Progressive Politics, Politeness Optional

As I said before, no one is safe from the convenient rationale of security agencies to spy indiscriminately on their own citizens - when we allow them to do so, that is. Of course, and as I discussed previously at length in numerous posts here at APOV (such as here , here or here , as a few exanples), a confluence of attitudes is required for a democracy to arrive at a stage whereby pervasive domestic spying comes to be not only instituted, but furthermore ratified as legal after the fact - despite its illegal nature to begin with. First, you need prevalent incompetence ... Read Full Story

This ignoramus represents what the Republican party is now - a devolution we've witnessed all too well (more examples here , here , here , here , here and here ) during the past U.S. Presidency campaign and which is now fully achieved: Joe the Plumber suggests some members of Congress should be shot On Wednesday, Joe “the Plumber” Wurzelbacher said that if he were in Congress, he would “probably be in jail” because he’d be charged with “ slapping some member .” He added, “And that’s not [bull] either.” ThinkProgress asked Joe at CPAC yesterday which members he would most like to slap. ... Read Full Story

... then let's take a long , hard , look at ourselves in a mirror . As if there was not enough evidence already ... US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites by Mark Danner ICRC Report on the Treatment of Fourteen "High Value Detainees" in CIA Custody by the International Committee of the Red Cross We need to get to the bottom of what happened-and why-so we make sure it never happens again. [1] -Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee 1. We think time and elections will cleanse our fallen world but they will not. Since November, George W. Bush and his ... Read Full Story

... of the 4th and 5th Principles being enacted in full throttle: Fleischer Defends Iraq Invasion: After 9/11, ‘How Could We Take A Chance’ That Saddam Might ‘Strike Again’? Yesterday on MSNBC, former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was back to defend President Bush’s legacy. One of the flack’s favorite subjects is the Iraq war. Last month, he went on CNN and said that Saddam Hussein — not the Bush administration — was actually “ the big liar .” Yesterday he dragged out a long-recycled talking point: Saddam was behind 9/11. He also claimed that President Obama owes Bush a big “thank you”: FLEISCHER: ... Read Full Story

The human rights and war crimes of the Bush administration remain unanswered. These are not allegations being loosely brandied about, but rather backed by serious incriminating evidence - which include various bona fides public confessions to this effect. In Canada, all of these were quietly condoned by our refusal to arrest and charge former President George W. Bush when he came into our country - most likely out of our collective guilt at knowing that our very own security agencies participated, at least by aiding and abetting , in such atrocities. In the U.S.A., the Obama administration has been consistently revealing itself to be ... Read Full Story