Open Thread! (I'm F.O.O.W.)

That's Fresh Out Of Words.

What's up in my pages is all I got. What's left - except to summarize? It's all about the clash between electoral politics and real politics.

In comments below, Readers are invited to discuss whatever is on their minds. But first . . .




















You know, I just to had to borrow this poster (at least some of it). I just can't help my self. It's irresistible: what I've been saying for a long, long time.

I've also been trying to say what Howard Zinn said very well a few days ago:

When a social movement adopts the compromises of legislators, it has forgotten its role, which is to push and challenge the politicians, not to fall in meekly behind them.

We who protest the war are not politicians. We are citizens. Whatever politicians may do, let them first feel the full force of citizens who speak for what is right, not for what is winnable, in a shamefully timorous Congress.

Timetables for withdrawal are not only morally reprehensible in the case of a brutal occupation (would you give a thug who invaded your house, smashed everything in sight, and terrorized your children a timetable for withdrawal?) but logically nonsensical. If our troops are preventing civil war, helping people, controlling violence, then why withdraw at all? If they are in fact doing the opposite - provoking civil war, hurting people, perpetuating violence - they should withdraw as quickly as ships and planes can carry them home.

It is four years since the United States invaded Iraq with a ferocious bombardment, with “shock and awe.” That is enough time to decide if the presence of our troops is making the lives of the Iraqis better or worse. The evidence is overwhelming . . . .

We are not politicians, but citizens. We have no office to hold on to, only our consciences, which insist on telling the truth. That, history suggests, is the most realistic thing a citizen can do.

Other than this, I have nothing to say today.

For the balance of the day (or eternity) discuss whatever's on your mind on any subject.

For starters - if you are F.O.O.W. - you might go to Mikael’s Impeach Bush Blog and speculate on why I didn't publish the entire poster.

If you have Fresh Words (on any subject) by all means post them up, too!