I agree totally with Confused re the Banking system. I did read an article some time ago that the previous Chancelor of the Exchequers of England confided to one of his underlings, that “the whole banking system is a ‘con’.”

One huge problem that is going to have to be addressed before this conservative stranglehold can be broken is media bias . I mean talk radio and the conservative control of information period . As long as a few major conservative corporations are allowed to filter the news and what is seen and heard over the airwaves the public is going to remain confused and frankly , stupified . Even in cities that are overwhelmingly liberal or democratic conservative talk radio dominates , often with no liberal presence at all . Has anyone noticed that on the sunday news programs and morning news republicans outnumber democrats by 2 to 1 ? I don’t know if the democrats are too stupid to figure this out or what . Ever since the fairness doctrine was abolished conservatives have tightened their grip on information with disasterous results . When all one gets is 24/7 conservative diatribe is it any wonder the public is having trouble figuring things out ? This latest copitulation by the democrats in voting to not allow the FCC to reimplement the Fairness Doctrine was mind boggling , what in the hell is wrong with them , they can’t figure this out ? Quick example of what I’m refering to . Stephanie Miller is on 60 radio stations , Laura Ingram is on over 250 . In every single market they compete head to head Miller beats Ingram soundly , so may I ask why more stations don’t either pick up Miller or replace Ingram with her ? Go figure . Thom Hartmann is the 10th most popular radio personality in the business , even though he is broadcast on far fewer stations than his rivals . You mean that no large station has considered that maybe putting Hartmann on their airwaves would be a good business decision ? If the democrats don’t address this and soon they are going to be beaten into oblivion , they need to at least break these media monoplies up , and soon . Make them broadcast news as a requirement to maintain their licenses like they used to have to do , no more infotainment in place of real news . Insist that the radio waves have varying points of view rather than being propaganda for the right wing . Until and unless this is addressed , we’re screwed .

By Grappa, March 14 at 12:31 am

I would have to agree with you but hopefully it is a tenuous hold. But it definitely is something obama needs to look at and start correction measures before the end of his 100 days. I suspect that if obama would break up those monopolies and hold corporate speak to stringent integrity(because these conservative corporate owners of the msm are NOT INDIVIDUALS PROTECTED BY THE FREE SPEECH of the 1st amendment) that more people would find some rather ‘interesting’ information to base their decisions. That in itself needs rectification or more and more people will be lulled into believing in corporations, businesses or any group of people that try to use what is called commercial free speech as a means of their buisness as a given. Hell, it is NOT a given. Our drafters of the constitution and bill of rights put that in the bill of rights to protect the people from the corporate world. It basically gives them the right to tell you whatever they wish to tell you to make you believe what they want you to believe.
No, free speech is a right defined for an individual on a daily basis, but a business is not included because they have tendancies to say what they will no matter how wrong it is to get your money and control of your life for their enhancement. And think of it this way, and it will take for someone to take this to court, that if this was in the supreme court right now, with the conservatives, neocons at that, in charge of the supreme court, those same judges that appointed w as president will surely still maintain this bogus ‘commercial free speech’ for their buddies in business. This is where we will constantly keep running into w & dick’s handy work until one of those neocon judges die, retire or is impeached and leave their position. Or one of them decides that they are not so neoconistic as he thought and started deciding along liberal or libetarian lines.

