fickle | Beginning of the End.

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Beginning of the End.

Apathy is not cool. Political apathy is even less cool. Yes, being indifferent and saying you don't give a damn might be easier, but this is your world. Either be part of the process that decides how it's run or -- there is no 'or'. Because you live here, you are subject to its laws, and you need to be part of the process that decides how you will live your life.

The other option is just letting yourself be herded and exploited, and as a free human being, that is not what you are meant for.

This journal is going to have a lot of public, political entries that urge you to sign petitions or fill out pre-written e-mail forms and send them off. I know it already does, but instead of just telling you what's going on, I'm now going to start telling you what you can do about it. To the people that don't live in the US, I'm sorry your flists are going to be clogged up with US politics, but let's face it, the US has an unprecedented level of impact on the rest of the world -- if the US is rotting, you can bet that other countries are being infected too.

Today's cause is Bush's Contempt of Congress, and how he urges his staff to defy Congress as well.

Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, outright skipped a House Judiciary Committee hearing because they'd ordered her to testify about her role in the months-old U.S. Attorney mess. Likewise, Josh Bolton who is the current Chief of Staff, disobeyed a subpoena when he refused to give up White House documents that Congress had demanded by law. Bush, in the meantime, is the one who ordered them to do so and is trying to claim "executive privilege" so that the public won't have to know what he's doing in the White House.

This is wrong.

We have a right to know what he's doing. We have a right to know what his staff are doing.

And perhaps most importantly, we need to know that President Bush can be held accountable for his actions. The American people should be the jury, but apart from that, Congress needs to be respected. Bush cannot be allowed to run America any old way he feels like that; we have a system of checks and balances for a reason, and that reason is that America doesn't need a President with ultimate power -- or "executive power" -- over the whole country.

Sign the petition to have Congress fight executive privilege. Miers and Bolton have to be held in contempt. If this was a court, any judge would hold them in contempt for withholding evidence and refusing to show up. There is no reason for them to get special treatment just because Bush is scared that the truth will come out.

Sign the petition. Take a stand. Care. Do something!

Edit: YES! Citations! There IS justice in this world!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

People deserve their governments. I come in with a bias which would throw most locals, and despite what's happening it's going to take another 5 years before anyone notices.

I'd sign, but it's not my place to. Soz, but the more I see that relates to politics, the less I'm going to come back ^^.

Love yah all the same; I believe in your cause *huggles*.

I know this likely isn't the best place to put it, but I remembered a post you had a while back about how you liked colours that didn't quite match the 'norm'. Well, I bumped into some really cool ones with their HEX equivilants and it made me think of you Corn Flower Blue girl XD. Click me! (http://www.colourlovers.com/blog/2007/07/24/32-common-color-names-for-easy-reference/)

Awww, thanks. XD *clicks and enjoys!*

*huggles* my pleasure. <3 you.

Love you too! XD

*points to subject line*

I had a few free spaces, so I deleted some icons and added a few ones. XD

Not if you didn't vote for him! I didn't vote for him!

And wah, that's totally not my intention. *hugs you back and loves you a lot as well* And yeah, I know you can't sign but on the PLUS SIDE, they're getting cited! *points at her edit*

The peoples voice is restricted at a time of war. What better way than to wage a war with an unseen enemy. When this war is over they'll go into China or Korea; more likely Korea because it's easier to beat up on a smaller country.

Neither you or I voted for him, but he got in because lots did. Lots of bush supporters somewhere, never actually met one.

It's sad when a government has to fall back on such rules to cover it's tracks. I won't go further because, again, I can't step into this one.

*clicks and reads methodically*

But see, the thing is, it shouldn't be. Complacency isn't patriotism. Patriotism is not defending your country, right or wrong.

People should have every right to say whatever they would normally. And I am. As for China or Korea, doubt it. I really do. He's got no reason to invade China and it produces so many goods that America needs that it would be stupid to do that. Why on earth did you think China or Korea? ~~Syria would've been my guess a while back.~~ But I don't know. I hope not. Iraq's been such a disaster so far, let alone Afghanistan, that you think they'd have to quit it.

Not to mention that we're having "regime change" of our own very soon. *crosses fingers* Or, well, soonish. Eventually.

And see? Citations! They're been forced to divulge info!

There are lots of people that think black-and-white that it's just Saddam coming out of power and so it was a good outcome. They're ignoring other things because they think some magical Karma will balance that out. Patriotism has changed in definition and now it's exactly what you say it shouldn't be. It's another way to corner people by calling them un-patriotic, and it's synonymous with un-american.

I think the whole Middle East will get a big inflow of money for the US pull out. It won't be very trendy for a new government to go into there again. Syria isn't doing much right now anyway, why would you think that?

