Subverting Democracy

The Republicans and most especially this administration have become experts at subverting democratic processes. The examples are too numerous to count, everything from recess appointments and signing statements, to the whitening of Louisanna, the privatization of education in New Orleans, and the privatization of our military and emergency services - to name only a few - all done with no debate and no consensus.

Read all about it in The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein - it may well be the most important book you will ever read. Listen to parts 1 & 2 of an interview with her here (it takes a few seconds to download) - the second part of the interview is under the first one:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122807J.shtml

The book is meticulously researched and documented. Democracy is a meaningless word if the American people are not aware of what's going on. Folks need to understand that what has happened under this administration is NOT INCOMPETENCE but the systematic carrying out of a well-planned agenda - and only when they are caught red-handed, do they plead incompetence rather than treason.

Chris Dodd - Standing Up For Us

Yesterday, Senator Chris Dodd, who had threatened to filibuster the FISA bill, delivered on that promise as he spent the good part of the day on the floor of the Senate giving speeches about the need to protect our democracy in an effort to defeat the FISA bill. This bill would give immunity to telecons that provided personal information to the government about its customers without a court order. Over 500,000 emails were sent from Americans who agree with Dodd on this issue. As I have said before, giving those companies immunity not only is wrong, but would close off one of the most promising avenues for ever finding out exactly how far our government has gone in spying on us in the name of protecting us.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid finally withdrew the FISA bill and Senator Dodd deserves a lot of the credit for that - you could say he had a good day. However, the bill will come up again and it needs to be defeated or significantly changed.

Thank you, Chris Dodd, for standing up for us!

http://chrisdodd.com/victory

BLACKMAILING THE SENATE

President Bush has nominated retired federal Judge Michael Mukasey for Attorney General. Under questioning in the Senate Judiciary Committe, Mukasey gave two very troubling answers. One was that he didn't know if waterboarding was torture. And the other was that the President could disobey any law if "what goes outside the statute nonetheless lies within the authority of the president to defend the country". In other words, the President can break the law if he says he's doing it to defend the country. That sounds dangerously vague and open to interpretation. In fact, for a President who has declared a permanent state of war, it could be argued this encompasses a wide range of domestic and foreign activities and policies.

However, Senator Schumer has stated he is voting for Mukasey. And his reason?? To avoid a worse recess appointment.

How ironic. Rather than keeping within the spirit of the law, President Bush has basically laid out new rules - if you don't like this nominee, I'll appoint one you'll hate even more while you're not in session.

Recess appointments were supposed to take care of the circumstance in which a post is suddenly vacated and it is critical to fill it immediately. The point was not to allow the President to bypass Congressional oversight. However, in his by now familar role as Bully-in-Chief, this President will apparently get his choice of nominee by hook or by crook.

GORE and OBAMA

For many years now, as those who know me are well aware, my dream presidential ticket has been former Vice President Al Gore and Senator Obama. When I first began saying it out loud back in 2004, it required a certain willingness to sound ridiculous, since the response I got was usually that I'd completely lost my mind. People would respond that Gore was a loser and I would reply you haven't heard him lately. No longer the somewhat reserved and overly careful politician, he is now passionate, funny, and engaging. Well, of course Gore has proved them all wrong; far from being a loser, he has become a winner on so many levels. He is finally being recognized as the serious, thoughtful, and courageous statesman that he is.

Senator Obama used to say that he didn't have enough experience to run for president and he was absolutely right. However, many Democrats, frantic because there was no sign that Gore would run, and there was no one else who commanded the same hope and respect, pressured him to run anyway. He has now become the reserved and overly careful politician that Gore was, to whom winning has become so important that he no longer says what he thinks or stands up for what he believes.

We need both of them now, to do something unprecedented and amazing for our country at this critical period in our history. We need them to put the good of this country above their personal desires and ambitions.

We need Al Gore NOW, not to run TV stations or develop websites, but to provide the principled, competent, and visionary leadership that this country so desperately needs. We need him to run for president.

We need Obama as our hope for the future, our hope that in eight years this country will elect an African American as president. Then he will then have the experience and record to combine with his charisma and intelligence which will make him a remarkable and incredibly exciting presidential candidate. But NOW we need him to run with Al Gore as his vice president.

