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Eulogy for America

by Open-Publishing - Saturday 13 November 2004
68 comments

Edito Democracy Elections-Elected USA David R. Hoffman


The epitaph reads: THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Born July 4, 1776 - Died November
2, 2004

by David R. Hoffman

Ladies and gentlemen, we gather here today to mourn the passing of the United
States of America, a nation that once stood as a beacon light of hope for the
world.

America was betrayed and murdered on November 2, 2004. Also killed during this
time of madness were the following virtues: truth, justice, integrity, freedom,
compassion, brotherhood, tolerance, faith, hope, charity, peace, and respect
for other cultures and nations. These virtues are survived by their antitheses—deceit,
injustice, hypocrisy, fascism, selfishness, hatred, fear, hopelessness, greed,
perpetual warfare and arrogant hegemony.

Also murdered were seven platitudes, which parents once used to convince their children that America was a rational and honorable nation:

1. HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY died during the coup of 2000, when Americans nonchalantly stood by while an election was stolen. This death provided the Bush dictatorship with the incentive to test the accuracy of Alexander Hamilton"s belief that, "Those who stand for nothing will fall for anything." That accuracy was authenticated when both the American media and the American public unquestioningly embraced the lies that led the nation into the war against Iraq.

2. VERACITY IS THE HEART OF MORALITY (by Thomas Huxley) has been replaced by these words from Robert Burns: "Morality, thou deadly bane, thy tens o" thousands thou has slain."

Ironically this platitude was zealously enforced when Bill Clinton was President, after he was caught lying about his affair with a White House intern. During the debate leading up to his impeachment trial, right-wing pundits incessantly chanted, "It"s not about the sexual activity. It"s about the immorality of lying."

Yet commensurate concerns over the immorality of lying about the existence of "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq have been conspicuously absent. And while Clinton"s lies wrought neither death nor destruction, the lies of George W. Bush have, to date, resulted in the deaths of over one thousand Americans, and the slaughter of over one hundred thousand Iraqis, many of them innocent men, women and children. Yet, under the bizarre morality that recently caused the death of America, Clinton"s dishonesty is viewed with more disdain than Bush"s. Ironically, if this "new morality" does not prevent a lying mass murderer from holding political office, then convicted killer Charles Manson has the credentials to become president.

It was allegedly this "new morality," that swayed the recent election. But what does it truly entail? Besides the egregious belief that lying about a sexual relationship is more immoral than lying about the motives for war, this "new morality" also claims to defend the rights of the unborn, yet is blissfully unconcerned about those already here. Millions of children throughout the nation suffer needless pain because their parents lack health insurance and cannot afford to take them to the doctor. Millions of the elderly suffer similar pain because they cannot afford the prescription medication they rely upon to survive. Yet while universal health care is derided as a "socialist" concept by politicians bought and paid for by the insurance and health care industries, all Iraqi citizens are being provided with universal health coverage.

This "new morality" vociferously rebels if taxes are raised even a single dollar to supply impoverished school systems with computers or up-to-date textbooks, or to feed and clothe the homeless and destitute. Yet the expenditure of billions of dollars on a war based on nothing but lies does not even create a whimper.

Under this "new morality" a block of granite is more important than a human life. The indiscriminate bombing of civilians and the torture and "disappearances" that occurred (and are still occurring) in United States controlled detention camps throughout the world did not inspire outrage, but the removal of a Ten Commandments monument from government property does, even though this monument can be openly displayed on private property.

While so-called "Christians" exploit this "new morality" to pontificate about "family values," and to condemn the "intolerance" shown by other faiths, they furtively seek, in the wake of America"s death, to establish a dogmatic Social Darwinistic theocracy themselves, building their so-called "faith" on the pillars of hatred, egomania, greed, lust for mortal power, and the selfish desire to force their beliefs upon others, many of the very evils that Jesus, the founder of Christianity, condemned.

3. CRIME DOESN"T PAY holds true only when the crime opposes or offends the power structure. It does not apply when stealing elections or waging illegal wars.

In fact, as the Bush precedent has demonstrated, all an incumbent president has to do to maintain office is dupe the people and the Congress into supporting an illegal war, mismanage this war until election time, then tell the people they should not change the "commander-in-chief" during wartime.

4. ALWAYS LEAD BY EXAMPLE has been replaced by, "Always be willing to shed anyone"s blood, except your own." When the opportunity arose for Bush, and his partner-in-crime Dick Cheney, to personally participate in combat during the Vietnamese war, Bush instead used his family influence to perform some still nebulous National Guard Service, while Cheney obtained five deferments to avoid being drafted. Yet today they stand on the decks of aircraft carriers and behind podiums in some of the most fortified buildings in the world, telling Iraqi insurgents to "bring it on."

5. PATRIOTISM IS THE LAST REFUGE OF A SCOUNDREL (by Samuel Johnson) has been replaced by the verity that patriotism is the FIRST refuge of a scoundrel. The build-up to the Iraqi war illustrated how easily the Bush regime, through the repetition of words like "freedom and democracy," could distract people from the reality that the greatest loss of freedom Americans suffered in recent years was not because of some overseas enemy, but through the passage by lawmakers of the deceptively named "Patriot Act." Now that America is dead, the "new morality" is determined to destroy what little remains of the Bill of Rights.

The irony is that patriotism is only expected of the poor and middle-classes, who make up the bulk of America"s military personnel. Multi-national corporations, who outsourced jobs and threw employees out of work, and who retained ornate office buildings in the late United States while profiting from virtual slave labor in other nations, were never asked to be "patriotic," nor were they chastised for disloyalty when their practices harmed the national economy. Instead they were rewarded with tax breaks and the financial windfalls that Bush"s warmongering spawned.

