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« Liberal Outrage: April 2007 | Main | Liberal Outrage: June 2007 » Liberal OutrageQualifiers Headline: Home sales soar by record level . First sentence of article: By fnord12 | May 24, 2007, 11:55 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link Link: Few men or women elected in our history - whether executive or legislative, state or national - have been sent into office with a mandate more obvious, nor instructions more clear: Get us out of Iraq. Yet after six months of preparation and execution - half a year gathering the strands of public support; translating into action, the collective will of the nearly 70 percent of Americans who reject this War of Lies, the Democrats have managed only this: You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions - Stop The War - have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you... for a handful of magic beans. You may trot out every political cliché from the soft-soap, inside-the-beltway dictionary of boilerplate sound bites, about how this is the "beginning of the end” of Mr. Bush's "carte blanche" in Iraq, about how this is a "first step." Well, Senator Reid, the only end at its beginning... is our collective hope that you and your colleagues would do what is right, what is essential, what you were each elected and re-elected to do. Because this "first step"... is a step right off a cliff. And this President! And yet when faced with the prospect of someone calling you on your stubbornness - your stubbornness which has cost 3,431 Americans their lives and thousands more their limbs - you, Mr. Bush, imply that if the Democrats don't give you the money and give it to you entirely on your terms, the troops in Iraq will be stranded, or forced to serve longer, or have to throw bullets at the enemy with their bare hands. How transcendentally, how historically, pathetic. Any other president from any other moment in the panorama of our history would have, at the outset of this tawdry game of political chicken, declared that no matter what the other political side did, he would insure personally - first, last and always - that the troops would not suffer. Well, any true President would have done that, Sir. You instead, used our troops as political pawns, then blamed the Democrats when you did so. Not that these Democrats, who had this country's support and sympathy up until 48 hours ago, have not since earned all the blame they can carry home. "We seem to be very near the bleak choice between war and shame," Winston Churchill wrote to Lord Moyne in the days after the British signed the Munich accords with Germany in 1938. "My feeling is that we shall choose shame, and then have war thrown in, a little later..." That's what this is for the Democrats, isn't it? Their "Neville Chamberlain moment" before the Second World War. The Democrats have merely streamlined the process. And where are the Democratic presidential hopefuls this evening? Judging these candidates based on how they voted on the original Iraq authorization, or waiting for apologies for those votes, is ancient history now. The Democratic nomination is likely to be decided... tomorrow. The talk of practical politics, the buying into of the President's dishonest construction "fund-the-troops-or-they-will-be-in-jeopardy," the promise of tougher action in September, is falling not on deaf ears, but rather falling on Americans who already told you what to do, and now perceive your ears as closed to practical politics. Those who seek the Democratic nomination need to - for their own political futures and, with a thousand times more solemnity and importance, for the individual futures of our troops - denounce this betrayal, vote against it, and, if need be, unseat Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi if they continue down this path of guilty, fatal acquiescence to the tragically misguided will of a monomaniacal president. For, ultimately, at this hour, the entire government has failed us. Mr. Reid, Mr. Hoyer, and the other Democrats... have failed us. They negotiated away that which they did not own, but had only been entrusted by us to protect: our collective will as the citizens of this country, that this brazen War of Lies be ended as rapidly and safely as possible. Mr. Bush and his government... have failed us. They must now speak, and make plain how they view what has been given away to Mr. Bush, and what is yet to be given away tomorrow, and in the thousand tomorrows to come. Because for the next fourteen months, the Democratic nominating process - indeed the whole of our political discourse until further notice - has, with the stroke of a cursed pen, become about one thing, and one thing alone. The electorate figured this out, six months ago. Our politics... is now about the answer to one briefly-worded question. While i'd have included the deaths on the side of Iraqi civilians as well as the US troops, and while i think references to Neville Chamberlain are overused at this point (although this is used deliberately in a different context than it has been these past few years), i strongly agree with these sentiments. However, while i was originally ready to give up on