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A Treasure Under Torture (Mary Lyon -- From The Left)

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Tace Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-17-06 11:01 PM
Original message
A Treasure Under Torture (Mary Lyon -- From The Left)
Mary Lyon, From The Left -- World News Trust

The irony is literally gob-smacking. Sept. 17th is the anniversary of the formal acceptance of the Constitution of the United States of America at the Federal Convention in Philadelphia. The paperwork that our Founders labored over, agonized about, argued through, which ultimately defined us as a country, determined such matters of statecraft as the rule of law our new nation would respect and follow, who had how much power, and who checked that power. It put down in black and beige (parchment, after all), in writing, what we’re all about as Americans. And this year, it falls on the weekend immediately after a latter-day would-be King George has roared about his right to defile it in the worst way imaginable. Instead of reaffirming a more perfect union, establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, providing for the common defense, promoting the general welfare, and securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, he’s aggressively pushing torture and other extra-constitutional ideas.

A more perfect union? Um -- where? Here? Our country hasn’t been this deeply divided since the Civil War era. George and his henchmen have us all very nearly at each other’s throats. Our onetime union, which was as close to perfect as we’ve ever reached in the immediate wake of 9/11, is by now more imperfect than ever. And now, it even reaches into Bush’s own party -- among those who’ll still swallow just about anything he wants to shove down their throats -- except torture.

Justice? For whom? Osama bin Laden -- whom he once targeted for bringing to justice, but now casually shrugs the guy off? George denies he’s disbanded the one entity charged specifically with tracking Osama down, but he has. And it’s only now that he feels the hot breath of a losing mid-term election that he’s even started mentioning the guy’s name in speeches again. Meanwhile, George Washington University constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley counts approximately 30 felonies Bush has already committed just in the NSA wiretapping scandal, all of which sure seem a lot more like high crimes and misdemeanors than does lying under oath about cheating on your wife.

Domestic tranquility? Here? When the discourse on most, if not all, of the news/information channels on radio and TV is full of hatred and divisiveness, and republi-CONS everywhere are trying to scare the voters stupid? Hell, if they have their way, you won’t even be able to sleep at night, for fear of all the brown-skinned, bearded Boogie Men running amok out there unless you support the GOP. They all but say we’re all going to die if we don’t vote republi-CON.

The common defense? Ah yes, here George claims supremacy, even though his abysmal foreign policy has earned us nothing but new enemies, scorn, distrust, and hatred across the globe. Yeah, we’re safer, alright. Yeah, SURE. We’ve squandered, literally, a WORLD of good will after 9/11, not to mention close to 3,000 American lives, many multitudes more of innocent Iraqi civilians, the viability of our armed forces, and how many hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars by now? Last time I checked, we were losing money in Iraq to the tune of approximately 100-thousand dollars a minute.

more

http://www.worldnewstrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=168
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-17-06 11:20 PM
Response to Original message
1. That was fast!
Thanks, Tace!
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Tace Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-17-06 11:53 PM
Response to Reply #1
4. The Kids Had Fallen Asleep
It's amazing what I can get done when they're asleep. : )
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 12:05 AM
Response to Reply #4
8. Hah! You, too?
:D
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Auntie Bush Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-17-06 11:25 PM
Response to Original message
2. K&R Good commentary!
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-17-06 11:27 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Thanks, Auntie!
Hope he winds up crying "UNCLE!"
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BuyingThyme Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-17-06 11:56 PM
Response to Original message
5. kcik
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-17-06 11:57 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. Thank you!
It's hugely appreciated by me!
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-17-06 11:56 PM
Response to Original message
6. Hey, thanks, guys! This one was extra important to me because of the
idea in here that was NOT mine. It was brought to me by my friend Joan, LAST MAY, and she was seriously concerned about the health and safety of the Constitution back then. Lord only knows what apoplexy the latest round of betrayals have caused her!

I think it's a great idea and I was hoping it'd be spread here - and elsewhere. It would be a REALLY cool symbolic gesture - imagine the vigils by We The People, taking it upon ourselves to stand guard and protect OUR Constitution from the horrendous, criminal encroachments and degradations and downright sacrileges foisted upon it by bush. And I think it'd get press attention, too.

Anyway - thanks for the votes! Love you guys!

