Jed Clampett

They already got rid of her madam before she could name names.

Maybe ‘we the people’ should hire a ‘call girl’ to act as an intern (ofcourse she’d have to be from Liberty University) and give Shrub a hummer. That’d get him in front of an impeachment jury, at least.

Maybe HRC can do it for us, since she seems to love Shrub so much, and votes right along with him all the time.

Seems the only crimes Repubelickers care about are the ones in the bedroom……..

Jed Clampett

It isn’t the lobbying, money, etc that leads to corruption, it is merely a vehicle for that corruption. The problem is that those who are corrupt and relentlesly chip away at our politicians till they give in or are convinced to ‘bend just a little on this one issue’ and are quickly sent down the slippery slope. Once you do something you shouldn’t, it’s like being in a gang, they will hold it over your head anytime you wish to do somethign foolish… like be independent and actually work for the people.
The problem is not the system itself, the system would work if the people didn’t abuse it. Since it is loaded with abuse, it must be modified in order to be corrected or to expose and drive out the corrupting elements.
Who are these corrupting elements? industry. you see, it seems that inanimate entities, businesses, have more say in american politics than the people do. Apparently democracy was sleeping while capitalism conquered the world for itself. Too bad it is a selfish, destructive ideology as evidenced by how it has used energy to destroy the environment and food supplies all in one convenient stroke. Should they be allowed to continue unabated?

Jed, you’re on the right track, sort of. I agree wholeheartedly that public money, or lobbying, or campaign financing (whatever) leads to corruption. But, why not just go one step further? Eliminate federal taxes altogether and let states decide what they’re going to tax? That will eliminate the huge coffer of coin that these scumbags are constantly after. It’s easier to monitor a state than a nation. And, it’s obvious these Senators don’t monitor anything except your phonecalls.

Believe me, I, for one, understand the need to pay taxes in order to preserve freedom and equality. But, for the time being, our system has run astray because our tax system brings in so much money. Greedy bastards can’t keep their hands off of it, and we have nothing to show for it.

One other piece of legislation: Nobody can run for political office is they have EVER recieved money from big oil. Period.

Merke,

I was going to suggest things would have been better if Georgie Porgie HAD spent his time with the bottle. Then I realized that would undoubtedly turned Darth Vader loose unchecked, a scenario which would have the Middle East, at least, aflame which would result in $5 a gal gasoline. At least it wouldn’t have taken him five years to do it.

I thought about Buchanan but you could make the case that no one could prevent the Civil War. It had to happen. Both he and Pierce, as well as other ‘baddies,’ were mostly do-nothing Prez’. Would that was GP’s problem.

I can get behind a viable third party, but balk at the parlimentary system. Ours has done all right, with notable exceptions. The ‘force’ keeping a viable third party from emerging is that in polictics, you have a majority and a minority, by any other name. What would be the third?

Jed,

That’s a good first step and ‘might’ ‘fix’ things, but after Watergate there was a big move to ‘police up’ politics and for a while, it worked. But politics is a dirty business and people doing it get dirty and unless the stench is SO bad, most people ignore it. Like the lobster and the boiling water, if you heat the water slowly, the lobster doesn’t mind … so much.

Jed Clampett

just take private money out of the public political arena. problem solved.

Any major corporation that can in one way or another pay off a candidate, directly or indirectly, is an avenue for corruption, a subterfuge for political payoff. They want air time, they get air time donated equally to all candidates. They get a few million public dollars to produce their campaign ads and that’s it. transportation, donated(tax discount), lodging… donated. Meals, donated. Publicly funded bios of each candidate and their insiders are produced by an independent investigator and published on the internet for all interested parties to see.
Private money in the public arena only serves to make the public entities privatized.

