Did you know that Ms. Taylor is a confirmed Communist. Really. Now that’s funny. A commies trying to school this country on it’s policies when she believes in the same ideaology as Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Marx, and Castro. People who themselves killed millions, destroyed lives, and brought disaster and woe to this globe for the past 80+ years. She wants this country to be molded into the Soviet Russia of 1917. She would like to see people in line waiting for bread. No freedom of expression. No freedom of choice. This is not China or North Korea lady. America won’t fall for your RED talking points. RED DAWN RULES!!!

Commies hate RED DAWN. Commies hate RED DAWN. Commies hate RED DAWN. RED DAWN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

you lady are stupid

bush = help

dem.’s are feeding u bull

u retarded…

Hey traitors… get with the program and support our troops.  All you are doing is making people like me become right wing activists.

What is sad is that you are anti-America, which I like many others find appalling.  Everything you write about is anti-military, or anti-America, or anti-government, or well you get the point.

What about all the good things that are going on?  I have several regular Army friends of mine doing an awesome job in Iraq and elsewhere.  Be proud of America or please leave.  Man, I wish you would just pack it up and go to a place that you feel is doing better.

I have been all over this world and America is by far the best country.  Again, get with the program.

You like to talk about how you put people on the ropes, like Bill OReiley whne you are on his show, or anyone esle you supposedly “debate”. I put it in quotes becuase it’s really a joke. You don’t debate miss taylor, you talk constantly so that the other person can not talk or debate you. You constantly interupt and talk over ther person trying to have a discussion with you. It’s a liberal way nutty left whacko tactic used to “stick it” to whom ever you are “debating”. If they can’t get aword in then “ yea I told them”. People are right. You are a nut job and noone takes you or your ilk or your ridiculous “movement” seriously. Just because 100 too 100,000 of you show up to protest the war and throw out hate speach of the troops and anything that differes from you, doesn not mean that the American people agree with your rhetoric. You are a small minute after thought for the american people. Get over it. Vietnam is dead. The 70’s are dead. Nut job.

Nope.  Each striker would have to be transported to DC, busses packing them in, and fanning out to pack in more behind them, until there is such a huge mass of humanity there that the streets are packed in the surrounding states.
And, each person must be repeating just ONE word:  LEAVE!

Ms. Taylor’s essay is the most insightful, gut-truthful article that has been on the table since Bush, Inc. took office.  Let me amend that statement: since he twice stole the presidency.

I am a disabled elder who, since voting age has done as much background study of whomever it was that aspired to lead our beloved country as possible.  What I learned about GW Bush was enough to fill many horror books.  Today, I can neither look at him or listen to him when he appears on TV.

Bush Inc. should have been ousted when it was learned that his war on Iraq was a set-up.  He should be doing hard time like all the other murderers in the country, yet, he is left to barrel full-bore into one disaster after another.  I no longer wonder about our congressman.  But for a pitiful few, they’re all there to get every dirty buck from any special interest group that buys them further license to rob the people.  I can only believe that democrats are the lesser of the evils.

GW Bush s running a criminal regime that would see us freeze to death in the winters.  As I write, there are young people in my community that cannot afford to drive their vehicles to work and back!  He owes these price gougers too much to put an end to it!  The fact that he ignored Louisana’s plea for help in shorring up their levees prior to Katrina and has done little for the homeless left by the hurricane paints a grim picture of what he would not do to bring down the price of home heating oil and gasoline!

Everyone I know is dismayed with Bush’s lack of respect for the average American.  Ms. Taylor is right, we feel helpless, like a bunch of sheep cornered by the big bad wolf.  The Bush criminal empire reaches too far, too wide among those put in Washington to do the will of the people.

More than any president in history, he has made a mockery of our constitution.  Every time he thinks he may be called to answer for one of his crimes, he calls for a new amendment to cover it!  Richard Nxon was a choir boy in comparrison!

America can only survive by getting rid of Bush and all who serve him.  I hope and pray that Oct. 5th., 2006 will shine a new light upon our country and what it needs to meet the future.  As it stands, the legacy we will be leaving our descendants is simply too grim to envision!

