The reason Congress' approval numbers are spiraling down the bowl, is NOT because you are "weak on terror" or "don't support thr troops" it's because you refuse to fucking stand up to the Administration and the GOP and refuse to do anything of substance to slow down the slow and steady destruction of Constitutional Democracy.
The confirmation of an Attorney General who thinks torture is fine and dandy, and the President is above the law is just the latest in a long list of failures. It's not even what I would call a "disappointment", because it was inevitable.
I actually wish we never regained the Congress. At least the Republicans knew they were rubber-stamp, and didn't pretend otherwise.
You guys are a fucking joke.
There is much more to write on this, but I'm not sure I have the energy. Nor is there any point.
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Recovering Republican and would-be Conservative John Cole joined the Democratic Party this week. Sorry I won't be there to welcome you, John. I am leaving. I will stay long enough to vote for Chris "The Only Guy Who Remembers the Constitution" Dodd in MI's primary and then I am out.
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I hope you'll stay in long enough to vote in November 08. The difference in the parties may be small, but I believe that small difference would have kept us out of Iraq.
Don't worry, I plan to vote in November, and there's no way I'm ever voting for a Republican. What I'm saying is, I am done with the Party and will no longer be an affiliated Democrat.
No more money, no more support, no more calling myself a Democrat.
If this is where the party is heading, I'm getting off.
Agreed, Furious. I just can't deal with the "anything is better than Bush" logic, because as you point out, at least the G.O.P. sticks to their guns and doesn't sell out their base while the Dems are just flat out pussies.
It's a shame the only guy who is garunteed to not sell out (Kusinisch) is also batshit crazy.
Just when I thought that, via my profession, I couldn't get any more jaded and cynical...I see my own party, whom I have stuck up for for years, act like this. No spine. They are allowing themselves to be completely cowed by a minority party and an unresponsive prez.
The right thing to do is punish the weaker Republicans until they vote lest they stand to lose their seats and send the Prez shit he won't sign every single day. You'll win.
Nothing like actually having responsibility to bring on a sense of reality. Maybe, just maybe, the problem isn't that the Dems are a bunch of spineless incompetents, but rather that their ideas don't survive contact with reality all that well. Think about it.
No thinking about it necessary, John. It's not due to incompetence, and I know that, it's pure political calculation and a warped sense of risk/reward on the leadership's part.
That and an all-encompassing focus on political and electoral results over right and wrong from both parties.
The problem is that nobody in Washington on either side would know reality if it bit them in the ass.
Really? Rep. Murtha's pronouncing Marines guilty of murder before the facts were in is a good example of incompetence. Not that the Dems have cornered the market on stupidity by any means.
I'd also say the complete blowoff of corruption reform by the Dems was cynical -- both sides of the aisle have powerful members who want to keep their snouts in the public trough.
But to say that a focus on political results instead of "right and wrong" is a problem... well, your idea of "right and wrong" is just as arbitrary as my idea of "right and wrong." You have ideas about morality and I have ideas, but neither of us can claim objective proof that the other is wrong. We can know that most voters do not support an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, regardless of how they feel about the wisdom of starting the war. So there is an example of pragmatism outweighing adherence to some arbitrary morality. I'd say the Members do know Reality, and that they try to keep it from biting them in the ass (as long as it doesn't get in the way of increasing their personal fortunes, in most cases).
Rep. Murtha's pronouncing Marines guilty of murder before the facts were in is a good example of incompetence.
Not sure I'd file that under "incompetence." Baffoonish perhaps, even inappropriate...though to this point I wouldn't even say Murtha was very far from accurate. Here's what he actually said, "there was no firefight, there was no IED that killed these innocent people. Our troops overreacted because of the pressure on them, and they killed innocent civilians in cold blood."
In respone to Murtha,"Military officials told NBC News that the Marine Corps' own evidence appears to show Murtha is right."
One military official says it appears the civilians were deliberately killed by the Marines, who were outraged at the death of their fellow Marine.
Several Marines were charged with (unpremeditated) murder. Others negligent homicide, several were granted immunity and had their charges dropped.
There seems to be no doubt about a cover-up attempt, prompting even a Republican Representative from Minn to note, "There is no question that the Marines involved, those doing the shooting, they were busy in lying about it and covering it up — there is no question about it."
"...U.S. military officials later confirmed that the [involved Marines'] version of events was wrong.
Rep. Murtha is an idiot for claiming what he did when he did. Only an incompetent boob would make such a serious charge to the public about individuals when the really serious aspect was an alleged coverup. If he was worried about a coverup, a simple "I believe there is a coverup of the incident in Haditha" would have been more than enough to keep the issue public without disparaging those whose guilt had yet to be proven.
If the Marines did in fact commit cold-blooded murder, they are guilty of war crimes. I await either the war crimes convictions or Rep. Murtha's devastating expose of an egregious military cover up. Let me know if either happens.
Parse it however you like John, the fact that civilians were deliberately killed is not in dispute. The fact that there was a series of cover-ups and changed stories is also not in dispute.
4 U.S. marines face Haditha murder charges
Last Updated: Thursday, December 21, 2006 | 5:42 PM ET | CBC News
Four marines, including a squad leader, were charged with murder Thursday in the slaughter of 24 Iraqi civilians — in the biggest American criminal case involving civilian deaths to arise from the Iraqi war.
Military officials charged four other marines for alleged failures in investigating and reporting the slayings in the Iraqi town of Haditha on Nov. 19, 2005, a Marine Corps spokesman said.
The marines will not face the death penalty because they have not been charged with premeditated murder, CBC News correspondent Steve Futterman reported from Camp Pendleton, Calif., where all of those charged are based.
Seven of the eight marines have also been charged with either falsifying reports or obstruction of justice in what authorities allege was a deliberate attempt to cover up the killings."
The fact that several Marines have had charges dropped due to immunity for testimony or down to "negligent homicide" etc doesn't make the Iraqis any less dead or change the fact that Marines killed them and tried to hide it.
As far as seeing these soldiers charged with war crimes in The Hague, you must know the U.S. does not participate in the International Criminal Court, and the soldiers are not subject to it.
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