the Dems entirely, this post by Kos made me rethink that a bit: I've got to say, of all the things that get me down about this job, there's nothing worse than the people who want to quit the game and take their ball home every time we face a setback. It's as if every word I've ever written about this being a long-term battle means zero. As if it's instant gratification or nothing. It's not about supporting these Democrats. It's about trying to turn the Democratic party into something that i would be proud to support. By fnord12 | May 24, 2007, 9:49 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link Eventually I was seeing my local Verizon repair guy, who was repeatedly being summoned to my home to restore service, more often than my best friend. So I was naturally suspicious when I caught an unfamiliar man, no uniform or badge, fiddling with the posts in my building's phone box. "Who are you and what are you doing?" I demanded. The dude knocked me down and bolted out a door into an alley. Giving chase, I watched him drive off an unmarked white van with U.S. government plates. By fnord12 | May 23, 2007, 11:42 AM | Comics & Liberal Outrage | Link The Democratic "leadership" has wimped out already, agreeing to remove timelines from the Iraq funding bill. I don't know why they would "compromise" with a man with approval ratings in the low 30s who is moving forward with an unpopular war, but i bet they think they were being strategic and trying to not look like hardliners. Here's how that "strategy" has been perceived: Democrats Retreat in Funding Showdown Bush Wins Congressional Battle Over Iraq Democrats Concede. Democrats Retreat. Bush Wins. And that's not even covering the many stories on how the Democrats "caved in" or "blinked." Yes, that's exactly the kind of news everyone was looking for after 2006. I think we were all hoping for headlines just like these. There are a few stories out there about how Democrats need to explain this position to "liberals," that being the 70% of the public who wants out of Iraq. I can answer that one quickly: don't bother. Despite the failure of our "leaders", its still possible to reject this by getting the rank and file Democratic congress people to vote against the watered down bill. If you care, you can call or email your representative and tell them you don't support removing the timelines and that they should vote no. By fnord12 | May 23, 2007, 11:16 AM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (2)| Link TPM: "You ignored the subpoena, did not come forward today, did not produce the documents and did not even offer an explanation for your noncompliance," the senators wrote in a lettter to Alberto Gonzales today. "Your action today is in defiance of the Committee's subpoena without explanation of any legal basis for doing so." You can read the letter here. The senators set a new deadline, this Friday at May 18, 10 AM. If the Justice Department does not respond to the subpoena, the senators ask that they at least explain why they're not responding "so that the Chairman and the Committee can assess any objections to the subpoena or privileges claimed by the Department." C'mon guys! At least give us a reason why you're ignoring us so we can pretend we still have some dignity. By fnord12 | May 16, 2007, 4:08 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (1)| Link Jerry Falwell died. If God does exist, Falwell's in for a shock. As if not being able to bring his money with him in death wasn't enough to depress him. By min | May 15, 2007, 2:53 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link Spored sent me this link yesterday. Teachers staged a mock gun attack on 11 year olds during a week long class trip. Needless to say, the children and their parents aren't thrilled about this. The kids pretty much thought they were all going to die. I bet the bill for the therapy is going to be really big. Morons. On the other hand, this teaches kids to fear life and people and really, i'm down with that. By min | May 15, 2007, 10:39 AM | Liberal Outrage | Link If you're rich and you do crime, you can do time at the "nice prison" for a small fee: This is part of a larger op-ed about how taxes actually serve a purpose and Republican 'reduce taxes and increase spending' policies are destroying our society. ...come to think of it, here at work i have a regular door, an ipod, and a laptop. By fnord12 | May 14, 2007, 4:24 PM | Liberal Outrage | Comments (1)| Link Listen to this guy try to say "I'd like the person with the banner to leave the room." By fnord12 | May 14, 2007, 1:17 PM | Liberal Outrage | Link "There is something deranged about you... The excessive concern you have for ferrets is something you should examine with a therapist... There is something really, really very sad about you... This excessive concern with little weasels is a sickness...You should go consult a psychologist... Your compulsion about - your excessive concern with it is a sign that there is something wrong in your personality...You have a sickness, and I know it's hard for you to accept that...You need help." - Rudolph Giuliani By fnord12 | May 2, 2007, 11:27 AM | Liberal Outrage
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