Also I'm sure banksters own some others in other relations to government. So until money stops influencing our politics I'm afraid we can't do much of anything I think everybody's focus should. Socarraslawfirm injury attorney Boca Raton

My only concern in all this, is that Mitt Romney is ok. Because you know, he is very much like another really nice guy whose corporation- BP/British Petroleum- negligently murdered eleven people and dumped untold amounts of toxic oil and even more toxic cleanup chemicals in the Gulf of Mexico and withheld settlement funds until lots of his victims had gone bankrupt or had their boats repossessed. I mean, Mitt doesn't care about any of that stuff, he just wants his life back, and your heart just has to go out to a guy like that. I say, old bean, let's take up a collection, let's have everyone whose family has been decimated by Mitt Romney, send him money, so he can build that nice car elevator in his house. I know that would make him smile, and he has a smile that would freeze the fur off a wolverine.

I mean, come on, be nice, play fair, let Mitt become president so he can ruin the rest of America and so he can do everything in his power to ruin the rest of the world, too. Is that too much to ask, to just let this nice guy ruin the world? I mean, be considerate: this is not very easy for Mitt, what with not being particularly smart and having all the social grace of a drunken one-legged rooster at a cat's birthday party. At least promise me that you'll consider voting for Mitt.

I personally find it reassuring to know that the Mormon church stands 100% behind Mitt no matter how many people his company murders and how many tens of thousands of people whose lives he ruins, because you know, it's hard on a vulture capitalist when the peasants finally start to realize that in the rare moments when he considers them, his only thought is, "Gee, hurting these people is like dynamiting fish in a barrel," and well, it's just comforting to know that as long as Mitt keeps giving the mormon church that all-important percentage of his income, he's still assured of going to heaven. (IF he is wearing that magic underwear.) Besides, it's not like those people whose lives he ruined, were Mormons. Although I'm sure that if it was the only way he could get more money, he would personally throw every Mormon under the bus. Well, he wouldn't do it personally, he would pay someone to do it, but come on, don't pick nits, it's basically the same as if he had done it himself.

Which brings me to my next point: sure, I like the idea of voting for Mitt, but how do I know he's really a Mormon? I know, sure, he says he's one and they say he's one, but how can we be sure? I'll tell you how we can be sure. Mitt must moon the press. He has to drop trou and prove that he's wearing that magic, magical underwear! And it needs to be a photo op, because I for one will not take anyone's word that they saw that superglued necrotic Faustian underwear.

So come on, Mitt, you do this one thing for us, and we'll respect you for it. And more importantly, you can save all the rest of your campaign funds to spend on a 23,000 square foot walk-in closet for your wife's leather clothing.

How long has Dem. Governer Deval Patrick been in office?

I have heard Thom say Obama had a Democratically controlled Senate for just over two months after he took office in Janurary 2009 but this is somewhat misleading. When Obama was sworn in Senator Burris had been already been sworn into the Senate as Obama's replacement. That made 58 Democratic Senators and 2 independents, Joe Leiberman and Bernie Sanders. Leiberman was acting more as a Republican than a Democrat at that time after having spoken at the Republican Convention. In order to overcome any Republican filibuster at that time the Democrats needed Ted Kennedy's vote and he was quite engaged in his battle against cancer after having been diagnosed in May of 2008 before passing in August of 2009. With Kennedy unavailable the best the Deocrats could have mustered was 59 votes which would have to include Blanche Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and Joe Lieberman, none of whom were reliable party line voters in the Senate. If Obama had a reliable, filibuster proof Senate he could have passed Obamacare, with a public option, in his first couple of months in office. He never had that and needed Ted Kennedy's vote in a dramatic trip from Massachusetts to Washington just to pass a heavily compromised Obamacare through a simple majority budget reconciliation vote.

Ken.....I'd like that link too. Or at least a copy of the lies Thom mentioned. Did you find them?

2 interesting articles --

One by Chris Mooney ("NASA warned NY about hurricane danger six years ago," motherjones.com, 10/30/12) talks about people being "science-phobic," rejecting clear warnings by reputable scientists and treating climate change as something of interest only to the few "climate change people."

The other article by George Lakoff ("Global Warming Systemically Caused Hurricane Sandy," huffingtonpost.com, 10/30/12) says that the issue is not just the science around climate change, it's also the semantics. He distinguishes between a systemic cause and a direct cause, saying, "Semantics matters....Where do we start? With language. Add ststemic causation to your vocablulary. Communicate the concept. Explain to others why global warming systmically caused the enormous energy and size of Hurricane Sandy, as well as the major droughts and fires. Email your media whenver you see reporting on extreme weather that doesn't ask scientists if it was systemically caused by global warming."

When a president prosecutes a former president, it sets an extremely uncomfortable precedent, because every president commits crimes, and none of them wants to be prosecuted, so we have this thing where Obama refuses to prosecute Bush and Bush's officials in the hope that the next president won't prosecute Obama for his crimes. Such as the crime of sending drone bombs into Pakistan, illegally interfering in other countries' affairs, and trying to help multinational mineral and opium interests gain control over Afghanistan's massive mineral and drug wealth.

Speaking of which, if Obama succeeds in helping those corporations set up mines in Afghanistan, those corporations will destroy Afghanistan. There will be no environmental considerations, and when the locals get in the way they will be killed.

In this sense, Obama is just as much a hypocrite as Bush: he goes to church on Sunday, and on Monday he does whatever he can to continue our war against the Afghan people. Then the next Sunday he goes back to church and is all churchy and everything, and the next Monday it's back to destroying people.

