Rebel, I hear ya'. That's what we're afraid of. But keep the FAITH and support your local militias and strong Schedule I Drug Laws. JESUS is resilient.

Chris Hedges, I got two words for you: YOU ROCK!

"The Democratic Party, including Obama, continues to fund the war. It refuses to impeach Bush and Cheney. It allows the government to spy on us without warrants or cause. And then it tells us it is our salvation."

Amen, the truth it is. Common Dreams is rocking lately.

The pro-Obama, pro-Clintons Democratic Party apologists are thinning and getting weeded out. How do you defend the indefensible? That's why they are drying up, withering and shriveling.

Rebel Now - You get the gold star of the day. Truely excellent!

Thank you very much Chris Hedges for your clear-headed thoughts. Live long and well. The country needs you.

I pray more will read your words and wake up from their Obama-crazed fantasies. Obama is, indeed, one of the slickest courtiers of them all, and has taken in many.

Butd if any intelligent-thinking person listens to Nadar and Gonzalez theyh will recognize them for the straight-shooter, honest, clear-headed visonaries thatd they are.

I hope the masses can see beyond their own rose-colored glasses and begin to join the Nadar/Gonzalez bandwagon and show the court of Versailles in the Beltway that were not just a bunch of Dumb and Dumbers.

Pete, I applied for a travel visa to Pluckistan and when I got to the gate they asked me if I found Jesus. I said I didn't know he was missing and they slammed the door in my face and told me to go pluck myself till I found Jesus. It took awhile but I found him alone and dejected in a homeless shelter. Come on man, I said, let's go to Pluckistan, they're looking for you. Hell no, he said, they don't really like me there. But I managed to convince him to go anyway.

When we got to the gate they didn't recognize me, having plucked myself so much in my search for Jesus. I said, look I found him. Well they got all panicky because Jesus, being bearded and dressed in long white robes, looked like a terrorist, so they shot him dead.

Three days later, there he was again in the homeless shelter. He looked at me, told ya, he said, they don't really want me around, they'd rather just pluck each other over and over.

Screw Obama---He's as bad as Shillary, selling his soul every step of the way so that he can get power to what---reform and change everything? I saw him say that "Israel is always justified" in whatever it does for its righteous paranoia....This article reminds me too that for him government spying is just fine for "security" (typical businessmen: we have to destroy a thing to protect it for "the people")....

ChrisHorton Says:

"Will an informed and aroused American people be able to organize and transform our situation?"

Most probably not - IMO

"Indeed, what else possibly could?"

A deep depression with economic suffering on the scale of the 1930s will do it - and hopefully, that will occur soon, so that the real America can re-emerge.

Why don't we start were it really begins: there no longer is such a thing as 'democracy' - the will of the people. It is out and out fascism. Fear, lies and deceptions...our daily bread.

"A deep depression with economic suffering on the scale of the 1930s will do it - and hopefully, that will occur soon, so that the real America can re-emerge."

Only economic suffering on a wide scale can provide the mass incentive for clear thinking and the courage to do real battle with the corporate elite that has taken over our nation since Ronald Reagan. That battle needs to go far beyond writing letters to the editor or to Congress. It needs to go beyond "peaceful" street demonstrations. It needs to use tactics that make life utterly unlivable for the corporate Titans. It's core strength must come from a militant organized labor movement that reaches to all levels of management right up to the corporate officers. In truth, we need to return to the unfinished war against the Robber Barons of the 19th century, that brought us to FDR's New Deal and the ascendance of labor unions.

And it needs a leader who clearly sees the national dilemma and has the courage to sieze the opportunity to make his place in history.

It is our only hope! I certainly do not think that Obama is that leader, but when the time is right, a leader will emerge, and it will be up to us to prevent it from being a Hitler or a Mussolini.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20160.htm

Read the article,but make sure to go to the comments page and pay especial attention to the posts of "Nadia".. Nadia is a Palestinian exile living in Britain at my last conversation with her a few years back.
Her work is very personal and beautiful in sad and tradgic way. She speaks of hopes and dreams unfilled.. She understands the situation there because she lived it.

