An open letter to the American people or “Thank you, sir, may I have another?”
Hey kids,
I wonder if Britney Spears was in the Oval Office today breathlessly singing “Happy Birthday …Mister Pereseede-ehnt...” WTF happened today? What happened was not just the passage of one more stoopid in–the-name-of-all-that-is-scary anti-terrist bill to let some FBI geezer troll MySpace.
Today’s “yes we can” rifle through your underwear drawer vote is what is known as a tipping point. Bookmark this day as the point when any hope for change was popped like the gas-filled balloon it was. Now don’t go all Obama on me because it’s not really about him or Hillary or McCaint.
In my view, this is mainly about losing control of our government and, so, losing ultimate safeguards of our freedoms. It was a last chance for Congress to reassert its intended dominance over the Executive and allow the Court freedom to decide if and when the MIC corporate elite and imperial presidency is committing crimes and infringing civil liberties. And it is about losing more privacy rights, too. Technology is power, and it will soon enable a very real TIA. How do you really feel about marijuana use or our imperial wars or even our government? Maybe you might want to rethink IMing your friends about these "ideas" a lot (it’s called a chilling effect and perpetuates itself).
But this was a tipping point in the fight to maintain the checks and balances that protect us from a government-run public instead of a publicly-run government.
Am I alarmist? Shrill? Am I a Chicken Little far-left radical rock-the-boat loser? Hey, if it’s not about Obama, it sure the hell ain’t about me. What is it really about? Do you care? Is Paris Hilton that hot? Are WOW and YouTube the ultimate opiate? I think you do care, but if you don’t know exactly what your government is doing, turn off your TeeVee boxes and innertube games and do some unbiased research and decide for yourself.
PS Before you turn off the tubes, check out this unsolved mystery from Woodstock: Little Help From My Friends translated.
I wonder if Britney Spears was in the Oval Office today breathlessly singing “Happy Birthday …Mister Pereseede-ehnt...” WTF happened today? What happened was not just the passage of one more stoopid in–the-name-of-all-that-is-scary anti-terrist bill to let some FBI geezer troll MySpace.
Today’s “yes we can” rifle through your underwear drawer vote is what is known as a tipping point. Bookmark this day as the point when any hope for change was popped like the gas-filled balloon it was. Now don’t go all Obama on me because it’s not really about him or Hillary or McCaint.
In my view, this is mainly about losing control of our government and, so, losing ultimate safeguards of our freedoms. It was a last chance for Congress to reassert its intended dominance over the Executive and allow the Court freedom to decide if and when the MIC corporate elite and imperial presidency is committing crimes and infringing civil liberties. And it is about losing more privacy rights, too. Technology is power, and it will soon enable a very real TIA. How do you really feel about marijuana use or our imperial wars or even our government? Maybe you might want to rethink IMing your friends about these "ideas" a lot (it’s called a chilling effect and perpetuates itself).
But this was a tipping point in the fight to maintain the checks and balances that protect us from a government-run public instead of a publicly-run government.
Am I alarmist? Shrill? Am I a Chicken Little far-left radical rock-the-boat loser? Hey, if it’s not about Obama, it sure the hell ain’t about me. What is it really about? Do you care? Is Paris Hilton that hot? Are WOW and YouTube the ultimate opiate? I think you do care, but if you don’t know exactly what your government is doing, turn off your TeeVee boxes and innertube games and do some unbiased research and decide for yourself.
PS Before you turn off the tubes, check out this unsolved mystery from Woodstock: Little Help From My Friends translated.
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a date when few apprehended the danger the country was is...
July 9, 2008 9:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
When it comes to our civic duty we, as a nation, have become slothful and lazy.
We have sat back and let our freedoms be taken from us because we can't be bothered to get involved. All that matters is catching American Idol on the boob tube, which btw is a bigger wasteland than it has ever been, or getting the bestest ringtones for our super duper new cell phones. We are a completely shallow, vain and self absorbed people.
Face it...we take freedom for granted. So much so that we can't even be bothered to notice when it is being taken from us. Maybe an economic crisis where millions suffer will jolt America out of their apathy. It would be a cryin' shame if it would have take something that extreme to do it.
July 9, 2008 9:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
If the tyrannical, greedy, ignorant and incompetent misadventures of GWB could not inspire a revolution, what will? It will be a relief to see him gone, but will that only lead to more complacency?
July 9, 2008 9:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
One would think that El Presidente should have been the tipping point. But I fear you are right Don. The people who do care will breath a sigh of relief that the tyrant is gone and think the corner has been turned...while the vast majority will be counting down the days until the next season of Idol begins. Like I said it would probably take a BIG economic downturn in which many people lose their ability to get their nice 'toys' might get their attention. That, I am guessing, is the only stimulus their brains respond to. Global Warming didn't get them to dump their SUV's, high gas prices is what it took.