6. WORK HARD AND YOU WILL BE REWARDED must now read, "It is not what you know, but who you know that matters." Although Bush and his supporters have stridently condemned as "preferential treatment" affirmative action policies designed to help minorities who have been historically victimized by discrimination, no one condemns the fact that Bush has profited from preferential treatment his entire life, as have countless other politicians, pundits and celebrities. Affirmative action is not being attacked because it provides "preferential treatment." It is being attacked because it intrudes upon the nepotism, cronyism and sense of entitlement exploited by those born into wealth and power.

7. ALL LIFE IS SACRED was a common platitude in the late United States. But the massacre of November 2, 2004 has replaced this myth with a paraphrase from George Orwell"s classic book ANIMAL FARM: "All lives are sacred, but some are more sacred than others."

In truth the lives of the expendable and exploited were never as valued as the lives of the expenders and exploiters. And while the Iraqi war is a constant reminder of the absurdity of this platitude, the ordeals of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and Maurice Carter have graphically underscored its hypocrisy.

Dr. Kevorkian is currently imprisoned in the State of Michigan for helping the terminally ill end their lives, allegedly because his actions violated "the sanctity of life." Yet, just over three months ago, an African-American man named Maurice Carter was also in a Michigan prison, serving a sentence for a crime that many believe he did not commit. At some point during his twenty-eight years of incarceration, Carter contracted a liver disease that became progressively worse because of the inadequate medical treatment he received in prison. When Carter supporters filed a petition to gain him a new trial, the judge hearing the case condescendingly joked about the severity of Carter"s illness.

Although Maurice Carter was ultimately released after being granted a medical commutation by Michigan"s governor, it was too late. He enjoyed only three months of freedom before he died. Yet few have condemned the hypocrisy of a government that makes it a crime to end the suffering of the terminally ill, yet causes terminal illnesses itself through inadequate medical care.

So rest in peace America. As St. Paul said, "You fought the good fight." But the majority of your people did not keep the faith. Your dream of "checking and balancing" the corrupting influence of power to prevent the rise of evil was a noble endeavor. But history has shown that evil can never be checked, that tolerance often sows the seeds of intolerance, and that the majority of people will always be susceptible to the machinations of madmen.

You have been ravaged by hatred disguised as "morality." You have endured those who argued that the enslavement of Africans was "moral," who agreed that counting these slaves as three/fifths of a human being for census purposes was "moral," that stealing the lands of Native-Americans, either through bloodshed or fraudulent treaties, was "moral," that destroying Native-American traditions and cultures was "moral," and that placing women into insane asylums for demanding the right to vote was "moral." Now the hatred of the "new morality" is directed towards gays and lesbians, towards those who work for peace, and towards those who don"t simply blather about freedom, but exercise it through dissent.

I know there will be some, perhaps many, basking in the afterglow of their pyrrhic victory, who will dismiss this eulogy as "sour grapes," or the sentiments of a sore loser. But let it be said America that we who truly loved you did not strip away one freedom; we did not endorse one modicum of religious bigotry or intolerance; we did not place your fate into the hands of liars, thieves and war criminals; we did not brazenly abuse the resources of the American military to "play cowboy" or to appease our father; we do not have the blood of one American soldier or one Iraqi civilian on our hands. Because of this we did not gain the world, but we also did not lose our souls.

To those in other nations who read this eulogy, who are still mystified by how swiftly a once great nation was transformed into a neo-fascist nightmare, and how easily a man as hateful, hypocritical, venal, bloodthirsty, warmongering, sadistic and deceitful as George W. Bush was converted into a paradigm for "moral values," all I can say is that millions in the late United States are pondering these same questions. Perhaps the answer resides in three disturbing, yet immutable, laws of human nature.

The first law is that human beings are obsessed with bringing about their own destruction. Ever since the first caveman picked up the first stone and bashed in the skull of his first enemy, humankind has been devising more sophisticated ways to kill. Even though the atavistic instincts of the cave dwellers are currently masked by the veneer of neon lights and skyscrapers, the grim reality is that human knowledge has always outpaced human wisdom, and it is rare indeed when new technological advancements or discoveries are not explored for their potential use as weapons. As long as this obsession continues, it is inevitable that warmongers will always prevail over peacemakers in the realm of political power.

The second law is that evil is the primary motivating force in human affairs. Although George W. Bush and his minions personify all that is loathsome about human nature, they are merely the reflections of a self-loathing people repulsed by the responsibilities of living in a free country. Edmund Burke once said, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing." But the madness that murdered America on November 2, 2004 proves that evil will always triumph, regardless of what good people do.

The third law is that humans are exceedingly receptive to appeals to their basest instincts, which often compels them to act in ways harmful to their personal interests. Karl Marx believed that economic self-interest inspired people"s actions and reactions in capitalist societies. But this is only partially correct. Although economic self-interests consistently influence the rich and powerful, they frequently fail to influence the poor and middle classes, particularly when other interests are given priority.

In the antebellum American South, for example, many white residents earned their incomes working as skilled laborers—such as blacksmiths, silversmiths, cobblers and carpenters. But the wealthy owners of large plantations normally possessed slaves who were equally proficient in these skills. Consequently there was no incentive to pay for work that slaves were required to perform for free. Yet, when the Civil War erupted, many of these same white laborers lost their lives fighting to uphold the very institution that was impoverishing them.

This practice lingered into the civil rights era of the 1960s, as evidenced by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."s conversation with his white jailers in Birmingham, Alabama. When they informed King of their opposition to his efforts to desegregate the city, King inquired as to how much these jailers were being paid. He then remarked, "You are just as poorly paid as the average [African-American] man. You should be out marching with us!"

In those few perceptive words King encapsulated how the rich, white establishment had manipulated poorer whites into accepting the concept of "white supremacy," when in reality they were being just as exploited as their African-American counterparts.

This practice continues today under George W. Bush, the modern-day Nero who fiddled while America burned, and who now enriches his cronies with tax cuts, oil profits and lucrative "rebuilding" contracts, while deceiving his supporters in the poor and middle classes into believing their friends and relatives are dying in Iraq for "freedom and democracy."

