Who Are These people?

Okay, so Bush's numbers are diminishing nicely pretty much as expected, at least over the long term. He's lost the independent camp, again as expected, as the "we'll give you the benefit of the doubt" folks have gotten pretty well fed up with the three-card monte game BushCo relentlessly plays with the truth.

Without the independents, Bush in particular and the repubs in general, are toast.

The Democrat numbers are as expected, but even though the repub numbers have fallen (by 13 points since March 2005 according to a recent Fox News Poll), approval among Republicans is still a significant 74%.

Ever since the global and economic boredom of the Clinton era ended on 9/11/01 (budget surplus, National Guard and Reserve personnel wearing suits and dresses), one has struggled over the stark disparity in world view between the majority of Republicans and, as of now, mostly everyone else... on the planet.

Given that the facts are exasperatingly obvious for all to see, how can so many people still remain dedicated to this train wreck of an administration? One is tempted to lump them all into one lock-stepping category as they are mostly represented by one bar on the graph. However, we all know Bush supporters. We're related to them (sigh), work with them, live next door to them and for the most part they pretty much all bend their knees when they march, no? So what gives? So many have just thrown up their hands and given up ignoring the elephant in the living room. What's with everyone else?

Succumbing to the habit of categorizing people, I've come up with three groups who are all snugly between the sheets: The Blind Faithers, Willful Ignorants and FDA's.

Blind Faithers: Even though the likes of Jefferson, Madison, et al, warned us quite plainly that trusting political leaders is the greatest threat to the republic, many people find it difficult to not believe in others best intentions even when there isn't a best intention in sight. There is a certain degree of skepticism necessary in the maintenance of a liberal democracy. One must always bear in mind that power does indeed corrupt and that those who tend to desire positions of power usually exhibit behaviors we don't tolerate in children. Remain vigilant, the Founders warned, not of foreign threats, but of our own very human and historically evident tendencies.

Part of the problem with this group is the Myth of America, the symbols and slogans and songs and Superman standing, in black and white, before a dramatically waving Old Glory to a soundtrack of "Truth, Justice and the American way." We don't repeat the mistakes of the past. It could never happen here. We're us. We're better.

But this is a subtle mindset, unwilling to actually admit that we are somehow morally superior to everyone else. There is something arrogant about such an admission, no? Something dangerous. But it's there, and it's magical and it allows one to let go of responsibility in the knowledge that, because he is an American who constantly invokes democratic vocabulary, George Bush is a trustworthy man.

Willful Ignorants: The demarcation between Blind Faithers and Willful Ignorants can be fuzzy. Indeed, one imagines that being willfully ignorant helps maintain blind faith. However, there are those who just don't have much of a clue as to what's going on and are more than willing to let whoever the hell is in charge take care of things. Again, the Founders maintained that in order for the republic to survive, the electorate had to be well informed (as opposed to Fox informed). When the wolf arrives at their own door, of course, they start whistling a different tune.

One assumes the shifting numbers contain reformed Willful Ignorants.

FDA's: As hard as I tried I just couldn't come up with a label that was more viscerally satisfying than this one. But as it is rather crude I will just say that the 'D' stands for 'Dangerous' and leave the 'F' and the 'A' up to your imagination.

You may not know one personally, but they are out there and their knees don't bend when they march. These add the monolithic, dogmatic, "or else" flavor to the Republican stew. Their enemy isn't our enemy. Their enemy isn't terrorism or terrorists. Their enemy is us. These are the folks the left is talking about when they raise the cry of fascism. These are the folks who use the word 'treason' for anyone who dares say something outside the hive mind. They are rhetorically violent and feed those within their ranks who would be more than willing to be physically violent. Make no mistake, they are the Beast. They represent that human element that touches down on earth occasionally to everyone's horror. It's visited Germany. It's visited Rwanda. As any Native American can tell you, it's visited the United States.

The FDA's are bubbling in America. They are threatening the lives of judges including Supreme Court Justices (see below). They refer to any opposition in dehumanizing terms... They've turned 'liberal' into a dehumanizing term. They fill the American ear with bile through talk shows. They sell out auditoriums where they can hear the likes of Ann Coulter 'joke' about assassinating a former president or poisoning a Supreme Court judge, who once proclaimed she "never had much use for the First Amendment."

After all the Blind Faithers and Willful Ignorants finally give it up and desert George Bush, the FDA's will remain staunchly behind him. They are the Bush Administrations true base. George Bush's al qaida.

