and destruction happen?

Besides the physical and fiscal damage, Bush-CheneyCo created legal and legislative chaos that would in normal circumstances be difficult to unravel. With the latest part of the Ponzi scheme — the “Bailout” — they have left the new Administration with little wiggle room to act in any sphere but the direst economic ones — even if they knew what to do.

Sooo…now what? The Accomplices are now nominally in power. Do they run the defense industries? Or Big Media? You can’t turn a moving battleship around on a dime, even when you want to — and certainly not if you haven’t even planned a course change.

This nightmare isn’t over. The destruction of democracy and the economy is only beginning to be seen and felt here. Only a concerted effort of the people in spite of and in rebuke of the soon-to-be Democratic “led” two-party corporate agenda of enabling and appeasement can end it.
——

Alan Kobrin
Miami

What does it take to grasp the following:

We can never get out from under this creeping repressive, smothering blanket if we do not seek to SEE, much less understand or unravel, the deepest levels of economic interests and collusion going on.

Who owns the media, and what do they want? Does the answer surprise us?

What did Ike tell us? Did either major party listen to or even dare repeat his miilitary-industrial complex warnings (he forgot the media) as part of their party liturgy to warn the millions or even the minions? Hardly.

This fight to crush the New Deal legacies (bits of basic living crumbs to workers) by the Right has been going on for DECADES! And it has been downhill since the McCarthy era (I call it the Great American Purge).

With McCarthyism, dissent once again became publicly unpatriotic in America (as it is now). Unions were viewed as selfish special interests and entrepreneurship raised above sainthood. The American myth, thus reinforced, saw us through the Cold War (with SO many gullible folks from all parties saying publicly how this was so necessary to save us and democracy).

The brief rebellion during the Vietnam Era (fed by drugs, Kinsey, and FM radio) served mainly to prepare the hardliners with how to really use force and power to deal with dissent the next time (read: “right now”).

The final assault on the New Deal gains (and the democracy needed to sustain them) is nearly finished now.

I daresay the Democratic Party has been VERY instrumental in all this. That party is designed to take the “feeling and thinking sector” of American folks, the ones who still believe in facts, science, diversity, and so on, and keep them believing that our problems only exist because of a few bad apples or bad decision-making. The way I see it, that party’s Oligarchic Task is to keep that good-hearted part of the population living in a Fairy Tale where Raw, Ruthless Power serving Economic Interests only exists in films: “Why, Beverly, THEY would never do THAT!….?

Kennedy, King, Kennedy, Wellstone, 911 … such BAD luck we’ve have! Right?

… SOMEbody actually DID those things, however. They each took planning and intent, motive and means.

==> ** GENERALIZATION ALERT! ** <== :

•    Republicans support the Dark Forces with nearly unbound devotion.
•    The full force of the Democrats silences meaningful progressive thought or reflection and keeps everyone’s Eyes Off the Prize, so as not to disturb “the Myth”.

Obama, Hillary…Hillary, Obama…need I say more?

The death, destruction, torture, weapons building, poisoning of our planet, of our minds and of our bloodstreams (can you say Big Pharma?) go on daily, 24/7 — right NOW — even as the Candidates Who Will Save Us All spend valuable time discussing the finer points of who will do what at 3 a.m. if some outsider really wants to push our buttons.

If those two are NOT PART of this Illusion Spin Machine, then I am Osama bin Laden.

So, why is it so hard to BELIEVE any of this about how the media and Congress act??

Sorry that Reality hurts so much, folks, but we are going to have to end this Fatal Attraction/Dance with the Democratic Party if we are to survive as America. Shocking! For a huge variety of rea$on$, they CANNOT let go of that Myth that they help to sustain. You simply cannot GET to the underlying causes of our situation with that kind of thinking…the Myth is blinding. It FEEDS Cognitive Dissonance on all levels.

No wonder so many folks are simply flummoxed, wandering around saying, “…gee, How did THAT happen?”

I guarantee you, in Europe and in South America, with their other parties, history and political traditions, they not only see right through all this, but are appalled by our inanity and ignorance, and find it hard to believe we neither STOP this nonsense, nor organize to resist (with those few exceptions we know).

