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• Gordon August 19, 2007 10:59 am

  

  There’s a lot of talk, as there always is during political campaign seasons, about which candidate can better “bring us together.” I’m not so sure, though, that that’s exactly what we need right now. What we need is to come out of our denial, realizing what a moral plunge this nation has taken with the war in Iraq. If you haven’t seen “No End in Sight”, yet, do.
  Whatever anger or frustration you might already feel about this war, it’s nothing compared to the heartsickness you’ll feel after seeing this movie. It’s not just that the invasion occured … it’s the complete and total bush league (well, what did we expect?) level of post-invasion planning — or lack of planning — that goes so far beyond a dereliction of duty, to a level of ineptitude that borders on the criminal, if not the insane.
  It shows as well, that it did not have to be like this. It’s nice to know that there in fact were heroes within the government — at the State Dept., at CIA, etc. — who could have done it “right,” who knew how to do it, whose hearts and minds were in the right place, but were given no real voice. Paul Bremer, and others in charge — none of whom had even one iota of experience in the kind of work they were called to do in Iraq — made every single stupid, immoral decision that would almost ensure the horror and chaos we see now.
  Bush can’t even be directly blamed for the worst of it, because the President’s absence from major war-planning is one of the horrors of the film! He sort of farmed the war out to his friends.
  The movie begs the question, is not our nation in peril with every day this administration remains in office? Having seen the movie, I think this is an even more urgent moment in history than I had thought. And I had thought.
  So do we need to be “united”? I think the unity that matters most is the unity of shared truth, such as truth about the facts. See this movie to get the facts. Then summon all your hope and faith, because you’ll need it to endure them.
  The kind of unity we need today is a unified consciousness that this man must be stopped. Our founders made a provision for this; perhaps we should take a look. It’s not relevent that he’s a lame duck and doesn’t have all that much more time in office. One thing this movie makes exceedingly clear is how much damage this administration can do in a relatively very short time.
  A friend of mine, when we were discussing all this, said, “Marianne, you sound so negative!” But I see nothing negative about shouting “Fire!”, if indeed the house is burning. What’s negative, perhaps, is pretending that it’s not.
  Marianne Williamson

• madfuq August 12, 2007 9:37 pm

  

  Mark, I sure wanted to listen to the show today but the time on Sunday is when I am at church so I missed it. From reading robt’s post above it sounds like Mike is parroting the adm spin about the witch hunt phrase that they continue to use as their only defense. I too would like to see this adm be tranparent. That said I would like that of any adm. dem or repub, that is the way any honest admn operates so I concur with Robt what are they hiding and what are they so afraid will be found out???? I believe most of the public now is wondering what the adm is up too and most of the public has woke up and pulled their head out of the sand. I thank God for that!
  This admn. seems to think they do not have to be accountable to we the people and if they feel that way they do not understand a free country at all!

• Robt August 12, 2007 7:57 pm

  

  Mark,
  Tuned in to the show on the last 10 mins.
  Got back to the house too late. I’ll have to listen in to the podcast now I guess.
  I don’t understand that when Mike was telling you that the Adm is not going to give documents for a witch hunt. How can he determine it is a witch hunt and prove it? Most reasonable people see enough probable cause to investigate and ensure no wrong doings. In large part is what Americans expressed in the ’06 election. Wanted oversight!
  If the Adm has nothing to hide, then why is it hiding everything ?
  There are many that say, ” I don’t mind the government listening in on me because I have nothing to hide “. These for the most are republicans that I speak with.
  So if I take it as a republican position with listening in on Americans. Why is a Republican Adm not willing to be transparent to Congress?
  Republicans build one way streets?
  The witch hunt is the Adm’s political strawman to make the public think it is political partisanship. It is Congresses duty to provide oversight as far as I know.
  That the Adm can hide behind witch hunts accusations is beyond me. If there is no witch flying in the documents of the Adm. The hunt is over. So by providing witch free documents, wouldn’t that benefit the GOP as a whole and show that it is the witch hunt republicans accuse?
  I’m sorry I missed the show. I had the day off and had a fire under me to call in and fan flames, as I posted above.

• Robt August 12, 2007 5:15 pm

  

  Why is it demanded by the Adm so forcefully vital that the surveilance law must be unitary, without checks and balances?
  Surveillance with no oversight for accountability? What is the main arguement.
  If they can spy now account later. What is the harm to the nations security?
  Lets just say I spoke with a PC tech in Pakistan and because of one word or another it was determined to continue spying on me. Those doing the surveillance jumped to an unfounded conclusion and turn my life upside down, freezing assests and such.
  If there is no oversight and no record of this.
  The only proof of anything existed was in Atty General Alberto Gonzales skull (if he could remember). That it is so secret and that I have no rights nor legal avenue to regain my life the Government mistakenly destroyed and will never admit to. Be assured the Government makes mistakes. Am I just a victim of Al Qaida terrorism that this Adm is conducive to?
  Can Congress actually make this legal if the Constituion is in conflict with their surveillance bill?
  Doesn’t this have to be a Constitutional amendment? To change the surveilllance legality?
  I know surveillance in the military and even police are able to keep track of their surveillance and be accountable.
  After all what good will all this data do an adm if it is just going to ignore PDB’s and “not be able to connect dots” as they admitted to. ?
  I mean they will have many more dots and have even more trouble connecting more dots.
  So why the fight by this Adm to have no tracability ????
  If they don’t have the ability to trace back(they can’t account for what they’ve done or where they’ve been, to know where they are going with it all.