Yes, it is nationalist and supremicist, but it’s basic belief is that it wants whatever it wants and will do anything to get it, including bilking and sacrificing its own.

No Zionist should be allowed in a major position of responsibility anymore than a dedicated
Communist or Nazi should be allowed there.  It is not that they are Jewish.  The problem is that they are criminals who live the life of criminals.  They could worship the great banana for all I care.  We have Zionists at all levels of our society, and the Neocons and Leo Strauss have shown us what they are capable of.

The media plays us like a piano for all sorts of reasons.  Unfortunatley Zionist protection and silence is one of them.

Gun, poison, or knife.  I will be proud to hold your coat.

How Does It Feel ?
How Does It Feel?
To Be On Your Own .
Like a Rolling Stone .
(Bob Dylan)

How does it feel Dennis ?
To speak the truth and be treated like a leper by your beloved party , to be treated like an outcast , to be locked out of your own “house” ?
Yet you plod on , speaking to deaf ears , allowing your colleagues and the American press to paint you as a whining complainer .
    Ralph Nader knows the hollow feeling , and is still whincing from the welts of the punishment doled out by the dysfunctional Democratic “Family”.As I watch your hopes of a presidential run fizzle , I can’t help but sense that there is something missing deep inside you , something that Ralph Nader , and even former Senator James Jeffords of Vermont possess . They had the courage to walk away from their respectve dysfunctional parties and walk away with heads held high and no looking back .
    You have been involved in politics for quite some time now and you must realize how what used to be a fair process is now a tightly controlled ,staged “drama” by both party’s national committees . The outcome of the process is already written , but we must go through the traditional motions to assure that the American voters believe they are in control of this fraud .
    Yet you are satisfied to talk the talk , not courageous enough to take the wak outside . So while you are being buried , take the time to write your own political obituary and then lie down like a good doggie .You honest and all the good stuff , but if you remain a Democrat you might as well face the oblivious future ahead of you .
    I wish you were the Democratic Party’s choice , but you must know by now they are no longer the party of the people and you are being orphanned . You must either take a walk in uncharted waters (for you) or face reality - as a prospective Democratic candidate you are already done and there is only one solution to that dilemma - walk . Do not look back . You may not become President , but maybe you would turn some heads and gain the public respect you need direly at this moment in time .

My dear Dennis,

I am writing this just because you have been respected as a politician or may be due to the fact that you are not a politician.

You have been marginalized not because you have spoken against WTO, NAFTA, Iraq’s occupation and not even the impeachment.

The day and the moment you mentioned the word AIPAC in that “discussion” on FAUX news, in the presence of Blitz!, you have been condemned since and shall be chastised until America wakes up and regain it sovereignty.

How dare you to speak out!
Did you not know that the people and institutions that ever have the tenacity to utter the word AIPAC have been destroyed for the last 60 years?

Allow me just to begin with the Kennedys.

JFK refused to be bought while campaigning before the 1960 election and having been elected made a “request” to inspect the Israeli’s nuclear facilities with the full commitment to support it!
Well we all know what happened in Dallas, don’t we?

Take the case of Mervyn M. Dymally, a Dem. Congressman in 1982.
The first black American to go to Israel, paid his total homage with perfect credentials as a supper supporter.
However he made the cardinal mistake of asking on 2-occasions about aid to Israel and on “1” occasion abstained on the said subject.
On the same year he lost his seat!

The scope of this posting does not permit to go through the list.
On this point it would be quite sufficient to have a look at the manifest of the “legislators” whom attended the last year’s dinner and dance of AIPAC!
You may find that more than 60% of them were present in that happy gathering!

The consolidated Zionist consortium with AIPAC as its CEO is in control of every aspects of Americans’ way of life.

Sometimes I resist dredging further into the swampland of Zionists and Zionism doctrine, it is sort of like trying to decide how far one can go before overwhelmed by the nauseating stench of its vile and evil contents.

Last week Giuliani’s Secretary of State to be John Deady, in a very clear and concise terms publicly demanded for the extermination of 1.2 Billion Muslims.

This zeal for genocide is only the latest entry in a list of fascist qualities embodied by their dedicated and well looked after agents.

J. Deady is an honest politician!!
And an honest politician is the one that once bought stays bought, specifically with AIPAC blood drenched money.

America has got Zionist problem and until such day that the said problem can be solved the genocides will continue in Palestine, Iraq, ………

And Dennis YOU are just another casualty.

All of these candidates are scripted to be murdered at the end of the second act.  They won’t even be kept as extras in the great filthy opera.

Outraged:
I’m fairly certain that I read Nadar had endorsed Edwards days before Kucinich told his supporters to switch to Obama if they couldn’t muster enough support to qualify his candidacy in Iowa.  (That, in itself,is really not an “endorsement” for Obama.) Dennis stated that he could not support Edwards this time (as he had in ‘04 which helped Edwards win Iowa) because of Edwards’ participation in some sort of corporate hedge fund that was helping to finance his campaign.  I wasn’t paying a lot of attention to the details and did not do any subsequent research but it sounded like a reasonable explanation at the time.  Besides, I don’t trust any of the ‘big 3’!  I too would have preferred that he not suggest that his Iowa supporters switch to any other particular candidate but didn’t let it overly concern me.

What did concern me was the poor response Dennis received from the NH voters.  Why is his message not bringing out more support, other than the ‘online’ community?  More exposure would certainly help but we can’t blame it all on the pathetic MSM.  Where is the “spark”?  How can we get the voting mass “charged up and ready to go” (as Obama puts it).  And why is the Chaney impeachment seemingly “on hold” again?  The holidays are over. We need to tell the House Judiciary Committee to get their asses in gear and bring charges against that pompous arch-criminal while there is still time.  And start the same against Bush or he’ll just pardon Chaney!!! If Pelosi is still ‘obstructing justice’ then she needs to be removed as “Speaker”...and from her House seat.  Sure wish I could vote for Cindy Sheehan to replace her!
Cheers & “chok dee” (good fortune)!
PaulH in Thailand

I see your point.  However, even if we disregard the article’s author, which I agree appeared biased.  Still, even in my own determination.  Why did Kucinich endorse Obama and then Nader endorse Edwards?  What don’t we know?

