the Real Danger is....

I did a more detailed analysis here

According to Bill Kristol, it's the job of Congress to ....

SHUT UP!


As he said on Fox News Yesterday:

BILL KRISTOL, WEEKLY STANDARD: Yes, I loved that Chuck Hagel sound bite we showed where he said if you want a safe job, go sell shoes. Selling shoes is a lot riskier job than being a Republican senator from Nebraska.

And I want to say, in defense of shoe salesmen -- and I hope they'll appreciate that I'm speaking for them here -- they're contributing much more to the public weal than a lot of our senators are today. No, this is Congress at its worst.

John Warner -- there's a great puff piece about my senator from Virginia on the front page of the Washington Post saying what do they want us to do in the Senate, do nothing? That's absolutely right. Absolutely right.

Support the troops. Appropriate the funds. Encourage them. Let Dave Petraeus have a chance to win this war. Don't pass a meaningless resolution that, as Joe Lieberman said -- on the one hand, it's non- binding so it's meaningless, but symbolically, it could only encourage our enemies.


Glenn Greenwald at Unclaimed Territory had a very detailed analysis of all this "Churchillian" crap that the Repubs are putting out as a steady diet on the talking heads networks and I riffed on it over at This space reserved...


It seems like this is probably the second time,(at least) that Kristol told us to shut up and support the President. And the theme which the Rpubs have riffed on since 9/11 is starting to be nothing more than a reflex action by every Republican commentator. Greenwals sums it up pretty good here....

We've now arrived at the point where the White House and its followers reflexively characterize any criticism of the Leader's war of any kind as aid to the Enemy and an attack on our troops. They don't even bother any more to pretend that some types of criticism are "acceptable." It is now the duty of every patriotic American to cheer enthusiastically for the President's decisions. Anything else is tantamount to siding with the Enemy.

So any criticism is unpatriotic.
Any Criticism "spits on our troops" (whether it's real or not)

I'll let you read the Greenwall blog for yourself and maybe even my entry but here I wanted to point out that there is a huge danger in remaining silent.

If we mistake silent acceptance of our leaderships comments, plans and actions for patriotism we are being what was termed in Germany in the 1930s as being "a good Gemrman". If we willingly give up our freedoms for a little more security, aren't we like Benjamin Franklin described as "being worthy of neither" (freedo nor security)?

And just how far are you willing to go to support the president? How far are you willing to go to be a "Good American"?

This far?
Spencer Tracy did a superb job of describing it here

sobering....absolutely sobering....