The "Comentary" geography here dependably presents a wide and varied vista of social and political despair. It makes me imagine what it would be like to have been on the Titanic as it sank and to have had the ability to hear what all the passengers were thinking as though their thoughts were belted out loudly. Such voices of blame, anger, regret, sorrow, hopelessness, despair, self-contempt!

The Greg Gorden article underscores the perenial need to monitor our government, representatives and laws and not to trust them out of our sight. That means we must maintain a transparent and representative government. As Arundhati Roy has pointed out in her essays, maintaing a democracy is not coming out of your hole once every four years to vote for a president. It requires constant and participative involvement and vigilance of what is being done by your society and government.

Jesus you guys, don't take me seriously. I've been a part of the Conspiracy since I was a child, long before I even realized there was a conspiracy.

Sorry, one last...in the Nader program on PBS covering 2000 & 2004, lots of Democrat sourgrapes whining, "Ralph lost the WH for poor old Al," and "Ralph lost the WH for poor old JK."

Not a word I saw about about how THEY FAILED US as Dems and the Repugs stole the rest. Democrats message to all of us, "You progressives MUST vote Dem and we can ignore you because you have nowhere else to go and we will DESTROY ANY progressive who poses an alternative BECAUSE OUR CORPORATE MASTERS COMMAND IT." Thank you Todd Gitlin. Thank you Eric Alterman. Go screw yourselves. You're bought and paid for and anybody who wants to know, knows.

Perfect storm. Find a shady spot and watch the Republic burn to the ground as we become "The Former United States of America." After the Great Shattering there may be opportunities. Much like our ancient ancestors those cute little lemurs and tarsiers (big brown eyes, curious long fingers, and prehensile tails) had a chance to grow after the dinosaurs became fertilizer.

Only after the dinosaurs were dead, did our life form have a chance to fulfill itself. You know who the dinosaurs are. You even know all our current equivalents for the Krakatoa that killed those dinosaurs. Yeah, it's December, time for a cruise through the new Arctic Northwest Passage.

Time for the 2nd Age of Man. Gaia's going to give us some help.

This book is already part of the Clinton campaign's arsenal and will be used when needed. Tricky Dick Nixon could learn a few things from the Clintons who are without peer in dirty smear politics. Just ask Obama. He has had quite an education.

barely human wrote: Vote Republican and destroy America...

Y'know, that may not be such a bad idea. It would hasten the inevitable train wreck, and subsequent rebirth of the Republic, one that will learn from past mistakes and errors.

First time I've heard about ANYONE getting busted for this. Guess the ruling crass wouldn't want to scare off any future operatives.

See what I mean about the trolls. Of course, there whole goal its to make sure that anyone who gets down this far has completely forgotten that the story is about a former Republican political operative who's going public with the dirty tricks used to rig elections (so they don't represent the will of the people) and that this has the backing of the high ups in the party.

Or, that you really aren't supposed to note the part where he says he's completely apolitical and he'd have done the same job for the Democrats. Which of course means that there is someone just like him who is doing the same job for the Democrats.

Whenever there's the rule of a greedy minority, the message they have to constantly send out is that everyone else should just give up. Its too dangerous to oppose them. Its too scary. Its too violent. Its inevitable. That message comes in many forms. Sometimes its as blunt as the police raiding homes at 3am with sirens and flashing lights and hauling away one opponent and scaring an entire neighborhood. Sometimes its as subtle as sending trolls out to some blogs to try to distract and break up discussion that might coalesce around an idea like freedom or democracy.

But its the same dark and evil forces. Just different tactics to suit the occasion. As long as the people's politics stays tightly contained in the controlled corporate parties. Its like workers in a factory where the government or the company controls the union. Its a rigged game to make sure that the energy that injustice creates can't be formed into something that might create justice.

Doest matter--the democrats support Bush so they dont care if an election is rigged. If they did care they would have fought the 2000 election and wouldnt have had Kerry say: everyone get behind Bush and support him.

The republicans would never have been so gracious if the shoe was on the other foot.

This just in: Bush & Cheney announce that every citizen who forgo at least 400 hours overtime pay in 2008 gets a free Hummer!(the vehicle... get you mind out of the gutter!)

