funny, I knew all along......and have been screaming it from the rooftops since 1999....so long that I am now hoarse

the day bush was SELECTED, i turned to my wife and said

" We're doomed...I predict a foreign invasion for oil in the next 6 months, and a bush led coup on the constitution over the next 4 years...US democracy is now dead."

Seems the corporate "media" only noticed it when the cabal in chief didnt agree with them on immigration.

one wonders how much pressure was applied by corporate media board rooms over the coverage of this administration from the gitgo...........
specifically bush's desertion from his post in alabama - never given its far worth.......instead they later allowed the "swift-boating" to go unchallenged. go figure.

assertions made by administration spokespersons seldom are questioned..........the total lack of journalistic integrity boggles the mind.......whether it be daily sound bites or wild claims (my favorite that still is never challenged) like "tax cuts increase revenues". compliant "reporters" perform their stenography and move on to the next quote just as they hired to do.

the loss of the "fairness doctrine" has ruined a once great institution and turned into a he said - she said hate-filled exercise in shouting and finger-pointing.....SAD

The article states: "Someday, historians will ponder our strange collective passivity in the face of Bush-Cheney madness."

Actually, the problem of our corrupt Bush administration could easily be addressed were the US electoral/constitutional system to be modernized. Many nations, and many US states can have referedums. Our current Constitution, our second, does not allow them. Many nations and many US states can alter their constitutions via a process of the people voting for changes in a referendum. Our Constitution does not--the process for changing anything requires states or Congress and the people are left out.

For example, if we were to create a constitutional amendment that allowed for a national referendum whereby if two-thirds of the voters were to express no confidence in the president and or vice-president, new elections must commence, then the people could vote, and their decision would rule.

Americans have held 233 state constitutional conventions, but not one to amend the current Constitution.

For real power to go to the people we need to change the system.

The statement above about our "collective passivity" does not address what exactly Americans are supposed to do to oppose a corrupt, criminal administration. Heck, we don't even vote for president, only for delegates to an electoral college, which means that candidates don't even campaign in most states, including our biggest three, California, New York and Texas. Complaining won't do it. Marching is fine, but it alone is insufficient. Voting is fine, but the system is rigged in multiple ways. The real solution is to change the system, and that means changing the Constitution so it becomes more democratic.

Several groups are pushing for such systemic change. Mike Gravel is pushing for direct involvement of the people in legislation. The group at FOAVC.org is pushing for an Article V convention based on the 567 applications by all 50 states to date for such a convention, (which Congress has ignored).

Here are places to get involved folks:

http://www.initiativesamendment.org/
http://www.gravel2008.us/national_initiative
http://article-5.org/

The epitome' of media mirrospeak, indeed!

One of the most dangerous flaws in the system now seems to be the power of the president over the Supreme Court.

With the passing away and retirement of justices during the term of a president that has been elected two terms, the people have been left powerless.

The system of presidential pardon can not allowed to those the president know personally.
The inner circle of haves in this country will get away with murder constantly in the three step process:

1) Get elected by spending billions and rigging the system.
2) Do whatever you want, go the through the judicial system and be found guilty, at least in the lower courts
3) Get the supreme court to change the laws for you, or get your man the president to pardon you.

Please call your reps/senators once a week and tell them to impeach the war criminals in the white house:
Bush, Cheney, Rice, Gonzalez

and support the best candidate for president in 08
http://kucinich.us/

Pogo was right: "We have met the enemy and he is us!"

Now let's get to work. . .

1. Impeach Bush/Cheney & co

2. Begin anew to rebuild our Nation. (I prefer to use the word, "democracy" as a verb, ie something we do, rather than a noun, which is the name of a thing.) We must begin the process of democracy anew.

3. We must ponder carefully regarding our next election and we must demand that it not be a MONEY RACE or a HORSE RACE, but a true selection of our leader by "WE", the American People.

4. This could well be the biggest test the people of our country is yet to face.

Cheney knew.

Pogo was right when he alleged that-- We have met the enemy and he is us!

Now let's get to work. . .