They, too, are finding it harder to deal with reality as our CultureMediaSteamrollerSatelliteSystem invades young psyches the world over.

Not only do we NOT work hard and OVERTIME to set up a democratic and legal Resistance to the ongoing Fascist Threat here in the US, our most “venerable” institutions have just come off a decades-long period of lulling us into slumber while they actively (and passively) went about DESTROYING those very institutions that might be standing up and defending this nation today (unions, public education, farmers, a free press, fair and COUNTED elections…)…and maybe even asking for Impeachment.

As the EndGame grows nearer and the stakes get really high, so-called “Progressive Forces” go instead after “third party” and other truly independent visions and attempts at organizing  a real, informed resistance as though THEY were the enemy, receiving greatly more vindictive action and pressure to “shut up” than does the Dictatorial Regime itself.

To Greens and others trying to build a consciousness, a movement, a party to see us through and beyond this blindness, too many “Progressive Dems” say: PLEASE, shut up, stop talking about this mess. They may hear us. Do ANYthing but say the truth out loud. Don’t dare point to any direction of action of the DNC hasn’t already sanctioned. Please! Be quiet. Go away. Shhhhh…they’ll hear you.

Sadly, sadly, they are more afraid of “rocking the boat” (albeit a sinking one), than reaching solid ground. They tell us they are afraid of losing “gains.” Right.

They tell us: we cannot afford four more years of Republican rule, even as they did nothing to stop the abuses of the last eight (or should we say sixteen?).

By perpetuating the prevailing Myths, we cannot collectively Recognize nor Resist the forces creating our bewilderment.

Yes. Indeed! It’s “crazy-making.” And it’s time to STOP this behavior!

Get off the Dupopoly Carousel! There are no answers there — even if the special mirrors make it seem that way.

The Duopoly are knowingly and willingly creating and perpetuating this misbegotten and ruthless situation;  they CANNOT be the ones capable of providing the solutions. That should be fairly obvious by now. Only the People armed with knowledge and organizing themselves in new ways are capable of that.

Dennis tried…and just look at what they’re doing to him.

The very discussion of impeachment on this program reiterating why it is the PEOPLE who must force Congress to act, attests to that reality.

For those who keep scratching their heads, asking WHY, I guess it hasn’t yet dawned on them, yet, where the problems and solutions lie.

If we are surprised by how all this happened, we can only blame ourselves, and our greater desire to FEEL good than to Live Good. Our willingness to accept not only the Great Myth about “how wonderful the USA is and how it needs no changes, only a few tweaks”, works with the belief that Americans don’t really have to do anything ourselves  for this “great life” to go on and on.

The Primary Season Message is doing it to us right now, telling us that if we “Vote Right” in November, we don’t have to worry about the Occupation, mercenary war profiteering torture, pain and death our tax dollars sow. We don’t have to think about New Orleans or question war spending. It will all somehow work out. Just Choose Well … and Vote.

Yeah … and let’s forget that old story about stolen elections and hacking votes, why don’t we?

We don’t really have to talk about all that nasty stuff, do we?

Tell me, how different is that than Barbara Bush saying, when asked about the war, she doesn’t worry her beautiful mind about such things?

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WE ARE ALL BARBARA NOW — unless we step off into CourageLand and change it!

We have no right to enjoy the benefits of the American Revolution if we continue to betray it. Americans of color have not yet enjoyed many of those benefits and it is only together with them will we be able to fight to have our rights and democracy at all. Time to stop sending the poor to fight our nasty wars to back up a Myth that dumps on us all.

If all the people wanting impeachment today were in a third party tomorrow, we’d have impeachment next week. Staying where they are is what makes them all irrelevant to our Congress.

For those who feel impeachment is either unimportant or a distraction, to those who contend that impeachment is too late or too costly, irrelevant or merely vindictive, but especially to those in our Congress entrusted with making and preserving our laws, I write this letter. I believe you are missing some very important principles that just might save America’s legacy and soul.