What amazes me, is that the Blind Faithers and Willful Ignorants can be so blind and so ignorant about who they're sharing their bed with.

Cheers,
Clemsy





QUOTES OF THE WEEK:

State Dept. Report: Democracy No Guarantee of Human Rights
Just a wide choice of breakfast cereals. ~Ironic Times

Soon after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, lawyers in the White House and the Justice Department argued that the same the same legal authority that allowed warrentless electronic surveillance inside the US, could also be used to justify physical searches of terror suspects homes & businesses without court approval. ~U.S. News & World Report

In actuality, the supposed "culture of life" is a culture of disease and death. ~Jeffrey Hart

It's always been a civil war. ~John F. Burns, NY Times Baghdad Bureau Chief

The American people need to wake up now, the evidence is all there. Our president and vice president have started a war of aggression defined by Nuremberg as a supreme international crime. ~Ray McGovern

The nation's three worst counties for child poverty at the time of the last census were all in South Dakota, according to the Children's Defense Fund. Buffalo County, home to the Crow Creek Indian Reservation, was dead last. ~Washington Post (i.e. pro-life concern ends at birth)

You cannot win against an insurgency that springs from the population. There's never been an insurgency that doesn't prevail against a mighty power. ~Jack Valenti, former special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson

How much reform can you do simultaneously with fighting a war? ~Henry Kissinger

It's time for some straight talk about John McCain. He isn't a moderate. He's much less of a maverick than you'd think. And he isn't the straight talker he claims to be. ~Paul Krugman

Senator Russ Feingold is an embarrassment to the US Senate, which makes him an authentic hero of the Republic. ~William Greider

I canÂ’t see a damn soul in D.C. except Russ Feingold who is even worth considering for President. The rest of them seem to me so poisonously in hock to this system of legalized bribery they canÂ’t even see straight. ~Molly Ivins

I'm amazed at Democrats, cowering with this president's numbers so low. The administration just has to raise the specter of the war and the Democrats run and hide... Too many Democrats are going to do the same thing they did in 2000 and 2004. In the face of this, they'll say we'd better just focus on domestic issues... ~Russ Feingold

We have an out-of-control President whose arrogant and, now, illegal behavior is running our country into the ditch. It's time to rein him in. ~Sen. Tom Harkin (Way past time, Senator.)

You cannot in my opinion just impose a democratic form of government on a country with no history and no culture and no tradition of democracy. ~Sen. Chuck Hagel (R)


QUOTES FROM THE HIVE MIND

I had the impression that indicating lack of support for our commander in chief--as congressional Republicans did so conspicuously, and appropriately, during the 1999 Kosovo war--was a constitutional right and sometimes a patriotic duty. ~Steve Chapman

Some of the most powerful IEDs we're seeing in Iraq today includes components that came from Iran. ~George Bush

With respect to people, it's very difficult to tie a thread precisely to the government of Iran. ~Donald Rumsfeld

I do not, sir. ~Marine Corps Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, when asked "whether the United States has proof that Iran's government was behind these developments." LINK

The president believes in open government, and that the presumption ought to be on providing citizens with as much information as possible about their government. ~Scott McClellan (Liar.)


PICKS OF THE WEEK:

Right-Wing Blocks Funding For Port Security, Disaster Preparedness

I kid you not. Read this little ditty from Think Progress. Money for 'Missile Defense' was deemed important. Lots and lots of money.

A Peculiar Politician

Senator Russ Feingold is an embarrassment to the US Senate, which makes him an authentic hero of the Republic. The Wisconsin senator gets up and says out loud what half of the country is thinking and talks about every day. This President broke the law and lied about it; he trashed the Constitution and hides himself in the flag. Feingold asks: Shouldn't the Senate say something about this, at least express our disapproval? He introduces a resolution of censure and calls for debate.

Dictatorship is the danger

A Reagan-appointed supreme court justice voices her fears over attacks on US democracy

He's a right-wing ideologue, not a true conservative By Jeffrey Hart, former speechwriter for presidents Reagan and Nixon

WILLIAM F. Buckley Jr. has defined conservatism as "the politics of reality." Ideology is the enemy of conservatism because it edits, omits or ignores reality. George W. Bush is an ideologue.

Dash to Baghdad Left Top U.S. Generals Divided

The war was barely a week old when Gen. Tommy R. Franks threatened to fire the Army's field commander. (Incompetence defined.)