Blah, blah, blah, global warming is not a real threat, blah, blah, Britney Spears did some stupid thing or other...

Did they stop paying attention yet?
I think so...

There will also be a 5 dollar/barrel gasoline tax, and fuel conversion kits have been declared illegal.

So much for democracy.

can beat 'em, cheat.

gotta love those "soft-on-corruption" republicans.

in other news: dick cheney is busy setting fire to evidence and rep. wexler's hearings aren't coming quickly enough.

www.wexlerwantshearings.com

Is this news? Anyone with half a brain knows the elections are rigged all the way back to the 2000 Presidental election.

The fact that broken and corrupted electoral system remains unchanged should tell us how possible it is to have legitimate national elections in '08. Just as in the last electiosn, un-owned candidates are locked out of prescripted "debates" and media coverage as the only candidates we hear are the ones deemed "viable" by the corporate elite.

Liberals will continue ride shotgun in this scam condemning any progressives who dare run as Dims and epecially those that run as independents.

Give up, liberals! It's hopeless. You're stupid. Out-manned, out-brained, out-spent, out-schnitzled, and carrying around the concrete blocks to boot of so-called progressives who'll tell everyone in earshot that your candidate ain't no different than the others anyway. Why bother? Besides, the Republicans who will remain in power give you something to blog about from 2008 to 2016 and what's better than that?

Oh, yeah, Barely Human, almost forgot. I don't have to vote Republican. All I have to do is Vote Dem and watch the computer flip my ballot to the "right" candidate.

Cheating has been the way of the American oligarchy ever since the beginning. They will do whatever they think that they can get away with. They are highly skilled in the art of deception, and always cloak their dastardly deeds with fair words.

Thanks to the insane greed of those bastards, the USA is the #1 obstacle to world peace, a major cause of extreme poverty in the world, and the biggest & most neurotic bully the world has ever seen.

Most people can't believe it, much less see it - but there really is a major war going on right now between forces of darkness and forces of light. Those who control the US military and state department are definetly not "the good guys" in this battle.

On a PBS program about Nader last night, a clip of Pat Buchanan showed him declaring that he believed that US democracy was "consumer fraud" already in 2000. It's nice to see confirmation from someone with a totally different perspective.

Hey, if we're the #1 obstacle to world peace, maybe it's for the best if we do go under.

Forget your health care and public schooling and social security, middle-class liberals. They're luxuries the rest of the world can't afford. Vote Republican and destroy America, for the good of the human race!

Another tactic used to disrupt elections is to try to break up the meetings and gatherings of the opposition. Been around a long time. Both the fascists and the communists used it. Whenever there was a place where people would gather, they'd send in some loud obnoxious thugs. Maybe they would just yell and scream and break up any discussions that were threatening to those who wanted power. Or maybe they'd start a fight. Anyway, the one thing they were deliberately trying to do was to break up any place where opponents of the power-hungry few would gather to meet and discuss.

You still see the tactic today with the deliberate trolls who come on these sites.

Screw the dirty tricks. Lets get back to the good old days: "Last Man Standing". They could hire thugs and kill each other and the last one left alive gets the office. Instead of campaign adds they can run footage of successful hit-n-run attacks and successful sniper shots against their opponents. On primary day, the political gangs could all gather in the Times Square with axes, knives, truncheons, and chains and, like they said in Gangs of New York, "Let's settle things for good and all!" Now that's entertainment. Of course politicos wouldn't fight themselves, they'd hire Blackwater & CACI.

barely human,

I would agree with you if I could convince myself that a Republican-run US would "go quietly into that good night." Fat chance. No, a Republican president would flail away in desperation, recklessly starting wars and bombing other nations almost indiscriminately, trying by any means necessary to save the power of the US corporate oligarchy.

Wow, Gangs of New York, what a great system.

Of course, that would mean that any group of citizens that wanted to maybe change the world a bit would have to subject themselves to open assassination attempts and then go battle with clubs and chains all the other gangs.

Gee, that would pretty much mean that no citizens at all would be involved in politics, and the corrupt and the greedy would run everything. In fact, that just sounds like about the lowest form of warlord and gang rule imaginable.