This is the kind of opinion forbidden in the mainstream here in the U.S.because it nothing more the handmaiden of APAC.

The Versailles parallel is right on point, and the "courtiers" designation is inspired.

I'd become a bit leery of Hedges when he addressed religious or spiritual themes in a fairly recent article on CD-- too lazy to find it-- but otherwise I find him sharp and insightful.

He seems to be "radicalizing" with each successive article.

You have to hand it to Hedges, he does not pull his punches these days.

This is quite a contrast to some of the pabulum coming out of the "liberal" media. And by that I mean the real liberal media such as The Nation.

Hedges has written something rather different from the little hagiography that journalist John Nichols penned for Russert:

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat/329703/tim_russert_and_the_end_of_no_talking_points_journalism

I appreciated some of Nichols' points while remaining totally under whelmed by the gist of his paean to Russert. Hedges seems to come much closer to the naked truth of our system of wealth and power.

With the capitulation of the Democrats this week on the FISA bill and the quick lurch to the right of candidate Obama, the total victory of the corporate state appears to be at hand. Most of the regressive policies of the Bush-Cheney axis will never be reversed; they will be sugarcoated at best.

Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Bill of Rights is now just another quaint and irrelevant document. It is ironic that even as the rights of the individual human being wane, the legal and political rights of the corporate "person" wax exponentially.

There is an alternate possiblity to total gloom and doom. Obama wins the presidential election during the near-total collapse of the economy. Having planned to follow his mentor model -- a hybrid John F. Kennedy/William Jefferson Clinton who professes to "feel your pain" while serving the wealthy godfathers, a change of plans is critical to the survival of American capitalism. Just as was necessary after the 1929 collapse, vast changes in government programs are necessary to "save" capitalism from the evils of socialism. Obama then becomes the new Roosevelt, known as a traitor to his class and a hero to the working class. The analogy is far from perfect, more likely even a total fantasy but it has the redeeming feature of necessity. I doubt that the working class can tolerate much more abuse and still be persuaded to believe in the American "dream". As with most important changes in social or political life, catastrophe has its good points. Sleepwalking masses and their short-sighted leaders are seldom persuaded by events and trends of a gradual nature but can respond to calamity. Unfortunately the negative consequences of such disasters are widespread and severe. It has taken several generations to forget the good that came of Roosevelt's New Deal and to accept the undwinding of those reforms. Now is the time to remember to remember. Of course this all assumes that Obama wins. If McCain becomes president we will get to experience a real version of 1984 -- the novel.

But unless my little fantasy begins to play out soon, Nader surely gets my vote.

RichM says:

"The New Deal can certainly be seen as something that did a lot of good, but the fact that it saved capitalism is hardly an unqualified positive. In many respects, it might have been far better if it had failed to save capitalism."

In my view, socialism must "evolve" from capitalism. A successful socialism cannot come about by revolution. Socialism needs to marry the production efficiency of entrpreneurial capitalism with the necessary socialist constraints on capitalist (and middle class) greed. Yes, middle class (capitalist wanna-be) greed is even more of a problem than capitalist greed, and until we understand and acknowledge that, socialism will remain a dream, never to be achieved. FDR's New Deal established a foundation for an evolving socialism but for lack of a follow up committment by the people, capitalists were soon able to reverse the movement towards socialism, started (unintentially and without enthusiasm) by FDR.

