these candidates, in their different ways, can only offer rule by an elected king. they aren't philosopher kings, and some times you get someone who is a genuine monster, such as george bush. he is not the first evil president, if evil is murdering foreigners in wholesale lots, his only crime is treating americans like foreigners, with his patriot act.

you must get the direction of the nation out of the hands of politicians. it's not hard, inform your representatives you want citizen initiative power, and only vote for those who are willing to put the fishing pole in the hands of the people.

i'd put more credit with these 'anti-establishment' figures if they had an occasional good word to say for direct democracy. when did these three ever say the people need to have citizen initiative as a control on corrupt and self-serving pollies?

they're all fish dispensers, "no fish without me".

sooner or later, the creditor takes some real estate. the usd is a paper tiger, after all. chairman mao must be laughing his head off, at usa, and at chinese 'socialism.'

there was a time when the citizens voted for war, then picked up spear and shield, and went to war.

now, corrupt old men dispatch armies to further their dreams of empire, or inflate the value of their share portfolios. they don't go near the dieing, and never did, for dieing is not in their plans.

i don't much despise those evil old men, perhaps their mothers didn't love them. i save real contempt for those who put them in power, and keep them there, because it's profitable, or just convenient.

let's do business in public. no commercial secrets. depend on hard work instead of fraud.

in fact, let's do public business in public. no government secrets. depend on fair dealing instead of assassination, tax favors, and simple corruption. just a thought....

the american government is georgian britain writ onto north america: a king, a political aristocracy, and powerless plebs.

the use of elections doesn't make democracy, it just camouflages oligarchy.

the cure for a corrupt political class is for the people to stop empowering their masters with acquiesence, to demand democracy instead. mike gravel may not be a serious challenger for the presidency, but he is right on the money about what is wrong with the american government.

people who are genuinely outraged by the arrogance of the political class ought to be supporting the 'initiative for democracy'. those who just make a living by being 'outraged' will have to be prepared to share the contempt the plebs feel for the political class.

someone should talk with mr obama: getting to be president is hard, re-shaping human culture vastly harder. santa claus is going to need a houseboat, for sure. the rest of us may need airlocks on the front door, leading to the tunnel up to the surface.

those, that is, who survive rising oceans, desertification, resource exhaustion, and the wars that will come when rich nations discover they can only maintain their standard of living with occupation of nations whose oil and water are not yet used up.

.. maybe you should stop voting for people. in a real democracy, citizens vote for policies, through the referendum process. i continually read of people being unsatisfied with the system, yet no one wants to improve it.

why aren't you backing gravel's idea to 'democratize' the federal government? aren't you backing mainstream politics while pretending to oppose it?

..real democracy. get behind gravel's 'initiative', or watch the beltway grandees seize power.

...in the face of constant evidence of simple corruption and complex depravity in the mainstream political class, no one mentions, much less expatiates on, mike gravel's 'cure': democracy.

would be like if america had not sponsored the zionist invasion of palestine, the assassination of mossadegh and overthrow of parliamentary government in iran, had not supported the violently repressive dictatorships in iraq, iran, and arabia.

america has sown that garden with poison seeds, and flowers of death spring up everywhere, even down-town manhattan.

perhaps the notion of karma deserves more thought, or even the simple judaeo-christian precept: "as ye sow, so shall ye reap."

.. by having to give immense power to a person you wouldn't trust to babysit your kids, who doesn't seem to have paid attention to his geography lessons, who can't connect history and current affairs?

it's time to change the constitution, from elective monarchy to democracy. when the nation is ruled "by the people", maybe it will be ruled "for the people". clearly, that's not the case now.

why not try democracy? i'm a bit surprised that a nation that preens endlessly about how democratic it is, is not in fact a democracy. mike gravel put this idea before the nation, and was massively ignored. too hard to change? don't actually like democracy? can't tell the difference?

i suppose running an imperial foreign policy would be hard, if it had to be put to referendum. and hard to block progress with global warming, and hard to curtail civil rights,...

maybe not so surprising at that.

gore vidal said something like: "a 'good' president can't fix what's wrong with america". he was right. edwards can put a coat of paint on the ship of state, shrub pretty much stripped it, but the course of the nation, the rules of the game, are fixed.

if you want a new course, you need a new guidance system. i like the idea of democracy, myself: rule "by the people", remember that phrase? mike gravel's 'initiative' idea or something similar is needed, to get the wisdom and will of the entire electorate behind the big decisions that are needed in foreign policy, global warming, and civil rights.

selecting any democrat candidate will get what passes for a good president, but elective monarchy will remain in the hands of the corporations, edwards or not.