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Went with some friends to see “V for Vendetta” on the Madison IMAX last night. While it was well-shot, well-produced and well-acted, for me it just didn’t have the emotional punch I was expecting. The movie skillfully translates the original comic book’s outrage at the Thatcher administration in England to the current War on an Abstract Concept, even though the setting remains London. But for me, the revolutionary oomph fell flat.

I guess I have outrage fatigue. When the Attorney General of the United States testifies before Congress (not under oath, but still) that Congress can certainly suggest things, and the administration will consider them, where do we have to go from there?

Back in reality, people like John Aravosis of AMERICAblog are saying beautifully all the things that I don’t have the strength for right now.

The lesson, my friends, is that no matter what you do, Rush Limbaugh is going to crow about it, Ken Mehlman is going to do a mass-mailing about it, and the American Family Association will launch a boycott over it.

And even if you choose to do nothing, all of them will still attack you, claiming that you did something you didn’t do.

So the choice for Democrats is to sit on their asses and do nothing, while Republicans criticize them unjustly, or to launch an all-out attack on the GOP while the Republicans criticize them unjustly.

When half the country fails to vote it’s because they realize they’re not represented by an political party. Almost half the country supports censuring the president. That’s not half the Democratic party, that’s half the country.

We ARE the majority of the country. The Republicans represent a 30-percent-or-so minority, that’s it. They’ve only got the Terri Schiavo voters – the rest they get by default because we suck. They don’t get 51% by choice. The majority of the country supports Democratic policies. We simply need some Democrats who have the nerve to stand up and say it, and fight for it.

Here’s a sample of what passes for mainstream opinion over at FreeRepublic.com:

I am FED UP with the crap coming out of Washington. Maybe this country needs another Pearl Harbor to wake up completely. Maybe we need to lose DC in order to wake up. For God’s sakes I am SICK of the crap that gets passed as a national platform for Republicans. NO ONE is thinking about the border.

Translation: I am so disgusted with brown people that I would welcome my nation’s capital be destroyed, hopefully by terrorist nuke. U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

UPDATE: And over at Michelle Malkin’s place, with all that’s going on in the world, her top post right now is about…..

wait for it…..

9/11.

(You saw that coming, right?)

I’ve said for months and years now that all the American electorate cares about is strength. If you’re strong, it doesn’t matter what your policy positions are; we like you. And of course the opposite is true. It doesn’t matter if you have the greatest ideas in the world, or even if the voters agree with you. If they think you’re weak, they hate you. See: Bush and Kerry. Policy pales into meaninglessness against this emotional calculus.

The Feingold censure resolution is another prime example of this truth. As usual, Glenn Greenwald says it eloquently and forcefully:

And, at bottom, what this whole episode illustrates, yet again, is that if Democrats want to be perceived as strong, and if they want to lose the albatross of being pereceived as weak, what they have to do is extremely simple and clear — stop being weak and be strong. Who appears stronger and more resolute right now — Russ Feingold, or the Democrats scurrying around in the dark, afraid of their own shadows and petrified of standing up to a weakened President who got caught breaking the law?

So did you hear the one about the guy who is charged with $5,000 in retail fraud at Target? The guy who would buy items, then return to the store with the receipt, grab an identical item from the shelf, and then demand a refund for the item he didn’t purchase?

As Paul Harvey would say…..and that man was Claude Allen, President Bush’s former top domestic policy advisor and nominee to the U.S. Court of Appeals. Great way to restore honor and credibility to the Oval Office. Bravo. Next stop, smashing kittens with hammers! Tonight on FOX!

Everything these guys touch is turning to crap. And it couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch.

I just called Senator Herb Kohl’s office to urge him to support Russ Feingold’s censure of Bush over the illegal wiretapping. As expected, Kohl “hasn’t taken a position” on the issue. Yeah. OK. Good job, Herb. Way to put yourself out there. (See Update IV below.)