GORE/OBAMA - This is the ticket for which so many of us would be willing to give money, to walk door-to-door, to make calls, and to work ourselves to exhaustion. This is the ONLY possible ticket that will inspire us and give us hope and make us believe again.

HURRAY FOR CHRIS DODD

Today (Fri): Senator Dodd has vowed to filibuster if his hold is not honored. THIS IS BIG!

Thur: Chris Dodd has put a hold on legislation that would give amnesty to telecommunications companies that aided and abetted this administration's wireless wiretapping. It's about time one of our Democratic leaders showed some backbone - of the presidential candidates, Chris Dodd has been out in front on many issues.

SUPPORT CHRIS DODD'S HOLD ON AMNESTY FOR TELECOMMS

Any senator can put a hold on any legislation at any time and that basically kills it. Most senators use this power very seldom and when they do they come under *tremendous* pressure to release their holds.

SUPPORT CHRIS DODD'S HOLD ON AMNESTY FOR TELECOMMS

Chris Dodd has a lot of crediblity in this area - he has been out in front of the effort to restore our constiutional rights that have been taken away by this adminstration, including the effort to restore Habeus Corpus.

SUPPORT CHRIS DODD'S HOLD ON AMNESTY FOR TELECOMMS

They're Blogging From Botswana

Nata, Botswana is a vilage of about 5,000 people. HIV/AIDS has devastated this village leaving over 500 orphans. Nearly 40% of the population is HIV positive, and nearly 50% of all pregnant women are HIV positive. The Nata village Blog came about as a result of world traveler Jon Rawlinson meeting Peace Corps Volunteer Melody Jenkins, who took him to Nata. He wanted to help and he offered to create and administer a website for the village. The bloggers include people from the village as well as Jon and Melody and the website is dedicated "to the people of Nata who despite enormous losses and challenges still have the courage and determination to fight the ravages of this pandemic".

So many things we take for granted are luxuries there. In fact, if you have eyeglasses you don't use anymore, send them here:

Nata AIDS and Orphans Trust
P.O. Box 144
Nata, Botswana.

There is an out-of-work and out-of-school youth group Mabogo Arts and Culture Productions that focus on HIV/AIDS Education. They perform songs, dances, and dramas in chruches, private homes, and shabeens (local drinking establishments).

Most people try to hide thier HIV/AIDS because there is great discrimination. The Ntwakgolo Support Group are people who are living with AIDS openly, and have come together to support each other and to educate others.

Thanks to MediaChannel.org for bringing these people and their remarkable story to our awareness!

Burma aka Myanmar

In 1948 Burma became independent of the UK and was a democratic republic until 1962, when General Ne Win staged a military coup. In 1988 there were widespread pro-democracy demonstrations and hundreds of demonstrators were massacred and General Saw Maung staged a military coup. There were further protests the following year and martial law was declared. The country's name was changed to Myanmar, a name the US doesn't recognize. The military has promised a new constiution and elections, but it has done nothing.

Mass public demonstrations reappeared in August 2007 when the government raised gas and oil prices by 500% to cover a budget deficit, which resulted from a raise in pay for civil servants. When the monks joined the demonstrations in September, the population was energized and the number of demonstrators swelled enough to draw international attention.

The situation in Burma is upsetting for so many reasons and on so many levels. First of all, the world's efforts on behalf of the people and monks in Myanmar, who are being so brutally killed, beaten, and arrested, have been paltry at best and nothing has been accomplished.

Burma is a Buddhist country and the monks there are held in very high esteem. Buddhists of course are totally non-violent; they won't even kill insects. So, the violence that the military has perpetrated upon these people is even more shocking.

These monks are practicing what is called "engaged Buddhism", first promulgated by Thich Nhat Hanh of Vietnam during the Viet Nam War or as they call it, the "War with the United States". Instead of staying safe and removed in their monasteries practicing meditation, they believe they must work for peace. Thich Nhat Hanh was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King. Read his "Peace is Every Step" for a simple yet profound glimpse into the the beauty and inspiration of this way of life.

