"The regime of compromise seemed to be most in keeping with Bismarck's conception that 'politics is an art of the possible.' But between Bismarck and the later German chancellors there was a slight difference which made it permissible for the former to let fall such an utterance on the nature of politics while the same view from the mouths of his successors could not but take on an entirely different meaning. For Bismarck with this phrase only wanted to say that for the achievement of a definite political goal all possibilities should be utilized, or, in other words, that all possibilities should be taken into account; in the view of his successors, however, this utterance solemnly released them from the necessity of having any political ideas or goals whatever."

From ????

It MUST happen. There are no more excuses. What is wrong with us, America? We have allowed the torture of children, a result of a sickening policy of the last administration and now this one. And now we are denying healthcare to our children and ourselves to satisfy the greed of a few corporations. How low can we go? Is the depth of our cowardice and immorality bottomless? What other nations people would allow this infringement on basic human rights? Are we ill? Are we under the spell of the MSM? Are we arrogant? Are we ignorant? Or are we just afraid of some boogeyman?

Ralph Nader is owed a letter of apology from everyone who slammed him over the 2000 election. He was right when he said Democrats are no different than Republicans, and the sell-out by Obama we're seeing now is precisely what would've happened had Gore been elected President.

I'm sorry I didn't vote for you, sir.

Democrats have to begin to understand that both parties are beholden to their corporate masters. Voters only have value as consumers and slack-jawed pawns that salivate on command when the leaders ring the bell or cower in fear when they identify the enemy.

In a Republican economy (do you see any difference since January?) those survivors that still have jobs take on the work of those that were discarded before and are terrified that the same will happen to them. Not real candidates for any activism or risk-taking.

I don't understand how anyone believed that having a more solid majority in Congress could promote spine-growing in the spineless. Straight and upright spines are developed through exercise, not through round-shouldered hangdog stooping fear.

The congressional Democrats and Republicans will never start refusing the K-street money that lines their pockets and keeps them in office as long as they can take it with impunity. Votes must be counted and must count for more.

Civil rights legislation was "not practical" and "not going to happen" until the heat of activism made putting it off any longer impossible. Politicians, especially democrats, are motivated by political opportunism heavily influenced by corporate backing. Without the kind of intense "street heat" and popular pressure that threatens them and business as usual no real progress will be made on this or other vital issues.

Would that it were possible to organize "one big union" (apologies to the IWW) totally seperate from trade unionism, American citizenship the only qualification for membership, with the most general of aims acceptable to right and left, particularly the demand to respect the Constitution. More people every day have the conviction that we are being pissed on in broad daylight; our collective sense of injury and loss could be the cement that might bond such a union.
Tony Vodvarka

An analysis of 'democracy' -

"His ultimate goal in this stage is the victory of 'democracy,' or, as he understands it: the rule of parliamentarianism. It is most compatible with his requirements; for it excludes the personality-and puts in its place the majority characterized by stupidity, incompetence, and last but not least, cowardice."

From ????

I know a family who owns a small local cafe. As a new, fledgling business, they cannot afford to pay for a healthcare policy. One member had a severe pain in her gastrointestinal tract, which she had experienced on and off for several years. This time, they decided to take her to an emergency room in a larger town, hoping they would have better facilities for diagnosis. They arrived, after a one and a half hour drive, at 5 PM. At 1 AM in the morning, they finally saw a doctor. She was given what later turned out to be an over-dose of morphine after an earlier dose of Percaset while she was waiting. They left for home at 5 AM, twelve hours after arriving....no diagnosis...no answer...no serious help, other than symptomatic relief. How many times must this be repeated on a daily basis throughout this country?

Bill Moyers and Ralph Nader share an unwavering determination to keep struggling against the odds. Moyers interviewed Wendel Potter, former CIGNA public relations wizard, who told it like it is. It's a class war: the privileged closing their eyes to the facts so they can keep lying in good conscience.

The solution? Like Nader & Moyers, stay on message. Eventually, the pain will become so unbearable for the largest number of people that the corporate pr flaks will be unable to spin it and real change will happen.

Would be nice if Obama had some cohones....

Isn't It Self-Evident That There Is No Alternative?

"To capitalism?"

"No, to our rising up en masse."

"And then what sort of world?"

"It'll be up to us."

"But if we don't rise up?"

"Doomsday."

"Based on?"

"Perpetual war + global warming + economic collapse."

So organize a General Strike already. Nothing will change unless The People unite and take action. The demands? Single payer healthcare for all; a cut in military spending of 50% (at least) over the next decade; publicly financed federal elections. Maybe one or two more things but I think all progressives can agree on these at least.

Something must be done about the corporate media. The media monopolies must be broken up, and PBS/NPR must be recreated with the idea of living up to the Public Broadcasting Charter of 1967 or 68. Its programming must be decentralized, and its funding greatly increased through a means that takes funding away from the Congress, so it is depoliticized. Jerry Starr has a group that has been calling for this change for years but to no avail. But truly, the corporate media is one of the country's biggest problems. It is so utterly rotten and corrupt. If we ever do get a real investigation into the events of 9-11 and justice for the victims, the TV news producers for CBS, CNN, Fox, et al will have a lot to answer for in their systematic lying and non-coverage of this issue.