I think what is evident here is the organization the conservatives started during nixon’s era. It began with the creation of the ‘think tanks’ that began to pop up all over to study, read, discuss, plot, plan and scheme on what agenda to go for and how to gain the power or majority to obtain that power when in the early 1990s the republicans got control of both the senate and the house, didn’t hurt that the supreme court was conservative and not just conservative, ardent federalists as I believe vincent bugliosi said, which made it easy to get w & dick appoint as potus and vpotus and making those 5 judges breakers of the law in doing it.
So, what those 30+ years of think tanks(and they are not regulated)have reaped for our country is more than self evident and what those neoconsevative types were accomplishing is what not just the people in this country are living, but the whole world. I would hold these think tanks as basic terrorist organiztions that have devised and plotted the worst terrorist attack against this country for the enrichment of a few at the expense of the taxpayers, and the possible collapse of this country and it is still going on today. One of the few differences in democrat and republican is that conservatives got control of the money and the media and claim it as their ‘spoils’ of governing, not that there were no democrats that were in the program. And that is where the repubs were aggressive and the dems where just acting important.
The work of these think tanks are what will be for long long time still creating false hope and untrusting influence on those that can find no way to get real information because the msm is still not going to start acting like a protector of the democracy’s constitution, bill of rights, declaration of independence and all the laws of the land and the world for no body’s sake except those few ‘elite’ who believe themselves to be masters of the world and especially the United States of America. Maybe obama will one day get around to addressing these issues.
Here is a link to Source Watch, that sort of keeps up with both the conservative and the liberal think tanks:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Think_tanks

The reason, wildflower, that Obama doesn’t discuss publically the republican deregulation is because the ruling class that owns the means of production, the banks and the media are overwealmingly republican.  and Obama needs their money, media and management to get re-elected.

Confused makes some good points regarding the central banking system but instead of nationalizing the fed it and all central banks should be dismantled. For a good history of the fed one should download and view Wake up Call    http://isohunt.com/torrents/?ihq=wake+up+call

You’re absolutely right about this, E.J. Dionne. I’ve spent an incredible amount of time talking to people about this economic crisis and it’s amazing how many people do not understand how this crisis developed.  They all seem to understand that it involves “greed,” but they don’t understand what led the way to this crisis and the role that “deregulation” and Republican policies have played.

The fact that the Obama/Biden administration hasn’t discussed this is frustrating to say the least.  I simply don’t get it.  Does the administration believe that the taxpayers are children? If so, they need to snap out it. It’s a critical issue and the American public needs to have a better understanding as to how this economic crisis came to be. They certainly can’t rely on the media for goodness sake.

One of the reasons why there aren’t more people who identify themselves as “liberals” is that liberals have generally been cowards.  Nobody wants to identify as being a coward.

Having made this largely inflammatory generalization, let me explain it.  Yes, I will grant you that there have been a few in-your-face liberals over the last 30 years who have stood up and been counted.  I happen to know something about this since I have been an internet slacktavist for 9 years, running one or two anti-Bush websites and spending a lot of time posting on political sites. (This is an affliction which I have grown out of, much to the relief of my wife).  My thanks for posting, blogging, demonstrating, etc?  Death threats by phone and email.  So on a micro scale, I have a teensy weensy bit in common with your Michael Moores and Cindy Sheehans, who are high profile lefties and certainly must have to be accompanied by an armed entourage when they travel.  Me, not so much.  I just hide out in my anonymity and hope for the best.

So it’s no surprise that people respond that way to polls when “liberals” have taken an incessant tarring and trashing in the conservative media for decades.  We just lost an opportunity to fix that by passing a bill that declares that the Fairness Doctrine will never be re-instated.  But we NEED something like it to end the use of the public’s airwaves as a tool to promote the ideology of the highest bidder, who we know will always be part of the Party of Money.

I guess what I’m saying is that we need to stop being the group that quietly acquiesces just because we want to get along.  We NEED to articulate our point of view, we need to be insistent about issues that matter, we need to demand action and hold people accountable.  I would NOT depend on the Democrats to do this “automatically” as they have proven themselves to be unworthy of the name “opposition party” over the last 8 years.  They have given Bush everything he asked for and have strenuously avoided holding Bush accountable by taking impeachment “off the table”.  There was an article here yesterday where Amy Goodman says that single payer is “off the table”.  Well, it’s NOT THEIR DAMN TABLE.  It’s OUR table, and we should decide what’s on it, not some chuckle-heads like that bimbo representative from Florida yesterday who didn’t know the difference between animal husbandry and bestiality.