And then there's the fact that even with the internet, the government of Burma has been able to totally shut down any communications with the outside world, so we really have no idea of the scope of the horrors taking place there. Especially for those of us who imagine the internet to be the last bastion and hope of freedom of the press, the ease with which a country can shut it down is sobering, to say the least.

Avaaz.org has launched an international petition demanding the Burmese generals negotiate rather than continue to crush the demonstrators. The petition has taken off, already, people from 200 countries have signed, and thousands more are adding their names every hour. People around the world are mobilizing protests aimed at China and the other countries with the economic power to sway the ruling military junta. It's an unprecedented global response. Please join.

RESTORE HABEUS CORPUS

Even though I've already posted today, this is TOO important not to add. CLICK HERE to citizen co-sponsor a bill to restore Habeus Corpus. Kudos to Senators Leahy and Dodd for being out in front on this issue!

The War Must End

Are we accomplishing anything in Iraq? Can we fix anything that we have broken? All evidence suggests the answer to both of these questions is NO.

• According to government sources, the surge has failed.
• Ethnic cleansing has been going on for some time; no one knows how many formerly mixed Sunni-Shite neighborhoods are mixed no longer, but the consensus seems to be the number is large and growing larger.
• Iraq was a country of 26 million people before the invasion in 2003. At least 20% have been displaced (4.2 million) or killed (at least 100,00) and that doesn't count Iraqis who have been injured, lost limbs, or been paralyzed.
• As many Iraqis in Anbar province hate Americans as hate Al Queda.
• The majority of Iraqis in Anbar think it's ok to attack coalition troops.
• The majority of Iragis in Anbar credit recent decreases in violence to their own Sunni militia.
• The majority of Iraqis want the Americans to leave and believe we are making the situation worse.
• According to the AP, this year Iraq is suffering double the number of war-related deaths throughout the country as last year.
• Bush has made it clear his game plan is to drag out the war till it's somebody else's problem.

It is unconscionable and to allow one more American or Iraqi life to be lost, so this president can blame his failures on the next president.

It is unconscionable to allow one more American or Iraqi life to be lost once you realize there is nothing more we can accomplish in Iraq.

Sources:

National Security Network

AP, 8/25/07

The Swamp

NY Times

Time to take a serious look at Dodd for president

Senator Chris Dodd of CT is a serious man who deserves to have Democrats take a serious look at him as their nominee for president. He's been a dedicated progressive for a long time - back when Hillary was a Republican and Edwards was busy making a fortune. And there is momentum building.

Some things you may not know:

• The powerful Firefighters' Union gave Senator Dodd their endorsement this week.
• Many online groups, including MoveOn.org are supporting Senator Dodd's Katrina legislation as being the most likely to end the government's failure to help that region.
• Senator Dodd is chairman of the powerful Banking Committee, is considered business-savvy, and is therefore a candidate that would be taken seriously by moderate Republicans.
• Senator Dodd has led the fight to restore the civil rights and liberties destroyed by this administration including Habeus Corpus.
• Senator Dodd has served on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for 25 years and therefore, unlike several candidates, has credible foreign policy experience.
• Dodd served three terms in the House of Representatives before being elected to the Senate in 1980.
• As a young man Dodd joined the Peace Corps where he served for two years in the Dominican Republic, became fluent in Spanish, and built a school and a maternity ward.

I for one don't want 28 years of either a Bush or Clinton in the White House, which is what we'll have if Hillary is elected. While no one can doubt Hillary's brilliance or her political astuteness, I don't trust her and haven't since she co-sponsored flag-burning legislation.

Obama and Edwards both have no experience. In the end, I don't think any of the threee so-called "top tier" candidates are really electable or that desirable.

Take a look at Dodd as a person and on the issues and decide for yourself.

HILLARY: REPUBLICAN FAVORITE??

Earnest Partridge writes:

Officials at Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation have contributed to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and Murdoch himself has held fund-raisers in her behalf. Lawyers at Kenneth Starr’s law firm, Kirkland and Ellis, have donated more to Clinton than they have to all of the Republican candidates combined. In addition, Bloomberg.com reports that “Large US [law] firms … are giving thousands more to Democratic hopefuls than Republicans. Top Wall Street investment banks and hedge funds are also giving more to Democrats.” We can assume that most of these donations are going to the front-runners, Clinton and Obama. And finally, Hillary Clinton’s appearance last week at the Yearly Kos, was cut short by her appearance at a fund-raiser at the estate of billionaire, Ron Perlman.

