Minnesota Sen. Mark Dayton announced today he will not run for reelection in 2006.

Jeff Bingaman will, it is said, soon annouce he will not run.

Maria Cantwell is deeply in debt.

Three Democrat Senators from very red states are up in 2006: Ben Nelson (NE); Bill Nelson (FL); and Kent Conrad (ND).

If they run in 2006 and win, five Democratic Senators (Byrd, Kennedy, Sarbanes, Akaka, & Kohl) will by over 76 when their term expires.

2006 will be worse for Democrats than 2004. George Soros, Steve Bing, Fred Eychaner and Haim Saban better start writing $5 million dollar plus checks to the DNC right now.

it's more or less assured that we'll get the senate... but this is nothing new... we've known this for about 4 years. The democrats are going through a continuous collapse. They will continue to collapse until they recognize the changed nature of the political field. Currently they're fighting like WWI generals... just trying to brute force powerful tactical advantages with their superior resources. Even with control of congress, the dems have had nearly 70 years to dig into our various institutions... it will take decades more to regain parity. However, the recent appointment of Howard Dean is a good sign. He's all spirit and no brains. Bill Clinton had the right idea... but his legacy is dead. Dean will charge the dem forces into set up after setup... It's as pathetic as it is fortuitous. How can you not believe in providence with so many unlikely things happening all at once? I'm constantly amazed by how lucky we are...

Now, of course some dems are going to respond with "you end is nigh" type stuff or "you're destroying the country"...

To the first, I've got the machine gun ready; you just make your cavalry charge.

To the second, we're only dooming your vision of the future; With it's death ours is given life. To whether ours is successful or not, only time can judge.

Love and peace, Karmashock.

The elderly Democrat Senators remind me of the Four Horsemen who blocked FDR's New Deal. Not for long but for a while.

We are in interesting times.

FDR cloaked the New Deal in American tradition: faith, family, charity. Outward appearances stayed the same but it was a radical change.

Now the New Deal is our traditon and to effect radical change, programs must be cloaked in it (privatizing Social Security for instance).

The system is unsustainable and the economics are literally feudisitic. Its a system designed by an economic retard... I honestly don't know how it got through... it makes far too many assumptions and does nothing to attach itself to the compounding nature of our economic growth.

My dad told me Social Security wasn't an easy sell. FDR sent out legions of propagandists who assured factory workers their SS number was only for "their" account which they owned and would never be used for anything else.

The con that the employer pays half of SS taxes was brilliant.

I'm convinced the New Deal was designed to prolong the depression (to move power to DC) and that SS was created to ensure the Democratic Party be a majority party for generations.

If it wasn't planned that way, the result was the same as if it had been.

Maybe Social Security should stay secure. The stock market has been known to crash now and then. Before Social Security 50% percent of the elderly were living in poverty (and many died because of it), now it's only 12%.

It is not secure.

Three questions:

If investing in the market is so bad, why don't the nearly 7 million unionized government workers who pay no SS tax but have every dime in the private markets, lobby Congress to let them into Social Security?

Why are those government unions among the major forces lobbying to keep private sector workers from investing even a fraction of their SS taxes in the market?

If the markets do tank, if corporate America goes belly up, where will the money come from to pay Social Security taxes for beneficaries?

Give us one 30 year time frame in which anyone who invested regularly in a broad index of blue chip stocks. top rated corporate bonds and government securities lost money.

spidergoat...oops clicked post, not preview. More than three questions and a few typos.

But I have more of both.

1. Investing in the stock market isn't a bad idea, it can be profitable, but that isn't the purpose of Social Security. SS is a safety net for the general public. Employers are not required to provide a retirement plan. The Federal government does, however, provide a retirement plan to Federal workers.

2. A. Social Security privatization will affect federal employees in SSAs in two main ways. First, the privatization of the program they administer so efficiently (at a cost of less than 1% of benefits paid compared to about 15% of benefits paid in the private insurance industry) will likely mean the eventual outsourcing to private firms of federal jobs.

