John Cory writes: "Glenn Beck warned that we had elected Malcolm X, but it turns out we elected Malcolm-In-The-Middle. Wherever the 'middle' is. And while Mr. Obama and the Democrats pat themselves on the back for 'historic cuts' and keeping the corporation government open for business and tell us how compromise is necessary and how both sides came out a winner - I'd like to take this moment to say: Bullshit! This ain't T-Ball where everyone gets a trophy just for playing, Mr. President!"

A protester displays Adbuster's Corporate American Flag during Bush's 2nd inauguration, Washington, DC, 01/20/05. (photo: Jonathan McIntosh)

Love Me, I'm a Liberal

By John Cory, Reader Supported News

11 April 11

Reader Supported News | Perspective

"If God did not want them sheared, he would not have made them sheep."
- Calvero from The Magnificent Seven

o, Mr. Obama saved us from a government shutdown. That's good, right?

I don't think so, but then, I'm not part of the hoi polloi that runs this joint.

Listen to the spin coming from the Democrats and Mr. Obama using their upside down language of "... reducing spending while still investing in the future is just common sense ..."

We are not investing in America by these spending cuts, but rather breaking the great Republic into more pieces for sale to the lowest corporate bidder. This is the privatization of America and the turning of citizens into sharecroppers.

Gore Vidal said it best:

"America has only one political party - the property party. It's the party of big corporations, the party of money. And it has two right wings, one is Democrat and the other is Republican."

Let's be honest here - Obama and Democrats may have dodged a shutdown but they joined the shakedown. And it is going to keep coming: the debt ceiling vote, 2012 budget vote, the GOP Medicare fraud of Paul Ryan and the selling off of our educational system to privateers who will and are turning colleges and public schools into corporate vocational-training centers. Training tomorrow's corporate citizens in conformity and consumerism. Digby posted this scene from Network a while back and it is worth watching again. Satire turned into reality.

Glenn Beck warned that we had elected Malcolm X, but it turns out we elected Malcolm-In-The-Middle. Wherever the "middle" is. And while Mr. Obama and the Democrats pat themselves on the back for "historic cuts" and keeping the corporation government open for business and tell us how compromise is necessary and how both sides came out a winner - I'd like to take this moment to say: Bullshit! This ain't T-Ball where everyone gets a trophy just for playing, Mr. President!

And the Democratic Party is flooding my inbox with pleas for money and support to fight the craven GOP and re-elect Mr. Obama for the sake of the country. Oh Please!

In the intro to his song, Love Me, I'm a Liberal, Phil Ochs said: "In every American community you have varying shades of political opinion. One of the shadiest of these is the liberals ... Ten degrees to the left of center in good times. Ten degrees to the right of center if it affects them personally."

The last verse of Love Me, I'm a Liberal is particularly apropos:

"Once I was young and impulsive,
I wore every conceivable pin,
Even went to the socialist meetings,
Learned all the old union hymns.
But now I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in,
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal."

I miss Phil Ochs, and voices like his. We don't need more liberals in this country - we need more radicals.

The millionaires in Congress do not represent We, The People and the government is nothing more than a subsidiary of the corporate state. That is a fact we need to recognize and acknowledge and fight.

We voted for Obama to stop the wars, close Guantanamo, re-instate civil liberties, hold the wealthy accountable for their destructive greed, and to protect the everyday workers and the poor. The Democrats shouted how bad it would be if the Republicans and their Tea Party gained more power. Remember? How's that working out for you, America?

The Wall Street Wizards of Oz are making more money than ever while Democrats join Republicans in preaching sermons of restraint and sacrifice to those who are losing everything. Banks (Wachovia/Wells Fargo) profit from laundering Mexican drug money, foreclosing on homes, and charging fees to access your own money and still, they promote the gospel of greed and gluttony. The corporate personhood is indeed special because when they commit crimes, they simply use their ill-gotten gains to lobby for deregulation so that their crimes become un-crimes, more like "free market" faux pas. Pay the fine without admitting guilt and let's move on. I wonder if that would work for me if I robbed a bank?

And don't look to our modern media for elucidation or honesty. Those are commodities with no built-in profit margin. Sensationalism, snark and circus acts bring viewership to the business of covering politics. That's where the money is. There is only time for ads, egos and entertainment, not ethics or education.

