The White Man's Burden

The blank check greases the axles of the Endless War, Justin Raimondo via Chris Floyd:

The news I have for "netroots" types and Huffington Post liberals who see the Democratic Party as the major if not only hope for the antiwar movement can be summed up in two words: forget it. Majority leader Sen. Harry Reid recently let the cat out of the bag when he said, "There is new reason this week to believe that a bipartisan consensus on Iraq is emerging."

Translation: the sellout is coming, if it isn't already here.

American voters sent a clear message to Washington last November when they voted to put an ostensibly antiwar Democratic Congress in power: they told pollsters the war was the big issue, and, furthermore, they wanted out of Iraq. They voted Democratic not because they suddenly believed that party would end "the culture of corruption" – which is a very bipartisan phenomenon, and voters aren't dumb enough to believe otherwise – but because they took seriously Democratic promises to get us out of Iraq. Before the election, leading Democrats called for a timetable aiming at complete "redeployment" of U.S. troops out of Iraq: immediately after the election, however, the Dems capitulated to the "surge" (even as their "antiwar" rhetoric waxed louder). Last week the House voted down a measure that would have withdrawn the troops in nine months. If you follow the link you'll see that Madam Speaker allowed the withdrawal vote "in the hope that her rank-and-file would then unite behind the funding bill" – a two-part bill that would release some $48 billion initially and then schedule a summertime vote to appropriate $52.8 billion more to cover expenses until the end of September.

The White House has threatened to veto the two-part funding ploy but coupled this with an offer to negotiate on the Benchmark Question. All eyes are now on the Senate, reports the Christian Science Monitor, "where majority leader Harry Reid and White House officials have been hunkered down in secret negotiations. Last week, Bush said he had empowered White House negotiators 'to find common ground on benchmarks.'"

Caught between the Democratic Party's antiwar base and the War Party's control of the reins of power in Washington, Pelosi and Reid have been walking a tightrope between the two, but their balancing act is increasingly untenable. Pressure from the ranks of groups such as MoveOn.org – whose leadership initially colluded with the Democratic sellout – has forced a turnaround, and the MoveOners have now issued an ultimatum of sorts to the Dems in the form of an open letter: they're threatening to move "into opposition"!

It's link-rich, too, and goes on for quite a little bit longer. Tasty stuff. Rich but, alas, not filling.

Because we don't have the Dems. I have to agree with Justin, I've been pounding this drum for awhile- we don't. What we have is an option to aid in the change of the Company Chair. Maybe.

It's only maybe, because the Bu$hCo-Cheneyburton crew have consistently shown themselves more concerned with their Neo-Feudal perogatives than with making money for the Company in the long term.

It also creeps out many card carrying Reptilicans how gauche the Christianistas are. How they rule all with the fist. Even the other Aristocrats. It's enough to make Soros send money to the DLC.

We don't have Dems. That leaves us with nothing that can change the equation.



There is only one thing you can say for certain. If the $ystem approves the solution, the solution is no solution at all. Lacking answers, the best that can be done is to watch, and learn, and try to stay out of the crush as the $ystem takes the arc of its decline to its lowest state.