I learned two things from the experience:

1. It never pays to merely disclose a wrong doing. You must be prepared for total warfare and you must go to gut or kill your opponent using whatever legal or illegal means are necessary.

2. The legal profession became a business. When I entered practice it was still a profession. That has long since disappeared.

I have seen the same with the DEMOCRAT party and this country. It is not a matter of my giving up. It is the sorry fact that the country and its citizens have given up.

For the details, see:
“Yahoo, Communist China and Bush’s America.”

How do you let the blatantly illegal and unconstitutional actions of the presidency continue without getting the spine up to push Bush on even one issue?

It’s not an issue of spine…it’s an issue of complicity.

The Democrats are not cowards…they’re merely acting that part, just as the Republicans act the part of incompetent fools. They’re actually full accomplices.

many people bemoan the state of the two-party system in this country, not even aware that there aren’t two parties at all…just two heads of the same beast.

While I may disagree with some minor points you’ve cited, JMOHR, it saddens me to admit that I’m in complete agreement with your conclusion.
Comment by TripMaster Monkey — November 7, 2007 @ 12:32 pm

Some who have seen my prior posts on this and other sites will see a definite change in my attitude. At one time I believed in this country and the Democratic party.

I am a recovering attorney. I had loved the law and this democracy from the 3rd grade when I decided to be an attorney. By the time I was in high school, I was already a fixture in the county law library. I knew how to Shepardize a case and use West’s citation system. I believed in our system of justice. I knew that it was not perfect. I knew that there were prejudices, inequality and criminals. However, the system always seemed to advance in the right direction.

My faith in the system, my faith in the law and my faith in our democracy have been shattered. The truth does not matter. Issues do not matter. We live in a country dedicated to winner take all. It is death to the loser. No wonder why we have adopted a “whatever it takes” attitude. It has poisoned our country. It has destroyed our future. After a quarter century of practicing law, I came to understand when a client or opponent no longer had the spirit to carry on the fight. I see that in the DEMOCRAT party. I see that in the American people.

We were a country that had so much promise. We had achieved so much in the past. We had the potential to achieve so much more in the future. grieve for the death of the American spirit.

For too long, I have noticed the signs of my own spirit failing. It is hard to give up on an idea or a country. But I have.

Actually, the majority of U.S. citizens elected John Kerry in 2004. However, about 1.6 million of their votes were thrown out due to errors such as voting in the wrong precinct, insufficiently punching chads on defective machines, or being black.

Comment by toasterhead — November 7, 2007 @ 12:29 pm

I wish that I could agree. However, just as in 2000, the DEMOCRAT party would not stand up for democracy.. I could understand Gore making the mistake. How do you let it happen twice? How do you let the blatantly illegal and unconstitutional actions of the presidency continue without getting the spine up to push Bush on even one issue?

While I may disagree with some minor points you’ve cited, JMOHR, it saddens me to admit that I’m in complete agreement with your conclusion.

Eventually, every nation gets the kind of government they deserve. We deserve to be downtrodden plebes in the Orwellian New World Order of the neocons. We deserve it because we stood by and watched.

We stood by and watched as this criminal cabal rigged the 2000 election and installed themselves in power.

We stood by and watched as the greatest attack ever on American soil was deliberately engineered by this criminal cabal.

We stood by and watched as this criminal cabal used our shock and paranoia to stampede us into a war with a country that had nothing to do with 9/11, on the basis of lies.

We stood by and watched as this criminal cabal dismantled our Bill of Rights, and rescinded habeas corpus.

We stood by and watched as this criminal cabal spied indiscriminately, without warrants or oversight.

We stood by and watched as our “president” drafted over 750 signing statements, declaring himself above the law.

We stood by as this criminal cabal rigged the 2004 election, using the same tactics it used to secure the 2000 election.

We stood by and watched as this criminal cabal imprisoned suspects without trial, and practiced torture upon them.

We stood by and watched as this criminal cabal ruthlessly politicized the Justice Department, insuring that we will never see another truly impartial and fair election in our lifetimes.