It would be easy for those of us who loved America to be apathetic in the wake of its death. Why should we care how many have died and will die in Iraq when a majority of people are so willing to sacrifice their loved ones? Why should we clamor for truth, when this majority is satisfied with illusion? Why should we be disturbed about Halliburton profits, when this majority is gullible enough to believe Bush"s lies about the war? Why should we protest the bloodlust, butchery and bellicose braggadocio of a cabal of bullying cowards when such behaviors do not offend the "new morality?" Why speak out at all when history has proven that activism and compassion usually destine one for scorn, blacklisting, false imprisonment, suicide or assassination?

But please resist this apathy. There were many who believed the new millennium signaled the end of the world. But with the corrupt ascendancy of George W. Bush, maybe what the new millennium heralds is the beginning of the end. Perhaps all we can hope for is that the day after the apocalypse enough of the earth will be salvageable, so the species that replaces humankind can understand the price of folly and realize that even in humanity’s darkest days there were prophets and visionaries who recognized the face of evil and warned the world against it, but whose words fell upon deadened souls and hardened hearts.

Since this is a eulogy, permit me to end on a religious note. I believe that one of the most unjustly maligned figures in history is Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Judas, after all, acknowledged that he had betrayed innocent blood, and returned the silver before killing himself in remorse for his deed. Yet the betrayers and murderers of America have not only kept the money, they have laughed at the suffering they’ve caused.

Christ advised his followers to ignore the specks in the eyes of others until they have removed the timbers from their own. But, in today"s "new morality," far too many of those professing to be "Christians" deceitfully fabricate specks in their neighbors’ eyes, so the world will remain oblivious to the timbers in their own.

So in our grief let us not forget that, just as America was finite, the perpetrators of evil who infest the halls of power are finite as well. If there is atonement in eternity, then those who do evil, and those who enable them, will ultimately have to pay for their crimes. But dark days are ahead my friends, and perhaps the best we can hope for as this maelstrom of evil engulfs us is that we do not succumb to its allure, lest we become, like those who murdered America on November 2, 2004, people without souls.

http://english.pravda.ru/...

Forum posts

  • I would say that the democrat party is dying very quickly. America is fine. And I think it’s ironic that Pravda, a russian paper is publishing the eulogy considering that Russia is in such a bad state.

  • " a nation that continues to spend, year after year, more money on military defense that on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death" MLK

    Okay, we’ve been dying for a while here, but we’re not dead yet! Some of us are still fighting!

  • Remember that this doesn’t have to be read as things that are, but only things that can be. The people still have the power to stop the evil of the Bush regime. But they have to put down their television remotes, video game controllers and other toys and do it!!

    • Excellent essay, but I agree, we are not dead yet. In fact, the patient is just now getting out of the recovery room and beginning to wander about, angry, shaken, but very willful and gaining strength.

    • The new Christian God is bloodthirsty, corrupt, greedy, immoral, and a warmonger. To think that somehow that will soon change is only a fantasy. We are entering a new era, a new cursade lead by this God and his henchmen Bushco. We must do everything to thwart them. If you are a new Christian, drop out and do not support your church, hit them where they live in the pocket book, never allow lies to be uttered in your presence, always speak out and seek the truth, expose the hypocrits at every turn, and work for peace and justice with the outside world. The rest of the world is on our side and they can help us to keep the American dream alive by exposing what has happened here in the churches and the governemnt.

    • Please remember it is NOT all of us who voted for him! And I AGREE WITH PREVIOUS PERSON, who said that it DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY! PUT DOWN YOUR T.V. REMOTES, VIDEO GAMES AND WORK TO STOP THE EVIL OF BUSH’S REGIME! STAND UP AND FIGHT THIS FASCISM! AND NOW! STOP BEING APATHICAL AND WORK TO MAKE U.S. BETTER! GET UP OFF YOUR DEAD BUTTS AND DO SOMETHING TO HELP AMERICA OUT! STAND UP AGAINST BUSH’S FASCISM!

  • As a United States citizen by birth, I felt as if there had been a death in my family when I heard the election results on November 3rd, and then saw Kerry concede.

    Half of the American voters hate Bush and every policy he stands for. The current Republican party in this country is composed of a conglomeration of of power-hungry liars and cheats, and George W is their puppet. ( George doesn’t know that, but it’s a fact.)

    You ask how so many Americans could be cowed by this guy and vote for him this second time around (he lost the popular vote in the last election that installed via a right wing Supreme Court decision), it’s because the mainstream media in this country is totally owned and manipulated by the big corporations, like General Electric, Rupert Murdock, et. al, who suddenly own all the mainstream media in this country and only give us the news that will promote their own corporate interests.

    Most Americans, who barely have the time to keep up on the news, have been brainwashed by sound-bites.

    But there is good news in this country, too, in that in the last six months, we’ve orchestrated and supported a new liberal radio station, <http://www.airamericaradio.com>

    And people are listening to and subscribing to this new liberal outlet (counteracting Rush Limbaugh radio), so that it’s it’s listenership is meeting, or beating the Limbaugh listenership.

    Half of us here in the U.S. hate Bush and are totally opposed to his policies I would say that more than half of us are opposed to Bush, but this last Nov. 2, 2004 election had to be fixed in small ways across the country to get him elected.

    I won’t say re-elected, because he lost the popular vote in 2000, and was only awarded the 2000 election by our right wing biased Supreme court. Later analytic investigation of all of the votes in Florida showed that Gore would have won Florida.

    As an American, I’m feeling deceived, defrauded, over-powered by a lieing administration who can only stay in power by stealing elections, with a corporate owned American media giving them aide and assistance.

    There are a lot of uniformed American voters out here, but the majority of us thoughtful, caring voters out here have our votes hiyacked by fixed voting systems.

    • Great Comment. You should read Hoffman’s previous essays, DEATH OF THE BILL OF RIGHTS (Part One & Two) also on this site. Part One in particular deals with the corruption of the corporate-controlled media and how their influence is destroying freedom of speech.

