Our Government has been taken over - who here thinks that this

[texpatriot2004]

government can remedy what's wrong with our country now?

Apparently, there are some here who think that the current US Congress is able to effect the change necessary by working with the Rethugs there. Really? Seriously? They have made it perfectly clear that they will NOT work in a bipartisan manner, they will NOT reach across the aisle and what's more, they WILL put their PARTISAN POLITICS before the good of this country and its people.

I am shocked at this level of blindness to the real problem, which is:

Our government has been taken over, a hostile take-over of our government. We have no checks and balances, no oversight...

Furthermore, this administration is radically altering our government and our country as we speak. It is dedicated to destruction. It doesn't care about average Americans or anyone else.

So, how is it exactly that politics as usual are going to change that?

[indepat]

1. This government (junta) is most of the cause of what's wrong and cannot

be the solution to fixing what they've royally screwed up with intent and by design.

[Benhurst]

2. I fear it isn't. NT

[Double T]

3. We need to vote the right wing conservative fundamentalist rethugs......

out of political office at every level of government. And if that doesn't work, then take to the streets with protests.

[texpatriot2004]

9. We can't vote them out with rigged voting systems....so protests

it is then huh?

[peacetalksforall]

4. Until this week there were only a few voices from our leaders that were

strong - most of our Dem voices are weak with minimal to no outrage. Our leaders seem to be afraid of ridicule - a talent practiced by the right wing with perfection. And they seem driven by some DLC belief that diplomacy must be practiced at all times - weak, tepid, going nowhere diplomacy. How can you apply diplomacy with people who lie.

We now have paper showing that another of their sources lied - Iraq training Al Queda. We are in the reign of our 43rd President and the entire administration is a lie. Everything is built on a lie. The first lie - We will bring honor and integrity back to the White House.

They lie lies.

Do you think... could it be possible, that there announcements about cutting vet benefits was a lie? Could they have been lying about jobs going out of the country? Or the debt to China and other countries?

Maybe our kids didn't die and their deaths were a lie? Maybe the limbs aren't missing?

Maybe the 19 hijackers were not even in the country?

Truth means nada. What is left of Dem leaders MUST TELL SOME TRUTH TO SAVE THE COUNTRY.

[INdemo]

10. Why are our Democrat voices in Washington weak?

With the exception of a few and we have heard them in the last couple weeks, but for the most part Democrats in Washington just make token responses or object only when it is in their own best interests.But they don't dare scream too loud..Could it be that some of those elected Democrat officials have their pockets lined by the same corporate and special interest groups that line the pockets of Republicans as well.

[peacetalksforall]

12. I think there are variances in their motivation. Too many are afraid

of being voted out. Some of that is because they are getting some support from people who were scared out of their mind by 9-11 and who won't open their mind to the possibility that it was a fraud and that we didn't handle it right. These fearful constituents could easily swing their vote to the right wing.

Plenty of them have pockets that they hold wide open.

And citizens won't put their foot down. The citizens have allowed our country to go from 'of, for, by the people' to 'of, for, by the corporations'.

It is our fault. And it could get worse as we sink furthr in to a labor and wage slavery.

There are three ways our country is being made into a third world, rights denied commerce. The labor and wage slavery class is booming, the middle class is shrinking, the have-mores are growing by 'leaps and bonds'. Venezuela is becoming more like we used to be and we are bcoming more like Venezuela used to be - extremes of wealth.

[JudyM]

16. And let's not forget the impotent, yellow media and public complacency nt

[texpatriot2004]

17. What is it with the Americans allowing this rubbish? nm

[sojourner]

26. BINGO!

[IChing]

5. "politics as usual "

gives the public the illusion that they live in a democracy.

Bipartisan cooperation is an oxymoron if anyone truly analyzes those words.

[acmejack]

6. It has been and it won't.

I don't think the current system can be made to work for the people any more. Special interests elites have perverted the system with money, pricing government beyond our ability to pay.

Money buys access, 95% of incumbents are reelected, and a sizable percentage of voters doubt the integrity of the voting system.This Government has watched nominal "citizens" suffer generational inequality, makes wars the people don't want, and allows people's futures and savings to be snatched as a business tactic.

It doesn't sound like a situation that can be redeemed to me.

[cassiepriam]

7. Yes I agree. Our system has failed.

[texpatriot2004]

8. Right. The remedy is not coming from the US Congress. n.t

[texpatriot2004]

11. When are Americans going to wake up and smell the burning

coffee?

