I completely disagree with your argument.  It has no basis in reality.
Mark
Infrared Saunas

John Ellis: Qhoting from your last comment:

“For your middleclass has as a highest priority to get my laboring class better educated, as soon as possible get us college degree qualified and PhD certified.  True is most of us slow thinkers can achieve nothing higher then a sixth grade, need above all two years of vocational training and then on to income earning.

Then if so kind, a minimum wage of $20 an hour plus healthcare would be just fine.”

Are you so sure about dividing people into rigid classes?  College degrees versus “slow thinkers?
I’ve known a lot of stupid college grads and a number of very savvy “sixth grade plus vocational” people.  Problem for all of us is that political education is not easy to get unless you “major” in political science or economics etc.  Fundamentals could be taught and understood at earlier levels but are neglected.  I wonder why?  Maybe “the government” (or the general population?) is not interested enough in educating everybody???

Anyway, education is available outside of schools, and many who attend schools for years do not get a good education.  There are many contradictions in our present “system.” 

I sense that you resent people who have what is sometimes called (but not always really) “higher” education.  Sorry to hear that, but remember—what you are is more important than what you do or what you know.  A PhD can’t make a “silk purse out of a sow’s ear.”

John Ellis: 

“Don’t see anyone here talking out the minimum wage.”
Most people on these TD lines uphold minimum wage.

“Don’t see a though(t) being expressed about a working man’s right in forcing Wal-Mart to stop union organizer harassment.” Most people on TD seem to be pro-union.

“Don’t see the illegal alien laboring class buddies of ours being defended here.” Most people on TD appear to be more or less supportive of rights for Mexican labor.

“Don’t see any gratitude for those who do 95% of all the bleeding and dying in war, my laboring class buddies who are 95% of those forced to fight in war.”
Most people here are strongly anti-war.

Are you sure you are reading these people right?  I see them quite differently.  The failure (our failure) here is not in words but in deeds—which is certainly not our fault alone.

Well, you’ve chewed Obama up and spit him out about 50,000 times—so now what?

Think about organizing people at the grassroots for 2010, in preparation for 2012.  It ain’t over till it’s over, and the great resource of democracy is public participation in government.  The possibilities are still there, waiting for intelligent, humane guidance from millions of people who are alive and well.

The author is correct, but fails to point out that red flags were there for all to see during the primaries and were ignored by the press.

Mr. Kutler, did you comment then about 130+ votes of present… not exactly the hallmarks of a man with convictions…

Did you remark upon the fact that the candidate was never tested or even asked a follow-up question?

Did you have an opinion about the fact that the tightest, most controlled campaign in the history of politics allowed there online operatives to use the race card against anyone who dared to question the chosen one?

Sign me, fed up, former Liberal.

Yes, the system works. Brilliantly in palestine, yemen, afgh’n, iraq, somalia.
The system worked well in slavery, lynchings,extirpation of indigenes, hiroshima,nicaragua, and elsewhere.

It worked well in ‘law’making; i.e., writing `laws` for THEM and against the other THEM. And it might work well for the former THEM for centuries.

So, amers go back to sleep and sleep over the present ideal system when a new one might come ab in afew decades or centuries.
But change willl come,I hope. tnx

Baloney.  The system doesn’t work.  It doesn’t always produce gridlock, that’s right.  But it always produces bad law.  Worse, it consistently produces and reproduces corporate power.  It has done so since Justice Marshall invented constitutional review and decided that corporations had the right to “immortality”.  Since the 1820’s the federal government, led by Congress, has been subsidizing big money at the expense of ordinary Americans.  And “balance of powers” has done nothing to stop it and everything to further it.  It’s time to throw out the broken Constitution of 1788 and create a democracy.

If this is what Obama meant by ?‘consensus’, Obama’s achieved it: moderates,
conservatives and liberals are united ?in their opposition.

The ‘reforms’ are variously considered a sham, trivial or an? institutionalization
of the current disastrous health care system (only with ?more public subsidies to
the insurance industry). 

The confusion and endless gyrations evident in the plan (try reading it) are the
result of trying to fit ‘reform of the system’ into the system’s current contorted,
inefficient and costly contours (in other words, the plan is not a ‘reform’, but
more pasting things on to a broken system).

Here’s what the people wanted when Obama and the Democrats started:

“A mere seven months ago (that would be around June 2009), The New York ?
Times/CBS poll found that 72% of Americans ‘supported a government-?
administered insurance plan—something like Medicare for those under 65—?
that would compete for customers with private insurers.’”