1. Impeach Bush/Cheney & co

2. Begin anew to rebuild our Nation and restart the process of democracy.

3. We must ponder carefully regarding our next election and we must demand that it not be a MONEY RACE or a HORSE RACE, but a true selection of our leader by WE, the American People.

4. This could well be the biggest test our country is yet to face.

Thank you Earthian, MaxHeMust, trang, and frank.
Thank you for your hard work and your visions.
Thank you. Keep sharing your light.
Meanwhile, something everyone can do that only takes an hour of your time. And it might help create the right energy to grow such changes (talked about here)...
Fire the Grid on July 17th at 11:11 GWST. Read the story of this global project at www.firethegrid.com

Or listen to interviews (with Shelly Yates, Bradfield and Anael)about it on World Puja Network: http://www.worldpuja.org/
(in fact they will be on tonight (Friday) at 6:00 p.m. Pacific time.)
We're co-creators here.
Be defined.

"It's hard not to conclude that collectively, we were all too cowardly, slothful or puffed up with our own self-importance to ask the right questions and stand up for principle. The administration didn't trick us; we tricked ourselves."

And by "ourselves," you certainly do not mean the MAJORITY of US who DIDN'T vote for Cheneybush, and the MILLIONS of US who have been SCREAMING the truth since day one?

You must mean the other "ourselves," because we progressives do not ever claim we were tricked. Never. Actually, we're the first to point out that this non-plan of Cheneybush's was laid out years and years ago by the same band of neo-nuts at PNAC, AEI, and the rest of the thinkless-tanks.

Those who now claim they were "tricked" are simply trying to find a way to live with their choice to ignore the mountain of horrible facts in front of their faces. Typical victim mentality - it wasn't my fault, they used magic!

But do not lump the millions of us who have been battling every day and in every way to wake up the sheep in with the sheep. You should be extolling our hard work, not ignoring it.

Congress was going to let Nixon slide until there was a grassroots outcry. I think maybe the yelling from the unwashed masses is getting loud enough for the House to hear. They would rather do nothing of course but they also know when people will not take any more.

I heard an interview on public radio a few months ago. I can't forget it. An officer in the field said 'We hit the place with artillery and then used white phosphorus to take care of anything left alive.'

MY country....MY government...ME

The malevolence of this administration has been clearly in sight since the beginning.
If the media has discovered this finally or simply changed sides, it is welcome and 6 years late.

Remember the first sham, back in 2001? The missing "w" keys!
To recap, someone spread a rumor that the outgoing Clintonites had, as some sort of prank, taken the "w"s from keyboards in the old executive office building.
The media ate this up so eagerly that more rumors sprouted like poisonous mushrooms after a rain. Vandalism was alleged, as well as my personal favorite, "porn bombs", never discovered, never explained. When asked for evidence, the administration promised a list. Is anyone still waiting for the list or has everyone been distracted?
Distracted, right? See, it works every time.

The media proved way back in 2001 that it was willing and eager to regurgitate anything the administration fed it. Clinton got slammed, the administration was never held to account for lying and unjustly accusing others of wrong-doing, the media went on to its next feeding frenzy and the US sheeple waited for their next fleecing.

9/11....9/11.........9/11

Apathy .. best describes why we do not partake in the political process.

The media may have failed us during Bush more than at any other time in history, but I think it is a mistake to pretend that the mainstream media have been the watchdogs on government that they are mythologized as being in the past. All during the 1980s, the press LIED about the Sandanistas in Nicaragua. The press never seems to be able to get to the root of WHY we would have a clandestine war with such a small and insignificant country. Seriously, that the media swallowed the notion of NICARAGUA as a threat to the security of the United States??? It still boggles the mind. Being in the field that I am, I know reporters PERSONALLY who submitted articles from that region in those years whose articles were ALWAYS edited to exclude any favorable representation of the Sandanistas, or that cast light (not just bad light, but LIGHT) on the tactics of the Contras. How often did we read about the targeting of basic staples by the Contras? They did their best to destroy the ability of the Nicaraguan populace to EAT.

