Everybody knows that it's the old bad cop/worse cop routine with Democrats and Republicans. For example... to call McCain a warmonger is to ignore Obama's overtly aggressive tendencies towards Afghanistan and his weak plan for withdrawal from Iraq (leaving the "Green Zone" intact). To call the Republicans the oil party is to ignore all the breaks, bonuses, and perks that the Democrats give to that industry. To call Republicans bad for the economy is to forget about all the Democrats who pushed for NAFTA and the WTO. To call Republicans authoritarian is to ignore Biden's recent boasting about 100,000 new cops he helped add under Clinton and the expansion of the prison-industrial complex. Anybody who is still fooled by the "one-party state masquerading as a two-party state" is simply a fool. It's the corporate party, the fascist party, both ways, and we need to throw all the bums out, scrap the entire system, and try something entirely different.

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Interesting, Democrat congress screws up the economy - it's the GOP's fault. Extremist Muslims attack the USA - it's the GOP's fault. The sun heats up the earth - it's the GOP's fault.

I say the congress(Democrat controlled, of course) should pass a law banning opposing parties. Does that suit you?

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Deregulation, massive deficit spending, irresponsible tax cuts for the wealthy, cronyism, tolerance of fraud, warmongering and lax law enforcement in the business sector have landed us in this mess, and all of these things have been GOP initiatives.

It has been the political awakening of the Christian right that has led to these disasters. The same people are now flocking to Sarah Palin.

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Yes, they have made a shambles of things, haven't they? Watching McCain and Unable try to convince us that they should be the ones entrusted to lead America in the next perilous years is really a scream. They can no longer run on their ideas because their ideas suck. Their only option at this point in time is to assassinate the character of Senator Obama

Seriously, did you ever get the feeling that you were living within the pages of a brilliant, dark comic masterpiece?

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
Character and Distractions

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The tv still works and the liquor stores are still open. What's the problem?

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the Democrats who haven't had any meaningful power in this country for as long as one can remember

I liked Clinton until after his administration. I admit that I wasn't watching closely until Katrina; Katrina blew my eyes open wide, and suddenly I started seeing Clinton in hindsight, and I realized that he was actually the beginning. He facilitated the deregulation of the corporate media, and ushered in the WTO. No wonder he was golfing with George Sr. seemingly days after the ugly GOP partisan attacks. He wasn't really a Democrat; he was one of these corporate body-snatchers.

It finally dawned on me that the corporations are now pulling everyone's strings; have really taken over both parties. They may prefer Republicans - much more extreme and excessive with their corporate pandering and deregulation - but they're equal opportunity employers (see Reid and Pelosi, her lost impeachment table, and this entire Wall Street bailout. There were plenty of opportunities to include help for home owners, but Nancy and Harry wasn't worried about us -- just their lobbyists.)

I am now firmly entrenched in the land of the Independent; and while I do plan to vote for Obama, it is in the hope that he can transcend the recent behavior of his party and become a real leader. Both political parties have lost their way and left their former platforms (as well as their voting constituents, the people) in the dust.

Republicans in Indiana are as turned off by Neocons as many Democrats are disgusted by the corporate pandering of Democrats in congress. We are increasingly leaving the wreckage of our parties and forming a tentative alliance here in Independent-land.

If we do manage to get Obama elected (and I expect massive voter fraud so I hardly dare hope...) he had better deliver on his promises to put people over lobbyists. Voters will hold him to that. If not... watch for the rise of a third party. I think Americans have absolutely had it.

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This is a crime Bush and Pelosi should be impeached for..Democrats have obvious finger prints on this crises and no one had done a thing to prevent this although they all profess they knew this was going to happen!

Barney Franks sexual affair with a top executive of Fanny Mae at a time he was opposing tighter regulations of them!

Dodd taking special deals from country wide! what exactly went on there.

McCain and others, including Bush, warning of this impending failure and yet, nothing is done. Bush sat back, McCain didn't push and Pelosi puts the incompetent Dodd and Franks in committee chairmenships.

Bush and the democrat congress have approval ratings that reflect their competence - and we will just go one and elect another "party" hack (McCain or Obama, no difference) and get more of the same BS that is ruining this country!

This election has turned out to be a joke!

Where is Ron Paul!

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Palin cannot speak a complete sentence.

Glenn, in a re-hash of what was on his blog, points out that the conservative pundits spin this as folksy.

But deep down Republicans would be dancing if she killed them with articulateness. They are really dying inside that she is so clod-hopperish when it comes to the English language.

And with all the realer news, who really cares about Sarah Palin and Joe Biden? I can barely care about McCain and Obama, who have practically identical views on how to solve the financial problems.

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when he said the government is the proplem. He just didn't say, "when Republicans run it".

