A Personal Indictment of the Democrats and our Screwed up Political and Media Systems

My friend Paddy Ryan has a few choice words about the sorry state of our political system. Read it all HERE

I think George Bush and Dick Cheney must have videotape of every Democratic Senator and Congressman (or woman) having sex with animals. I cannot think of anything else that would explain their total cowardice in the face of the slightest threat from the White House.Do you remember the Republicans threatening to use the “nuclear option” to stop the filibuster in the Senate or the Democrats not filibustering the appointment of Roberts as the Supreme Court Chief Justice because they wanted to save that option for when it was really important? What about the Democrats approving the appointment of Mukasey as the new Attorney General even though he wouldn’t give them an opinion about the legality of waterboarding?

Democrats couldn’t bring themselves to filibuster the Military Commissions Act, a piece of slime legislation that forever diminished our standing in the world and did away with habeas corpus.And now Harry Reid is falling over himself to give the telecom companies immunity for spying on us. Why? Supposedly because the telecoms did their patriotic duty, but probably because they are big political donors.

The war on terror (sic) and the threat posed by Al Qaeda or any other number of terrorist groups is trivial compared to our response (but this isn’t meant to trivialize the tragic deaths of anyone killed by terrorist acts). Nothing at all justifies the removal of our civil liberties or the war crimes of Fallejuah. The terror plots heralded in our media are so puerile and pathetic that a bunch of fourth graders could do more damage.

Are these the results of an enemy to be feared to the extent that it provides political cover for everything this administration and its enabling Democrats do? Every year, over 30,000 people die from gun deaths. Where is the war on illegal gun sales and gun shows (where many perpetrators of gun violence obtain their weapons)? Since 1975, more Americans have died from being struck by lightning than terrorist attacks. Where’s the war on lightning?

There’s plenty more and all pretty much right on. Paddy’s from New Zealand, but a real fan of American democracy, or perhaps a former fan of our former rights and freedoms. I join him in lamenting what has happened to us, and urge all of us to do everything we can this year to reverse course and get this great country back on track.