In his 1958 speech on media and news in Chicago, Edward R. Murrow warned of the future:

"I began by saying that our history will be what we make it. If we go on as we are, then history will take its revenge, and retribution will not limp in catching up with us ... This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box ..."

We stand on the edge of a cliff and Mr. Obama and the Democrats keep telling us to step right up, and we say, but it's a cliff, and they say, but it's the only way forward. They call it: Winning the future. I call it: Bullshit. Suicidal bullshit.

I'm a radical - a poor radical - but if I had fifty bucks you can bet the Democrats wouldn't get a nickel. I'd donate ten bucks to Planned Parenthood so someone's sister or daughter could have health services, ten bucks to the neighborhood free health clinic so the poor and unemployed could get treatment for their family's illnesses, ten bucks for independent media like Link TV and NPR, ten bucks to self-help veteran organizations because the corporate government that profits so handsomely from war fails to care for soldiers and veterans, and finally, ten bucks for whatever organization distributes the works of Howard Zinn, Emma Goldman, Dr. King, and Molly Ivins and Naomi Klein and Thom Hartmann and Jim Hightower and Andrew Bacevich and Bill Moyers and scores of others.

Sound radical? It is. But that is exactly what the neo-conservative right wing has been doing for over twenty years. Where have the liberal Democrats been?

I read that Mr. Obama and the Democrats will raise $1 Billion Dollars for the 2012 re-election campaign. Wow. Just wow. In a struggling economy I wonder where they will find all that money?

Oh well, sing along with me everyone: "Love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal!"

-PEACE-

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

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+36 # wfalco 2011-04-11 09:07

Ochs wrote the song when the term "liberal" was worn honorably and when men such as Richard Nixon even admitted to being "liberal on some issues." But as the decades have passed the word became ridiculed and denigrated(by the left and right) so the term was no longer honorable.
We became "progressives". And then Beck and his ilk equated that to communism. The game will always continue in this Corporatocracy. The political people who lean left(and in their hearts are truly radical) have become afraid to admit it. Conversations with neighbors are avoided if politics is alluded to. We remain in the shadows-afraid to admit we are radical. Only the bravest can admit to being a ....Democrat!We 're doomed!

+2 # AndreM5 2011-04-12 07:05

At this grave point it is no longer about the House or the Senate it is only about the Presidency. And it is about the President for only one reason: The Supreme Court. The Supremes now have all the power necessary to overturn elections, overturn laws, overturn our constitution. But the President chooses the successors and we as a nation will pivot on the next two appointed to the Supreme Court.

0 # dahni 2011-08-21 17:30

I know who I am without a group label. I believed in and worked for human rights, first with and then against Mario Savio and Bill Ayers; and now against Pres. (WTF, WALDO?) Obama. I thought the change promised was a larger umbrella for all, not individual umbrellas of different colors and only provided if I voted correctly. I see little difference between Dem and Rep. And those who want to go to Canada....it's a little different but the same where it counts. We just need to clean up America, and we're the only ones who can do that job.

+14 # byron 2011-04-11 09:18

Mr. Cory should learn the meaning of "hoi polloi". I believe in his piece he's referring to the very opposite of that term.
But his sentiments are in the right place regardless of the words
he chooses.

+13 # johncorye 2011-04-11 10:37

Byron - thank you for the correction and you are correct, I did mean just the opposite. Funny how a habit and acceptance of common misuse can become so normal. Again, thanks and I'll be a bit more careful in my choice of words in the future. Now where is that darn Editor? -- Thesaurus!

+48 # DaveW 2011-04-11 09:26

As always, brilliant work by RSN's finest voice.What Mr.Cory has really written here is our epitaph. "Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, we are debauched and defiled, in the dollar we trust." Obama is a sham Democrat.In point of fact the "Democratic" party,as it was once known, no longer exists.It is merely the shadow of its bigger,more pernicious brother,the Republican.And the "Republican" in turn, is nothing more than the handle of the "Axe of Industry",craft ed of the finest hardwoods,and now being wielded by malevolent Axmen/Avatars whose only God is the almighty dollar and whose only concern for humanity rests in their ability to exploit it.Obama was "vetted" from the start by the "captains of industry" who left the room of smoking cigars and destroyed equalities, confident they could entrust their avaricious schemes to him.They should not be disappointed. He has performed admirably.The "wish list" of the Plutocrats has a check mark almost universally and indelibly marked O.K. The color of Obama's skin was all just a ruse to divert attention away from the de-flowering of what was the withering flower of the American dream. He's neither black nor white.Just another in a long line of "green thumbed" gardeners who have taken us to the graveyard of buried dreams. We are entering into our own modern version of "the Dark Ages." If a candle of hope flickers somewhere it is faint.