Whether we are protecting Multinational coffee companies, fruit companies, mining companies, OUR resources under THEIR soil, or the corruption that took place three years ago when the Voting Machine corporations bought of our Secretaries of State and, seemingly, stole the election for George Bush, our media can't seem to find their way past the surface of the story. The last good reporting I've heard of in this country was done a century or more ago, when journalists took on, rather than served, corporate power!

Yes, it is horribly vain that the media think we should believe they were DUPED. When Jon Stewart's Daily Show managed to dig up more truth on our political machinations than could the great and mighty New York Times, there is something more at work than "trickery". The "trick" played on the mainstream media was this: They thought the Bush Junta could manage their secrets well enough that the complicity of the media would never be brought into such a stark light. Report the news (finally!), but keep your false mea culpas to yourselves. Your fault for being DUPED? "DUPE" would appear to be your job description.

Oh.....ICK, ICK, ICK! And, also, I told you so! Many of us DID know what a ruse this whole war-build-up was. Power did not listen; the American people generally prefer to sleep! And remember what happened to Cassandra in the Greek and Trojan War! She got her tongue cut out and was imprisoned and killed!!!!!!!!

"To be without shame, is the greatest shame indeed!" -Mencius, Warring States Period China

Rich M-

I was skimming the responses to see if anybody pointed that out yet. I WANT TO THROW UP AT THAT LINE. What mystery is she talking about??? Our media, as you point out, has always carried the governments water. Like Noam Chomsky says (loosely quoted)..."It's not like it happens one time, or twelve times, it happens ALL the time." Only when the public opinion becomes too far one direction to they moderately alter their tone(see above article).

But even then they still whitewash the whole thing. And she wants to blame every other American! 70% of this nation did not vote for that guy. People say progressive politics will never get elected, but we forget that 30% of our nation does not vote, mostly (theorizing) realizing neither party will affect their lives.

This article makes me laugh while I am throwing up. You mentioned Chomsky, there is also Parenti's old one Inventing Reality and recently McChesney's Rich Media Poor Democracy. I am pleased that many of us on here have not bought this load of "liberal media bias". BS.

POGO? Trang,___ you just showed your age. Oops, guess I just did to.

I couldn't believe it when I read Rosa Brooks' claim that I am to be included among the ignorant Americans. First the MSM does its darnest to keep us all ignorant. Then it blames us. Well, I might have had my moments. But information gathering on the internet and watching C-SPAN in the dead of night (when my asthma kept me sitting up)soon rectified that. I'm sympathetic with many citizens who were too busy holding down one or two jobs, looking after children and elderly and playing catch up on sleep deficits to do the research this chronically ill woman had the luxury of pursuing. What was Rosa Brooks' excuse? Getting the facts is her job. And to her I will say,"What you mean "we" Kimosabe?"

Im tired of screaming into my pillow pretending its working. BTW it ceased being the MSM along time ago. More like Coporate media

So why did it take us so long to notice?

It should be noted that some of "us" noticed right away and have spent the last six years shouting into deaf ears. And there are even now some who remain steadfastly impermeable to reason.
But "why?"
That's easy.
You can ALWAYS get away with a lie when it's something your mark wants to believe -- or desperately NEEDS to believe. As every con man knows, "you can't cheat an honest man."
Got a pal who works out? Say, "Hey man you must be doing some seriosu training; you look huge!"
He'll believe it because he wants it to be true. Needs it to be true.
Tell your sweetie, "Honey, your butt sure looks great in that dress."
She'll believe it because she wants it to be true. Needs it to be true.
Tell Americans "They hate us for our freedoms."
They'll believe it because they want to believe it's true, need to believe it's true, that they are free.
They're NOT free, of course. But if they can PRETEND to be, then they duck the responsibility for DOING something about it, something that might involve effort, discomfort or risk on their part.

"A republic with liberty and justice for all" is a good dream. A dream well worth striving to realize. But you can't have that kind of a republic if "the people" are greedy, ignorant, cowardly or lazy. Freedom isn't a spectator sport, as a sage once noted.