To my dear, disenchanted fellow citizens,1- America IS its Constitution. Without it, we have nothing special to offer this planet. It is what set this “land of the free” apart historically, why we call ourselves the “great experiment in democracy (laws made by the people)”. It is what spelled out the basis for a democratic society, a principle which George Bush claims to be sending people to kill and die for on the other side of the world.2- Built into that Constitution is a self-defense mechanism — the process of impeachment (basically a congressional accusation, which could lead to a trial in the Senate). It was written there in order to prevent and deal with possible abuses of power or breaches of the Constitution. It is an indictment which, only if proven, could lead to removal from office.3- The President, the Congress, and the Armed Forces ALL make an Oath to that Constitution, not to the president, not to a political party, not to a flag, but to the Constitution, to defend it against “all enemies, foreign and domestic.”4- If an abuse to constitutional power even seems apparent, as many people contend in the case of the George Bush administration (whether you agree with that notion or not), impeachment is the means called upon to look into the case, to see whether such excesses have really gone on — or not.5- The frivolous use of impeachment for political and vindictive reasons during the Bill Clinton presidency, caused much of the public to come to regard the impeachment process itself as a mere political, partisan tool. Sullied repeatedly and on television, impeachment effectively became neutralized as a serious means to investigate or to stop any possible excesses or crimes of the Executive.We live with those consequences every day now. In the last few years, our Constitution has repeatedly and successfully been attacked and eroded because of the very reluctance to use impeachment as the safeguard it was meant to be. Today we can see this as a first step towards the imperial executive, and in dissolving the separation of powers.6- If, in cases of seeming great abuse, impeachment is not called upon (as required by our Constitution), then:a. our Constitution becomes “defenseless”, and loses its means of protection from abuse.b. our Congress, by not invoking impeachment, violates its Oath of Office to defend that Constitution, and becomes complicit in possible wrong-doing.c. The Constitution might never be protected again, and thus, effectively America, as we know it, will have DIED, never to be resurrected again as it was…and all our officials will have breached their Oaths by not defending it. The backbone of America will be broken.So, those who say impeachment is wrong, or that there is not enough time, are effectively allowing America to commit suicide, never to have that Dream again. They will have done more damage to the US (and to the world) than any Al Queda or other foreign-based enemy ever could do. It wouldn’t matter any more what happens with America’s wars abroad. Our security (the constitutional basis for our society) will have been severely breached, and the war at home will be LOST, along with our freedoms.Now THAT would be the destruction of America.Spying, torture, removal of habeus corpus, preemptive wars, illegal unlimited detention, infiltration of civic groups, censorship, accusing political opposition of being “terrorists,” etc….does this sound like the USA you and I know? Sounds kinda like the ol’ Soviet Union, doesn’t it? I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a dictatorship implanted here. I want an ever-more-perfected democracy.George Bush was quoted at a November 2005 White House meeting about the Patriot Act as having angrily referred to the United States Constitution “that goddamned piece of paper.” THAT UTTERANCE, alone, is a violation of the inaugural Oath of Office he took, and the document he swore to defend; it makes him unfit to continue in that office, and should land him in the street.Our solemn dutyThere simply is no higher political or moral duty at this time for real patriots, than to impeach this president as it is required by law, by our Constitution. There simply ARE NO higher priorities than to save America’s Laws and Life.To pretend that there are more important things to do in Congress during Bush’s last six months, is to willingly stick one’s head in the sand while America dies an ignoble death. Do you want that on your conscience? Is THAT the legacy you wish to give your children? Or might you rather have them be proud to be part of a nation that knew how to REALLY defend itself from abuse–and not just with bombs and bullets–but rather, with the Supreme Law of the Land, the US Constitution.Before you jump to conclusions and make emotional charges against those who care deeply about the future of our nation, I suggest you actually READ the 35 charges (now 36) by Kucinich, and be able to deny all 36 of them. In any case, America has the right, the need, the Constitutional obligation, to look into such allegations for their merit. Any single one of them, if proven true, is grounds for impeachment as written in our Constitution, which, the last time I looked, still reigns as the supreme law in our land.Yours, with due respect and with hopes for the future of our nation.Alan Kobrin————–Alan Kobrin is an activist, web consultant, educator, and writer, who seeks a re-dedication to democracy through participation; he co-founded FloridaImpeach.org and is a spokesperson for the Green Party of Florida.See the letter to Miami Herald about impeachment and censorship in the US” letter published in the Miami Herald which gave rise to this article, “Impeachment 101″