    • It’s all a CONSPIRACY. Everything I don’t like is a conspiracy! I went to the grocery store the other day and they didn’t have any granny smith apples and I thought, WHAT A FREAKIN’ CONSPIRACY, MAN!!

      You people are really, really hilarious. The absolute embodiment of Stalin’s "useful idiots."

    • Recheck your facts. It is a fact that the mainstream media is liberal biased by approximately 87%. ABC, CBS, NBC, CNBC, CNN all supported John Kerry. Once again, an uninformed American. God help the world.

    • This comment was misplaced. It goes under the American from birth.

    • and you ... are an intelligent agent of the said "evil doers" ... it is funny ... but not in a way one could "laugh" ... how the few of you all sound the same and never have anything to say that is intelligent or disproves the issues or adds to the conversation ...
      oh yes, conversation ! ... we still are trying to have one here ...intelligent one ... not an intelligence one.

  • Sour grapes from a bunch of babies. The left is on its death bed and these are merely the death throes writ large. Your time has passed - get used to it. The American people can smell a rat. Democracy, optimism, pragmatism, self-reliance, decisiveness, and freedom are on the march. Pseudo-intellectualism, effetism, world-weariness, cynicism, elitism, analysis paralysis, defeatism, pessimism, socialism, communism are dead in the water. I know it hurts, as articles like this attest, but it’s just the way it is. George Bush and the American people embody the future. Jacques Chirac and the French people embody a morally bankrupt and fast fading past. It’s good to be alive.

    CK

    • But what if? What if the rumors of election fraud turn out to be true? Will skeptics like yourself be willing to eat your shorts for the rest of us? Its happened many times in history and thats what makes this country so cool. People who are entrenched and think they are completely right suddenly find themselves wrong. So be ready if this thing flips and Bush is thrown out.

    • If the United States government had always acted with integrity, then perhaps people
      could be faulted for yelling “conspiracy.” But it hasn’t. During the 1930s, 40s and 50s
      many authors, artists, and celebrities complained they were being spied upon by the FBI.
      They were dismissed as being “paranoid.” Years later it was discovered they were right.
      John Steinbeck even wrote a letter complaining about harassment by “J. Edgar’s boys.”
      Hoover apparently disliked Steinbeck’s novel, THE GRAPES OF WRATH. During the
      1950s radioactive materials were scattered over small desert towns so the government
      could study their impact on the population. This wasn’t revealed until the 1990s. During
      the 1960s rumors abounded about FBI instigated lies, frame-ups and murders. This was
      also discovered to be true (read the COINTELPRO papers). The Feds went so far as to
      furtively try and convince organized crime figures to murder African-American
      comedian/activist Dick Gregory because Gregory was giving speeches denouncing
      organized crime’s impact on poorer communities. During the coup of 2000, the very
      State that allegedly decided the so-called “election” was controlled by Bush’s brother and
      his rabid campaign manager Katherine Harris, who purged the voting roles. So if
      you don’t want suspicions of conspiracies, tell the government to stop engaging in them.

    • Rumors. The best you can do, with all the major media outlets poised to broadcast or print any worthless conspiracy claptrap you can produce, is rumors. If you have evidence, then fine. Put it out there. And I, with my skeptical eye, will evaluate it and see if it holds water.

      But if the best you can come up with is "rumors" that the people who originally manufactured the voting machines are all in on a conspiracy (a "vast, right-wing conspiracy" no doubt), then the voters of this country will continue to see you and your Democrat bretheren for what you all are - confabulists, in your own little world, wishing you were back in power, but in the meantime, blaming all your inadequacies come election time on one bogus conspiracy or another.

      But keep it up, though. You’re in good company, what with Bill Moyers and Walter Cronkite floating "rumors" that are even dumber than those all over the internet. And besides, in your world you’re RIGHT, and anyone who disagrees is MORALLY INFERIOR, and as long as you and other Democrats think this way, we’ll have Republican leadership in the White House and Presidency for a generation.

    • Oh brother, where do I even start?

      Let’s see, you’re positing a conspiracy that the actual vote count in Florida in 2000 favored Gore? Then how is it that every major news outlet and organization (including all the ones that had strongly favored Gore) came up with the same conclusion, i.e., that Bush won the election. There wasn’t a single legitimate recount that showed Gore with more votes. Hello? McFly? Anybody home? You really ought to, as they say, "move on," and rejoin the human race.

      I’ve always thought it was amusing that the Democrats, who were the ones to take the historic step of trying to win a presidential election by taking it to the courts, started out really happy with the judicial system when the Florida Supreme Court voted their way, but then became really bummed out when a higher court (namely the U.S. Supreme Court) overturned that decision and George Bush won the election. Now you either like the courts, or you don’t. But you can’t like the courts when the decision goes your way and call it a conspiracy when it doesn’t! Now that just don’t make sense, dang it! (Oh, I forgot. Any amount of ridiculous, irrational whining and fit-pitching is okay when you’re opposing the dark forces of evil.)

      But I digress. Is the United States a perfect place? Certainly not. Have there been bad things undertaken by bad people in our government? Absolutely. Should we be very cognizant of that fact and on our guard at all times? Yes.

      But (and stay with me here) that does not mean that everything that happens in the country that you don’t like IS A CONSPIRACY! Furthermore, just because a Democrat doesn’t sit in the White House does not make this country the source of ALL EVIL IN THE WORLD! It’s fine to be the patriotic opposition, but Democrats have made this a struggle to the death. You sit on the sidelines and hope against hope that we will LOSE in Iraq, just so you’ll be proven right. That’s simply unbelievable! You think your defining moment of morality was when we had to turn tail and run in Vietnam. (By the way, trust me on this, raising Vietnam as a campaign issue was not, repeat NOT, a good idea.) You believe that if we don’t please France, Germany and (that awesome superpower) Austria, we have somehow become a rogue state. It’s not acceptable that our interests could somehow be different from theirs on an issue.

      You just don’t get it. When Democrats go back and try to figure out what went wrong with the election, they should all look in the mirror and say in unison, "We just don’t get it."

