The NBC arm of our corporate propaganda system showed us all this morning that America is still a great place and the American dream was alive. They trotted out the homeless guy with the great voice that used to be on radio. He already has several job offers, and a home to live in and a trip back to see his mom, who he hasn't seen in ten years.

So I guess it's implied things are fine, if you need help its there, America is great. I turned the channel and watched the Keiser Report.

Hey I am or was a worker. I remember going to bed at night early so I could get enough rest so I could do a really good days work. I shined my shoes every day, pressed my shirt every day, showered and shaved every day. At night I went to school. I delivered the mail on hot days, cold days and windy rainy days. Walked about twenty miles a day. My reward was having the government declare me insane. The gamblers, drunkards, drug addicts and slobs were sane. The ones who didn't try to improve themselves with education all got promoted. I wish I had known to be a little less dedicated. So at 33 years old healthy and strong as an ox I lost my job. I want to thank the Reagan gang for rewarding the undeserving and punishing the deserving. I thought it was hard work. Turns out it was who you knew.

"They don't need us anymore." 2010 CommonDreams Quote of the Year. The implications and consequences of this are mind numbing. It is a breach of social contract that well could lead to the end of this society, in spectacular violence.

They also do not =want= us anymore. It used to be that job applicants over 50 were thrown onto the scrap heap, even with advanced academic degrees, despite the circumstance they could not =retire= until age 65. That is how I wound up driving tractor trailer, and delivering new buses all over the continent. It paid merely a survival wage.

This is class warfare, and day by day it is ramping up. All three branches of our government are whores. They know it and we know it, and because they know we know it, they are no longer even subtle about it. Why include =us= in any discussion? The People have entirely lost any control over this society. The United States of America has become a stock yard. The goal is not trying to tax the rich to pay =their part=. The goal is no longer following a charismatic politician into a larger stockyard. The goal is escape and evasion.
Trylon

What is all this talk about TV? Turn the damn thing off!! It is nothing but propaganda. Get off the computer too, for enough to talk to people in person. Forget virtual reality--go for the real thing. We are in a terrible mess and we have to get together with other people to make changes. Signing a petition on line is a total waste of time.

Maybe it will take a revolution to do it, but what we need is democracy where the people tell the government what to do. We been trying to tell them to stop the wars and that we want single payer health care, but they don't care and won't heed our voice.

Only together can we figure out what to do. Get out and talk to your friends and neighbors. We are going to have to do something together to change things. No messiah will save us. Gotta do it ourselves.

New American Dictionary;

People;

>An entity comprised of Shareholders invested in a common enterprise for the pursuit of profit with limited Liabilty. Also known as "Corporation".

>An individual with an income of greater then 500,000$$ per year and or a net worth not less then 1 million $$.

So what is the problem?

Leaving the people out of the debate is what the Founding Fathers did. One person made up the minds of all in their state, and we the people had no say, especially the ones who did not own their land, people of color, nor Women. Wonder if the Tea Partiers know that?????---since they are so Gung- ho on the Constitution.

Good idea, why doesn't someone create a 'real' reality show.
One that shows the real America.
The America with that has 59 million people medically uninsured; 132 million without dental insurance; 60 million without paid sick leave; 40 million on food stamps, and once proud veterans, picking through dumpsters behind McDonald's.That America where the actual unemployment rate isn’t really 10 percent, but close to 20 percent when we factor in the number of people who have stopped looking for work.

The America where over 3 millions homes will be foreclosed on this year,while Wall street continues to hand out record bonuses.
You know the Wall Street that caused this latest economic crisis on a global scale, with their financial innovation. And no one as gone to jail.
The one where while the people are drowning the leader goes to Hawaii for a Christmas vacation. And, the rest of congress goes to one of their 3 homes.

The one where 80% of the people want some kind of universal healthcare and yet can't get it. Because special interest money controls our elected officials while the average guy in the streets as no one representing his interests.
The America where since 2001 67% percent of the financial gains have gone to the top 10%.
The America that lives in fear because their government tells that there is terrorist behind every tree.The one where they have to humiliate themselves while walking through body scanners to get on planes.And, subject themselves to 'body' searches.
You know that America!

