83% Think We're Headed The Wrong Way Yet Congress Gives Bush Everything

What the hell is going on here! 83% of Americans think things are going to hell in a handbasket and yet CONgress totally capitulated to a lame duck president on the FISA issue and war funding. AND they took impeachment off of the table with no reasonable explanation despite all of the evidence to support it. At least the Supreme Court threw us a bone with their recent ruling on Habeas Corpus. But from our elected officials - nothing. From our citizens - nothing. No protests. No petitions. Nothing.

It seems the entire nation is in a stupor of apathy. It's like mass mind control. I'm not kidding. Are we all so bombarded and overwhelmed with one bad news story after the other that our judgment has been affected? How much is enough? I swear if it wasn't for blogs and sites like ATS, you wouldn't know anyone was even bothered by any of it. I mean really, how many of you discuss these topics with your friends or family? How many of you push for change beyond your keyboard? We are being corralled into the free speech zone of the internet so as not to take it to the streets.

Is Bush (or someone else) extorting or blackmailing Pelosi and Reid? Even Obama has let me down. He is totally MIA on this latest issue. He is missing a huge opportunity to stand up for our civil liberties.

www.thenation.com...

Democratic leaders in Congress are poised to grant new spying powers to President Bush and arrange retroactive amnesty for telecommunications companies accused of illegal surveillance, according to a deal announced Thursday evening. Today's New York Times describes the legislation, which the House could vote on today, as "the most significant revision of surveillance law in 30 years" and a "major victory" for the lame duck president. If passed, the bill would constitute the largest capitulation by Democratic leaders since winning control of Congress, an especially striking setback as Democratic voters rally around a presidential nominee who has flatly opposed Bush's spying policies -- and repeatedly promised to challenge the corruption, doubletalk and "politics of fear" that rule Washington.

Yet Barack Obama has been mostly silent as the House caved into White House demands for more surveillance power this week. He has advocated civil liberties and accountability during previous clashes over surveillance, voting against a White House spying bill in August, but Obama has sidestepped the issue this week, despite pleas from supporters. "If Obama remains missing much longer, it may be necessary to issue an Amber Alert for him," wrote Glenn Greenwald, an attorney and Salon blogger who rallied activists to raise over $115,000 in two days to run primaries against Democratic incumbents who undermine the rule of law.

[edit on 20/6/2008 by kosmicjack]

I have given this a lot of thought and come up with only one theory that encompasses the whole debacle.

Congressional leaders are complicit in the dereliction of their duty and oaths of office to protect the Constitution, and if they object they would inevitably have to incriminate themselves for allowing this to happen. The 'artifact' of the Iraqi threat was implemented by the political parties themselves, at the party level.

Why they did it is up for grabs. How they did it is plain to see.

KJ if you read the 3rd (or so) comment in the list of commentaries you will find that someone contacted Obama's campaign and received this message:

"We hear you loud and clear. The staff are literally reviewing the FISA issue as we speak. You'll be hearing from us soon."

This doesn't sound like an Obama MIA issue at all, as this is still in the House and the Senate has yet to weigh in.

It also has an update on this issue on Salon, saying the same thing. So there you have it, 2 sources for evidence.

Maxmars: Agreed. I've thought the same thing for quite awhile, they're all crooks and don't want to incriminate themselves.

KJ: The behavior you describe on the part of U.S. citizens and apathy, I think is correct. I would further submit that we are all suffering from at least some PTSD and/or Stockholm Syndrome. Apathy and sleep-walking are but 2 symptoms of these disorders. Feeling helpless is very much a Stockholm Syndrome symptom. Anyway, that's my explanation.

reply to post by endrun



You know that really does sound like a possiblity - Stockholm Syndrome. We are all held hostage by corporations, greedy politicans and beaurocracy.

Its time to get a huge group of people together, about a million, march
to the capitol and throw out the president and congress ourselves.

So what to do? The task seems daunting. Maybe we need a primer:

Challenging Authority

First a definition of power in the abstract. Piven notes the "widely held thesis that (it's) based on control of wealth and force" - big landowners over peasants, rich over poor, armies over civilians, and so forth. However, it's not always the case, and "history is dotted" with examples of "people without wealth or coercive resources....exercis(ing) power, at least for a time."

She notes how societies organize through cooperation and interdependence, but disparate interests at times conflict. While workers depend on management for jobs, managers, in turn, need a work force to produce. If labor is withheld, production halts. Both sides have leverage. Either one can activate it. Piven calls the "activation of interdependent power 'disruption.' " It's a power strategy based on "withdrawing cooperation in social relations." Protest movements "mobilize disruptive power." They achieve leverage by breaking down "institutionally regulated cooperation" as in strikes, boycotts or riots.

At these times, ordinary people (potentially) have enormous power - "their ability to disrupt institutionalized cooperation that depends on their continuing contributions." Key is that great reforms in history have been "responses to the threatened (or use of) disruptive power." In the US, it achieved representative government, ending slavery, the right to organize, social welfare and civil rights. Grassroots bottom-up "disruptive power" produced them.

But it takes more than marches, rallies, slogans, shouting or even violence. It's also too simplistic to think power from below is there for the taking. Actualizing power depends on the ability to withhold cooperation. But it's not "actionable" until certain problems are solved:

-- recognizing interdependence and the potential power from below such as workers withholding their labor or wives their domestic services;

-- the necessity of people breaking rules; rules are power strategies; they allow some people to dominate others, establish property rights, become law, and so forth;

-- individuals must coordinate their disruptive power for strategic advantage;

-- they must overcome constraints of an entire matrix of social relations; examples are the influence of family ties or the threat of religious excommunication;

-- disruptive power must be sustained, cooperation withheld, and be able to withstand whatever reprisals occur; and

-- the determination to stay the course in the wake of threats and uncertainty - employers who may hire scabs or relocate their plants and facilities.

Nothing worthwhile is easy.

Well this only tells who is in power in this nation, looks to me that from the president to the congress they all nothing more than clowns serving their masters.

They are all up to their necks in corruption, as they are selling themselves to the lobbyist in this nation and foreign ones.

To come out and speak up means to expose themselves to how corrupted they are.

We are truly in big trouble in this nation as our government doesn't work for us anymore.

Maybe this is why the approval rating for the Democrat controlled congress is lower than the president's...

Originally posted by marg6043
Well this only tells who is in power in this nation, looks to me that from the president to the congress they all nothing more than clowns serving their masters.

Starred..

Does anyone honestly believe Bush 'asks' for anything?seriously?...

When you look at the guy do you really think he goes home and ponders.
"You know what these folks need?"

He's a chimp..a puppet.. a public face to aim the criticism of decisions made by people you will never even see.

This isn't an attack on Bush.. It's ALL politicians..