Rather than acknowledge just how stupid you were in allowing Cheney to go all Jack Bauer, all you asshat "tough guys" now cower and whine that you really must convene the closest thing you can come to having a kangaroo court hearing of this case because your past actions have compromised the ability to try a case in Federal Court.

Collectively, your continued lack of respect for the Rule of Law says about all we need to know regarding your integrity on the issue of Justice and real patriotism. Yeah, some kind of real flag-waving heroes y'all turned out to be! "God Bless America," and all that, all the while ready to run for cover at the first sign of trouble. It is truly despicable and earns nothing from me but my utmost contempt.

You were among the chest thumpers who were so proud of Bush/Cheney being the really tough guys in their embrace of torture and indiscriminate kidnapping and detenttions and whatever else happened to catch their fancy. Real Jack Bauers, these guys! Bunch of despicable would-be heroes who showed an absolute contempt for the Rule of Law as their cowardly response to 9/11.

And you were right there with them, cheering them on. It is no wonder that you now have so little faith in the Rule of Law when you were so willing to abandon it at the first sign of trouble.

You are right that Bush/Cheney's traitorous refusal to abide their Constitutionally prescribed Oath has definitely complicated our ability to bring scum like KSM to trial. But to trial we must go, if for no other reason than to show that we are indeed a people who follow the Rule of Law. It is THAT important to wrest control of this government and this Republic away from the tinhorn, chickenhawk despots who so defiled our Constitution. It is THAT important to once again return to the Rule of Law.

The tough guy "heroes" of Gitmo and the Orwellian "Patriot Act" now cower and quake at the thought that KSM would be presented a fair trial. What fucking cowards! I have faith that we can survive even the severe insult Bush/Cheney (and jackass enablers like yourself!) have levelled upon our ability to seek Justice. It ain't going to be easy, but it's the only path we can follow if we care to ever stand tall as the progeny of patriots rather than cheap replicants of a Kiefer Sutherland TV character.

Cut the whining, bulldog, and get the hell outta' the way. There's real work to be done here in the Land of the Brave, and you snivelling cowards only get in the way as you continue crawling on your bellies looking for cover.

My comments you address are as follows:

All my life, I really thought I was a Liberal Progressive engaged and fully participating in a democracy. It is only recently that I've begun to understand that I was really just a sucker, instead.

This wasn't just a throwaway line, and I'm glad you saw it as a legitimate complaint. If you read my response to letthesunshinein, below, you see an expansion upon the thought. I have always thought that it was a fundamental understanding that the economy, for example, must work for everyone's interests. Yet, we see all too plainly as of late that in fact the elite consider the economy to be theirs to exploit; that they are entitled to whatever riches they can realize by skewing everything in their favor, regardless of its impact on others or even the sustainability of their road to riches for anything but the short term. It's a horrifying case of despotism that, quite frankly, I was too naive to really understand until now.

There are so many really thoughtful comments published in response to this blog. And I was thinking of these lines I wrote as I made my response. I encourage you to review them as a response to your own well considered comments offered here.

Meanwhile, I wish I could say I knew what the proper way to proceed - to fight back, if you will - would be. We face some real challenges against a well-resourced and well entrenched foe. It will take considerable creativity and effort to gain a toehold, but the fight must go on.

I think it all begins by identifying for all (yes, even the teabaggers) just who it is that stands as the enemy of the working class. And then we must channel the anger and its energy in assuring that Justice is served and respected as the principle upon which all things political must stand.

Politics is too often engaged with consideration only for "What's in it for me?" Real pragmatism is represented by those of us who instead insist that our politics must serve everyone's interest; that Justice is a fundamental rule that must be observed. To believe otherwise that this is an intensely personal game in which we compete to have our own selfish interests promoted is a recipe for failure. In such a system, only the wealthy and powerful will prevail, and there are damned few of us who qualify for inclusion in the ranks of the elitist oligarchs who will always rule in a winner-takes-all system of governance.

If we want peace, we must work for Justice. It really can't be said any simpler than that.

I now look back at how we have regressed in nearly every category over the course of my lifetime. We used to be able to find family supporting jobs that would serve as a career. We used to get retirement as a matter of course. We used to be outraged at pay-to-play politics; in fact, used to deem it illegal. We thought we were participating in the growth of the economy by nature of our increasing home values and our increased consumption of goods. (All a chimera as the housing bubble burst and we realized our increased "standard of living" was primarily a function of increased personal debt, not greater wealth.)

On and on it goes. It is inescapable that we have been sucker-punched. And nowhere does this become more obvious than in the present scenario wherein the champaign is flowing on Wall Street to celebrate its recovery while my friends and neighbors struggle simply to survive. And when we are told we can afford wars for oil (and for Halliburton, Blackwater, and the rest of the military-industrial complex) without even an accounting for the billions that are spent and that simply "disappear," yet we can't afford universal health care or anything else that might be of benefit to us all.

Yeah, it is class warfare that we are engaged in. And it's really time for all to ask themselves which side are you on, boys?

Let's re-do this health care reform plan and adopt the plan that Obama campaigned on. I would certainly find that to be more satisfying than this proposal which has been compromised in almost every detail to appease the insurance industry. Being an Obama supporter, you will then be in support of it, too, right?

Yeah, I thought so. You voted for Obama? Yeah, right. And I just returned from my weekly excursion to Mars.

Oh, wait... the deal is we will lose the war if we DON'T give the army another 40,000 troops and a few trillions in cash.

There's a difference in how this is stated; a difference that did not escape me as McChrystal reported the latter case to the President.

Thanks for this, ruta. You pose a number of troubling questions that make one wonder just what the hell we can ever hope to accomplish in Afghanistan.