To look at policy, Nader should’ve endorsed Kucinich (at least in my opinion) but he didn’t.  So is Kucinich trying to “say” something or is Nader? I have no problem voting my conscience however I think both Nader’s and Kucinich’s opinion are worth taking into account.  It is in this regard I find myself in a dilemma.

I found the comment by “Outraged”, regarding Kucinich’s quasi support of Obama in Iowa, interesting and went to the Z-Mag article by John Street that lambasted Dennis for doing so.  Frankly, I think Mr. Street has been consuming too much fermented corn.  I respect Ralph Nadar also but his endorsement of Edwards before the Iowa caucuses does not, ipso facto, mean that Kucinich’s “lean” toward Obama was a “petty” reaction by Dennis to Edward’s elitist agreement with Shillary that under-funded Presidential candidates were “messing up their debates”.  The fact is that Dennis was winning those debates and getting the most favorable responses from his ‘addressing the crucial issues’ than all of the platitudes & posturing of the already bought-out “big three”.  Edwards puts on a good show but, like all trial lawyers, he has been trained well to lie convincingly!  Kucinich is the only true democrat left running and the only one that could—-and would—-effect meaningful change to the way our government conducts its Constitutionally mandated business!

What really pissed me off about John Street’s article was his inexplicable and almost venomous dismissal of Kucinich as ‘someone who believes in fantasies and UFOs’.  Dennis courageously admitted that he had seen a (one) UNIDENTIFIED flying object, when he shouldn’t have even been asked that question by corporate shill Russert, posing as a reputable reporter.  So what?  14% of the American population have reported seeing a UFO on at least one occasion and probably millions more, myself included, have witnessed ‘unidentifiable’ objects in the sky without reporting it.  I find it hard to believe that any intelligent person can so vehemently deny the existence of UFOs & label everyone that doesn’t as some sort of delusional ‘kook’ (religious blinded fanatics automatically excluded, of course)!  But the point is, seeing a UFO does not, repeat NOT, disqualify the most intelligent, most experienced, and most dedicated candidate remaining to change the direction of American policy and governance!  Kucinich has shown his integrity and foresight repeatedly with his voting record.  ALL of the others are lying to us again and counting on the media “dumbed-down” voters to inflate their egos a bit more.  They all have good writers and deliver their speeches well, with smiles or grimaces or tearing up, as needed…but they are funded by the enemies of the people and will not change the “status quo” if elected—-except to mouth more platitudes as it gets much worse for 90% of the population.  The debates without Kucinich & Gravel & Paul are like “dog & pony” shows!
WAKE UP AMERICA; We’re in serious danger of losing our country!
VOTE KUCINICH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your guns are male jewelry.  They are useless, just as they would be if you lived in Iraq (where everyone is armed).  Get some smarts.  The NRA is a protection racket that cultivates suckers to support the arms industry.  If you belong to this collection of crooks, your NAME is probably held by the FBI now.  The only reason they don’t care about your guns and your fantasies is that they know your guns give you a sense of false security.

Hetzer,
On this I just have to agree!

“The Republicans set out to destroy the middle class by destroying America’s government infrastructure.  They should all be tied to lamp posts wearing signs that say “Traitor”.

Only thing is what to do with the traitorous Dems?  Same thing I suppose…..

RdV:

Very good article.  I felt Kucinich shouldn’t have endorsed Obama either, and I was more than a little curious as to why he had.  Of course I’d be angry if I were Kucinich and heard Edwards’ comment. On the other hand, we’re in some serious shit here and there’s no room for petty bullshit (if that’s what Kucinich’s endorsement of Obama was about).

Almost simultaneously Nader came out and endorsed Edwards, and I thought WTF?  So I decided someone obviously “knows” something I don’t and I’ve been contemplating these issues ever since.  To me Clinton and Obama are one and the same.  Their policies are so similar that it’s hard to tell one from the other.

I like Edwards, although I sometimes feel he’s like the nursery rhyme about the little girl with the curl…you know…when she was good she was very very good, but when she was bad she was horrid.  Is that a better thing…?  I don’t know, but Nader I like.  Smart man.  So what do ya do….and what’s going on?  I did expect something out of the ordinary to emerge here somewhere during this campaign.

Anyway, I thought your link was great(thanks) and thought I’d quote a portion here:

“Why has the avowed left-progressive Dennis Kucinich embraced the corporate-centrist Obama (justly rejected in no uncertain terms by the iconic progressive Nader) over the labor-populist Edwards (embraced by Nader)?  My guess is that Edwards helped create this sorry episode by letting himself be overheard (last summer) agreeing with Hillary that lesser candidates (like Kucinich and Mike Gravel) were messing up the presidential debates.

That was a bad and authoritarian thing to say - and think. It is corporate media (whose God-like power Edwards dares not criticize in an election season) that most relevantly poisons the debates and the campaigns overall and Left candidates need to be heard.”

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=14637

Did the votes appear for Hillary because of something she did or something Obama did?  I have my theory, and I should tell you that usually I am right.

Obama didn’t just barely lose—he lost big, huge. And he should be extremely troubled about this, and here’s why….

Oh, sorry—right post but the wrong article for it.  I’ll finish it on the election analysis article.

Republicans are either crooks or suckers.  The voice of truth is probably a sucker or he could be a crook.  The Republican filth took over this country in a coup using the cheap perfume of Reagan.  In very little time the media was turned radically right and America caught a good dose of the clap from the Bush family.

