Nothing will change unless there is to be another
depression. Only then will enough working people be
hungry, homeless, without a job, and angry enough to
foment violent revolution.  But wait, that would be
illegal. This country was created as a result of
Violent Revolution, and, one of the first things our
founding Fathers did was to make that action illegal.
During the last depression, the Owners of this
country were so afraid that working people were going
to turn Communist, that they allowed FDR to hire the
public to construct and repair our infrastructure and
put the masses back to work, and by doing so at least
allowed them to feed their family. While at the same
time the Rich and Greedy howled like stuck Pigs
because they were not the ones making huge profits
off of this project.

Instead of accepting the lame excuses from the two
corrupt parties for their inaction, the Middle Class
and Working Class should form a third party and
accept no one in nomination to office that will not
swear to serve the Workers.  The other two parties I
am sure will continue to do all they can for the 2%
that are our owners, maybe it is time someone did
something for the rest of us.

You bet CAP’N—-!! I’m sayin’, that for our own sanity “We the people—” have to get a clear separation and grasp of personal reality and let go of the crazy making influence of the “machine”. There’s a trap in thinking any hope of salvation exists for the manufactured LIE D.C. and the MSM perp. Other than the dangerous paranoids they generate, they’re irrelevant.

  Again:I’m convinced that the inhabitants of Corporate D.C. and the MSM perpetrate a kind of manufactured national psychosis and it’s time to get well. As in all attempts at recovery, personal inventory and self-reflection, discard of destructive influences and actions and reconnection with our own humanity are first consideration. Questions of healthy family, resources, potential, finance and community follow.

  WE are the responsible solution, not THEM.

REDHORSE, I’m hoping with you, but my faith dwindles in light of how fast the Tea Party has taken a foothold yet how thin their foundation really is. I’m sure that if the foundation was strong to begin with, the harder it would be to crumble. People seem so shallow and can be manipulated so easily. I miss the old “hippie” days when there was purpose and genuineness and solidarity of common people for the betterment, instead there is a trendiness that seems out of touch with reality from both party members but in particular the Tea Party/GOP’rs. Communication should not be a problem with today’s society, especially with the tools of today at our disposal, but it seems more just want to be heard and cannot listen. If you can’t/won’t hear your neighbor’s problems and ideas then nothing gets fixed. But I still have HOPE. When guys like Boehner get ousted, is when hope will begin to payoff.

50G: “We the people—” are indeed the responsible entity, that’s Democracy. Are the “people” corrupt, degenerate or just ambivalent? Those are definite parts of the American shadow.

    Consider this.

    Posters here lament the obvious propagandist machinations perped by D.C. and the MSM to obfuscate and spin American political, social and financial reality. It is a manufactured reality (lie) and the linchpin that secures power for maintenance of an anti-human manufactured culture that skews moral values and prevents social progress and dialogue. It operates on the principles of fear, distortion and familial destruction while pretending moral and social concern. That “big money” is consistently willing to invest in it, is proof of the pudding.

    I’m saying that its’ purpose is to inflict direct emotional, social/psychological damage and chaos. Combined with the real consequence of the financial looting, war, social disintegration and direct assault on Democratic principles it conceals, most Americans have been driven financially and emotionally to the breaking point. It is INTENTIONAL “crazy making” and thus enters the realm of the DAEMONIC. (Think Boehner or Tosin.)

      I’m not calling for an Exorcist, but I do believe it is a real disease and has infected us all. We’re sick from it and sick of it.

      My best hope today is that the perps “lie” has become transparent, as reflected in the informed comments of so many here. At least the “lie” and the “damage” it foists can be clearly seen. I’m convinced that a major shift has come. That a new American reality is being born, and all power rests with “We the people—”.

      When it comes time to regain emotional/spiritual/familial/financial balance and health—it’s hard medicine—but so good for you—it’s called—COLD TURKEY.

Lets hope the good people of Ohio rid themselves of this corporate sell out and elect someone new.

Michele Bachmann would make for more laughs.

