Yes, I’d like for this country to be like Israel (without the problems of one religious/ethnic group dominating and persecuting the rest, or of a conscript military having enormous political power), Diamond. The so-called “strength in unity”, as I see it, only benefits those who know how to manipulate the system for their own pleasure and profit. That’s why this country has morphed, under the Demos and Repubs, into a country the Founders and Framers would not recognize as the “United States of America” if they could see it now. We’re an empire now, run by people who think they can manipulate the whole freakin’ world—for their benefit.

I would gladly live with the disadvantages of a multiplicity of parties as opposed to just two major parties dominating all and laughing at the smaller, essentially powerless “third” parties. This country would swiftly cease to be a fat, bloated, murderous empire, if such were the case (though there’s every likelihood that the current economic crisis will break the empire like the last straw breaking the proverbal camel’s back). We need a return to our republican roots; that’s why I cannot vote for the Status Quo any longer—it’s poisonous; it’s killing the country.

As Solzhenitsyn said thirty years ago in that commencement speech at Harvard, “This debilitating dream of a Status Quo is the symptom of a society that has come to the end of its development.”

The Bushniks are a ‘despicable, sleazy, greedy, hate-mongering mob’. Yes, sepharad, you certainly got that right. And why am I not surprised that paul_GA used to be a ‘conservative Republican’? And now he wants to vote for the greens? Not only Israel had and has the problem of a multitude of small parties and an incoherent political system. This is what happened in Germany in the thirties. It led to chaos, factions, splinter groups, strange bedfellows and eventually to Hitler becoming Chancellor of Germany. Don’t wish too hard for what you want, paul_GA. A political class divided into many groups usually benefits the right, as does the election of so-called independents. This simply splits the opposition/progressive vote and allows the right to play the groups off against each other. Learn from history. There’s strength in unity which is why the right hates unions so much.

On the contrary, Diamond, As John Quincy Adams said, “Always vote for a principle, though you vote alone, and you may cherish the sweet reflection that your vote is never lost.”

I dislike the Democrats almost as much as I do the Republicans (I’m a very disillusioned former conservative Republican, I might add); all the problems of the country I lay at both their doors, and I believe that the country would be better served by a multiplicity of parties, not just two supreme parties which effectively say, “You have two choices, and if you don’t like it, that’s tough!”

I don’t disagree with most of what you say paul_GA but even if there was a green candidate, voting for them would still be a wasted vote because they will never form government in America in your lifetime. If you can’t form government it doesn’t matter how beautiful and beautifully reasoned your policies are. Not voting because you can’t get exactly what you want is not principle, it’s petulance. Barack Obama is not the messiah, but he belongs to the party of Roosevelt and Kennedy and Clinton with all the policy positions that go with that. McCain belongs to the party of Reagan and Bush I and Bush II, Dick Cheney, Tom de Lay and Karl Rove. The party Bill O’Reilly loves and would die for. Their record speaks for itself. Bill Clinton left a huge surplus when he left office, after he fixed the mess Bush I and Reagan had created: that surplus would have amounted to a trillion dollars over ten years. Bush II and Cheney blew the lot on wars, ran up an enormous deficit, have destroyed America’s economy and let its infrastructure rot. Of course there are people who will say only McCain can ‘protect’ them but they are ignorant and misinformed. The worst enemy the American working class has is the Republican party. They exist only to make the rich even richer and to use taxpayers’ money to wage war. They need to have power removed from their clutching fingers and you should help to do it.

Diamond, if the USA really depended on one man, and only one man, becoming president, then this country is on life-support and isn’t long for this world. Virtually the same argument could be made by McCain partisans—that he’s the only man for the job, and if he doesn’t win, the country is doomed. I’m sorry, but I must stand by my principles—that the country needs to exit all its wars; that the military needs to be reduced in size, severely, and brought home; and that foreign aid to other countries must end (charity begins at home, after all). We can’t do it all; some things have to be cut, and I say war and war-related things ought to get the axe (we can defend the 48 continental states, Alaska, and Hawaii with a MUCH smaller, MUCH less expensive military than we have now).

If that can’t or won’t be done, then we are truly on the road to ruin as a country.

What kind of a country is it when some skinheads conspire to assassinate Obama even before he is elected and also take down 140 other people? It is good that the Drugs, Firearms etc nabbed it before it could transpire.

