A journalist David Phinney has been covering this for quite a while
http://www.theroughcut.net/
there is also a long list of 'missing' workers, a fortress built on bones.

So many facts scream out here {$600 million US Iraq Embassy is just one} that call attention to pure madness. The US population seems unable to face what it must do, the elected representatives unwilling to rock the collegial boat, the office holders and seekers not able to overcome the corporate campaign fund bag men and bag women.
Although gone from the US for decades, I still hold the US Passport in hopes that the bottom will be reached, and there will be a powerful change. I appreciate seeing that Nezua has that hope also.
But more and more during the W years, I have found myself doubting the possibility of change because the corruption is so ingrained and the leaders who might find a path away from the bought off government are in fact, bought off.
And then there is the very frightening Supreme Court that the W hath wrought! It really sickens me. We are stuck with that nightmare for at least another 30 years.
I would like to see these topics discussed intensely at YKos. I will be checking the blogging that will be coming from there. Admittedly, I don't have a Pollyanna outlook about YKos, George Bush, the US electorate, the Presidential contenders or very much at all related to possible US redemption. But, change comes sooner or later, and I hope it comes before the Republic falls.
The moral rumblings are already here, the economic ones are starting right now.
Time to jump out of that boiling cauldron and turn the flame down US citizens.
TIME NOW TO SAVE YOURSELVES. Comprende?

And when I think about the American people, there's surely a good constituency of people that want to start a revolution, because that's what you're basically inferring we start. However, we're so scared of our own government, we won't get the cojones to say anything. That's the sad truth. I believe it can be done, because it only takes a small amount of people to make a major change. But will it be too much docility for us to control what's going on? Hmm ...

peace ...

...i think when we think of "revolution" we imagine blood and bombs, and i don't think that need be the case. a revolution could be had as simply as enough people deciding they want change...and then simply living differently. just like that. as if a galley of slaves on a boat simply all decided at once to change course. before then, it may have seemed that boat was bound to follow the line it had been cruising until it breached itself on rocks. and then, all of a sudden, there is a new landscape on the horizon, and the wind is at their backs. just a matter of changing. just a matter of enough people deciding they want to change course.

i dont think docility is the problem. i think people not believing in their own power to change course is what stands between us and all those ways we want life to be...

I know it may sound terribly simplistic, even trite, but if there were serious Lobbyist and campaign funding reform we might get some better political persons making it to the office holding finish line. Even at the very local level where I live {pop. 10,000} elections are all about the money almost all the time.
Along with that, bring back the Fairness Doctrine that Reagan had stripped away.
These simple actions won't create any miracles, but they might level the playing field.
The very first issue is to completely ban lobbying from all political life in the US. Think about what that would mean because there are lobbyists on all sides of issues {the number of people who make their living lobbying is frightening} and even issues we might support would lose the lobbying power.
But I still say, it is necessary.
I somehow get the idea that Jose might be younger than 35, since he perhaps did not live through the 1960s in the US.
We did not get to a bloody revolution then, but we were on that path.
Now, the legal and violent forces that the central government controls are much greater, our rights far less. What Nez is suggesting would seem to be the only way.
And really, look around the world at all of the civil, internal national strife, intractable conflicts and bloody, really bloody impasses {Iraq} and ask yourself: "Is there any reason I could accept for taking that path when there is still some opportunity to have a US Velvet Revolution?"
Once you let the "Riots in the Streets" cat out of the bag, it's all downhill if the government is willing to shoot to kill. I think they are, led by Dick Cheney himself.

In rereading Jose's comment I see he is NOT advocating or even anticipating violence, so pardon my assumptions. Sorry, Jose.
But I have often thought of these actions and even participated when I lived in the US until 28 years ago.
When all else fails that is what happens. There is more speaking out now about the sad state of US governance compared to how little was said even a year ago, but if one looks at the national polls and the "message" sent to Bush after the 2006 election, one would think we would be out of Iraq by now.
But no, we are making some very permanent arrangements there. So it is time to step up the action and get to impeachment straight away.
I think the Congress has not done that so far because they simply do not have the votes. And Nancy promised she wouldn't. Not smart politics.
This is a representative form of government, it is not a democracy. That's part of the problem too.
Again, this is a two edged sword. In a pure democracy, one citizen, one vote, everyone gets to vote on every issue {like government by polling} and we would soon arrive at the problematic state of affairs decried by Ortega y Gassett
http://www.4literature.net/Jose_Ortega_y_Gasset/Revolt_of_the_Masses/
and which the US has recently suffered under the Fundamentalist and Neocon influences.
Thus, we need better mechanisms to elect better leaders and not the kind of lobby lapdogs we have now.

There are more and more days when I wake up into a world that I just don't recognize any more. And I want despair because so many seem to willfully ignore the travesties and tragedies being enacted on their purported national behalf. It's shameful and repugnant and breaks my heart into tens of millions of tiny pieces.

I believe in humankind enough to think that at that time (rayos de luz del Sexto Sol) we will see a new era of people power and truth and a celebration of life, and all her joys. Rather than a devotion to the dark magiks of murder, greed, powerlust, deceit, and sadism.

As much as I despair over the treachery and evil that I know is perpetuated every day ... I try to maintain this outlook, too. It seems so pollyanna, but at the same time, I believe that real change for the better can only be done by those who refuse to believe that humanity's baseline is brutality and hatred. It gives me hope to see others say the same ... and say it more poetically than I can articulate. But I truly believe that the power of positive change is within all of us - I try to access and activate mine each day. I try to encourage others to do the same. Ultimately, my innate, instinctual self says humankind is good and tends towards compassion ... even if my logical, cynical self at times despairs at the thought of the cruelty perpetuated in the name of lies, false privilege, and prejudice across this old planet.