One modest suggestion, not intended to be a complete solution; the FOCUS of every progressive candidate in the next election should be on the Corrupting Influence of Money in Politics. That it doesn't matter what positions a candidate espouses if he/she has acquired a pocketful of IOU's on the way to office, because, as we've seen, they will betray any promise once their paymaster demands it. Stress that... Every 30 second tv ad, every slick brochure in your mailbox, every pre-made lawn sign, is an IOU to the special interest that paid for it. Focus the message on How Many of those IOU's your opponent has. I'd love to see a campaign characterized by home-made signs, neighborhood meetings, door-to-door citizen blitzes. This isn't just possible, it's how campaigns used to be run!

Bring America Back !!!!..........!..The good Ralph Nader points up the feeble cries of failed legislators whose lame excuses include...'it's not practical.

***Nader does not give us credit when 'We The People', including many Republicans and Democrats, rose up to rid ourselves of the Tyrant w. Bush !

***We were revolutionary when we elected black American President Obama on his promise of massive Change; Hope; Inspiration; rejection of the prevalent DC culture of corruption ; and Ending this War!

***Obama has failed intentionally to keep so many of his promises, that in a mere 6 months, most of us realize he lied to us to get elected ! What other conclusion is there ?

The policy of Obama is not to look back----because in that same mirror stands the likes of Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Democratically controlled intelligence committees.

***The Reforms Nader lists are "not practical" NOW because Obama does not want them reformed. Obama has taken ownership of the massive problems of BUsh, and kept them in place instead of delivering on his promises.

****Ralph Nader needs to become a Progressive rather than a Green, jump up and start campaigning on the realities we now face..and making sure we only have 4 years of the Obama lies, rather than 8 years !! Wake up Ralph, and get goin!

Sorry, Waxman can not be called progressive if he REMOVED his name as a cosponsor of HR676. He's clearly kowtowing to moneyed interests in Washington. It's not going to happen BECAUSE you took your name off the list, not the other way around, dickhead.

But with respect to economic reforms, with single payer health care at the top of the list, there can be hidden quasi deadlines. Every year that single payer is not enacted is another year where health costs rise higher than general inflation, is another year where the gap between health costs and peoples' incomes becomes wider, is another year where people are ruined due to lack of health care, and is another year where in general the rich get richer and the large and growing number of relative poor get poorer.

The wider the gap between rich and poor, the greater the poverty rate, and the bigger the per capita income gap between the US and the other countries (that do have single payer) the more economically difficult it becomes to implement single payer, and the less the expected payoff becomes, in economic terms, from enacting single payer. For one thing, the ever growing number of relative poor people have less and less taxable income, which means that a higher and higher tax hike on the rich is necessary to finance single payer as the years of delay accumulate. For another thing, as the years go by, the gap between the actual health costs being charged within the failed health insurance system and the costs that a reasonable single payer system could support is growing.

In general of course, the US economy as a whole, and the average person in it, is being damaged worse and worse every year that health costs run out of control due to lack of single payer.

At the same time, in economic terms (although not in health terms) the "rescue beneifits" of single payer are being gradually reduced every year that single payer is delayed. People going without health care are becoming sicker and sicker, and thus more expensive to treat if single payer were ever enacted. And the damage to the US economy is mounting year by year and has apparently already reached the point where it can not be fully repaired by single payer.

The victory of the reputable, single payer countries over the US with respect to the health care and the overall economics systems is due not just to the existence of single payer in those countries, but also due to correct timing, specifically the fact that most of the single payer countries enacted single payer many decades ago, when the economic benefits for doing so were truly large.

Meanwhile, the US keeps delaying, and the potential economic benefits are gradually going down. It is possible that the US has already reached the point where its citizens could not possibly be as well off, in the next few decades at least, even if single payer were enacted in 2009, as for example citizens of Europe will be with their well established over many decades single payer (and unemployment relief) systems.

On the other hand, it will be at least 50 years before the economic benefits from enacting single payer in the US will become small or trivial; all I am saying right now is that the benefits are gradually being reduced, and that the benefits are already substantially less than the benefits would have been had single payer been enacted 20, 30, or 40 years ago.

In summary, in economics (unlike with most social reforms such as abolishing slavery) sometimes you can delay a needed reform to the point where the benefits of it become much smaller than they used to be, and the costs much higher than they used to be.

What I am talking about is why single payer systems are completely out of the question in very poor countries, such as for example many countries in Africa, Central America, and South America. The best a truly poor country can do is a partial, modified single payer system, with for example free care clinics that are partially subsidized by the Government playing a role in increasing health care access. But no truly poor country (unless it becomes a dictatorial left country in the Cuba mode) can successfully maintain a true single payer system in the European/Australian/Japan mode.

Although most of the right wing is too dumb to understand economics concepts such as these, you can bet at least a small number of influential right wingers are aware of these things, and as a result are supporting the fake "health reform" that is being talked about in 2009, which when all is said and done is nothing more and nothing less than a delaying tactic against single payer.