B. Social Security privatization will also undermine the retirement income security for all federal employees enrolled in the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS). Social Security benefits constitute one of the three components of retirement income under FERS, and the promise of guaranteed Social Security benefits was a primary element of the calculation when FERS was established to replace the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS). Brining federal employees into Social Security was part of the “solution” to the projected financial shortfalls addressed by Alan Greenspan’s Social Security Commission in the early 1980’s. FERS was designed specifically to provide federal employees with retirement benefits that would be equivalent to those under CSRS. With a privatized Social Security system that cuts benefits anywhere from 15 to 50% depending upon age, that promise will have been broken.

3. In 1983, a Social Security Commission (chaired by current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan) recommended and Congress passed increases in Social Security taxes paid by employers and workers in order to build up a surplus in Social Security revenue specifically in order to save for the surge in costs associated with the eventual retirement of the baby boom generation. This surplus is today worth $2 trillion and continues to grow each year because Social Security taxes continue exceed benefits paid.

These surpluses are deposited in the Old Age and Survivors/Disability (OASD) Trust Fund whose monies are invested in federal government bonds called Treasury bonds. These bonds are backed "by the full faith and credit of the U.S. Treasury.” They are the safest investment the world has ever known. The U.S. government is obligated to repay the bonds held by this Social Security Trust Fund at the bondholder’s request, in exactly the same way that it is obligated to pay the holder of any other Treasury bond.

To pay off these bonds, the government must find money from some source – either through individual or corporate income taxes, or the issuance of new debt (bonds) that it may sell to the public (including individuals, foreign governments, pension plans, etc.). Workers’ Social Security taxes were used to buy the bonds in the Trust Fund, and there is absolutely no reason to expect that our government would not honor its debt to them.

4. Social Security doesn't pay out only on retirement, but for other reasons, which might occur before your investments mature in 30 years. I think if you invested in the years from 1899-1929, you wouldn't have much to retire on. The stock market may be statistically a good investment, but it is not secure, it's a gamble.


quoted from:
http://www.afge.org/Index.cfm?Page=SocialSecurity&Fuse=document&DocumentID=585

My dad told me Social Security wasn't an easy sell. FDR sent out legions of propagandists who assured factory workers their SS number was only for "their" account which they owned and would never be used for anything else.
This is true.

Legions of propagandists? Sounds like the present administration with at least 3 taxpayer funded dittoheads. Wasn't it Bush who borrowed from the SS trust fund? Wasn't it the democrats like Al Gore who suggested a "lock box" approach?

Democrats have sealed their fate by electing Howard Dean as Chairman of the DNC. I love it though because he will make for some very entertaining moments. The DNC has proven they have not learned their lessons from the last election. They are showing they still believe they lost because they were not liberal enough. I hope for America’s sake that the Democrats keep on doing exactly what they are now. What is bad for the Democrats is good for America, and what is good for Democrats is bad for America. Democrats have brought this fact upon themselves. As long as this remains a fact they will remain the minority party and will continue their downward slide to irrelevancy on the national scene.

Yes, they did it good with Dean. He hit the ground running too. Saturday he was in Orlando, Florida at the very height of the tourist season. Spoke at a Democratic Party Caucus. Orlando Sentinel has an article on what the "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transsexual Caucus of the Florida Democratic Party" had to say about the event and Dean HERE (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-asecflgays13021305feb13,1,3989721.story?coll=orl-home-headlines&ctrack=1&cset=true)

We all knew Dean would pay dividends but this soon?

Karl Rove must be sitting back in a lounge chair with his feet up, swirling Maker's Mark mixed with branch water in a glass and thinking, "The plan worked"

You all are just scared. Dean is an effective grassroots organizer, but presents less of a fake TV presidential image than is required these days to win. He will energize the party, rather than sell out. As usual, all the GOP can do is assault his personality. Bush is sinking himself in a web of lies. 52 warnings from the FAA, and he says he would have "moved heaven and Earth" to protect us? 9/11 was the result of willfull negligence because the neo-cons needed a new Pearl Harbor to justify Iraq.

Please, please keep Howard Deaning on us.

Fight the fights that lost you the lost three elections.