:toast:
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lisainmilo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 12:07 AM
Response to Original message
9. sometimes its hard to get noticed here...lol
Nice post, I share your sediments! I have also linked the news site you provided to my site! :)
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 09:38 AM
Response to Reply #9
18. I am grateful for what there is. Not yet Will Pitt, but I'm working on it.
Glad you like it. Wouldn't that be a neat way to start taking back our country? Standing guard like that? I figure we, here at DU and other places like this, already do that, in a figurative sense. Doing it literally would be a very strong demonstrative gesture, and I'm sure it'd get some press.
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Stinky The Clown Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 12:17 AM
Response to Original message
10. I wish I could have been 5 .......
.... but alas, I have to settle for 8

Nice writing!
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 09:40 AM
Response to Reply #10
19. Grateful for every rec I am.
Thank you!
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DeepModem Mom Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 12:28 AM
Response to Original message
11. My favorite line --
"At the rate Bush is going, flouting American and international law, he might as well take a copy of the Constitution, glue it to some rich old geezer’s face, and send him out quail shooting with Dick Cheney."

Great piece: K&R.
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me b zola Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 02:17 AM
Response to Reply #11
12. That is a great line
:thumbsup:

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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 10:02 AM
Response to Reply #12
20. It does conjure up a vivid image, doesn't it?
After which, I'm sure, said unfortunate rich geezer would apologize for having the nerve to get his face in the way of cheney's rifle barrel.
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 04:27 PM
Response to Reply #11
31. Thanks, DMM!
Edited on Mon Sep-18-06 04:29 PM by calimary
It's how I imagine the Constitution will look by the time bush gets through with it. Bloody and riddled with holes. But then again, that's how a LOT of people look by the time he's had them sent to Iraq. Maybe that's just his "thing." Go off to war, kids. Come back looking like the Constitution.

:grr:
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Philosoraptor Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 02:25 AM
Response to Original message
13. We are in a constitutional crisis, plain and simple.
Great Read!
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 10:15 AM
Response to Reply #13
21. Frightening, isn't it? I've been around for 53 years. Thirty of those
years, at least, I've been fairly awake, politically. And I can NEVER remember things in this country sinking to such horrendous depths. I can remember Nixon and Vietnam and Watergate and Reagan and Iran/Contra, and ALL of those COMBINED just pale by comparison to what's going on now. It just makes me shudder. It's our version of Nazi Germany. NEVER did I imagine it would happen here, and it HAS.
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H2O Man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 05:17 AM
Response to Original message
14. Very good!
In times of trouble, there is a need to hold tighter to the concepts of that Constitution. In all of their actions, Bush and Cheney pose a threat to that wonderful document.
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Disturbed Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 06:05 AM
Response to Reply #14
15. Isn't there some sorta oath the members of Congress swear
to uphold? Uh...somethin' 'bout the US Constitution, innit?
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H2O Man Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 06:24 AM
Response to Reply #15
16. Right.
It's a strange thing .... I watched the debate on "Meet the Press" yesterday. That clown Allen is clearly not aware of the U.S. Constitution. He couldn't pick it out in a line up. And he is representative of a group of "leaders" who really do not have a clue what that document is about. When I listened to him, I was thinking that he really should not be considered qualified to graduate from high school, much less be elected to office. Yet there is a growing trend, where people who do not know what the Constitution is about, to be in positions where they believe they have the right to deny others those rights defined by the Bill of Rights as individuals, and the collective form of government outlined in the larger text.
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ktlyon Donating Member (733 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-19-06 06:59 PM
Response to Reply #16
39. that must mean they have another agenda
with no consideration of the constitution they move on to the money prize
Will they stop when they have stolen enough?
Then what is enough?
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-19-06 07:18 PM
Response to Reply #39
42. Good point.
Edited on Tue Sep-19-06 07:19 PM by calimary
I'm not sure ANYTHING is enough for these people - particularly when there's no accountability and nobody trying to contain them - or even seeing the need to do so.