I wish you all well in your choices. This the tiem you get to do so.

On this you’re just plain wrong paul_GA. You can’t divide these issues up: it’s all of a piece. Yes, the average American has basically been mugged so that these free market bucaneers could pay for their wars but the problem is across the board.McCain doesn’t intend to change a thing. He’s yesterday’s man and hasn’t got a single 21st century thought in his head. Obama has to win, if he doesn’t America is doomed, and not just because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those wars are the symptom but they’re not the disease. I personally believe Obama intends to get out of both those countries as soon as he reasonably can. No one’s got a magic wand and it will take decades to fix what the Republicans have done but McCain looks at all this devastation and says, essentially, ‘What’s not to like?’ He’s a disaster going somewhere to happen and must not, under any circumstances, get into the white house. Do you have the luxury of not voting? I don’t think you do.

With all due respect to everyone here who’s pro-Obama, here’s an item of interest, entitled “Obama’s PRO-WAR RECORD”:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboar d.php?az=view_all&address=132x4643795

My problem with Obama is that he’s not anti-war enough. To solve the economic crisis, I believe this country MUST end the Iraq and Afghan wars and abandon the “global war on terror”, or else we’ll be in an even worse world of hurt than we’re already in. I see no sign that Mr. Obama is willing to do that; therefore, I cannot vote for him.

How can you even think about throwing your vote away, paul_GA, in an election as important as this one? It borders on the tragic. Laissez faire is not and never has been superior to social democracy. Every country where free market economics is introduced goes down the toilet sooner or later. If you don’t believe me look out your window. The most obvious example is Victorian England where the working class were uneducated (most of them couldn’t read or write), were paid almost nothing for working endless hours in dangerous and dirty conditions, and the enforced poverty brought about by such laissez faire economic dogma meant parents sent their children out to roam the streets looking for food or anything they could steal to sell so they could keep body and soul together. The last child to be hanged in England was six years old. A mother was hanged for stealing food for her starving children. The facts are in, and in a rational world there wouldn’t even be any further discussion on laissez faire. It is a brutal, Darwinian and failed economic theory which treats the economy as if it ‘belongs’ to those powerful enough and rich enough to get control of it.

The most potent reason for rejecting laissez faire is that it gives untramelled power to ruthless, money mad people who lack the moral values and the wisdom to use power effectively for the common good. I have to agree with Barney Frank: ‘The right believes life begins at conception and ends at birth’. Dickens would have agreed. Keynes foresaw where globalization would lead long before it was being shoved down our throats and he rejected it because he could see that a completely de-regulated global marketplace gave enormous wealth and power to one small group of corporate players while stripping away the basic necessities of life from the majority of workers who have to ‘compete’ in a contest for jobs and pay where they have no protections and no power and can only lose. As usual, Keynes was right. He also rightly predicted that the Treaty of Versailles after World War I would lead to the collapse of the German economy which would lead to another war. The well-being of the majority of the people can’t be divorced from issues of war and peace as if one goes in one box and the other in a different box. In fact the entire purpose of the economy should be to promote the well being of the majority and the stability of society. On both of these, laissez faire is a complete failure.

True, ScottK, which is why I’m voting “no preference” on November 4 (on the Georgia ballot will be only three choices—Demos, Repubs, and Libertarians; the Greens, my choice, are not on the ballot, so my only choice is to vote “no preference”).

Fahrenheit 451, October 25 at 3:49 am #

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Boy, you got that right and how!!

ROFLMAO!  And I sure hope we pass on this, the third try!

Just saw D.L.Hughley who said “She can see Russia from Alaska and says that makes her an expert on foreign policy.  I can see the Moon from my house but that doesn’t make me an astronaut!”

I’m afraid that there’s too much meat to fit into the sausage grinder, WriterOnTheStorm, for me to explain in one sitting before my computer. The best thing to do is check out Mises.org and LewRockwell.com; both sites are chock-full of articles, often by college professors, that can explain the workings of laissez-faire and its superiority to socialism or Keynesianism better than I can in this limited space here.

Mises.org also has books available in PDF form, for free download (I’ve personally downloaded more than 1.36 GB worth of books from them).

@ sistersuperior, October 24 at 8:09 am #

November 4th will be nothing less than a national
IQ Test.

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Boy, you got that right and how!!