Things must change, but I do not feel very optimistic about this - there is just too much apathy in this country now. Most people do not even vote, except for the rich and the fundamentalists. My own kids, in spite of my best efforts are indifferent and ignorant about what is really going on around them now. Perhaps one day if one of them needs an abortion and is unable to get it, they might wake up.

I’ve been wanting to go on strike ever since I saw latino’s march for what they believe in . I’ve been attending peace protest since before the war and I’m sorry to say, we have no credibility. The news never covers it and when they do, they always pick a whacko out of the crowd to represent what we are trying to accomplish. I’m tired of not being taken seriously. I feel if we all walk out, the rest of the country and the world will see that we are people with jobs, who vote and not just a bunch of peace loving hippie’s. I’m tired of this administration manipulating the truth, dividing the country and murdering our sons and daughters for their own greedy agenda’s. We all need to walk out. Leave our jobs, schools, if your on the fwy, stop your car and get out and walk. Some may say this is a risky. I believe a sacrifice must be made to regain our country back. Our brothers and sister oversea’s are doing this for us. All great people had to make a sacrifice to accomplish what is right, we must too!

hi, Stan:

let’s see .... Clinton and Foley had a Democratically controlled House ....

and now ....
....?

back then the Democrats couldn’t agree among themselves about how to govern -

you don’t want to govern, you want to prosecute

the people who retain government power figure out a simple fact - those who deliver retain their public power ....

the Bush republicans have fouled up terribly ... but you don’t take power from them by prosecuting them ... you take power by convincing voters you’d govern better

no one votes in a Congress to be prosecutors,,

they want people who will do better—if people like Stan choose the course, the Democrats will be a minority party again, flushed out of power of any kind because voters actually trust them LESS than the idiot republicans f_cking up the country

The struggle against injustice is always present even though the fullness of its vast power is sometimes hidden from sight until its fury is unleashed in tyranny.  The signs were there to be seen, but we ignored them and became complacent when we should have exposed even the least show of the corrupting influence of injustice.
Facing injustice, we become clear and dedicated to a more ideal life and live more fully as a member of the noble race of Man. Every generation has its challenge, as every age has its historical crisis.  Ours is truly whether we can fight not merely to survive, but to fulfill our destiny to bring equality and justice to all. We must see one another in this fight, we must gain support in recognizing the humanity that is common to us all.  It is by uniting agains this spectre of tyranny that we can show our commitment to live our lives nobly and for the good.  Let us stand togenther in the general strike on October 5th and mark that day as the new birth of the human spirit.

Take action seven days a week.

http://www.operation2012.com/

Boycott, March, Strike.

#11153 #11081 #11048 #11047 #11014 #11009

A remarkable collection:  The article and comments, particularly the comments with the above numbers!

The authors of those comments will likely recognize their positions in the following comments.

To protest and/or demonstrate is better than doing nothing—but not very much.

Those who purchase major party candidates chuckle when protestors arrange demonstrations.  They know it is just flatulence in a volume contest with a thunderstorm.  The only change is unpleasantness near the demonstrations.

To blame the president and his staff for the current mess is inappropriate.  Those who believe the difference between what the W. Bush administrations have done and what Gore or Kerry administrations would have done is more than negligible do not pay enough attention to history of twentieth century wars.  We will have wars as long as profits of war are divided among those who most want war and the costs of war, physical and fiscal, are borne by almost everyone else.

See:

http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

From:

http://worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content& task=view&id=1413&Itemid=61

“. . . .Taking off work, taking off school, shutting down campuses and coming together in mass gatherings, we must let the country and the world know that:

“---millions of us reject this illegitimate regime that is as criminal as it is dangerous to humanity & the existence of this planet.

“---we refuse to grow accustomed to a political climate that is becoming everyday more frightening & reactionary. . . .”

Will not bring down the current administration.  It is possible to prevent more administrations like it.