Thanks, REDHORSE.  And you’re right:  I haven’t quite abandoned the VOTE yet - I just don’t believe that either major party deserves it or that any minor party is yet poised to capture it effectively, so it’s time to start using it as a weapon rather than as an endorsement (even the back-handed one of being ‘the lesser evil’).

Thus I’m not exactly “assum(ing) that there is an uncorrupted moral human center somewhere inside the current political machine capable of change” - rather, I’m hoping that there’s at least a crude instinct for political survival in the Democratic party that if sufficiently threatened MAY cause them to shape up in preference to being unceremoniously booted out.  We really won’t know until we try, and since we’ve tried about everything else…

The VOTE is about the only option left before active revolution, IMO.  We should at least TRY to use it first.  I see little reason to believe that we can use it to threaten the Republican party, because we’ve already done our best to do so and are looking at the result.  But I think that we CAN effectively threaten the Democratic party if we have the courage and the will to do so, leveraging the Republican party against the one party that we have any hope whatsoever of reforming.

There isn’t a single Democratic incumbent in D.C. that I’d vote for (Dennis Kucinich comes the closest - it took a personal trip on Air Force One with Obama to get him to cave in and renege on his written pledge to oppose any so-called health-care ‘reform’ package that did not include the public option).  As the end of that sham unfolded I pledged to the Democratic leadership (and my own Congresscritters) to vote Republican until a strong public option became law:  I might consider voting for a non-incumbent Democrat with CONVINCING progressive credentials and/or positions (which would have to include clear rejection of current administration behavior), but otherwise plan to honor that pledge (unlike every single one of the 60+ member of the progressive caucus who failed to honor theirs).

I can understand that not everyone has as strong a stomach as I do (and I still may winding up leaving my half-digested lunch in the voting booth - it’s just a price I’m willing to pay for doing something that MIGHT help).  What I can’t understand is people falling for the same pathetic “vote for us - we’re not QUITE as bad” gambit for the 4th straight election in a row.

The one other possibility is that I might join an incipient movement to write in “Medicare for ALL”, “Public Option”, “Bring The Troops Home”, “Jobs NOW!”, or whatever your own first-choice issue may be to indicate that the major parties are not providing acceptable candidates but that we DO stand for something and are not just apathetic.

For 6 years now the Democratic establishment has been telling us that we don’t have any other option.  It’s time to show them that we damn well do, and won’t hesitate to exercise it.

Hi BILL: We all feel the betrayal, and the nightmare consequences continue.

    So many here have given up “HOPE”, they even see the VOTE as futile. Your suggestion that punishing the Dems might make change possible and force them to run good candidates is most likely as straw clutching as FIFTY GIGS, myself and others who urge Repub destruction.. In both instances we assume that there is an uncorrupted moral human center somewhere inside the current political machine capable of change.

    Is there?

    My reason (besides total hatred and disgust with mercenary baboons like Boehner), is that our VOTE seems to be the last voice of reason “We the people—” possess. It must count for something or there wouldn’t be such a huge effort in place to subvert it. Give up the VOTE, no matter how corrupted the machine, and what’s left? (By the way, it doesn’t sound like you’ve abandoned the VOTE.)

    Return to a State level of political action seems to be happening. Sane citizen groups are active here and enough folk are putting their money where their mouths are that some pretty hard hitting ads are running on T.V. and radio. They deserve support and recognition. Of course, the Patriot Act/Homeland Security is really about surveillance and prosecution of citizens in support of Corporate Fascism. Campaign Finance Reform and repeal of the Patriot Act should be everyones first priority. And whatever the reason, the VOTE.

    Anyway, KEEP ROCKIN’ and keep postin’—catch you on the turn around!!

I didn’t think that he could manage get out of the Lobbyist’s pockets, so deep is he in, to be able to play golf.

I am so embarassed as a 52-year old Ohioan whenever this clown is given time to address the public.  I’ve written his office expressing the same sentiments.  I’m simply disgusted.

Yawn - yet another “We’ve GOT to elect Democrats to keep those awful Republicans out of power THIS time!”  scare article.

