The stench of "politics as usual" and the anger from below

[meganmonkey]

Commentary Last Updated: Jan 8th, 2007 - 00:29:01

The stench of "politics as usual" and the anger from below
By Sunsara Taylor
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Jan 8, 2007, 00:21

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The triumph of the new Democratic Congress on their first day and their promises of a "new direction" offered all the refreshment of Lysol dressing up the stench of rotting homes in New Orleans' Ninth Ward, of human waste and blood in the secret C.I.A. torture dungeons, and of the mangled bodies that are being chewed by dogs in the streets of of Baghdad.

Nancy Pelosi's much touted agenda for the first 100 hours of the new Congress made no mention of ending the war on Iraq, repealing the Military Commissions Act which legalizes torture and rips up habeas corpus, rebuilding New Orleans, or -- for all the talk of her chairmanship as a "great advance" for women -- taking on the assault on women's reproductive rights and basic equality.

Throughout their painstakingly choreographed first day in Congress, the horrors that the Democrats are working with the Bush Regime to push out of the public eye and the deep and widespread disgust of millions with these horrors kept bubbling up.

On January 4, millions of readers woke up to articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, New York Post and elsewhere with the exhilarating news of Cindy Sheehan seizing the microphone after Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emmanuel fled the disruption of his press conference by anti-war protesters. Emmanuel's smug arrogance about his "success" in turning the Democratic Party into one that is even less distinguishable from the Republicans -- by recruiting pro-war, anti-abortion, anti-gay candidates -- was challenged before his new Congress was even sworn in.

At noon, just as Nancy "impeachment-off-the-table" Pelosi was being sworn in as speaker of the House, hundreds gathered near the capitol beneath a banner that read: "Impeach George Bush for War Crimes." Several dozen people crouched in the bright orange jumpsuits that are the signature of Guantanamo detainees with black hoods over their heads. They were a living portrait of some of the Bush Regimes' crimes against humanity: the illegal detention and torture that this regime has institutionalized and that this Congress won't even speak about.

---snip---

One very interesting thing about this program was the discussion that followed my appearance. O'Reilly's next guest, Dick Morris, a high level bourgeois political operative, challenged how O'Reilly dismissed me and the protesters as just a small group. "It's huge, it's not 50 or 60, its tens of millions," Morris said, "Just as in the 1960s the Vietnam movement was critical of its own Democratic Party for supporting the war and for not opposing it vigorously enough. You're going to see the Howard Dean element of the Democratic Party increasingly breaking away from the Pelosi mainstream of the party . . . The Democrats are determined to stay away from the two issues that got them elected: opposing the tax cuts and the Iraq war . . . There's a fissure happening . . . and that lunatic, as you called her . . . is not alone."

O'Reilly again tried insisting that we are merely "a pressure group." He said, "They're not wide, they can't mobilize a lot of people because people understand that the United States would be much better off if we did win in Iraq." And Morris replied, "I'll bet they could put two million people in the streets of Washington."

The truth of how widespread opposition to the Bush program was apparent in the response our protests got all day long. It was even apparent when I stepped into the car that Fox News had provided for me. The driver, after hearing about my appearance, blurted out, "Bill O'Reilly is the lunatic! And George Bush doesn't need to be impeached. He needs to be thrown in jail!"

Will the resisters who sprung up all over D.C. and who represent the will and the interests of millions of people in this country and more around the world persevere and step up their challenge to this regime -– and also challenge all those who would sit back and be complicit in the tremendous crimes being committed? Will all this gain in momentum and determination to create a situation where the refusal of those in power to reverse this direction is responded to by greater outbreaks of political struggle, rather than passive acceptance and demoralization? Or will the people be lulled by the false sense of victory that comes from this reactionary Democratic Congress? Will people's hopes, energies, resources and principles be sucked into the killing confines of the 2008 elections which have already kicked into gear and are not challenging in any fundamental way the whole direction and package of the Bush regime? There is a huge choice and challenge before us -- and what we do, and win others to do, will matter immensely.

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publ...cle_1611.shtml

[acmejack]

I got chills when I read about the driver talking to her! Everyone, everyone that makes less than $50,000 as it said, is against the order of things as they are now, it seems. The people do know the truth, except for those caught up in the throes of religious zealotry. There was a terrific piece in yesterday's Salon on the Christian Right, worth a Day Pass:)

Sunsara does so good staying on message, I would get pissed off and tell O'Reilly where to go & how to get there!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

electoral rout of the Republicans was a PLEA from the ordinary people of this country to reject what has become "business as usual" since the Reagan era.

If they don't get off their butts and take some radical action, the voters will reject THEM, too (which will bring out the DLC types, who will blame the Dems for being "too far left").

[spacebuddy008]

[h2]we don't need no stinkin' FACTS[/h2]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCbROIyY10w

[Tinoire]

Funny... YouTube won't allow you to rate this video but you can favorite it which I think affects the honors category. Title is "0'R3illy calls peace activist 'lunatic'"

On edit... Sunsara Taylor

O'Reilly: Miss Taylor, according to you all of our Congress people are corrupt...

Sunsara Taylor: They're complicit

O'Reilly: They're all complicit, they're all corrupt


Thanks Sunsara for using that word complicit

[spacebuddy008]

http://www.oneplanetonenation.com/ar...hletter_sm.jpg
Tinoire?
http://www.gopusa.com/images/tab_get_the_news.gif

you refer to her in the "formal"
calling her by her beautiful first name.

yes, she was wonderful...
she holds her composure, well

when O'R3illy tries to insult her, "tag" her
she is unflustered!
http://p-images.veoh.com/image.out?i....jpg&version=2
I love the rolling eyes, her eyes get bigger..
to yea..'I note that ad-hom attack'
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/...ZZZ_SL120_.jpg
Bills'shit just doesn't stick,
she remarks in her cab how someone congratulates her,
here it is!
Sunsara rePorts:
The truth of how widespread opposition to the Bush program was apparent in the response our protests got all day long. It was even apparent when I stepped into the car that Fox News had provided for me. The driver, after hearing about my appearance, blurted out, "Bill O'Reilly is the lunatic! And George Bush doesn't need to be impeached. He needs to be thrown in jail!"
http://www.sabah.com.tr/2006/04/24/i...2938CEEF9b.jpg http://upload.democraticunderground....s/judaism2.gif http://www.grindstaffchronicles.com/images/sample2.jpg

incidentally, in her article she calls these threats
and they are threats, 'lunatic', 'crazy'...when he calls her this she gets a lump in-her-throat

from the video Psychology: The Death Industry

-more people have died, since 1940 in state psychiatric institutions and
from "the doctors" pills..neuro-toxin medications-

than in all their wars, over the same period

so yea it is a threat, no idle chatter, if whores of the Man
like O'Really,..don't like what your saying, or the fact One
may make them think, or consider objective facts, they
and like protesters have already experienced,--are deeemed "crazy" and do get sent for psychiatric questioning...

pointing out bad deeds is so lunatic while doing them or
being an apologist for them is fine, dandy darnright respectable, just because They say-so... http://assets.progopgear.com/images/...ite-button.gif LOL.

Have you met her?..
she is good looking...:heart:
intelligent....
those glasses, wo
energy...
passion...
Yowww **********w


;)


http://www.debka-net-weekly.com/pics/20040721120935.jpg
http://upload.democraticunderground....s/judaism2.gif :scared:
http://www.spokesmanreview.com/stori...3/a1501927.jpg