The Republicans set out to destroy the middle class by destroying America’s government infrastructure.  They should all be tied to lamp posts wearing signs that say “Traitor”.

“Any vote is wasted that does not address the terrible injustices being done to tens of millions of people who have lost the opportunity to earn a living wage”

This is such BS.  Please, someone, tell me what are the injustices that were done to these individuals that deny them the opportunities abundant in this country???

What the hell is a “living wage” by the way??  What is the “working class?”  I work my ass off, shouldn’t that put me in the “working class?”

There is one fact, the middle class is being lessened.  However, that is because, if you look at census data, the group below the middle class (the lower class?) has not changed in size at all, but the middle class is smaller.  Where do you think they went?  How about they made there way up the ladder!!!!

As for people who can not pay their medical bills….  What is your priority, to have a cell phone and flat TV and shiny car, or pay for health insurance?  You can talk all you want about “Social Darwinism”, but it will only get worse as more people pretend they do not have to take any responsibility for themselves or their actions.

The issue is not the establishment or the media not accepting Kucinich. It’s the people. Yes, Hedges is right that we should support someone who is right about the issues, but we are not ready to adhere to the philosophy of general welfare over the individual.

It took the American people five plus years to see Bush for the mediocre fraud that he is. They saw that he was not the stalwart cowboy that Rove’s image machine tried to depict him as. His stubborn stands on the war and everything else were just that—blind exercises in headstrong self-delusion.

Trouble is we still want a stalwart cowboy who represents the individualism our culture says we must aspire to.

Marketing, movies, business, government all want us to subscribe to this myth. To do otherwise threatens their existing empires.

So it’s the people who can’t discard this myth and it is the power structure that wants to make us all cowboys.

What a total chump I was.  I was paying him for protection. 

Every leading candidate is a vicious crook.  Just assume it.

Right on. Think of what cultural strides we could make, even during the long process of healing, with someone at the helm who isn’t crazy?

Dream on, Bubba! You are assuming there are some “good” candidates that can make it to the nomination and that voting for Kucinich (the “perfect”) is a wasted vote that might cancel your vote for one of those “good” ones.  Well, think again and examine closely.  None of those you mentioned, even Obama, are going to change the status quo; except maybe Ron Paul and, if Kucinich doesn’t get on my Nov. ballot, I’d vote for Ron just to get rid of the IRS.  Some of his other ideas might cause total chaos but would be preferable to the slow death of all individual rights under our current political status. Just my opinion, of course. 
VOTE KUCINICH

It’s great to read about other Nader supporters! I also supported Nader in 2000 but I also voted for him in 1996!!!!! And Nader was the BEST choice of ALL possible candidates back then!

In a primary, yes, you should vote your conscience based on your understanding of the issues. So why is it that Americans don’t vote their conscience?

Supposedly a bevy of New Hampshire woman voters pushed Hillary to the top which is why she came out first. Now what was the overall reason for why these woman voters chose Hillary? Was it her “positions” on the issues? Somehow I don’t buy it. Her gender was reason alone to vote for her and that’s what happened. Hillary is no liberal and she’s a “democratic” neo-con to boot. New Hampshire supposedly has one of the best educated electorate in the country. So what allure does Hillary have other than her gender

The tragedy about why the United States ends up with such poor candidates for president (and yes, I don’t think Bill Clinton was a great president by any means) is because voters constantly vote with the idea that it’s either “evil” or the “lesser of two evils” which they are stuck voting for. And most people end up voting for the “lesser of two evils.”

Well in a primary you have the chance not to vote for ANY EVIL! And Kucinich is damn well proof of that!

I sure hope Hillary falls FLAT ON HER ARSE come the next slate of primaries and I sure hope California goes either Obama or, surprise, KUCINICH!!!!!!!!!!

By mackTN

Ralph Nader
I was absolutely positive about Nader in 2000.  I gave him money, I worked in his behalf, I voted for him.  Apart from my vote for Harold Washington, I have never felt prouder when I punched that Nader/LaDuke chad. 

In a primary you should vote your conscience based on your understanding of the issues.  It’s the American way.

It’s great to read about other Nader supporters! I also supported Nader in 2000 but I also voted for him in 1996!!!!! And Nader was the BEST choice of ALL possible candidates back then!

In a primary, yes, you should vote your conscience based on your understanding of the issues. So why is it that Americans don’t vote their conscience?

Supposedly a bevy of New Hampshire woman voters pushed Hillary to the top which is why she came out first. Now what was the overall reason for why these woman voters chose Hillary? Was it her “positions” on the issues? Somehow I don’t buy it. Her gender was reason alone to vote for her and that’s what happened. Hillary is no liberal and she’s a “democratic” neo-con to boot. New Hampshire supposedly has one of the best educated electorates in the country. So what allure does Hillary have other than her gender?

The tragedy about why the United States ends up with such poor candidates for president is because voters constantly vote with the idea that it’s either “evil” or the “lesser of two evils” which they are stuck voting for. And most people end up voting for the “lesser of two evils.”

Well in a primary you have the chance not to vote for ANY EVIL! And Kucinich is damn well proof of that!

I sure hope Hillary falls FLAT ON HER ARSE come the next slate of primaries and I sure hope California goes either Obama or, surprise, KUCINICH!!!!!!!!!!

By mackTN

Ralph Nader
I was absolutely positive about Nader in 2000.  I gave him money, I worked in his behalf, I voted for him.  Apart from my vote for Harold Washington, I have never felt prouder when I punched that Nader/LaDuke chad. 

In a primary you should vote your conscience based on your understanding of the issues.  It’s the American way.

