"...and an economic crisis of nearly world-historical proportions."

wait, but aren't there dozens of Bernie Madoff types who are doing quite well?

@1 Dozens you say? Thank god for that. As long as dozens are doing okey, there's no reason to worry.

The corporations that own the media own the Republicans, too. All they care about is their tax breaks. They could not care less about the American people whom they consider stupid and worthless and easily manipulated.

"Everything" they'd wanted?

Well, if only they'd been allowed to privatise Social Security and torture more people than they had, the stock market would never have fallen and the wars would have all wrapped up in 2006, and we'd all be in wonderful shape.

And if more children hadn't been contracepted-away or aborted, and then been forced to pray for the Republic to Jesus in school, they would have got those and everything else they, and all Real Murkins®, wanted.

So you see, they merely got some of what was due them as God's warriors on Earth---except for the stuff they didn't get, proving that they are not in conformance with this World (whose god is the Devil).

@2
Hey, I'm just trying to reach the level of selfishness that Wall Street carries. It's difficult for me and my stupid Christian background, but to succeed and sustain, one has to neglect the masses, sheeple, little guys. Wall St (aka White House Treasury types) are the pinnacle of American living. Shoot for the stars!!

Republicans are nothing less than economic terrorists.
Isn't there, like, a war on terror or something?
Aren't we supposed to be shooting at terrorists?

You can't trust the corporate media. Or alt weeklys that are unable to break from their lesser of two evils mentality.

Democrats, carrying out the same corporate agenda as the Republicans, just a wee bit slower.

the unexamined question by the american left is... what is so different about what the democrats are offering? same basic policies, minus the insane, burn the world to the ground, edge. and that is just not good enough.

@outercow... beat me to it!

@9 Cheers, my friend.

@10 - Yes, everyone should accept the status quo with out question. No one, left or right, should ever, ever agitate for their respective belief systems. Everyone should not only accept Big Brother, but LOVE him.

But honestly, people like you are the fucking problem. Grow up, grow a pair and actually stand for something, you useless tool.

Democrats took over the legislature in 2006 :D

@13 & @10

why is it so tough for conservatives to hear people actively engaged in discussing the nature of the government & our opinions as to what that nature is and how it got to be that way? invariably, i hear... 'if you know so much...' or 'if you don't like it leave...' etc. etc. if conservatives are supposed to love american democracy so much, why do they hate people expressing themselves & trying to build mindshare for their interpretations? shouldn't you love that? shouldn't you be ecstatic that people are sharing ideas? or, maybe what you love isn't freedom & democracy, but control in a manner you see fit.

Generalizations galore today!

15, i believe 10 is trying to point out the dangerous tendency for many (usually left-leaning) americans to abstain from voting because neither party lives up to their standards. this is not a good strategy for making the democratic party a better, more progressive force.

@17

i vote. every time. even for school board shit & i don't have kids. but when there's no one running who i don't find abhorrent, i leave that one blank. i'll be leaving a TON of blanks in 2012, because the democrats are a conservative party, filled w/ conservative legislators.

people like whoever wrote #10 love to blame people like me for the failures of progressivism, yet they vote again and again for a conservative party (the democrats) that steadily moves farther & farther to the right. maybe the worst part about it all, is that the democratic move to the right has pushed the republicans off the deep end entirely (example A#1: democrats embrace conservative healthcare, republicans decide that they are literally against healthcare).

if you are a progressive in america today, there is no party for you to vote for. and if you vote for the democrats thinking it will do anything other than make the country more conservative, you are fooling yourself. until people realize that the democrats don't deserve progressive support & the party either openly embraces its conservatism or just whithers up (either of which options open the door to a progressive party) there is no hope for progressive reform. supporting the democrats is supporting conservatism. and sadly, yes, that means the path forward is going to continue to go down for quite a while. but that's just where we are as a people. all the democrats want to do is take 5 years to do what the republicans want to do in 1.

Nothing will ever change in Washington until campaign reform takes root.
Gotta stop the special interest funds from dictating what a politician will or won't do. It will be the end of a democracy that went off the wheels thanks to the run amok, unabashed unadulturated, raw, disgusting orgy of greed and capitalism that has many of us on our knees and makes us more slaves to the rich few each passing day. That's who the GOP represents.

Anything else but campaign reform with teeth, is worthless.

@18

the issue at hand was not whether anyone paid attention, but why you felt so thoroughly threatened by such ideas.

@18

also, someone with the handle 'ken mehlman' claiming my ideas have been discredited is... whatever is beyond ironic.

@23

yeah, you asked a question. literally true, rhetorically false.

Mehlman, your question-begging and disingenousness isn't helping your case.

@26- Because you are.

And you're a total douche bag.

Total.