RichM:

I don't believe it is necessary at all. These blogs are frequently misunderstood because words can never be used in a way that communicates all that one thinks or believes. I merely meant to suggest that some good reform could result from the current version of reality inflicted upon us by capitalism. On the other hand I don't really believe that any other social/political/economic "system" would save the world, so to speak. What is capitalism anyway? I have heard one definition of "capitalist" and that is one who is able to live off the interest of his/her capital. That is almost no one except the very rich. There are "evils" in any system and it seems on the basis of the evidence that a highly regulated free-enterprise system as we had after the New Deal and World War II for a short time was the best so far. Read Robert Kuttner's The Squandering of America for a very good statement of that point of view. I have absolutely no romantic ideas about some kind of people's revolution saving us all from what are the very obvious evils of the current insanity of capitalism or so-called free enterprise. Bolshevism was a disaster, Red China a catastrophe, and all revolutions resulted in just more bloodshed and stupidity followed by various forms of dictatorship or totalitarian rule. We won't win over the massses by an appeal to revolution in any violent or physical way. But the collapse of a failing system may cause real reform -- for a time at least. Also, I don't believe there is a gulf between the corporate elite and the rest of us on anything but a gross material level. The masses yearn to emulate the corporate titans and celebrities and thereby continually renew their power. They are unlikely to turn on their heroes in an absolute way since they have been hypnotized since birth about the importance of wealth, riches and mass adoration.

Strong regulation of the unbridled greed is better than slaughter of the horse to slow down the wagon.

On top of all this, I just learned that George Carlin died. And Bill Hicks went a long time ago. Bush and Cheney are still around, as is another 71 year old: George Anheuser Busch, aka John McCain.

Stating the obvious doesn't get you very far. The canonization of a brown noser like Russert is not a symptom of strength. It is a symptom of desperation. Much greater forces are now at work to bring down the ruling class than the bovine acquiescence of the American people or even the resistance of a bunch of half-wit religious fanatics. We are staring annihilation right in the face, be it from the proliferation of radioactive material, famine, planetary warming, intractable, drug resistant epidemics or a host of other calamities. The efforts by the aristocracy to keep their sociopathic game in play are rapidly coming to a dead end and the results will be very much the same as Versailles. Heads are about to roll.

Speaking of Amy Goodman, here is an interesting interview of Bill Clinton she did when he was president.

Chris, right on. I'm a former technical writer for Silicon Valley heavyweights like Microsoft and Oracle. As such I would hand Bill Gates whitepapers talking up the benefits of Microsoft TV, just for example. Why? For the same reasons that Tim Russert secretly maintained in his heart: money, status, image, power. After seventeen years of that walk down the Valley I left. Now I'm a blogger making $0.00 a year.

And wondering how long I can hold out.

And wondering if I might have to go back to writing white lies to sell "the Information Revolution" to an unsuspecting public that has been brainwashed by people like me into believing that Her Highness Technology will solve all their problems. When in fact Her Highness is as corrupt and self-serving as the politicians and five star generals whose favor Russert routinely courted on national TV. And in the name of Journalism for Pete's sake!

So why so few real investigative journalists? Because it pays lousy. And why is that? Because most people want to be entertained. They don't want to face Truth because Truth has a way of compelling all of us to change our ways. And golly gosh I can't do THAT! That's for the Big Bad Boys that the Russerts of this world schmooze with. Not me; I'm innocent. I don't need to change; the world needs to change for me.

Or so we secretly maintain in our hearts...Don't we? Anyway, for another take on High Tech journalism check out www.sillyConValley.net. Stop by and say hello. Before I return to being the Russert of Silicon Valley.

Thank you, sir. May I have another! Yes, it looks like Ralph Nader is the only decent choice again. It's too bad really. I'd love to vote for a decent canddiate that has a shot at winning.

Dems like to chastise those who refuse to take their 'stop the Republicans' bait by saying, "don't make the perfect the enemy of the good". Their strained defense of Obama opting out of public funding puts the lie to that. To them, there's no good other than winning.

Well said, Chris Hedges.

Thanks Chris for another great article.

Chris Hedges starkly paints the bleak picture before us. I cannot argue with what he says. But our focus must go beyond this to include the struggle against the "beast", the resistance to its encroaching mechanisms of oppression and control, and our alternative vision for a just, peaceful and sustainable future.