“In light of that, sustaining the “American dream” narrative requires updated rags-to-riches fantasies like “MTV Cribs,” HBO’s “Entourage”—and now McCain ’08.”
====================
As I read the above statement from David Sirota’s article,I could not help thinking about a possible title for a work of parody to the “One Thousand and One Arabian Nights” to be called the “One Thousand and One American Nightmares” which took place just during the eight years of Bush’s presidency.

Since I’ve been lately reading the “Arabian Nights” as a means of escape from the nightmarish reality of the last eight years to the fantastic world of the Middle Ages Arabia, I thought a work parodying the “Arabian Nights” might be a new hit in the world of literature as the “Arabian Nights” became a hit in Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries when it was translated into English and French!

Tonight, I will write the first of these “Nightmares” and plan to write one every night for the next one thousand nights, God’s Willing, if given a lease on life!

“Once upon the time there was a young Arabian young man named FUDFUD. He was optimistic, curious and a great lover of knowledge…When his homeland was occupied, his fortunes took a one-hundred eighty degrees turn…..”

Formally, George Bush is the lame duck president; however, McCain is even a “lamer” and “ducker” presidency seeker! And this is another commonality these two losers have in common besides that they were in agreement on what is wrong and evil 95% of the time!

Dah! Dum-de-dum. Well they did it two times, didn’t they?

In most social democracies redistribution is socially downward or across jurisdictions. Actually, the system descibed in the article smells more like a form of facism. Soak the poor to feed the rich. Not long after comes the administration of castor oil to those who object to the power structure. Nazi power people had other persuasive measures which insured the ruckus would calm down.

What did we fight for in the West?  Certainly not the political abortion the US has created for itself. These are the same people who brought you Viet Nam and Iraq II.

Do Republicans not understand that, by definition, ALL tax dollars are redistributed?  I knew they were a few cards short of a full deck, but c’mon.

Well said.

It is one the great mysteries of life why Americans don’t realize our system of tax relief benefits those who paid for it, i.e. the rich. For a couple mil spread around to the right campaigns, corporations and the ultra-rich can reap billions in tax benefits, thereby shifting the burden to those of us without money and lobbyists….the middle and lower classes.

The rich don’t get richer because they produce more jobs and products, they get richer because they have paid politicians to redistribute the wealth….to them.

Never under-estimate the power of large groups of stupid people.

Never mind about people forgetting something 3 months after the fact. McCain forgets everything the second it leaves his mouth.

well folks: with the long term deliberate planning of both parties agreed totally on an agenda, this is exactly & precisely what has transpired. The people of the USA have been disparaged by the Gov, media, special interest groups, & Corps; just exactly like the Jews were. Laws regarding usury have been laid aside, collection laws laid aside, Congressional laws laid aside; all for such a time as this: WE have been targeted specifically as being the “wealthy”; and ALL of the funds & laws taken away be deliberate premeditated & calculated design by the “lawmakers” of this land; telling the Iraqi’s that they “prefer” to be known as “dysfunctional” and NOT as “dictators” cuz they have FOOLED the American public for so long: they immediately changed their agenda from “democracy” to “peace” and are now going for total world dominion for the Corps’ & wealthy for claiming “freedom” for folks in other countries. Deliberately pointing the folks to THIS (communism) instead of pointing to countries that have well functioning Gov offices that DO the work to protect the people, they have deceived the people for years. NEVER have they given the Indians what they promised to them; NEVER have they given the veterans what they promised to them; NEVER have they upheld laws protecting the PEOPLE or the PLANET; instead, like Bush said on the “green” conference in Japan; we will let the “BUSINESSES” decide what THEY want to do & WHEN they want to do it. Now for the “new change” is that per Buckley in St Senate in Oregon: Gov is a TOOL to let the BUSINESSES communicate what they want done. Montel stated to college grads of course, wages will be far smaller now, you were aware of this no? (look to COLOMBIA where the USA is actively involved in a “so called” drug war: to cover their more hideous atrocitities with special interest groups (read wealthy & Corps); want to discuss the African nations where we were along with the SAME GROUPS watching the long term preplanned & carried out GENOCIDES that have gone on? Do you THINK that the CEOs who said “we are usually rewarded for good work” were NOT talking about what was done on Wall St to the CITIZENS of the USA by THEIR OWN GOV????? Might I suggest you pick up copies of Lou Dobbs book: war on the American people (oops that was the American DREAM) by their Gov, Corps & Special interest groups? And the book “license to steal” which outlines EXACTLY what has been going on with Gov’s FULL KNOWLEDGE, CONSENT, just like is done up on Capitol Hill. Welcome folks to DEMONOCRACY NOT “democracy”; Check out http://www.democracynow.org for information on the POWS left behind & deliberately lying to the American folks by leaders at the top of the last 7 Presidents. The Book “Day of Deceit” shows how Pearl Harbor was deliberately SET UP by the USA Gov. Folks: the WHOLE WORLD sees the citizens of the USA enslaved to Corps & knows the TRUTH; they SEE the USA as a FORCE OF EVIL not as a force of good; LOOK AT how & what the USA has DONE: not by what they “claim” is done; it is disgusting, naseating, & beyond belief.

