Americablog foams at the mouth about the useless Democratic non-opposition to Alito.

This is just that much more evidence of why there needs to be a major blood-letting in the Democratic party, and soon. Heads need to roll. ROLL. People need to lose their jobs, en masse. After 2000, no one took responsibility. After 2004, no one took responsibility. And now it’s happening again. Our wonderful party leaders are sitting back and scratching their heads wondering why the country isn’t simply running into our arms while they sit back and do nothing to earn the country’s respect and loyalty.

Your party leaders are not wonderful. The problem isn’t incompetence, it’s complicity. There’s a tiny ruling elite whose interests are opposed to the interests of the rest of us, and that elite contains members of both parties. Consider that Democratic leadership isn’t just gutless, but that at the top level they are in basic agreement with the Republicans. That’s why they aren’t doing anything.

There needs to be a major revolution in the Democratic party. Heads need to roll, and soon.

Stop hoping Dem leadership will do something. The change will not come from the top down. Real change never does. Instead, it will come from the bottom up. Then, either we become the leaders, replace the corrupt current system with something beholden to the people, or at the very least, force them to do the will of the people.

Build an independent movement, don’t wait from Dem leadership to do something. From womens’ suffrage to the union battles of the 30’s that brought us the 40 hour work week and safety regulations, to the civil rights and the anti-war protests of the 60’s, it was independent movements, people in the streets, that forced the change.

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South America is tlting strongly leftward. The hard left Evo Morales just became president in Bolivia. The indomitable Chavez in Venezuela becomes more popular every day and has resisted numerous US attempts to oust him from office.. And now we have Socialist Michelle Bachelet in Chile who is about to be elected to the top post in Chile. Her father was tortured to death by the thugs who took power there in ‘73 in a US backed coup. A former political prisoner, she says her policy will not be forgive and forget.

Chilean voters today probably will elect Socialist Michelle Bachelet as their first women president, after she pledged that students, workers and retirees will benefit from the copper-rich country’s growth.

A 54-year-old Socialist doctor who is a former political prisoner and the daughter of a general will face off on Sunday with a successful 56-year-old rightwing Harvard-trained economist and businessman from a Christian Democratic family, in a bid to become the next president of Chile.

The daughter of Air Force Gen. Alberto Bachelet, who died from torture by pro-coup military officials in 1974, the socialist physician candidate told families of victims that there won’t be a forgive and forget law in favor of oppressors.

That pro-military coup was orchestrated by the US government. They violently ousted the democratically elected Salvador Allende and instituted a regime of torture and repression. Now, with a new Socialist president, all the corruption and vicious human rights violations of those days will become public and worldwide knowledge. Good. Let the sun shine in.

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Is George Bush in political trouble? And if so, why?

Noam Chomsky: George Bush would be in severe political trouble if there were an opposition political party in the country. Just about every day, they’re shooting themselves in the foot. The striking fact about contemporary American politics is that the Democrats are making almost no gain from this. The only gain that they’re getting is that the Republicans are losing support. Now, again, an opposition party would be making hay, but the Democrats are so close in policy to the Republicans that they can’t do anything about it. When they try to say something about Iraq, George Bush turns back to them, or Karl Rove turns back to them, and says, "How can you criticize it? You all voted for it." And, yeah, they’re basically correct.

How could the Democrats distinguish themselves at this point, given that they’ve already played into that trap?

Democrats read the polls way more than I do, their leadership. They know what public opinion is. They could take a stand that’s supported by public opinion instead of opposed to it. Then they could become an opposition party, and a majority party. But then they’re going to have to change their position on just about everything.

Kerry in the last election, the last debate in the election, the debate was supposed to be on domestic issues. And the New York Times had a good report of it the next day. They pointed out, correctly, that Kerry never brought up any possible government involvement in the health system because it "lacks political support." It’s their way of saying, and Kerry’s way of understanding, that political support means support from the wealthy and the powerful.

Well, that doesn’t have to be what the Democrats are. You can imagine an opposition party that’s based on popular interests and concerns.

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The cost of the Iraq war could top $US2 trillion, far above the White House’s pre-war projections, when long-term costs such as lifetime health care for thousands of wounded US soldiers are included.

Al-Qaeda No. 2 wasn’t on site during U.S. attack.

Pakistan on Saturday condemned a purported CIA airstrike on a border village that officials said unsuccessfully targeted al-Qaeda’s second-in-command, and said it was protesting to the U.S. Embassy over the attack that killed at least 17 people.

The US is not at war with Pakistan, yet is so out of control that it allows a spy agency to launch missile attacks. It’s all quite insane, isn’t it?

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Ocean levels are rising twice as fast today as they were 150 years ago, and human-induced warming appears to be the culprit, say scientists at Rutgers.

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