America's 6 Year War

Cross-posted at kos:
Thomas Paine, 1776, The Crises
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.
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Got a minute? Remember November of 2000? Man, that time was just shit. Me? I had just spent 1 year doing 90 hour work weeks, and dropping every last dime I had (and then some!) helping to build a startup online business. Like many great companies we never received the second tranche of funding from our now skittish venture capitalists for marketing and operating that was expected the first two days of that month, and so it was over. We never opened a day for business. Out of work and in horrible debt. You wanna know something funny? 4th quarter 2006 was our projected first profitable quarter. Go figure . . .

Jobs were not so easy to find. Hiring freezes were everywhere, but I had a good buddy managing an upscale restaurant in Atlanta so I started waiting tables to keep the lights on in our little apartment my bride of one year and I shared.

Then that despicable, sickening, bullshit of a presidential election. Your gut remembers. . . The Brooks Brothers riot in Florida, James “the fixer” Baker, the Repubs running to the conservative-packed and therefore reliable, Supreme Court. The courts decision to stop counting the votes in Florida, and the installation of the Worst President Ever.

Worse, flipping through the news channels meant listening to the borg message. It was futile to resist. Every pundit was on board the wingnut train in 1st class. Radio was the same. Bush was a moderate. No liberal message ANYWHERE!

Sitting at the restaurant bar after a 14 hour day, the America that I grew up was unrecognizable. I felt alone. There were no liberals anymore.

Life changes. I found a decent job paying half of what I was making at the dot.bomb, but it was steady. And I had a great office looking out over the Chattahoochie river.

One early morning I watched a huge Russian cargo plane fly overhead bringing home the remains of that USAF surveillance plane that emergency landed in China. Wow . . . a RUSSIAN jet bringing pieces of an AMERICAN plane home and a corrupt American President kowtowing to China for hitting OUR plane! Why? So his Uncle Prescott could continue to make money?

Speaking of China, I got my $300 loan from them, which Bush described as a "Tax Cut" and the media raved about. Went right to the damn creditors.

One evening at home I on searched yahoo for “liberal radio” and “liberal website” on a whim.

The scales were removed from my eyes . . .

There were Liberals EVERYWHERE!

First up was IE America radio. When I heard Mike Malloy, I went nuts! This guy is saying what I am thinking! And it was streamed over the net and archived at whiterosesociety. WOO!

And the horse! . . . Media Whores Online was taking down the idiots on TV.

And the links! Bartcop, Atrios, MYDD (my due diligence back then) and more were jumping out every day. Next I knew I had 30 in my fav folder.

In the lead-up to Iraq, only ONE place was speaking truth to power. THE LIBERAL NETROOTS. 15 million people marched against the lies worldwide, and only on WE were covering it and talking about the shit intelligence.

When Mike Malloy played a solid 15 minutes of the sound of America bombing Baghdad in March 2003, it was pivotal. I was angrier than I had ever been before. It was time to get off my ass and do something.

And I was not alone anymore. . .

Like YOU I started a Blog PTS. I had more and more friends join in doing the heavy lifting with posts and troll watching.

Like YOU I was posting on, and commenting on other blogs. Getting connected.

Like YOU I volunteered for Dr. Dean, the only one with guts enough to call the Iraq war for the horseshit it was. Stumping in New Hampshire in my orange hat in the cold, Then helping Kerry.

Like YOU, I jumped on the phone to local and national media. Calling on them to REPORT dammit!

Like YOU, I wrote letters to the editor demanding truth.

Like YOU I called congress in the million phone march.

Like YOU I signed up for moveon.org, gave money, gave time.

We were looked down on and ignored by the entrenched Democrats and the media, and we suffered from growing pains. We just kept adding more voices. We kept our heads down.

And now lookee here . . . the biggest congressional turnaround in my lifetime. We accomplished something that it took the Rethugs 40 years to do, and we did it IN SIX YEARS.

Brothers and Sisters. We ARE America. We ARE the new Thomas Paines, the new Ben Franklins.

Just watch us now. . .

-Prodigal Son