Please Wake up, bush did nothing wrong and is only a strawboy

[moof]

How long and how much more does it take before people wake up and realize that events are progressing along just fine for the people really running the world. Events may not be unfoilding exactly as planned but the results are certainly acceptable for the only people that bush* has to answer to.

This problem of showing who is to blame was made clear today when trying to make up a protest poster for this afternoon. Wanting to focus on the people really causing the suffering in America and the world, several names came up in regard to who was doing the most damage to the planet but then the real non point came out. What good is it to protest someone who almost no one knows. This is besides the point that no one seems to get that bush has never won an election and if votes were to actually be counted he might have the support of 15 or 20% of Americans. He is the corporate front boy and it was not clear how great having a front was until today. Not only does the strawboy take all the heat he also is the only focal point for the opposition. Sure there are any number of industrialists that are guilty of treason, murder, and sacking the treasury but a sign with

" IMPRISON Jack Welch " or " Send Debra Reed to Gitmo "

are going to draw nothing put blank stares in almost all cases.

It is so fustrating to think that the people that are really at the heart of most of what is wrong with America don't have to spend even a second thinking about what the "little people" think about anything.

Hence part of the explaination as to why people in power seem so disconnected from reality, they are not disconnected at all. Their reality has nothing to do with the " little people " because "little people " have no reality, they are only allowed to think they have one
in order to keep them from intruding on the "Real people's" reality.


In closing, suppose everyone in America voted for Kerry in the last
so called "election" yet bush* was still declared the "winner".

If that is where America is, what do the "litle people" do now ?

[Neocondriac]

1. ding, ding, ding

give Moof three fingers of your Top Shelf single malt. On the money!

[Matariki]

2. what do you suggest doing about it?

[moof]

11. Getting everyone on the same page to begin with seems useful

1. Accept reality, America was taken over by electronic coup in 2000.

Anyone that continues to avocate elections and voting is likely playing into the hands of the people in power.

This is not to say that what has happened should be accepted, only that until everyone agrees where we are can a discussion take place on what is the correct direction and action to take from that point.

It would seem a victory, all be it a small one, to have the the people running the show announce these elections are simply window dressing to keep us in line but now they are just too costly so they are not going to bother with them anymore.

This will likely never happen seeing as how so many people are so willing to cling to dissonance rather than embrace reality and try find a way to change it.

That is partly why The New Orleans Disaster may be an opportunity.
There seems a chance that many people will be willing to think different and just for a moment reflect and use some simple logic.

If the siutuation in New Orleans was so well known and so easily could have been so much better with so little extra effort by those in charge why is it wrong to think that what has happened is not fairly close to what those in power wanted to happen.

Now once everyone is thinking about that one add in
can you now apply the same logic to Iraq ?
what about 9/11 ?

Do any questions that start with " Why " regarding the previous events still remain a mystery if you assume that the people in power find
"the results acceptable "?

[despairing optimist]

3. Bush a strawboy? Then let's start burning some straw

I don't know about anyone else, but when I want to walk to some destination, I walk one step at a time. What you say is true, but the way to a better future and a better country and world is to deal with the problems immediately at hand first. Bush and his criminal gang are problem number one. As for the rest of your hierarchy, you're welcome to place them anywhere you want. Bush must go. As of yesterday. As of last election day. As of Iraq and 9/11!

[bribri16]

4. Amen to that! n/t

[Neocondriac]

5. Bush must go?????

...the GOP CONTROLS EVERYTHING. Get used to this. Bush won't go, he will have to be forcibly removed.

[despairing optimist]

9. It's not about Bush and the GOP. It's about all of us.

If you don't believe it, please grab a seat and watch it happen. Because it will. If the Republicans cherish their power, they'd better wake up because their base has shrunk in lots of standing water and it's they who will be hung out to dry.

[moof]

13. "it's they who will be hung out to dry"

and how will this hanging take place or a better question is what leaves you to think that any of " their " base was in standing water.

They do not have a base, unless you think the crowd at the dinner the night when the famous "Have and Have more's" quote was made is representive.

As long as you bring it up, who are the Saudi Royal's base ?
How about Pakistan's musharraf, who is his base ?
and Vladimir Putin ..... are you seeing a trend here ?

[despairing optimist]

17. Money isn't everything. Power still resides in the common people.

The GOP strategy has been, since the days of the New Deal at least, divide and rule. The party has used racism, Communism, gays, abortion, flag burning, prayer--well, you get the idea--to get enough voters to vote against their economic interests in the service of what they think is a "noble cause." Eventually, enough of those voters--not all of them, just enough to swing elections--realize they've been had, and the party loses. The other part of the equation is the Democrats, who are usually more adept at saying and doing what's needed to win, and I think they'll get it together before the country goes down the toilet.

I think I know what you're saying, that both US parties are really factions of one elite, and I'll grant you that point. But the important thing to note here is that the elite is divided about the Bushes', and by extension the GOP's, ability to rule effectively and keep the money flowing smoothly. It's up to the little people to exploit that division, and in my opinion the hue and cry over Katrina as well as the mishandled Iraq occupation will mean big trouble for the Republicans. US control of global energy resources is far from the slam-dunk it should have been, because of the incompetence of the Bush-GOP faction. Not a hit with the ruling class crowd.

So the base of both Republicans and Democrats (and the Saudi Royals, Musharraf, and other tools) includes the same impossibly rich people who shift from one faction to another so they can never lose. No surprise there. Elections never matter to these people, but peace and quiet do, and anyone or anything that threatens their hold on power will get squashed. They thought they could get away with playing hardball and destroying the welfare state, but now they are starting to see they need to back off, as they did 35 years ago.