“It is not a conspiracy”...my ass!  Which corporate payroll are you own?  Hey, ‘unregistered’ Paul, you are obviously one of the “dirty tricks” composers.  Just count yourself as an ineffective & exposed ‘shill’ for the status quo set.

Excellent commentary, CJ!
I thoroughly enjoyed both the interview and the subsequent article on Kucinich by Chris Hedges, plus your contribution as well.  (Bet they don’t get ‘aggregated’ by the corp.-controlled mass media!)

Interesting to see that my annual income is so far BELOW America’s poverty level. No whines, no complaints; just “my bad” for not planning to live this long.  I live very modestly but extremely happily in northern Thailand, retired here after BushCo managed to steal the Presidency in 2000. Its not a perfect country either but is a hell of a lot more hospitable than the one I left…and still love.
VOTE KUCINICH

Kucinich can’t win? Don’t bet on it.

Ya know, when I was speaking of paying for bridges, I wasn’t referencing people that don’t drive, or don’t use them. I was referencing people that DO drive, and WOULD use them, IF they could afford the TOLL.

Same thing with mass transit. States like Texas don’t have it. They don’t have it, because the people with the money, don’t want to spend it on mass transit, because THEY have cars, and can afford to put gas in them, and pay the insurance, and all the rest. So, since THEY don’t need mass transit, why should their tax dollars pay for it, right?

Never mind the folks who can’t afford it, they can just stay stuck on their side of whatever fringe they’ve been assigned to. As long as they don’t get in anybody’s way, and nobody has to see them, or deal with them, what’s the problem?

And, the same people who don’t wanna pay for roads, and don’t wanna pay for mass transit, also don’t wanna pay for schools. (Ron Paul’s group). They either don’t have kids, or they send them to private school. Why should their taxes go to provide education for ‘lesser beings’.

Now of course I’m willing to pay taxes for ALL of these things and you’re willing to pay taxes at least to educated all Americans, (thanks, maybe there IS a god, or at least a sign of intelligent life in the world) but overall, these libbies don’t wanna pay for any of that. They think that home schooling is just fine, and anything else…well, you’re just on your own.

They call it, ‘freedom’.

He gets 77% in polls that include him. He has been silenced by the corpoarate media. Where have you been?

Blame the media first.  It is the crook media that should have been hanged a long time ago.  They get all the payoffs.  They decide who gets to act on the stage.
Every election is participatory farce, where you cheer a team loaded with steroids.

So how precisely can his failure to get more than 3% in a small state after a year of effort be blamed on the media?

Cy,

Yep, I get your point, and so I would direct you the the last response that I posted to Joe.

But, I wasn’t necessarily speaking of people WITHOUT cars, or without ACCESS to cars. I was speaking of those who might have them, but cannot afford the additional cost of the tolls, especially if they need to use the toll roads everyday, to get to and from work.

And, while it may not sound like a big deal, I should say that Texas is probably the among the lowest earning state in the nation, at least for mimimum wage workers. The salaries (overall) are much lower than I suspect they are in your state, (though I don’t know much at all about Maine). But, without a doubt, the salaries are low, for unskilled or semi-skilled laborers, and the tolls are actually high.

As with everything, it helps if you can buy a pass say once a year, and you save a lot of money that way. But, like everything else, you have to HAVE the money, to be able to do that. In reality, it doesn’t play out that way for the person at the bottom of the wage scale. So, by the time one has paid their car note, insurance, gas, maintenance, AND the tolls, (which at the time I lived there, could add up to $5 or $6 a day) you’ve really cut into whatever little bit of money you might be earning. Now of course if there was a state income tax, those charges could be written into your return, and you’d pay your fair amount of the tax, based on your income.

And, it’s not like there are alternative roads, or available public transit. Public transit would make all of the difference of course, but they don’t wanna pay for that either, so they don’t have it.

So, I said all of that to say that in the end, what it does is to basically eliminate a substantial portion of the population, and not just in things like toll roads, or toll bridges, but it has farther reaching effects that the average person doesn’t really give a lot of thought to.

Still, this isn’t really a new sort of phenomena, as far as what it does to create such socio-economic imbalances. It’s pretty much the same thing as say, having enough money at one time, to take advantage of bulk prices, or sale prices. Far better to buy 10 cans of soup at one time, when you can get them for say 75 cents a can, than to pay $1.39 for the same can of soup, just because you didn’t have any more than that, and you didn’t have ANY money when they were on sale.

Kind of the same principle. If you don’t have even that extra $5 or $6 dollars a day to deal with the tolls, then it might prevent you from getting whatever employment might be available. Well, not MIGHT…I’ve seen it happen. I mean, how many days can you not show up for work, because you didn’t have the money to pay your toll for the road to get there?

Admittedly, my opinions have some passion to them, but the passion is based on fact, not fiction.
In reality, the sales tax (alone) in Texas doesn’t cut the mustard, which is why there is such a huge disparity in so many areas, but specifically in public education – K thru 12. The reason is that the majority of money for that comes from property taxes. (yep, I paid them, even though I didn’t have kids attending school). And, I never minded that…not a single bit, because I honestly do believe that we have collective interest in maintaining an educated populace.

It’s the same principle with the toll roads and the bridges. The Dallas area has LOTS of toll roads. And, it’s easy enough to say that one shouldn’t have to pay for it, if they don’t drive it. The other side of that is that if you can’t afford to pay the toll, then obviously, you aren’t going to drive it, and that creates an automatic social Darwinism, because it basically prevents the poor from accessing certain areas of the city or county, for employment opportunities, goods, and other services. This is nothing new, and it’s clearly not fictional. If anything, it’s GUARANTEED. You see it anywhere that such a system is practiced.