For anyone to say that this financial 'crisis' caught them by surprise, they were not paying attention. Given that our elected representatives have access to much more information than do we, then they are either lying or willfully ignorant.

I was never a fan of "The Carpenters", but they did a Paul Williams, the title of wich keeps creeping into my mind: "We've Only Just Begun".

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This is why we need real change. True democracy is premised on the voices of the people coming to the forefront. Instead what we have on the information highway is a rehash of talking points, handlers controlling the message, and candidates running against Washington paid for by Washinton lobbyists.

We can say it's the politicians. The root cause is however an education system which has dumbed us all down, put a blanket of conformity over all our institutions and most of all sunk us into an abyss of depression and paralysis which we no longer understand.

This is the single reason we cannot have McCain/Palin. Their election will usher in the end of the United States after eight years of Bush/Cheney. It's one thing to say you believe in the end of days. It's another to be the cause of your country's destruction.

That is not Country First !!!

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this country will remain a LOSER ! When people can SHUT THE FUCK UP and give 3rd party Progressive/Liberal Independent/Moderate folks a chance, then there will be real democracy. Simply picking between red and blue while the rest of the content is the same is NOT NOT NOT democracy but merely picking between a blue dressed dictator vs a red dressed dictator ! The next time you vote for a Democrat or Republican, know what that individual REALLY stands for and make them prove it because America is already getting FLUSHED down that GODDAMNED MOTHERFUCKING TOILET thanks to blind party loyalty. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !

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The author likes to insist that the American people are not so dumb that they fall for the pandering of pundits like David Books.

Oh yeah?

Of course the American people are not monolithic but I am here to tell you, as a lifelong resident of middle America, that plenty of Americans are indeed that dumb, even dumber!

As an example...Yesterday I noticed that my good buddy Ann Coulter was back on the tube, insisting that all this financial mess was the Dems fault and their damn pursuit of social justice. By golly, if those namby pamby liberals hadn't insisted that black people be allowed to purchase houses then none of this would have happened.

Ann was darn insistent and quite confident that this was the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Do you know how many people fall for that crap? Plenty. All us brilliant and well-informed commenters here at alternet might not buy it, but Joe Six Pack does! (Do you think skinny Ann gives them the same intense hard on as Sarah?)

This is how right wingers have held onto power for so long. They pander to the idiots, convince them that they are saviors and the other side is demonic. The idiots buy it and, while not the entire population, they are a big enough group to tip the balance.

This is a group of people who could read a David Brooks column without truly understanding a single word of it. Come on, they think professional wrestling is real!

So there you have it boys and girls. The world according to Granny!

Granny's crazy videos = Go get a chuckle!

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These are neocons which is a deceptive term for communism and Fascism. The Democrats are now socialists.

Regardless, the national debt has climbed from zero to what ever it is this minute through so called Democratic and so called Republican administrations since Kennedy was shot.

When you borrow, spend, and give away $10 trillion, you tend to have an economic problem. When the population is coerced into borrowing and spending trillions more, you tend to have a disaster.

If we're going to have a panic now, we need to panic away from the two party mindset. Anything would be better.

http://ewebsmith.com/finance/CPResponse.html

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It is useless to play the blame game, both Democrats and Republicans are responsible for this fiasco! Although Republicans have controlled Congress up until the last few years, Democrats have acquiesced (Impeachment is off the table!) quite nicely, thank you very much! While I do believe that there are people in Congress that mean well, there is entirely too much lobby-est money floating around! That's the first thing that needs to stop, now!

The David Brooks Syndrome like the Karl Rove Syndrome is the culmination of dumbing down and over consumerism in action! It is not so much a symptom - more like a cancer that needs to be removed from the body politic! Ideology used destructively is terrorism - whether that be terrorists from another country or domestic!

Debates are supposed to be about issues, as McShame cannot stand on any issue - he and Paleface have to make it about character assassination! Of course Paleface has no qualifications - Barack Obama graduated from Harvad (Magna Cum Laude), was the editor of the law review, and has an understanding of International Affairs - qualities that are sorely lacking from the other side! Should anyone think that - outside of a donation for another Library to Harvard, an idiot can graduate from Harvard, please think again!

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To everyone who thought that keeping gays from marrying was more important than keeping our economy and our country strong, healthy, and viable. Good work, the neocons, fascists, globalists, corporatists, and robber barons couldn't have done it without you!!

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well guys, the global party might be at the point where the guests get too obnoxious and loud... in a few days, the neighbors should call the cops, and the party throwers go to jail on a noise complaint...

Bernanke is behaving like a department chair who's under attack by his faculty... nothing like a good old faculty senate meeting for a great fight, chest beating, and grand-standing... seems like the good old days eh Benny???

nothing like living in interesting times... greed seems to be unraveling globally...

