Oh I don't know, Andrea. Thinking about it maybe I did a disservice to Mr. Moyers putting Karl Marx in the same paragraph. Maybe Pat read that and thought "Yeah, they are a couple of commies!" then went off to post something to that effect somewhere else on some other board. It seems to be our national pastime these days to twist what other people say.

I didn't really mean to compare Marx and Moyers and I wasn't writing to promote communism...of course I know you know that but does Pat? Would some supporter of Bush understand that I was not Bush bashing in that post? I really don't know.

Mostly I was inspired by what Cyanara said at the end of his (or her) Moyers post...that we're in this together and isn't it everybody's hope that at some point this will dawn on us? Moyers hopes in what he wrote that there are organized people that will come together and change the course a very corrupt group of Republicans have set for us. Marx knew that we ordinary folks outnumber the wealthy and powerful...by the billions at this point. Moyers alerts us to the fact that we need to take back our government and it's up to us ordinary folks to do so.

Can we though if we spend so much useless time and energy getting sucked into battles about abortion or taxes? There seem to be Christians out there that would line up with Satan himself if only they could stop abortion but the world they want so desperately these babies to be born into is a compete afterthought. The problem becomes can we ever reach a common ground and folks like the people at Bushco sure as hell hope we can't...but somebody with abortion glasses on just can't see that. They see their goal. The way to winning their little war no matter what it costs us as a whole.

I don't mean to pick on the abortion crowd but they are plain and simple a tough nut to crack. No matter what you say to them, no matter if you've never had an abortion, never promoted someone getting an abortion, never had a damn thing to do with abortion...well none of it matters if you don't support their cause. It's a my way or the highway (to Hell) stance they live with and it is so easy for them to rationalize a defense of their position because they will say they are "defending the helpless" and "saving babies."

I'm not picking on Christians either but during the last election we actually had a "Defense of Marriage" movement that was just a colossal joke. I know that not all Christians were behind this but it was certainly Christian based and aimed directly at Christians. As is the abortion issue.

Christians in this country have been horrifically used and abused by Republican leadership but many of them are incredibly blind to it. They never see that it's the Republicans that benefit from marginalizing and attempting to create hate toward Christians. That's what they need, what they count on, they want them to feel they are under attack, that what they value, their moral fabric is being destroyed.

Using these issues you are able to flick a switch in a lot of people and turn them on or off and point them in the direction you want them to go...and go they do.

The end result is they will dismiss the writings of a Bill Moyers. They will not study the problem of terrorism and it's roots they will just label it as based in evil and hate. They will not study the abortion issue they will label it evil.

We get nowhere fast because those who understand this are prone to calling Christians or abortion activists dupes, fools, idiots, only increasing the distance between us and playing right into the game. I know it's hard not to get frustrated by the whole situation and I'm guilty, guilty, guilty.

I'm ranting I guess and the thing is I just don't understand what happened to being an "American." Didn't it at one point mean that you supported the idea that everybody was free to live by his or her own beliefs? I mean wasn't it "Un-American" to jam your beliefs down somebody else's throat? Wasn't it "Unpatriotic" to attempt to seize control of the government  to achieve some narrow agenda? Wasn't the role of government to protect the freedoms of the individual and allow us to live in peace and harmony despite our different personal beliefs?

I mean that means that the government should not work to marginalize or demonize any individual or group of Americans based on their beliefs. Their role should be specific. As it stands right now we have a government that appears to function only to demonize, marginalize, and alienate. It doesn't get any more unpatriotic or un-american than that.

We have a goverment that has convinced segments of the general populace that it's the right thing to do to sacrifice our personal freedoms and privacy to them. That is not their job or their right to ask this of us. There are actually people who would call us whiney and weak for pointing this simple fact out. Then they recoil when we tell them they are insane.

Moyers whole point is we need to put the brakes on this situation in a hurry. You don't allow Tom DeLay to be a party to overseeing what happens to Jack Abramoff. You don't allow another politician with ties to Abramoff to take DeLay's job. Anyone who counts themselves as a Republican that really cares about the greater good should be screaming to get rid of these people. The Republican party has been horribly corrupted and it's pretty damn obvious in these times there is no use in a Democrat pointing that out. You've got to have the Pat Browns and Kevin Gs of the world upset about it...and quite frankly it seems they are not. As long as it seems their agenda is being met. Give them a judge who may argue their way on abortion and who cares about the rest I guess.

I loved what Bush said about the fact that he had been photographed with Abramoff.

"Hey, I'm the president. I get my picture taken with a lot of people. I've been photographed with you."

He says this to a reporter whose job it is to be where the president is. Well, most people don't have their photo taken with the president and in times like these it would make sense that there is a great deal of caution about who gets near the president. Yet Abramoff was hanging with Bush. Funny too that Bush, in a time when national security is at it's peak, allowed a known male prostitute posing as a reporter to spend several nights at the White House and have his photo taken while being embraced by the president.

We are to believe, of course, that they didn't know who Gannon really was and that Abramoff just got lucky and happened to be standing somewhere near the president when a camera was present. We're not supposed to think about the fact that both of these men were criminal Republican operatives getting paid to forward the Bush agenda. Point being this means Bushco is either sloppy and stupid or horribly corrupt. Or a combination of both. Just don't try and play the general public as stupid enough to fall for the outrageous crap they spew to cover their tracks.

But who are we...I'm a guy that just quoted Karl Marx and you're a gal that just told me what a great post it was. We've got an agenda, Andrea, you and I.