Campaigning on the Corpses

For five years George Bush, Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney have been conducting the most obscene political operation in American history. They have used the terrorist attack on the United States on 11 September 2001 not as a way to unify the American people and bring down the full measure of their righteous outrage on Bin Laden, but rather as a political weapon to be used against their domestic opponents. They have cynically and viciously used the 9/11 dead to intimidate the Democrats, to accuse them of cowardice, irresolution, even treason. The media allies of the Republican political establishment, Limbaugh, Coulter, O'Reilly, Savage, Hannity, and the all the other right wing propaganda scum have called us traitors for daring to question the wisdom of "Dear Leader". Democratic war veterans have been savaged and smeared by Republican draft dodgers, cowards, and deserters. Terror alerts have been used, blatantly and brazenly, as a political device, as witnessed by the repeated fraudulent terror alerts during the 2004 election campaign. And through it all the Republicans have used fear as a way of ramming the agenda of the lunatic right down our throats, endangering our civil liberties, our country's financial future, and our standing in the world.

The so-called "morally upright" conservatives have shown themselves willing to excuse and support anything, no matter how brutal, in the name of "victory".

They have loudly supported the use of torture against our enemies, over the protests of the military leadership and key members of Congress.

They have called for the bombing and slaughter of not only Iraqis but Iranians and Syrians as well. Coulter, for example, advocated "carpet bombing" Iran. (Funny how a Republican can call for mass murder and be allowed to get away with it in this country.)

They have allowed Bush to ignore Congress more than 750 times.

They have supported the establishment of a virtual police state that has libertarians more alarmed and frightened than at any time in our modern history. Even a conservative former Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O'Connor, has said that the United States may be headed for "dictatorship"--her word, not mine.

And at every stage of these abuses and depredations, they have used the dead of 9/11 as a bludgeon. They fully intend to do so this year, and have naturally already begun. They attack us as weak, even though it is they who failed to nail Bin Laden. They attack us as incompetent, even though they ignored countless warnings about 9/11. They accuse us of weakening the war against the terrorists, even though it was they who stripped our forces and intelligence services of manpower in Afghanistan and transferred them to Iraq. They have used 9/11 to wage a relentless fear campaign and to transfer enormous amounts of money to their political benefactors and supporters. And they have wrapped themselves in the flag all the while, proclaiming their of love for America while gutting our country of all those things which are best in it.

But no more.

We must strike first in the 2006 campaign. We need to define them, to accuse them, to indict them, to politically destroy them. We must no longer let these cowards and thugs use the dead of 9/11 as a shield, the way criminals use hostages as shields in standoffs. We need to call them on this once and for all.

We need the money, the guts, the fire, and the determination to win. Look at what we accomplished in 2005, beating back Bush's attempt to destroy Social Security. Look at what we did in getting Tim Kaine elected in Virginia. Look at what we did in just the past two weeks, raising holy hell about ABC's right wing 9/11 propaganda. We can win when we stand united and proudly call ourselves Democrats and PROUDLY DEMAND THAT THE TRUTH BE HEARD!

The time has come for the Republican radicals, extremists, and fanatics to get their asses handed to them. It is time for them to taste the bitter cup of defeat. It is time for them to be humiliated and called to account. It is time for their downfall, this year and in 2008. It's time to seize the moment.

And we're just the people to do it.