I wish the Republican lawmakers would listen to what we the people want, such as infrastructure improvement, a real jobs bill and strengthening Social Security rather than ruining it. If past preformance is any measure, I hold very little hope that they will. I am pretty sure that they will again hold our economy hostage, damn the consequences.

I hope that in the red districts, the representatives get an earful from constituents that are sick and tired of representatives that refuse to represent them, but would rather engage in this unpatriotic game of chicken with the full faith and credit of the United States of America as the chosen hostage. I see it as treason.

Vegasman56 -- I agree with everything you say. I would like to add the solution to our problems would be to bring back the tax structure of 1930's to 1970's. Besides the high tax rates we also need the same tariffs plus many more items in the tax code. One of my favorite things to get rid of would be the accelerated depreciation computation; just use actual depreciation. Of course, Eric Cantor walked out of the meeting where it was being proposed to increase the full depreciation of a corporate jet from 3 years to 7 years. The actual full depreciation is 30 years.

As corporations develop monopoly control of the US economy, congressional investment can only be in those fewer opportunitles still left. So conflict of interest is less and less avoidable to the poor ol' congress.

'Reaganomics' - a rad party where everyone gets high as flying saucers on Red Bulls and coke only to hate life while crashing back to Earth the morning after. Listening to Republicans complain about how our improvement isn't fast enough tells me that things are about as good as they can be these days for Americans. As for me, I'm still dreading the results of my personal 'debt ceiling' consolidation to return from NASA. I think I need an aspirin. . What would happen if we gave dollars and cents their own 'Bill of Rights'? With one of the rights concerning enslavement.

Thank you for your note and your request for any suggestions about immigration lawyers in this area who might be able to assist your friend. I will check with lawyers in town I know and get back to you if I or they have any suggestions. canadiandui attorney

Do you really like nachos that much? It is ALEC (American Legal Exchange Council). I think I can present significant evidence that if dems controlled the house, the senate and the executive our problems with the 1% would start to melt away (that is melting away not going away). The evidence is just all the things the dems did for the 11 weeks in the last 5 years they had control, and the list of things they did that were filibustered. Since this blog is 2 days old, I'll wait until we have a fresher blog and I have the time to present the evidence (it is only a cut and paste, so time is only restricted by me reading the blogs.)

There is so much wrong with our elections, and actual voting is just one item. We could fix everything with one big election law that covers qualifying for the ballots, debates, campaign finance, configuring districts, voting, honestly counting the ballots. It doesn't really take a genius to see what's needed. But to get something like that passed would take a miracle. Even if we gave Republicans a head start, they wouldn't pass it.

By the way, a huge thank-you to Thom for his exposee on You Tube about the 2012 election and Annonymous.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QITGHymqZvo

Yes HISTORYWRITTER, all those issues you mention are real issues, and yes they affect ALL Americans. That being said, you actually make my point, with one difference that's pretty important...You only mention the "conservatives agenda". Liberals have a very one sided agenda too, and also have deep Wall $t connections that tend to influence policy . Hmmm???How do We the People level the playing field and take back our Government from the Corporations that have worked aggressively to gain a position of powerful influence over both political parties and control government, and bottom line...puts profits before peole...Hmmmm I wonder???
Well one thing for certain...As long as people keep buying into the corporate medias snake oil, which is pro Capitalism, aka Corporate America, and is aimed at distracting us from "what's really going" by sensationalizing stories, and pitting people and communitites and their indifferences against one another; instead of focusing on groups like ALEX, Americans For Prosperity, Citizens United and many others that lobby for the BIG Corporations isn't going to amount to any true and peaceful and rational resolve.

