I see little discussion of the elephant looming in the room.

[ToolTex]

For several years many of us have been discussing and trying to warn that our government was being usurped by cloaked criminals. While their propaganda machinery cranked out slogans and masking spin they have systematically dismantled one check on their power after another. As our busy middle class struggled harder to feed their children, they have had less time to follow the machinations of this government, to heed our warning. But now enough of the populous has sensed that something awful has gone awry and tried last November to restructure the Congress. (This in itself an amazing feat considering the advantageous rigging built into the election system by incumbents).

Next Thursday this delicately weighted new Congress will be sworn into office. But now that we have chosen a champion to joust for our country's honor it seems we think our work is only to cheer them on to recalling our troops and pressing investigations toward possible impeachment.

I sit here typing with queazy stomach recalling that we have been warned by Cheney and others that they have no intention of being reined in by anyone. I recall their systematic dismantling of our constitutional protections against tyrants; their signing statements; their success over habeas corpus; their success on NSA wiretapping; their success in tilting the SCOTUS; their success violating anti-propaganda regulation; their success violating anti-torture treaties; their success overwhelming the Church Amendment, (protecting citizens from the CIA); their success in disavowing Posse Comitatus following Katrina; their success implementing databases of citizenry that fly, communicate, drive, purchase, (remember Total Information Awareness?); and so on. I recall they have fairly quietly build many new federal prisons for some reason. I recall they have quietly deployed many, unmanned "Predator" aircraft capable of surveillance and spot attack, (possibly as many as 2,000 in Texas alone I read, ostensibly for use during natural disasters). I recall they have sapped the blood and soul of our individual state's National Guards. And many more ominous actions.

It seems to have been easy to claim their patriotism while striping away our liberty guarantees, but now push is about to bump into shove. What sort of hell will next befall us as this weak Congress tries to call them to the dock to account for their atrocities. Will they attempt to divert attention by having their Godly Chief of the Air Force drop nuclear bombs on Iran or North Korea? Will they arrest or shoot some of the Congress?

What will they do when Congress demands they explain under oath? Nothing? Anything? Everything?! What will happen when we demand that the curtain be pulled back?

This elephant is about to stand up! How should we prepare?

(Edited for spelling).

[acmejack]

1. 2000 Predators in Texas?

Can you source that Tooltex? They have definitely slid that by me! I am quite eager to see the Imperial Presidency respond to the events of the next few weeks, we both know they shall thumb their noses at them. It will be a very interesting time, as I believe the SCOTUS will side with the Executive being as they have been so effectively neutered and were willing to award the prize to Bush even before they had two new Justices named by this Administration. I suspect the Junta is all but impervious to the demands of this Congress.

[ToolTex]

7. I'm trying to find the ref I read and will post it when I do.

So far I am only finding articles on those recently deployed for border patrol.

[Joanne98]

2. Put on your armor. Make sure the Dems know we're watching...

[shraby]

3. You have to remember, a lot of the administration's

enablers are gone. The power of the purse, subpoena, and making sure people are under oath when testifying belongs to the MAJORITY party which is now the Democratic party. The administration can stonewall, refuse anything they want to refuse, but it won't hold because the more they try, the harder it will be for their own party to keep their seats in congress in the next election. If anyone remembers the Watergate hearings, they will understand what I'm talking about.

[ToolTex]

9. I didn't miss a minute of the Watergate hearings, and what I remember most

is Nixon stalling until the SCOTUS said he had to produce the tapes. But our current SCOTUS may well side with the Administration, which may just refuse to even show-up for any hearings. And then what?

[Beam Me Up]

13. "Then what?," indeed.

If it gets to that point, we're going to have to have millions of people in the streets -- in Washington and elsewhere -- demanding the impeachment of the SC. I'm not saying I think we can do that, I 'm saying that is what the 'then what' would have to be.

[whistle]

4. The democratic party along with any other republicans who have come

....to their senses must impeach Bush/Cheney now! Our preparation will be courage, perseverance, and action. Our success will come when the cancer is cut out and discarded and we the American people are given back control of our government and our country.

[man4allcats]

12. Well said,

and the more the Bush/Cheney cabal stonewalls and generally thumbs its nose at due process, the greater the call for impeachment will become. Whether that call will eventually reach critical mass depends on how much America still believes in its own principles. We The People must now be prepared to do what is right and retake this country or else have its eulogy read at its graveside.

[nannah]

5. your concerns echo mine

I too have concern about the application of all the altered policies and laws they have been putting into place. while we were watching the right hand, the left hand has been busy making the US safe for the thugs and pirates who are stripping our economy and environment. sadly, we were all so busy watching the "dumb" right hand when we should have been watching the "sly and vicious" left hand.

[dailykoff]

6. Unfortunately, they saw what happened to Wellstone

and what happened to Tim Johnson for that matter, so apart from a few lions like Leahy, I wouldn't expect a whole lot from the Senate.

[goclark]

11. Octafish where are you?

Seems to me that Poppy is still the ring leader in all of these events, his need to control and work quietly behind the scenes has been in our country for a long, long time.

Cheney, Rumsfeld, GW( who dad says he doesn't tell what to do )---suuuure are all in the right hand of Poppy.


The evil in the country revolves around at least 19 evil doers.

Poppy is in the middle IMO.

As much as I love Clinton, he should NEVER think that he can out slick Poppy.

[rosesaylavee]

8. I am and believe that we are prepared to fight for our country....

The fight may go to a more intense personal level where we will all be compelled to participate in mass demonstrations or the powers put in place by our constitution may be able to clean out the corruption that has infiltrated our govt without more active participation on our part other than what we have done to date. Will we get it all done? Eventually over time. But it will be an ongoing process for years.

