Sy Hersh: "Are we a democracy anymore? I really don't know."

it is by no means a simple democracy.. never was.

democratic principles or not? A "republic" is a "democratic" form of government. That's just nit-picking. The problem is that the controls put in place in the constitution have worked to varying degrees of success for over 200 years, but the weakness of the institutions of constitutional government is the requirement that all officers of the government must respect the document. We have always relied upon our elected officials to adhere to the Constitution and support its foundational principles. What do we do when those officers do not do so? That is what we are faced with and no one seems able or willing to address this central, most important fact...

then I think you've answered your own question.

Democracy and freedom are only ideals that we strive for but most Americans with their sugar coated half-wit education believe is reality. American is a very oppressed nation and with Bush altering the course of this country with his perverse misconceptions about our ideals we are going to see the collapse of what this country was founded upon.

To answer Mr. Hersh, democracy ended, at least for the next 700 or so days (math is not my greatest asset) with the words “I’m the decider.”

This is an excerpt from former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum’s interview with Fox Host Martha MacCallum:

MACCALLUM: You say most people do not recognize it, and the talk you hear a lot these days is that the president is just going his own way, not listening to the people, not listening to congress. What do you have to say about that?

SANTORUM: Good for him.

So opposing viewpoints are to be swept aside like dust bunnies in the Lincoln Bedroom. I suggest that there is a difference between being “the decider” and deliberately wearing blinders to keep from being spooked.

When the President declared himself “the decider,” he merely stated the obvious--that for the duration of this administration, the United States is an autocracy, not a democracy. But given the chance, I would say this to the President: “Sir, you are the decider, but I am the voter, and I will still be the voter after you are no longer the decider.”

is only difficult to see because of its unreality, it's failures and its madness. Guessing through the secrecy and the levels within levels of people who THINK they know "the Plan" is so difficult, one wonders who exactly has any control of the central plan at all? Numerous experts and generals have emphasized that vengeance against Hussein(although Bush seems desultory when mentioning how it ruined his father) or big oil interests with the same prognostication one hears about the life and habitats of Osama Bin Laden. It is a shadowy center deliberately even if key figures come put and apparently state key elements and philosophies. Adding outside rational analyses to this mess prop them up with crutches that cannot last. Wedding reality in ways they inner circle rejects or does not care about is to push more victims into the hole.

In fact it is difficult because of all the deals and betrayals made to everyone, especially in the furtherance of specifically personal(Bush dynasty) interests and who can hurt, help or currently trump(Saudis) those interests. And all of that crap is wrapped in secrecy too.

The gist of it is that, despite failure, opposition and chaos in its implementation(like the German juggernaut checked in WWI) it has plenty of life and ground success to pound onward. Success means the ruin of Iran and the Shiites. All the concomitant effects, even the long term nuke issues(they don't CARE, people, they use and create proliferation and terrorism) are nothing. The consolidation of media information and computer information services, the destruction of democracy and control of science, the empire of the marketplace, the privatization of the war machinery are all goals that care nothing about results or effects so long as they occur. The problem in dwelling about this monolith is the breakdown that such shadowy planners cannot possibly avoid since by nature they cannot stand on a single throne with a real brain and declare clarity, universal power and perfection. In the mess one wonders why they bother, setting up sandcastles before tidal waves. It is lunatic unrevealed, dressed in a suit, presumptive in respect, devoid of any ability to utilize what has been given or stolen.

There are two ways to judge this shifting inner circle and inner program, by their current effect trajectories(which may not be planned but are inevitable) and the actors involved(warped, insufficient humans). Then it becomes clear one can never presume rational or beneficial plans or results, never expect flexibility or depth, never get much of a why that normal people can understand. So journalists have nothing, the tools of policy and experts beyond(or even attached to)the inner circle have nothing
because the people entrenched in power are forging ahead with a "destiny" that in any reality is only dark spaghetti and death. The monochromatic repetitive simplifications of RW blather has metastasized beyond the rational universe. The totally abused tools are not yet doing what they must. Rebelling.

chilling words from Cheney on how Congress can do nothing to stop the "surge."

Who is "us"???!!??

speeches like that when I was in boarding school....

...NON-TRANSPARENT elections!

No? Then it isn't a democracy.