Believe me...I am not an insensitive jerk. I feel what happened in Boston, New Town Conn. and to Treyvon Martin is very tragic and very painfull; and is the result of scocially desperate and misunderstood times that have become increasingly hostle, and violent because of ignorance and impulsive behaviour, and careless discerne. We must change our way of thinking...We will not successfully restore true peace within our communities with a "you vs me" attitude. Instead we need to unite and take action as We the People, Us vs. They, the Corporate Terrorist who have hijacked our government. We the People need to petition a class action law suit against the U.S. Government. It is our - We the Peoples duty - to alter or abolish any government who's policys and/or actions have become destructive of the basic principles as pointed out in our Declaration of Independence; The Equal Right to Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. It is up to We the People of the United States of America as a whole to decide what is a breach of our protected Rights as Americans and to write policies that protect the wellbeing of American Citizens...Not Corporations.

IMO -- both Newtown and Trayvor come from the same exact source, that is, the 1%. Of course I think pretty much every ill of our society comes from that 1%. In the Newtown and T.Martin instances the ill came from the same element of the 1%; namely, the gun manufacturers. The "stand your ground" came from ALEC. Per John Nichols, the committee in ALEC that came up with the stand your ground law consisted of the NRA and Walmart. Their purpose was to try to avoid liability.

If you were one of those polititians that helped create their jobs they would have their supporters/voters/contributors etc.

historywriter ~ I agree with MMmmNACHOS. The Martin story and Newtown are nothing more than a media circus sideshow. The focus on both stories is misrepresented. The Martin story was a case of poor police involvement in a neighborhood watch, failure to quickly respond to a 911 call, lack of official police involvement in preparedness on a neighborhood watch, and lack of preparation on how to respond to an emergency situation by the familys on both sides. Newton is a case of what happens when there is no public funding of Mental Institutions. Race and guns are minor issues in both cases that are blown way out of proportion by a media intent on taking a mole hill and turning it into a mountain in order to sow discord by pulling on emotional strings.

What a good job the media is doing too. People protesting and marching in the streets against each other instead of the Government. The Wizard of Oz couldn't have pulled off a bigger scam. These stories are Psy-ops 101; and, anyone falling for the staged drama and emotions is truly being played like a violin.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mean to imply that racism and guns aren't problems. Just that in perspective they aren't that pressing of a problem. Also, they will never be solved by banning guns or instigating mob violence and blind revenge. This circus is designed to do nothing less than incite emotions and misdirect aggression while distracting attention from the really big problems. How many school masquers happen per capita each year? How many unarmed black people die at the hands of white neighborhood watch members per year? Do these stories really reflect any kind of growing trend or serious common problem that affects everybody? No, they don't! The only thing they reflect is an inordinate amount of media hours focused on them to the extent of almost any other issue other than the weather.

The point MMmmNACHOS makes is very very sound. We are a nation of fish in a barrel who love to nibble on Red Herrings. If we could disconnect our minds from the hooks and bait placed before us we might be able to focus our attention on the real problems that affect us all and will devastate our children if we ignore them. Pressing problems that will impact us all be we black or white, armed or unarmed. Indeed, if we spent half the energy spent demonstrating about what we are told to demonstrate about and used it to demonstrate about what we should be demonstrating about we would be making some serious progress in this country. Just like in George Orwell's, 1984, if we let the media dictate who and what we hate, we will never make any progress and will merely stand still.

Of course, I'm probably preaching to the choir. No one should be aware of this more than you, historywriter.

I can't help recalling the commentor who called into the ThomHartmann show one day and suggested, brilliantly, that the Union more or less kick out the southern states that continually practice voter suppression, continually ignore the voice of the majority of people who want choice to prevail when it comes to women's rights, the majority who want voter suppression laws stamped out forever by way of a strongly worded Constitutional amendment, who want more choices than the two-party system offers, who want free speech and the right to peacefully assemble, who want the prison system returned to government control - not private control, who want the banksters to be held accountable when they commit crimes from grand theft to outright murder, and on an on. In other words, kick out of the Union those governments that have used their ill-gotten financial gains to cripple the Union and have made paupers out of the middle class.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. As to those citizens of those states who have been fighting these greedy, selfish monsters, they are suffering now by not having a voice. Actually, we are all suffering as a result of the selfishness of these unpatriotic, mental cripples. They may suffer a bit longer until those greedy politicians are driven from office at which time they can and would be repatriated.