Hillary Clinton appears to be the favorite Democrat of Republican haves and have-mores.

Why is this so?

The oxymoronic “conventional wisdom” in the mainstream media would have us believe that these Republicans, assuming a near-inevitable Democratic victory in 2008, are backing the most likely, and, to them, the most tolerable, Democratic candidate.

I have a different take on it. The Republicans, far from conceding the next election, believe that they may have a plausible shot at winning. But to do so, the Democrats must nominate the weakest and most vulnerable candidate.

There are many compelling reasons why the front-running Democratic hopeful is also the most vulnerable.

Most significantly, among the general voting population Hillary Clinton has the highest disapproval ratings of all the Democratic candidates - in fact, according to a June Mason-Dixon poll, she is the only candidate of either party of for whom a majority (52%) have said that they would not consider voting. In addition, 42% reported an unfavorable opinion of Clinton, compared to 39% favorable; the only candidate with a net negative rating. These are devastating statistics which are unlikely to change significantly, since the public is by now well acquainted with Clinton. One would assume that such statistics would disqualify a candidate. However, the establishment Democrats who support Hillary are unperturbed.

READ MORE...

I have blogged about this before - ARE WE REALLY GOING TO LET REPUBLICANS AND THE REPUBLICAN-DRIVEN MEDIA PICK OUR CANDIDATE???

Their Fear of Appearing Weak, Makes Them Weak

Once again, reports of terrorist "chatter" that mysteriously disappear as soon as the President gets what he wants, and fears of appearing weak on security, combined to cause Democrats to surrender to the adminstration's last-minute demands that Congress give the President ever-widening powers of warrantless wiretapping before leaving for summer recess. As the Washington Post put it:

To call this legislation ill-considered is to give it too much credit: It was scarcely considered at all. Instead, it was strong-armed through both chambers...

The new law will allow the interception and recording of cell phone calls and emails of persons "reasonably believed to be outside the United States" without a court order or any judicial or congressional oversight. If that isn't a loophole big enough to explode a car bomb through ... Although the bill will be reconsidered in 6 months, Rep. Rush Holt said it best, "I'm not comfortable suspending the constitution even temporarily."

Democrats Voting YES

Bayh, Evan (IN) Carper, Thomas (DE) Casey, Robert (PA) Conrad, Kent (ND) Feinstein, Dianne (CA) Inouye, Daniel (HI) Klobuchar, Amy (MN) Landrieu, Mary (LA)

Lincoln, Blanche (AR) McCaskill, Claire (MO) Mikulski, Barbara (MD) Nelson, Bill (FL) Nelson, Benjamin (NE) Pryor, Mark (AR) Salazar, Ken (CO) Webb, Jim (VA)

Sign a petition telling Congress to stop being more afraid of Republicans than they are of destroying our Constitution.

Presidential Candidates at YearlyKos

The YearlyKos session with the presidential candidates was great! The questions came from bloggers and activists at the convention and around the country. They were insightful, respectful, and addressed issues not usually addressed in the candidates' debates like asking Senator Clinton would she continue to take money from lobbyists (yes she will) after it was pointed out that neither Senators Edwards nor Obama have taken any money from lobbyists. Or asking the candidates whether they would appoint a presidential blogger (they will - and Edwards will appoint his wife).

One of the most moving moments was when Senator Dodd talked about how the vote on the detainee bill, which among other things did away with habeus corpus, was one of the worst he had ever seen in his 27 years in Congress. I couldn't agree more - that night I didn't sleep at all and got up the next day feeling literally physically ill - I could not believe that my country including both my Democratic senators had just erased habeus corpus - that was a dark day.

Then Senator Dodd said that he was very indebted to the folks at YearlyKos and all those they represent because they were among those who really "got it", who really understood the horror and magnitude of that vote and what had been done to our country that day.