Don't forget to say you "really" didn't lose, Bush is an stupid, America is a dictatorship, America is fascist, "Bush lied, Men Died", "No blood for Oil!", America is an Empire, "Free Mumia!", "Let every vote count!", "Condi Rice is Bush's Parrot", "Cheney is Bush's Brain", Halliburtion, Halliburton, Halliburtion. . .

"Dos las' dree elections, they was rigged."

"Dean be da Man! Hes hit da ground running. H git'em dose Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transsexual Caucus of the Florida Democratic Party types rit on board da Howard Dean Cannonball Express fast!"

"Choo-choo...choo--choo...puff-puff..."

We refuse to be Republican-lite. If the Supreme Court didn't hand Bush his first term on a platter, we would never be in this mess. 2006 will be an important election. Without his boys in the house, Bush would be going the way of Nixon. You can make fun, but it's all true.

Oh but you have no choice. That is what being a minority party is all about. Republicans suffered it for over 50 years. If the minority does not go along, it gets nothing. But if it does, the base grumbles that there is "no difference" between the parties and doesn't show up to vote. The country is moving toward an ownership society, towars less Federal control over state matters. The base of the DNC are government employees. They can fight on a state level but not much they can do about the GOP contracting their jobs and their union away.

At will employment is an eye-opener to the Democrats who work in AFSCME, NTEU, SEU and other government unions. THEN it becomes clear to them why conservatives are the way they are.

All it takes is a person to file one quarterly tax return and that person usually because a Republican.

If ownership society means that those that own the most make the laws, then things are heading in that direction. States rights are a joke to the cons, they want a federal law against abortion, a federal law against gay marriage, they persue federal drug laws even when state have decided to be in favor of medical pot. They are increasing the size of government like never before- creating two new agencies, they aren't fiscally conservative, they are sending our government into bankruptcy because they don't want to tax the rich, creating at the same time a "crisis" in social security. Did the Republicans become democratic during the Clinton years? I don't think so, they learned how to exploit evangelicals, and Rove refined his palette of dirty tricks. They learned how to market their message, while doing something different behind everyone's back. We do have a choice, Limbaugh is wrong like always, it's a harder path to take that the Democrats are on, not to lie, to tell the truth, and to admit when we don't know. But there are very obvious things that we do know; Bush's policies make us unsafe, poor, and in the case of many of our soldiers, dead, for no other reason than to make him and his kind rich and powerful.

The only reason conservatives want a Federal law against gay marriage is because courts have usurped the power of the legislature.

Conservatives do not want a federal law prohibiting abortion . They want Roe vs Wade repealed. Big difference.

Conservatives are forced to go Federal because that is where the power to take back power to the proper branches lies.

That may change fast. A couple judges such as California Supreme Court Justice Janice Brown on SCOTUS and we will see the demands by conservatives for the exercise of Federal power reduced.

The courts have decided, in some cases, that taking away a civil right from a certain segment of the population is not within the power of the legislature.

Of course, when the courts are in their favor, as in the 2000 election, they have no problem. It's the same with Federal power, when THEY have the power, it's no problem, but when the dems have the power, it's state's rights they stress- pure hypocracy.

Oh please. We all know the courts are writing law from the bench. Nothing to do with civil rights. It is whatever this or that judge thinks the law should be.

Far as the 2000 election, the Florida State Supreme Court broke the law. SCOTUS restored it. My Florida legislature had determined--under Democrat rule--when elections were over. The liberal Florida court (all libs on it) said...nah...let's just let those corrupt south Floridea Democrat districts keep counting and counting until they steal the votes Gore needs.

You know the DNC has NEVER charged vote rigging EXCEPT in districts run by Democrats which are heavily, usually inner-city black, Democrat?

Don't have to be Colombo to figure out what that is all about.

It has everything to do with civil rights. What if the majority of the south wanted slavery again? It would become a court matter to prevent it. It's called checks and balances.

Hmmmm...what if (in 2000) they counted and counted until all the votes were counted, wouldn't that be something?

The DNC charges vote fraud in heavily democratic areas, because that's exactly where Republican operatives would need to commit it. You see? It wouldn't make sense to rig an area where you already have a majority. Duh.

i dont understand why you NEED a court order to recount the votes in the US. Here any side can just ASK for the votes to be recounted in a seat and the electrol commission is obliged to do it

What Mulenberg doesn't understand about the 2000 election, is that the vote counting stopped BEFORE all the votes were counted.