RE: Paul_GA

Although your link is only tangentially related to the article, I took a look at it anyway.

It’s a polemic for “laissez-faire”, but it does contain a cogent account of how the economic meltdown happened. What it doesn’t say, is how true laissez-faire markets would be better for the society as a whole, or for national wealth building in general. Perhaps you can enlighten us.

My understanding of Laissez-faire is in the historical context of the growing wealth and power of the merchant class in the industrial revolution, who wanted the noble class to get out of their way.

Laissez-faire might be a worthwhile goal in a manageable-sized healthy community, but how can it work in a giant, media saturated, dod-eat-dog, super-corporatocracy like the world we live in today?

Like it or not, markets will be governed by something, wether it’s venality, the weather, emotions, fear, what have you. So why shouldn’t well intentioned folks try to mediate this?

The sheeple have been bambozzled over the years to vote against their own pocketbook interests for pie in the sky you can do it fantasy!  The reality is that it takes more education, work, & time, and even then it is not a guarantee of “success”!  The American sheeple have been on that proverbial dog track chasing that elusive hare, never quite getting it! 

Hopefully, now that times are really tough they will wake up, realize the folly and futility of what they have bought into and stop buying it!  Of course if they are too lazy to actually look at McShames Congressional voting records then they can continue to be blind!

For the last 3-4 months I’ve been thinking that Obama should have ditched his “change we can believe in” slogan in favor of “we’re not that stupid”.

But the problem is that many of us just might be that stupid. If TAOWalker is right, the winner of these national elections is the one who can herd the most “livestock” together.

“Free-market zealotry”, eh? Well, McCain has admitted he doesn’t know diddley-squat about economics. But as for the claim that the “free market” or “laissez-faire” is to blame for the current crisis, I offer the following link:

http://mises.org/story/3165

November 4th will be nothing less than a national
IQ Test.

For me the question is who is stupider, McCain or his supporters.  JSM has demonstrated if not stupidity then a colossal lack of judgment by rashly selecting Sarah Palin as his running mate.  He has run his campaign erratically without a message, except the message of the moment. 

I do believe he thinks people are stupid and you know what?  He’s right.  There are thousands of people out there who believe every single Obama smear that mccain is throwing at them and the rest of his so called base is picking and choosing what fits their personal prejudices. 

There was a time when I argued that these kinds of people are ignorant rather than stupid, but I’ve changed my mind.  Only the stupid will believe everything they hear without questioning and investigating when the information is important to them and their decision making.  And only the stupid would choose someone to lead the free world based on how like them the candidate is.

Back when the fiasco of vote re-count in Florida, 2000 was going on, daddy Bush was asked by a reporter if he thought this controversy would hurt his sons ability to “govern” effectively. “No,” he replied. “This will all be forgotten in three months.” And that my friends is exactly what republican policy believes! We the American voters are incapable of remembering anything for more than three months! That is why they keep using and abusing the American voter. And that is why they have absolutely no problem with fixing the outcome ... just in case. Because they believe, truly believe we wont notice, and wont remember if we do, and are to stupid to do anything about it anyway.

Consider, would a candidate dare lie, flat out lie if they believed anyone out there would remember enough of the facts to challenge them? I’m not talking about the occasional mis-speak that happens when a candidate misunderstands, or expresses a believe based on misinformation. I’m talking about the DELIBERATE lie!