In terms of social welfare, inequality and environmental degradation, the US is sinking to the bottom of the heap among the "first world", the richest and most technologically advanced nations. As others on these pages have pointed out this is in part due to its role as master of "the Empire", and its extraction from its own people (us) much of the cost of this enterprise. But it is also because the US is virtually unique in the "first world" in the degree to which most of the working people lack organization and access to good information. While surveys show that most working people support the idea of unionization and want to be part of one, and while there are vital and active segments of the US labor movement, the percentage of the people actually involved is shockingly small, even by US historical standards. There is no independent mass-based political party of any significant size or reach which has its base among the working people and is dedicated to their interests. And there is no mass circulation news outlet that is trusted and turned to by the tens of millions which is dedicated to bringing to them the news they need to support their political expression.

These are features of our political life that can be changed, and must be if we are to turn this ship away from the reefs toward which it is now headed. There are many dedicated people working on many fronts to bring this about. But Common Dreams is about making news and analysis available, an essential key to the dilemma we face, and that is my focus here.

We now have CommonDreams.org, Truthout.org, Alternet.org, Antiwar.com and other sites such as AfterDowningSt.org, Huffington Post and Politico - and Yahoo news I might add; I pray that Microsoft and others fail in their efforts to buy them out! There are large numbers of blogs, and lists such as Democrats.com and Moveon.org that transmit selected aspects of the news. are playing a vital role in getting out the news that the corporate media has for untold years been suppressing. Large numbers of readers have been engaged in conversations that five years ago were restricted to much smaller numbers of people. I have seen no informed estimates of our combined reach, but I would guess it is in the low millions by now. But supposing it is two million people; that is still only 1% of the adult population, and (again just guessing) the participants are probably predominantly better-educated people and professionals, leaving out the segments of the population that are most acutely impacted by the war and the growing economic extortion.

My challenge to this community is to stop the moaning and kvetching, stop blaming the "sheeple" for our seeming helplessness before the Empire, and to bend our collective minds and energies to the urgent task of getting good news and analysis into the hands of the tens of millions.

Will an informed and aroused American people be able to organize and transform our situation? Indeed, what else possibly could?

Guess it's time to go back to "snail mail," eh? Or does the Patriot Act, or FISA, or the Military Commissions Act, or the The Homeland Security Act, or an existing Executive Order, or the "opinion" of a Yoo or Fredo, include some sort of secret Terrorist Snail Mail Surveillance Program that permits the warrant-less reading of anything sent via USPS by a "private security" subcontractor with a P.O. Box in the Caymens?

Well, there's always FedEx, and writing in code...

It is always a pleasure to read anything Hedges writes: one of a handful of true progressive not owned by the status quo!

Chris Horton 1:10PM
In your list of valuable info sites on the web you left out one of the very best - wsws.org
Regardless of what you may think about Socialism they have been one of the very best sources of accurate and truthfull journalism. I started reading them back in 2002 during the runup to the WAR/Imperial Heist/Unprovoked Agression - call it what you will.
wsws.org was daily debunking every myth/falsehood put forward by our lying junta and backing it with fact. Now years after the fact you can go back and read their reporting and see that they were literally years ahead of the curve in reporting the facts.
If you routinely come to CommonDreams for truth-telling I highly recommend wsws.org

Breifing.com reported this morning that "consumer confidence in June slipped 13% (to 50%)... its lowest level since 1992." (which just happens to coincide with Bush I's last year in office.)

Sure, I'd love to vote for Nader... but then I'd like to win the lottery too. Vote for Nader if you want, but please don't whine if it means Bush III ends up running the show for the next four years.

Maybe Chris will consider running one day. If he does, he gets my vote.

"Think of the press as a great keyboard on which the government can play." Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister for Propaganda.

For the umpteenth time, the problem is representation. We delegate our political authority and then complain that the delegates aren't behaving properly. We refuse to even think about a system in which the popular intelligence can be applied directly - and often - to the problems at hand.

This system asks "Who shall lead us?" A proper democracy asks "What is to be done?"

Nobody even comments on my blogs here. Democracy itself appears to be 'off the table.'

We keep dutifully playing the game by 'their' rules, and losing. How stupid must you be not to realize you need to change the rules?

