RichM, I certainly share your frustration with corporate Dems, however I reread the article and I still feel that what Jesse is doing is telling us to expect, and let them know we expect certain actions. Reasonable or not we should demand those changes. For starters we should reject the corporate media slander of Jesse Jackson. What he has done here is lay out the path we need to take to bring back democracy.
I'm sure you would agree that it is a lot easier to mug people in the dark. They don't want us involved, and candidates that inspire excitement and involvement threaten their hold. The political excitement that Obama is generating may strike you and me as naive, but if directed in the right way - as in this excellent article - it could lead to a situation that bears far more resemblance to democracy then we are used to. That is the hope that I think we can legitimately hold. Not some magical solution to the problem of entrenched power and greed, but at least making it harder for them to have their way. Perhaps even having them see that they would be better off if we prevailed on some issues of economic justice. We can - and are - starting movement in that direction.
I really believe that democracy can work, but it is a long process. Perhaps the first step is to excite people, involve people and gradually see them mature to the point where the old politics of lying and stealing to the point of using our armed forces for global muggings becomes harder to pull off and even eventually ends.
Hey I can dream can't I? And who knows, maybe it will happen like that. That is perhaps the spark that people like MLK and Jesse provide. To inspire us to believe, while all the intellectual evidence says otherwise. As some one said to me at an anti-nuclear demonstration years ago, "If you think about it, isn't it miraculous that we haven't already blown ourselves to kingdom come?"
And thats as cheerful as I can get today. Tonight, who knows.

yes, it has been a sorry lot since FDR, savior of capitalism.

works programs, tva etc. etc. were great, but what really turned the trick was the Good War, WWII.

you can bet that with the next President there will be some
modest works, health care and education, but we musnt forget
Fiscal Responsibility.

So the bombing of darker skinned people will continue, more
polar bears will drown and Al Gore will be the first Nobel
billionaire as promises of windmills flower faster than tulips.

we will be told that we feel good about ourselves again and that, at last, nuclear energy can work for the planet with but
some minor issues.

RichM, you don't understand what Jesse Jackson is doing. He is leading the leaders in the direction we want. We cannot just leave it to them. They need powerful voices to lay out the path they are expected to take in order to represent us. You could have as easily said that he and MLK were crazy to ask all those racists for equality and justice. What after all did they expect? Maybe nothing, but it had to be said anyway, and this article continues that tradition, and is a needed part of the democratic (small d) process.
For my part I thank Jesse for all the leadership that he has offered even if at times it felt like peeing into the wind - or worse. Thanks!

"Super Tuesday Voters Are Energized, Eager for Real Change"

Too bad they don't have a candidate to vote for that would give them real change.

Hey Jesse, people who have stepped up all their lives have gotten their heads taken off. The only people left are those who ducked. What's that old saying about silk and a sow's ear?

I just don't believe the 'leaders' will listen. They listen to those with the big bucks who finance their campaigns. They don't give a damn about the rest of us, other than to lie to us and con us into voting for them by pretending they give a damn once every four years. And since what the people with money want is different from what's good for us, we pretty much know which way the 'change' is going to go after the election.

These 'leaders' won't listen to us or do anything to help us until we develop and demonstrate real political power. And the political power that they'll pay attention to is when we have the ability to cause their defeat. The good news is that we can achieve this by abandoning the Democrats and building our own movement and supporting our own candidates. Its win-win for us. We get to actually vote for and support candidates who believe in what we believe in. And when we cause the Democrats to lose, we've established ourselves as a group with real political power that must be dealt with. Only then will they stop laughing at us and stop calling us 'idiot liberals' and actually start being willing to give us some of what we want.

RichM is right on right. Jesse hasn't been a person to trust since the day MLK Jr was taken.

Voters are turning out and looking for change.

True.

The challenge for leaders is to define the change

False.

The challenge to define the change BELONGS TO THE PEOPLE AND NO OTHER. Get a clue, Jesse.

Has anything changed since the pathetic Dems won congress last fall?

Katha Pollitt's recommendation of Obama:

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/anotherthing?bid=25&pid=279745

Meg, you ask "Has anything changed since the pathetic Dems won congress last fall?"