(Merkwurdigliebe)

Jed– i tend not to be biased when i look at capital hill, i see rotting political process that has permeated both parties. And there will be no owning up from anyone, they control the game, and theres no incentive to even bring someone in the ‘club’ to court

theres an answer to the corruption problem, but it aint the democrats, or aliens, or whatever the hell you’re rambling on about, its a total reform of the system…its time to make this b*tch multi-party, parliament style

Jed Clampett

yes, yes, we did wrong… but they did worse. We demand to be allowed to do as bad if not worse than them. The only way politics is fair is if our side gets to steal and destroy as badly as yours. It wasn’t our president that did things wrong, it was your’s before that.

Man, talk about avoiding responsability. Tell me Gliebe, will Repube’s ever own up to the fact that they hate democracy and true capitalism and prefer this charade they have set up for themselves? I thought it was just the republican’t leadership, but apparently it has permeated the whole party. Can’t wait till they prosecute these guys and expose all their BS. Would be wonderful to see the penguin and company doing the perp walk to the tune of RNC chairman saying ‘he is receiving signals from outer space. You heard it here first folks, the device on the president’s back is an alien communications system’ as a clip from a ‘meet the press’ before the first election plays, while discussing a lump in the back of the presidents coat during one of the debates in which he seemed to be waiting for his lines before delivering an answer.

(Merkwurdigliebe)

Hellooo– our problems go back a lot longer than 8 years…America has been drifting aimless in the post cold war, unipolar world…it started around Clinton, and was made worse by Bush II

and it should be noted that the Dems are as much at fault as the Repubs…the Dems are all connected to the same lobbyists, and have been making as much of a killing as the repubs…if real change is wanted in november, its time to vote in a 3rd party, because the two we have now are broken

Dennis– i dont know if its punishment, and the US has survived worse presidents, most notably Pierce, who spent his presidency drinking, and Buchanan, who directly allowed the Civil War to happen…the country usually rights itself after a while, but the next president is going to have to show a lack of understanding of ME politics, something no major candidate has done

we’ll see how things pan out, but with the candidates available now, it doesnt look too good

Dirty Dennis,

Bush is not God. He’s about the furthest thing from it.

I don’t think God would punish us by allowing republicans to steal the election in Florida in 2000, thereby bringing the worst president in history to power. You can blame “us” for not freaking out about it then but the truth is it was not “us” who stole the election. (It was also not clearly reported at the time to the public that republicans HAD “stolen” the election).

Bush has committed crimes that most people didn’t know about during the 2004 election because of these ongoing propaganda cover ups. I’d be the first to blame those who hung a flag out on their porch and/or put a ribbon sticker on their car and substituted those symbols for true participation in a democracy (which requires their being informed).

But most of these people are pure idiots in all things and that idiocy simply gets expressed in the public sphere by their reliance on right wing radio and Fox News and the votes those propaganda outlets ensure they cast.

You can’t blame someone for being stupid; it is like blaming a retarded person for being born that way. The people you can blame are those who manipulated the idiots and created the divisive political climate based on fear and lies that has served our country so poorly the past 8 years: Republicans.

I rest my case.

After hearing about Bush’s comments at the World Economic Forum, it should be apparent that even if Bush ISN’T the worst Prez ever, which I hold he is, he’s clearly the stupidest.

“Too often in the Middle East, politics has consisted of one leader in power and the opposition in jail,” Bush said. Substitute ‘prison’ for ‘jail’ and you have Iraq.

“In our democracy, we would never punish a person for owning a Koran,” Bush said, further solidifying his position that toruture is NOT punishment. We’ll toruture the living shiite out of you, but we won’t punish you.

The trip was Bush’s second to the Mideast this year. His national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, said Bush might return again before his term ends in January if “there is work for him to advance the peace process.” We can hope not.

Perhaps Helo IS right and it’s not ‘us,’ but, then again, God might be punishing ‘us’ for the last 100 years of glutony and decadence. Did I say punish? I meant torture.

The enemy is not “us.” “We” did not actively campaign to invade Iraq, start torture chambers or run propaganda campaigns designed to mislead “us.” The notion that the general public is responsible for a propaganda campaign designed to mislead it is just flat wrong.

