George Walker Bush's administration was the result of a coup Agree/Disagree

[bobthedrummer]

Poll question: George Walker Bush's administration was the result of a coup Agree/Disagree

There it is citizens of DU. What are your feelings about my statement, which I've been stating since that administration was installed. They were never elected, let alone reelected.

[Solly Mack]

1. Wasn't that an incredibly horrible 36 days?

that never really ended...we're still dealing with consequences.

[bobthedrummer]

2. Far worse than what is going on in Minnesota-they pumped and dumped The United States of America n/t

[YOY]

3. Hope their proud of themselves...

Oh wait...of course they are...their sociopaths.

[Beam Me Up]

27. Their and they're.

Just like "can't" = "can not" and "isn't" = "is not", "they're" = "they are".
The apostrophe makes one word out of two by replacing the space and first letter of the second word.

Thus: "Hope they're proud of themselves; oh wait, of course they are, they're sociopaths."

"Their." on the other hand, is plural possessive -- that is, something belonging to several. It is their book, their political party, their country, etc. "Their proud" makes no sense, although you could speak of "their pride". "They're proud of their pride." "Their sociopaths" is indicating sociopaths 'owned' or belong to some group. "Their sociopaths are running the asylum."

Just FYI. It seems to be an increasingly common error. Spelling and grammar were my worst subjects but I finally got the "there, their and they're" thing figured out.

[YOY]

39. You know, I usually don't make that kind of mistake. It was a long day and I was typing fast.

I even noticed it myself later on...but it was well past the time to change it.

Thanks for taking the time and pointing it out with a lengthy grammar lesson about things I have already known since grade school but simply made a simple error on due to the aforementioned.

[Beam Me Up]

40. Apologies if I offended.

Was not my intention. Don't know you, your age, what you know or don't. I see this mistake being made often by what I assume are young people, especially on youtube and such. I make lame mistakes all the time in my posts and have to go back and edit them before the time runs out. I note it is getting worse the older I get, too. Just yesterday I typed NATO when I meant to type NORAD and didn't catch it until after I'd hit the post button. In conversation I often can't recall names of people, places and things, just as I start to say them. It is embarrassing as hell. I tell people, "you have to forgive me, I'm noun challenged!" Usually it will show up if I shift my attention away from what I'm trying to recall. Weird how the brain works!

[livefreest]

18. but not as horrible as the following 8 years right?

[TexasObserver]

4. It was Banana Republic fascism at its best.

[Baby Snooks]

50. Was?

Sorry but it appears the dynasty is still in power.

[L. Coyote]

5. IIlegal voter purging, targeting black voters, was just one way they did it.

The Bush Junta stole Florida 2000 and the Executive branch, then started a few illegal wars to install their permanent fascist majority.

[ControlledDemolition]

21. And then came the Help America Vote Act! n/t

[MADem]

6. They gamed the electoral system and then gamed the courts.

It's not a coup when you cheat carefully during an election and then game the courts to get the ruling you want.

It's using the rule of law nefariously, but not a coup.

[bobthedrummer]

7. It wasn't a violent coup, corruption was one of it's biggest parts as well as the use of psyops imo

[bobthedrummer]

8. Primetime kick

[omega minimo]

9. I forget -- which one was the coup and which was the junta?

:shrug:

[ControlledDemolition]

37. JFK's assassination was one in a series of coups. Who was VP when Reagan was shot? n/t

(Edit: Fix typo)

[madokie]

10. sure it was

I've been saying that from the get go

[bobthedrummer]

12. Lot's of US got that right, and watched as things grew worse rapidly...

[dmr]

26. Never in my wildest or darkest dreams did I imagine it would be this awful

It became apparent "they" had to win at all costs; and I wondered back in 2001 what all that would entail - and just who all was involved.

I don't think we will ever know exactly what happened. I know nothing about the financial world, but each time I hear Cheney and his buds claim they kept us safe for 7 1/2 years I want to vomit because I do believe, we, the American citizens are victims of economic terrorism, domestically, and possibly even foreign.

Edit to ask: do you remember back in the Summer of 2001, there were a few discussions here on DU that we could 'feel' something bad was going to happen? Those summer discussions have haunted me for years.

[malaise]

11. I've always thought so

and nothing has changed

[TexasObserver]

13. The election was stolen, and the Supreme Court complicit.

Until that election is recognized as such, history will not be right.

[bobthedrummer]

14. The REHNQUIST Court...

[TexasObserver]

15. He started his legal career bullying blacks at polls 50 years ago.

Rehnquist was an early proponent of the GOP using legal intimidation at the polls to suppress the black vote.

[livefreest]

19. interesting. can you point me where i can read more of that?