All the votes were counted. The recount was at the Palm Beach County Emergency Center (West Palm Beach). Democrats kept changing the rules for what was a valid ballot as they needed more and more to win.

I was there everyday. So were 4,000 or so other people ticked off at Democrats trying to stuff the ballot box. Jesse Jackson flew into town and even Democrats joined with us to take all the front row seats so his flunkies couldn't put on a show. Jackson took one look, got back in his limo and left.

Democrats at the protest numbered about two hundred on their best day. They were led by a freak from the Oral Majority who publishes homosexual magazines. Funny guy. Four lane road with a divider in front of the EC. This Goron would go out on the divider, tear off his shirt, drop to his knees and scream for God to help Gore win.

Gore asked for a recount only of districts run by Democrats. rather odd don't you think? How could Republicans cheat in Riveria Beach? Or in countries where Democrats run everything?

It was close. Hordes of Democrat lawyers parachuted into Florida on election day. They tossed out hundreds of military ballots. James Baker got here shortly after midnight and was able to stop them from tossing out more.

He made it by only a couple hours. Democrats almost pulled it off.

In addition, oer 2,000 felons voted illegally. One was even a poll worked in a Democrat precinct (Miami Herald).

Every paper which recounted all of the ballots gave the election to Bush.

But you and others will repeat forever the lies spread by Jesse Jackson and other Democrats.

Which is OK by me. Nobody likes sore losers.

Ah, it warms my heart to see so many conservatives on Sciforums! I remember when I felt like a lone voice in the woods. Thank God the "recount" in Fla was stopped. We have seen in Washington State what happens when party hacks are allowed to have their way during a hand recount. More and more votes are mysteriosly discovered until the margin of victory is attained. Where does the idea that a hand recount, done by people with a strong interest in the outcome, is more accurate than a machine count?

Remember those "local protesters" from the Miami-Dade recount debacle? You know...the group of roughly ten people (nine men and one token...err...woman)? Thanks to the Phish Phan In Jeezusland (aka The Oklahoma Hippy) and the Washington Post, here's where all those decidedly un-local Republican political staffers are now (is this a still shot from "Clerks" or what?):
http://betamaxguillotine.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/brooksbrothersriot_1.jpg

Some of those pictured have gone on to other things, including stints at the White House. For example, Matt Schlapp, No. 6, a former House aide and then a Bush campaign aide, has risen to be White House political director. Garry Malphrus, No. 2 in the photo, a former staff director of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on criminal justice, is now deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. And Rory Cooper, No. 3, who was at the National Republican Congressional Committee, later worked at the White House Homeland Security Council and was seen last week working for the Presidential Inaugural Committee.

-snip-
No. 1. Tom Pyle, who had worked for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), went private sector a few months later, getting a job as director of federal affairs for Koch Industries.

No. 7. Roger Morse, another House aide, moved on to the law and lobbying firm Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds. "I was also privileged to lead a team of Republicans to Florida to help in the recount fight," he told a legal trade magazine in a 2003 interview.

No. 8. Duane Gibson, an aide on the House Resources Committee, was a solo lobbyist and formerly with the Greenberg Traurig lobby operation. He is now with the Livingston Group as a consultant.

No. 9. Chuck Royal was and still is a legislative assistant to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a former House member.

No. 10. Layna McConkey Peltier, who had been a Senate and House aide and was at Steelman Health Strategies during the effort, is now at Capital Health Group.

(We couldn't find No. 4, Kevin Smith, a former GOP House aide who later worked with Voter.com, or No. 5, Steven Brophy, a former GOP Senate aide and then at consulting firm KPMG.

http://betamaxguillotine.typepad.com/the_betamax_guillotine/2005/01/fight_for_your_.html

But none of this would constitute any sort of payoff now would it?