If you really like that idea, I think you can go find it in Somalia. Enjoy!

The Republicans are basically building a gated community that they can lock themselves into. Their policy is to grab everything they can, then fight off the rest of the world for as long as they can. What they won't do is go peacefully into the dark night.

"Raymond...said he earned a graduate degree in political management...solely to make money off politics, and it made no difference to him whether he was a Republican or a Democrat."

Republicans are clearly the winners in the filthy-politics arena, although the Dems, God bless their little tiny corrupt hearts, are trying. If it wasn't obvious to him from day one which gang to run with, it's no wonder he didn't have enough sense to keep himself out of jail.

CoMarc thou hast written, "Gee, that would pretty much mean that no citizens at all would be involved in politics, and the corrupt and the greedy would run everything. In fact, that just sounds like about the lowest form of warlord and gang rule imaginable."

Isn't that what we've got? Isn't that how we got this country (genocide) and built it (forced human labor)? We were a "nation of laws" then too, it was all legal. Aren't the Euro version of these guys called Royalty? (e.g. psychotic warlords and jumped-up roadhouse thugs?) After you strip away the plastic illusions of "progress", isn't this the History of Government for 3000 years (or more) among our Aryan Ancestors in the Global North?

We are merely the Last Aryan Empire. I don't have to go Somalia to see warlords and gang rule. We got it right here. Now in fairness Denver, Atlanta, Memphis, Akron, Newark, & Flint are not yet smoking rubble and tanks have not yet begun to role down our city streets. Not yet. You have a couple years. They're coming. Sorry. It is now gravity.

Peace

Remember Kerry's boast in 2004 that he had hundreds of lawyers on standby to stop Bush from stealing the election?

Remember everything that happened in Ohio?

Kerry did nothing.

It was the Greens and Libertarians that had to fund a recount, and document all the vote fraud there.

The democrats stood by and did NOTHING while another election was stolen.

Why should we vote for them EVER AGAIN?

keyinside:

"Why should we vote for them (the democrats) EVER AGAIN?"

You shouldn't. It might deprive you of the obligated opportunity to learn so much more --over time, you know-- to really like about your empowered conservatives. Why buck a trend when blaming the wrong party is so easy and fun?

If we keep sliding down the slope into the dark ages,maybe one day the leaders will be determined at the end of pistols or swords. Wouldn't that be interesting!

The U.S. dollar is officially now worth less than the Canadian dollar. A few years ago I can remember getting around $140 Canadian for $100 American dollars before going there on vacation. Thanks to the Rethuglicans (and their Democratic enablers in Congress), the U.S. is going down.

After all of this, how anyone could consider voting for a Republican is beyond me. Furthermore, how the Republicans can believe they can get away with rigging elections anymore is pure arrogance on their part. It helps, I guess, that they get light sentences when caught, e.g. 90 days.

I haven't heard of anything the Dimocrats have done to prevent more rigged elections by the Rethuglicans. The electronic voting machines credited Bush instead of Kerry when a voter pressed the Kerry button; the button for Bush lit up instead. Kerry clearly won in the Exit Polls, but like a good little compliant Dim he conceded defeat the very next day and didn't put up a fight.

We have a TWO party system.

Two for the corporations and none for the people.

This gives us the illusion of a democracy.

I'm impressed by how far the GOP and RNC will go to protect James Tobin.
Raymond and McGee are nothing but foot soldiers/mercenaries to the RNC.
Use them up and toss them out. But James Tobin, he's the establishment.
He's got connections.

Keep your eye on the guy with the ball.
He's still making plays.

James Tobin, President Bush 2004 NE campaign chairman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tobin_%28political_operative%29

also see DCI Group, where he is an employee. DCI Group, who dat?
Think Al Gore, Penguin Army YouTube spoof, 2006.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gore%27s_Penguin_Army_video

There's more democracy in Burma or Zimbabwe than there is in the United States.