Meanwhile nobody will give a damn about undoing Bush's dirty deeds. The American public sometimes has the attention span (and in many cases, sadly, the intellect) of the Common Garden Slug.
July 9, 2008 10:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
I thought Desi's open letter to the pope was kind of the open letter to end all open letters.
July 9, 2008 9:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Absolutely. I wish he would have asked the Pontiff to fire Bush (one phone call). It seemed to be the format for posting though.
July 9, 2008 9:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don, thank you for this post. It seems that not only does our government no longer serve the interests of the people, but the people no longer seem to be interested in holding their government accountable for its actions. What ever happened to the concept of a government "of the people, by the people, for the people"?
Too many readers here at TPM have recently ridiculed, insulted, or attacked anyone who voices his opposition to positions taken by the Democratic Party or, heaven forbid, Barack Obama. I have been a strong supporter of Obama and I will vote for him in November. But the idea that we as citizens cannot express our dissent is not only offensive, it is undemocratic. It is our patriotic duty to challenge the government when it is violating the Constitution.
I especially don't understand why many Democratic supporters want to stifle any criticism of the Democrats when the current Congress is the most unpopular in polling history (9% favorable rating). It is baffling to me as to why the Democrats keep on caving in to Bush when, clearly, the American people are not applauding their timidity.
July 10, 2008 1:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
WG,
Wow, a 9% favorable rating. I bet government employees and their families in DC make up most of the 9%. I know a hack, butchering dentist down in Mexico who has more return customers than that.
Democrats stand "strong" on these macho national security issues over and over and over but never learn that their submission to Bush/Cheney and the lobbies only reaffirms their weakness- cowardice on principle. Bush may stand for heartless power-grabbing, but at least he stands up for it. I'll vote for Obama, too, but once again, it is a vote void of optimism.
"It is never too late to give up your prejudices." -Thoreau
July 10, 2008 2:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
The "it doesn't matter what he does as long as he wins" crowd doesn't seem to have much of a snappy comeback for you, Don.
July 10, 2008 7:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Twenty thousand of his own begged Obama not to vote for this. He responded at least but with the usual misleading claims that appease the majority. It's scary because if his base, the millions of small donors that make up his bottom-up "new model" campaign, can't press him now to stand up for the people, how are they going to press him on anything once he is ensconced in power in the DC cocoon?
July 10, 2008 8:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I posted a comment to Sen. Obama on his website last night asking very politely to be removed from his mailing lists. I informed him that he could expect no more money, no more time, and no vote from me.
July 10, 2008 9:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess it's always an ongoing fight, whoever wins.
The writing was on the wall before the ’06 mid-terms and after the first rounds of war-funding. Ride the back of anti-war sentiment all the way to the WH but make no changes, lest the reason to “throw the bums out” be mitigated somehow. What is the point of seizing the reigns of power if you don’t use them to turn around? Politics has now become some collective media hallucination as an end justifying any means. History may vilify Bush, but how are we who allowed it going to look?
Voting is the one thing in America where a person should do what they believe is right. I thought about auctioning my vote on Ebay but the minimum bid wouldn't cover the postage. Ah, for the good ol' days, when LBJ would pass out bottles of Johnny Walker Red for each and every vote you cast!
July 10, 2008 11:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, that's the way I see it too.
And yeah, those were the days.
July 11, 2008 7:56 AM | Reply | Permalink
Scary, and sad, and hard to argue with. Thanks Don. It does help explain why so many of us were so enraged over the FISA sellout -- a bill, drafted in secret, revealed Thursday evening and voted on (in the House, where the best chance of stopping it existed) the following day, so as to provide minimal scrutiny of its contents.
And, as Tankard points out, the "it doesn't matter as long as he wins, and then he'll Fix Everything!" crowd has little to say.
And yes, you are an alarmist, shrill, Chicken Little far-left radical rock-the-boat loser. Not to mention a McCain troll, of course ;)
July 10, 2008 8:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks, for what it takes to be a far-left radical these days and rockin' the boat, I'm in. I really hoped I had shed my shrillness 40 years ago when my voice changed. Oh, well.
PS gharlane- Thanks for your efforts at moving this in a positive and active direction. America makes for strange bedfellows indeed.
July 10, 2008 10:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's us far-left troll whiner purist ideologues who get all the work done ;)
July 11, 2008 2:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Right back atcha, you farking Communist.
July 11, 2008 7:58 AM | Reply | Permalink