I hope this does not instantly morph into a partisan shouting match, but am pretty sure it will. Fact is, we expect our politicians to lie to us and they do with impunity. We need to raise a major fuss every time any politician of any party stands there and lies to us.
As it is they seem to know they can get away with outrageous lies.


Anyone who thinks lies are the exclusive province of either party is simply dellusional.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100220/ap_on_an/us_consequences_of_untruths_analysis

We need a dictator, not a President and Congress. They are hopelessly enslaved by corporate interests, and simply will not act in the interests of the majority of Americans.

Goldman Sachs just posted record profits..........pulling the same kind of financial voodoo in the derivatives market that took us down the road to recession, and by preying upon people with credit card balances. So far Congress has done nothing to regulate the banking industry to try to stop the looming crash that will come when these derivatives are exposed as the Ponzi schemes that they are.

The blood from this gutted economy is on the hands of both parties........but we'll vote for them in the next election anyway because
the other guy will take our guns/allow gays to marry/not allow gays to marry/you get the idea.

We're a pathetic excuse for an electorate.

Yep, toss a wedge issue or two into the mix, some unflattering video and your candidate wins.
Then we all get on the merry-go-round until the next cycle.

I fear KK may be right. Our elected representatives are bought and paid for by corporations, unions, special interest groups and any other group that can scrape together enough money to turn their heads. Add to that the recent Supreme Court decision that seems to open the buy-a-politician floodgates even wider, including foreign interests, and I believe we are doomed to mediocrity at best and complete collapse at worst.
Add to the above the fact that most politicians seem far more interested in their survival and party domination than they are in making America better. And then consider ethics committees that are worse than useless. We are indeed in a major mess, and I don't see an easy way out.

Hey, we have the very best government that money can buy!

Problem is, even if we had a benevolent dictator, he or she would be bought off by the same corporate interests that own our present government. Therefore, a different form of government wouldn't benefit any of us; just the super-rich.

No one's listenin', but I keep sayin', "up the revolution!" Maybe go French style this time - the entire aristocracy gets beheaded. Create new opportunity for a new generation of corruption, greed, avarice, and all the other assorted negative attributes of humanity.

Thankfully we are not a Democracy.

+2

Fortunatly there is a document that provides a pretty good road map for successful governance. If your rep does not vote in line with it, then they are in violation of their oath and of their office,.....they must then go.

Publicly financed elections would be a good first step.

I agree

Can you old farts remember LBJ?

I'd take Ron Paul for President anyday of the week and twice on Sunday.

Hell KK,.......he'd get you half those things anyway.

Got anybody better?

The time to vote for RP was in the last election.

The way things are going, he just might get some traction in the next election...................and 27,823 people nationwide will vote for him.

Ron isn't exactly in trouble, but, the tea baggers that he helped to create are
turning on him down in Texas.

Someone hit the nail on the head with the publicly financed election idea.
I have thought for quite some time that campaign funds should be capped
at a certain amount, 5 mill, 10 mill. whatever. An independent 3rd party would over see the funds. IMO that would drive the politicians back to having more debates on free tv, they would have to do more interviews to get their message out, and would cut down on the deluge of political ads during election years. Now it is just who can raise the most money.

Did then and will again if he runs. C'mon Dan,......have a little faith. Over 2mil pulled the lever for Ron in the primaries and who knows how many write-in ballots for Prez. Campaign for Liberty itself is well over 1mil members nationwide now.

How about this? Maybe we should take down the American flag and put Goldman Sachs insignia up in it's place.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/18047.html

I think that he was a guy who used to pick up Beagles by their ears.
Did the same thing to the opposition.

1. publicly funded elections would eliminate a very significant part of the "buying your own Congressman or Senator" problem. Who are the ones who are against this on "free speech" grounds? The corporations who already own their own Congressman or Senator, and the pre-owned Congressmen and Senators, the ones who are supposed to be representing us.

2. Getting recommended by CPAC is like getting a recommendation on diet plans from Rosie O'Donnell...also known as the "kiss of death". Sorry 'bout that, Ron Paul...shouldn't have been hanging with those dipshits to begin with, you get what you deserve...which is a newfound decided lack of credibility with the folks who "used" to support you.

Fish on...

Todd

An interesting bit from Time magazine recently:

GOP/Dems Work Together -- When Retired

Suggests that the constant need for fund raising in modern American politics is a major factor in the huge degree of partisanship we're seeing. I was really sick/sad the day the Supreme Court recently reversed the rules prohibiting corps/union campaign contributions -- this article made me even more disappointed with that decision.

I admit it's very hard to reconcile how to balance free speech concerns versus limiting monied interests in politics--but it seems like some big BIG changes are needed to set things back in balance.

I continually am struck how my "representatives" (say from my home state of Washington) vote along GOP/Democrat lines far more often then they vote as a block of WASHINGTON representatives... Are they representing my state, or their PARTY?

Obviously, seeing as how his "War on Poverty" was a resounding success.

(the ball is on the tee KK )

Guilt by association huh? You must not know his positions or his supporters very well. #2 there was a fairly ignorant comment.