It is not as easy as a one-day feel-good demonstration but a pervasive (tens of millions of individuals), prolonged commitment to reduce optional* consumption to near-zero will get the attention of those who purchase the souls of elected members of the Federal Government**—providing those who commit themselves to the movement notify their Congressman and Senators (The word will quickly be passed to those who tell members of Congress what to think and say.) they have done so and will continue until our military is committed to defending only threats to our national existence and are immediately brought home.  The last such threat was 146 years ago and that threat should have been settled without armed hostility.

Bush-like administrations will continue until those who fund national elections campaigns decide such administrations are no longer profitable.

Let’s get into their pockets.  That is what matters to them.

The movement should last from October 5th until . . . . . . .

*What is optional must be left to the consumer.

**The Federally dreaded economic effect of reduced consumption is reduced income tax withholding – the source of interest payments required by deficit military spending.  This effect was last demonstrated shortly after 9/11 a few years ago.  The administration soon declared it was a national duty to get back to “normal”—that is back to “shop ‘til you drop”.

I believe impeachment is required before Bush really takes away all our freedoms, Chaney will not be president because his health will not take it.

This reminds one of Germany before World War II if this country wants an end to democracy keep Bush in power. 

Another thing the election was rigged from the start.  If this country does not reform the way we vote all elections will be suspect.  It is not required that we know in one day who will be president, the person does not take office til the next year so what is the hurry?  I think popular vote is the way to go.

Marge, Portland Oregon

I think Bush should be impeached, Chaney will not be president because his health would not stand up to the test.

Marge, Portland Oregon

America: the land of the empty gesture.

Taking off one day will do nothing, except fuel the hatred of the white privledge set and instigate even more mindless debate.

Please stop talking and fucking do something.

#

Comment #11026 by B.L.Biddle on 6/02 at 11:04 pm

Ah....the left is imploding...raging on like a rabid dog on its last day.

(Uh huh-that’s why the cheap immigrant labor capitalists are at the throats of the xenophobic racist Christers and the congressional wimps are turning on their whitehouse overseers after five years of zero oversight and no vetoes. It will be generations before any repug or pseudo-con will even get elected dog catcher in a fair election. Now THAT’S implosion and rabidity.)

I love you folks really....I just want you to remember one thing....each and everytime you want to stir up the “cultural wars” it would be “us folks” in the Red States with the guns.

(Only the truly intellectually challenged would believe it is the left stirring up the so called “culture wars”. The politics of division are the only reliable tactic the failed conservative movement has remaining. Don’t make the mistake of assuming all on the left are pacifists. We read history. Many of us are arming ourselves because we see what is coming. The anti-urban center neglect that has allowed our cities to be flooded with cheap and easily obtainable firearms will not work to your advantage if you try to ram your theocratic fascism down our throats. Remember that-and also that the reciprocal love we feel for you inbred rednecks is sincere-really.)

History repeats itself…

(Know anything about the Weimar Republic,
genius ?)

the democratic party was formed to oppose freedom,

(Whew-get a grip on some kind of reality, friend.)

reject the U.S. Constitution and start the first civil war....now you are looking to do the same thing again.

(Yes-we are newly formed and we’ve just got to start another civil war-what putrid baloney on a rancid bun.If you knew anything about history you would know that the party of Lincoln on the electoral map has precisely the same outline as the map of Al Gore voters in 2000. Do you even recall Goldwater’s “southern strategy” ? It isn’t the left forcing the Balkanization of the US.)

The Constitution of this great nation has endured a great many things...and it will endure the stupidity that you suggest.

(The question, my red state nimrod, is, will the constitution and the country survive the totalitarian assault of the Bush mis-administration, that you in your partisan, religion induced blindness, have chosen to support. What do you think ?)

You continue to invest yourselves in shades of socialism...failed leaders...failed policies and the lies you tell to get a handful of legislators elected...you will continue to get the same results.

(Yea-anyone that doen’t support complete autonomy and unaccountibility for the rich is a damn commie. Anyone who thinks health care and housing should be a human right, as it is in all other industrialized nations, is investing in failure. We should just give up and let the corporate rape of the planet and it’s peoples continue. Sigh.)

Bring it on.

(Echoing idiot boy king-do you have any capability of thinking for yourself ?)