:(
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 10:53 AM
Response to Reply #15
23. Yes. And I particularly like the oath to which bush himself swore:
"...to PRESERVE, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Note the first verb - "PRESERVE." That means - don't fuck with it, OR change it, OR mutate it, OR water it down. Probably why that verb IS listed first - because it's the most important.
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elehhhhna Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 01:11 PM
Response to Reply #23
26. Bush thinks "preserve" means to pickle it and put it in a jar.
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 04:25 PM
Response to Reply #26
30. No kidding!
Or spread it on toast.
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ktlyon Donating Member (733 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-19-06 07:04 PM
Response to Reply #23
40. We have been paying for him to have lawyers.
These people should have informed him what the legal limits are legally. He knowingly crossed the line and to now say he thought he could is just BS.
Hi
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-19-06 07:17 PM
Response to Reply #40
41. Mind-boggling, isn't it?
The only problem is, the people who should have informed him what the limits are - are his own (What) Justice Department co-felons, and that LOVELY alberto "Torture's OKAY!" gonzales - who, I guess, was also his executioner-in-arms in Texas when they ran THAT place - into the ground. No way gonzales is gonna put the brakes on this. That sadistic little no-neck fuck is probably salivating at this.

:hi:
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 10:38 AM
Response to Reply #14
22. Thanks. It's a treasure like those referenced in Joni Mitchell's song
"Big Yellow Taxi:" "...don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got til it's gone?"
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 07:56 AM
Response to Original message
17. That could be a very powerful symbolic gesture, Mar.
Very cool.

Visualize. Then DO.

NGU.


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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 12:04 PM
Response to Reply #17
24. Yeah, I agree. That's why I wanted it seen here.
I think we have to start SHOWING AND TELLING - demonstrating how we feel. This is a peaceful demonstration. Sort of a religion thing - like the "faith-and-good-works" template.
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indepat Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 12:28 PM
Response to Original message
25. Bravo for eloquent evisceration: every doctrine this nation was founded
on has holistically been defiled by almost policy and action from day-one because that's what the entire extreme RW PNAC agenda is all about and tens of millions of Amerikans salivate and lap it all up.
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 04:22 PM
Response to Reply #25
29. Aw, thanks!
It's a shame that it's all this asshole wants to do - fuck with stuff to cover his own ass and serve his own agenda. And he swore to do exactly the opposite - with his hand on the Bible, in front of witnesses (or in his case, considering his followers, would it be "witlesses"?).
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BuyingThyme Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 02:04 PM
Response to Original message
27. kcik
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ClassWarrior Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 04:04 PM
Response to Reply #27
28. kick, even...
:hi:

NGU.


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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 06:18 PM
Response to Reply #28
33. Deeply appreciative I am!
:headbang: :toast:
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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 06:12 PM
Response to Reply #27
32. stol uoy knaht
Edited on Mon Sep-18-06 06:14 PM by calimary
:D

I changed it because "much" spelled backwards looks a tad distasteful - and not at ALL indicative of my sentiments.

:D
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BuyingThyme Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-19-06 12:04 AM
Response to Reply #32
37. .gniht on t'niA
kcik
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Sapphire Blue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 06:53 PM
Response to Original message
34. What an irony, indeed! It's enough to make a person cry.
And after being all cried out, it's enough to make a person fight that much harder to save our Constitution, to save our democracy, and to throw those fascist bastards out.


November 'o6

The change is coming.

Can you feel it?

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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 07:21 PM
Response to Reply #34
35. I hope to GOD a change is coming.
George Soros has said if the Dems get the House back, then bring on the SUBPOENAS!!! Straight to the top, too. To that other george - the schmuck who would be king.

Thanks for ze kick!

It's good to see your input around here again (and not just on my threads, either), Sapphire Blue!
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Sapphire Blue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Sep-18-06 08:04 PM
Response to Reply #35
36. Aaah, yes... bring on the SUBPOENAS, Congressman Conyers!!!
:kick:

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calimary Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Sep-19-06 01:39 PM
Response to Reply #36
38. We just have to hope and pray, and work like hell to make sure
our Dems take back the House. That puts John Conyers in the driver's seat at the House Judiciary Committee. And I believe he also has some articles of IMPEACHMENT worked up.

If we don't, we lose the most honorable Charlie Rangel. He's already said that if the Dems do not take back the House, and the republi-CONS maintain their lock on it, he'll leave because it will prove to him that there's no longer a place there for someone like him. That would be a sad day for his constituents - AND for the rest of us.
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lonestarnot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Sep-22-06 08:38 AM
Response to Original message
43. K & but to late to R
Edited on Fri Sep-22-06 08:39 AM by lonestarnot
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