Why in the hell.....

[Doreen Peri]

mnaz...

you really DID say it much more succinctly than me and I wasn't saying it was redundant ... just better spoken...

My sister once wrote a one word poem with a one word title.
It was called "Redundance"... Poem went like this... "Abundance."

No wait ... maybe the title was "Abundance" and the poem was... "Redundance," heh...

Basically, either way, what we have is an abundance of redundance in both the idiot and arrogance categories and many lives are at stake. Many men have died and continue to die for WHAT? Greed and power. It's all about power and greed.

------

hest-

I'm sorry to say that yes, in my opinion that is a correct assessment. There is no other criteria. Or apparently not, anyway. He is in power. What effects his power has can screw up the world, bigtime... as we've already witnessed... and what can we do about it?

And, I still wanna say shame on us. Because to me this says, that once you get the job, no matter how craftily you got it, no matter how many lies you told to get it, it doesn't matter. Once you get the job, you can do whatever the fuck you want to anyone and it's alright. You can incite wars for bogus reasons, you can kill, you can hire your wimpy, talentless, spineless friends, you can take away creature comforts from hardworking folks, hell, you can take a big steaming shit on the constitution of the United States Of America and get away with it, because man, once you're president, well, you can do whatever the fuck you want.

Well said... but not shame on US. (us meaning us as in you and me, not US meaning the United States.. 'cause yeah, shame on them!!!) and shame on HIM and his administration or whoever is running this planet using them as puppets... Corporations, probably. Big bucks.

It makes me ill. When is the wake up call going to happen? I'm pretty sure I'm awake. And I know you are.

I need to read Zlatko's links, too.

[abcrystcats]

'Scuse me, but I think Bush really represents the majority of Americans. His nominations are getting taken seriously because there are lots of people out there who would secretly like to see a retraction of Roe v. Wade or as close to that as we can come.

I don't think there's any electronic ballot-stuffing going on, here. I don't think large portions of the voting public are getting deprived of their rights. Nonsense.

Where are all the dissenters? Answer: they're here on websites, commiserating. They're not out in the streets carrying signs and singing protest songs. We're in the minority, anyways.

It's just my opinion, but I don't think that Americans would tolerate phoney elections for very long, anyways. We've never been a passive sort of nation where our basic rights are concerned. I just think Bush has got a lot of people behind him. We're not it, but we don't represent the majority.

Think about it. We're mostly single people on this website. Most of us aren't raising families with young children. Most of us aren't typical. We aren't "establishment" types, working hard to build our credit in order to buy bigger, better houses in the suburbs. Some of us smoke weed. Most of us don't go to church. Many of us don't even believe in God. WE'RE NOT THE MAJORITY. Talk to your neighbors, or your more conservative brothers and sisters. They'll tell you Bush is preserving the world for democracy, keeping us free from terror. No kidding. They'll tell you we NEED to wipe out the wetlands in order to get all that oil out of the ground. They'll tell you abortion is just plain evil, and they go to church weekly to pray for those sinning women.

I could not BELIEVE my brother and sister-in-law voted for Bush. Heck, they've got an autistic child whose rights were long ago countermanded by the Patriot Act. He --llooo! You want to sue the vaccine manufacturers? Fat chance. But no, they believe Bush responded appropriately after 9-11, and was NOT aware or complicituous in the original attack. They don't want their son's world to be destroyed by Muslim terrorists. Hence, a vote for Bush. Heck, I'm related to these people by DNA, but don't ask me .... Fact is, the middle class parents of young children are in the majority in this country. They are operating from a mindset that I cannot even begin to understand.

Bush's Supreme Court nominations are incredibly important to anyone out there who has an agenda similar to his. It's only a joke to people like us. We're not in power.

[mnaz]

Laurie, are you sure that a majority of Americans agree with Bush's agenda? The polls don't seem to suggest that.

The last election was fairly close.... no solid "majority", even by the numbers. Many claim that voting fraud in Ohio put Bush over the (electoral) top, but that's not my main point, here. As I see it, the "zealot" contingency which wants to remake the Supreme Court more in the image of their narrow religious beliefs is not a majority, but a minority, but it is a very politically active and organized minority compared to the more reticent majority, which skews its influence out of proportion to what it should be.
The Bush team locked up the "zealot vote" in a semi-pandering way in '04, and it tipped the balance. That's my take on it.

[gypsyjoker]

The polls don't seem to suggest that.

It is the lag behind the polls that is killing us.

37% on things in general

I don't really know how parlimentary systems go but they seem more "real time" for me. Vote of no confidence, the government disolves, a new election is held. Is that how it goes?

[abcrystcats]

but it is a very politically active and organized minority compared to the more reticent majority

Yes, and why is this?

While Bush's overall approval rating has slipped quite a bit recently, what about his approval ratings on specific issues? To answer your question, Mark, no, I'm NOT sure, but it looks to me as if there's a sizable majority out there that backs him on most things.

I'm skeptical of claims that votes were tampered with. Don't know why, I just am. Anybody who participated in such a scheme would be doing a very evil, un-American thing.

