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Ou812, the other examples you mentioned are not anomolous. They are standard examples of bought elections.
Yes union corruption is a big problem - part of what I was referring to - but even as they are they are better than nothing. Show me something better. Highly skilled workers like at Apple and Micriosoft are not blue collar workers any more than doctors or lawyers are. They are highly skilled professionals and don't need, so much, combination and unification with their fellows to gain bargaining power. However, in the future they might. Here in Chicago doctors in the Cook County Hospital system are salariedf employees and recently decided to form a labor union to better bargain with their employer.
Matt, that's just divisive politics that Repugs sow and needs to be resisted. Teachers deserve decent compensation and so do the parents. Their lonely misery shouldn't say, "I want them as bad off as me!" it should say, "where's mine?"
Isn't net neutrality, what President Obama is proposing, status quo, i.e., isn't it what we've had until now or until the pretty recent Federal Court and FCC rulings? That's very much what Americans overwhelmingly want. But Obama can be relied upon to roll over and let the Republicans redefine him, again. An angry black man is what we need for chrissakes! Otherwise, I guess a black man can't be an effective president, period - unless he's Alan Keyes or some other Republican pig.
He needed to be forceful and define himself and not meek, letting his enemies define him. I don't know why he even ran for president in that case.
DAnneMarc
We have paper ballots. I always use them as do most, but then, the paper gets scanned by a computer and then tossed in the trash.
In the MA 6th, it was the candidate with the most money from individual contributions that won. The incumbent had just as much or more money, but the challenger received money from many more people.
It was like an accurate poll. People voted for the person they gave the donation to.
An alternaive to ALEC already exists. It's called the State Innovation Exchange (SiX). It combines 3 progressive state policy non-profits--Progressive States Network (PSN), ALICE (American Legislative and Issue Campaign Exchange), and CSI (Center for State Innovation). This is the progressive alternative to ALEC and will help promote progressive ideas and oppose regressive laws put forth by the likes of the Koch bros and other destructive groups.
You were discussing the topic of having people who want unemployment taking a pee test before they will recieve it. You should say since republicans love making you give them something they want for you to get want you want, then we will give you the pee test since they are worried people taking drugs are not sincerly looking for work. However, for you to get that then from now on No guns will be sold unless you take a gun safety class and pass a background check before buying your guns. We are worried that people buying guns are dangerous and without learning how to use it properly might kill someone. Republicans hate government intervention but when it is something they want they have no problem with it.
Pearl Harbor was answered by FDR. The burning of the Reichstag fire was answered by German National Socialist Party led by a formerly obscure Austrian artisan who hated the Jews.
Indeed. The years have passed since Tuesdat, Sept 11, 2011 when our lives were brought to an eternal pause of grief and shock answered by the politicization of weak liberalism and the amassing of troops to invade an otherwise neutral, oil rich country long hated by Iran and the Saudi.
Greatness faltered following the horrific tragedy of innocence of 9/11. The steady assurance of. Eisenhower and the defiance of JFK facing down principled defense of the hemisphere from red, nuclear tipped missiles. The comforting, insightful analysis of Cronkite had long been displaced with little more than corporate money making sensationalism coverage embedded with the 51st armored tank division in Iraq, ripped apart and turned into a terrorist haven.
Nothing made sense to me. Billions of dollars was appropriated to quiet the voices of potential litigants of families who suffered the most. Years went by before any type of investigation was conducted - at best a window dressing exercise. Within a week of the attack, Carl Rove drove the nail into his party's hate by blaming "the week, cowardly liberals." Donahue was fired. Protests were ignored. A country took its Prozac and slowly went about our days, numb and bewildered.
The Bush and Cheney wars have become the longest and possibly the most costly in US history. The libertarians reignited a forever war. Their policies brought the US economy to its knees.
Greatness has been diminished. Drowned out by the commercialized, overly paid hecklers. Political correctness and assimilation by corporate lobbyists continues to tear away at greatness of America. Hillary voted to invade Iraq. Pelosi barred impeachment. President Obama clearly wanted to look to the future and not the past.