China is blanking media coverage. Most people who go abroad from there don't even know about Tiananmen square, and right now they're coming to the point where they're going to be a power to be reconned with. What's more, the CTBT wasn't going to be backed by Korea or China because the gun-ho Americans wouldn't drop their stance.

I'm sorry Fickle; but I walked away with a very sad view of the place. Maybe it's nicer where you are. Your regime change will go back to what the last government looked like. The best you can hope for is a president that does nothing eventful.

Take a look at Purple America (http://www.princeton.edu/~rvdb/JAVA/election2004/PurpleAmericaPosterAll50.gif) if you want a look at the trends over the years. Don't they now say "if you vote for a 3rd party, you're throwing your vote away"?

...Who thinks that? Hardly anyone supports the war in Iraq by this point. That's why all the Democrats were talking about WHEN to pull out, not IF. And patriotism isn't a word that can be changed so easily. There's a whole movement afoot to protest the idea that a patriot means being quiet! Un-American, sure that's a term that gets abused, but we can change that. We can fight it! There's no reason to just say 'this is how they want it to be, so we will fold and roll over'.

And what? Syria was having problems with allowing supposed terrorists into its territory from Iraq. That's why I thought that.

China, on the other hand, has been a major trading partner with the US for years. Economically, it would make absolutely no sense to invade China. And it's not like Bush is actually invading countries based on principle -- why should he care if there's a media blackout in China? He's trying to create one in America.

And what? No, no, no. The best I can hope for is a President who'll undo the damage that Bush did. The best that I am hoping for is a President who'll revoke the Patriot Act, stop trying to crayon on the Constitution, give up executive privilege and fix the country. I know you left without liking it much but Matt, that doesn't give you the right to talk about the country without doing some basic research or to argue from assumptions.

Am I saying America is perfect? Of course not. Am I defending it? Nope.

Am I saying that it always has to be like this? Definitely not.

America can be fixed. There's no reason to give up on it. Where I am, right now, is Austria where ten, twelve years ago, I was proud to be an expatriate American. I would like to be proud of being American again. I believe it can be done. I don't think that it makes sense to hate the whole country because Bush sucks -- America is a country like any other. It has its fair share of idiots, but it also has good people and I believe that next election, the smart people will prevail because eight years of Bush's reign should be enough to make anyone wise up and realize what an idiot he is.

And what's that graph got to do with anything? Yes, America's a two-party country. But there's only a few pure red districts, and you can't say over the years when the graph only represents the results of the last election. Looking at the graph, it'd be like half the houses in a block just seceded.

Who are most of the people I went to school with and the think tank places that I got to know.

Terrorists are becoming costly to flush out. Invading a place and playing the bad guy will have consequences, like desperate people whom could easily fit the already barely-defined role of "Terrorist".

No comment. China is a trading partner to everywhere because they've got such a large amount of labour. I'm saying this based on agency watch-lists and people I know who are eyeing the place. The "any excuse will do" thing comes to mind for the States invading Iraq, why wouldn't it work later on China. Korea has it's own problems.

Everything else feels like I've got to get up on a defensive stance. I didn't like where I was, I don't think the people who live there are bad, just the government. Foreign policy and local policy don't appeal to me, and the pretty colours are just to show it'll just swing back and forth. And I think both parties are just as bad as each other. A reform will just go back to the other party. They'll use Bush's failure to leverage themselves.

Which is still not everyone.

Yeah. Which is why invading any more countries would be a dumb, dumb, and DUMB thing to do.

What no comment? You don't go upsetting good trade relations. There is no reason to invade China and it's not like Bush actually cares about the ideology involved. Any excuse will do isn't the sort of mindset that'll work any longer; Iraq was a failure. There's no way that the American people would go for another war and China is a major league power. Even in the UN! Absolutely no way would the world let China be invaded.

If you're having an argument or a debate with someone, then yes, you need a defensive stance to defend your points. If you can't defend your points, that usually means that they're wrong. The fact that it'll swing back and forth is a good thing -- I liked Clinton's America! It was a good one. It didn't have most of the world hating America! What's wrong with the idea of the Dems being in power?

Your current government sucks. Your future government sucks. That's my opinion and I don't even come into it. People will vote the way they think is better based on who wasn't so recent. I don't even have a say in the matter.

Call me sometime? Perhaps we can strike up something not-so-political to talk about.

I don't see how you can say the future government sucks unless you have something personally against every single candidate that's running. But yes, the current government sucks. And people vote depending on the stance of the candidates on issues that they care about. If your theory of 'who wasn't so recent' was right, nobody would ever get re-elected.

I'm at work right now. And shouldn't be obsessively answering comments, probably, but politics counts as UN business, technically. And the future of the US does matter to me, which is why I am going to be talking about a lot in my journal -- there's no use just complaining about something, you have to take action to change it.