From then until now, Obama has:?

1.  Rejected single payer; ?

2.  Stiff-armed the government option; ?

3.  Mandated individuals and families pay premiums to private sector insurers; ?

4.  Assured billions in tax payer subsidies for private sector insurers; ?

5.  Stipulated actual health care service at 80 cents of every dollar, while ?
insurers can spend
20 cents of every premium dollar on lobbying, ‘sympathetic’ ?candidates, CEO
bonuses, ‘administration’, fighting claims for treatment and, ?now we can add,
participating on the new Federal ‘rate review’ Board.

The substance of the President’s proposal is the current costly, inefficient and ?
ineffective insurance system on Federal steroids.

If Obama wanted to cast himself as a leader, this was surely his last chance,
and he blew it with a plan to keep the current system in place, while
supplementing it with taxpayers’ money in the form of mandated premium
payments and Federal ‘subsidies’.  That’s no reform at all.

A Down Vote is What the Non-Reform Deserves and hopefully, for the sake of
the American people, a Down Vote is What the Obama Plan Will Get.

To elisalouisa, March 2 at 11:34 pm said:

“... there is every indication that his call for “change” was a sham, then we were all fooled.”

Respectfully, some of us were *Not* fooled. Some of us knew that when Zero talked about “hope and change” and failed to provide even a few specifics the DC Machine was spinning.

But we were very unpopular. Kind of like High School. We can say “We Told You So” but most didn’t even hear the words, let alone think about the substance of what we were saying. The same thing will probably happen in 2012, only the cool kids will be the (R)‘s who will steal more of your money and liberty.

Peace

_____________________________________________
[                              ]
[  we can’t get out of the box           ]
[                              ]
[/\/\/\/\/\><><***WE’RE SCREWED!***<><><>/\/\/]
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I agree Obama’s troubles began with bad appointments.

Stan Kutler is correct about the President being wounded. Did he really intend to govern as the man we elected? If not, and there is every indication that his call for “change” was a sham, then we were all fooled.
You are correct marcus medler. The power elite now control most of Washington
through think tanks, opinion and lobby groups and other means to influence and
control our Congress and President. The middle/working class has no power, their
jobs are “no longer available” because our government allowed our factories to
relocate out of the country. We all know that is why the job situation is poor. Our
main stream media rarely mentions this or what our wars are going to our
country.

Aloha Stan   Nice summary, but Washington is
faced with some very destructive ” think tanks”
that were not around when F>D>R> was
working. Yes, the regressive elements have
always been in the mix, but I contend that the
Cato institute, Heritage foundation, and other
centers of putrid thought have more money and
influence than before the war. In fact, all the
influence seekers, opinion and lobby groups
are more persuasive today and more effective.
Historians need to look at these(american
institutions) and how they contribute to
governance. A new book by Gary Wills, “The
Bomb” does just that. He exposes, the weapon
industries and security interests ability to
corrupt the constitution and create an executive
branch unchained from legal constructs
inhibiting actions.(down your alley)

The System Works, Even if These Bozos Don’t
Posted on Mar 2, 2010 By Stanley Kutler

bozo definitions:
A dunce; a fool
noun: a man who is a stupid incompetent fool

Of course the “system” works. It’s no coincidence
that the U.S.
is beyond bankrupt & we the people are enslaved in a
debtor’s
abyss. The cataclysmic economic collapse we are
experiencing
was carefully crafted by Government Sachs, whose
henchmen Bush3
quickly installed to maintain the fascist momentum
created by
“the boldness and cunning of his more effective
predecessors.”
The “system” has always worked to benefit the elite
1% at the
expense & detriment of the 99%.
Mr. Kutler may see Bush3 as he described:
” The president is perceived as timid, floundering
and reluctant to act.
He is wounded. Can he recover? Can he hold on to
congressional majorities
and can he govern as the man we elected?” 
We the people see him as an aggressive war mongering
lying fascist who
acts quickly to further the NEW WORLD ORDER / ONE
WORLD GOVERNMENT agenda,
but slowly & disingenuously playing good cop while
ensuring that any program
to benefit the populace is defeated. Even some
hardcore “progressives”, who
until now, have been blinded by hope & paralyzed by
the futility of trying
to turn predators into humanitarians and make the
“system” work for the
people, have finally seen the light.
And finally, lest we forget, in Washington,D.C., home
of the most expensive
brothel in the world, MAMMON is King.

Politics is NOT paralyzed: this is government business as usual.