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It's always fun to give the GOP fuckheads a beatdown on paper (oops "in text"). It's even funnier to watch a GOP whackamole just flip the proper nouns out; GOP for Dim, as I recently witnessed a neocon Xtian fundie kool-aid drinker in my family try to do.

BUt the reality is, corporations have ruled for far longer than the 2000 on the chart and it really doesn't matter which party was "in power" when. The owning class and their commercial enterprises have fucked every one and themselves for the better portion of a century. And now the shithouse is totally outta paper and we've all got a real mess on our hands.

And the ideas for solutions lying around on the ground are many but the "choices" will remain few... why? Because the owning class is fucked and stoopid and so are their middling sycophants.

Behind ever rich person is a crime. Free yourself best you can. Pick up a rock, it's all you may have left. tee hee....

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Great piece! Palin wants war with Iran if that is what is necessary to stop a nuclear power development program that has been underway, intermittently, for more than 30 years and which was promoted initially by the US! More than 120 countries support Iran's nuclear power program. But Palin knows better, and wants war!
What a stooge of the Israeli militarists and Aipac!

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I don't think Greenwald's point is that the Dems are blameless. I have read enough of Greenwald to know he doesn't believe that. I think his point is that these crises have occured or worsened under Repub rule, which has prevailed for most of the last almost 30 years. And remember that there are still lots of Reagan and Bush Sr appointees on the federal bench. All of this means that one absolutely vital talking point for the Dems should be, "the Repubs had their chance for decades and they screwed up everything they touched and now all of us are paying the price in blood and treasure. The Repubs did this to you, voters! Not "government". Repub government". I think that's Greenwald's point. My point is that if the Dems don't say this over and over, they are just plain stupid. Of course the Dems pissed away the best issue any party has had since WW II, the bailout. They should have taken that easy lateral pass and trotted across the goal line, but no. Being Dems, they opted to serve their corporate minders, all the while ridiculing and minimizing the outpouring (> 70% across the political spectrum against the bailout) with snotty remarks from the egregious Barney Frank and obsequeious Harry Reid and the crass and stupid Nancy Pelosi - not that I have strong feelings about it...

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There is only one party in this country. Either you're invited to the party or you are serving drinks and emptying ashtrays at the party. That said, it is stupid to try to blame the GOP. Everyone in that swamp on the Potomac should be in jail. Notice there weren't any Republicans dancing around like chimpanzees for the TV cameras after the FISTING OF AMERICA bailout package last week. The 2 party system is just a smoke and mirrors PR stunt to distract us from the giant fist being inserted up our ASSES by all of them.

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Brothers & Sisters:

“It’s a no brainer… FAMILY 1ST , - then the nation, I‘m talking from first hand experience!“. My big brother made perfectly clear on our way home after watching Religuous & Eagle Eye.
On the other hand, is Eagle Eye, a movie about an evil eye (computer) out to blow up our congressional House with a “crystal bomb” that can only be activated by a sweetart (kid with trumpet) hitting the right shrill note. Without giving the PLOT (F.I.S.A. - Freedom of Information Surveillance Act} ) of the movies away, I will return to my down to earth big brother who is more concerned about smelling the blossoms along the way, than seeing where they came from.
Wow what a family intervention, that constant angry/evil left blinking eye and that contentious tone of hate for his opponent from the presidential debate as I tuned in, and turned on to what was being said as I got home - mixed with those emotional movies of the reality of our present circumstances that we are currently buried in - deciding on what political party to choose for a secure economic/political future. I made my decision after watching that “pit bull with lipstick” gold digging to become the first female prez after Mc’Pain goes to the promised land from the CANCER of HATE now consuming him.
This guy, who was never my LEGISLATIVE friend, wants his pension and title in our history knowing full well he won’t outlive the next four years all the while leaving us with his vengeful poison pill, that cheerleading sweetart for oil. I guess he thinks its FUNNY as did “that” other eight year BUSHwacker who selected Darth Cheney (always ready - shotgun in his bunker manipulator) as a toxic afterthought (like another never ending war).
However, McPain really got my attention when he said “that one” it reminded me of the GoOP code word/language for “dem” (“civil right” democratic troublemakers) and that condescending tone directed at someone fully capable but despised due to less seniority (Drucker‘s “Peter Principle“) and color .
Yes, we & McPain have something in common, only in that we watched that old 70’s sitcom “That Girl”, of an aspiring ditsy actress making altruistic waves in youthful exuberance for a funnier brighter future! I would vote for my older brother or her before I would vote for more pain/gold digging and luckily I have a better choice with an educated half white man! Something we don’t really know about Barack!
Yes, a white man - half African. I was made in the US Army and born in a military base called Camp Zama with a white dad from Indiana and an Asian mother from Japan. I’m white with Asian overtones - an American/Japanese. Just as he sounds white with African overtones - White/African! This is the 21st Century where we can communicate on that black box that can store info forever, transported over the wire at the speed of light in our World Wide MONITORED Web with no reference to race or cute looks (N.S.A. - WINK that evil eye)!
Last of all , this takes me to our gutsy gay mistress Cher and her song “Half Breed” and that never ending struggle to justify pedigree or social status. Just ponder when you mix two sub species and you get a Hybrid and what these breeds can do for your gas mileage! Don’t mix your personal prejudicial preferences with your projecting hateful discrimination - this is AMERICA, the land of the free -
for truth, justice & the American Way (Superman another extraterrestrial hybrid! ). Let’s now go to Cheryl Crow and her song “Change will do ya good”). Is there a happy tone to our future bleakness (singing that eight year old - Same old Gobbledygoop terrorizing song?) or can we really enjoy the fresh oncoming change/smell of happiness blooming?
Just ask my big brother, he always knows what it‘s like - before I do!