Where does the idea that a hand recount, done by people with a strong interest in the outcome, is more accurate than a machine count?
Have you ever gone to a polling place and voted?
I trust the people I have seen in those places, as conservative or liberal as they may lean, much more than I trust the people in positions of power who depend on the outcome for their survival.
We need to bring the focus of power to the local level. To the citizens.
I trust the rabid conservatives in my polling place to count my vote accurately when presented with the opposite option, the flat-out lie. I have seen too many people in positions of power lie to our faces to trust them as much.
Regarding states rights - you can say Lincoln was a bad man (or not progressive enough), because of his reasoning behind abolishing legal slavery, but you can't say he was a bad president.
I just wish the "republicans" would go back to being Republicans. I liked being registered independent better, but compared to the other possibility how could I live with myself voting 4 more years, 4 more wars, 4 less freedom, 4 more government control?

madanthonywayne...it was close down here but we were able to stop them because locals turned out. Remember those "thugs" the media talked about who beat on a door when Rats tried to take the ballots and count them behind closed doors? Those were locals--most over 50. A handful of people from the RNC of course but they weren't the ones who did the yelling when Rats tried to break the law. On average, I'ld put the rally turn out at 60% to 65% female. More than once I met three generations--a mom, her kids and their grandmother.

They got a real kick out of reading NYTs and Washington Post articles on how they were thugs.

cole grey...I monitored my small polling place (Democrat run Palm Beach County) last election for about 4 hours. MoveOn.Org was all over it. No GOP activists. I spoke to no one. All I did was take down license plate numbers and turn them into the state.

What were dozens of cars from New Jersey and New York doing there? A couple I could see. But nobody is going to make Florida their residence yet register their car in New York. Costs $50 bucks a year here for plates. That's it. I can imagine what NY and NJ cost. So either those people I ratted out voted illegally or their cars were not properly registered.

Other people were doing what I did too. I hope the state goes after all of them.

I have friends who are involved in move on, and I guarantee that you would be better off trusting any of them to accurately count a vote than a partisan-appointed administrator. Any of them.
I would hope the same could be said for the people in conservative action groups.

So, decentralizing the government is the answer.
Starting with a reduction of presidential power.
North america didn't need a King George in the 18th century and we don't need one now. Or any other king, for that matter.

Oh yeah. George Soros' people can be trusted to count votes. Heck we don't even know how Soros makes all his money. He hides his operation in Curacao. He is the only American in Quantum. If he opened it up to anyone in the USA, the SEC and others could take a peak.

The reason Soros spent over $25 million funding MoveON, ACT and other extremists is because he wanted a new DOJ. The messianic maniac is terrified the Feds will uncover his dealings with Marc Rich and the UN F-F-O deal. Among Gawd knows what else.

The executive isn't the problem. Congress funds the exec and can stop anything it doesn't like tomorrow.

Nobody can stop the courts. That is the branch which has usurped power.

But liberals don't want judges to stop making law from the bench. It is the only way they can get their family killing, society destroying agenda enacted.

just because people from out of state pulled up to your polling place, you reported them for voting illegally? Ilive in palm beach county. Yes, many NY license plates because so many people have second homes here. November is during snow bird season, many people (especially old) drove down to their winter home. What the hell is wrong with that? Do you believe they are driving to south florida after voting in new york just to vote again? Also, there is a lot more than just the license plates involved in registering your car in florida. There are insurance costs and there are many other situations I can think of. Stop being so neurotic that everyone in palm beach county is part of a Democrat-run illegal voting scam and realize that you do not know everything about vehicle registration. I hope the state goes after anyone making false accusations if that is the case and I do hope anyone that voted illegally is prosecuted.

These are the possibilites:

They voted illegally.

Their vehicle wasn't registered properly.

The person I saw enter the polling area didn't own the car.

Nothing "neurotic" about trying to stop voter fraud. All Americans should demand it be stopped.

Been involved with various groups trying to eliminate it for a decade.

Know how many Democrats have joined us?

None.

Not that I know of. In fact, Democrats fight the most basic things a state can do to help stop the problem: require an ID to vote and end instant registration.

(in states which have either/or both.)

Trust should be dispensed in the amount that it is spread out, i.e -
President - a little
Senate - a little more
Congress - even more
Judges -the most - Even if you reduce it to the supreme court (which I am not), they change ideas over their lifetimes, are influenced by each other, and have nothing to worry about if they go against the ideas of the politician who appointed them.