+8 # Observer 47 2011-04-11 17:38

Well said, Dave! Ever since the "election" of 2000, it's been evident that the Dark Ages were rapidly approaching.

+42 # Lulie 2011-04-11 09:33

YES, YES, YES!
By the way, "whatever organization distributes the works of Howard Zinn, Emma Goldman, Dr. King, and Molly Ivins and Naomi Klein and Thom Hartmann and Jim Hightower and Andrew Bacevich and Bill Moyers and scores of others" just might be your local library.

+23 # DougS 2011-04-11 11:41

Don't say that too loudly. The politial powers will find a way to shut down the libraries.

+7 # KittatinyHawk 2011-04-11 15:59

Palin will de book them

+10 # SueJ 2011-04-11 19:11

The political powers are already destroying libraries by slashing our budgets radically. We no longer have enough money to buy the books by all these radicals (or by almost anyone else). Every year we have less money for books and less staff to help people find information. And I work in one of the wealthier library systems!

+27 # billy bob 2011-04-11 12:42

Don't expect libraries to be there forever.

Afterall, to the right, they're another example of big government and another "last bastion of liberalism".

To say this is a war (something most liberals were never willing to grasp or except anyway) would be misleading. The war is already over. We lost. Now it's just yet another occupation. Our government and our formerly public airwaves are now occupied territory. There's no nice way to get these things back that doesn't involve a lot of involvement and willingness to fight.

+36 # andyseles 2011-04-11 09:37

J.C.,

Nice summation
Of the mass frustration
From those of us
who were had.

Obama and news
Both give me the blues.
The nation's demise
Makes me sad.

Washington's Kabuki
Just makes me feel pukee
Knowing people
Are buying the "news."

'Cause the "invisible hand"
That now rules the land
Flips us the finger
And the sheeple sucumbe to the ruse.

+2 # Gary Pierson 2011-04-11 17:35

Quoting andyseles:

J.C.,

Nice summation
Of the mass frustration
From those of us
who were had.

Obama and news
Both give me the blues.
The nation's demise
Makes me sad.

Washington's Kabuki
Just makes me feel pukee
Knowing people
Are buying the "news."

'Cause the "invisible hand"
That now rules the land
Flips us the finger
And the sheeple sucumbe to the ruse.

Good one JC. Thanks Cpl. Pierson 101st Airborne, Vietnam

+15 # Capn Canard 2011-04-11 09:40

I share your anger Mr. Cory. I concur that the current political system is a joke... just like Ned Beatty's character in Network says, "there are no countries..., there is only dollars" And consider that the US dollar has been based on the price of petrol since the 1970s, or rather oil is priced in dollars as a common trading currency. The USA is finished. Really great work by Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayesfsy. Mind blowing stuff.

+16 # giraffee2012 2011-04-11 09:58

Mr Cory's artile should not be ignored. Quote from it to your Resps, Senators, and everybody you know.

Thenk you John Cory - my favorite radical and person.

"The millionaires in Congress do not represent We, The People and the government is nothing more than a subsidiary of the corporate state."

+36 # dottyhop 2011-04-11 10:03

Wow! This is not just brilliant writing but the most clear cut indictment of what's happened to us as a nation that I've read in a very long time. Coming on the heels of seeing Michael Moore's "Love Story" this weekend, it is like a one two punch in the gut. What troubles me constantly is how can I in good conscience continue to work for the standard Democrats including Obama's re- election? I know there won't be a viable challenge and the thought of Donald Trump is too nauseating to consider. So, Progressives, what do we do now?

+8 # Observer 47 2011-04-11 17:40

We move to Canada.

+18 # futhark 2011-04-11 10:07

The "middle" is what the Plutocracy says it is. By denigrating, ridiculing, and ignoring those who promote approaches "outside the box", be they socialists, Tea Partiers, Truthers, or anarchists, fragmentation of the opposition is the most effective tool the Corporatocracy has to nullify challenges to its hegemony. As long as ideological uniformity is self-imposed by members of these opposition groups, their common interests will never be advanced.