Sorry for cross-posting this, but the Democratic Party also knows a lot about rigging elections and using dirty tricks to disenfranchise voters and keep candidates–who dare to compete with the corporate Democrats–off the ballot. For so-called "Democrats," they sure have a lot of contempt for democracy, and this is just one example:

DEMOCRATIC PARTY SUED FOR ANTI-DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN TO ILLEGALLY REMOVE THIRD PARTIES FROM BALLOT.
"After the Democrats' defeat in the 2000 election, Defendants and their co-conspirators decided to try to prevent Mr. Nader from running for president if he announced his candidacy in 2004. Defendants had already settled on a strategy to accomplish this goal when Mr. Nader made his announcement on February 22, 2004. "Our intent was to drain and distract him," The Ballot Project president Toby Moffett later explained to the Hartford Courant. Defendants agreed and conspired to launch a nationwide legal assault on Mr. Nader's campaign, which would drain the campaign of money, time and other resources, in a deliberate attempt to use the sheer burden of litigation itself as a means to prevent Mr. Nader from running for public office. Defendants reached this agreement with wrongful intent, before they could possibly have any reason to believe litigation against Mr. Nader was warranted or justified, and before there was any colorable or potential legal basis for such litigation."

This is just the tip of this ugly iceberg. To read the entire text of the complaint go to: http://www.newjerseyuntouchables.blogspot.com/
More info on Democracy Now!:
http://www.democracynow.org/2007/10/31/ralph_nader_files_lawsuit_accusing_democratic

And some people thought only Republicans did this stuff. Right.

Daniel David,

keyinside made a really good point, why do you respond with sarcasm? In the 2000 election, the Congressional Black Caucus needed just one vote from one senator to challenge the Florida result. How many Democratic senators came forward? None. Those were your guys, your party. Then we found out that Florida went to Bush, mainly because black voters were illegally disenfranchised. Having learned that lesson, Kerry promises to never let it happen again. What happened? Just as keyinside described. Then we find out that Ohio went to Kerry. Do you understand how we become cynical?

I'll bet Afghani and Iraqi people(s) can't wait to have all this PLUS cable TV....

re bidelo 3:14pm

Q: "why do you respond with sarcasm?"
A: because that's what's left after all the sophistry and spin has been refuted.

Why all this PLUS cable TV when they have superfine Afghani hash?

threadjack

bidelo,

Indeed, keyinside made a good point, one, in fact, that has been made over and over and over at CD. And, that point being made does not diminish the fairly good chance we see for Republicans to get away with it again.

I'm frankly tired of the "give up" nonsense that is the essence of supporting fringe candidates who cannot win or no candidates at all, just in order to somehow feel better. There are real issues, and real peoples' lives and futures at stake in the 2008 election. The "drop out and pout" stuff just isn't rational nor is it cerebral heroism on some "higher level" that no one really gets.As for sarcasm, I didn't used to do it much. But take a good look at CD posts and see what's in vogue here.

As for good ole hazmat (12/19 3.39p), he/she has been zinging 'em over ever since I arrived at CD. Shall we believe that the Supreme Court, Social Security, Medicare, the agencies, the constitutional trespasses of the last seven years, foreign policy, tax giveaways to corporations, the Congressional agenda, and the power of Executive Order are all "sophistry and spin that has been refuted"? Only refuted in the minds of the "choir" that this bunch of cynics preaches to.

Greg Palast wrote of election fraud in "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" regarding the 2000 election cycle. There have been numerous reports about what happened in Ohio in 2004 and you can bet it will continue. Anyone remember the rebublican "operative" in the Florida recount banging on the doors? Our Supreme Court's Chief Justice John Roberts was there, training those bastards on how to throw the election to Bush... and see how he was rewarded.

It's going to take a whole lotta fight to stop these guys and that means not electing blue dawg dems -- we need more progressives in '08.

Daniel, I understand the need for pragmatism, and you are brave to be the virtual lone voice for it on this forum. But look at it from the progressive's viewpoint. A lot of us trusted Kerry that he would stand up if Florida happened all over again, like he said he would. We didn't much like his expedient pro-war vote, but we held our noses and voted for him anyway. But when push came to shove, he rolled over like a pussy cat. That's where pragmatism got us: Mr. "electable", the unelectable, who enabled Bush to get a second term. Why wasn't he thinking of "real issues, and real peoples' lives and futures" at that time? You become cynical. Once bitten, twice shy, as it were. Are we to vote for Hillary or Obama or whomever in 2008, just to see it happen all over again? Or are we to make a big dent in the status quo to force the Democrats to listen to us for once?

