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Edited on Thu Feb-10-05 11:47 AM by welshTerrier2
we argue and argue and argue about whether the Dem leadership are a bunch of wimps ... some say we should "give Reid a chance" (wasn't that a John Lennon song?) ... some say his response to the SOTU was flat and showed no fighting spirit at all ... and some Dean will change all that ...
my take is that it's way too soon to judge either Reid or Dean ... they will meet ... they will talk ... they will plan ... and then we'll see ... for now, it seems to me the Democrats have at least woken up ... there seems to be far more combativeness now than we saw under Daschle and Gephardt ...
but i am concerned that neither of them will say "it": The bush administration is corrupt and un-American ...
we cannot have a democracy or a republic or any other system of government that represents the best interests of ALL its citizens when the public does not have access to the truth about what's going on in the country ...
it was bad enough that the MSM rolled over in a post-911 stupor and allowed nationalism to be exploited ... it led to a parade of bogus justifications for the invasion of Iraq ... and far too many Democrats were complicit in supporting the lies ... and it's bad enough when we have way too much centralization in our MSM ... it leads to institutional bias ... and it's horrible that MSM organizations are run to maximize profits and not to produce the highest quality information ... all of these things are systemic problems in a flawed system ...
HOWEVER, the DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN that's been waged by bush and the neo-cons is not a systemic problem ... it is an intentional corruption of protecting the people's right to know ... it is the polluting of the information Americans need to ensure that their votes are being cast based on an informed judgment ... it is UN-AMERICAN and it is an offense every bit as severe as treason ... it is the sabotaging of an informed electorate which is the very lifeblood of democracy ...
we have now seen paid infiltrators like Williams; we have seen Gannon-Gate where the integrity of White House press conferences was intentionally compromised; we have seen hundreds of "news-based" websites infiltrated by the gop; and of course we have seen the parade of lies used to justify the war in Iraq coming directly from the White House ... and if all that's not un-democratic enough for you, we have bush's draconian budget proposal that was held until after the election so that the American people would not have an opportunity to vote on it ...
it's much easier to "win" and to get the American people on your side when you can control the news ... it's just kinda un-American, that's all ... the republicans have already started calling the Democrats obstructionists ... so far, the Democrats have started showing signs they will be more of an opposition party than they have been ... but battling only on the issues, issues that bush keeps pushing and are very right-wing, is fighting on their battle field ... by definition, we are playing defense only ... they propose draconian legislation and we object to it to some degree ... it's time to go on offense ... the bush administration is corrupt and un-American and it's time for Democrats to start telling the American people the truth ...
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