The price of freedom has never changed in all the recorded history of the world.... the price is Blood.

(If you truly imagine you are free-try to protest at the next scripted White house “town hall” meeting. I would hope to be there to jeer at you inside your “free speech zone” barbed wire cage. Where is your freedom if you can’t even dissent publically, tough guy ? If you are a patriot, and not a blustering blowhard-join us in the fight to liberate America from the Bush machine.)

You folks on the left seem to forget that fact.

(How would you know what we have forgotten ? And how would you remember what you may have
forgotten ?)

Your blood sacrifice begins in the womb: not the battlefield.

(Did that line make sense to you when you typed it ? Time to put away the scotch. If that is a reference to abortion, it’s pretty obscure. If you don’t support a woman’s right to control her own body without interference from someone who will never be pregnant, your professed love of freedom is quite empty rhetoric, isn’t it ?)

Payday is approaching.

(No doubt of it. What do “good Germans”
deserve ?)

It would be in the realm of the miraculous if any sitting government ever reformed itself.  Throughout history it has been the protests and actions of the people that have lead to reform - and usually when governmental policies are threatening a way of life they once knew and no longer are able to enjoy and/or they realize they’re getting screwed royally. When the majority of the American people come to realize these things, they will rise up, but if and only if their spirit has not been killed in the meantime.  That’s the ultimate danger.

Yup=== another nut case from the left.....

I can come to no other conclusion than “...the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God.”

I spoke to God just last night and he told me that he:

1.) Did not make George Bush president.

2.) Far from resenting John Lennon for saying the Beatles are bigger than Jesus Christ, he does in fact hum “Imagine” in the shower.

3.) Really gets pissed off when his followers kill one another in his name.

4.) Likes the Dixie Chicks.

5.) Finds people who talk on cell phones when they drive as tedious as I do.

6.) Really, really wants Americans to get their shit together and end the war in iraq.

Are you completely brainwashed?

You post this:

Bind hate is the only thing driving these people. What the hell are they going to do if they get in power? Hating Bush is not a plan, where are the ideas, details, something anything. No such luck just more hate.

And yet none of the anti-Bush people in this thread is advocating “hate”.

At the same time, one of your political allies, is advocating precisely that.

each and everytime you want to stir up the “cultural wars” it would be “us folks” in the Red States with the guns.

Just more proof that Bush’s followers are not “conservatives” at all, but part of a cult. Any criticism of Bush (and criticizing the government is your duty in a democracy) is equated with “hate”.

As Glenn Greenwald argued, Bush’s followers aren’t loyal to their country or even to their government, they’re loyal to Bush. They’re a cult:

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/02/do-bush-fol lowers-have-political.html

Now, in order to be considered a “liberal,” only one thing is required – a failure to pledge blind loyalty to George W. Bush. The minute one criticizes him is the minute that one becomes a “liberal,” regardless of the ground on which the criticism is based. And the more one criticizes him, by definition, the more “liberal” one is. Whether one is a “liberal”—or, for that matter, a “conservative”—is now no longer a function of one’s actual political views, but is a function purely of one’s personal loyalty to George Bush.

Let’s see. After reading all of the comments on this absurd article (and especially the absurd article), I can come to no other conclusion than “...the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God.”

It would appear that you really didn’t read the article.  Such flippant dismissives only shows your enthusiastic ignorance. Is the afterlife really so appealing that you would forsake the life your god gave you?  I find it most curious that followers of monotheistic faiths seem so intent on passing into the “next” life.  Whether it’s a number of virgins or your own personal cloud replete with halo, wings, and a hymnbook.
We truly are a ridiculous species.  We concern ourselves over meaningless trivialities, all of which are based on a misture of fear and ignorance.  Think gays are monsters?  Spend a pleasant evening with a few; hell, go dancing. Opposed to abortion?  Visit a few orphanages and single parents on welfare.  In essence, step outside your little boxes and experience this “creation” that you live in.  Learn about someone ELSE’S faith instead of blinding yourself with your own.  After all, the Muslims, Pagans, Hindus, et al. are “God’s Children,” too?  We’re all in this together, this “us and them” attitude only serves to keep us in our places, and prevents us from truly coming together as ONE race: the human race.  Ugh, it’s times like these I wish I was a cat, or some other form of higher animal. . .seriously, take a good laugh at yourselves, you’ll feel much better.