We stood by and watched as a new Attorney General was confirmed, despite refusing to acknowledge that waterboarding is torture, and despite maintaining that the President is above the law in times of war.

And now, we’re standing by and watching as this criminal cabal agitates for war against yet another nation that has done nothing to us, again on the basis of lies.

(I’m sure I missed a few things…please feel free to add them below.)

The verdict is just. We don’t deserve freedom.

Comment by JMOHR — November 7, 2007 @ 12:14 pm

Actually, the majority of U.S. citizens elected John Kerry in 2004. However, about 1.6 million of their votes were thrown out due to errors such as voting in the wrong precinct, insufficiently punching chads on defective machines, or being black.

The United States is marching towards an authoritarian, oligarchy. They will be ruled by corporate interests and a few elite, wealthy families. This is as it should be. The American people have proven themselves to be unworthy of freedom. Just look at the evidence that the vast majority of our citizens are inferior:

1. The vast majority of US citizens do not believe in evolution. Thus they have proven themselves intellectually inferior and incapable of fact based decision making.

2. The majority of US citizens elected Bush to a second term despite the fact that he lied them into war and acted in an incompetent manner in the conduct of our foreign, military and domestic policy. Once again, it shows that US citizens are incapable of determining what is in their own best interest.

3. The majority of people in the US pissed their pants after 9/11. Now, 9/11 ranks down their with chasing Mexican bandits for the real threat that it posed to the US. However, the majority of US citizens seemed to believe that Bin Laden posed a greater threat to us than all of our enemies from WWI, WWII, the Cold War, Korean War and Vietnam combined. OBVIOUSLY A COUNTRY OF SNIVELING COWARDS.

4. A majority of US citizens believe that they would rather give up a little freedom for some degree of security. The American people have proven that they deserve neither freedom or security.

5. THE DEMOCRAT PARTY proved that our political process is unable to fight a tin horned, incompetent dictator wannabe such as Bush even though the DEMOCRAT party was given a clear electoral mandate to do so.

WE WILL SEE THE US REDUCED TO AN OLIGARCHY WITH THE VAST MAJORITY OF ITS CITIZENS LIVING IN ABJECT PARTY. WE WILL SEE THE SHANTY TOWNS OF A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY. WE WILL SEE ENCLAVE OF THE RICH WITH THEIR MERCENARY ARMED GUARDS TO PROTECT THEIR WALLED HOMES FROM THE RIFT RAFT THAT WILL COMPRISE THE MAJORITY OF OUR PEOPLE. WE WILL SEE OUR CIVIL RIGHTS SHREDDED AND THE IMPOSITION OF A STRICT POLICE STATE/THEOCRACY TO OPPRESS THE MAJORITY. WE WILL SEE THE RISE OF MANY OTHER COUNTRIES INTO A POSITION SUPERIOR TO OURS. WE WILL SEE THE CHINESE AND OTHERS DICTATE OUR FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC POLICY BECAUSE WE WILL BE DEPENDENT UPON THEM FOR FINANCIAL AID AFTER OUR COUNTRY COLLAPSES.

WE WILL DESERVE THE FATE BECAUSE WE FAILED TO ACT WHEN IT WAS CLEAR TO ALL THAT A DRAMATIC CHANGE WAS NEEDED.

Have you heard him sing…you’ll understand.

Comment by toasterhead — November 7, 2007 @ 11:01 am

Yes, like dear Ken Blackwell here in Ohio. I guess I’m just going for the “official declaration” that our democracy is gone. But then, I’m still hopeful that 2008 will be a new “surge in democracy”. If I’m wrong, well, I’d rather have my delusion than the neocon’s.

Bizarro World!!

Comment by PatrioticLiberalChristian — November 7, 2007 @ 10:31 am

We already did that in 2000, and probably long before. As long as campaign officials can serve on state and county election boards and have the power to disenfranchise voters through caging lists, hanging chads, and unverifiable black box voting, we don’t have a democracy.

Comment by Rovian Stormtrooper Commander — November 7, 2007 @ 10:04 am

So then you support requiring a court order to wiretap a suspect, right?