Thursday, September 20, 2007

Senate Democrats to Netroots: F@*# YOU!

Twenty three Senate Democrats today showed that they are cowards and will bend to the slightest threat by the right wing. They all joined every single Republican Senator in censuring MoveOn.org's advertisement in the New York Times. The add, now famously known as the "General Betray Us" ad, asserted that General David Petraeus had a record of carrying the political water of the Bush Administration and that a less than honest assessment of the situation in Iraq was a betrayal of trust.

It's not rocket science. In fact, none of the people attacking MoveOn even bothered to take issue with the facts contained in the advertisement. Not one. I challenge you to prove me wrong.

Instead, one after another, pathetic, cowardly Democrats allowed the not-so-invisible hand of Karl Rove to make them fear that they would yet again, be questioned as to whether or not they support the military. Seriously, HOW MANY TIMES WILL THEY FALL FOR THIS?

Here's the list of cowardly Senators:

Max Baucus, Evan Bayh, Ben Cardin, Tom Carper, Bob Casey, Kent Conrad, Byron Dorgan, Dianne Feinstein, Tim Johnson, Amy Klobuchar, Herb Kohl, Mary Landrieu, Pat Leahy, Joe Lieberman (not that he really counts, anyway), Blanche Lincoln, Claire McCaskill, Barbara Mikulski, Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Mark Pryor, Ken Salazar, Jon Tester, and Jim Webb.

So far in the 110th Congress, the Democrats that the Netroots worked tirelessly on behalf of, has been one disappointment after another. The support they gave this resolution condemning MoveOn is an embarrassment.

MoveOn has done more than anyone else in this country to bring an end to the war. Anyone. (I can already hear the bitching that folks on the Hill will be doing about this statement.) The fact is that all summer long, MoveOn worked with a coalition of organizations throughout the country to target Members of Congress to influence their vote on ending the war.

Meanwhile, the White House ran circles around the Democratic Leadership in the PR game leading up to the conclusion of August recess. In advance of the Petraeus testimony, MoveOn set to frame the expectations in a provocative, fact-based way.

What MoveOn hasn't told you is that the "General Betray-Us" moniker isn't their invention. It's been reported in the British press to be coined by a retired General.

Critics, including one recently retired general, are privately calling him "General Betraeus" on the grounds that he is too ambitious to deliver a balanced report on the war.


But, the Democrats in Congress didn't take the time to look past the baseless finger pointing and elementary name-calling. Instead, they gave in to cowardly instinct and said a big "F@*# YOU" to the millions of Americans who call themselves a part of the Netroots Movement and have worked side by side with MoveOn to end the War.

If the Senate Democrats can't be trusted to stand up to simple attacks like this, there is likely no way they can be trusted to end this War. What are we to do?

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Student asks Kerry tough question, Kerry watches him get tasered; free speech nowhere to be seen

There are so many things wrong with this video that I don't even know where to start.



You can see another video, posted at Daily Kos here that shows the student's full question.

Sure, he ranted and raved just a bit. But, he barely got his 'impolite' question out before the University of Florida Rent-a-Cops started harassing him. If you ask me, more people should rant and rave like this. He's clearly upset that Bush's Administration is clearly ripping the Constitution to threads, edging towards ANOTHER ill-conceived war, and that Kerry could have stopped it if he had forced the issue on the 2004 voter suppression reports.

If more people were this passionate, then we might have a chance at bringing this country back from a state of absolute apathy in the face of corrupt government. This guy made the people in the room feel uncomfortable because of his passion and tough questions.

Because of the uber sensitive environment that George Bush's "free speech zone" society has created, everybody is on edge and thinks that free speech has gone away. I'm not sorry to say that most of America needs a reality check. Serious issues are before us and sober conversation with polite head nodding isn't gonna make anything better.

NEWSFLASH: The government might be spying on you and have suspended habeus corpus, but our right to free speech remains. And that means you can be a nutso, annoying, know-it-all jerk. That student didn't cross any line that put him into illegal territory. Period.

Have you seen the bumper sticker, "If you're not angry, you're not paying attention"? This guy was paying attention and it rubbed some people the wrong way.

Those Rent-a-Cops, unjustified in the initial moments of confrontation, further failed to properly handle the situation. There were FIVE cops there and there's no reason they couldn't remove him from that room and handle it outside of the company of an entire auditorium. Their actions fueled the situation and they should be held accountable for it.

This whole thing makes me sick because it represents a lot of what is wrong with America right now.