+5 # PunksUndead 2011-04-11 10:24

I usually tend to think of Against Me! lyrics for the song "Baby, I'm an Anarchist!" when I see stories about Dems.
http://www.plyrics.com/lyrics/againstme/babyimananarchist.html

+22 # tuandon 2011-04-11 10:24

I have given up on the Democrats. They are nothing but Republican Wannabes, whores to Big Business. I won't even get into what I think of the Teabags. If I could, I'd emigrate, but I am too broke.

+16 # liberalman 2011-04-11 10:42

Okay..well stated & probably true..but..wher e is the solution?
What liberal/progres sive candidate is waiting in the wings to rectify the corporate, poor people bashing state of affairs that exist today?
None that I am aware of, hence the difficulty in not re-choosing President Obama over a Haley Barbour or a Michelle Bachman. Face facts, as bad as the American situation is now, elect another Bush (or worse) & talk about being stranded up the proverbial creek without a paddle.
What is the solution? I do not know.

+21 # Susan W 2011-04-11 11:34

Like you I don't know what the solution is but I do know what it isn't and that is voting for the same "lesser of two evils" time after time. Perhaps the country is like some old, burnt out building that needs more than a new roof. Perhaps the whole thing has to collapse on itself and then be rebuilt from the ground up. One way to hasten the demise is to allow the Rs and the tea party to take over completly then stand back and watch it all come apart. Voting for the Ds just continues the agony when the result will end up being the same. Radicals unite so we can be here to start over.

+17 # DaveW 2011-04-11 12:24

Susan W, I think your "solution" is perfectly sound. As a species, mankind rarely does things in a preventitive manner. Peoples all over the world have implemented safety satandards only and after "somebody or a lot of someones" died. If the Titanic "had not" sank it would have taken another maritime disaster to compel shipbuilders to provide adequate lifeboats for "all" their passengers. Your thinking is along the same lines as mine. Let the rapacious bastards, "the Antoinettes", have their cake and eat it too. When the bulk of America realizes, hopefully,final ly, that there only going to get a few crumbs, then maybe we'll see the mass uprising that's needed to protect and preserve any real Democracy.

+8 # Linda 2011-04-11 13:09

Letting the Tea Party radicals remain in office would be the worse thing we could ever do. Look at what they have done in the short few months sense being elected ,now can you imagine how much worse that could get with four maybe 8 years to distroy this country. No we have to take a page from their book and start at the state level putting in candidates who are left leaning and honest ,then work on finding a candidate for President. I happen to think Kucinich has been consistant in his support of the middle class and poor and ending these insane wars as well as stopping the influence of lobbiests in Washington.

+8 # Linda 2011-04-11 13:23

Sit back and let the Tea Party nut cases distroy themselves. Well they have only been in office a few months and you see what they have done so far ,so what do you think this country will look like in 4-8 years if we just sit back and do nothing ? To me that is suicide not a choice!
I think we should borrow a page from their own book and start at the local level electing candidates who we feel we can trust who are more left leaning then work our way to finding a candidate for President. Kucinich to me has been most consistant in speaking out for the middle class and the poor and he also wants to end these miserable wars . He has some very good ideas and there are one or two other Dems who still have the liberal values that attaracted us to the party in the first place . Keep the good ones and throw out the bad ones .But please don't sit home and later on cry when the Tea Party has made you a slave to the corporations that financed the.

+5 # DaveW 2011-04-11 16:49

Linda, I understand your point but lets be honest. This country, as currently configurated is NOT going to elect Dennis Kucinich as President. He's a decent, honest, compassionate man. As far as our current electorate is concerned that equates to three strikes and you're out. You say "there are one or two other Dems who still have liberal values." Pretty sad state of affairs. Keeping the "good ones" and throwing out the "bad ones" will result in right wing controlling the country lock, stock and oil barrel. We're going to have to hit bottom before we find the path back up. When the Tea Party, many of whose current members become the "slaves" you mention is truly exposed for what they represent we might see some action. Re-electing half-ass, capitulating Democrats is akin to starting your cancer treatments tomorrow instead of today. Democrats serious about real change need to get the hell out of that party. There is no naturally occuring process in science that corresponds to the formation of a "blue dog."