The only people who have a voice in Washington DC are those with money. McCain’s convention chairman and regional campaign manager both just stepped down because they actively lobbied on behalf of the Myanmar Junta which violently represses it’s citizens in forced labor camps. This is the same military Junta which is denying foreign aid to it’s own people after a cyclone left more than 130000 people either dead or missing. This is a repressive military regime THAT IS LOBBYING ON ITS OWN BEHALF IN WASHINGTON DC AND IS DOING SO USING A MAJOR FIRM WITH CONNECTIONS TO THE NEXT PROSPECTIVE PRESIDENT.

Oh, and WHY is this not being reported on TV with the same rapid, drooling fervor that some nobody named “Wright” is?

Because of the propaganda campaigns that are still going on even as we speak. Like the blackout on discussing the pentagon’s propaganda campaign on T.V., there is a consistent and well documented bias in the media against airing wartime opponent’s voices. Glen Greenwald of Salon-one of the best writers alive today when it comes to U.S. politics and its presentation by the media-has cataloged this so thoroughly it’s not even questionable anymore.

How could anyone reasonably blame “us” for the crimes the administration is committing that WE DON’T EVEN KNOW ABOUT because of their propaganda lock out? Again, it was not “us” that began this culture of misinformation. It was “them:” Republicans.

BD,

But I can’t escape the nagging Pogo refrain, “I have seen the enemy and it is us.”

If I REALLY felt as I described, wouldn’t I be mounting demonstrations and campaigns? Wouldn’t I be doing fund-raisers to combat the ‘ins?’ Wouldn’t I organize rallies and speak on behalf of thee and me?

Hail, I wouldn’t know where to start and am not sure I could.

Would I have done so twenty years ago? Hard to say. I’d like to think so. At that time, the struggle was to make payments and improve your quality of life. I’m sure it’s unchanged, and likely more difficult, now. Who, then, from the great unwashed, has the ability to rise and speak?

And if no one does, don’t we then have the gov’t we want/choose?

DD, I feel your pain. I just wonder how many more revelations of this administration’s criminal activity it’s going to take before someone/anyone with the ability to do something about it actually addresses these issues, if they ever address them at all? And in my opinion, those who speak out against their country’s repeated transgressions are far more patriotic, and love their country more, than those who choose to ignore them. We mustn’t loose hope that things can change, or they never will. But I know it’s going to take much more than hope. A Congress with some guts would be a good start.

BD,

Upon closer look, that is one of the more chilling sentences I have read in some time. Pentagon. Military Base. Afghanistan. Detention Complex. United States. Years.

Pretty well wraps up our world today.

What scares me most is we’ve had eight years of lies, deceit, perfidy, disregard for life and incompentance. And what?

I can not castigate the Democratic leadership enough for their failure to address this matter. I don’t care if they haven’t the votes, I don’t care if the Supreme Court will thwart any effort and I don’t care if it will split the country. Never has a small group of idiotlogues visited more pain and humiliation upon so many people.

I want them ALL behind bars and paying fines of Biblical proportions. And those fines WON’T be going to the gov’t. Everyone in and around D.C. for the last ten years is party to this whole business. As are we, of course. But we’re paying every day at the pump and will continue to pay for several generations.

Cons will say I hate my country. I hate what it has become.

Where are the conservatives on this post? Are they simply pathetically silent on the fact their “dear leader” has been directing (to the best of his ability) a military propaganda campaign designed to misinform the voting public? This is a possibly impeachable crime. At least Bush didn’t get a blow job from an intern (that we know of).

The moral of this story is this: conservatives care more about blow jobs than in preserving an “informed voting public” which is essential to democracy. Why are conservatives not publicly described as anti-American? Why is conservative ignorance consistently celebrated and perpetuated by this right wing media? WHY IS THE FACT THAT THERE HAS BEEN AN ONGOING AND PROBABLY ILLEGAL PROPAGANDA CAMPAIGN TO MISINFORM THE AMERICAN PUBLIC NOT DISCUSSED ON TELEVISION AT ALL?????