All in all, it was a free-wheeling session marked by good humor, respect, and a sense of common purpose in spite of different points of view on various issues. The internet is changing politics and this session with the candidates was one sure sign of it.

Caught on Tape! - The Plot to Bury Progress

Don't miss this video featuring Rove as the dark lord.

HIgh Crimes and Misdemeanors

Today the Washington Post reports that Republican Minority Leader John Boehner released classified information (that may have been illegal) when he announced that a Federal Intelligence judge had declared parts of the the administration's NSA spy program illegal and that this is why Democrats are running around trying to update and expand the government's wiretapping authority.

There are so many issues here it's hard to know where to begin. But foremost would seem to be that the president commanded the NSA to engage in ILLEGAL spying on American citizens. Regardless of whether Congress decides that the government needs expanded spying powers, and whether it can do so while still securing Americans' rights to not have their privacy violated by the government without a darn good reason, the fact remains that this administration was engaged in something that could certainly qualify as "high crimes and misdemeanors".

This administration knowingly and willfully went outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act's (FISA) court and ignored the FISA requirements for wiretapping. (FISA was passed in 1978 to rein in the Nixon administration's use of warrantless wiretapping.)

Whether the Bush administration could have accomplished the same thing legally and whether their intentions were noble really misses the point - OUR DEMOCRACY CAN NOT SURVIVE an executive branch that thinks it's above the law. The only way this form of government can work is if every single person in this country is subject to the law.

We must remember that the heart of any dictatorship is a leader, who for whatever reason, feels he answers to no one -that he is above the law. We must remember that Hitler was not seen as a monster in the beginning. Because while almost all Germans thought that the pendulum had swung a little too far in one direction, they assumed it would correct itself before too long.

"As nightfall does not come all at once, neither does oppression." -- Justice William O. Douglas

Does This Sound Familiar?

"They hate what we see right here in this chamber -- a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other...This is an evil man that we're dealing with, and I wouldn't put it past him to develop evil weapons to try to harm civilization as we know it...You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror" Bush shortly after 911

"They hate our people because it isns to try to harm civilization as we know it... decent, brave, industrious, hardworking and intelligent. They hate our views, our social policies, and our accomplishments. They hate us as a Reich and as a community. They have forced us into a struggle for life and death. We will defend ourselves accordingly. All is clear between us and our enemies." Goebbels 31 December 1939

Other Things You should know:

1. 43% of all Iraqis now live in absolute poverty according to a NY Times article this morning. 70% do not have access to adequate water, substantially worse than the 50% who did not have clean water in 2003. Two million Iraqis have been displaced from their homes.
2. On the other hand, Halliburton and subsidiary KBR have posted record profits and KBR has been paid $20 billion for its work in Iraq. Meanwhile, KBR employees have been convicted of a massive bribery network that overcharged the American taxpayer millions of dollars.
3. A one-sentence provision buried in the Senate's recently passed energy bill, inserted without debate at the urging of the nuclear power industry, makes nuclear plants eligible for tens of billions of dollars in government loan guarantees.
4. The Iraqi Parliament began a monthlong recess because of the heat without completing any of the legislative benchmarks that they have agreed are important to stabilizing the country. Too bad our soldiers can't take a break also.
5. The Bush administration wants to sell billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia, the country of origin of most of the 911 attackers.

On a Brighter Note:

Kiva.org, at their fun and easy to use website, allows internet users to make mircroloans to small entrepreneurs in the developing world - helping people to lift themselves out of poverty. I made some loans in March 2007, some of which have been completely repaid, giving me "Kiva credit". The website made it easy for me to use that money to make another loan or I could have just as easily had the money sent to me.

Betrayed Again

So, it appears the Democrats are betraying us once again - this time on election reform:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/20/washington/20vote.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

According to the abovet NY Times article, Senator Feinstein and her committee have decided they will do nothing about election reform until 2012 - it's UNBELIEVABLE!!! They've done nothing since 2004 and now they say there's not enough time.

I know some people believe that if we win by a large enough margin, we don't have to worry. However, with the candidates we have, we will be sqeaking out a narrow victory if we get one at all - and corrupt machines could make a difference like they did in Ohio. Contact your senators and let them know we won't stand for ANOTHER STOLEN ELECTION.