Sheesh.

Versailles is the perfect analogy. The King, the wealthy Cortiers, and the Clergy. The only difference is the media has replaced the role of the clergy in the court. Although the "clergy" is still important out in the "provinces"...

Even down at the level of my medium-large metropolitan area, I bet my Mayor, my County Executive, almost certainly my congressman, and the news reporters that flatter them, rarely interact with anyone with net worth less than a million dollars in their day to day affairs.

if you just a peon working stiff, you can write them all you want, and all you ever get back is a condecending intelligence-insulting, boilerplate letter prepared by an underling.

Democracy my ass!

Gorsegrower,

Very good points. And yes, I find the best points seem to go voer the heads of a lot of people here.

The US system of representation is completely broken, and even parliamentary-type systems are following close behind.

If we assume that a representative democracy is the only practical type of democracy, wouldn't a better system be a selection of our representatives by random lottery - in the same manner as jury duty? What exactly is so democratic about elections and professional politicians anyway? Especially, the slick, multi-billion dollar US-style of elections. The ancient Athenians would be stunned at what we call "democracy"

"It is smoke and mirrors"

We all have enough difficulty viewing the world as it really is through the 'Smokey Mirror' of our own EGOs without the burden of other people's EGOs.
I unplug the TV and read instead, or garden, or play with children, or sleep and dream...
The Hedonists of Power send massive amounts of their bribe money to Murdock and other Ministries of Truth. Such a waste of funds could feed the world's poor. I think all America's National elections are controlled from Tel Aviv anyway - life's short, why bother to 'vote' for either of the I.A.PACman's hand puppets? Live's short, time for a nap - I'll vote Green in November.

The hedonists of power do have the power but their time is coming to an end but their demise will be even more destructive than they has been economically over these last decades of economic mismanagement. They have bankrupted the country with corporate written (Milton Freidman: the economic quack) trade and economic policies that is quickly destroying the monetary base that power depends on. Like trapped monsters, they will lash out at the people domestically and internationally with more violence and more draconian measures as all fascists do. They probably are scratching their heads wondering why nothing is working properly according to the Friedman plan and they can't even notice how they are marching in the exact same footprints of the Weimar Republic

Thanks Chris Hedges. The truth needs to be told about Obama. Unfortunately, the so-called progressives have joined the two party game - again. If you can think, and want our country back, Vote Nader.

Tim Russert gave Bush and Cheney "free passes".

That was enough for me to stop watching him.

USAn,

"The ancient Athenians would be stunned at what we call "democracy""

Unfortunately Athenians had slaves and women did not have the franchise. Also the numbers were small and could fit into an amphitheatre. I get your point though. How direct democracy would work in modern societies is an issue of first order. One things for sure is the internet would have to be democratized and taken out of the hands of the ruling oligarchy.

http://www.democraticmedia.org

gorsepower says that we need to change the rules. True enough, but corporate America won't allow it. After all, corporate America has spent three generations mastering the system and has no inclination to suddenly allow 'representative democracy' to take root in this country.

purvis ames writes that "heads are about to roll". Personally I haven't seen any chinks in the corporate armour. Instead I see daily gains in the consolidation of power while a majority of Americans still point their fingers at a handful of politicians rather than naming the corporate culprits. Even the former prison camp known as the Soviet Union did not collapse due to popular uprisings or a sudden epiphany. Instead it was a handful of budding corporate gangsters in the oil, steel and gas industries that got the ball rolling. I could only agree that heads are about to roll if America suddenly elected a third party, radical candidate.
It's not going to happen anytime soon.