The answer lies in the small amount of rich folk that own the TV channels. They have an interest in keeping conservatives in office. That is all one needs to know.

PS The Cubs are in first place. Maybe the apocalypse IS upon us.

Don’t forget about this little tidbit too, DD.

The Pentagon is moving forward with plans to build a new, 40-acre detention complex on the main American military base in Afghanistan, officials said, in a stark acknowledgment that the United States is likely to continue to hold prisoners overseas for years to come.

Just what we need. Another Abu Ghraib. And since our laws don’t even apply here, they certainly won’t there.

Unless someone gets pictures.

PS The Yankees are in last place.

Let’s see. Thousands are dying in Myanmar(?), their military gov’t is denying aid, McCain fires staffers ’cause they’re consultants to the Myanmar(?) military gov’t, Bush is in Israel doing nothing but making a fool of himself, China has thousands dying, dams cracking and a new virus, oil closes @ $126, Texas is suing Homeland Security over ‘the fence’ and what do we get here? Nada!

Tim must be counting superdelegates again.

Rodeo Gaga: You must be a turd gurgler yourself huh? Nice post you tool.

Jed Clampett

Does anyone ever wonder who is helping Robert Mugabe rip off the Zimbabwean people? I mean, he’s doing what he’s doing because he’s found that the collective product of the population generates untold wealth. Instead of using that wealth to help the poor and destitute population, he prefers to help his friends establish multimillion dollar accounts in foreign countries. So the question is, who’s banks are helping him hide the money? What companies are still sending him supplies and equipment to maintain the oppression he subjects his population to?
What could he possibly hope to gain by keeping his people in fear and anger? perhaps he just enjoys feeding the beast.

Obviously there is a moratorium on Coach’s anus. All the shiit that comes out of his mouth is inexplicable without invoking some sort of stoppage. Not too many articles on that, hmmmm?

Jed Clampett

I am exstatic… president Bush’s pronouncement in Israel about appeasement and whether or not to talk to enemies opens up scrutiny into the Bush’s family relationship with Nazi germany. Something that should have been done in earnest before the 2000 election, considering the president’s family history in the legislative body. Sen Prescott Bush had an instrumental, active role in helping fund the Nazi regime in it’s build up to the second world war as well as demanding payment in cash from the British and French during the war itself in order to weaken them. Seems the Jews have just had a son of Nazi sympathiser celebrating their birthday… is the irony lost on anyone else?
Just goes to prove what I’ve been saying all along. These guys don’t believe in patriotism, it is merely a tool to appeal to the emotions of the populace in order to put themselves in positions to profit. They have no religious credo other than the worship of wealth above all else.
Is’nt it time to turn the tables on these creatures? time to expose them for what they are? They have infiltrated our highest legislative and economic bodies for a long time now. Their transgressions are there for all to see in the congressional record. It’s time for those with the appropiate skills to beging gathering the evidence to expose these creatures and drive them from our seats of power. The health and prosperity of our nation depend on it.

There should be a moratorium on Bush’s mouth. The Supreme Court should pass a law that says when a President drops below 20% approval rate, he should shut up. Period. He’s meaningless. He’s a lame-duck. He’s a traitor, a criminal, an idiot, a hillbilly, and a warmonger.

The Bush family’s ties to Nazis and terrorists runs deep. We all knew this when he ran for president, but yet, not too many articles about it……hmmmm?

Jed Clampett

don’t forget dumb. or at least mute for now. Do a little search on presscott bush and his ties to nazi germany. You will understand a little more clearly what drives this presidents politicizing and profiteering of our government. This president is arguably a traitor to our way of life and must be prosecuted and the ill gained power dynasty dissolved and imprisoned.

Hesus, why aren’t we talking about Bush’s outrageous comments and Obama, as well as everyone else’s, response?

Take off your blinders Tim, there’s a life out there.

Justice is blind… and, apparently, lost.

This is an unarguably criminal activity. What did they know, and when did they know it?

OMG!

Another big surprise from the Bushboys, and their bushbots.