Fresh wisdom from Anthony Gregory

To defend Americans from anti-U.S. terrorism, a necessary element is reducing State terrorism, greatly scaling back the power and size of the U.S. government, and revoking its license to kill and get away with it. Conservatives today might be able to wrap themselves in the flag and condemn dissidents as traitors, but before they know it, another Clinton might come to power and they’ll be the ones again accused of assisting the enemy by opposing the State. They might come, once again, to see the difference between love of country and love of the government, only it might be too late to bask in the distinction, thanks to the anti-dissident political atmosphere they are helping right now to create. Today’s leftists, it is to be hoped, will remember the feeling of being branded a traitor, should a Democrat be in power during the next national crisis or war.



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With thanks to Adam P. Short

The White House did not immediately say why the President was unaware of plans announced by his administration just a week earlier.



The Original


The Blog Link

Re: the Schiavo memo

Just follow the link

From "Auntie Pinko" at DU

That won't happen if we simply sit back and let the "nutjobs" stage their various circuses under the GOP Big Top. There are plenty of clown shoes and rubber noses in Democratic closets, too, and you can bet that the clever and financially well-endowed Republican manipulators of public opinion will be doing their best to throw a spotlight on them.

Here's da link!

From Lew Rockwell

It is no accident that both parties make an appeal to libertarian notions about the dangers of power. Love of liberty is what unites us as Americans. Our most important job right now is to work to show how nationalist warmongering, cultural agitprop, and government belligerence of all sorts work at cross purposes with libertarian ideals.

Also, the left needs to learn a lesson from the Bush regime: the answer to fascism is not socialism but freedom itself. They need to lose whatever romantic attachments to power they still have.


Read the whole thing

I've been waiting for someone to say this....

As far as I am concerned, the amazing hypocrites in our Government are not making up for killing thousands of innocent Americans and Iraqis by passing emergency legislation to save one life. Every member of Bush’s executive branch (past and present) and every member of Congress who voted to give George the authority to invade Iraq have innocent blood on their hands. For the next State of the Union address, maybe the hypocrites in Congress should shamefacedly display blood soaked hands, instead of proudly wriggling fingers stained with ink to symbolize sham Iraqi elections. This shameful Congress should go back on vacation and go back to their home districts and look for people who have been devastated by the illegal occupation of Iraq.

The Amazing Hypocrites
by Cindy Sheehan

Another can't resist quote, this one from James Wolcott

The Terri Schiavo soap opera, with Senator Frist guest-starring in the role of Dr. Bob and unveiling the uncanny ability to make a long-distance telepathic diagnosis without using his mind, shows yet again how sentimentality and brutality are the Doublemint twins of American culture, ripe for exploitation.

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Great turn of phrase from the Bull Moose

One can only marvel at this extraordinary demagoguery! Tom DeLay is now attempting to save himself by associating his fate with this woman's tragedy as he languishes in a persistent unethical state.


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Argle Bargles (And Other Beasts) from DU

A short guide to modern trolls.......

It's found a new life recently with some right-wingers trying to confine the definition of "terrorism" strictly to dark-skinned foreigners hijacking jets in the name of Allah (as opposed to pale-skinned middle-America types firebombing clinics in the name of Christ) and Bush administration officials trying to redefine "torture" so it doesn't include drowning, beating, sleep deprivation, and sodomizing somebody with a light tube.

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Good one-liner from The Green Knight

Creationism is not just bad science; it's bad theology.
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Justin Raimondo - follow his links too - I learned a lot

Of these three, militarism really is the fountainhead, the first principle and necessary precondition that gives rise to the others. The militarist openly declares that life is conflict, and that the doctrine of economic and political liberalism – which holds that there is no necessary conflict of interests among men – is wrong. Peace is cowardice, and the values of prosperity, pleasure, and living life for its own sake are evidence of mindless hedonism and even decadence. Life is not to be lived for its own sake: it must be risked to have meaning, and, if necessary, sacrificed in the name of a "higher" (i.e., abstract) value. That "higher" value is not only defined by the State, it is the State: in war, the soldier's life is risked on behalf of government interests, by government personnel, on behalf of expanding government power.

Link here

From James Wolcott

Along with millions of other people, I opposed the war before it began, and we opposed it not because we thought we might lose or fail in Iraq, but because invading Iraq was wrong. It was wrong because they were lying about why we were invading; it was wrong because the whole notion of preemptive invasion is immoral and dangerous; it was wrong for a dozen other plainly irrefutable reasons that will not change if Iraq is magically transformed into Switzerland by next year."

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Makes me proud to be a hippie tie-died liberal!

"I say we tell those liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals to go make their movies and their music and whine somewhere else," Gibbons said to another burst of applause.

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courtesy Americablog

From Americablog

In other words, Bush used lies, deception, bait and switch tactics, attack ads and homophobia to push its agenda -- all in a bald-faced, hamfisted, clumsy, transparently mean-spirited and patently untrue manner that flew in the face of logic and common sense. But this time it DIDN'T work.

Someone explain to me why this time was different so we can make sure it keeps happening again.

Link Here

From Newdonkey.com

Part of the full-human-life-begins-at-conception point of view is typically that "conception" occurs at the moment when an ovum is fertilized. Anything that deliberately interferes with live birth after that instant is an "abortion." Thus, most really hard-core right-to-lifers believe that birth control methods (including not only morning-after pills but IUDs) that in part or in full rely on preventing implantation of the fertilized ovum in the uterine wall are not "contraceptives," but "abortifacients" that are morally indistinguishable from a late-term abortion or, for that matter, infanticide. Never mind that this kind of "abortion" occurs naturally in a very high percentage of proto-pregnancies; ideology is ideology.

Justin Raimondo feels optimistic

Of course they want U.S. bases – as protection against their neighbors and as sources of income. I think it's a lousy idea, but it underscores how ready the Sunnis are to make a deal. George W. Bush would be a fool not to take it.

Oh, wait…

http://antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=4907

On the Jeff Gannon Story

I thought I'd let things play out for a while before selecting a favorite quote.
This one's it.

Are you kidding me? Memo to Howard and Sean. The man’s name was not really Jeff Gannon, he was lying. He was not a journalist, he was lying. He worked for a fake news organization, he was lying. Are you following me? A man with a fake name, fake credentials, and working for a fake news organization was granted free and unfettered access to the White House press pool, for the apparent sole purpose of bailing out the President or his representative. The story here is how the government planted a fake reporter in their pool to further their propaganda efforts against the people of this country. Let’s see if Sean or Howard covers that story or if they are just whores for this administration.


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You wouldn't want war to be unpleasant - would you?

According to an audio recording of General Mattis's remarks obtained by The Associated Press, he said: "Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right upfront with you, I like brawling."

He added, "You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil."

General Mattis continued: "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."



Link Here

The Plaid Adder compelled out of hiatus by dire events.

This battle matters, people. No matter how stupid it looks. This is not just about whether same-sex parents will ever be visible in children's television, or whether gay people will ever be treated right in this country. This is about whether the voters of the next generation will believe that tolerance is a virtue to be encouraged or a vice to be avoided. These people are playing long ball. We have to understand the importance of what they are doing, and dedicate resources to fight it. Otherwise our children - or, well, your children, in Bush's brave new world I am clearly not entitled to have any - will grow up not even knowing what tolerance means.


Read the whole Article

per Digby

I occurs to me that the neocons are a lethal combination of the worst traits of both sides of the political spectrum --- starry-eyed kumbaya idealists who think the best way to make the world see things their way is by kicking the shit out of it.
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