Another good one, Nez. Personally I think that no matter what, it will take several generations for the country and the world to absorb and recover from all that has been set in motion in the past decade. It takes a long time to build things and nurture things but a very short time to destroy them; and we've seen a lot of destruction recently, physical, institutional, moral. Impeachment is definitely the only appropriate corrective step right now, a formal expression of a widespread desire for a clean break and fresh start. But the crucial proof would be and will be in what happens during the next administration.

It's been a long long time since I believed in nation-states; personally I think it's best for everyone to get over nationalism altogether, which tears apart a world badly in need of unity and cooperation in order to solve humanity's shared challenges. I believe in forging civic spaces outside the influence of corporatist or nationalistic coercion. Spaces like this one. ;-)

As I see it, what's missing is not desire or heart or courage but organization. From what I've seen in my wanderings, the simmering popular desire for profound change is very much there (in the US and elsewhere), but to patiently cultivate it like a plant in each person and each community and each culture, and to weave it all together fiber by fiber into a revolutionary movement, is challenging unglamorous sacrificial labor that few are willing to undertake.

Just think about how the neocons got to this point. They began working in earnest on the current administration in the 60s, with the building of policy think tanks, advocacy groups, lobbyist networks; formulating deceptive rhetoric through pollsters and focus groups, buying academic chairs through foundations, publishing journals and newsletters, insinuating their ideology with increasing bellicosity into mainstream journalism, stitching together coalitions, advancing corporatism and greed in practice and in propaganda, auditioning countless politicians and shills for countless roles in the neocon machine. The Bush administration did not pop out of nowhere, it is the crown jewel on 40 years of hard work by committed, fully-invested neocon activists. It is their unapologetic life's work. As I see it, an effective movement to counter them requires the same diligence and commitment.

Peace.

and another great comment, kai. i agree, there is a whisper in the wind regarding nation-states. the skin is graying, the old shell unpeeling. the notion of control, borders, and peoples set against each other is the old way, and the awareness that dawns slowly runs counter to that, is a current that runs through many of us, on all sides of borders.

i'm not sure i see the "answer" as only one thing, i.e., "heart" vs "organization," despite how the NeoCons came into power. perhaps the next age of "power," one where it is held more collectively will not work in the same way that controlmongers and warmongers grab power. perhaps it will be a new shape. i dont have the answer to that. but we can all work on our own ends, according to our means and our dreams and our calling as to how we see change is needed, and keep talking like this, and perhaps the answer will form organically. maybe its not an either-or, maybe its an on and on. an up and forward and concurrent toward. what i mean to say is that those with heart can share it, and those who organize unglamorously can do that. (or maybe it's the same thing...can people really earnestly organize and work for good without a great amount of heart? i do think we need to come together...and i do think many need to reawaken or remember their heart, yes.)

or maybe it will all fall down and then we'll grow out of that ash. i don't pretend to know. but i do wish you peace, as well. that i can stand behind.

So true, Nez, that there are countless roles to fill and each person must respond to their own calling. There is an innate tension between individualism and collectivism in such a formulation, and I believe it is a healthy tension, because the two really are interdependent. At the moment I happen to think that the American Way has strayed too far into individualism, believing a myth that we are self-reliant pioneers when in fact every meal, indeed every step on every road, depends on the work of countless others; whereas, say, the Chinese often tend too far toward collectivism, often marginalizing individual desire for a notion of "common good". But this is a balance that must be struck in every person's heart. I do see a broad trend in the West toward an increasing awareness of interdependence, because of the global eco-crisis which forces us to recognize this reality. I guess we'll see where it's going.

And I also agree, let's hope that "our" movement will look nothing like the fascist-neocon ascendancy in format and method! I do believe that the "answer(s)" will emerge organically, through a broad diversity of dialogues such as this one, in spaces such as this one. I believe it will bubble up from the grassroots artists, poets, philosophers, activists, and people of good will; especially from traditionally marginalized groups. I'm not saying everyone needs to become an organizer, mind you; I'm saying that I see a rising wealth of worthy dreams but not so many nets in which to catch them and lash them together into collective realities. The small-scale weavers of dream-nets among us are most often unknown and unheralded, and I like to celebrate those folks, not just the great visionaries and artists and leaders whose names will be repeated for generations.

Finally, I do believe that the next "revolution" will emerge from ashes, though I don't know the extent to which the house will burn down before this emergence begins. But then, it doesn't really matter to me; what matters is fighting what I believe to be the good fight, regardless of anything else. To me, that's really all there is to do. ;-)

Peace to you too, amigo.

all i know is we need people like you if this change is going to happen. you continually inspire me.

the names repeated for generations are no longer about those individual people, tho. we know this. like well-worn statuettes that we hold close to our bosom as we flee to the dawn behind the mountain, these legends are but our deepest dreams and victories and hopes made clay: these are symbols, like icons, we take them in, make them our own, rise to our vision of what they might have stood for. use them to organize behind, and around.

thanks for chilling, 'mano. siempre.

Just wanted to say that I enjoyed reading what Kai and Nez had to say. Maybe the organization is the key to making some progress. The YKos activity seems to be about exactly that.