I trust someone whose job it is to know the law, to interpret the law much more accurately than I trust a politician, whose job it is to be liked by more people than his opponent (especially when the zeitgeist of our times is to vote with your gut, and not your brain). If they don't like a law being overturned, the politicians should make a new one that is constitutional.

P.S. re: voter fraud - this is the most disgusting of all. When the president hires one of his cronies to make the voting machines, I worry... a lot. We didn't need electronic voting before, and we still don't.

You are hilarious, Mulenberg. The Republicans want election reform, but the Democrats aren't cooperating? HA! You know about Catherine Harris and her deliberately innacurate felon's list? You know that she was the Secretary of State of Florida, as well as chairperson of "George Bush for President"? Out of the 94,000 voters in Florida that were named as felons, (and thus turned away at the polls), 95% were innocent, and out of those, 54% were African-American.

I have an idea, how about a paper trail instead of a black box? How about the same voting method everywhere? The cons are in charge, but they did nothing after 2000, even after using the inconsistent voting methods as the reason to stop the count. It's funny, they call the Dems whiners and sore losers, but when their side loses, like recently in the Washington State governors race, they demand a revote, not just a recount.

The cons make skillfull use of projection, attributing what they actually do to the other side.

Democrats have sealed their fate by electing Howard Dean as Chairman of the DNC. I love it though because he will make for some very entertaining moments. The DNC has proven they have not learned their lessons from the last election. They are showing they still believe they lost because they were not liberal enough. I hope for America’s sake that the Democrats keep on doing exactly what they are now. What is bad for the Democrats is good for America, and what is good for Democrats is bad for America.

I agree, Howard Dean is fun. I wish Howard Dean beat Kerry because then we would have had a lively debate of the issues during the campaign.

Since Mondale the main Dem strategy has been to be Republican light. Clinton was to the right of Richard Nixon. Gore and Kerry tried the Clinton rope a dope and it did not work for them. But when you say "keep doing what their doing now" I think you mean keep doing what Fox News and Limbaugh pretend that they have done.

The Dems must clearly change something if they want to win. The Dems are screwed because they have no media biased in their favor the way the Republicans have Fox and the righty talkers. The Dems are also screwed their money people and their voters and don't get along with each other. Serve the money and lose the voters or serve the voters and lose the money that is needed to reach out to swing voters.

Screwed! Screwed! Screwed! The Democatic Party, and America are screwed and I blame the Democratic party, the media and you.

I think the Dems best chance is to stop being shy and stand up for Americans who don't want to see the destruction of the American middle class due to stupid trade and fiscal policy. Of course Clinton Democrats and Bush Republicans both backed the idiotic trade policy so I am hoping for a Democratic party that does not at this time exist to emerge and save us. That is why I like Howard Dean.

said...nah...let's just let those corrupt south Floridea Democrat districts keep counting and counting until they steal the votes Gore needs.

You know the DNC has NEVER charged vote rigging EXCEPT in districts run by Democrats which are heavily, usually inner-city black, Democrat?

Don't have to be Colombo to figure out what that is all about.

It is not corrupt to accurately count the votes, It is corrupt to not count the votes.

The Big City Dem machines that the jokes about voting early and often were a product of the Irish in northern cities using dirty tricks and the Democratic party to break through the minority Irish hating blue blood WASP Republican strangle hold on northern big city political patronage. Blacks did not build the machines. Blacks favored the Republicans until FDR because they were the party of Lincoln and liberation.

Mayor Daley in 1960 Chicago was the end of the political era that was left over from 1890s America. The former Southern Democrats are now the core of the Republican party. The former balanced budget Republicans have no party to turn to. The grandchildren on the white immigrant machine voters are not a group that vote in unison.

Stop blaming the blacks, they have been and still are victims of vote fraud. They have rarely ever been in a position to be doing the vote fraud in America. Limbaugh or whoever filled your head with the image was a racist or pandering to racists because the true historic story of Dem vote stealing never needed to include the word "black".

That is what being a minority party is all about.
49% is hardly a minority.