According to Karlheinz Schreiber, Franz Strauss gave money to Schreiber money to travel the world and elect Conservatives.

He helped get Mulroney elected.

I wonder about Reagan/Bush.

I wonder about Magaret Thatcher the iron lady.

Ron Paul had a monumental donation on the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. Did anyone see it covered in your local paper, your local station, anywhere?

Does the establishment think we're stupid? The fact that no one is covering Dr. Paul is evidence enough of what's going on here.

Huckabee was invited to talk to the CFR in the past. In fact, they printed his speech in their publication. Does that tell you anything?

If anyone looks to the media for their information on a candidate, they should do us all a favor and stay home.

where is helix? I want to know helix's ideas for improving the system. Maybe they have been posted before, but not in my recollection. Specific ideas for what ought to be done.

Maybe it is just too obvious. All votes should have some sort of paper record. Individuals from the community should be at the voting location to make sure everything is done properly. Plus, there is no rush..is there? Why do we need the results in hours. Lets take a few days if that is what it takes. Raise questions if things don't seem as they ought. If the vote isn't fair, then don't expect anything else to be.

bidelo,

You're right that John Kerry was a disappointment, and was even "selected" by the wrong people (Iowa momentum) for the wrong reason (supposedly being more "military" than Bush.) Oops. Wrong guy. Wrong priorities.

No risk of that with Obama or Edwards. Hillary? Gosh, who knows? She's losing momentum and Iowa and South Carolina may un-select her.

I consider myself a progressive too, but not a believer that third parties can get anything done. I'm banking on the idea of putting the Dems in a total power position and then demanding the progressive agenda when they have no filibuster and veto threats to use as excuses for not passing the progressive agenda. They are insecure now, and acting so. If we can get them to a two-year period of total political security, I think (hope, at least) that public demand will rise up and carry the day.

The repulicans aren't going to steal the next election because they don't need to. I had an epiphany the other day that Hillary is the same candidate that Bush was in 2000. A candidate with a farmiliar name from 2 terms before, who has massive defense industry backing, breaks several fundraising records and is touted as the front runner from the beginning. Mitt Romney is the republican version of John Kerry, a former Massachussetts governer known for changing his opinions on issues after the fact. He even looks a little like Kerry.
My guess is that Hillary beats out Romney amid allegations that she rigged elections.
It's Coke and Pepsi my friends. Republicans are Coca-Cola, the old establishment, the one that people who have always drank Coke will continue to drink. Democrats are Pepsi, the supposed "alternative", the choice of a new generation. And at first sip, it does taste better, because it's sweeter. But when you finish with the can, all your left with is rotten teeth either way.

Daniel David,

That's putting a lot of faith into people that have proven that they don't care about what people think.
That's like saying, I will vote for Hillary because I believe, despite all evidence pointing to the contrary, that she will be a progressive voice once elected.

Why don't you believe in third parties? I think that one of our biggest political problems today is that we only have two parties. It allows those in power to force us to vote for the lesser of two evils.

A great big "Well, duh!" to this one. It has been obvious for years that the Republican party has ruthlessly pursued electoral fraud without opposition from the Democrats.

No wonder that in the face of evidence, all that Democratic partisans can offer is empty sarcasm and indignation.

"I'm banking on the idea of putting the Dems in a total power position and then demanding the progressive agenda when they have no filibuster and veto threats to use as excuses for not passing the progressive agenda." -- Daniel David

Daniel, The Dems honestly don't give a crap what you or I or progressives want. They know that you "don't believe in third parties" and have nowhere else to go no matter what they do. How many times do you have to get screwed before you get beyond your delusion that the Dims will aver respond to pressure from the left. As long as you have no alternative, they will take you for granted and as long as they are beholden to corporations for campaign financing they will represent corporate interests.

Honestly, I feel more frustrated by liberals than I do by no-nothing wing-nuts.