Where Is The Outrage?!

[Steely_Dan]

I'm beginning to feel overwhelmed by all that is going on. I think about what our great nation has become under the leadership of Bush...I would have never dreamed that the character of our country could change so quickly and dramatically. I mean...I'm used to seeing other countries go through this kind of change. I simply thought that our country was far too stable and our checks and balances far too effective to allow this to happen. Doesn't it take decades for this kind of change? I guess not.

No matter how long I dwell on the endless number of errors and poor judgment demonstrated by this administration, I always arrive at a single question: "Where is the outrage?"

Oh yes, I know that WE are outraged...you can read it here at anytime. My question is how can a country allow its leader to continue down a path of self-destruction without making even the slightest attempt to bring him to task?

Today I heard that they will allow Nader's name on the Florida ballot even after a judge ruled that his name should not appear there. I mean...these people don't even TRY and hide their corruption. What's worse, is that no one seems to care if this administration breaks the law. WHY?

Iraq is in a shambles. We are mired in something that we can't even begin to imagine ten years from now. Why is it so clear to me (even before the war) that this was a horrible idea. You can't force democracy on a country with the barrel of a gun. Its been tried before...many times. Democracy must come from within...from the people. Otherwise, it will never come to fruition. Why is it that so many of us here understand this truth while so many others can't seem to learn from the past? It amazes me.

Are the American people unwilling to accept the fact that their country committed a horrible and ill advised war that cost countless lives. Is it easier for them to support this cause than admit that 1000+ soldiers died for no just cause? Are they in denial? Are the acts so horrific that the average American cannot believe that their country would do anything remotely close to what we have seen?

We are a society of "distraction." Distraction compounded by our short attention spans. Everything is a distraction...and just when we need to focus on the issues...the distraction machine goes to "11." Terror alerts, reality TV, Viet Nam, National Guard, forged documents, all presented in living color by over dramatized talking heads with agendas that mystify us. It never ends. It is all too much...especially with so much at stake.

And yet...
I will leave work today, listen to talk radio on the way home, turn on the tube and channel surf between cable news networks attempting to garner any nugget of information that will further my belief that this is all a dream. Just a dream.

-Paige

[Kanary]

1. It didn't happen suddenly.

While it may *seem* like this all came about quickly, because of one misadministration, that's not what happened.

The signs were all there, 20 + years ago. Where was the outrage then? You see, we all believed so much that it could never happen here, that we have allowed it. At some point, we all have to take responsibility, and learn a hard lesson from this, and keep teaching that lesson to following generations -- "Freedom requires constant vigilance"

That is, *IF* we are able to right the ship of state again.

If not, then future generations will learn the hard way.

The *VERY* hard way.

Then, *they* will understand outrage.

:(

Kanary

[Booster]

11. I think that's why they hated Clinton so much. It's pretty

obvious from their own sexual liasions, adultery, etc, that it certainly wasn't Clinton's bj; it was because he interrupted their plan and, if you remember, they weren't so hard (hard, yes, but not as hard) on him the first 4 yrs, but when he won again, they got panicky because their plan was put off for 8 yrs and they went after him with a vengence. That's why they're going after Kerry with a vengence also, because if he gets in he will probably by there 8 yrs and they can't wait that long.

[mctrotter5]

2. Thanks for your thoughts, this morning I read what Putin was doing to

his country under the guise of terrorism, taking over the courts, ending and balance of power etc and thought, similarly, we may lose years of democratic tradition with the last tip of Bush grabbing 4 more years. What will it take for people to see all that we have already lost?

[Meshuga]

3. The Outrage Will Not Be Televised

Hey, there is plenty of outrage but that voice is not heard because the media refuses to report properly.

[sweetheart]

4. cognitive dissonance, mate

America is mentally ill. "it/we" is the new imperial rome, and it
can do no wrong, as might makes right. The people are supposed to
sell their souls and life forces to make rome great, and all that
means is more television stations and better choice in fattening
fast food after midnight.

Bush and his crime buddies should be in prison, for lying to the
american public and subverting the constitution to make war. It is
rather clear the crime, just the deception is, like you say, to
involve the whole country in the crime, so they cannot persecute
the offenders.

In buddhist thinking, they often say that life is impermanent; a
dream state. It is not to say it is not substantial and tangibly
real, rather that it is soon changed, lost and forgotten. This dream
will change. It is bush's job to destroy the USA completely so that
it can never again become close to superpower status. You are
caught up, as many at DU, in denial of his power to subvert what
we believed was essentially good and capable of wise governance.

