There are two choices and only two choices for every country -- live under the rule of law or live under the rule of men. We've collectively decided that our most powerful political leaders are not bound by our laws -- that when they break the law, there will be no consequences...Read more here.
Things like "torture" and "illegal eavesdropping" can't be compared as though they're separate, competing policies. They are rooted in the same framework of lawlessness. The same rationale that justifies one is what justifies the other. Endorsing one is to endorse all of it.
In fact, none of the scandals of radicalism and criminality which we've learned about over the last seven years -- including the creation of this illegal torture regime -- can be viewed in isolation. They're all by-products of the country that we've become in the post-9/11 era, primarily as a result of our collective decision to exempt our Government leaders from the rule of law...
I find this post interesting because Greenwald seems to be waking up to something: the truly horrifying reality many of us have been acknowledging for years. It's something the big US bloggers on the left have studiously avoided.
For example, Josh Marshall occasionally makes shockingly straightforward denouncements of the criminal Bush regime, but then he carries on blogging as if it were nothing to really be alarmed about. How do you DO that?
Is it all about Teh Credibility? Or are these guys so bogged down in the daily routine that they never step back to see the horrific Big Picture canvas?
Another example: Atrios yesterday had a dig at a Daily Kos post suggesting that some bloggers might - shock! - be getting paid to write stuff, or at least getting induced to write certain narratives by certain people they admire (no names please). Or as Newsie8200 carefully put it:
Quite frankly, some of the major bloggers who have "access" to consultants (DC or not in DC), campaign staffers or Congressional staffers, have been getting played.Noooo!!!
As I write, the lead story at Kos is that McCain just had probably the worst week any presidential candidate ever had, but the media are calling it for him anyway. Nooo!!! How could that happen, after all the great blogging the Kos kids have been doing?
Here's a hint, guys: nobody in any position of power gives a flying fuck about what you blog. If you haven't got pictures of them shagging their housemaid, or solid concrete irrefutable proof that they all conspired to produce "a new Pearl Harbour", then they don't give a shit about you. And it doesn't matter if there are a million of you, because guess what? THEY OWN THE MEDIA! And the people who go out and vote don't read blogs, but they do read newspapers and watch TV. Get it???
So if you think things will change between now and November, and Obama will ride to a crushing victory thanks to his massive netroots community support, and then repay his debt by making everything beautiful again, please think again.
Things are not just bad. Things are way beyond FUBAR.
The real debate is no longer about HOW we can fix things - it is whether or not we EVER CAN fix things.
I called this blog Riding The Juggernaut because I thought it was preferable to influence the direction of Western Civilisation in a positive direction, rather than just walking away from it all or starting again from scratch. Now I am not so sure.
The root problem is human nature: if people do not want to hear the truth, or do the right thing, what can you do? Sure, you can try to motivate them and inspire them, but only if you can reach them.
I just hope the Elite Super-Rich love their children too. But unfortunately, I don't think they do. George W. Bush is a perfect example of an unloved rich brat with no values, no conscience and no real love in his life - except Barney, of course. these are the people we are trusting to act as custodians for the future of humanity.
That's where we are at.