The only gladdening thought is that perhaps, what with fake polls, election fraud and media prostitutes, the actual number of people ever really in support of the Bush regime was highly exaggerated.

I hope so.

SJ

www.spartacusjones.com

General William Odom -- Former NSA Chief for Reagan -- Suggests Impeachment May Be Necessary

Please send this article to your Senators and Representative, no matter if they are Dem, Independent or Repub...

I rarely ever read the newspapers when I worked and when the war started I did work full time. I haven't listened to the national news on television in so long I can't remember now when I stopped. But, I used to listen to NPR's Morning Addition every morning at work for news. I knew Bush was lying about the need to go to war in Iraq before the invasion. I found article's in my local newspaper that UN inspectors said 'there was no evidence of WMD's in Iraq' I also knew al Qaeda was responsible for 9/11 that Saddam Hussein couldn't be because he was a secular and al Qaeda was religious extremist's (the two don't ever mix). So, really what it boils down to is the average American can not claim to have been duped by Bush. The information was there even for the most ignorant to obtain if they had choosen to. I found at the time most American's were in the 'War mode'! They wanted to take on the whole middle east, make them glow in the dark, even though they weren't responsible for 9/11. There was no telling them that Bush was lying through his teeth. I tried a few times with women I worked with. But, wound up in some verbal battles. That's what most American's wanted to believe at the time and there was no telling them any different..after I told them they continued to spout the same set of lie's Bush was telling. So really, the mess in Iraq can also be laid at the American people's doorstep. They ingored the facts in favor of a President. One can not assume because the man you are listening to is President that he is telling you the truth. Just look at how Bush got into office. As far as I am concerned that speaks for itself. He managed to keep votes from being counted in Florida so he could hijack the election. He never has had a gram of crediability.

It's not Only Cheney + Bush + Congress + all media outlets. Don't forget Israel + vaticano
+ Middle Eastern accomplices.

It's not only Cheney + Bush + Congress + all media oultlets. Don't forget Israel + Vaticano + Middle Eastern accomplices.

This is a really good one. At first, I thought this was going to be another of those snooty, patronizing "Hey I don't now about the rest of you, but I knew this all along" kind of arguments. It surprised me by acknowledging that we the people have much to answer for.

The media is not some monolithic force that gives us what Big Brother wants instead of what we want. It gives us what a market majority wants. It's venal and cowardly and does ONLY what sells. If a large number of us didn't watch it, they wouldn't air it. Air time's too costly. They will not subsidize a lie that a vast audience doesn't want to hear. That's called bad ratings and shows with bad ratings get cancelled.

In the same sense, Corporations are not these malevolent entities that will do anything that jeopardizes their bottom line. Like Dick Cheney once said early in his tenure (and it may be the only thing he ever said worth quoting) "Capital is Cowardly." It doesn't take risks and it sure doesn't act against it's own economic interests. Don't get me wrong. Corporations are unbelievably malevolent in the sense that they will heartlessly crush any effort to break their cash flow, but if it makes economic sense, capital follows it ... and as capital goes, so go Corporations. Look already at the way the Corprations are "embracing" climate change. Do you think they see this as an ideal or a marlket opportunity?

The real downside of the "Market Driven" society is that it can be argued that people only buy what they want. If they buy it in large enough numbers, that means a majority wants it. It turns the whole idea of representative democracy on its ear. It's mob rule that's fixed by statistical analysis and Nielsen ratings. It's not a true majority but can be made to look like one. (In the future should activist students study Politcal Science of Marketing and Consumer Sciences?)

Look in the mirror indeed. I say it to my friends all the time. Walt Kelly put the wisest words in the mouth of wisest marsupial-philosopher of our generation when Pogo uttered the immortal line: "We have met the enemy and it is us."

Wake up! The coffee's burning.