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I was calling around for the Dems the other night and got a real head-shaker: I asked one voter who he was planning to vote for ,and he countered with,
"Whoever would preserve my rights and freedoms...you know who that is?"
"That would be Obama and the Democrats", I said.
"No, he said they just want to take my guns away"
I told him both candidates were for the right to bear arms, but the Dems were also better for safeguarding our other basic constitutional rights. He said the last time we had a Democratic president that did anything for him was Kennedy. Now get this: This guy, ironically named Bobo, says he's a black man (is probably one of the few black folks in the county up here in Maine!) but he thinks Obama is too green. I pointed out that McCain has been in Congress 26 years and hasn't learned a thing , including from his Viet Nam experience.
I told him I marched against that war back then and for civil rights, and I just think Obama is the better man and McSAME is just stale white bread, but the guy still wants to vote on the misconceived gun issue. I told him if McSAME wins, he'll come get his guns, but he'll be in a tank!

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About the Bailout Bill and Martial Law(Naomi Wolf)Rep. Sherman:
"The only way they can pass this bill is by creating and sustaining a panic atmosphere. … Many of us were told in private conversations that if we voted against this bill on Monday that the sky would fall, the market would drop two or three thousand points the first day and a couple of thousand on the second day, and a few members were even told that there would be martial law in America if we voted no."


If this is true and Rep. Sherman is not delusional, I ask you to consider that if they are willing to threaten martial law now, it is foolish to assume they will never use that threat again. It is also foolish to trust in an orderly election process to resolve this threat. And why deploy the First Brigade? One thing the deployment accomplishes is to put teeth into such a threat.
I interviewed Vietnam veteran, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and patriot David Antoon for clarification:
"If the President directed the First Brigade to arrest Congress, what could stop him?"
"Nothing. Their only recourse is to cut off funding. The Congress would be at the mercy of military leaders to go to them and ask them not to obey illegal orders."
"But these orders are now legal?'"
"Correct."
"If the President directs the First Brigade to arrest a bunch of voters, what would stop him?"
"Nothing. It would end up in courts but the action would have been taken."
"If the President directs the First Brigade to kill civilians, what would stop him?"
"Nothing."
"What would prevent him from sending the First Brigade to arrest the editor of theWashington Post?"
"Nothing. He could do what he did in Iraq -- send a tank down a street in Washington and fire a shell into the Washington Post as they did into Al Jazeera, and claim they were firing at something else."
"What happens to members of the First Brigade who refuse to take up arms against U.S. citizens?"
"They'd probably be treated as deserters as in Iraq: arrested, detained and facing five years in prison. In Iraq a study by Ann Wright shows that deserters -- reservists who refused to go back to Iraq -- got longer sentences than war criminals."
"Does Congress have any military of their own?"
"No. Congress has no direct control of any military units. The Governors have the National Guard but they report to the President in an emergency that he declares."
"Who can arrest the President?"
"The Attorney General can arrest the President after he leaves or after impeachment."
[Note: Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi has asserted it is possible for District Attorneys around the country to charge President Bush with murder if they represent districts where one or more military members who have been killed in Iraq formerly resided.]
"Given the danger do you advocate impeachment?"
"Yes. President Bush struck down Posse Comitatus -- which has prevented, with a penalty of two years in prison, U.S. leaders since after the Civil War from sending military forces into our streets -- with a 'signing statement.' He should be impeached immediately in a bipartisan process to prevent the use of military forces and mercenary forces against U.S. citizens"
"Should Americans call on senior leaders in the Military to break publicly with this action and call on their own men and women to disobey these orders?"
"Every senior military officer's loyalty should ultimately be to the Constitution. Every officer should publicly break with any illegal order, even from the President."
"But if these are now legal. If they say, 'Don't obey the Commander in Chief,' what happens to the military?"
"Perhaps they would be arrested and prosecuted as those who refuse to participate in the current illegal war. That's what would be considered a coup."
"But it's a coup already."
"Yes.

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