“Laughter which cannot be suppressed is catching. Sooner or later it washes away our defences, and undermines our dignity, and we join in it—ashamed of our weakness, and embittered against the cause of its exposure, but no matter, we have to join in, there is no help for it.”
- Mark Twain “Indiantown”

“Will a day come when the race will detect the funniness of these juvenilities and laugh at them--and by laughing at them destroy them? For your race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon--laughter. Power, Money, Persuasion, Supplication, Persecution--these can lift at a colossal humbug,--push it a little-- crowd it a little--weaken it a little, century by century: but only Laughter can blow it to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of Laughter nothing can stand.”
- The Chronicle of Young Satan, Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts

October 5th...Yes! We all need to get up and get out on the streets. The people need to revolt because we have experienced a take over of a morally corrupt 1 percent of the nation.

Stop the dictator now!

YAWN!!!!!

Bind hate is the only thing driving these people. What the hell are they going to do if they get in power? Hating Bush is not a plan, where are the ideas, details, something anything. No such luck just more hate.

...One can look back on many countries that, when people had TRULY HAD ENOUGH, they took to the streets in massive numbers and things changed overnight. Remember the Phillipines when they got sick of Marcos? Remember Romania when they got sick of their brutal dictator? It CAN and HAS actually WORKED......this is simplistic I realize but I believe it ......Larry in Iowa

Let’s see. After reading all of the comments on this absurd article (and especially the absurd article), I can come to no other conclusion than “...the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God.”

Everytime I feel a deep swelling in my heart to join in a massive protest like this, I stop and I think about Fema’s 600 detention centers and wonder to myself, “What if this is exactly what they want to happen?”

See, the trick is that they are now making non-violent protest just as punishable as its violent flipside. You have to stay in “Free Speech Zones” to protest and you have to check what you wear to government events. They’re neutering our Constitutional rights and it seems to be dovetailing quite nicely with the privitazation of prisons and the increase in police/military budgets.

Maybe there’s another reason we’re getting thousands of armed soldiers on the Mexican border? Maybe it’s to get us used to having a military presence in our midst?

Another anonymous coward on the Internet making threats.

Ah....the left is imploding...raging on like a rabid dog on its last day.  I love you folks really....I just want you to remember one thing....each and everytime you want to stir up the “cultural wars” it would be “us folks” in the Red States with the guns.

But let’s take him at his word. I think we should. I’ve gotten into any number of debates with people over whether or not Bush and the Bush regime are genuinely fascist. Some people think I’m crying wolf. Some people agree with me.

But let’s take a second look at our anonymous troll’s quote.

I just want you to remember one thing....each and everytime you want to stir up the “cultural wars” it would be “us folks” in the Red States with the guns.

I personally would assume that cultural wars are to be fought with words, witty dialog, images, and organization.

This man (almost certainly a man if he’s over 18) thinks it should be fought with a gun.

Now this should be familiar to you. Come-on, think about it. It’s a (quite subconscious) echo of a famous quote (and it’s definitely subconscious because his American history is so comically wrong).

Think. Got it? Got it now? Know who said it?

http://www.proxsa.org/resources/ghadar/v4n1/edit.html

Hitler’s Minister of propaganda, Goebbels, is said to have remarked: “Whenever I hear the word culture, I reach for my gun.”

I do think that Bush’s fan base amounts to a fascist mass movement. And our little troll makes my case.

Glenn Greenwald calls them “authoritarian cultists” but it’s the same thing.

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/02/do-bush-fol lowers-have-political.html

I’ve been debating this “positive agenda” stuff with a few people lately, and I think it’s a dangerous dead end. There are a lot of decent people who are backing it, but it simply is not up to the challenges we’re facing.

Yes, people need health care, desperately. Yes, we have to fight to save the environment...desperately. But unless we face up to the real challenge and danger presented by this regime, all those other struggles will be for naught when the fascist power that Bush and company are consolidating becomes locked into place.