You only lose if you give up. America is not yet lost.

That icon.

Eerie.

But on the other hand, this one is adorable. ♥

♥ The one it was, if I remember correctly, definitely ♥

Oops, must have deleted it. *dies* But this one stays!

LoL It's 'aky. <33

xDDDDDD wow ♥

Oh yeah, second thing. Only 51% of the country voted for him. Of them, a lot of them changed their mind later which is why his approval ratings went down. So even if you ignore them, the other 48% definitely don't deserve to be tarred with the same brush.

It took them a term for half of the voters to realize he was that bad. There was a chance to bail. They changed their minds later and most of the coverage isn't debated on issues. People don't connect the dots and they forget what past governments did. Of course they're going to change their vote if they lied about their promises.

48% should form their own country. 51% is majority so roughly greater than half were satisfied at the time.

Hey, initial election? Bush lost the popular vote. They disliked him at the start but then, there was a war on and generally speaking, people don't want to switch presidents in the middle of a war. And for his second election, he had such a narrow win.

And of course they'll change their vote if he breaks his promises! The people that voted for him expected things he didn't deliver. I think that's a very valid reason for not liking him -- if I voted someone into office because they're pro-choice, anti-war and pro-human rights, I'd be very disillusioned if they banned abortion, invaded the moon and legalized slavery. Though Bush hasn't been quite so liberal, worse luck. He's just majorly failed at ending the war in Iraq and bringing the troops home.

...They're not satisfied now and Matt, that 48% is very scattered! They can't make their own country, it would be like half the hairs on someone's head randomly turning purple. They're not grouped together. And the half that voted for him but now repents? They've repented. They wouldn't want to be in his country any longer because he's failing at it!

There's such a thing as making a mistake and acknowledging it, you know.

Initial election doesn't get quite the same turn out.

Don't take this personally Amila, your counter arguments seem personal. I don't think there will ever be a satisfactory government there, you're still riding against majority ruling.

And yeah; I know you can make a mistake. I'm just fine with acknowledging my own mistakes and trying to fix them up. Perhaps charging full on makes it harder to accept though. Politics are brutal, and people are fickle.

He lost the initial election. He barely won the second.

How am I taking it personally? I didn't vote for Bush. I don't have anything to apologize for. I'm kind of stunned by the stance you're taking and how little you seem to understand about the American political system as well as current events, but that's about it.

He won by 51%. That's hardly a landslide unless you're buying into his mandate bullshit. A majority the other way only requires two percent shifting our way. Or my way. And more people disapprove of Bush than approve of him; the majority of Americans are on my side now.

And I'm not saying that I made a mistake. I'm saying that if someone voted for Bush and then regretted it, it's better than the people who voted for Bush and are still in favor of him. Much, much better. That is acknowledging a mistake and fixing it, as best as they can since they can't revote until next year.

Politics are brutal, people are fickle and this is the system and there is no point hating people that voted for a leader that they thought would do right by them. They were wrong, but the point is, they still voted the way that they thought was right and now the whole country is suffering for it. That doesn't mean that every American should be victimized under Bush's policies and it definitely doesn't mean that the fact that they have to fight against their own constitution should be dismissed with they voted for him so they deserve it.

P.S. It's Dasanti these days, remember?

What gets me the most about this is how it's going to look in fifty years. What's your opinion on the actual validity of petitions as a mechanism of change, though? I'd rate that somewhere below the "passing out shiny buttons" but somewhere above "glaring at your television when the news comes on".

Talk to you if/when you crop up on gmail.

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure on that. On one hand, I doubt he bothers to read them. On the other hand, if you make enough of a fuss, people will listen to you.

"The squeaky wheel gets all the grease." Quotation from a Peanuts cartoon, oddly enough, but it's stuck in my head.

If a lot of people sign petitions, then the numbers are counted. Democracy is supposed to be about the people running the government; it's our votes on the line, so if we sign petitions, then we're making it clear that this is an issue that matters to us and will sway how we vote. Even if they don't care who we are, they probably still count the votes and use that to decide where a country is.

Passing out shiny buttons is great. Glaring at the television, well, at least you have an opinion. Signing petitions or sending e-mails is something that makes it very easy for senators, representatives, the people who come up with statistics for the news or whomever to see what the figures are. 5K signatures? Okay, that's five thousand angry Americans from whatever state. Probably deserve some attention. 50K? More likely to get their cause pushed through.

Calling them would be even better but let's face it, journal entries nagging people to call their representatives would get ignored. With petitions, there's a better chance that people will click it, sign it, and thus make themselves heard.

I'm glad someone is fighting for America, at least.

One state at a time. XD

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Beginning of the End.

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YOUR NEW ICONS ROCK XD

Thank you!

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