“Neighbor, how stands the Union ?” ~ Stephen Vincent Benet (The Devil and Daniel Webster)

The liveliest writers live on the Net. The best and brightest American essayists flourish not on the printed page, neither in polite college presses nor pulp newsprint but where free thought meets the free form use of the English language. Only on the Net.

Yes, the liveliest literary minds now master their sword strokes on the Internet. They slice through the bland “newspeak,” severing a thousand pen strokes of turgid prose in the process, reducing the regurgitated “op-eds” of scores of dull, syndicated pundits with a few deft slashes.

When was the last time you read an Ali Massoud or Jim Davies or Greg Szymanski or Robert Fisk or Paul Craig Roberts or Paul Joseph Watson in your local, hometown rag?

Never?

Imagine how dull and depressing the interior décor of your mind would be if only allowed the wallpaper of George Will or the faux-finishes of Molly Ivins. Imagine being a young Republican and solely savoring the decorative tirades of that Anorexic Skank (queen of the ad-hominem attack!), Ann Coulter?

When was the last time you read ANYTHING of any substance or power, or of genuine outraged emotion in your hometown newspaper? Never?  

How about Charley Reese, that old unreconstructed conservative and former columnist? Your hometown newspaper ever publish anything by him anymore, now that he’s slamming Bush and the Neocons in no uncertain terms? Or how about muckraker Wayne Madsen or foreign correspondent Dahr Jamail? Most mainstream news editors wouldn’t know Dahr Jamail from Joe Camel. Or how about this guy, Doug Thompson?  

Who?

Doug Thompson, the guy who writes the Rant for Capitol Hill Blue: The Oldest Political News Site on the Internet. Thompson just happens to be one of the keenest swordsmen on the Net, slicing guys like Will and Krauthammer into mincemeat.

Not long ago Thompson wrote a column entitled: “Traitorous Bitches And Bastards.” Doug referred to members of Congress of course.

“For the most part…Congress sold out the people who elected them to office, all Americans who depend on Congress to serve as a check and balance on the excesses of the White House and the Constitution of the United States…the bitches and bastards who ‘serve’ in Congress should take a long, hard look at the blood on their hands. They stand guilty of high crimes and treason against the United States of America . They are traitors and should be treated as such.”

Good stuff. The kind of honest, heartfelt emotional stuff you’ll never read in your local newspaper, that pulp fiction of the so-called polite mainstream media.

Recently Thompson posted another Rant: The S.O.B. has to go.

I’ll leave it to my readers to discern just which S.O.B he referred.

My chief complaint with that well-argued column—calling for the impeachment of George W. Bush-- is that Thompson woefully limited his rant regarding all the other Neocon malefactors.

Because impeaching Baby Bush won’t do a damn thing if all his happy henchmen remain in power.

Okay, let’s ask ourselves one pertinent question. Which Neocon is doing a fine, honorable job for America and deserves accolades? Which BushCo employee has acted honestly like a public servant in the last five years, for the betterment of the good old USA and her Constitution? ANY nominations?

How about spin-meister Karl Rove? You believe anything he says? Or Rice; you think she has ever uttered a single, honest public statement in the past five years? In my opinion, Condaleeza Rice is about as pure as the DU-riven snow.

Or Donald Rumsfeld? You think the US military will survive our old “Stop Loss” Secretary of Defense? Recall Rumsfeld was clamoring for a hefty boost in the Pentagon budget on September 10, 2001. America was enjoying wonderful weather and unprecedented peace up until then.

How convenient, for the war toymakers, and the Neocon strategists of the PNAC, that a “New Pearl Harbor”--the 911 attacks--happened the following day.

You think the Neocons and their apologists, lobbyists, and talk show fellow travelers can boost a single honorable, unselfish, patriot in the mold of say, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Revere, Paine, Franklin or Madison?  You really think Tom DeLay approaches Daniel Webster in stature, or any of the warmonger/cowards, like Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, resemble Ethan Allen or Smedley Butler? You think any Neocon—Michael Brown or Chertoff or Ashcroft for example—could reach the bootheels of any Founding Father?

Okay—Name one. Just one.

Sons of bitches all. Despoilers, plunderers, warmongers, liars, cheats, con men, blowhards, bullies, religious hypocrites, perverts (even Bill Clinton, to my knowledge, never had a gay callboy as a regular White House guest).

How about that exploding federal deficit? How many Red State grandchildren will rue the day their ancestors ever allowed the Toxic Neocons and their rigged, electronic voting machines to take total control of all three branches of the government and run their country right into the ground? Hope I live long enough to hear those outraged (and indebted and impoverished) grandchildren give all those traitors hell.

Because, predictably, those Neocon schemers--sons of bitches all--will have skeedadled with the money long before that happens.