Jerry rigged wrote that "They probably are scratching their heads wondering why nothing is working properly according to the Friedman plan and they can't even notice how they are marching in the exact same footprints of the Weimar Republic."
I think they're are more likely patting each other on the back for having the whole plan go so well. Price of oil is 6 times higher than in 2000, defence contractors, health insurance & pharmaceutical companies are making a killing. The media no longer covers the illegal occupation of Iraq. After 6 years of occupation, the Neo-Cons still have their puppet in power in Iraq, exclusive rights to extract and sell all of their oil and a civil war that kills tons of Iraqis but just a handful of 'volunteer' US servicemen. The supreme court is stacked with God fearing, right wing, corporate friendly judges; the Democrats look more and more like Republicans with each passing day; Ralph Nader is even despised by the so-called left wing Democrats for "costing Gore the 2000 election" and the general public still doesn't see a conflict of interest with a White House stacked with ex-oil industry CEO's. I'm sorry jerry rigged, but I don't think anyone in the White House is having any trouble sleeping at night.

I agree with USAn that "Versailles is the perfect analogy" because Chris Hedges is basically describing the dog and pony act in Washington that calls itself 'the media'. But like most articles I read than unveil the truth about our MSM, seldom does anyone offer a way out of this mess (not that I have a solution either!) yet without this type of general education, our society has no hope of turning the proverbial tables.

Oh how easy it is to be outraged.

When you have actually spent years trying to build an alternative party, get back to us. Tell us how certain you are that simply being right is enough, simply sounding outraged is enough.

Is there a real existing alternative? If there were, you'd be outraged at what a failure it is. You'd be outraged that someone else hasn't succeeding in building the alternative.

I've heard enough of the shouting, the outrage. Try the hard work. You'll forget the easy answers and realize that shouting at people about your righteous outrage is doing nothing anymore than the objects of your outrage are doing.

I don't know what the answers are but the same old same old, protest votes and outrage are doing no more than posturing and preening. Haven't you heard? It's all been done before. Good luck with the oh-so-easy outrage.

I don't see much difference between the loud outrage outsiders and the pompous insiders. They are all part of the problem pretending to be some solution for their own vanity.

JavaRunner - Instead of going back into "writing white lies to sell "the Information Revolution" to an unsuspecting public that has been brainwashed by people like me into believing that Her Highness Technology will solve all their problems," why not go into writing books filled with facts masquerading as fiction - for all generations? There's a whole lot of people who read nothing but fiction and believe every word they read is the god's truth.

www.votestrike.com

Mr. Hedges, I am glad you spoke out about Russet, he was no legitimate journalist, indeed. As for Obama, he is what we want him to be, well, almost. lol

Chris,
You are so right. I supported John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich from the start. I am an African American male who is deathly afraid of where America is heading. We allowed the media(coutiers) to once again pick our candidates, and in the end, corporate america won. The Democrats are told time and again we can't have a candidate who will really represent our better interests because he is too liberal. Never mind, our best presidents were liberal(Kennedy, Roosevelt, etc.) We are told the country is not with us, but somehow every poll taken this year told us we are where 70+ percent of Americans. So how did we end up with a centrist candidate again. Because as only Susan Jacoby and Richard Shenkman have the courage to tell us, we are politically ignorant.

We allowed the Democratic Primary to become an American Idol contest. Obama was able to bring millions of new people into the process, but that only means more people will end up despising politics and turning their backs on the process. This inevitably means corporate america will continue to win. No sooner did Obama get the nomination did he begin turning and running to center. The interview with Forbes magazine on NAFTA, and his "Sister Soldia" moment at the black church on Fathers Day told us so. I don't want, nor do I need, any politician, which Obama is, to preach to anyone about what being a good father is until he has worked to create economic conditions that allow men to be real fathers.

His speech was simply a play to southern whites to tell them he is not Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton. He sounded an awful lot like a black conservative. Now don't get me wrong, there needs to be some work done in the black community to foster good fathers and good mentors, but a presidential candidate speaking at a church, but really speaking to the cameras in the room, only serves to further anger and shame those fathers who really do want to do a good job, but can't seem to find the guidance, direction, and financial wherewithall to do so.