0 # billy bob 2011-04-11 18:05

Kucinich is short.

'nuff said. He can't be elected.

+2 # billy bob 2011-04-12 04:59

Sorry, but it's true.

+18 # sark 2011-04-11 11:46

One very important solution is to get rid of the electronic voting and vote counting machines. As long as we use the electronic machines, we can be assured that the politicians are selected for us. I think matters would be very different if the people's votes were counted as cast.

+7 # Observer 47 2011-04-11 17:46

Voting machines or not, the elections will continue to be manipulated in this country until the torches and pitchforks come out in earnest. Votes don't determine who's elected. The puppeteers behind the scenes get their candidates elected, one way or another.

0 # sark 2011-04-12 04:10

Yes, there will always be election manipulation, but if we truly had a system where our votes are counted as cast, our "torches and pitchforks" have a chance of getting us somewhere. Making sure our votes are counted as cast does not mean we don't address all the other problems. It does mean that we have the chance to move forward and make a difference.

+5 # Susan W 2011-04-11 20:22

Although the voting machines do have a big influence on the ultimate outcome, the problem is the antiquated electoral college. Until we can vote directly for President, as we do for every other office, the peoples' votes will never be counted.

Living as I do in the reddest/whitest state in the union my vote for president will never be counted so I tend to not really give a damn about voting in preidential elections. If I, and many more like me, are never counted then our president is elected by very few wackos in states like Florida, Ohio, California etc. with rigged voting machines. The whole system sucks and won't get better until the corporate shills have to actually face the real people and not just the "swing voters". Until that day I'm content to let the whole system implode upon itself, then we can have a change from the ground up.

+1 # sark 2011-04-12 04:22

Like you, I am not a fan of the electoral college and my district is so gerrymandered that my vote is also lost in the current system.
However, if we voted using hand counted paper ballots, we would have the ability and power to actually address the problems you voice. Somedays I would like to give up, somedays I think I have. But, I know that election integrity is the key; it is the change from the ground up that we need to address the problems we are facing. So, I keep on working for election integrity.

+6 # True Progressive 2011-04-11 11:50

["What liberal/progres sive candidate is waiting in the wings to rectify the corporate, poor people bashing state of affairs that exist today?"]

Besides the obvious Dennis Kucinich, how about Richard Trumka, the AFL-CIO president. Listen to him speak sometime. The man is dynamite.

Another more moderate candidate, but one who appears to have the necessary balls and guts is Ed Rendell, the former PA governor.

+2 # KittatinyHawk 2011-04-11 16:09

You do not want Rendell or anyone else in Pa. I was hoping Casey but he too, swashes when he should swish.
Rendell is a lot like Obama...puts words out doesn't fulfill, Put Program of Keystone Help and Bad Contractors got both from same Program...State refuses to investigate under him or now

Lots of good in AFL-CIO vs Trades Unions who do not even come to AFL-CIO Functions.
AFL has a Petition of a Constitution Renaissance going on right now. I have been Marching as everyone else should be, honking also. AFL supposedly has a Membership for American Families..I will be looking into it this week.
Dems and Rethugs gotta go...they are okaying the wipe out of Grey Wolves and endangered species...whose next?

+11 # kmg595 2011-04-11 11:35

I refuse to follow the past when we elected so so candidates to try and prevent the awful ones from taking office. What did it get us? Look around. Great article. Just great, honest, open and refreshing. Even the alternative media is starting to develop a rhythm of compromise and acceptance of the unacceptable. We need to see things like this article just to know we aren't nuts for thinking things like this author writes. One question....... ..how much worse does it have to get before we understand something has ended and a beginning is being formed. We have to stop yearning for what we thought were the good old days. They weren't good, and we drank the kool aid. This isn't something that suddenly came about. It's been forming for decades. What do we do now? The corporate control and abuse is so blatant that we can't ignore it. We seem to believe they have all the power and all we can do is to continue to wiggle within what they allow us. I don't know what it is, but there has to be a better solution out there somewhere.

0 # Doctoretty 2011-04-11 11:41

The Democratic party is still the one with the values I believe in. We may move too slowly, but at least it's forward. With Republicans we only move backward. So what choice do we have but to try to fix what is broken from within?