    • To the poster above:
      It is your ilk that are morally inferior for placing your corrupt agendas over the truth. Like the poster above you correctly said, all the allegations of official abuse he/she cited were initially dismissed as "rumors." That’s the problem. You never learn. And they know that. That know that. like sheep, you will dismiss any allegations of official misconduct as rumors, and by the time the facts are discovered, it will be too late. The more things change, the more they stay the same. At least Hoffman is right. All the gloating of the corrupt, right-wing is constrained by the limits of morality. So gloat while you can, because hell awaits.

    • Wow! Really? Hell?? Gee, then I better keep my mouth shut.

      No seriously, you guys just don’t appreciate how truly funny you can be. You’re awesome. I mean, I just think you’re misguided and naive. But you think I’m going to Hell!! That’s hilarious! You should lighten up a little and you’d be able to appreciate the humor of your postings better.

      That’s perhaps the thing that most tellingly distinguishes conservatives from liberals. You threaten us. We laugh at you.

    • CK what you dumb shits never admit is that half of the population that is eligible to vote does not vote...why because they know what a sham it is and that the system is really just a one party fraud...so get over yourselves you got 30% of the total adult eligible voters to go vote for your joke and you think you have a majority on your side...but because you are so dumb you can’t do simple math....you have no idea how outnumbered you really are.

    • He who laughs last, laughs best.

    • It’s not the party that sits in the White House. It’s the person. A thieving war criminal who stole the 2000 election and then claimed his theft was ordained by God. And unfortunately America has enough so-called God-fearing people to believe it. Well even the Pharisees thought they were protecting their beliefs by crucifying Jesus. Now its the so-called "Christians’ acting in the same manner. I don’t know why they are waiting for the "second-coming." They wouldn’t recognize Christ if he were here, and would probably kill him again. After all, it was so-called Christians that put the anti-Christ in the White House.

    • Dude, you’re right! Power to the people! Burn it all down! The revolution is coming!

      Now come on - that’s funny! You have to admit it. You take yourself so seriously, and you’re a complete joke. A parody of yourself, like Yoko Ono. And just plain too dumb to realize it.

      No, man. You’re the one whose outnumbered. I’m pretty confident that maniacal goofballs like you represent less than 1% of the population of the United States. Most people are sane, respectful, hard-working and decent. They’re not looking for the next Mao or Pol Pot so that they can become half-assed revolutionaries.

      You’re living in a dream world, moron. Wake up and join the rest of society. We don’t need armies of semi-literate, quasi-socialist dimwits like you to save us. Your "movement" will never amount to a hill of beans.

    • No please don’t keep your mouth shut. One of the basic arguments now being made is that the ignorance engulfing America is what elevated Bush to the White House. Your comments help to prove that case. As Einstein once said, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity." George W. Bush is the God of the latter.

    • Touche, Einstein!

    • People like you would defend Hitler because he appealed to your warmongering, lying hypocrisies. Of course, you would deny it later on, after the truth were known. I’ll just bet you are one of those snot-nosed, silver-spooned punks who, like George W. Bush, has had life handed to him/her on a silver platter, a gutless chickenhawk all for war as long as somebody else is dying in it. Go listen to your Toby Keith records. Hell, he’s getting rich singing about the war, and he didn’t have the guts to fight in it either. When you’re writing your comments from the battlefields of Iraq, then you have a right to condemn. Otherwise you are nothing but a coward.

    • This discussion itself is actually pretty funny. It’s like trying to argue public policy with a raving lunatic. Entertaining, but we really aren’t getting anywhere. But no matter.

      Now remind me, when was it that Bush said, "I proclaim that my theft of the election in the year 2000 was ordained by God!" [exclamation point mine] I must have missed that issue of the NY Times (since I’m sure that must have been where you saw it.)

      Just for the record, the Pharisees, like Jesus, were Jews. Also, there weren’t really any "official" Christians until after Jesus died, so it would be hard for the Christians to kill him "again." Just a minor tautology I thought we should probably clear up.

      Other than that, your message read like the grandious and hyper-religious rantings of someone in the delusional phase of severe mania. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

    • Now see, that’s exactly what I’m talking about - just a wee bit over the top.

      No seriously, dude, you need to switch to decaf. I’m simply trying to tell you that your kind of lunatic fringe hate-speech is one of the major reasons that the Democrats cannot be taken seriously as a national party. There are way too many people like you and Michael Moore, who are all bile and venom to the extent that people tune you out and don’t listen anymore, for the liberals own good.

      You need to belly up to the table and offer serious, constructive criticism designed to help the world move forward. Don’t mope around and act like the people in Iraq were better off with Saddam (you don’t really believe that, do you?) Don’t cheer against people who are trying to establish democracies in parts of the world where no one has ever voted throughout history. And try having a few more levels of rhetoric other than shrill and shriller (Hitler? Dude, get over yourself).

      Once you have all that down, come back and maybe serious people will take you seriously. Until then, you will be no more than an object of ridicule.

    • Your soaring intellect takes my breath away.

      Actually, I’d be interested to know exactly when it was that Einstein said that human stupidity is infinite. As I recall, Eisnstein was quite the humanist, and he had a great deal of concern and respect for his fellow man. Maybe that was in a personal conversation with you and he was specifically referring to you.

    • Cowards who promote warmongering, election theft, etc. are the one’s who are the problem. You think you’re such a big man. Get over to Iraq then, instead of pontificating about how the world is better off without Hussein. Until you’re willing to sacrifice yourself for your Lord Bush, you have no right to criticize anyone who speaks for peace. It was about the oil you moron. Sudan, Burma, Tibet, amongst others are bleeding, but those people apparently don’t count to all you "pro-democracy" Bush hypocrites, because as usual the bottom line is money. It’s the so-called "conversatives" who made careers out of hate speech: Bill O’Reilly, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, none of whom by the way ever served in the military. You want to dish it out, but you can’t take it. Go hit up mater and pater for a new Mercedes, go to your Ivy League school on daddy’s donations like your buddy George W. did, but don’t play your "holier-than-thou" crap with people who see right through it.