??? WTF ??? ….is this the first draft for a chapter in a high school civics textbook circa 2025? …duhhhhh….in case you missed it, class…..this news flash just in from Scoop Kutler… everything you need to know about the last two years in politics in one easy lesson…But hark! ”The president is perceived as timid, floundering and reluctant to act. He is wounded. Can he recover? Can he hold on to congressional majorities and can he govern as the man we elected?”…tune in right here again two years from now for the answers to these riveting questions from our on-the-spot, real-time reporter Rip Van Kutler! After all, “Timing is everything.” And until the next sophmoric pep talk, don’t forget to keep reminding yourself Bozo, the System works! (Even if you aren’t).

What Obama doesn’t seem to get is that when one is elected to, or appointed to, a position in the American federal government, one has joined a loose body conprised of crime syndicates competing for power.

To ‘make’ it in that world one must think like, act like and become a criminal.  That’s the set-up President Obama, and if you don’t get with the program, you’re going to be offed.

Perhaps the author did not write the headline.
Anyway, the system fails.  A mere change in personnel will change little unless we are led by someone like Dennis Kucinich (Democrat, Ohio), who pledged to overhaul the system itself.  He supports ballot reform (instant run-off; proportional representation).  Support him, my Green Party, or other anti-duopoly parties.  http://www.korky.ca

I am an Obama supporter. I still am liking him so very much more than Bush or what we could have had with the Rethuglican alternative.

That being said I totally agree with the author.. our President Obama is very much less than what I expected listening to candidate Obama… and ultimately, just being better than the criminals that occupied the White House before him is not nearly enough.

Obama, come out swinging right now on the issues and values that got you into office or face the wrath of your supporters.. and the contempt of history.

Adios.

As an example of the restoration of the Bill of Rights, I’d like to see the Fourth Amendment restored.  The amendment states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”  As most of you know we are constantly under surveillance by governments and corporations, and can be raided any time in the names of the War on Terror and the War on Drugs.  The Supreme Court will not willingly change this, and neither will Congress, the President, or any other high officials or legislators.  For that, we will need either the threat of a Third Party, or widespread civil disobedience.

The system works alright, but certainly not for the
workers, poor, and middle class. In retrospect when
it seemed to work as during FDR’s reign, was because
the poor which comprised an overwhelming majority at
the time, became actively engaged in near Revolution,
and the owners of the country were so afraid that the
population would turn Communist, allowed the
Democrats to throw a few pennies on the ground for
the masses to fight over.  Now that the rich have
taken complete control of the country, there is
little incentive in the congress to do anything to
aleviate the suffering of the less fortunate, after
all, our’s is not to wonder why, our’s is but to do
or die.

The system set up in the Constitution was designed so that the well-off White males who set it up could continue to live in comparative freedom and expand their domains while maintaining control of their women, children, employees and slaves.

It is not surprising that it gradually evolved into a unitary, imperial state in which everyone is under surveillance, a huge number are in jail, and a few very well-off people and high-placed managers form a ruling class.  The system “works” in the sense that it serves the interests of these people, who are fairly psychopathic.

If there is a solution to this bad situation is seems very doubtful that it lies in reforming this same system according to its own rules.  Fairly revolutionary change is required, beginning with a a fundamental change in public culture and requiring local activism.  We need to get people to stop looking for magical payoffs and start demanding freedom.

However, I think one large-scale policy effort can be made right now, and that is a demand that the wars be stopped, the empire dismantled, and the Bill of Rights restored to the people.

Another article from the crop of the blind, dumb and timid.

What we need is social REVOLUTION. We need to bring back the guillotine for these clowns and establish popular power, no more catering to the interests of the oligarchy!

I would offer that the author suffers a sort of political blindness that is far from uncommon in todays political arena. I ,too, admire that which the Founders created, yet I , unlike this author apparently, understand that times have changed and so must our government.

The system has been co-opted by money. I think that is rather obvious, and, in fairness, Mr. Kutler does touch upon this in his reference to the amounts of money showered on Max Baucus by the Insurance and Pharma Industries in order to buy his allegiance. I would add that, despite the flowery rhetoric of the Obama campaign those who noted the amounts of money he received from our corporate masters already understood that, speeches aside, change was not in the offing.

I am not advocating dramatic change here, but I think we all are aware, all excepting our diehard democratic loyalists here, that our two party system is a sham and a fraud. It is past time to loosen the stranglehold the two parties have on our electoral process, it is time to make electioneering free of the vast sums of money necessary to compete for office thus returning the allegiance of our legislators where it belongs, to the voter.

Oh my Gosh,  did I really read what I just
read?