Patriotism is More Than a Flag

I am not a violent woman. But if I see House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on
TV one more time I could get violently ill. Of all the whining,
sniveling carrying on - and I'm paraphrasing her excuses - she was lied
to, she didn't know or when they briefed her they left the torture
stuff out. And my favorite, she must not have been listening when they
mentioned torture.

Speaking as an active participant in the political world around me,
I have to say that it's embarrassing that a woman just four heartbeats
away from the presidency believes that any excuse would justify her not
knowing.

Really Madam Speaker, you can stop your bellyaching because one
thing we know for sure about this torture intelligence is you know now!

So where's the special prosecutor assigned to look into these
crimes? Where's the investigation into the allegations of torture made
by the Red Cross? And as for former Vice President Dick Cheney: You
have his admissions of guilt as he publicly brags that their torture
techniques "worked."

Speaker Pelosi, it's like Bonnie and Clyde bragging that bank
robbery works. That sort of carrying on helps you prosecute the
criminals.

If you're asking me, I don't believe a word of Speaker Pelosi's
feigned ignorance. I believe she knew all along. That's why she didn't
file articles of impeachment against the president and why she never
supported House Resolution 333 to impeach the vice president. Because
when all is said and done, Speaker Pelosi's finger-prints are alongside
those of George Bush and Dick Cheney on the glass of Kool-Aid that
Americans have been drinking from since this CIA-faulty intelligence
thing began.

And it's despicable. Almost as despicable as the willing way in
which Americans downed the poisoned punch. While this country worried
that a bunch of Mexicans and Hondurans were scrambling across the
border to take its jobs, and while patriots flew flags from their SUVs
because terrorists wanted to ruin "our way of life," our fellow
Americans were destroying our economy and threatening our livelihoods.

The unemployment rate is a hog's breath away from 10 percent, U.S.
car companies are closing thousands of dealerships, home foreclosures
are at an all time high and the thieves who stole your jobs and way of
life were U.S. citizens from Wall Street and the Capital Beltway.

Don't you feel like a fool worrying about the guy cleaning your
toilet while former AIG executive Joe Cassano was flushing the economy
down one? By the way, Cassano was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in case you'd
like to build a wall around it instead of the one across the Southwest
desert.

And where's all this good old U.S. bravery we hear so much about?
Who has the courage to stand up against this international disgrace?
"Liberty and justice for all" is vanishing. Don't forget that when you
promise justice that means you have to have the courage to meter
justice to the unjust.

If ever there was a time since 1776 that we needed good
old-fashioned patriots it's now. And back then there wasn't just one
Paul Revere and one Sam Adams and one Ben Franklin. There were tens of
thousands of farmers and journeymen who put liberty before comfort and
gave the words and deeds of those men the power to mean something.

If your patriotism only stretches far enough to say a prayer when
your neighbors' sons or daughters get called up to Iraq, why bother
calling yourself a patriot at all. Those courageous men and women who
are dying or coming home modern-day Humpty Dumptys aren't fighting to
protect people who sit idly by while the nation's leaders commit
illegal acts and then cover for each other.

Tomorrow morning I want you to pull your covers off and shake
yourself until you wake up. This is our country and it's circling the
drain. We're disgraced. We're broke. And we're not holding anyone
accountable.

And what about President Obama? Write to him and demand action. Now
that it's blown wide open under his watch. If he doesn't hold folks
accountable, he'll be as guilty as Speaker Pelosi.