    • This poster is absolutely correct! It is amazing to see how the number of "brave" warmongers in America has increased in the absence of a military draft. Perhaps a new draft could be instituted, where only those who voted for George W. would be required to serve. That way they could put their money where their mouths are.

    • Great idea, but undoubtedly they would be like their idols George W. and Dick Cheney, using their family influence and the deferment system to gutlessly avoid doing what they ask others to do. Limbaugh even avoided Vietnam because he allegedly had a boil on his posterior, and Wolfowitz, Rove, Ashcroft, Scalia, Richard Perle, and countless other war criminals all avoided serving their country in the military. That is the legacy of George W. Bush—a nation ran and supported by war criminals and cowards.

    • Well said. Also, lets don’t forget the evidence obtained in October(that the so called mainstream media for Bush never aired) that showed approximately 10k votes in Florida that was cast by people that also voted and reside in New York but have SECOND homes in Florida.

    • To these few pieces of shit. I’ve served my time. Where the fuck were you. As a matter of fact where are you now so I can give you a little of what I gave the pieces of shit that serve in the name of their make believe god allah. You do not have the right to say shit. I have a pass to any place in the world so lets hear where your AT.

    • I’ll bet you did. Hiding out in mater or pater’s business with your bigoted friends no doubt. Thanks for the hatred. You do George W. proud!!

    • Folks, the crap that passes for political discourse here is pathetic. Adios.

      CK

    • That is the legacy of George W. Bush, a hypocrite who built his career on hatred and divisiveness. He in many ways reminds one of the late George Wallace, who exploited racial hatred to build a political career. While many praised Wallace’s "opportunism," many others also felt his words might have encouraged racially motivated murders. While I know that in such a divided nation, healing and agreement is impossible. But let me say this: As I parent, I would never want to lose my child in a war, but I could at least take succor if the war was indeed an honorable one, where America was threatened and freedom and democracy were at stake. But to lose a child in a war based on a lie would be unbearable. You notice that neither George Bush nor Dick Cheney’s children are serving in their fathers’ war. That America could be so contemptuous of those who serve, and be so willing to sacrifice them for nothing but lies, is disturbing indeed.

    • Blah Blah Blah...the fact remains that 50% of the population who are eligible to vote do not vote, of the other 50% maybe at most 51% of those voted for the Dumbass...take a moment to find someone from the non voter group ask them what they think of voting, they will tell you they think it is a sham and that is why they do not vote...sorry you are living in a Little dream world so get over yourself...all you are is a cheerleader for a dumbass which makes you a dumbass wanna-be.

    • If you are elegible to vote and didn’t, you can’t complain. I’m so annoyed with people who dont vote but whine all the time.

    • Do you vote? No wonder Bush won. You can’t spell and the word "don’t" has an apostrophe in it. That’s why voting doesn’t work. Because the vote of the most well-informed voter can be negated by the vote of a moron.

    • Do you vote? No wonder Bush won. You can’t spell and the word "don’t" has an apostrophe in it. That’s the problem with voting—the vote of the most well-informed voter can be negated by the vote of a moron.

    • Do you vote? No wonder Bush won. You can’t spell and the word "don’t" has an apostrophe in it. That’s the problem with democracy. The vote of a well-informed voter can be negated by the vote of a moron.

    • Did you vote? If so, it’s no wonder that Bush idiot won, or stole, the election. You can’t spell "eligible" and the word "don’t" has an apostrophe in it. That’s the problem with democracy. Well-informed voters can have their votes negated by morons.

    • Before you vote again, maybe you should learn how to spell and use apostrophes!!

    • Did you vote? If so it’s no surprise that Bush won. You can’t spell and the word "don’t" has an
      apostrophe in it. This illustrates the fundamental problem with democracy—the vote of a well-informed voter can be negated by the vote of a moron.

    • Yes, I voted, and unlike you repetitive morons, I only voted once.

    • I always like the hypocrites who say one cannot speak out unless one voted. Well then, you have no right to speak in favor of the Iraqi war unless you are fighting in it. It is disingenuous to try to tell others to "put their money where their mouths are," when you are unwilling to do so yourself. If I have to vote to speak about American politics, then you have to have participated in combat before you can support Bush and his immoral war. Of course, you probably won’t see it that way, because Bush was too cowardly to fight in Vietnam, so I’m sure we can’t expect anything different from one of his supporters.

    • By your example, you have just negated american women from saying anything about the war since they are not allowed to fight in combat. You are an idiot. Every american citizen has a right to vote. That allows them to speak about their country’s foreign and domestic affairs in a democracy. If you don’t vote, you didn’t participate, you can’t complain.

    • You are the idiot, but of course you are too stupid to know that. That goes without saying since you support George W. Bush. There is nothing that prohibits women from serving in the military. I’ll just bet you are one of those gutless little punks all ready to warmonger as long as someone else is being killed, just like your filthy, thieving god George W. You’re a coward, plain and simple. Don’t try to pawn off your hypocrisy on women. If you want to talk the talk, then walk the walk. The next time you make one of your inane comments, it must be from Iraq, or else you only prove what a hypocrite you are.

    • You’re the one who looks stupid. The poster didn’t say women aren’t allowed to serve in the military, they obviously do. However, the US military doesn’t allow women to serve in combat duty. Take a breath, your brain is obviously fried.

    • Are you writing from Iraq? If not, then shut your gutless mouth you hypocritical piece of crap! If people can’t criticize unless they vote, then warmongers can’t support Bush unless they fight in his wars.

    • While I don’t necessarily agree with the tone of the above post, I do agree with its sentiments. It does seem hypocritical to say people aren’t allowed to criticize unless they vote, but that people are allowed to advocate war even when they lack the courage to personally participate in it. It is not difficult to be brave from thousands of miles away. One previous poster mentioned Toby Keith. It seems odd that more Americans aren’t appalled by a hypocrite who gets rich singing about "American soldiers," or "kicking Iraqi a**," who is apparently unwilling to personally participate in the war he’s hawking. It seems there is a thin line between patriotism and exploitation, and that too much of what is called patriotism is really the latter.