You can’t fight fascism by struggling for what has become an ancillary issue. You have to confront it head on. We desperately need a mass movement that looks at these fake-ass elections, these sorry-ass misleader politicians, and even the dutiful, every six months anti-war marches and says “This ain’t getting it. We need resistance.”

October 5th needs to be more on the level of the MASSIVE outpourings of protest from immigrants. Students need to walk out of school in their hundreds of thousands, like they did for the immigrant rights marches. People need to take off from work and hit the streets with everyone they know who even remotely thinks like them.

We need to start acting like the future depends on what WE do--not what someone else does, some politician--because it DOES.

Republicans = Tweedledee; Democrats = Tweedledum.  Both parties have long since been bought and paid for by big business/special interest groups/unions.  Neither party serves the interests of the private citizen anymore.  It’s time for a third party to shake up the established, corrupt political establishment.

This is a good plan.  It turns Louisiana into Algeria, America in 1960’s France, and W into DeGaulle.  The barricades are the only things missing, but surely you can find some.  Then comes the left wing coup d’etat.......

I am incredulous at this article and the comments.
Follow her lead! Follow Pelosie, follow Conyers, follow Dean.
But before you do, read a book about Rawanda.
But even that probably wont open your eyes. You guys are sheep. Not an independent thinker among you.

Ah....the left is imploding...raging on like a rabid dog on its last day.  I love you folks really....I just want you to remember one thing....each and everytime you want to stir up the “cultural wars” it would be “us folks” in the Red States with the guns. 

History repeats itself...the democratic party was formed to oppose freedom, reject the U.S. Constitution and start the first civil war....now you are looking to do the same thing again.

The Constitution of this great nation has endured a great many things...and it will endure the stupidity that you suggest.  You continue to invest yourselves in shades of socialism...failed leaders...failed policies and the lies you tell to get a handful of legislators elected...you will continue to get the same results.

Bring it on. The price of freedom has never changed in all the recorded history of the world.... the price is Blood.  You folks on the left seem to forget that fact. Your blood sacrifice begins in the womb: not the battlefield.  Payday is approaching.

This:

Gonna have to be something new.  Like a troops out of Iraq now letter circulating over the Internet and after upty-ump million of us are aboard, then, maybe mobilizations, Not the one day stands, though, some sort of continuous mobilization such as was used recently in several Eastern European countries to topple their governments.  A few years ago the same continuous mobilization strategy worked for the Chicano students at UCLA in obtaining a Chicano Studies Department.

is actually quite close to what Sunsara and World Can’t Wait are advocating. October 5th is not meant to be an International Answer/UFPJ cattle run. Ideally it will be one part of a continual mobilization designed to drive Bush out of office.

If it does in fact turn into a one day rally that starts and ends there, it’s going to be a failure.

BUT, you still need to take concrete steps that will lead to the kind of moblization you’re talking about and having a nationwide series of rallies like this is ONE part of it.

I loved the article. Finally someone talking straight. The comments, however; sickend me.
You know this commercial about some bank or other, where there is this group on some “team spirit building adventure” and they come upon this quick sand and one member falls in and the leader starts forming commitees and asking votes for how to rescue the poor bastard. At the end they save the poor boy with a second to spare but I love it because it shows how “red tape” and stupid procedures hinders common sense. comentators on this article remind me of that commercial. A lot of hot air mixed in with a good chunk of cowerdice, all whipped into an air filled nothing of an action.