[texpatriot2004]

13. This US Congress can't save it. n.t

[Ivan Sputnik]

14. Only a landslide dem victory for president in 2008

could change things, I think. Another close election would be too easy to steal. I don't hold out much hope of Congress changing (whatever the polls say), due to gerrymandering.

[texpatriot2004]

15. BFEE + WHIG + Cover-up Congress + Culture of Corruption +

TORTURE + Secrets + LIES +

[Popol Vuh]

18. Good post texpatriot2004

This topic is one I have been concerned with for some time now. And the way I see it: The "Corporate States Of America" cannot be fixed at the ballot box. I am sorry, but I have for quite some time now had the attitude that the only thing the ballot box offers us anymore is just a selection of the lesser of two evils.

Therefore it is my belief that we are left with but two different options if we wish to restore our country back to We The People and our Constitution. And those two options are: (1) Violent revolt (a second American revolution if you will), (2) Non-violent revolt.

Of these two options I don't believe that violence is necessary, in fact I reject it unless it is strictly in self defense only. So in my opinion if we wish to restore our country back to the people and away from the corporatists -- a non-violent revolution is necessary. How I think this would work is: Since all power is predicated upon money, and since money is nothing but an exchange medium representing the value of goods and services, and since all goods and services are created by "We The People". We The People ultimately have the greedy rich corporate elitists by their throat with our labor. So therefore I feel that if enough people realized that if we were to organize a mass national general strike, we could bring the corporation to its knees.

All we have to do is what Ghandi did. Just sit down until they agree to your terms. In my opinion that's all it would take. The only problem is, getting enough people to go along with it. And sadly the way I feel about that is: I don't have much expectation in most Americans to realize their collective power, nor do I have much expectation in their fortitude and sense of solidarity. Unfortunately, in my opinion, most Americans are not willing to suffer even a little inconvenience or pain.

[eomer]

19. If you reject violence unless it is strictly in self defense...

then I think you should change your avatar.

Che Guevara is the poster boy for violence.

How about Ghandi instead?

[eomer]

20. I agree. Democrats in Congress should not try to work with the other side

Instead they should call them out on their lies and their treason.

Conyers sent letters to the FBI, the GAO, the DOJ, et al, not because he thought he would get them to do the right thing, IMO (the GAO report was a somewhat pleasant surprise). What he did was take away their ability to say they didn't act because they weren't aware and make them go on record that they refused to investigate.

Dems in Congress should call for investigations, demand explanations for why investigations have been denied, stalled or rigged. They should put every lie and every cheat on the Congressional Record.

By working with them we will only become them.

[TayTay]

21. First of all, you are presuming permanence

Which is simply not the situation. When change is denied through one means, the desire for that change does not go away. It finds another outlet. This is what happened in Ohio after last year's election. The national government will not act to change the way elections are run because the ones in power see it as an advantage to them. Same thing on the state level.

The desire for change did not go away. It simply found another outlet, in this case, the ballot initiatives. Power still resides in the hands of the people. The things that need to be done in this country haven't gone away, in fact the situation is getting worse. A government that ignores this invites it's own doom. That hasn't changed. The means of addressing it will change. (Local initiatives, ballot questions, pressure from the ground up leading, eventually, to ballot reform and a change of governments.)

The Republicans are assuming that they can lock in a system that will ensure that they and their ideas will hold sway for the foreseeable future. This is both arrogant and stupid. Political will in this country doesn't just come in Congress. It exists and exerts it's will in other ways. If it didn't we would still have slavery, women wouldn't have the right to vote and other things. Change is the only inevitable force in politics.

[raccoon]

22. REAL change comes from the grass roots.

As with the fight for women's suffrage and the Civil Rights movement.

[TayTay]

24. As it should in a democracy

Do you see health care being addressed? Do you see the economic situation for average Americans being addressed? I sure as hell don't. The war isn't getting any better. These are becoming perfect conditions for the way a democracy stages a legal coup.

[raccoon]

25. Exactly. The only way the US will ever get a national health

plan is if the people fricking DEMAND it.

Hillary or Kerry or whoever is NOT going to do it, no matter how much they talk about it.

[raccoon]

23. Great post.

"who here thinks that this"
government can remedy what's wrong with our country now?"

Not I, and they don't WANT to remedy what's wrong with our country now. In fact, they are a large part of what's wrong with our country now.

"We have no checks and balances, no oversight..."

You sure got that right.

"It doesn't care about average Americans or anyone else. "

Got that right too.