For Texas, it’s the same thing with mass transit. I lived there for 17 years, and every time the issue came up for a vote, ALL suburban areas voted it down. Didn’t want to spend the money, but they also admitted that it was because they wanted to keep the ‘riff-raff’ out. (you can interpret that however you want). I made my way back to civilization 7 years ago, but I remember asking my ex recently, if they’d ever gotten around to approving any form of public transportation, (since now of course, the hoity-toity’s are squealing themselves, about the price of gas for their F-10 pickups) He said no, and that the bridge leading out of the little ‘ritzy’ enclave (where they didn’t want the ‘riff-raff’) had just collapsed, and he was trying to figure out how he was gonna get to work. I recommended a brisk swim, but he was worried about messing up his work uniform. Oh, I should mention that with those toll roads, there are NO alternate routes. It’s pretty much that way all over the area. So, if you get on say HWY XYZ, and there’s a back-up of some sort, (accident, dead armadillo in the road) you might as well just park that sucker, and take out the picnic basket, cause there ain’t no where else to go. (of course those with rifles installed on their hoods can sometimes shoot their way through)

BUT…they don’t have to pay state income taxes. Must save them a good what…$800-1,200 a year? Maybe more for the rich ones? I thought it was a grand idea when I first moved there from California. At least until I started getting those $400.00 a month electric bills, since the place stays hotter than hell 10 months out of the year. I finally realized that the ‘no income tax stuff’ just wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. So, ya’ll can have the ‘rugged individualism’ and I’ll just bite the bullet on the easy side, and pay the flippin’ taxes.

As for Ron Paul, a closer check at his hidden agenda, (well documented in his Congressional record) is of course pure fact. He’s a religious whacko and an obvious authoritarian control freak. I’m not the least bit happy about trying to force prayer in public schools, or nullify Brown v Board.. (more social Darwinism). Now, if your house was on fire, would you prefer that a fireperson come out in a truck with a hose and maybe a ladder, or would you be OK with somebody showing up in a preacher suit with a bible, and just praying over it?

It’s the same with potholes in the roads, or freeway signs that are tacked up lopsided, with incorrect spelling, and drivers that refuse to use turn signals. (they don’t want anybody to know their business – I swear)

As for the Corps of Engineers, they didn’t do New Orleans much good now did they? They called the right shots on the doomed levees, and nobody did a thing about them.

“Like a good for nothing cock, without having won the victory, some walk away from the grim reality and crow”

Plato (sort of)

Vote, of course, but do so with a black hatred.  It is always Lucy holding the football.

I was absolutely positive about Nader in 2000.  I gave him money, I worked in his behalf, I voted for him.  Apart from my vote for Harold Washington, I have never felt prouder when I punched that Nader/LaDuke chad. 

I started out supporting Obama—raised a lot of money, spent a lot of money.  Some things irked me, however, and as time went on, I just couldn’t keep supporting a disturbing vagueness in his issues.  My questioning seemed to irk all the college kids and transformed Republicans who couldn’t understand why I just couldn’t accept the change, man.  I’m voting for a president, son—not a body snatcher.  I booked.

John Edwards hit a nerve, especially after the spineless Dems, who couldn’t get up enough backbone to tell Bush to kiss their ass, suddenly got all fired up to hustle a corporate-written immigration reform bill through the senate—not once but three or four times.  Let’s feed the corporatocracy the slaves it needs for all those profits that don’t make our lives better.  Who can say Edwards is wrong when he warns that you leave health care as it is, they’ll still be denying liver transplants and mental health counseling and maintaining the profit margins?  Those people play hardball to the death, and they’ll own us if you don’t kick them in the nuts.

In a primary you should vote your conscience based on your understanding of the issues.  It’s the American way.

Even in Wyoming, a lot of people are catching on.  All they need is VALIDATION.  Put small computer printed signs in your car windows saying, Bush did 911.  Republicans return to their vomit.  Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Busheviks did 911.  Etc.  DON’T MORALIZE!  Just state short facts.

Timothy1119 -“The media goes where THERE IS A STORY” - horsepuckey

While all eyes are on the candidates the most astonishing sideshow is being staged by the U.S. Media.

Every candidate but two have made the pilgrimage to AIPAC and pledged obeisance to Israel and accepted their reward in treasure and exposure- even Obama:

http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13849&Itemid=86

As a result there is very little difference between the frontrunners of either party on the major issues - Iraq, Iran, torture, Habeus Corpus, the power of lobbies and the press plays only the minor, domestic issues.

The two standouts are Kucinich and Paul.

Despite Paul’s astonishing feat of twice breaking all records for fundraising, his consistent, overwhelming victories in online polls and his respectable 10% polling in the Iowa Primary (compared with Giuliani’s 3%) the major networks have excluded him from debates and there is a virtual boycott of him in the press.

Fox is particularly blatant:

http://www.libertarianunderground.com/editorial.php?id_msg=8408

Similarly with Kucinich who is taking legal action:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/01/06/dennis-kucinich-slams-abc-for-exclusion-from-debate/

Yesterday the British Sunday Times became the first major newspaper to carry the story of whistleblower Sibel Edmonds.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article3137695.ece

This story is bigger than Ben Hur and implicates major AIPAC and Bush functionaries yet there is not a single mention of it in U.S. dailies today.

The media goes where THERE IS A STORY? Yeah right!

“the vote for the Good verses the vote for the Perfect”... That kind of thinking really worked, I guess, prior to Bush-land you know?

But now? These bastards have killed a million Iraqi’s for nothing more than profit margins and a few bases in Iraq to protect their buddies companies.

And if you think the power behind these guys and the MSM that props them up, is going to “give up” because a dem wins, you’re as dumb as a rock.

They have already made in-roads to through the DLC, just go spend 5 minutes reading their website. Why don’t you think Hillary ever mentions it? It’s like the CFR used to be; members don’t like acknowledging membership. Unless they are depositing the checks.