Well what do ya know?  Another rally, this one on Oct 5.  Neat way to siphon off a lot of energy over the next few months, but, based upon seemingly countless marches & rallies over the past few years, nothing’s gonna be accomplished.  It’ll be a feel good event with lots of old fashioned solidarity but little more.  So why is it being done?  Why?  Because, when in doubt why not call for a march.  It never accomplishes anything, but, what the heck, it’s something to do.  Sorry, wrong approach.  If the goal is to topple the commander-in-chief, this same old, same old ain’t getting us nowhere.  Gonna have to be something new.  Like a troops out of Iraq now letter circulating over the Internet and after upty-ump million of us are aboard, then, maybe mobilizations, Not the one day stands, though, some sort of continuous mobilization such as was used recently in several Eastern European countries to topple their governments.  A few years ago the same continuous mobilization strategy worked for the Chicano students at UCLA in obtaining a Chicano Studies Department.  Before we get to the mobilization phase, though, we’ve got to get to as many of the more than 50% of the public that are regular Internet users.  Sure, the Revolution won’t occur on the Internet, but where else can we reach the masses & the multitude4s as quickly and as efficiently?  it’s almost like the Internet’s a gift from the who knows what above.  How timely that it’s here for us at a moment when the survival of all living beings is on the line.  One other thing.  The most urgent matter on our agenda is to bring the troops home now & end the war in Iraq.  We the people accomplish that &, as to the matter of impeaching George Bush, no problem.  He won’t be going anywhere other than the International Court of Criminal Justice for his forthcoming trial on the charge of mass-murder and other crimes against humanity.

Let’s do it!

People who know better must stop deluding the American people. There will be no more real elections in this country. The mass media and the electoral machinery and both major political parties are now fully under the control of capital. Observe the impotent and clownish Democratic Party and one conclusion is unavoidable: elections that matter are a quaint feature of America’s past. A coup brought George Bush to power in 2000 and he was reinstalled in 2004 and as long as he remains a useful idiot of the ruling clique his public approval rating could drop to zero and he will still reside in the White House. Political dog-and-pony show aside, capitalism’s minions will only release their grip on us if and when the system is confronted by a united and organized working class in open rebellion.

To that end, we must enlist people and accept the leadership of people in this resistance without regard to race or nationality. Unbeknownst to most oppressed white workers in this country, unity with his/her African-American, Hispanic, immigrant and foreign counterparts is the only hope of human salvation. Racism and xenophobia and every other tactic of division have been the lifeblood of capitalism with good reason. Our unity is capitalism’s AIDS—the only potentially deadly threat to this system. White supremacy, Black Nationalism, religious fundamentalism, sexism, homophobia, and all the crackpot schemes and nihilistic cults of the bourgeoisie, like al-Qaeda, are dead ends for all of us.

Forget impeachment, save your energy for the election, challenge every absurd assertion from republicans and their swift-boater surrogates - and prepare to govern positively for the good of the great majority of Americans.

This is EXACTLY what Clinton and Tom Foley chose to do in 1992.

http://www.rogouski.com/blog/2006/05/letas_not_impea.html

It’s EXACTLY the mistake the Democrats made in 1992 by deciding not to prosecute the Iran Contra gang when Dole and the Republcans threatened to disrupt their “positive” domestic agenda.

So let’s see, what happened?

1.) Iran Contra gang was left out of jail and alive to start the second war against Iraq.

2.) Clinton’s “positive” agenda was disrupted. No gays in the military. No health care reform.

3.) The impeachment of Clinton.

Do we want to go through the Clinton administration again? Isn’t doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result the definition of insanity?

I think the Bush administration will stop at nothing to steal the ‘06 elections (they’ve stolen two already). Too many crimes have been committed. Their only hope of escaping justice is to retain power at all costs. Things could get really ugly, even worse than they are.

Dumb idea, though i believe Mr. Bush has committed impeachable offenses.  Democrats need to push a positive agenda to take back power, not simply point out how wrong Mr. Bush and the republicans have been.  They have been slowly putting that together in the legislative branch.

If Mr. Bush is tossed from office, Mr. Cheney would take over - unless you do a 2-fer impeachment - and he IS worse than the President. 

Impeachment proceedings are exceeding disruptive, and there are serious issues that a Democratic-controlled legislative branch could tackle - budget control, ending non-compete crony capitalist contracting, beginning the withdrawal from Iraq, re-establishing competent domestic emergency management, putting forward a national health plan - all these things are possible when you hold the power of the purse and law-writing, even with Mr. Bush as President - he doesn’t veto bills, and the ones the Democrats would put forward, he’d probably sign.  He wants to shed his legacy of failure badly enough, and he is not - apart from his religious faith - a man of particular principles - he doesn’t really get this public policy stuff, and he’s not curious enough to learn, even when it matters so gravely.