+4 # in deo veritas 2011-04-11 15:41

Unfortunately, I do not see us moving forward at all. Any compromise with the corporate fascist stooges (they are not REAL republicans at all) is a fatal error. The only way to defeat their treacherous goals is to fight them at every leveel of government tooth and nail by whatever means necessary. To do less makes us accomplices to their nefarious subterfuge.

+3 # rf 2011-04-11 16:02

Wake up dude! They work for goldman and the repubes work for GE.

+18 # BishopAndrew 2011-04-11 12:07

Mr. Cory hit the nail on the head. There is no Democratic Party of Roosevelt and Truman and or Bobbie Kennedy but there is one of Obama and the Centrists so called who bow to tyranny at every turn and call it victory! To add insult to injury I too have my inbox filled with lamentations from the DNC who have the unmitigated gaul and audacity(we are talking about real audacity here not Obama's diet free kind)to ask for money! I return these requests immediately with essentially a kind of you've got to be kidding me and yet they keep coming. Obama and his elitists yes boys and girls have not one thread of liberalism left in them if they ever had any to begin with.
I will not vote for Obama and all the scare tactics that he and his campaign have will not change my mind. Besides what is the difference anyway if you loose a solid majority and can not recover it and time after time give away this republic to the robber barons across the isle! It is only a matter of time and degrees. Were I not 64 I would emigrate to Europe!

+6 # in deo veritas 2011-04-11 15:44

Their mail is a waste of postage. It is hard to believe but the damned Republicans even have the gall to send me mail asking for a donation. Let's just say that my response was extremely wordy and negative. They stopped mailing me. I am 69 and think about Canada all the time.

+1 # KittatinyHawk 2011-04-11 16:13

Emigrate, soon we will be penniless so do so now.
Voting for a Democrat now seems same as voting for Palin. However, locally I will continue to rebuild until we get the garbage out.
I do not believe Obamas can explain it to their eldest daughter no less to themselves, what they are doing. They are puppets for a sloppy DNC, who I also send back snickers to. Where are those Dems4Change...

+1 # Robert Griffin 2011-04-11 16:33

I am hoping we do not repeat 1980 next year. "Carter, Reagan, what's the difference? The same people pull the strings!" Remember the Carter years and our frustrations with Carter, and the comparison with the Reagan years.
Be Well,
Bob Griffin

-9 # Stu Piddy 2011-04-11 13:17

John Cory is another nit wit who imagines he's a "liberal" no....I mean radical?????

HE VOTED FOR OBAMA....Obama who said he would continue the wars, was PRO WALL STREET pure capitalist and thought poor people should be responsible for themselves....b ut NOBODY WAS LISTENING...all the "liberals" kept looking at the shade of skin color and voted for him so that they wouldn't have to deal with their racism and guilt....that's all it was.

Pathetic...and now we have these people who are arguing that Obama needs to "stand up" for his beliefs.

His beliefs are now and have always been to side with the strong and avoid the weak...and he said it (using liberal jargon) but nobody wanted to really listen....

+8 # Marty Lee 2011-04-11 14:23

Without publicly funded elections, whoredom in politics will be the norm.

Only when bought-and-paid -for government is ended will our elected officials have the will to end American intervention abroad, to close military bases outside the United States and cut the D.O.D's budget in half, put an end to the Patriot Act, tax trading on Wall Street, end corporate tax loopholes, end corporate welfare, end the Bush tax cuts and adopt a more progressive tax system, increase tariffs on goods imported by companies that originated in the U.S., do away with the Affordable HealthCare Act and pass Medicare for All, close the C.I.A. the F.B.I., the D.E.A., the N.S.A., end the War on Drugs, spend money of schools and infrastructure rather than police and prisons, empty our jails of the mentally ill and those who've committed victimless offenses, and much, much more.

Ending public programs will not prevent Wall Street from tanking the economy anyhow. It will not prevent the military-indust rial-complex from eating up our tax dollars on adventures in worldwide domination.

It will, most assuredly however, end in plutocracy and a fascist police state.

+5 # Buckles 2011-04-11 14:59

Yes Obama has done an about face and a lot of comments are coming from blogs such as RSN, Credo, Moveon, Bartcop, but why don't they get together and send them to the President himself,. It may wake him up before it's too late.