So after a dose of california dreaming, canada, australia, europe...
There are many places to dream a happier ephemeral dream, where the
public is not perverted, and the government criminal. Just it takes
more work to hang in such places, than simply turning off your radio
and embellishing your own case of cognitive dissonance to deny
totally any connection between your wise self, and this nest of liars
in republican washington.

[Steely_Dan]

5. Thank You

I needed that.

-P

[Matilda]

9. Sorry to destroy your dream ....

but I see something similar happening in Australia under John
Howard. We have become a more selfish society, with a sharper
divide between the have-nots and have-everything-and-want-more
brigade, we have become less tolerant, less humane (it's a fact
that donations to charity have fallen off in recent years), more
xenophobic. And while John Howard has been proven to have lied
to the Australian public and to the Parliament time and time again,
there are those who think that it's unimporant - so he lies, so
what? Don't all politicians lie?

I'm not at all surprised that Bush and Howard get along so well
on a personal basis - they're cut from the same cloth.

If Howard is re-elected next month, I really don't know that I
want to continue living here.

[sweetheart]

10. Howard must go down

I have no happy dream of howard's land. I refer, actually, to the
nation state, and its rather healthy democracy, in a relative sense to the
USA. There are many places on your great continent, where you can
make a home and forget howard and his bush war cronies.

Honestly, i'd prefer new zealand myself were i to choose oceania.

Howard must go down on October 9, it will be the precedent for bush
going down. you are not forgotten, and you can always move out of
the big city to enjoy a remote countryside until the evil leaders
are deposed.

Aznar is down, blair must go, berlusconi, chiraq, howard must go, bush must go. We the
people of the world cannot tolerate criminals in our governments, and
must reject them totally, leaving them no foothold of legitimacy for
their blind racist war.

For all australian troubles, i doubt sincerely that many aussies
would change places with americans. It may be bad there, but as long
as the pukes are in power, it is bad everywhere they hold sway.

[Matilda]

12. New Zealand is looking increasingly attractive!

Funny - I lived there briefly many years ago, and left because it
was just too conservative - about ten years behind Australia, which
was then about five years behind Europe in outlook. Now it's a
progressive paradise in our region, and I'm giving it very serious
thought, and urging my husband to do the same.

We're probably inherently a little less conservative than the U.S.,
but Howard is pushing the country further to the right, and getting
away with a lot of things that the left should be screaming about,
but aren't - and a lot of that is due to the media, as in the States.
Such as the politicisation of the intelligence and defence services
(sound familiar?), and the anti-terrorist bill he got through
Parliament (with the aid of Labor, who made only very minor changes),
which is not too far removed from the Patriot Act. Beats me why
most Australians just accepted it without a murmur - even that their
16 year old children can be picked up and questioned by police or
intelligence services without their parents' knowledge, and with no
lawyer present, and held for 48 hours with no charges being laid
(Howard wanted the age to be 14, but Labor insisted on 16 - BFD -
they're still kids at that age, and how frightened they would be).

I won't go on - but I hate to think what another three years of
Howard will bring - he's an evil little man who has dragged this
country down to a level that suits him.

[walldude]

6. While I am constantly outraged

on a daily freakin basis, I always think it can't get any worse, then it does. I almost hit a guy at work today for claiming that Novack had every right to demand that CBS reveal it's sources. I mean it's like arguing with an alcoholic . There is no logic, reasoning or explanation. All I've been able to do is walk away. It's insane. I really can't wait for the election so we at least know whether we need to celebrate or start grabbing the pitchforks and torches.

[librechik]

7. I've got a callus on mine. It's been there since the impeachment.

now all I feel is helplessness and yeah, like you, I keep thinking this CAN'T be happening. I used to be so proud of my country, that we were so tolerant and diverse, and compassionate. Now these greedy hypocrites have trashed all the things I appreciated most about the US: that we were not a thought camp like the Soviet Union. That everybody had a chance to succeed. That we gave our children a good education, at least.

I used to be so proud of my country and its opportunities. Nowadays if you don't think just like The Leader, you are a traitor, a terrorist. The Pukkkes blatantly exploit religion and fear to influence the electorate. Propoganda is the norm. Now we could care less about educating everybody, especially the poor ; that privilege is going away, along with the promise of universal healthcare that Medicare seemed to be so long ago, and social security.Intellectuals are ground up and spat on. Even though we are far richer than any of the industrial nations that currently have universal health care, for some reason we just can't afford it. (Meanwhile the insurance, big pharma and health industries turn gouging and usury into The LAW.