There is no “middle ground” anymore people. Bush was 100% right; “you are either with them or against them”.

And Hillary’s “Buy Healthcare from the insurance companies or don’t work” program isn’t the Democratic platform I grew up with. Her signing onto the bill calling the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization, isn’t really “middle of the road” either.

She’s a war monger; just like Bush.

Take a look at her “blind trust” and the companies that she was profiting from after her vote to give Bush the authority to go to war.

The DLC is the new incarnation of the Neo-Cons; just a friendlier version. They covered their bases both ways people.

And stop whining because no one votes for you yet because you have not been successful in building a movement.  No one in the media took Hukabee seriously until he started winning.  So go and do likewise.  Find a formula for success and get some movement in the polls.  Work and build a bloody movement and stop concocting idiotic conspiracy theories on how it is the media do not take you seriously.  The media goes where THERE IS A STORY.  Dennis K, I am sorry to have to inform you, is a story that relatively few are interested in.  He has had a year or more to build an organization in Iowa & NH, and still hardly anyone supports him.  That is not the fault of the news media.  Ron Paul is also a story that relatively few are interested in…although seemingly about half the callers on C-Span support Ron Paul. 

Hukabee is living proof that there is no media conspiracy to silence lesser known candidates. The media will be at your door when you can demonstrate that people will be voting for you in large numbers on Election Day.  Getting to that point is your own responsibility.

I appreciate your fine words describing your support for Kucinich. But why didn’t you write this piece last year?? Why didn’t you write at the start of 2007 when Kucinich was just starting out??

Yes, you are the voice of the comfortable and too many comfortable people want to remain “comfortable” and only come out when it their voice won’t add much weight to the political debate anymore.

Mr. Hedges, you should have been writing effusively in your praise of Mr. Kucinich all throughout 2007. And then I’d read your column and think a bit better of you.

Real encouraging there hetzer…and I think most of know the con. (or at least the one that’s been most at work for the longest period of time).

Thing is though, I’m not ready to start hanging out at the cemetary, just to be jealous of the residents there.

So, something’s gotta give on the filth, and I’m not opposed to getting some new brooms and mops, and using them.

Dennis is not going to win. We’ve all known it from the start. None of us is so unrealistic as to think Dennis has even a prayer of winning.

But Dennis has never run to win. He would be a colossal fool to run to win when he, and everybody else, knows he won’t. So, why is he running?

Set aside any possible, inappropriate, self-serving, etc. reasons for the moment, and let’s look only at the possible, appropriate, comunity-serving, etc. ones. I’d suggest he runs to get his message across, and in that he has some success. I’d also suggest he runs to “influence the debate,” and that this is important. And I would imagine that there must be any number of other good reasons he runs. For any or all of these good reasons, I understand why you would entertain the prospect of actually ~voting~—not merely singing his praises or giving him a pat on the back, but ~voting~—for Dennis.

But what if your vote turns out to be another instance of “the perfect being the enemy of the good”? What if your vote for Dennis, “the perfect,” cancels my vote for, let’s say, Obama, “the good,” and that you and I get Hillary, let alone Mitt or John, as a result? What then?

You begin your article with some things you’re tired of. I’m tired of them, too. But I’m also tired of people getting so tired that they’re willing to cancel my vote for the “good” with their vote for the “perfect.”

To govern, you need the agreement of the governed. If you’re a democrat, you get agreement in a democratic manner, turn it into votes, get elected, and govern. If you’re a dictator, you get agreement in ways other than democratic, turn it into votes or don’t, get elected or don’t, and govern.

As to Dennis, what is widely agreed upon is that he’s not to be taken seriously as a presidential candidate. As it happens, Dennis, himself, is unwilling, demonstrably as well as by his own admission, to do what it might take to become a credible candidate. I don’t mean compromise; I mean getting serious about creating a third party or some other organised mass movement to move forward his platform.

Dennis may remain best known for the contradiction between his expressed willingness and claimed ability to govern, and his expressed unwillingness and apparent inability to do what is necessary to govern.

Government changes as a result of what the governors and the governed do before and after elections. Government rarely changes because of elections, and when it does, most of that change evaporates rather quickly.

The truly “perfect” will never be elected until it is within the imagination, reach and desire of the many. Even then it will have to be demanded.

In the meantime, we have the candidates we have. If they’re not our personal wish list, then we have work to do between elections.

Voting is not wishing. It’s not about the choices we would like to have. It’s our choice of the candidates we do have.

A vote is one of the most precious coins of a democracy. If it’s spent in return for nothing, we make ours worthless and those of others’ worth less.

All of us tire of realities now and then. It’s not something to tout as though it were virtuous or a virtuous justification for what one might do next. Tiring of realities is merely childish. So, now that you’ve had your childish rant, get up off the floor and go vote for Obama.

The more I learn, the more I think again. His foreign-policy advisors, for example, include half a dozen of the most meritorious entries in the Who’s Who of Warmongers. But, hey, what else should I have expected?

What I would like to think I can expect, if and when he’s elected, is an Obama with a quite different cast of characters. I’d like to think he really does has the potential to make, and to encourage others to make, significant change.

We are completely surrounded by Nazi media, government, commerce, military, and propaganda, Etc.  RESISTANCE IS FUTILE IF YOU HOPE TO BE SAVED BY TOTALLY CORRUPT INSTITUTIONS.  The filth will keep this up until all of us will envy the dead.

yes, I voted for Perot, who told it like it was and used his charts to show us where we were going (and where we now have got).

And if I vote at all, I will likely vote for Dennis just to keep from having to vote for an outright liar who won’t talk about oil. (See Alan Greenscum book)

Yep, they sure do have a say. (Or at least that’s the way they describe it). So, regardless of what the ‘media has decided’, everybody else in those 49 states can decide for themselves, and they SHOULD.