Sure, I'd love a better system, but you struggle with the one you have, not the one you want. It's late in the game, but it's not over yet.

[moof]

18. Sorry, it seemed you realized that there were no longer real elections

being held in America. Keep beating your head against the wall and deluding yourself till you can accept you are a slave but want to change your status.

[despairing optimist]

19. I'm not beating my head against anything. I'm living with some hope.

Take that away, and there's no point to living at all. If you want to believe in nothing, that is your privilege. I prefer to believe that the American people are made of stronger stuff. They may be bribed with material goods and in debt up to their eyeballs, but they make the country work so the rulers can rule. If they aren't appeased, the social order collapses. I'm not deluded at all.

[moof]

20. Do you prefer a large portion of false hope to a small slice of real hope

?

No one wants more for the nightmare to be over but
there's no use searching for keys out under the street lamp
if they were lost back in the dark ally.

[despairing optimist]

21. Where's the real hope? I see nothing but questions with no answers.

That's not good enough. Where's the real hope as opposed to the hope I have that you believe to be false?

[moof]

23. The premise here is that people's response is likely going to approximate

the emergency that they percieve. As long as people feel that it is just a matter of voting then why would they risk anything personally.
This is beside the fact that the election results no longer make any difference as to who is declared the "winner".

If your row boat springs a leak
are you close enough to shore to just paddle over
do you plug the leak and start bailing
or do you make sure your lifevest is secure ?

[despairing optimist]

28. So, if I understand you correctly, people need to realize how seriously

they are threatened and should be willing to risk personal losses because elections are meaningless. It sounds as if you're talking about a revolution, and if that's the real hope, it's a long way off, I think. What I believe likelier is that social unrest will grow and Democratic or liberal elements will co-opt the discontented and win "compromises" to improve living standards, working conditions, and so on, as FDR and the Democrats saved capitalism with the New Deal and the birth of the war economy. The New Deal and division over supporting the war against fascism (WWII) marginalized the left once, and it was such a winning formula for more than half a century that I think a similar approach would succeed again. I wouldn't call mine a false hope, though, just a more realistic one when compared with revolution.

I don't argue this with any joyful vindication or smugness. It's just that I don't think the country has crossed that threshold, and it may never do so in my lifetime. If you are young enough to work for what's right, period, rather than just what's right for the moment, I wish you the best of luck. I used to think that way too, but what's past doesn't always have to be prologue, and therefore I encourage you to create your reality and try not to mess it up. Otherwise it will be your turn to write commentaries like mine and the tables will be turned.

[moof]

29. Not the " R " word just a consensus on where we the people stand

Certainly anyone willing to speak the truth let alone try to pick up the banner of freedom and lead the charge risks their life at this point.

But it seems progress would be made if everyone could agree on the present coordinates. If nothing else it could save time later if another opportunity presented itself with someone of quality leadership available to become our next champion.

As far as time goes, part of this is about deciding how much longer to stand by the white horse holding the reins waiting for a leader if there seems to be no one else who thinks there is anything to gain worth the effort.

[wli]

6. It is where America is. We're in deep, deep shit. n/t

[Imagevision]

7. Who will Bush/Rove blame this one on?? Brown??

http://downingstreetmemo.com/

[mike_c]

8. "How the free market killed New Orleans" by Micheal Parenti....

http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2005-09/03parenti.cfm

Only tangentially on topic, but a great read about the role of free market capitalism in creating the sorts of class divisions that led to the humanitarian disaster in NO.

[moof]

12. It does not seem tangential from this end of the net

That is the pesky problem with facts if everyone agrees on them the results can not be so easily disputed.

Other than the use of "free Market" which seems better definded as
Cannibalistic Capitalism the article seems to support the last premise quite well.

With 33.8 billion and whole new department to deal with just such events
how can anyone not assume that what has happened isn't pretty close to what "they" wanted to happen.

[In Truth We Trust]

10. Paper ballots NOW!!! Hand counts NOW!!! Impeachment NOW!!! nt

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

14. You mean "He did NOTHING."

He did Nothing at all.

And that's the criminal act.

[johnaries]

16. No, he DID something, alright. He DELAYED rescue and relief

efforts in order to set-up his photo op and manufactured stories about riots and shootings as an excuse for the delay. We now know these stories to be false - the helicopter pilot who was "shot at" never heard any shots and the FAA director said they never received any reports. When the NG got there ready to confront rioters and snipers, they found none. The reporters who were on the ground at the Convention Center and other "hot spots" did not see any evidence to back up the reports.

The military was in place and ready to provide relief immediately, but were waiting on approval from Bush (when he was still on vacation).

This was a deliberate delay.

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. Can I asked what declaring a State of Emergency means in terms of

giving Governors the power to act? Because I am confused as to why Gov. Blanco is being blamed for not asking for the NG which she did, however, why would she even need to ask? Shouldn't anything she needed to assist her in disaster relief be at her ready since a State of Emergency had been declared before Katrina made landfall? Again I am confused as to what power that declaration gave her?

[johnaries]

24. Essentially, none. I'll have to find the thread with the interview

with the military leaders who said they were already in position and ready to begin, but they had to wait on orders from Bush. As soon as I find it I'll post it.

[SammyWinstonJack]

25. Thank you. n/t

[johnaries]

26. Here ya go! LOTS of good info in this thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=4611518

Be sure to read the whole thread.

[FrenchieCat]

15. Personally, I think we've got to start somewhere.....

So, I'd rather start at the top and work my way across.

Let's eat the elephant one bite at the time - Wes Clark

[Generic Other]

27. If I saw an "Imprison Jack Welch" sign I would know what you meant!

But I understand your frustration. LOL.