DEEPLY DYSFUNCTIONAL POLITICAL SYSTEM.

I have often ranted and written about how I think this political system we all live under is not working the way it should. Gone are the concepts laid down by the Founding Fathers and also gone are any attempts at making this a true Democracy.
I have often written about how I think this whole system of lobbyists and the influence of the big corporations and the very rich are taking away the individual’s vote, at least it has relegated it to irrelevance.
I have often said that we have become a country that has a welfare state, welfare for the very rich and the corporations. The redistribution of wealth has already taken place and it has gone from the poor and the middle class to the top 1% of our society.
The pervasive and systematic elimination of regulations has caused a great crisis in the economy and the tax cuts for the very rich have caused a larger burden on the lower tiers of taxpayers. TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS just doesn’t work.
But who and what are to blame for all of this?
When 35% of the country thinks either that President Obama was not born in America (23%), and / or that George W. Bush had something to do with the 9/11 attacks (14%). My favorite line in their press release is "a very troubled 2% of the population buys into both of those conspiracy theories."
On the bipartisan front, 25% of Democrats think that Bush was involved in the 9/11 attacks, while 42% of Republicans think that Obama was not born in the United States.
The idea that the left and the right are both inhabited by a "fringe" is a favorite mainstream trope, which PPP plays off of, though it does note that, "It's hard to call a third of the country a fringe." Nonetheless, the "fringe" characterization is a long-standing one, and it's always a handy way to avoid discussing the substance of any sort of criticism from the left. One simply equates the criticism with crazy ranting from the right, and then smiles a knowing "we're all above such foolishness" smile.
But who's to say that the "center", such as it is, is not similarly beset with ludicrous counter-factual beliefs, even though they may not take the same conspiratorial forms? In fact, there is substantial evidence that this is the case, and the centrist counterfactual beliefs are far more injurious to the health and welfare of the republic than either the Birthers or the 9/11 Truthers. Here a sampling of such centrist myths, which, to my knowledge, no one has ever thought to poll.
(1) We can provide universal health care, like all other advanced industrial nations, and cut costs to 12% of GDP or less, like all other advanced industrial nations, while still allowing insurance companies to skim 30% off the top.

(2) We can militarily subdue Afghanistan with enough troops and machismo, even though no one in history has ever done this before.

(3) We can successfully deal with global warming without even trying to reduce atmospheric carbon to 350 ppm, which is what the world's scientists say, is required. “DRILL BABY DRILL” is a very misguided mantra put out by Republicans in order to benefit the oil companies. We have to make an effort to get off hydro-carbons once and for all.

(4) We can fix the financial system without actually fixing the financial system, simply by trusting the folks who helped bring us the meltdown in the first place. The idea of laissez faire is not a valid one, because doing nothing will only make it worse. The market will not ‘RIGHT ITSELF” all on its own.

(5) Money is speech. Lobbyists adhere to the FREE SPEECH excuse when putting in their pockets all the politicians by donating large amounts of money to their campaigns.

(6) Corporations are people, with all the Constitutional rights that entails. But if that was the case, then they should only be entitle to ONE VOTE, not to dominate politics.

(7) Spending hundreds of billions of dollars on weapon systems that don't work, and/or aren't designed to fight enemies that actual exist means you are "strong on defense," even if you did everything human possible to avoid serving in a war zone when your country called. Questioning the wisdom of doing so makes you "weak on defense", even if you are a war hero. We all remember how Bush and Republicans questioned the patriotism of those who opposed the war in Iraq and all that wasteful spending on useless weapons. My comment to them is: How could you claim patriotism when you have decimated the middle class, destroyed the economy and got us into an unnecessary war lying to the people and the world to get us into it. What do you think patriotism is? Flying the American flag? Wearing a lapel pin? Putting obnoxious right wing bumper stickers in your car? Attending a Town Hall Meeting and disrupting it by yelling and screaming?
I hate to be so pessimistic, but I think that the Democrats, particularly the President is going to have to come to terms with the reality of the situation. No longer are we going to be able to afford being “bi-partisan”, trying to include the Republicans and being reconciliatory. This is where I part ways with our President and his attempts at being inclusive. This will be a moment that we are not going to be able to avoid. It may come to that but I see the Culture Wars returning, I predict that the Republicans are going to have to be “put in their places” sooner rather than later by our President.
After all, these people should be hiding in shame for what they have done to the country; they should at the very least be quiet and be cooperating to get us out of the mess they left. Instead, they are just as combative, as acrimonious and as uncooperative as they can be. And it all is going to come back and bite them right in the ass. The American voter is naïve and good natured, forgiving and forgetful, but this stunt the Republicans are pulling is going to be very difficult to brush aside.






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THE EAGLE IS GOING TO SHIT ON THEM!






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We are going to bomb the moon…WTF?
Excuse me for being so cynical, but haven’t we landed in almost every country in the world? Haven’t we bombed almost every other country in the world? Why not the moon? We landed men there too, so why shouldn’t we bomb it?
I am sure that there are many scientific endeavors worthwhile involved in doing it. I am told that Scientists hope to make a splash by "bombing" the Moon with two spacecraft.
“The plan is to slam the projectiles into a dark crater at the lunar south pole, kicking up a six-mile high dust cloud that may contain water.
British researchers helped NASA pick the spot for the drama, which will be broadcast live on the American space agency's website.
The Cabeus south polar region was identified by the University of Durham team as a site with high concentrations of hydrogen - a key component of water.
It is believed water ice could lie at the bottom of dark craters at the Moon's poles, where temperatures are lower than minus 170C.
The crashing spacecraft consist of an orbiter, LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite), which is now mapping the lunar surface, and its 2.2 tonne empty Centaur launch rocket. Both are currently on collision course with the Moon and still attached together.
In the early hours, British time, the probe and rocket will separate. Then at 12.31pm the larger rocket will smash into the crater at 5,600 mph, blasting out 350 tonnes of debris in a 6.2 mile high plume.
Following close behind, the LCROSS satellite beaming live pictures back to Earth will fly through the material and four minutes later plunge into the crater itself. LCROSS will trigger its own dust cloud a third of the size of the first one.
As the debris is propelled into sunlight, scientists on Earth will study its composition with ground-based telescopes.”

SOURCE: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5h-_pmvH6LWXDw5pIG_vxiSNMYlEg PHOTO SOURCE: http://naturalpatriot.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/full_moon.jpg

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Culture Minister Mitterrand to resign over scandal of sex with boys
France has a long-standing tradition of exercising discretion where politicians' personal lives are concerned. (We all remember Uncle François' funeral, which was attended by his wife, his mistress and their daughter all three walking arm in arm toward the gravesite. I personally thought this was the depiction of a very grown up society, a society free from the prudish excesses that are more common in America. Now it seems that France too is turning prudish when the nephew of Mitterrand, the present Culture Minister is dragged through the mud by both right and left for something he wrote in a book that indicated he had sex with “Young Boys”.
As he elaborates, he does not mean underage boys, these were young men in Thailand that get paid to have sex. Nevertheless, the embarrassment brought by such confession is forcing Frédéric Mitterrand, France's culture minister (and nephew of former French President François Mitterrand.) to resign.

SOURCE: http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/10/08/french-minister-pressured-to-resign-over-sex-with-boys/