Out of space, so the rant’s over.  But the fight is just starting… don’t forget your voice, your spine, and your fists.

-Wexler

AWM has stated it in a nutshell.  the American people msut develop a power ideology that rejects both wings of the ruling class’s two parties.  Until the American people realize that Obama is selling them out, there is no hope for a true progressive movment.

In recent years it has been so called progressive governments that have done the most damage to the social fabric of their countries. Clinton in the US Cretien In Canada Blair in the UK all deeply slashed social spending and got away with it because they were considered progressives Since all politicians answer to the same masters their agendas are the same When people grow tired of the right our masters give a messiah from the left. When we tire of the left they give us a savior from the right and on and on.Until the majority realizes this we have no hope

One only need to review History to KNOW ‘Trickle Down’ was an ill fated economic Stratedgy- Just ask the english Monarchy (or the French, or Look to the Fall of Rome). This was no ‘flawed’ Logic, it was economic Treason.
When an economy is reliant on production and consumerism (as all are) generated by the sheer numbers of the masses, yet the wealth and resources are siphoned off and hoarded by the top, only providing a Trickle of those ‘Masses’ below, A feudalistic caste system developes, and the entire system collapses on itself…DUH!
This is exactly the Economic injustice the revolutinary War was waged to Free US from- but instead of Family Crests sucking off Our Teat, it’s Logo’s and their Noble elites. Shouldn’t the markets ‘wisedom’ have eliminated the Inept and corrupt CEO’s long ago?No because the so called ‘Free marketeers’ Fear such realities- so they protect each other.
Yet they dare to interchange ‘Socialism’ and Communism, like they are anything alike! ‘For the people & By the People’ is a Socialistic concept.
‘For the Corps and By the Corps’ is basically Communist ideology.
“Give me your Tried, Your Poor’- Socialist pledge to assure all citizens basic needs are met.
Communist, Monarchies and Dictatorhips have no such moratility and Hate Redistribution of Wealth, because it means those who actually generate it through production and consumerism are given back their fair share for their efforts- No cream to siphon off.They also work to bar the masses from actually participating in the Free market- devouring or destroying ‘Mom & pop’ operations. Most poignant example- Our Family farmers are back to being endentured slaves to Big agri Business!!
Socialist? Damn Right we are a good dose of Socialist- just read our Founding Documents, esp the one which Delared our independence from all Tryannical and oppressive Entities.. It starts out ‘We the people’.
The Repugs and their Corp Overlords are not only in the Wrong Country, they’re in the Wrong Historical Era!They have committed Economic Treason through ‘Trickle Down’, deregulation and Unfair labor laws and inequitable international trade deals.this was no damn mistake, no ‘flawed’ logic, it was Treason with forethought and malice!The Red Coat Repugs have destroyed what so many died to establish and so many have died to protect and defend…A country ‘For the People and By the People’, Yes basically a socialist nation

AWM -  “more dangerous”

Impossible! Perhaps down the road but not Obama/Biden.  While I regret the choices Obama is making, especially the people he is surrounding himself with there is a world between the nightmarish eight years we have experienced and a president with a brain and the power-mad paranoid B/Ch administration.

Obama and Bush answer to the same masters.This is the classic good cop bad cop routine. The only difference is that Obama will be able to bring in policies that the public would never allow Bush to do. You know what there may be a difference after all Obama could be even more dangerous.

There have been a succession of steps, the nomination of Rham Emanuel to the WH, Obama’s choice of economic advisors and the application of their policies of “save the banks,” the lack of stringent rules for re-establishing civil liberties, the bungling of several other nominations and now the immediate withdrawal of Freeman when faced by frontal attack led by Schumer and Aipac that lead one to doubt his judgment. 
Does he not realize that he is confronted by powerful lobbies from inside his own cabinet or does he agree with them?  How long will the American people continue to accept being used as a door-mat by the supposed “elites” and Israel?
After eight years of B/Ch, hopes are too high to be dashed without considering the consequences.