Yes: people are angrier, more frustrated, and more willing to do more work, and less willing to leave things in the hands of professoinal pols.

Change does originate from below; are Joan Baez, Ted Kennedy, and Jesse Jackson all corporate shills & suckers?

Voting advocates allege problems at Los Angeles polls

Carla Marinucci, John Wildermuth,Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Political Writers

http://www.sfgate.com/flat/archive/2008/02/05/chronicle/archive/2008/02/05/MNQOUSIIM.html?tsp=1

(02-05) 04:00 PST Los Angeles - --

Polls were still open in California when the first challenges were raised Tuesday to ballots and voting procedures that progressive advocates - and the campaign of Sen. Barack Obama - suggested Tuesday were designed to discourage and confuse millions of decline to state voters.

"This is definitely a Florida," said Rick Jacobs, who heads the Courage Campaign, the California-based progressive grassroots 527 group whose partners include Common Cause and MoveOn.org.

Jacobs said that his group, which held a conference call with the Obama campaign Tuesday, has moved to mount a legal challenge to the Los Angeles County voting system, charging that confusing procedures in that major urban area could disenfranchise the estimated 776,000 "decline to state" voters there.

-snip-

"I respect the distance [from Jackson and other black activists] he is trying to create"

- Rev. Jackson, when explaining why he supports Obama even though he has been asked to stay away from Obama's campaign so as to not taint it with the appearance being excessively black social justice - esque.

Responding to the point raised by RICH M about false hope, etc. I'd like to shed some cosmic light on the TIMING of this "super Tuesday."

When the sun and moon meet once every 29 days we get new moon. When their path is intersected by the earth's eliptic we get an eclipse. The full moon (lunar eclipse) is said to project impacts for about 6 months; but tonight's solar eclipse can generate effects that last several years. Even Shakespeare understood the PORTENT of a solar eclipse (imagine the ancients seeing the sky darken and the omens that would suggest) as he used it as primary plot device in his masterful play, Julius Caesar.

The U.S. was founded with its sun in the sign of Cancer, hence all the BS about family values, and as many on CD have raised, the intransigence of "family fortunes" that regularly aggregate to control the political dialog (and its policy directions). The U.S. MOON sign is Aquarius and percentage wise, there have been more presidents born with this sign than any other. The eclipse is in Aquarius. In its pure form this sign kingdom, think of the zodiac as a celestial plan of specific allotments (12, like Jesus' disciples or Abraham's tribes) Aquarius represents truth, the eternal verities, not the popular fictions dressed up as such. One would be inclined to think with the eclipse in Aquarius, issues that reflect Truth (as an ideal) would come forward. Within the energetic run-up to this eclipse (they are like invisible energy waves that occur at regular intervals) news media published the truth of Bush's lies, 900 plus of them.

Mercury is the planet of communications. This "winged god" represents the transfer of info from "the gods" to humans. Three times a year Mercury enters into what astrologers term a retrograde phase. That IS the case now. During this interval it is more difficult to secure plans, it is an especially unwise time to purchase electronic equipment (cars quality due to their interior computer works) or launch probes. The degree (it's all based on the 360 degree dial of the heavens, the cosmic clock that pours out the years/time of our lives) of the eclipse is close to Mercury. Sun-moon-Mercury and Neptune, the ruler of Pisces, sign of illusions, deception and escapism are all intertwined in this eclipse. Neptune probaly represents advertising since it's main purpose is to seduce through often false information, or data that's expressed in a way that only reveals so much. This election, decisive "results" reached during an eclipse where Neptune is prominent, speaks volumes about "necessary deceptions."

Before his untimely death, renown astrologer Buzz Meyers spoke of what then was the upcoming transit/cycle of Neptune through Aquarius. He thought it would indicate a whole different kind of air pollution. It's really COMMUNICATION pollution as the atmosphere through which we all receive shared data is absolutely wrought with lies, falsehoods, immitations and immitators. It will always remain true that THE TRUTH SHALL SET THEM FREE, the problem in this controlled media ambiance is how to get truth to those that would welcome its liberating effect. Today's eclipse is a very poignant metaphor of what's going on: "As above, so below" style. That, my friends, recognized or otherwise, is the inviolate equation... nor is your belief in gravity required to experience its effects!