Oh please. We all know the courts are writing law from the bench. Nothing to do with civil rights. It is whatever this or that judge thinks the law should be.
If you haven't noticed, we live in America. This is how our legal system has been set up. It was purposely designed to remove power from the people, and give it to representatives. We're not majoritarian for a reason, because majorities trample minority rights, and majorities can make bad, uninformed decisions. I wish most of the people in this country couldn't vote because they're too stupid to.

nirakar: The Dems are screwed because they have no media biased in their favor the way the Republicans have Fox and the righty talkers.

They also have to put on their spacesuits and return to planet earth. Since the 1950s, we've had a press run by the Rat Party. And Rats can't see it. All they can see is there are a few places where Rats don't run the media.

Also other worldly to claim Rats represent the middle class. They don't. They represent the very rich, the government bureaucracy and the underclass.

Actually Muhlenberg, you should rethink your problem with the courts this way -
49% of the people aren't being represented by their president, therefore the courts should go against everything the president wants to do, and the legislature can just slog back and forth (although it is stacked somewhat in the president's favor right now.)
That would be fair enough, but is hardly what is happening. It isn't like 100% of the judges are "liberals", not even close.
It is called a system of checks and balances.
You would be glad to have the system if there were a liberal president in office, but since it stands in the way of totalitarian government that favors your ideals, you cry foul.

nirakar: The Dems are screwed because they have no media biased in their favor the way the Republicans have Fox and the righty talkers.

They also have to put on their spacesuits and return to planet earth. Since the 1950s, we've had a press run by the Rat Party. And Rats can't see it. All they can see is there are a few places where Rats don't run the media.

Also other worldly to claim Rats represent the middle class. They don't. They represent the very rich, the government bureaucracy and the underclass.

You have to be kidding. what do you mean the Democrats have no media bias in thier favor? What do you call CNN, CBS, ABC, CNBC, MSNBC, NPR, NYTimes, LATimes, Washington Post, PBS, Most of the nations newspapers, Almost all campus newspapers?

Since FDR, the hard core left has told the faithful that the New York Times and other liberal major media outlets are conservative.

Rags which openly supported the Soviet Union such as The Nation, The New Republic, Izzy Stone's newsletter and Ramparts preached a political spectrum which went from the New York Times to the CPUSA newspaper. Everyone outside that was a fascist.

Now that writers such as Robert Scheer (formerly of Ramparts and a former supporter of Kim Il Sung) are writing for papers such as the LA times they still stick to their old view of the media.

btw...Eric Alterman's mentor was Izzy Stone (who was himself on the KGB payroll).

You have to be kidding. what do you mean the Democrats have no media bias in thier favor? What do you call CNN, CBS, ABC, CNBC, MSNBC, NPR, NYTimes, LATimes, Washington Post, PBS, Most of the nations newspapers, Almost all campus newspapers?

They all supported the US conquest of Iraq. Every time labor and management get into conflict they all support management. They all support the WTO. They all support the continuation and expansion of outsourcing. (Krugman is outnumbered by the pro outsourcing NY Time staff) They are all neutral about tax cuts for the wealthy paid for by borrowing. They all ignored and disinformed on the American coup against Aristide and also the coup against Chavez. They disinformed on the California power crisis. They no longer care if Ken Lay escapes justice. In 1999 2000 they did not insist on Bush answering the question "did you ever use cocaine". They have not given Bush a hard time for the lies about aluminum tube and yellow cake. The did not get Catherine Harris thrown in jail for being caught deliberately disenfranchising voters in Florida in 1999.

And Dan Rather killed the Bush AWOL story and the Zupruder Film story and was on the Republican side of all the above issues. He either works for the right or is completely incompetant.

If a Democratic president and his allies did the things that Bush and his allies have done the media would have been all over them and they would have been impeached already.


I don't care where the supposedly liberal media comes down on prayer in school, abortion, the right to own assault weapons, and gay marriage, because these are not the issues that are important to me. The media is liberal on these cultural issues, but so what; these cultural issues are diversions. On the issues that count the media are anti-liberal suck-ups to the powerful who are in turn suck-ups to the corporate CEOs of politically active corporations.

Meanwhile the typical conservative is to busy being against whatever they have been told to be against to notice how their tax dollars are really being wasted.