As for radicals I see far more on the Left than I do on the Right. Conservative Radical is a contradiction in terms.

Accountability has to be put to the forefront.

The Ethic committees need to do their jobs (or Im going to flip-flop and support the executive/judicial branches investigating the Congress).

We need to separate public servants from money. If you want to be a politician, be a politician, dont use your position to amass your fortune or plan your next career move.

The political pandering needs to be controlled. This starts and ends with pork. Sean Hannity made a great point (did I say that?) on the illegal immigration bills – stop working on the mega-bill with amendments and write, vote on and put in place a border security bill with nothing attached (as he says a simple up or down vote).

This needs to be the new legacy of the US Congress – simplicity. Maybe Im dead wrong – maybe the country cant function without pork, maybe the government is just a mega-corporation that is giving subcontractors (aka US citizens) work and keeping the us economy afloat, maybe “free market” means “US-govt influenced free market”.

Katrina is a perfect example – why the heck are we spending billions to rebuild a city that is under sea level and a community that is at high risk that will eventually get washed out again? If this was solely a private industry investment the bayous would reclaim the land.

You can suggest we do it all over (california:earthquakes; midwest:tornadoes; name a city
: name a river) but the reality is the government is doing poor long term risk analysis. The more we develop high risk areas, the greater the reconstruction costs when disaster strikes.

Sorry about that, Im babbling.

Sum up: Radicals are a part of life – just pick and choose whose litany you value.

Leftist-Pacifists are milking both disasters. As they always have, and always will. Victimology. It’s a core thread of the ideology.

Some of us agree with those of you who believe in accountability. Ie. your positions are perfectly reasonable. Others take these arguments and more and push them to unreasonable extremes with obviously partisan motives. I don’t disagree with you.

Yes you got my point. In fact, I think if we see a police state in our lifetime it will most likely be Leftist.

Katrina fits that mold. With the approaching hurricaine season, the levees are still not up to snuff and all the scientific investigation and planning in the world is useless amidst the political backwaters of bureaucracy.

No one in the media is calling for impeachment? Robbins’ misplaced arrogance (aka stupidity) thinks the media directs the cows (and thus tries to play them). The ire (conveniently spewed at the “left-wing” media) is misdirected. Where is congressional oversight? What happened to the ethics committees? What happened to the intelligence committee? (Senate Intelligence Committee now replaces Army Intelligence as the classic oxymoron – House Ethics a close second). Where is the House Judiciary Committee?

I guess theyve been too busy drafting English as a First Language legislation (and of course the equally comical – we dont need to translate to speaka di ingles if we already translated amendment).

There are two things I can say about free speech – 1)you get what you pay for and 2)talk is cheap.

Not everyone that was opposed to the Iraq war and the methods by which we got there are bleeding-heart-liberal-pacifist-anti-war-activists. Some of us believe in accountability, even in the face of an enemy, even when the intentions were good or even when there is a happy ending.

Some of us believe the government not only needs more transparency (within reason) but is beholden to the people in that regard. Every time we scratch the surface, some other mind-numbing revelation streaks across the media – and the knee-jerk conservatives cry out traitor, leaker, national security and aiding the enemy (it doesnt matter who is in charge).

I am one not to dismiss your fear. But to suggest leftist-pacifism will lead to police states or theocracies is no better than neo-con activism leading us towards facism – but then maybe thats your point.