I did not know Thomas Young. Your passing symbolizes the end of an era. Leaders without a voice. A dream faltering. A truth stolen from those like you who believed in the words of great leaders, ordinary men and women who rally our hope, comfort us with the steadiness of their faith, and accomplish great peace and prosperity at home and through the world.
I am sad, Thomas, how you were robbed of your faith in the values we believed to be true: honor, integrity, adherence to humane treatment of others. We all were robbed.
Rest in peace.
Unfreaking-believable indeed. And yes, Rupert Murdock is an Aussie fascist; we need to ship him back to Australia along with all his junk media, and let the Aussies deal with him. This is not his country. He has no business telling Americans how to think and how to vote. That FOX gives the soapbox to these disgusting fascist pigs and war criminals is reprehensible. They dangle higher education in front of today's young adults like a carrot, luring them into the armed forces with promises of college tuition benefits after military service... benefits that many of them either don't live long enough to collect, or return too broken mentally and physically to benefit from.
Among the various things I hate Obama for is letting war criminals skate free, "looking forward not looking back". What a lame cop-out that was. Call that leadership?!!! Is this how a so-called "constitutional scholar" protects and upholds the Constituation, allowing war criminals to skate free with impunity?! This is an insult to Tomas Young and everyone like him who served in the military under false pretense, only to come home broken or dead.
Goodbye America; hello Fourth Reich! Beam me up... - AIW
The corrupt rich would only accept reducing money=politics, if the American people beats them at their own game.
It's totally pathetic, they have to distort all that's good, to win.
When I was in high school, in the late 90s, not going to college was never presented as an option. It was understood that everyone had to go. That's the source of the problem. I think my generation - people now in their mid 30s - is the last generation for whom universal college makes sense. I also think that those people who come out of college with non-marketable degrees have no one to blame but themselves. And I was one of them. I got a totally useless degree in Journalism, and had to go back and get my Mater's in Teaching (with extra student loans, of course), just to land a fulfilling job. But my question is: who in the last 10 years didn't realize the degree they were getting might not lead to a job? This isn't news. Hell, I even heard it when I was doing my undergrad: "Why would you major in that? There's no money in it." I didn't listen, and I blame myself for that, not the system.
Doesn't that also apply to the relationship between government and the governed? That actually sounds like a Conservative argument to me. Just as you want your boss out of your life as much as possible, so should you want the government out. I can't think of any politician above the local level, from either party, that I thought had my best interests in heart. They are all in it for themselves. That being the case, I vote for the ones who at least pay lip service to the idea that I'm better off on my own.
I have met my Alderman here in Chicago a few times. He visits the school where I work. He seems nice enough. But, since this is Chicago, I just assume he's taking bribes on the side.
It seems illogical to try and change a system that is so pervasive. Look what's happened to Obama when he just tried to make some minor changes. Your best bet for success is to avoid the system if it's not working for you. Find ways to reduce its influence over your life.
I personally can't believe what has happened since the Bush crime family and others have been screwing around in the Middle East for the last three to four decades. All of the problems we have had with the Middle Eastern countries stems from their meddling with people they had no business messing around with. This country has been in trouble ever since the Oligarch loving Neo-Confederate types moved from the Democratic party and then infiltrated the Republican party. Like I've said before, "if president Abraham Lincoln were alive today and saw what these fascist slave driving, un-American pigs have done to his party, he would take his axe to them." I say we should arrest all of them and put THEM in prison where they belong. All their money and all their bought off politicians won't protect them from the American people who are being awakened with a terrible remorse. First, we should start by getting rid of the owner of Fox News and his Nazi like propaganda machine. They are nothing but liars and they are partly responsible for all the unnecessary deaths they the Rethugs have caused. Yes, it is far past time we did something about their crimes against the entire world. It's just plain unreal that these war criminals are still walking around and doing interviews on Fox News. Pigs, pigs, pigs, all of them.
Election fraud placed these two self puffed nut jobs in a position to wield arbitrary power leading directly to massive human slaughter for profit.
All individuals involved in the Florida Presidential election fraud need to be identified and prosecuted as facilitating accomplices in the Bush/Cheney war crimes trial.
I hear another pompous ass from the same Bush Family wants to be President.....unfreaking believable!
I am very saddened that your program is of the air in the Phoenix reagon It happend right after the election. Someone is really affraid of you.