I too refuse to be lumped into Rosa Brooks' "collective of passive believers." There are far too many of us who have passionately opposed Bush and his minions since they first came on the public scene. As a member of a long line of military veterans, I was incensed at Bush's lies about his "military service" and even more incensed when Dan Rather was pilloried for his news reports regarding Bush's "missing in action" months. Rather was not wrong but corporate media could not be bothered with such trivial details as truth.

Of special disgust is Bush's attitude toward Palestine and his incredible subservience to US and Israeli dominance in the Middle East. The alliance between Israel and the Christian Right has been of long-standing; some of us were outraged in the mid-1980s by Reagan's alliance. But Bush's union makes Reagan's deeds look wishy-washy. Back in 1986, Grace Halsell published a wonderful, eye-opening book called "Prophecy and Politics" that revealed many of the machinations of this alliance. Therefore, when Bush began consulting with his "Heavenly Father" about his crusade in the Middle East, I began to get chills.

It is long past time to speak out for impeachment and a return to some level of sanity for the American people.

Where is the outrage over the millions of Iraqis who were killed under the rule of Bush Sr and Clinton as a result of sanctions, and over the 800 thousand killed and million crippled for life since the invasion/occupation began?

The American mass media is part of the corporate web that has commercialized the nation - their objective is to "maximize profits" - NOT to tell the people what's going on.

They're rotten to the core - same as the American political/economic system.

==================================

"One reason that propaganda often works better on the educated than on the uneducated is that educated people read more, so they receive more propaganda. Another is that they have jobs in management, media, and academia and therefore work in some capacity as agents of the propaganda system--and they believe what the system expects them to believe. By and large, they're part of the privileged elite, and share the interests and perceptions of those in power. " Noam Chomsky

A good short article:
Propaganda American Style by Noam Chomsky
http://www.zpub.com/un/chomsky.html
================

Media Education Foundation
Elite Propaganda
THE MYTH OF THE LIBERAL MEDIA
The Propaganda Model of News

watch/listen to free 60 min. video:

Video
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6435.htm

Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky demolish one of the central tenets of our political culture, the idea of the "liberal media." Instead, utilizing a systematic model based on massive empirical research, they reveal the manner in which the news media are so subordinated to
corporate and conservative interests that their function can only be described as that of "elite propaganda."

"If you want to understand the way a system works, you look at its institutional structure. How it is organized, how it is controlled, how it is funded." -Noam Chomsky

"The Mainstream media really represent elite interests, and what the propaganda model tries to do is stipulate a set of institutional variables, reflecting this elite power, that very powerfully influence the media." -Edward Herman

"The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses." Malcolm X

pizzmoe,
9/11, the neo-con answer to everything that they do, all of it illegal. Ask a question about the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians and the answer is 9/11!!! Invade a country for it's oil and the answer is 9/11! Send 150,000 poor, and people of color off to die in Iraq for the Halliburton's, Bechtel's, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin's etc. etc. and the answer is......you guessed it, 9/11!!!!!!!
The 9/11 commission, just like the Iran-Contra hearings, were a cover-up of the cover-up. Everyone in the Cheney-Bush cabal knew 9/11 was going to happen and they probably, in all likelihood, set it up. 250 to 300 Israeli worker's didn't show up for work at the WTC on 9/11. They worked for an Israeli shipping co. A bad case of the flu I guess.
Funny, no one else had the flu in the WTC, or they went to work anyway. No one else was warned about the imminent attack. Read about the spy ring here. They were actually arrested, then they disappeared back to Israel never to be seen again. Yea, I know I'm a conspiracy nut. After all these psychotic madmen have done in the last 5 or 6 years how can anyone think they aren't capable of anything? Go to the link below, don't take my word for it.
http://www.911-strike.com/spyring.htm

As stated in Michael Moore's fahrenheit 9/11, all of bin-Laden's family were flown out of the U.S. on 9/12, against all the rules and forever destroying the evidence of what really happened.
It is not just about Iraq, it's about everything!!!!
I hope somebody wake's up soon.
We need a second party desperately!!!!The demopublicans are hardly distinguishable from the repubs. Pelosi keeps saying, "Impeachment is off the table", which is basically giving the whole cabal a free ride. Read....."we won't come after you for anything you do" I know this has been said lot's before, but the dems are useless, spineless, gutless and every other word there is for cowardice.