Stop the Filibuster

Join the Senate Democrats in standing up to the Republican's filibuster

The Democrats in Congress have finally found the courage to stand up to the threats and intimidation of the Republicans.

Today the Senate is set to vote on the Levin-Reed Amendment which requires the President to begin bringing the troops home in 120 days. If the Republicans do not allow a vote, the Senate Majority Leader Senator Harry Reid has said:

I will keep the Senate in session straight through the night. The American people deserve an open and honest debate on this war, and they deserve an up-or-down vote on this amendment to end it.

Join the Senate Democrats in standing up to the Republican's filibuster

TONIGHT MoveOn is sponsoring Citizen Filibusters all over the country to draw more attention to the Republican tactic of blocking what the Democrats are trying to do and them accusing them of being a "do nothing" party. Find a Citizen Filibuster in your area

LASTLY contact your Senators and tell them to support the Levin-Reed amendment and Bring Our Troops Home. Use the links in the green box on the right to "Write or call your senators" or use this simple tool set up by Howard Dean and the Democrats.

Michael Moore Makes Blitzer and CNN Back Down

Michael Moore was invited on CNN with Wolf Blitzer and was first shown a piece by Dr. Gupta supposedly doing a "fact check" on Moore's new movie Sicko about the need to fix our broken health care system. See the real truth about that fact check.

Then watch the two part interview by Blitzer - it's awesome.

A great book on the state of our health care is called Critical Condition by the pulitzer-prize winning investigative team of reporters, Barlett and Steele. Supported by excellent research, they make the case that the deal-makers of health care organization mergers, the CEOs, and the executives make huge profits even while their organizations are providing bad health care and going bankrupt. They explain why the poor and singly insured are charged more for the same care - often double or triple the price - because large groups negotiate lower prices. Critical Condition makes it clear why the World Health Organization now rates the US 39th in the world for health care.

Climate Crisis - VOTE on Candidates' Positions

MoveOn held houseparties all across the country last night on the climate crisis in conjunction with Al Gore's global Live Earth concerts. This Virtual Town Hall Meeting on the climate crisis was the second in a series of three VTHMs being held by MoveOn - the first was on Iraq, and the third will be on health care.

Each of the Democratic candidates (Republicans were invited to participate, but all declined) answered questions from MoveOn members about their plans to deal with our dependence on oil and the climate crisis. You can watch it all or select different parts from MoveOn's website and then VOTE for which candidate's position you think is best: http://moveon.org/

Senators Obama and Clinton are careful not to offend the oil and coal lobbyists. Senator Dodd has the most aggressive and integrated plan. See Grist's review of all the candidates here:
http://grist.org/news/maindish/2007/07/06/candidates/

Also the League of Conservation Voters has a "scorecard" on the candidates' positions on the climate crisis available from MoveOn's website here: http://pol.moveon.org/townhall/climate/townhall2.html

The climate crisis is the biggest challenge facing the world, and it has the potential to solve many other problems if handled correctly, as Senator Edwards rightly pointed out. Not only can we reverse the tide of jobs leaving this country by developing new renewable energy technologies, encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship, enabling the US to lower its green house emissions, but by doing so the US will begin to resume its place as a world leader as this vision, and these technologies, and skills are demanded by people all around the world for their own communities. Additionally, as we reduce our dependence on oil-producing countries, we can more readily become an objective, benign power broker as we deal with the complicated problems facing the Middle East and the rise of Islamic fundamentalism around the world.

Cheny Breaking Law Again

Add your name to a special version of the Constitution being presented to Dick Cheney as he tries once again to operate outside the law by refusing to follow an executive order:

http://www.democraticmajority.com/cheney

The Twin Evils of the Religious Right

The arrogance, bullying, lies, disinformation, torture, spying, deliberate misleading, cynicism, lack of compassion, power grabbing - this administration has committed so many aggregious offenses - why are sowing hatred and doubt among the most pernicious?