If we DO represent the MAJORITY, then I would like to know why we aren't at least as politically active and organized as the apparent minority supporting the current regime. Why are we silent? Passivity is also a statement of belief. When you're passive you're basically just going with the flow, WHATEVER that is.

[hester_prynne]

I hear what you are saying abcryst. There is alot of seeming passivity of the majority. But I think it could also be something else. Shock maybe. Shock and awe at the reality of this evil government. And captivity. Now that gas prices have soared, heating costs are up and jobs scarce. We've been set up to have to deal with our own survivals in new ways. This gives the current admin more power, because disempowering people is very distracting. And this is what they slowly, and very cunningly are doing. Bullies often do this. Bullies often tout themselves as Gods.

I go to the local protests here. I wrote letters protesting the new bill that cuts food stamps. (another disempowerment.)
I'm also working three jobs now and barely making it. Four years ago I was making about 35,000 annually and had health insurance. George cut the contract funds that funded me.

But who cares? I'm just a little guy in the majority now. I don't have alot of time to stop the crimes being done by our government as I do have a 13 year old daughter I support alone.

It's just not right, that this president, who took us into war falsely, which makes him a cold blooded murderer if you ask me, this president, who has run the credibilty of all of us down, is still there, picking asinine nominations out for supreme court! We are going to continue saddling ourselves with this criminal's poor and self serving choices? He and his religious faith followers who now expect him to follow through as God's messenger, like he promised them.....

The minority has power now and so they seem like the majority. We can't let this fool us, inactivate us. How do we, the majority, let this overconfident minority know that they are outnumbered?
Beats me. I do what I can in this mess.

Thanks for your comments. Very thoughtful, and thought provoking.
My brothers, both voted for bush. They feel their precious money is safer under his code I suppose.....they feel their precious chavinism is safer too, i'm sure....
I tell them loudly that they are weak and shallow, cowardly motherfuckers........
The truth doesn't seem to bother the deafened.........
H

[abcrystcats]

Hester, in general, I think it's something like you said. Times have changed and people don't feel as free to do the things they did in the 60s, under similar circumstances.

I kind of feel like one of those characters in the movie, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." I'm surrounded by people who I thought I knew, and I don't know them. The people around me are changing in some kind of indefinable way, and I can't stop it. I feel helpless. About the only thing I can do is stay AWAKE for as long as possible, and stick with the few people who are doing the same.

That's just an emotional response to what you said.

[mnaz]

Like any other semi-disaster, a combination of things combined to get Bush re-elected. Many Bush supporters I talked to in '04 weren't so much in favor of Bush, as they were suspicious of Kerry. Why? Well, many, if not most of Bush's team are corrupt and ruthless bullies, who insist that it's "my way or the highway", period. They started an illegal war in 2003, based on lies, even though they had no such mandate at the time, and then this war served as leverage in '04 (better to 'stay the course', etc.). Add to this the unconscionable smear campaign against Kerry and Bushco's aforementioned semi-pandering to zealots and voila!, Bush is re-elected by a percent or two, and his ilk blather on about some "mandate" that they don't really have.... never really had.

These people have acted like political thugs, and with the Administration's corruption being exposed more and more, and the unending, uncertain "mission" in Iraq, I'm not sure how much longer they can get away with it. The upcoming midterm elections in '06 should paint a better picture as to who has the "majority". Bullying, corruption, and deception does not a true majority make.

Laurie makes a good point about the majority's passivity. It starts at the polls. First of all, show up. And don't buy into the thuggery and smear, for godssake. But we still lack a unified, strong opposition leadership from the Democrats, and this does worry me. With Bush's approval ratings below 40%, some forceful, articulate voices for change need to step forward.

[hester_prynne]

Stand up face to face with those who would follow bushko and encourage them not to. Disagree with them to the end. Do not let them use the aggressive empty word tactics their leader uses, on you. Stand your ground, even if you just repeat nonstop over and over again that the war in Iraq was based on a bogus lie, that people have been murdered due to a bogus lie. Repeat nonstop that top security officials are being indicted for crimes against the very country that they are leading! Ask them how their "god" feels about that?
Ask them how their "God" explains the katrina fiasco, ask them if that was not, indeed, genocide, be it full blown, or by default. Ask them how God feels about poverty, and homelessness, all those questions we aren't supposed to mention. Those questions that make us "liberal partisan terrorists"...! (Heh) Those questions that make us, "the enemy...."??????
They will call you crazy, they will look for ways to put you down.
Stand tall! Keep talking. Until they run away from you screaming!
Until they are silenced by your fervor.
Tell them you won' t have what they are saying anymore for there are holes in it a fucking blind man could see. Tell them to open their lazy eyes!
Tell them it is they who are the betrayers of America.
Stand up to them and do not back down no matter what, no matter how lame or frustrating they are.
That is how we get them to back off. We beat them at their own game.
And if each and everyone of this majority sent emails and letters to the press and to the congress, they would have to hear us.
They would have to answer for fear of civil war if ignored.
Yep........
H