    • I’m writing in my comfortable chair in my comfortable house in my comfortable city. I can say anything I want and I choose to cheer on my military when they kill terrorists. If that’s not to your liking, tough. My president won, Kerry lost, and you can’t do a damn thing about it.

    • No, I can do something about it. I can loath you for your gutlessness and condemn you for your hypocrisy. I’m glad you finally admitted what a filthy coward you are. Big man (or woman) gutlessly sitting in his/her "comfortable" chair in the house mommy and daddy are paying for or helped you buy, smirking while young people die overseas. Yes, that’s the point you idiot. You can say anything you want, whether you vote or not. So stop applying the double standard. While those who don’t vote may not have participated in the process, they, as Mr. Hoffman said, also don’t revel in death and destruction, or have blood on their hands like those who voted for Bush. I choose to condemn filth like you for your hypocrisy, your cowardice, your ignorance and your selfishness. Now that you’ve exposed that to the world, I think you’ve demonstrated what kind of scum supports Bush. Laugh all you want now. For your support of crimes against humanity, you are destined to rot in hell. And you know what? There’s not a damn thing you can do about it either.

    • Perhaps a little forceful, but I agree with your point. As was previously pointed out, with the end of the military draft, America has been filled with "chickenhawks," which are people who support, and often exploit wars, but have never served in the military themselves. To them war is a spectator sport, and they do, as the poster points out, only "cheer" on the sidelines. It is too bad that they don’t experience the suffering they are so willing to inflict upon others. I’ll bet if Bush reinstated the draft, and this individual had to leave his/her "comfortable house in their comfortable city," for the heat of the Iraqi desert, the tune would change. It’s funny how, by their very condemnations, they actually confirm many of the points Hoffman made in his article. Like they say, give one enough rope, and eventually they’ll hang themselves.

    • It appears that the poster you are responding to has done something about it. He or she got you to admit your cowardice.

    • You posters haven’t proved anything. It is because I am very aware of how comfortable I am that I cheer on those soldiers. I know they protect me, my rights, and my way of life from bastards like you who don’t recognize their honorable mission, would degrade them, accuse them of all sorts of bullshit and would prefer that people appease saddam and osama and their ilk in their ill-conceived idea of peace and security under their islamic domination. You think real peace doesn’t come at a high price? If it weren’t for the soldiers and strong leaders like president bush we would end up like you euroweenies who are slowly losing their countries to a muslim horde who doesn’t believe in democracy and free speech.

    • It’s funny how all your whining and asinine, puerile ranting does not negate the fact you are a gutless coward, and I think any soldier reading your posts would realize that with friends like you, they don’t need any more enemies. Most people opposed to the Iraqi war support the soldiers just as much, probably more, than hypocrities like you. They simply don’t want to see them, or civilians killed because of lies about "weapons of mass destruction." Just because you’re too stupid to know (or admit) you were lied to doesn’t mean you should ask others to die for your stupidity. While Osama attacked this country, Hussein did not, so I don’t know what "freedoms" you think he was threatening. And even if he was, it’s clear that you are too much of a coward to be willing to defend those freedoms yourself. You are a typical leech, too gutless to stand up yourself, but always willing to benefit from the sacrifice of others. If the mission is so honorable, you should be over in Iraq, instead of in your "comfortable chair and comfortable house." You are a parasite. Fortunately now the world knows how vile you really are. Anybody willing to sacrifice the lives of others for lies, who is unwilling (like George W. Bush) to make such a sacrifice themselves but who wants to act like "big men" from the safety of the United States, and who mocks those who believe that the lives of soldiers and the resources of the military are too important to be wasted on lies and deception, is scum, plain and simple. Delude yourself all you want. I think the world now recognizes you for what you are.

    • I couldn’t agree more with the other poster’s response to you. Americans were told Iraq was a threat because it had weapons of mass destruction. That was a lie. Americans were told Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks. That was a lie. Now it’s all about democracy and freedom. Of course democracy and freedom apparently aren’t important in nations like Burma or the Sudan, since they don’t have any oil and thus can’t make Halliburton, and Dick Cheney richer. Hitler once said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. The willingness of so many Americans to sacrifice their young in a war based on lies seems to prove that point. Hoffman is right. If that is the American mentality, then the nation has truly died.

    • Great responses guys (or gals). It’s funny how when you let ignorant people ramble on long enough they always reveal how ignorant they really are. Hussein was a secular leader and Iraq was a secular state, and thus he was viewed as an infidel by bin Laden and his followers. It’s frightening when one thinks of how many opinions are not based on the facts. In fact, some have argued that the greatest beneficiary to Hussein’s overthrow is Iran, which is a theocratic Islamic state. The war was about oil and Bush’s personal vendetta against Hussein. And if his lies and abuse of the military resources of the United States for his own self-interest is not an impeachable offense, heaven knows what is.

    • What a self-righteous bunch you are, and all with 20/20 hindsight. Everyone thought he had WMD otherwise why did the UN pass 17 resolutions and keep complaining that the inspectors were being prevented from doing their jobs. It’s so easy for you guys to carp, whine, criticize, complain and be holier than thou but you guys didn’t do anything to prevent saddam from worsening the situation, you guys didn’t offer a viable alternative solution, you guys didn’t do anything but march around and blame the US for everything. You guys are just a bunch of pharisees, pretending to care but not really do anything about it just so that you can mouth off and complain and be self-righteous. You are the REAL HYPOCRITES.