Mao ruled China without a KGB or an SS and he did so by unleashing and harnassing the power of hatred. He encouraged and rewarded the unhappiness, resentment, and insecurity that people inevitably feel and channeled it towards a specific group of people and whipped up the intensity of those feeling to the level of hatred. He glorified hatred and called it patriotism. Whenever Mao felt threatened by one group in society, he would urge another group to seek them out, accuse them of crimes against the party, and publicly humiliate and torture them. Students turned on teachers, workers turned on bosses, party members turned on party leaders. Hatred coupled with terror - allowed Mao to rule without an enforcer group.

Republicans encourage resentment, envy, and fear and annoint religion over science, faith over reason, and hatred over love. They have defined patriotism as hating liberals "a vote for a Democrat is a vote for the terrorists". They have blamed all this nation's problems on the "gay, educated, feminist, liberal elite" and the "illegal aliens". They have turned one half of the country against the other in the effort to demonize and dehumanze progressives.

Besides kindling hatred, the other incredibly destructive activity Republicans have been routinely engaged in is spreading false doubts. They assert that because they have doubts about accepted science for religious (evolution) or business (climate crisis) reasons, their doubt is scientifically valid. And they say it so many times, people begin to wonder if what they thought was accepted science, really is. They encourage people to abandon reason for fear - while most of us believed that Saddam Hussein probably didn't have the ability to cause the infamous "mushroom cloud" because of the reports of the weapons inspectors; nonetheless, those two words were repeated over and over again by people who supposedly had the best intelligence in the world at their fingertips, giving many us a reason to doubt what we thought we knew. They spread doubt by spreading lies with the purpose of destroying a person's character - during the Clinton administration so many claims were made about crimes of which the Clinton's were supposedly guilty, that after a while even Democrats began to believe that where there was that much smoke... there must be some fire... even though there really wasn't.

Any leadership that encourages hatred of one group by another is dangerous and morally bankrupt. However, it's almost impossible to overcome hatred masking as patriotism backed by the power of the president and to dispel doubt once established. To do so requires unmasking it and repeatedly calling attention to its true nature. On the other hand, genuine leadership should emphasize the ties that bind us, and our shared values and should look for ways we can work together for the common good.

Republican-Owned Media Picks Democratic Candidate

Having watched the two Democratic debates, I am appalled at the differences in time allotted the so-called first tier candidates vs the second tier. But even among the first tier candidates, Hillary is getting far more time than Edwards or Obama and then the media proclaims her "commanding presence". And given that the media owns the message and the Republicans own the media, it's fair to say that this is not happening by accident. Even the NY Times has featured first page articles slyly insinuating negative qualities about both Edwards and Obama on a regular basis. The Republicans are clearly salivating to have Hillary as the nominee.

The Republicans did everything they could to bring down the Clinton presidency (read "Blinded by the Right" by David Brock, a former member of the inner circle who also put Thomas on the court). Would it not be ten times worse with Hillary as president? Can't you just imagine her in the middle of growing tensions with China or Iran; suddenly all over the front pages is splattered news of Bill caught with the latest bimbo beauty - with 24/7 coverage on the mainstream media. Investigations would be started regarding Hillary's inappropriate use of the FBI to find out what her husband is up to. The presidency is weakened, mired in scandal once again.

Meanwhile, the Republicans will declare that the Democrats have lost the war in Iraq because the president has been too distracted by her personal problems.

And while it's true the Republicans will try to bring down any Democratic president, and the war in Iraq is positioned to make it easy; nevertheless, the public is so primed to believe the worst about Hillary and Bill - do we have to make it even easier for the Republicans to destroy their faith in a Democratic president?

You couldn't have imagined 6 years ago that the US would have betrayed all that we have stood for by abandoning Habeus Corpus, sanctioning terror, allowing Katrina, using the Patriot Act to gerrymander 8 new Republican Texas seats in Congress, spying on US citizens, blowing a CIA agent's cover to discredit a prominent war critic, stacking the Supreme Court with right-wing radicals, and politicizing all the departments and agencies within the legislative branch (unfortunately this list is almost endless).

Democrats, who I believe are basically a decent lot, suffer from a lack of imagination about Republicans - we don't want to believe that fellow Americans are capable of such blatant acts of deceit, dishonor, and destruction of our democracy in their pursuit of wealth, idealogy, and power.

But if we don't wake up, it's going to get a lot worse.