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11/07/2005: Time to Tap into the Vast Majority of American Politics...
...The NON-Voting Party:"CONNOLLY: [overlapping] See, that's why people are flocking to my political party. I've started the Non-Voters Party. [laughter]
MAHER: That's a big party.
CONNOLLY: If you – we're now in the majority. [laughter] And we deserve representation, don't you think? [laughter]
HIRA: That's the genius of this strategy, right? Every time he does something right—
CONNOLLY: [overlapping] And our platform will be we'll promise never to appear anywhere. [laughter]
HIRA: Or say anything.
CONNOLLY: And we'll change the locks on all the government buildings and go home. [laughter]
MAHER: Yes, I know what you're saying. Lower – lower – he [GW] lowers the expectations—
HIRA: [overlapping] The bar is so low that every time he does something even at a mediocre level, we're clapping, we're applauding. You're holding your breath for every nomination, like, “Lord Jesus, let this be the one.” [laughter]
-- Bill Maher’s Real Time with Guests Billy Connolly, Nadira Hira and Tony Snow.
Or how about this tid-bit: The voices in Columbus say the president's in trouble by David S. Broder:"...Public and private polls confirm that, as usual, Ohio is an accurate barometer of the national political trends. Bush has slumped badly here, as he has across the country.
...
But the dominant factor in the changed political climate — identified by my Republican friend and confirmed by the voter interviews — is the war in Iraq.
...
Those deaths are much more personal — and the wounds much deeper — than the damage to the president's support that has been caused by any of the more recent controversies that have roiled the waters in Washington.
Yet a few sentences later, Broder writes this:"...As for the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Cheney's main man, for allegedly lying to the grand jury investigating the "outing" of Valerie Plame, it might as well be happening on another planet. More often than not, voters say they know something of what has happened, but as they start to describe their reactions, they find themselves saying that they are not sure who was doing what — or why.
Except for an occasional Democratic partisan, I found no one who was upset with Bush for the actions in his official family — or for the president's silence on the subject up through the time these interviews were being conducted.
But the war is something else..."
Amazing on its face.
First that a significant portion of the public has NO Idea WHY the indictment of an White House official in the first time in more than 135 years is Important or even are "curious" about what it might be about (Lies, False Statements and Obstruction of Justice about the Outing of the Identity of a Undercover CIA agent In a time of WAR!!) is incredible.
Why Incredible? Because the facts of this Plame/Traitorgate case ARE about the WAR. About the Administration Smearing of a Critic over the Intelligence used to justify the WAR by committing the further indecency and affront of OUTING an NOC CIA agent (his wife) to make the Critic look bad or his trip to Niger as a form of CIA Agency nepotism.
Well, similar to Watergate, much of the public at that time was confused and unsure of the issues (and that was a complicated matter compared to this.) But I am still shocked at the level of ignorance and incuriosity on the part of these Americans over this as directly related to the topic they "claim" concerns them most: The WAR.
But supposedly it is now approaching the More "personal" and "wounds yet deeper," to cause this Vast Majority to look up from their Daily Bump-and-Grind and ask the deeper questions of “Why ARE we there?” and “What Price we Will Pay” in the long term for starting this WAR.
It's a start.
Karen on 11.07.05 @ 07:13 AM CST