Now we are no better than a banana republic. It's our own fault. We got compacent after Watergate and VietNam, we didn't want to go through the hell of pushing an unpopular social movement again, we kept quiet and allowed the Conservatives to trash even the very idea of liberalism (a movement, by the way, that kept many of them off the battlefield.) Now we have no voice except what the CEOs of Republican multinationals allow us. Shrub has abandoned the high principles this country cherished, all the time claiming to be the true and holy repository of those principles. The lying & hypocrisy is unnerving in the extreme!

I feel like my whole life in the US has become a long silent scream. I even refer to it like it's a foreign country now, that's how bad it is. And although I think of myself as an eternal optimist, I really don't see how we can ever get Our Country back. We blew it big time.

But they had to cheat to make it happen. I have that much.

[Steely_Dan]

19. Thanks...

I couldn't have put it better myself.

-Paige

[Palacsinta]

8. I was just asking that today!!!

..............I was driving with my daughter and I saw an American flag and I burst into tears..........yes, WHERE IS the outrage???

[doc03]

13. Bush's statement " you are either with us or against us" to

the rest of the world. His refusal to speak to the NAACP. All of his rallies are by invitation only. When he was in Wheeling WV one of his people recognized a couple as Democrats and they where ejected from the arena. From what I heard they didn't have any anti-Bush t-shirts on or anything, they just wanted to see the President, it was the first time a sitting President had been to Wheeling since 1963. This is very disturbing to me, it's like if you disagree with him you are not an American. I really believe that we are going the route of Nazi Germany.

[maverick hombre]

14. Wow...

Some very thoughtful and sensitive words. It reminded me of exactly how my mother spoke when I joined her for the Olympics. The flag, and the destruction brought to what it stands for, brought her to tears too. Her dad (grandad) was a WW I vet, I have his flag. If I wasn't such an ornery and angry cuss, I'd be crying too. My oldest son is in the Marine Corps, right now at Camp Fallouja. To think of what this bastard and his "Banana Republican" Junta is doing to the honor and memories of those who serve with honor is beyond outrage...I don't have words for it...other than I'm madder than hell, if such a thing exists.

[bling bling]

15. I feel outraged

I started watching t.v. again this week (besides the Daily Show) so that I could see the Kitty Kelly interviews on the Today Show. Tonight I was surfing around to see if she was on any other shows. She wasn't at that time, but I already had the remote contol in my hand and out of morbid curiosity I decided to watch Bill O'Reilly and Hannity and Colmes for the first time ever just to see for myself what it was like. Holy huge mistake! There was so much outright lying, dis-information, and hypocracy spewing from that channel that I felt like I was watching an SNL parody or satire of the news or something. It's hard to comprehend that anybody can take that channel seriously.

Won't happen again.

[Lindsey]

18. I literally feel like I'm in a parallel universe...

On my way home from work tonight, I was thinking what I think a countless number of times everyday - are people simply not hearing and seeing what I'm hearing and seeing? But then I think of the things that are obvious: The war in Iraq was and is a lie, a disaster, a nightmare - and everyone KNOWS it. I feel like screaming to any pro-war republican that I run into,"How would you feel if it was YOUR son or daughter, nephew, or niece?!?!?!" I saw a bumper sticker today on a car at a red light that said, "I support our troops." I wanted to literally get out of my car, go to the lady and ask her how exactly she supports our troops? I wanted to say, "have you encouraged a love one to join the military and go to Iraq?" I wanted to say WHAT DO YOU FUCKING MEAN? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS YOU FUCKING IDIOT." I'm sorry, I try not to loose it but everyday it just gets worse. I can understand them not knowing about things like the PNAC - but they fucking know that * and his GANG OF THUGS tried to stop the 9/11 investigation. THEY KNOW THAT. WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was thinking tonight that if he stays in power, I will seriously need to consider moving. My best friend just moved to Costa Rica and I'm actually getting my passport this week - something I've put off for years. God help us all......

[Matilda]

16. As part of the rest of the world, I feel outraged too.

There are so many serious problems that are facing all of us today -
the environment and climate change (truly frightening), and global
poverty and disease. These are things that only "first world"
countries working together can grapple with, but we are all being
distracted by Bush & Co. and their push for world domination.
Meanwhile, the poor are getting poorer and more and more people
are added daily to their number, the polar ice is melting and
we're facing huge climate changes which could in the end wipe us
out.

And the way Bush is going, we could all end up disappearing in a
nuclear holocaust somewhere - what will world domination be worth
then?

[grace0418]

17. I sympathize

I'm outraged so much of the time these days I have outrage fatigue. Bush has to do something really disgusting to even get me riled up anymore.