I think all of these candidates have web sites, so if nothing else, everybody should check them out, and see what they have to say.

Got questions? Call ‘em up. Send them an email. Ask for a response, clarification, etc, etc.

Just don’t let the ‘media’ decide for you.

EXCELLENTE ocjim!!

You’ve got it all right here. Indeed, we have to educate ourselves that these things are in fact our rights, and in our own best interests, COLLECTIVELY as well as individually.

That’s the part that I think we still don’t get. We DO have this right to feel secure in these things, and unless we can ALL feel that way, it doesn’t matter how well off the ‘individual’ thinks that he or she is.

If I’m ‘well’ and healthy, but the rest of my neighbors have TB, how long am I gonna be ‘well’ and healthy.

If I’m well employed, and comfortably housed, but the majority are homeless and without the basics, how long will it be before they’re needing to hit me up, if only for survival?

And if I’m well educated, and know how to connect the dots, and understand a bit of how the world works, how helpful is that if nobody else does?

How much help is MY ‘education’, if I can’t build my own cars, and grow my own food, or treat my own medical problems, or find a way to dispose of all of my trash, and clean the streets, and put out any fires, or protect myself in the event of a natural disaster?

Nope, it’s just not enough. EVERYBODY has to feel secure in their mind/body/spirit, or we’re all screwed.

At least, what I’ve been reading on-line, the media has decided that since Obama “won” in Iowa, all the other candidates should throw in the towel, else be marked as sore losers. There are 49 other “States” that have a say to…at least I thought they did. Don’t they?

Personally, I’d like to see them all stay in and fight to out all the way to the convention floor. Make it a history making event, one that would put the repugs to shame.

I agree with Hedges until he gets to the part about Kucinich and the “groan of the comfortable.”

He is right about Kucinich representing the right direction for our democracy. Hedges’ message is the right message but his words can’t turn around over two hundred years of cultural history.

We’ve been heading in the direction of “rugged individualism” for a long time, but the competition for and the depletion of our vast resources is now channeling us to a Social-Darwinism approach in which the rich and powerful are winning. The “rugged individualism” attitude even intimidates the poor into believing they are failures if they have no money.

The “groan of the comfortable” is also translated by the vote of the poor. By voting for the failed Bush, we saw that even the poor voted against their own interests.

Hedges does not identify the years of propaganda that got us here. The absence of a social security net (health care, retirement, worker’s rights, child car)like the other advanced countries makes the affluent (though the middle class is becoming less so) and especially the poor subject to the fear-mongering of the feckless Bush and the Republican candidates.

So supporting Kucinich is futile until we educate the people about our right to feel secure in mind and body—health care, education, retirement, worker’s rights, child care, etc.

By RdV, January 7 at 7:40 am #
(78 comments total)

Who’s clean?

The nobody is perfect argument?

  Kucinich cynically prostituted his own true believers. I saw his tight seething little face intent on exacting revenge on Edwards to settle the score. Goes to show you how much the issues truly mean to him when he is willing to sacrifice them to get even. What a petty, pathetic little man—made especially shameful by the new age cosmic love crap he spews like he is some kind of evolved spiritual soul—when he is just another dirty player—exploiting his followers.

The Republicans have picked another Democratic candidate to lose or get shot.

Kucinich was marginalized a long time ago.

(We need to develop a system of direct voting to get rid of “representative” government once and for all.  Commercial media should be reduced to the size of a toilet.  And, we need a liars court similar to a small claims court with a jury of five.

Dennis speaks to the desires of the majority of the American public (Gallop Poll(?)).  The positions he espouses are those of our country’s population, e.g., universal health care, better education, full employment and protection from corporate excesses.
By rejecting Kucinch’s dialog the MSM and corporate media are rejecting the majority of Americans’ positions.

The Rue Paul trolls like to repeat the dogma and lies of the anti-abortion crowd.  They should never be considered pro-life.  This group is for the death penalty, against universal health care, pro-war, and anti-education—hardly pro-life stances.  Ron Paul is against abortion and contraception.

By RdV, January 7 at 5:22 am #
(77 comments total)

Kucinich is the best for breaking away from the path leading to fascism.  It’s easy to rip any candidate; any one in the public eye is a target.  We have to go to our core values (whatever they may be) and go with the “person” who represents that value.  For me Kucinich, as stated by himself, is the closest to that ideal.  Nobody is perfect, so let’s get real and go with the “person” who will protect our human rights!  Step back and look at where we have gone; it’s far from the America I grew up with; it’s far from the life I want for myself and my loved ones; hell, it’s far from anything I have ever wanted for me or anyone else.  Are our ideals and principals just a bunch of idealist shit or are they real and truly worth dying for…….just what the hell are we really all about?  That is the question and the answer is more important than we can possibly imagine.

No Kucinick in the debate there’s absolutely no DEMOCRACY ! So we need democracy be imported from Pakistan or China mainland.

All of this reminds me of an old Simpson’s Halloween special wherein the alien monsters take over the bodies of Bob Dole and Bill Clinton.  At the final stump speech some guy in the crowd shouts, “I’m going to vote for a third party.”  And one of the aliens replies, “Go ahead, throw away your vote.”  The episode ends with the Simpson family enslaved to build a giant laser and Homer quips, “Don’t blame me, i voted for Kodos.”

Mr. Hedges gets it, amen.  It is high time that we all started to throw away our votes.  Vote for third, fourth, and fifth parties…especially locally.  Vote Kucinich and Paul (depending if you’re a leftie or a rightie).  Go out of your way to vote for the candidates who don’t have a chance.

At this stage of the game, no “major” candidate is going to be flawless…not even Mr. Kucinich.  Politics is a dirty game, and it always has been.  If we expect that to change on the national scene, we will first have to change it on the local scene.