You know, this is a very strong argument for the idea of reincarnation, because obviously one life is not enough for a politician to begin acting in accord with the religion he pretends to believe in.

I just think it's wonderful that a Mormon can mount a strong campaign for the presidency of America. Should we restrict the office to Catholic hypocrites, Protestant hypocrites, and Methodist hypocrites? NO!! I say we should open the office of the president of America to hypocrites of ALL religions!

Mao said that religion is the opiate of the masses. And that's true, but let's be realistic: politics is the crack cocaine of the masses, it makes politicians do the most pathologically criminally insane things.

Well, I'm just relieved to know that no republican governor will want big government money to help his state. Except for all of them, of course. And after getting big government money to help their states recover, every republican governor will say that he didn't accept any big government money, because it's legal for politicians to lie.

You know, if it's legal for them to lie to us, isn't it ipso facto legal for us to lie to them? And I have a few lies to suggest:

1. Yes, I absolutely support your campaign.

2. We will pay your salary.

3. We will reimburse you for travel expenses.

4. We are only investigating you in order to help you win the election.

5. No, we won't tell anyone that you cheat on your wife.

6. We will not reveal your use of street drugs.

7. We will not publicize the fact that you cheat on your income taxes.

8. We won't tell your opponent that you come from a long line of horse thieves.

And when the politician says, "Hey, you said you wouldn't tell," we say, "Yeah, sorry. We forgot. Tell you what, we'll make it up to you by not giving proof to the media that you are a communist."

Nothing is more cruel to mother nature than man!

Here's a perfect storm: the capricious winds of the free market - which detemine wages too low for working class Americans. What happens when those winds determine wages too low to afford health care and too low to afford retirement? The jobs available are the jobs available, after all. And the competition for the good paying ones absolutely fierce. A big article in the WSJ today claims a hurricane is different, and that Romney never said he wouldn't support FEMA.

Conservatives simply want to take advantage of others' misfortune...taking the benefit of the labor of the hardworking lower classes, but not afford them wages or safety nets to cover even the most basic costs of their living. Nice. Just ignore that market "storm" and pretend it isn't our problem. Let's put the working class elderly down then when they're done working, never mind their contribution to society. And health care? nah....one in four kids in this country living below the poverty line and receiving marginal health care at best. Works for conservatives. They hide behind the free market and pretend the structure of society is not their responsibility. You know: Every man for himself!

Look - where the market doesn't serve our humanity, we need to institute a fix. Basic services to deserving working people is the price of civilized society. I continue to be stunned by the degree of selfishness and the apparent void of any social conscience among today's conservatives. What a great political ideology.

Of course the other great joke is that if you put people Romney in power, the first they do is pass laws to make themselves rich. Like Paulson's 30:1 net capitalization rule, Bush's OCC lawsuit on the bahalf of Wall Street which forced subprime downt the throats of America after the states all had tried to shut it down, and then too there's Greenspan and his 'hands off the banks" policies that let the CDO dynamics run. And the billionaires and their propaganda machine have conservatives all duped into thinking that 145 billion in losses at Fannie and Freddie somehow crashed the world economy. Ya - sure.

I'm madder than a hornet about Bush and his undprcedented cronyism - and I was not much affected by the crisis and still in the top one or two percent.

Romney will be different from Bush? He'll be worse. Because he's an avowed libertarian. That means he hasn't a social conscience and he beleives himself morally justified in not having a moral conscience. Libertarians believe no human being has any obligation to any other, so long as they obey the law. Of course the great joke is, what happens when they're in charge of the law? Ha. Fanatic theorists don't belong in the presidency. Period. And he's as out there as they come.

Republicans don't pay their bills obviously. The history is they didn't fund the Iraq war, didn't fund the Bush tax cuts, the drug comnay benefit under Medicaid, nor the Afghan war. Like Reagan, they filled their pockets by running up deficit - and then left the mess. Are you and I still paying for the 160 billion cost of Reagan's S&L debacle. Nice. And 60% of the money stolen in Texas alone by those good old boys.

Realtiy check anyone? just because billionair propagandists say "you don't need to pay taxes" and just because they wear suits and they're rich - and it's on Fox entertainment channel besides - conservatives actually believe them? wow.

Because, of course, "God" is an invention of Man. No empirical proof that he/she or it even exists, or ever existed. Just a myth modified over the ages by superstitious people... some of whom manipulated how others imagined he/she or it existed in their minds. Lots of plagiarism of more ancient superstitions along the way tailored to suit the whims of the ruling elite. The Republicans are not doing anything differently than previous manipulators (priests, parents, etc) have done: Tithe, or burn in hell. Don't have sex before marriage, or burn in hell. Vote Republican, or burn in hell. God's watching everything you do and sits in judgement. Man, what paranoia!!! They know that people can be manipulated by manipulation of their superstitions. As long as people fall victim to superstitions they will continue to be manipulated. It's time to quit believing in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, ghosts and goblins and especially in God. Why is it that people who talk to imaginary things, other than God, often need psychiatric help but those who pray to the imaginary God are thought to be normal? Maybe because when the majority of people who talk to sanctioned imaginary things...they are all crazy...sane people are the minority. But because people who believe in crazy things are the majority...and they are called "normal". I suppose most people can't really help being psychologically challenged when they are brain washed by their parents from birth. Especially when whole institutions seem to support the craziness. But, statistics show that the trend is that people are finally throwing off their chains and seeing the world in a new light...without superstition. Check out ffrf.org