As I said earlier, those young people and others who are counting on Obama to make the dramatic changes America needs ought to pay attention to his actions since getting the nomination. Democrats have lost the last few elections by trying to appeal to the few middle of the road independents out there. But as Jim Hightower correctly says, the only thing in the middle of the road are dead armadillos. There are more registered Democrats in America, and that is for a reason. There are many independents who register that way because they feel the Democrats have moved too far to the right. And then there are the greens, the socialist worker party, etc. There are many more progressive to liberal voters in America, but the two major parties ignore them.

Bill Clinton's success in 1992 did not come from running as a centrist, he ran as a populist, not a liberal but a left leaning progressive. He won in 1996 because he ran against Bob Dole, enough said. Now look at the Congress during and after Bill Clinton's terms, enough said. Point is Republicans run as unapologetic conservatives and they win. Even with policies that most Americans vehemently disagree with, they win. Why are Democrats afraid to run as "REAL" Democrats, and not Republican-lite. I hope Obama gets the message before he blows this election. And if he wins, I hope he is more a replica of FDR, not Bill Clinton.

blackmail, extortion, rape and murder is coin of the realm.

It was certainly odd, that an army of corporate hirelings took so much time to fawn over one of their fellow stooges. Maybe their bosses wanted to feign interest in their miserable lying lives.

Java Runner asks where are the investigative journalists...They exist, publishing in their own countries, in their languages, about their critical issues and facing death threats and death squads, disapearances and deprivation. Its amazing how much people in the rest of the world know about the real issues at play and the real players. But there is a world-wide campaign to silence critical journalists - especially in countries tied to the US imperial project...Colombia, Iraq, Palestine, the Philippines...but don't kid yourselves, they are there. The International Committee to Protect Journalists...rarely mentions them because it is an empire-centered organization active in France and the US - careful to attack Russia while not mentioning Israel. Only bloated Americans are cynical and self-referential enough to think everyone, everywhere is like them...cowardly, passive and unable to imagine or bravely work for another world of people's justice.

Chris Hedges, didn't you write a book called "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America"? And didn't you attend liberal Colgate University and just recently celebrate your 30th graduation reunion? And also attend Harvard Divinity School?

And now here you are, with all this LIBERAL CATHOLIC background, claiming to be more educated than us humble chicken pluckers.

"We cannot differentiate between illusion and reality."

Well, whoop-de-doo! Maybe Bush and Cheney won't talk to Amy Goodman or Seymour Hersh because thay are Jews who refuse to join the masses of God's Chosen People turning at last to JESUS.

As for these screamers and high priests wearin' face powder, I don't know what the pluck you're talking about.

Gorsegrower and USAn,

You are correct. The system has an endemic flaw. It stems from two huge mistakes. One, corporations are recognized as individuals. Two, the Supreme Court has equated money with free-speech. As long as corporations are allowed to contribute virtually unlimited amounts of "soft" money for elections, it will always be an uphill battle to reign them in. They have stacked the decks in their favor and will continue to do so until we change these fundamental flaws.

As for all of you Nader lovers - Tthhhpbbttt!!!!! A big, wet raspberry for you. Our system has certain characteristics including momentum. The 'Body Politic' tends to swing back and forth, from right to left. Like any pendulum, it has momentum. For the majority of you out there that obviously never studied, slept through, or just plain failed physics - Momentum is the property of mass, whereby an object that is at rest, tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion, tends to remain in motion.

The momentum, since the Carter days has been all conservative. Even Clinton, once he (actually she) got slapped down over universal health care, was all about conservatism. Does "welfare to work", NAFTA, etc. ring a bell? Fortunately, due to the utter stupidity and mendacity of the current Administration, the vast "uninvolved" of the American public, has shrugged off its stupor enough to see that things aren't so good. Now, when we finally have their momentum stopped and a chance to send the pendulum back in the right (or correct, anyway) direction, you (the ultra-liberals) want to throw the election, hang the pendulum at its apogee of conservatism, and hand those nincompoops an undeserved third term. You are like little kids who can't have everything just their way and who throw a temper-tantrum as a result.

And, to that I say Ttthhhbbbpppttt!!!!!!

of course Donkeyman is going to sign FISA.