By David Swanson

In every village of the kingdom the heralds would cry out the news. And always it would be the same news from every herald who wore the purple sash. But other heralds would cry out different news, crazy news, news that wasn't news at all.

The royal heralds got their news from the king's palace, which is why they all cried out the same news at the same time. The other heralds told about the inner workings of the palace as well, but it was clear they did not know what they were saying.

By David Swanson

The debate among progressive activists and commentators in recent weeks has tended to range from the leave-Obama-alone-and-he'll-fix-everything position to the stage-a-protest-at-Obama's-house-for-the-next-month position, including numerous stances in between those extremes. What all these positions share is acceptance of the incredible shift of power from Congress to the White House that we have seen in just the last eight years.

By David Swanson

I posted the following on TomDispatch at the start of the current (and last?) Congress:

Can Congress End the War?
Democratic Leaders May Prefer to Claim They Tried But Failed
By David Swanson

By David Swanson

Why is Congress ranked right below Dick Cheney in popularity?

Because nobody has yet polled on the popularity of pond scum.

The day before Congress tossed the Fourth Amendment, and literally five minutes after they took out a $163 billion loan on behalf of my unborn grandkids to kill Iraqis and U.S. troops for another year, I had to give a speech at a university in Milwaukee about peace, impeachment, and elections. I started like this, before breaking the news about what Congress had just done:

The following letter has been sent to every member of Congress on behalf of Democrats.com, United for Peace and Justice, AfterDowningStreet.org, Code Pink, Gold Star Families for Peace, Progressive Democrats of America, US Labor Against the War, and Voters for Peace.

Please spread this message far and wide and Email your congress member here:
http://democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/136

Dear Representative,

Our representatives in Congress and our candidates for president are so opposed to the occupation of Iraq that, rather than funding a withdrawal, they are now proposing to fund the continuation of the occupation, as is, for the rest of Bush and Cheney's terms plus a big chunk of the next administration / Congress. Suddenly $102 billion is $170 billion. Except that, unlike that loaves and fishes routine, somebody will have to pay for this - pay China for this money we're borrowing - and that somebody will be our grandchildren.

By David Swanson

This typical pre-Petraeus II article shows well the habit that the AP and most of the rest of the US corporate media have of lying about the funding of the occupation of Iraq:

"Dems Plead With Bush on Iraq
"By ANNE FLAHERTY

"WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic leaders told President Bush on Friday that it's not too late to change course in Iraq and pleaded with him not to hand the war off to the next president.