We’re Safer, But We’re Not Safe…We’re Outer, But We’re Not Out…

(NEWSWEEK) Patriotism or Politics? President Bush called for unity in his latest speech, but in reality, he was gearing up for a bruising fall campaign.

(CNN) Transcript of Bush Speech

(Keith Olbermann Blog) This hole in the ground

How is it that Olberman is the only commentator in network or cable news who dares to tell the truth these days? I guess it’s not surprising when the events of 9/11 meant nothing to the man leading our country but a political opportunity and continue to mean only that. You read headline after headline about Democrats being upset at the Bush. Well, I’m NOT a Democrat and I’m DAMN upset about where he has led our nation, about his lies, about his sabotage of the constitution, about his war for his oil cronies. Get it right, news media, this isn’t about Democrats and Republicans, this is about democracy and demagoguery. Do we have to prove Plato right?

In the meantime, investigative reporter Greg Palast has been slapped with criminal charges Palast Charged with Journalism in the First Degree for “unauthorized filming of a ‘critical national security structure’ in Louisiana,” i.e., an oil refinery right next to a Katrina evacuee encampment still filled with 73,000 people made homeless for the last year…maybe they’re still homeless as punishment for looking at the refinery every day? Welcome to the police state.

Yeah, I Know, There Are More Important Things But I Can’t Help It, Saddam’s Hunger Strikes Are FUNNY!

(Reuters/WashPost) Saddam on hunger strike to protest lawyer’s death

(Reuters/WashPost) Saddam ends hunger strike after missing one meal

What’s NOT funny is Saddam’s lawyers getting assassinated. According to the bush*tters in the administration, we’re bringing democracy to Iraq. One of the bases of democracy is the availability of a fair trial to ANYONE from shoplifters to child molesters to serial killers to mass murderers. Unless people who perform ghastly crimes get a fair hearing, there’s no guarantee that anyone ELSE will. YOUR right to tell a judge that you didn’t deserve the ticket for a red light because the light was obscured depends on scumbags being allowed to exercise THEIR right to declare their innocence. A lot of people say when someone’s been accused of a heinous crime: “They should just take him out and hang him.” But that’s wrong. That is not justice. It may be what they deserve. But it is not justice unless the law, the government, a jury of his peers, says that that is what should be done. And to deny that to Saddam, and to murder the people who are trying to get that fair trial for him, is a denial of any sort of true justice under democratic principles.