First of all Bush's (and his party's) character - addiction to deception, manipulation, etc - were obvious from his first debates with Al Gore (and of course before that).

One only needed to look into his face, his choices of words, tone of voice, and particularly his eyes. No surprise there.

"None so blind as those who will not see."

Have at least 50% of us become like the three "See No Evil" monkeys?"

Rosa, Wake Up! The issue is plain and simple. Massive and widespread corruption.
The media riddled with it, as well. It's the oldest story in the world. And, it's very fertile ground for creeping fascism.

And yes, in our country many, many of us have allowed ourselves to fall into a (complacent /overworked /lazy and/or hyper-distracted) stupor.

Shame is appropriate for people who choose (yes choose, since we are responsible for what we are) to become sheeple. Sheepish?
Stronger than that: genuine, abject shame is appropriate when we relinquish our human gifts of discernment. (Yet it is now known that people who are filled with a sense of "toxic shame" universally deny this, and so end up acting "shamelessly").

Talk about falling short and missing the mark!

American Heritage Dictionary:

com·pla·cen·cy (k…m-pl³"s…n-s¶) n. 1. A feeling of contentment or self-satisfaction, especially when coupled with an unawareness of danger or trouble.

(To say it kindly: "Hey Sheeple! You're making choices that are not Good for you and those you love.")

ie. Wake the Fuck UP!

I refuse to shoulder the shame the Neo-Cons have wraught on this country. Since 9/11, I have been researching, campaigning, protesting, speaking out, and doing all I can to spread information. I have been called anit-American, a kook, silly and stupid, conspiracy nut, told to "leave" my home country, etc, etc, etc. Those hurtful words never stopped me from believing that Truth will set us free. I feel sad that my efforts produce so little results. I feel disapointed that my voice counts for (almost) nothing in this world. But I will never feel personally ashamed for BushInc crimes, or the astounding ignorance of my fellow countrymen.

Why have we been so passive? For the same reasons the good Germans were passive with Hitler until it was too late. Not wanting to upset our comfortable lives, while others fight the good fight. Disgusting.

Rosa's right. Each people has the government it deserves. There's a little of Bush in all Americans: greed, hunger for power, for stealing other countries' resources, for mass-murder, etc.

Bush would not have gotten away with so much after 7 years in power if Americans were truly disgusted.

Earthian, you're right. We don't currently have the means to do anything about the disgusting performance of our government. Which is why we all read and comment and gripe on Common Dreams, but we can't do much about it (here in the U.S.)

I support changing our system of government, and have consistently stated so in this forum.

I shall review the websites that you mention, and see how I can become better organized to that end:

http://www.initiativesamendment.org/
http://www.gravel2008.us/national_initiative
http://article-5.org/

Also, what about the national strike idea, so effective in France, India, and other places? And what about calling one for July 13 (this Friday)?

I knew what was going on in spite of the MSM since long before 9/11. I was outraged at the appointment of Bush to the presidency by the Supreme Court. I attended a number of war protests prior to and after the invasion of Iraq, and I spoke out against it to anyone who would listen, as well as many who did not want to hear it.

I agree with many of the posters above - I don't like being lumped in with the know-nothings who bought into the whole "the world has changed since 9/11 and we have to fall into lockstep with the neocons" nonsense.

There are many of us who are not responsible for the debacle now taking place. We have read what was available on the Internet and in progressive publications, written to our newspapers, attended rallies and protests, talked to people, signed petitions, and sent letters to our elected officials. Perhaps it seems that all of this has been in vain, but maybe the collective efforts are finally beginning to bear fruit. If it were not for those of us who were aware all along that something has gone terribly wrong and did not keep quiet, the MSM might still be wallowing in the manure generated by the Bush/Cheney cabal.

To all of you out there who have posted here, who have continued to fight the good fight, and who are constantly attempting to make America into the country it claims to be, I salute you.