[RufusTFirefly]

23. More on racist Rehnquist...

In 1964, Rehnquist demonstrated his segregationist sentiments when he fought the passage of a Phoenix ordinance permitting Blacks to enter stores and restaurants.

Between 1958 and 1962, when Rehnquist was a private attorney in Arizona, he served as the director of Republican “ballot security” operations in poor neighborhoods in Phoenix. Rehnquist was part of Operation Eagle Eye, a flying squad of GOP lawyers that swept through polling places in minority-dominated districts to challenge the right of African Americans and Latinos to vote. At the time, Democratic poll watchers had to physically push Rehnquist out of the polling place to stop him from interfering with voting rights.

Democracy Now

Also cited in Time magazine

Psychology Professor Sydney Smith, a Democratic poll watcher at the time, said that in the '60s he saw Rehnquist go up to two black men at the polls and say to them, "You're not able to read, are you? You have no business being here." San Francisco Attorney James Brosnahan, an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Phoenix in 1962, specifically contradicted Rehnquist's sworn testimony. Brosnahan recalled how he was summoned by panicky voters and officials to a precinct where Rehnquist was a challenger. Brosnahan said he assumed that it was Rehnquist's "blanket" challenges of black and Hispanic voters that had led to the tense situation though he had not personally seen Rehnquist challenge anyone.

Time

[TexasObserver]

28. And Rehnquist was a huge man.

I met him in Austin shortly after he was appointed to the court. His was the far right of the court when appointed.

[Baby Snooks]

51. The Nixon Republicans...

They were opposed to the courts intervening during the 1950s as I recall and were quite nasty about it. I think one of them, and it may have been Rehnquist, called some of the judges who ruled in favor of desegregation "communists" in order to try to intimidate the judiciary from expanding on the decisions. It would have probably been preferable for the courts to establish civil rights. But also impossible. Which is why we have the Civil Rights Act. There were too many of the Nixon Republicans. Too many Rehnquists.

I think the "politically correct" approach back then was "separate but equal." You can't be equal if you're separate.

[livefreest]

34. well that's edifying! i am floored

[rvablue]

43. This is why I love DU. I had NEVER heard this. And now, I want to go

:banghead: and then go :cry:

Who in the hell could someone like this ever get on the court?

It's not like I hadn't thought that before, given some of his decisions, but this....this is unbelievable to me....that someone of such hate and bigotry sat on the court in modern times.....

[TexasObserver]

29. rufus has you covered

[livefreest]

48. well thanks for bringing this up. it's a shocker

[TahitiNut]

16. Wasn't it a sedan??

:dunce:

[Wednesdays]

17. K&R

:kick:

[livefreest]

20. this is one of my more agreeable threads i've seen in the last few days

[leftofthedial]

22. I'm beginning to think that Obama's reign is just phase 3.

[Initech]

24. I'm starting to think that too.

They wanted a democratic patsy to take the blame for the previous administration, like they tried to do with Clinton (and when he didn't comply that's when they tried to take him down), and that's why Limpballs and his merry band of assholes cant seem to shut the fuck up and let Obama do his job.

[rvablue]

45. Do you really believe that ANYTHING Obama did or does would not be criticized incessantly

by Pigboy, Cry Baby Beck and the Manatee?

And now Obama is a "democratic patsy?" and the GOP wanted Clinton to win? Are you for real?

[Initech]

47. Fuck no.

Of course they'll criticize anything Obama does. And as far as the "patsy" remark - look at it. Take a look around. They WANT Obama to fail. It's not obvious from what you read in the press, but it's definitely on their mindset, and the mindset of the M$M. Fuck, even Rush and Beck have admitted it. He's getting the blame for all the shit that Bush was able to get away with - torture, the failing economy, the bailouts, all this shit was set up under the Bush years. They're TRYING to set it up for a Republican victory in 2012, no matter who they get to run - be it Romney, Jeb, Palin, or someone scarier. They want their total domination back and they'll get it or die trying.

Look, this happened after Clinton was elected. It's not that the GOP wanted him to win, it's that they wanted him to take the fall for all the shit that Bush Sr. was able to get away with. When Clinton didn't comply with the GOP's demands, they tried to take him down no matter what they had to do. I'm not some conspiracy theory nutjob, it's pretty obvious what they're attempting to do.

[Beam Me Up]

35. I understand why you might think that but I disagree.

First of all it is true that Bush, Cheney, and much of the NEOCON gang are currently out of political office. However, the forces that put them there and kept them there for eight years, keeping most of their malfeasance covered up in the media -- those people, those forces, haven't gone anywhere. The NEOCON coup d'état was largely but not exclusively a military coup, reinforced by the events of 9/11 which allowed them to put in place a proto-police state infrastructure, all under the rubric of "national security". Just as they used the 2000 election debacle to "help America vote," they used 9/11 to establish the Patriot Acts, establish Homeland Security, re-design the chain of command for NORCOM -- and a whole lot more.