But hey, none of this matters anyway, right? Feingold is just another crazy liberal elitist terrorist-loving America-hating baby killer, emboldening our enemies in a time of war with his pitiful attempt to attack The Great and Powerful Bush. And who doesn’t want us to spy on towelheads who want to kill us? Traitors, that’s who. Anyway, Bush didn’t violate FISA. Or if he did, it’s OK because Congress said he could do whatever he wanted. Or if Congress didn’t tell him, really the Constitution says the President can disregard any law that gets in the way of potentially killing towelheads. Because the President’s war powers, in a war he declared, are infinite. So FISA is actually unconstitutional! Or something like that. Give me a few more hours watching Fox and I’ll be up to speed.

UPDATE: Egregious weasel words from Michigan Sen. Carl Levin on Feingold’s censure resolution:

“I think criticism of the president is legitimate,” Levin said. “I think we ought to welcome some checks and balances on the president.”

“Welcome” “some” checks and balances, Carl? How about “demand” “all”? This is still America. For now.

UPDATE II: Glenn Greenwald on how the administration lies to try to defend itself. They are utterly shameless.

UPDATE III: It’s really a shame when only one Democrat in the whole fucking Congress is willing to stand up against a President who has not only violated the law and consistently lied to the American public, but who is at 34-freaking-percent in the polls. Every single one of those cowering, simpering weasels should be thrown out on their asses. And then beaten severely about the head and shoulders with a large tuna.

UPDATE IV: Well as expected, Herb Kohl wimped out and wouldn’t support his Wisconsin colleague.

“As the Senate continues to investigate the president’s implementation of the domestic eavesdropping program, it is not clear that censuring the president is the most effective way to bring that program into line with our need to protect national security and civil liberties.”

Thanks, Herb.

“And finally, I would say that, you know, we are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. I think it’s probably a good thing. We’re the ones who talked about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn’t really popular. And we, you know, we bring up subjects. This Academy, this group of people, gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I’m proud to be a part of this Academy, proud to be part of this community, and proud to be out of touch.”

-George Clooney, accepting the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “Syriana”

Since I readily admit my faults, I’ll admit a special charge when Clooney won, because I knew somewhere, Bill O’Reilly’s head was exploding.

Apparently now, Bill “Shut up!” O’Reilly is threatening callers to his radio show who mention rival Keith Olbermann with retaliation from the Fox News security staff. Good move, Bill.

Obviously poor Bill is stressed. Even Juan Williams can’t calm him down these days. What the man needs, clearly, is a complete falafel rubdown.

In a Zogby poll out just a few days ago, 85 percent of troops serving in Iraq believe the U.S. mission there was “to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks.”

85 percent!

We are so fucked.

I’m convinced that at this point, supporting President Bush and his war is becoming increasingly painful for those in the Bush Frat. (I used to call it the Bush Cult, but I’ve downgraded it, mainly because I think it’s a more accurate description of the phenomenon.) Psychic pain, I mean. They might want to jump ship, but they’ve put so much energy and time into supporting this guy that the more things go south, the more motivation they have to hang on. If they jump, that means they have to admit that their whole worldview was a mistake in the first place.

That’s why fraternities put pledges through so much hell. Because psychologically, these young men think, hey, if I put up with all this in order to become a member of this group, I’m going to value that membership above all else. No criticism of my frat will be allowed. I will never betray my frat brothers. If being a part of this group is meaningless, then I ate all those goldfish and wrestled naked in the quad for no reason. And no one wants to admit that.

As the great Robert Cialdini, author of “Influence,” said:

Once we make a choice or take a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision. We simply convince ourselves that we have made the right choice and, no doubt, feel better about our decision. It is, quite simply, our desire to be (and to appear) consistent with what we have already done.

Bush Frat Brothers have been through a lot – Plame, Katrina, Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, no WMDs, Halliburton, Iraq, port security, and on and on and on. They sure as hell can’t back out now.

“Those who insisted on this war, who started it, who prosecuted it, who controlled every single facet of its operation – they have no blame at all for the failure of this war. Nope. They were right all along about everything. It all would have worked had war critics just kept their mouths shut. The ones who are to blame are the ones who never believed in this war, who control no aspect of the government, who were unable to influence even a single aspect of the war, who were shunned, mocked and ridiculed, and who have been out of power since the war began. They are the ones to blame. They caused this war to fail.”

–Glenn Greenwald on the right’s refusal to take personal responsibility for the war in Iraq, an “experiment” (tm Dean Esmay) that even William F. Buckley admits has failed.