the more things change- the more they don’t

most of us started blogging during a time when we had no other way to fight against what we saw as the fascist takeover of our democratic republic.  we signed petitions, emailed our ‘represenatatives’ in congress, and tore apart the falsehoods, lies and propaganda being perpetuated in the media.  we were the truth line- tenuous as it was- and we showed the rest of the world that not all americans were jesus lovin’, gun totin’, flag wavin’ morans.  and we burned out fighting- and november, 2008, we thought we got a reprieve.

i think most folks gave the obama administration and the democratically controlled congress the first 100 days in office.  and, granted, quite a few good things happened during the first month or so.  and i think we all took a much deserved rest.  but, cheney kept talking, fox news kept spewing its hate speech and the gop talking heads continued their lies, propaganda and falsehoods.  and somewhere along the way, we lost sight of what we need to be doing- holding the democrats feet to the fire and forcing change.  because- the right is always going to grab at power and they are always going to be at war with the rest of us.  we have to force change in spite of them.

which leads me to the bigger point of this post- we heard many promises from the dems during campaign season- open government, transparency, a return to the rule of law- and indeed, the obama admin has made some progress on that front.  but, they are dropping the ball on some pretty important issues.  there are still police raids and ice roundups and civil liberties that need to be restored.  we need some accountability and we need to get rid of the odious patriot act and military commissions act- and we need some decisive, actual leadership from obama, pelosi and reid.  and, barring that- we need some decisive action from american citizens.  otherwise,

“Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite.”

“we watch impassively as the wealthy and the elite, the huge corporations, rob us, ruin the environment, defraud consumers and taxpayers and create an exclusive american oligarchy that fuses the wealth and political power. we watch passively because we believe we can enter the club. it is greed that inspires us. it is greed that keeps us silent. our greed is devouring us.”

chris hedges, ‘losing moses on the freeway‘

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