Forget impeachment, save your energy for the election, challenge every absurd assertion from republicans and their swift-boater surrogates - and prepare to govern positively for the good of the great majority of Americans.

Hooray for Sunsara Taylor who quite powerfully makes the point that WE THE PEOPLE, and not the cooperate-based government we have allowed to rule us (Republicans and Democrats), are who must take back America… It must begin NOW!

...But, going further, where should we ‘take back America’ to?  Sure, we have gone to the farest boundaries (and beyond) of a good society “under” the Bush clan, but even if a more “liberal” Democrat won election in this country (which probably couldn’t happen because either the Right would steal another election, the Democrats won’t back such a candidate (a la Kuncinich), or the brainwashed masses won’t “get it"), then what? 

A nation such as ours, born from slavery and genocide, involved in more violent wars than any other modern nation, with draconian ideas about crime and punishment and citizen rights within our own boarders (and just over them), surely cannot become a good society under the present capitalistic, self-centered, militaristic, racist, sexist, religious mantle. 

No indeed, the world can’t wait to drive out the Bush regime; but once that is done, the world also can’t wait much longer for planetary humanism.

PS:  For an alternative to capitalism, read “Realizing Hope” by Michael Albert!

Re planetary humanism, read my book, “Toward a New Political Humanism.”

Sunsara has lit the spark, now its up to us to bring about a better world!

Barry F. Seidman
http://www.BarryFSeidman.com

The majority of the country hates President Bush.  The author uses rhetoric that ostracizes the majority within this population.  Why settle for “tens of thousands” when this number could potentially be in the millions.  Witty social metaphors and analogies may be relevant to the authors beliefs, but will not accomplish the greater goal being sought.

I have wondered for quite a while if and when a general strike could happen in the United States of America, realizing that they have happened in other parts of the world, but never, really , in the U.S. , and that a general strike has tremendous potential for bringing down a sitting government.

JP,
Not sure what is civil and level-headed about nuking Iran (or even contemplating it), letting religious fanatics steal away abortion and birth control(!), codifying torture as a major component of US foreign policy… These are not “unsolved issues” to “consider investigating.” This stuff is in-process right this minute, people!-- right out there in the open. The unprecedented Bush course is headed towards a world where civil discourse, not to mention the seeking of truth, will be a dim memory.  The hour is late, so let’s be honest. Who has a chance (or even the desire) to stop them, the Democrats or the millions of people Sunsara Taylor is talking about?

I found a comment on the Daily Kos about exactly why we need to support the October 5th action.

“I never thought I would live long enough to see another Vietnam but I sure have. The imperialists who rule us will never learn. The only remedy is to get rid of the imperialists,once and for all and I have a good feeling that the next two election cycles will go a long way towards this end.”

How can someone be so right and so wrong, so clearhead about what we’re facing and so fooled by the idea that the Democrats are going to save us.

and be prepared to be arrested.

I agree. With one party with two names, it is obvious that the will of the people won’t be expressed in the November 2006 elections unless we can rally the voters to take action.

I don’t agree with your course of action. This walkout will be useless if the Republicans retain control of Congress. If the Democrats do win we will have gained little. All we will have gained is impeachment. We will still have a Republican Lite government. By the time Bush is impeached his term will be almost ended anyway.

A more practicable approach would be to have a grassroots movement which uses the proven tactics of the labor unions. That is to make our demands known to both parties and threaten to cast a write-in protest vote for “Honest Abe” if neither party meets our demands. With a show of strength we can take control of the platforms of both parties. Visit my web site http://www.lincolninitiative.org

I believe the Republicans have cornered the Dems on this one--shades of Karl here--by campaigning on the idea that the Dems intend to hold hearings and impeachment investigations.  The Dems have to deny it in order to look civil and level-headed; if they proceed to do so after the election, they’re liars.

The Dems should follow Pelosi in saying they are considering investigations of unsolved issues and that those investigations will terminate wherever the evidence leads.  No more, no less.