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“Forcing taxpayers to pay for the indiscriminate killing of helpless little baby Americans is not good government and it should be ended once and for all,” said Rep. Trent Franks, R-Arizona.
BLITZER: Did you ever give up hope, Kenny, that the U.S. would kill bin Laden?
SPECHT: No, but I'd be lying to you, Wolf, I'd be lying to you if I -- if I thought about it every night. No, I didn't -- I didn't give up hope. That's all we had. That's all we had. It's like anything else, though. It's just sometimes we think that when it's not spoken about anymore, we wonder really what's being done.
I mean, we're in a quagmire, for lack of a better term, in Afghanistan. I hope to God that tonight is one large step to maybe wrapping up operations in Afghanistan.
BLITZER: Kenny, I'm going to interrupt because I think I've lost contact with you. But I want you to -- I want you to stand by, Kenny, if you can. Stand by for a moment because Peter Bergen is joining us now, our national security contributor. [emphasis added]
A group of demonstrators recently got into an Obama fundraiser to protest the imprisonment of Bradley Manning, the alleged source of the WikiLeaks cables.
They sang a song to Obama. Part of it went: "We'll vote for you in 2012, yes that's true / Look at the Republicans -- what else can we do?"
Manning is not the only one who is in prison.
These protesters have confined themselves. Or rather, they have allowed the political establishment to imprison them. They are attempting to pressure Obama, while saying outright -- as they are giving him money -- that they don't think they have any other choice but to back him.
Not exactly negotiating from a position of strength.
And some have mocked them. But, really, what is their choice? How can they emancipate themselves?
Look at what is happening on the Republican side. Donald Trump told the Conservative Political Action Conference earlier this year: "Ron Paul cannot get elected." This statement tries to undermine and dismiss Paul's candidacy. Trump's vision of democracy is apparently one where the result is known before the election.
The Democratic establishment has relentlessly penned in Principled Progressives while the Republican establishment has continuously made captives out of Conscientious Conservatives.
And these establishments have succeeded time and time again.
This is particularly tragic because most Principled Progressives and Conscientious Conservatives agree on so much, though it might not seem that way because establishment politicians (and corporate media) dwell on the differences between each other, which are frequently trivial. Consider: • Foreign policy: Cutting the military budget, ending the U.S.'s wars, dismantling the network of military bases around the globe, stopping support for tyrannical governments like Saudi Arabia, ending support of Israel's aggressions and occupations. • Economy: Stopping the Wall Street bailouts, ending the Federal Reserve, curtailing runaway corporate power and corporate welfare, ending trade deals like NAFTA that obliterate jobs in the U.S. while impoverishing many in other countries, challenging the IMF and WTO. • Freedom Agenda: Ending the so-called "Patriot" Act, stopping government use of secret "evidence" to prosecute individuals, insisting on accountability for torture and illegal detentions and renditions, stopping government spying on citizens, ending the drug war and the mass imprisonment that causes, and challenging the media establishment while enhancing solutions like local low power radio and net neutrality.
Oh yeah, and supporting WikiLeaks and whilstleblowers like Bradley Manning.
But Big Media keep telling progressives they're supposed to hate "The Tea Party" -- as if there were no difference between Sarah Palin and Ron Paul. And the establishment and corporate media have kept conservatives from seeing the insights of authentic progressives, people like Dennis Kucinich, Ralph Nader, Cynthia McKinney and Mike Gravel -- demonizing or marginalizing them in a plethora of ways.
So yes, singing protesters: Look good and hard at the Republicans and realize, that on virtually all the issues above, it's the Principled Progressives and Conscientious Conservatives together on one side and the Establishment Center -- Obama, the Bushs, the Clintons, Palin, Dick Cheney, John Boehner, Harry Reid, Donald Trump, Mitt Romney -- on the other.
What we have is close to a classic prisoner's dilemma: If Conscientious Conservatives and Principled Progressives can find ways to dialogue and cooperate, they might develop strategies to win on all those issues listed above and then some. If they don't, they will likely continue to be shut out and locked down, forever in bondage to the corporate establishment.
Who you've been lead to believe is your enemy -- your political opposite number -- is actually your ticket to political emancipation.
What we need is the meaningful emergence of a New Center based on principle and conscience. Will there be disagreements? Yes, but with work, they will be honest ones, not endless political hackery.
Manning may be in jail, but in a deeper sense, he's free. He acted on his conscience. We all need to free ourselves -- and our votes -- from of the partisan boxes the establishment keeps confining us to.
Sam Husseini is founder of VotePact.org, which advocates that would-be Democrat and would-be Republican voters pair up and vote for candidates they actually agree with. His personal blog is at husseini.posterous.com
From the Washington Express (AP)
And a massive waste of resources. But we all get to think how superior
we are to him. I guess having benches would violate some public
intoxication statute. Then again, you don't want him walking into the
street.
Taking the offense out of fence. By Kim
Photo by Mohammad Ali Naquvi
What are the prospects of getting more independent journalists into news conferences? Imagine if serious, independent journalists were in the White House news room asking tough questions during the buildup of the Iraq war. Or now, most of the questions asked in the White House are queued off of a corporate crit of the administration's policies.
Would having independent journalists at such news conferences -- not just White House, but also State Dept, Pentagon and Justice Dept, etc -- would that lead to a broader culture where citizen journalists could develop a culture of holding politicians' feet to the fire, asking them tough questions and putting material on YouTube?
What needs to happen to develop that culture?
This would be part presentation, part discussion, part brainstorming. What makes for good questioning of government officials? How should it get out? How should such questioning be presented? What should independent media really look like? Should it follow party alignment, or should it be able to seriously question all political factions?
Will feature videos questioning John McCain, Colin Powell, Nancy Pelosi, John Edwards, Mike Pence, John Negroponte and others.