Just when, Joe, will it be time to take back the Democratic party by the only real means at our disposal:  throwing them out of power and not letting them back in until they represent US?  If not now, and not in 2004 (when a Bush Lite presidential candidate and follow-along party failed to meet the challenge), and not in 2006 (when we did in fact take back BOTH houses of Congress which then meekly continued to support the Bush agenda), and not in 2008 (when we elected even more Democrats than in 2006, including a president promising “change we can believe in” and “an end to business as usual” - and the Bush policies STILL continued and in a few cases even worsened), then WHEN?

This is one of the SAFEST times we could pick to do the job:  the presidency is not at stake, Obama will have veto power over Congress for the next two years even if both houses do change hands, and if we throw the fear of God into the party then JUST MAYBE when 2012 rolls around they’ll give us some candidates actually worth supporting (rather than just another flock of corporatists who try to convince us that they’re not quite as bad as the alternative).

Short-term pain for the only shot at long-term gain that we may have.  Unless we’re going to support the party forever without making any demands on it, which is how we got where we are today.

If you like where we are today, of course, I guess that’s not a problem.

TY FIFTY GIGS!! It’s absolutely us—not them. And yes—punish the Republithugs—or is that to mild a word?

Boner looks like a certain candidate alright - a candidate for skin cancer. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if his damned nose fell off.

Yes, Boehner is an arrogant and pompous pig who in all probability is a crook who hides bribery under the cloak of campaign contributions. I’d also venture to say that the rest of his republican cohorts are equally complicit. Unfortunately, at least 85% of democrats fall into this catagory leaving very few elected officials worthy of any trust or respect. Would that the few honest brokers in national, state, and local politics get together and form a legitimate 3rd party, unlike the Jim Crow version of the republicans calling themselves “baggers”, and start a process whereby transparency and the actual rule of law return to the governance of this nation!

Need to have truth in media reporting and the trust to believe in them. Hard to attain anymore and even harder to trust without becoming overly radical. Yet, the only way is to rid Washington of this poison. I think that first we must remove anyone on the take, the Boehner types. If they are not really on the take but going along with the way of Washington, then “whistleblow” the system if you want to be part of change and be afforded leniency(?) for your crimes. Also must parallel Big Business and it’s leadership with the same cleansing. Start would be removing the clout, so Washington cleanse must come first, but not foremost. The end must come to the “you can’t fight city hall” mentality. We are city hall and should not relinquish or diminish our power. Ethics before lobbyists, or pay the price. I can live without the material world, I am already, so change becomes easier. But not at any cost just ethical reform and damn the political party who looks to their media leaders before they can speak, any of them.

Boehner’s entire career in politics has been merely a
stepping stone to the career he really wants -
lobbyist.  And why wouldn’t it be, he’ll probably be
able to pull down at least $5 million/year, which
should put him in that magic 2%-of-Americans crowd -
average income/year, $8 million. (Wonder how many of
them are lobbyists.)

Who in Washington DC ISN’T a (fill in your favorite villain) bag man?

How american it is to find the biggest blithering idiot windbag, and place him in charge?

All too familiar

Depends.

We’ve observed how corruption has eaten away at core American institutions—politics (duh), media (double-duh), religion, and business.

The storyline sets up a “them” (bad institutions) verses “us” (we, the people) scenario, but the unspoken, uncomfortable truth in all this is that institutions are not isolated “others”.

They are, in fact, populated by “we, the peoples”. So, if the evidence overwhelmingly shows the institutions are degenerate, the reason is because most people are.

Can it/they/we/us be rescued?

Depends.

Are a majority of Americans corrupt and degenerate? Or, are most Americans just good, mind-your-own-business citizens merely guilty of ambivalence and non-participation in our voting democracy, thereby turning power over to the minority degenerates?

Is that a symptom or the cure?

If people don’t vote, it clearly won’t matter, so the odds are against liberals.

But then, the odds were against us in 1776 too.

PUNISH REPUBLICANS. Vote.