However, it didn't all work out exactly the way they had intended. I fully believe they "expected" another, larger, more deadly "terrorist attack" which would have allowed them to do two things: Implement national military conscription (and if need-be, martial law to control any serious dissent) AND widen the ME war to include Iran. However, something went wrong with their plan. They lost control somewhere (in military chains of command, I think) and Democratic gains in the 06 election even despite their electoral manipulations slowed them down even more. True, I don't think they wanted to win this last presidential election cycle very badly, but I also don't think they really "wanted" Obama, either. If anything, they "wanted" Hilary. But the initial intention was the implementation of the equivalent of a beige forth Reich.

But, in any case, Obama is there now and he, on one hand, has to placate the power and wealth of the fascist corpoate/military/security-state apparatus and, on the other hand, keep the "little people" sufficiently happy that they don't get completely out of hand. Not a job I'd want! But I honestly think he does want to be where he is and I honestly think he may be smarter than we know. Clearly he isn't the buffoon W was -- but there are very real limits to what he can do without risking a replay of JFK,RFK,MLK or the equivalent. There are a lot of ducks to get in line for meaningful change to occur.

I think it is up to US to put as much pressure on the White House (and Congress) as we can to DO the things that need doing. They aren't going to happen if we don't flex our muscle and show them that we TOO are a power block -- and not just with our now "creatively" tabulated election cycles.

No, we're WAY beyond politics as usual and have been for a LONG time -- its just most people don't get it. I don't yet know if Obama can or will live up to his potential greatness -- but I DO believe a large part of that depends on US. It isn't about what he does, or only about what he does. It is about what WE do. What we say. What we think. What we buy (in the market place of products and ideas); what we'll accept and what we will not.

We slowed down the NEOCON global imperial agenda. WE did that. People of conscience did that. Now we need to take that further by first of all beginning to reestablish the rule of law at the highest reaches of government. That is an enormous challenge and only the first of many. Beyond that we need to re-tool the entire Western economic system. It is killing all of us -- and I'm not being colorful. It is literally killing us all. What is before us is nothing less than an evolutionary imperative. Either we regain control of this all-devouring economic system http://www.storyofstuff.com/">and transform it into something completely different, or we will perish as a nation and as a civilization. We have very little time left -- indeed, it may already be too late to avoid catastrophe -- but it is our responsibility to try.

edit to ad link to: http://www.storyofstuff.com/

[rvablue]

44. Oh give me a break! This kind of rhetoric is so tired! n/t

[Uzybone]

25. It was a coup, and the media was complicit

as were many members of congress who sat back and watched it happen. The media quickly painted Al Gore as the loser, and things went downhill rapidly for the next 8 years.

[Beam Me Up]

30. Yes, and 9/11 was the second phase of that coup.

First they had to insure that "their man" * was in place. But to implement radical changes in domestic and foreign policy something more was needed. To get the "revolutionary change" the NEOCONS had written about in their September 2000 white paper, "Rebuilding America's Defenses" (i.e., getting the American people to go along with reallocate hundreds of billions of dollars for the military industrial complex to fund US military excursions in the petroleum rich Middle East), they needed "a catalyzing event, like a new Pearl Harbor." One year later, voila!

[Swamp Rat]

31. The Bushler coup d'état took place December 12th, 2000

[kster]

32. Yes a highly motivated take over, e-voting machines+media+ussc

took over our country, yet, we remain divided on whether we should Hand Count and record our Ballots before our ballots leave the polling place.

I'd count on my neighbors before I'd count on a machine.

:shrug:

[DU GrovelBot]

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[Initech]

36. Abso-fucking-lutely.

The coup gained control of the government in December 2001. They lost power on November 8th 2008. They are trying to regain that power back. Of course like Demitri Martin said - "It's easier to take something cool and make it lame than it is to take something lame and make it cool."

[Hekate]

38. No question. When this happens elsewhere our MSM calls it a "bloodless coup d'etat."

I never thought it could happen in my own country.

Hekate

[Prophet 451]

41. Disagree but only on technical grounds

As I understand it, a "coup" has to involve military force or the threat thereof. I agree entirely that it was stolen by all manner of dirty tricks but I don't think that technically counts as a "coup".

[bobthedrummer]

42. "...the threat..." was there...

[Vidar]

46. Of course it was a coup, & all the major players should be up on treason charges.

[lonestarnot]

49. Without a doubt!

[bobthedrummer]

52. .