"We're having a huge national debate about cutting public workers' jobs and pay -- without talking to most of the players."
I was a Public Worker, a Food Stamp and Medicaid Caseworker, for the State of Indiana for 18 years. Prior to that I was a Child Protection Caseworker. Indiana paid me half of what the adjacent states of Ohio and Illinois paid their workers. Mitch Daniels, our want to be Presidential contender, decided he would save money by privatizing my job and selling it to IBM/ACS. That was a disaster that was stopped by the Dept of Ag, before Indiana was half way through the change. And there it hangs, 4 years later, with half of Indiana people able to talk to a caseworker and have them deal with the system, and half the State with only Call Centers.
Trouble is that Republicans want to privatize everything, putting forth the argument that it would "Save Money". If it is profitable enough for IBM/ACS to bid for the contract, then where is that profit coming from?? It comes from Less Services for the Poor,Elderly,Children and the Disabled. They figured out that so many people (originally estimated at 10%, afterwards it is 25%) would "fall through the cracks", (i.e. would not be able to deal with a Call Center) that they would have the population that depends on these services decrease. This was in 2006. And then the Economy crashed. Has Mitch rehired those Caseworkers like he said that he would if the privatization did not work out??? NO! I guess it might look bad for his Presidential run.
As Indiana has already been fined 1.2 Million by the Feds for failure to provide services and is now paying for a mock Suit against IBM, it appears that it would have been cheaper to keep the poorly paid State Caseworkers.
As for my pay, and I have a College degree,after 18 years I was paid almost $15 per hour. As for my "Retirement Pension", It is $550 per month. Now I worry about both the Pension and Social Security being ended by the Republicans.

Except for a few blunders, the laws written into the U.S. Constitution have served our country very well for our first 200 years, but for the past 60 years, what they mean and what they do, make certain parts of its mandates nearly antiquated . Originally, the founding fathers wrote that all men are created equal but they didn't abolish slavery, which resulted in the "Civil War". Don't forget the Prohibition and Equal Rights Amendments. They also didn't foresee the age of mass communication and unknowingly didn't consider the need to update our founding document to reflect a more modern era and for it to be a true representation of the will of the people.

We don't need a complete overhaul, but certain sections of it pertaining to voting and representation, certainly need to be modernized.

Electronics has completely revolutionized our world, but our Constitution was written in an age when mass communication was unfathomable. Even our Founding Fathers, with their great democratic insight for our new republic, never perceived we could become so connected. They wrote the Constitution according to their world, not to a more modern state-of-the-art world. Certain parts of the Constitution, certainly haven't kept up with the scope of modernization.

Back then, mail and all forms of communication traveled as fast as a fresh horse. All the citizens from one area couldn't physically travel the great distances to vote or have their individual voices heard, so the majority of citizens in one district would send a representative, by horseback, to the state capital or even to Washington D.C. This helped form the basis for legislation resulting in the Electoral College, which we now all know isn't exactly a true representation of our voters. The Legislative Branchs of our state and national governments which as we all know, have been taken over by special interest groups. Our Constitution worked fine, until these advocacy groups, who were a small minority of these citizens, were able to corrupt these representatives, to vote against the majority wishes of their constituents. This corruption has to stop!

With 99% Americans owning TVs, 82% owning cell-phones and 75% owning a home computer, its past time we considered a constitutional amendment, changing the profile of the Legislative Branch of our government, back to what they intended,'the voice of the American Citizens' or an E-Democracy. The remaining Executive and Judicial Branches would certainly remain to prevent "mob rule" and preserve our Liberty. Not only will we save $billions$ in political salaries, perks and corrupt lobbyist payoffs, but our new 'citizen legislatures' votes, can't be bought off by special interests. This 'social electronic legislature' is a medium that must occur before elite special interest groups finish taking control of our country and crush our Republic! We need to be represented by ourselves instead of by those whom we have no choice but to vote for, but only represent special interests. This has to end!

We the people have always been marginalized.