Personally, i’ve decided that if this election shapes up like it looks like it will, i’ll be writing in “none of the above”.  I cannot hold my nose any longer; i cannot rationalize which evil is lesser any more; and, as so well put by Expat, i’ll be damned if i’m going to continue shitting in my own nest….

By dismissing Kucinich they are dismissing single payer health care, immediate withdrawal from Iraq, immediate action on global warming, etc.  This is how they do it.  Trash any candidate who stands for these things, then none of the others dares to raise these issues.  Most importantly, keep on repeating “he doesn’t have a chance” until it becomes a reality.

By RdV, January 7 at 5:22 am #
(77 comments total)

just what do you suggest?  I hope you took my previous comment as tongue firmly planted in cheek.  I’m at a loss and thoroughly fed up with all of the fascist bullshit.  Information trickles down slower than Reagonomics and I’m not in the states, so I really have to search and there are only so many hours in a day.  Tell me what your spin on this morass is.

Re-read the article, and you’ll find out why Ron Paul would not be mentioned.

Here are at least a few of the things for which Ron Paul does NOT support… beginning with what Kucinich stated as the reason for the downfall of the Democratic party..

‘….“Lack of commitment to democratic principles…’

When are you Ron Paulies gonna get it, that his is NOT an agenda based on democracy. In reality, it is the OPPOSITE, because RP is not interested in anything more than unregulated PRIVATIZAION. That’s why Ron Paul is outspokenly against any of these ideas here.

A full-employment economy. Kucinich wants to put people back to work, doing the things that we need, as a nation, INCLUDING the rebuilding of our crumbling infrastructure. He’s not talking about using corporate or private dollars to do that, by making a bid with whatever private company offers the best deal, and then charges the public to use it.

For instance, Texas, (Ron Paul’s state) is falling apart at the seams in its own infrastructure, because Texas does not collect a state income tax, to provide for these things, within their own state. So, they frequently resort to TOLLS, say for bridges. A private investor puts up the money, and builds the bridge, or the road, or whatever, and then the people using it, pay the state or the business back, by paying a toll to utilize that public space. The end result is that anyone who cannot afford to pay the toll, becomes marginalized and left on the fringes, lacking access to wherever the resources are.

Then we get to the single-payer health issue, which is the biggie, and the VERY thing that RP adamantly opposes. This would eliminate the obscene profits realized by the insurance corps, who have in effect, taken over the health care industry. In short, Ron Paul is RADICALLY opposed to that, and obviously believes that it should continue to be privatized, so that only those who can afford it, have access to it.

The system that Kucinich offers and advocates is what I have coined as a 21st Century version of the New Deal that Roosevelt used to bring America out of the depression. And, there is not a single candidate currently running, who is MORE adamantly OPPOSED to such a concept, than Ron Paul.

So, as always, I’m STILL trying to figure out what the Paulie groupies mean by ‘freedom’. Would that be ‘freedom’ to die in which hole you choose to be abandoned to? Or would that mean the ‘freedom’ (for a FEW) to practice highway robbery against the rest of us – the masses; i.e., we pay you whatever it is that you’re charging, for whatever it is that we need, or we just do without? Sounds like a 3rd world country that works on bribes, and unregulated deal making. Like, what we have with the neoconns NOW.

So, is that what you mean by ‘freedom’? Because we know that you aren’t REALLY talking about civil liberties, such as the right to privacy, and all of the spying and the things that Kucinich addresses right here in this article.

No, that is NOT the ‘freedom’ that Ron Paul speaks to. The “freedom” that RP advocates is for a FEW to exercise, if they have the power and the muscle, against the masses. And, he also advocates a REPEAL of many of the freedoms that our laws have already guaranteed, such as a woman’s right to choose what happens to her own body.

So, STOP with the freedom and liberty thing in reference to Ron Paul, because that is NOT what his agenda is about. It is the OPPOSITE of a democratic policy, and that’s what Kucinich has always advocated..a commitment to DEMOCRATIC principals. Libertarianism is NOT in line with democratic principles. Period, dot.

Read somewhere that Kucinich claimed that it was Edward’s association with hedge funds that cause him to cynically use his supporters to back Obama to get back at Edwards—(one is left to ask how important the issues really are to congressman Kucinich)—considering Obama’s major support:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0dd41b74-33ff-11dc-9887-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

By RdV, January 7 at 4:31 am #
(76 comments total)

Response

had to make me completely rethink everything I thought I knew….damnit, you make me work too hard!  Crap!  This is way more complicated than I ever knew. I need time to digest this; I’ll get back to you!

It is to be expected that the corporatocracy would do everything in its power to undermine a candidate like Kucinich. What is disgusting is that so many of us buy into the “unelectability” theory. “They” tell us who is electable and “we” choose between the bought out selectees? That doesn’t cut it. Kucinich is authentic, un-owned and not for sale. If that rules him out as a possibility for leadership than we should admit that the game is over and either give up or work together to replace this corrupted system of government with a better one.

Right.  The electorate doesn’t believe the Kucinich message and that may be money driven—he needs to switch ad agencies. 

If Kucinich really wants to be prez—next time, because it’s too late now—he has to change his message to one the electorate will believe, whether or not he does, and then, once in, get on with his agenda.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=14637

I have a question, many actually:  What does it say about us, that a man like Kucinich not only exists, but is actively seeking the presidency and is largely ignored by us?  Forget the press, they are followers of which ever way the wind blows; we ultimately control our destiny and could have anybody we want for president and just look at the things we choose.  It’s as though we are willing to shit our own nest; how disgusting is that?  I guess this is further evidence we actually do get the things we want.  Which answers the question of how we got Bush/Cheney.  This is not a pretty picture.  Being in love with similes’, metaphors and allusions; it’s kind of like being in prison and being given the keys to get out, but forgetting what a key looks like.