both sides of the aisle. As for the MSM, journalism went out of fashion a long time ago in favor of regurgitation. That won't change until the laws governing media ownership are returned to the restrictions existing before the "deregulation" frenzy.

What you can be sure of is that if (when) there is another (foreigner) terror attack in the US, the MSM will immediately set out to cast blame. That blame will fall on anyone who opposed more Executive power to "protect" us, count on it, and it will be unrelenting

If the only focus of the Democrats is to win the Presidency in ’08, and it is, then it doesn’t make any sense to get on the wrong side of the blame game now. Politics is brutal, and there is no reason to expect Democrats to trust that an electorate that put Bush in reach of the White House –twice! – can sort out who is really to blame for another attack.

Letting Bush get in office was a big mistake, and we will be paying for it a while longer. Pity that, but it is the way it is

Of course, bringiton, you're right:

What you can be sure of is that if (when) there is another (foreigner) terror attack in the US, the MSM will immediately set out to cast blame. That blame will fall on anyone who opposed more Executive power to “protect” us, count on it, and it will be unrelenting.

Nothing we do will prevent the Republicans and the Conservative movement from doing what they do. I think it was Gephardt, bless his heart, who said during the Clinton impeachment: "They won't be able to help themselves." In other words, they always over-reach.

So, since the attack will come--since, in the calculus both of the attackers and the authoritarians here in what used to be our home, it's necessary (see Shystee's notion of emergent conspiracy)--why are we cowering in the face of it? Why not change the rules, and defuse and devalue it?

It's all based on fear. The backbrain. But our ancient liberties are the best defense against fear! (Being free is just as much a backbrain thing as fear. No animal likes to be caught in a snare, or tricked.)

In a way, it's the same issue I had with the Democratic leadership when they capitulated to Bush on the war. I see the calculus, after the fact, but they didn't prepare us for it.

Same deal here. Why not say, the attack will come (because the Republicans butchered the job of protecting us). We will not let fear change us from being a free people.

Something like that. Since the attack will come, why not be active in structuring the discourse to our advantage before it does?

No authoritarians were tortured in the writing of this post.

If the Louvre has a room dedicated to bullshit, the unreality-based community's distortion of the basic, obvious facts of FISA should be ensconced as the masterpiece.

and trying to deal with irrationality.

The Republicans are nuts.

The electorate is delusional and in denial.

The Democrats are afraid, and by God they should be; I am too.

You need to come to my place sometime for family holiday dinner. Every time I make a change in the menu I get bitched at, but they still eat my food and drink my wine and breath my air. Dealing with dysfunctionality is not easy to do, nor is it straightforward. Meantime, over the years I have completely revamped the holiday meals from depressing shades of tan to something approaching vibrancy. It took time, but I got my way and everyone is still speaking to me. Somehow, I view this as a success.

The Dems are doing the best they can with what they have to work with. Recent evidence does not support the concept that honesty is the best policy. Sad, but there you are.

That seemed to work pretty well, back in the day.

Rational? Maybe not. But then FDR was only physically a cripple.

NOTE Of course, I fear the Bush administration a hell of a lot more than I fear the terrrrrists. The terrorists can kill but they can't take my country from me. The Bush administration has done both.

No authoritarians were tortured in the writing of this post.

Adults in 1941 had been through the Great Depression. They were used to deprivation and understood what was required to face hard reality.

Most voting adults in this country today have never known deprivation of any sort. They don't feel, in any immediacy, perceptable pain from this administration's actions. Until they do, you won't see them taking to the streets in any numbers. Talking won't get them motivated, they need physicality in leadership, so get out the torches. Start marching.

But really, the Bush administration has certainly not taken the country from you. They've laid claim to it, which is bad enough - who do they think they are? - but not at all the same thing. They're just bullies, and clumsy bullies at that. Absolutely right to go after them, unmercifully, but it isn't like it is all lost, and certainly not as bad in terms of loss of civil liberties as what was done under FDR with imprisonment of more than 120,000 citizens, or the state supported anti-German terrorism under Wilson
http://www.theseverts.net/German.htm#ANT...
or suspension of habeas corpus for ALL arrests of ALL citizens under Lincoln or the domestic terror under McCarthy and HUAC, just to name a few instances.

It is bad, no argument, but it has been worse and the nation survived and, amazingly, became ever more liberal in the years that followed. I am a Whig for history, that was no joke (well OK a little one) I truly am. You're right to raise an alarm, you're right to call for action, you'd even be justified in taking some - peaceful action, that is - but in the end these criminals will fail because they will undo themselves. The really hard part is what to do about picking up the pieces, also good that you have some ideas in that regard.

Difference is in strategy, not in objectives. You're a fine fellow and I like you. Let's be friends.

Sure, I tend to be a little more, er, Shrill, in a short comment than a long analytical piece. They haven't taken the country yet, but, as you put it, they have laid claim to it, and they've done an awful lot of damage over the last few years.

(Who said friendship was incompatible with a knockdown, dragout argument? Sometimes it can be... But so far, unlike the administration, things haven't gotten out of hand...)

No authoritarians were tortured in the writing of this post.