A lie created out of thin air, because it has a few “panic” words in it like taxes or terror. A lie that is so blatantly obvious, one has to ask, do they think we are all stupid? Then the answer comes screaming back, YES! They really do believe we are all stupid!

And here we have the perfect example of such a man. John McCain.

The man who consistently ignored orders from his higher ups. The man who never would have been shot down in the first place had he followed orders. The man who sang like a canary while in that POW camp. The man who discarded his sick wife when someone with money and connections came along. The man who fought efforts to find missing Vietnam POW’s. The man who suppressed info on his fellow Vietnam POWs left behind!

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/23/report_mccai n_suppressed_info_on_fellow

The man who will say and do anything to advance his own agenda. The man who has used his manufactured “hero” status for personal and political gain. The man who would be king.

So, will we prove him and the RNC correct? Will we once again display how little we know and how little we remember? Will we once again put the least qualified, least deserving, least honest and least intelligent candidate in the White House?

Or will we show them once and for all we are fed up with being treated like imbeciles?

Is McCain stupid? No, he is not! He is just a man without scruples. And he is amoral. He’s perfectly willing to sound and behave like a race-baiting hate-monger to reach his desired goal. His behavior forces thinking people to challenge every nice thing they’ve heard about the man. Even at the risk of cracking in half that wonderful myth he’s cloaked himself in, he damages his own image. And he wouldn’t dare do such a thing if he didn’t believe in his heart, the American voter cant remember anything for more than three months and is to supid to understand anything if they could. And, judging from the screaming and deluded supporters that show up at Palin rallies, no doubt there are voters who are!

But not all of us.

The poll numbers, if you care to believe them, show McCain heading downhill fast. So perhaps the great sleeping giant America isn’t stupid! Perhaps that giant has just been asleep. But the bills are coming in and the money’s stopped coming in, and that painful kick in the butt delivered by republican fiscal policy has finally made the giant wake up!

Now the giant needs to stand up!

Needs to throw all those parasites who’ve been sucking off his tired body all these many years, down to a painful hard landing! And finally realizing the parasites do far more harm than good, squash them like the bugs they are!

How can a man who has NEVER experienced the Down side of this Economic Heirarchy have any concept about what it is like to be STUCK there.
Born a ‘silver Spooned ‘Military Brat his feet have never Touched ground. Having been happy to play the ‘kept man’ by a ‘Sugar momma’  has granted him the ability to turn a Blind eye from the real struggles many Americans have been facing for yrs.
Least we forget Mr.McCain has NEVER had to purchase his Own Healthcare- thanks to US!
So Ignorance could be claimed - except for one fact…The Kennedy’s, who were also priviledged kids, but were conscious of the vast disparity in this country socio economic Stratas- 40 yrs ago!
So Mac is granted No Such excuse.
What is far more indicative is Who he ‘Pals around with’. A HUGE THANKS to Olbermann for running down a partial list of McCains’ ‘court’ Nobles, last night. finally someone in MSM willing to appraoch the precipise of Mac’s chasm between Rhetoric and Reality.His ‘Loyal’ subjects are not just the Theives of our National Economic Wealth, they are the Jihadist.They Attacked US on every Front- Housing,credit, energy, food and Now Our savings.
Here’s something Mac and his Capo’s should bear in Mind, OUR ancestors left their former homelands Because of Refusal by the Ruling class to ‘Redistribute wealth’. At least 5 of my family memebers died of ‘consumption’ before the rest got on the Boat to head to a land where the Wealthy Did NOT RULE the Masses! In Fact I’‘m sure they appreciated the idea that if they Worked, they could gain wealth…But also would have been just as pleased to know that if they were poor and Starving again, Our form of Gov’t would help them get back on their feet. something the Monarchy did Not.
The only reason someone would reject the moral and ethical logic to ‘Retributing the Wealth’ is if they have Always been in the ‘Noble’Class .
so McCain calls Obamas Plan ‘Socialism’, I consider McCains ‘Feudalism’, and Far More UnAmerican then Socialism could EVER achieve.
When Lady Liberty Pronounces to the World ‘Give me Your Tired, YOUR POOR…” she announces a Fact about our country….We will not neglect the Poor, like the Countries they have escaped.It also inferrs a Promise, to Not Create The Poor either!
It must be my Scotch- Irish Genetics but everytime I hear McCain say ‘Redistribution of Wealth is socialism’ My skin Crawls and My anger Grows!