Remember, these are cowards who have relied on others to do their dirty work. They will not stand long against a concerted effort of Americans who still support the constitution.

[lonestarnot]

10. I can't wait for it to unfold!

[Morgana LaFey]

14. In the short term, I'm deeply worried about

an untimely Senatorial death, on the left side of the aisle. Just one would do it, and it's not like it hasn't happened before at extraordinarily convenient times. Or, maybe just tapping Lieberman for SecDef or something. We should identify all the Republican governors' states and see who's most vulnerable.

[MasonJar]

15. There is one thing that they need...our tax money. If it gets to the

point where they refuse to testify, we need to cut their funds. Even if Congress will not, We, the People, can.

[paulk]

16. I thought Richard Lugar's comments this Sunday

were interesting...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/12/31/gop-sen-lugar-if-bush-d_n_37503.html

Considering he's a Republican, and former chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -

there's reason to hope that Congress will stand up to the Bush junta.

Let's give the new Congress a chance before calling them "weak".

[ToolTex]

22. Sorry, I meant weak Congress in terms of our one seat majority.

Not in terms of heart, soul, spirit, and courage.

[Greyhound]

17. While reveling in "our" victory, we seem to have forgotten that this

election was stolen just as the previous three were. Don't have the time to dig it out right now, but an interview with yet another group of statisticians indicated that the very same methods were used in this election as in the last three, the difference being that the voters were so overwhelmingly in favor of the Democrats that the fraud was not able to compensate for the lop-sided support.

IIRC, the margin of victory should have been on the order of the 1994 congressional turn-around, but the reich-wing machinations were able to narrow the margin of victory significantly. The interviewee claimed that there should be another twenty-some House seats, and another 4 or 5 Senate seats in Democratic hands, but for the fraud.

So we're really talking about a herd, rather than a single elephant, rampaging through our Republic.

[HuffleClaw]

20. now that i can agree with

not a pretty picture and i guess we know what to expect in 2008

[formercia]

18. They will let the Elephants rampage

until the GOP self-destructs. We will all give a cheer and say "Hooray for our side", meanwhile, the boys will get their one-party state with all of the draconian laws that we can blame the GOP for. Bit by bit they will take over the Democratic Party and get everything they wanted. It's not about Democrats or Republicans, it's about being in control of the Party with the most leverage. Remember, back in the 30's it was the Democrats that were in control and guess what Party Prescott Bush was a member of? What about Roskob and the boys that Smedly Butler talked about? They were members of the Democratic Party.The coup was an inside job.

Until the Cancer is finally excised from the body politic, we will never have democracy and Peace.

They have been dealt a temporary blow but they will go off and nurse their wounds and count their Trillions in loot.

[ToolTex]

24. Ah, you jump out to a higher valence shell, and of course you are correct.

It used to be simple, just look to the intel services, but now these criminals and their international cabals have taken power out of our country's jurisdiction. Do we have to have a world revolution to get a refund for the fraud they have sold us? Giving our toll roads to the Spanish company Cintra for 75 years, indeed! The list of grievances is too long but if we fail to root them out they will rear up again just like the dregs cheney and rumsfield did from Ford's pardon of Nixon. They must be eliminated to their very toenails and last cent in Swiss banks for our grandchildren to experience peace and prosperity.

[formercia]

26. Just giving off my photon

trying to shed some light.

[guruoo]

19. So, whose military will they get to back them? n/t

[Greyhound]

27. Why, ours of course. The amerikan military has never hesitated to turn

it's guns on our citizens when ordered to do so in the past and there is no reason to expect that they will the next time either. We have to just accept that when/if we get serious about taking our nation back, there will be bloodshed, it's the amerikan way.

[guruoo]

28. Three years ago I would have agreed, but now

I believe they'd have a difficult time maintaining
control over it.

[Greyhound]

29. Nah, just look at who makes up the military. We might be deluding ourselves

about how many in the military would object strongly enough to disobey orders and risk being on the other side of the firing line. The military is the last bastion of arbusto's support with over half still guzzling the kool-aid.

[guruoo]

30. I live....

here: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=0&z=11&ll=36.544398,-87.447052&spn=0.201351,0.455933
'nuf said?

[Greyhound]

31. I hope you are right, but don't think so.

Mine is one of the oldest and most dedicated military families in our nation (my father and I are the only males for at least five generations that didn't make a career or become lifers in the military) and I'm told the asshole from CT still has considerable support in the services.

I also look at history and find that there has never once, no matter how egregious the circumstances, been a case of our military failing to follow orders and murder their fellow citizens. Further, there ain't no General Butlers anymore.

[guruoo]

32. Let's just hope we never have the opportunity

to find out who's right about this.

[HuffleClaw]

21. i'd say it depends on a few things

1. the media. likely the key to everything, and sadly, also likely to be the weakest link if recent history is any indication. i can only hope the coming investigations 'snowball' enough so the media can't ignore things.
2. the lengths to which the administration will go to avoid the investigations. if they stonewall as expected, the media will have no choice but to report on it. however, if they pretend to be cooperating...
3. the lengths to which the democrats actually investigate. there's SO much to look at, and not a lot of time to do so, so they'd better pick the juiciest and most sensational stuff. cheney's energy meetings have been mentioned as a possibility. i say it will have to be something the public feels affects them personally.

[Capn Sunshine]

23. Well any time an elephant is about to unburden

It's best to be waering a hooded pocho, metaphorically speaking.

[byronius]

25. I agree. I'll believe it when I see it.

And the day electronic voting is made nonexistent or transparent, and nonpartisan, I'll feel better.