W.'s Mixed Messages by Maureen Dowd

Homeland Security's protection of the ports is a joke. The goof-off Michael Chertoff is remarkably still in charge. The swaggering of the president and vice president on national security has been exposed as a sham, with millions spent shoring up our defenses wasted, with the Iraq war aggravating our danger, and with anti-Muslim feeling swelling among Americans and anti-American feeling swelling among Muslims.


HEADLINES

House OKs birth control funding ban

The Missouri House voted Wednesday to ban state funding of contraceptives for low-income women and to prohibit state-funded programs from referring those women to other programs. (If the poor stop having babies will the rich cease to get richer?)

Rallies Mark Third Anniversary of Iraq War

Thousands of anti-war protesters marched in Australia, Turkey and Asian countries at the start of global demonstrations Saturday, as campaigners marked the third anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq with a demand that coalition troops pull out.

32 US Reps Want Bush Impeachment Inquiry

32 US House Representatives have signed on as sponsors or co-sponsors of H. Res 635, which would create a Select Committee to look into the grounds for recommending President BushÂ’s impeachment, Atlanta Progressive News has learned.

Bush Approval Falls to 33%, Congress Earns Rare Praise

In the aftermath of the Dubai ports deal, President Bush's approval rating has hit a new low and his image for honesty and effectiveness has been damaged. Yet the public uncharacteristically has good things to say about the role that Congress played in this high-profile Washington controversy.

Supreme Court Justice Reveals Death Threats

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor have been the targets of death threats from the "irrational fringe" of society, people apparently spurred by Republican criticism of the high court.

Security Clearance Rules May Impede Gays

The Bush administration last year quietly rewrote the rules for allowing gays and lesbians to receive national-security clearances, drawing complaints from civil rights activists.

Washington Considering 'Pharmacist Refusal' Proposal

Pharmacists who object to Plan B want to be able to deny filling a prescription on moral, ethical or religious beliefs.

Iraq drives Bush's rating to new low

Growing dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq has driven President Bush's approval rating to a new low of 36 percent, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Monday.

Polls: Public Worried About Gov't Secrecy

Two new polls gauging Americans' views on government openness found a majority believe the federal government leans more toward secrecy than openness, while eight in 10 are convinced that an open government is necessary for an effective democracy.


BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING

Police Memos Say Arrest Tactics Calmed Protest

In five internal reports made public yesterday as part of a lawsuit, New York City police commanders candidly discuss how they had successfully used "proactive arrests," covert surveillance and psychological tactics at political demonstrations in 2002, and recommend that those approaches be employed at future gatherings.

FBI spied on Pittsburgh pacifists, papers show

FBI anti-terrorism agents spied on a peace group simply because it opposed the Iraq war, part of an "unprecedented campaign" to spy on innocent citizens, the American Civil Liberties Union said on Tuesday.


OCCUPATION: IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN

U.S., Iraqi troops press sweep in Operation Swarmer

U.S. and Iraqi troops pressed their sweep through a 100-square-mile swath of central Iraq on Friday in a bid to break up a center of insurgent resistance, the U.S. military said. No resistance or casualties were reported. (Military operation or PR stunt?)

Iraq Edges Closer to Open Civil Warfare

Iraqi authorities discovered at least 87 corpses _ men shot to death execution-style _ as Iraq edged closer to open civil warfare. Twenty-nine of the bodies, dressed only in underwear, were dug out of a single grave Tuesday in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad.

Baghdad Police Find 65 Bodies in 24 Hours

Police found at least 65 bodies in Baghdad in the past 24 hours, including 15 men bound and shot in an abandoned minibus, in a gruesome wave of apparent sectarian reprisal attacks, officials said Tuesday.

Death squads operated from inside Iraqi government, officials say

Senior Iraqi officials Sunday confirmed for the first time that death squads composed of government employees had operated illegally from inside two government ministries.

At least 40 die in Shia ‘safe zone’ in Baghdad

More than 40 people died in BaghdadÂ’s main Shia area on Sunday after a number of bombs and mortar strikes that seemed designed to follow up on last monthÂ’s bombing of a Shia shrine and provoke civil war.


OPINION

The Right's Man by Paul Krugman

The bottom line is that Mr. McCain isn't a moderate; he's a man of the hard right. How far right? A statistical analysis of Mr. McCain's recent voting record, available at www.voteview.com, ranks him as the Senate's third most conservative member.

A blank check for snoops

LIKE THE CAVALRY RUSHING to the aid of the wrong troops, four Republican senators who had earlier declared battle against the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping have now proposed to give the surveillance program five years of near-bulletproof protection.