As I've noted ad nauseam, the health care issue reveals plainly that our elected officials in all branches of the federal government have abandoned their traditional roles in favor of becoming technocratic managers and executives running a para-corporate service-delivery system in a symbiotic partnership with corporate Amerika and the banksters.

And it's all strictly legit, dontcha know.

Exhibit A*, May 5, 2009: the normally articulate and forthright Russ Feingold reduced to foolish stammering when asked politely but pointedly by Amy Goodman WHY single-payer was DOA in Congress. He practically ducked his head and scratched the tip of his shoe back and forth while nervously responding that it was just "impossible" to get through Congress. I was mildly embarrassed for him, though not sympathetic.

Congress was simply too skittish-- "afraid", was the word he actually used-- of criticism for supporting what might be perceived as a new (and implicitly ineffective and draconian) government bureaucracy. Real Profiles in Courage, huh?

He couldn't very well say, "Look, Amy, you know and I know that we in Congress serve other and greater Masters than We the People-- and on this one, our true Masters made us an offer we couldn't refuse! And hell, I think we all know that the Amerikan people sort of understand this, and accept it.

But it's still not something we like to talk about in public, Amy. Thanks for understanding, and on second thought, please erase this portion of the recording."

Instead, he mumbled a preposterous silver lining promoting the bogus "public option" as a stepping-stone to single-payer. I respect him, though, for disclosing in spite of himself that the only obstacle to single-payer health care is that Congress is collectively too chickenshit to dare attempt it-- and not overreaching and trying to sell Amy the deed to Natural Bridge State Park.

To sum up: the bought-and-paid-for soldiers in Congress got the word to simply STFU about single-payer, and straight-arm any citizen resistance with a bold my-way-or-the-highway rebuttal, with a few jimmies sprinkled on top. Have a Nice Day.

* http://www.democracynow.org/2009/5/5/senator_russ_feingold_on_obamas_escalation

· Yr Obd't Servant

Shouldn't we be trying to get Henry Waxman's name back on the list or at least find out what he means by "not practical" - sounds like someone threatened him to get him to change his mind about this.

If he needs a war chest brimming to the top with loot to win the next election, it would not take much of a threat.

Who does the Health Insurance Industry have in their corner besides the usual Big Pharma/Pesticide/Air freshener industries - we need to know that.

Remember the Taiwanese took to the streets holding protests until their gov't gave them health insurance.

THANK YOU again Ralph Nader. I cannot tell you how many times I come across such fake "practical" excuses from the Democrat Party apologists in all these years. To get them to sit down and listen is as easy as carrying a mountain. Sometimes I would even scream to them that our kids will HATE US for selling their futures out for inventing another "practical" excuse but then they think I somehow have a "mental" problem.

Maybe more people are waking up and realizing what a fraud Obama really is but only the voting results in the next presidential election in 2012 will confirm or deny that.

The way I see it though, the definition of the word "practical" has been fudged to promote more window dressing to pretend change and yet keep the status quo. Our cornfed electorate is in total denial mode to admit that they really are getting screwed by the duopoly. Thankfully, I am finding ways to verbally challenge those who try to tell me that the Democrats are moving in the right direction by asking them to actually prove it. All they can give are very minor events and nothing more. Anyone who tried to misuse the words compromise and practical to sell you short is a criminal in my book. As someone who takes the word practical seriously, I vote for a candidate based on the ISSUES and not on personality unless it relates to the issues, party affiliation, money, faux "electability", etc ... I am sick and tired of people telling us that we should just shut up and vote Democrat or else the big bad GOP will screw us. Well, all I have to tell them is to KISS OUR ASSES ! Most of the Democrats are already doing exactly what the GOP would have done so why should we listen to such anti-GOP baloney. No, I am not a Republican and I do not support their agenda but I am sick and tired of lame brain excuses and dishonesty from the fake opposition preaching "practical" and "compromise". It's high time more voters woke up, voted with their hearts and minds on the issues, and not continue the political dysfunctionality that never ends in Washington.

Waxman, Pelosi, Reed - They all act progressive and say progressive things because they know most people have progressive ideas. That gets them support and trust!

So you trust them and they say "it's not possible". Kind of takes the wind out of the sail doesn't it?

It's all a scam, these people never were anything but professional politicians who never fought for the people in the first place. Don't expect them to either!

They have the exposure to really make a statement but never step too far out of line.

Ron Paul, and Gravel do a lot better but you don't see much of them do you?

I wonder if we could appeal to Canada's healthcare system to treat us? I mean, if enough Americans got together and simply said, 'we are going to buy into Canada's healthcare system. We'll send our money to Canada every month, and they will treat us when we are ill according to their protocols.' If ENOUGH Americans said this, the government would have to go along, wouldn't they? If, say, 50-100 million Americans just said, 'I'm buying Canadian healthcare', we could negotiate our way out of the corporate-dominated American system altogether, and let them fight over the scraps that were left.