In my opinion we can go over this many times and we will get the same result. We know it is a form of insanity. It's like throwing bricks at a tank when you have been wronged and the people in charge look the other way. I am a vet, my brothers were vets, my father and unckle were vets, we swore our life to protect this country over three generations and we don't see the rewards that we were promised. Others made millions their families are taken care of, I am not asking for myself. My father is pennieless at 90 years old. Is this what I see for my self I am only 69 and I have worked my whole life. Veterans programs are cut as the theater conflict ages we not needed so our value is deminished. I feel for the younger vets at this rate they will be left dying in the streets.
Elioflight, I wrote a heartfelt reply to you. Somewhere down below. Take care!
I feel for you and your son. My husband had PTSD. Don't give up on your Vet Center and all possibility for help. You can hit a brick wall and 18 months later there will be some new program, some new tack the VA is taking to help such people. Time will heal, too, of course. And let me say my own VA medical vacility -- Reno, NV -- is bloody wonderful. It helps to know and try to understand the symptoms. We've all lost something simply by giving up a chunk of our youth. Your son gave up much more. God bless!
Wow! Some folks would rather pick apart what I said than try to understand! Any 16-year NCO needs only one more hitch and he can go home and retire age 38 on 50% of his active duty pay. I was Air Force. I met a lot of "good old boys" who had no use for women in the military. The gay ones really had no use! They told filthy jokes, they initiated phone calls just as I knocked and came in their office to "coordinate" some matter, and they removed correspondence from the distribution boxes so I would never receive replies to the letters I had sent out. They tried to set me up with an enlisted man at the movies. I had to walk home. I found out later he was prostituting himself to them! Well, DHBranski, you aren't even trying to understand! I well know how many of us enlisted in order to improve our lot, get away from a pretty hopeless home situation. long after my service, I participated in support groups and other activities designed to help veterans. We were all young, strong and handsome once! There is much love and caring expressed in these groups if nowhere else! Much can be done with proverty if a person has basic needs fulfilled and is clever.
What I did not say yesterday is that years after my military service was over, my government perceived an overpayment of a VA pension and began garnishing my disability checks. Over four years they took over $8,000! I pursued this case for ten years and finally got $7,490. When I asked for the rest of it, the Republican congressman's worker explained that was an administrative fee for going to the trouble of garnishing the checks! IT WAS THEIR MISTAKE IN THE FIRST PLACE AND I HAVE TO LET THEM KEEP AN ADMINISTRATIVE FEE?
So when people say THANKYOUFORYOURSERVICE, I remember how desperate I was to get out of bleeping Bakersfield. They don't want to hear that, so I don't tell them.
stepooc01. Yes we swore to uphold the constitution but there is nothing that dictates a soldier or civilian must obey any position of authority who issue an order or policy that is illegal, criminal or violates international law. The reaction may be severe but that is a choice that human morality and justice dictates. "I was just following orders" often heard at the Nuremburg Trials of WWII, just does not stand any more.
No, the only way to have a true functioning democracy that includes all comers--not just those with the most money--with the best ideas is to have public funding of elections--everyone gets equal TV/Media time, only ideas are aried, no mudslinging. The answer is not to throw money at the problem; the solution is to eliminate it. Our current political funding system subverts and destroys democracy. We, the taxpayers, are paying our elected officials to spend most of their time raking in money rather than in doing the business we elected them to do.
Impeach the K-RATS, lapdogs of the wealthy, in the Supreme Court and get rid of the Citizen's United and McHutcheon decisions and all the other lame, subversive, and treasonous decisions of that bunch of intellectual lightweights.
Bush/Cheney took a page out of the playbook of Herman Goring...the people will follow you anywhere if you instill fear in them and make them believe they are being attacked...as he said during the Nuremburg trial...for his War Crimes.
George War-Criminal Bush.
It's interesting that our military volunteers swear an oath to support the Constitution of The United States and to protect the country from all enemies foreign AND DOMESTIC.
I guess they're having a problem with enemy identification.
No! I don't give a shit if your Mother Teresa, money corrupts - period!
Come on People, help me out here, or am I being vague again
Anybody know the outcome of the countries that have net neutrality? (Chile, Netherlands and Brazil)