+3 # in deo veritas 2011-04-11 15:47

Do you really think that the circle of thieves that have surrounded him would ever let the torrent of disapproval blogs get through to him? LOL!

+2 # elemming 2011-04-11 15:22

John Cory means hoi oligoi, not hoi polloi.

+2 # rf 2011-04-11 15:57

Two things: 1. Obama won't get his billion from the people that supported him the first time around...we know the feeling of a knife in the back. 2. I'm not sure NPR is independent now with its leaning over backwards to please the right so they don't take their funding away...they'll never learn.

+1 # DIAMONDMARGE 2011-04-11 16:18

Your song is my song, too. You sang it just right, hitting all the best notes and beautifully in tune. Thanks.

+7 # DPM 2011-04-11 16:42

After reading comments about US politics, at RSN, for some time, a new reality seems to be emerging from it's commentators. And, that is that our system of government is so committed to corporate money that the citizen has been brushed aside. Therefor, something must be done. But what? More and more of us are beginning to realize that working from within the existing framework is not viable. More of us seem, in theory at least, to think that we must stop identifying ourselves as "this" or "that" and take up the label of "us" in a third party of "The People". I am meeting more people, outside of RSN that believe the same thing. A truly independent third party, with a strong personality to lead, may help our chances of saving this country. I don't have all of the answers in regards to a third party, but let's keep talking and see what comes of it. Many of you have some good ideas. Spread them around. Can't hurt and maybe something will begin to form and coalesce into some positive action.

+2 # Gary Pierson 2011-04-11 17:15

The Chicken Little effect.... What's falling? Doesn't sink in until it hits em on the head. Too many hard heads, can't feel the sky or see it falling.. But a big mistake is we've taken our focus away from how we got here to being here. And the way out is not easy or bloodless. One has to do what's been done. Infiltrate and buy out any obstruction, or silence it forever.. In other words, do as they do and just take it or steal it and tell em, So what, what are you, going to do about it? Were just going to keep paying what they want for what we want and they will not stop.. Evolution is too slow of a revolution... And waiting for some one else to come to our aid isn't going to happen. Superman is just a comic book character.. Nice to see some thing from John Cory and Buckles and in dio veritas.. Carpe dieum before it does you. We need to take this whole choir to the Rotunda in D.C.& the Pentagon again. I hated the draft but I think we need one to wake up the Ipod nation. Cpl. Pierson 101st Airborne, Vietnam

+1 # Christopher Gaynor 2011-04-11 20:25

Well said as usual John. At my age, I feel like I've seen this movie before, way too many times. My formative years, prior to Viet Nam, were spent sitting around the kitchen table of my friend and mentor Anne Blackwell who taught me about progressive politics and the civil rights and union movements. I have been either appalled or disappointed by every US President since John Adams(well, I do like his son John Quincy) and have mostly given up on the so called Democratic process in this country. I think everyone is screwed this time, including those on the right.

+1 # Gary in Midwest 2011-04-11 20:28

The coporate power that has been unleashed upon the world with the onslaught of "globalization" is, I dare say, unstoppable at this point. So I hear everybody railing and asking what should we do? Should we go to Canada? (I had to laugh at that one.) It'd be like heading north to avoid nuclear world-wide fallout. No, the corporate domination is a done deal and is only going to get more prevalent. So what then? Well, there's an old saying -- if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. That means -- if you're a young man or woman, climb the corporate ladder; otherwise put all your eggs in the stock market because with this kind of power, methinks the coming corporate power show we've seen up to now is just beginning to flex its muscle. So like the speech to Howard Beal, it's going to be a different world. Get over it, adapt, that's what humans have to do to survive.

+1 # sharag 2011-04-12 03:06

We need radical. We need a President and Congress who will fight for clean air, clean water, good education and health care, alternative energy and all the jobs that it will create, action on climate change, legislation that actually puts corporate and environmental criminals in jail and for just plain decency. I'm not going to hold my breath, but let's get radical.

+1 # rlmaier 2011-04-12 04:43

Get use to life in a fascist, police state. There will be the moneyed and powerful at the top and then the majority at the bottom.
Observe what happens in a dictatorial state with the exception that a dictator is human and subject to human frailties, corporations are not.

0 # Patricia Chang 2011-04-18 21:50

Obama is getting not one penny from me. Let his rich cronies and corporate Fat Cats support his re-election. I dont reward lies.

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