    • Hey, you should take your act on stage. It could be called America’s stupidest people. The UN also called for more time to do inspections and felt no need to rush to war. And plus that, your use of the term "Muslim Hordes," demonstrates you are nothing more than a religious hypocrite and bigot. By using such generalizations, you not only fuel hatred, but you condemn millions of Muslims who do not follow bin Laden. I’m sure if bin Laden referred to "Christian hordes," you, if your pea-brain could comprehend it, would be offended. Unfortunately there are so-called Christians, and you apparently can count yourself among them, who are nothing more than self-righteous, hypocritical bigots who gutlessly hide behind their religion in much the same way you hide in your "comfortable house," while soldiers are dying. The above poster was right. Delude yourself all you want you ignorant, gutless, hatemongering bigot. Like Hoffman said, people like you are truly "people without souls."

    • I notice that all those so-called fears about weapons of mass destruction were not enough to get you off your cowardly rear end and leap to the defense of America by joining the military. And you have the gall to talk about hypocrites. Look in the mirror pal.

  • Did you vote? If so it’s no wonder that idiot Bush won. You can’t spell and the word "don’t" has an apostrophe in it. In your comment resides the problem with democracy—the vote of a well-informed voter can be negated by the vote of a moron.

    • See above, you must be spastic.

    • To the above poster.
      In defense of the individual with the repetitious messages, I noticed that this website had been acting up and not posting messages right away as it once did. Perhaps that caused the confusion.

  • Here is a fun exercise to mail around…It’s a revision of the constitution…Since the constitution was a document that came about from our forefathers desire to escape the tyrannical rule of “The Old Country,” England of course but France, Spain, Germany and the like all had their tyrannical leaders too…And guess what they all had in common? Vast wealth and armies…

    So our forefathers escaped that and attempted to set up a system to try and keep the powerful from becoming too powerful. Hypocritically however, many of these men had achieved wealth in the new world by exploiting the lives of kidnapped Africans. Prosperity at the expense of others. A trend that never ends but should end and can end.

    And after reading the constitution again I am struck at how its idealism is mostly in our heads. At first glance, it seems like a bunch of guys we’re at a negotiating table attempting to divide up power fairly.

    Which is great if you are one of the wealthy slave owners at the table but otherwise the masses were thrown a bone while the ruling elite of this country kept most of the power for themselves. What is admirable is the attempt to be fair. The negotiating with an eye on creating a system that checks and balances itself is closer to natures design…But as we can plainly see over 200 years later…we are suffering from extreme imbalance…Why? Because the poor and middle class masses are still merely slaves to the slave owners and the check and balance system basically excludes them from the process.

    Now we all talk about the New World Order as if it has to be an evil thing…And the way it is supposedly designed, if you believe many of the documents that have made their way across the world on the internet…has largely the same filthy rich families attempting to control everybody and everything…With one money system that funnels all wealth and power back into the ruling family banking system.

    And that of course makes the rest of us a little nervous. As options quickly fade and we are left with just the few choices…That is clearly the devil winning and the rest of us losing.

    However, since the masses have never actually truly ever been invited to the negotiating table wouldn’t it be the one pivotal idea whose time has come to tilt the scale back to the center?

    Having said that my idea is this…Let’s send this document around the world and invite the masses, mostly the poor and middle class to suggest revisions for the New World Order constitution which gives the overwhelming majority of people on this planet the strongest voice and power which can in turn demand accountability.

    Of course I have many ideas to make this work such as a world law that demands all secret societies and spy agencies stop playing their manipulative deadly games. That the ruling elite who creates the need to spy on one another to blackmail or frame people into doing their bidding need to have a serious time out. They need to go to a room and think about their behavior for a while.

    Can you imagine a child in your neighborhood who gathered all the other children in the neighborhood and secretly provoked them to bad things to one another? Would parents stand for that?

    After reading the constitution it is clear to me that if a class system is to remain then their needs to be some serious respect given to the voice, labor and humanity of the poorer masses. But since so many people have died in wars for reasons that may or may not have been a lie and we’ve come this far…Either we tear it all down and start again or try and add, subtract and mend the world with one key difference…Serious input from the poorer masses.

    So I began the rewrite and I invite you and people across the world to add your ideas as to how a world constitution should work…It’s time the poor and middle class have representatives at the table…But most of all it has to stem from the individualist theory and not the collectivist…That the tree is the forest…No tree greater or lesser…Just individually wonderful…A tree that is proud to be part of the forest yet still unique, taking in carbon and giving off oxygen. An, “I’ll fight for your rights if you fight for mine”, existence! A system that has a floor no one will slip under…Housing, healthcare and food for all…

    We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

    Revision

    I an individual of planet Earth, in order to form a more perfect world, establish justice, insure world peace and serenity, provide for the defense of each individuals rights, promote balance, and secure the blessings of fairness to ourselves and all of nature establish the constitution of The United Peoples of Earth.

    Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United Countries of The World, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

    Add: Elected officials will consist of an equal number of “working class” Senators and Congressmen…Whose income reflects his or her role in life…And whose salary will be fixed at a working class rate to assure that they will only be motivated by representing the people.

    Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every second year by the people of the several states, and the electors in each state shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the state legislature.

    Add: All representatives should serve 4 years with a two term limit. All elections should take place at the same time every 4 years to lessen the confusion and political game playing that enters into important bills. (All pork attached to bills should be outlawed and previous pork bills revisited and overturned)

    No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the age of twenty five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state in which he shall be chosen.

    (Revise it with all people represented or leave it just the way it is so the ruling class can buy their own version?)

    (And remember folks…this is fantasy so try not to go ballistic on me…Afterall…If the masses were represented in the first place we wouldn’t be facing the Patriot acts at all.)

    Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states which may be included within this union, according to their respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each state shall have at least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the state of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

    When vacancies happen in the Representation from any state, the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies.

    The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers; and shall have the sole power of impeachment.

    Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, chosen by the legislature thereof

    , for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.

    Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the Senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any state, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies.

    No person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that state for which he shall be chosen.

    The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided.

    etc. and so on and so forth...blah blah blah...

    www.shatteredelbow.com

  • Just stumbled across this article. Very compelling and in many ways still very timely. Hopefully the 2008 elections will not be a fraudulent affair that inspires another eulogy.