for the last few years, they are derelict in their duty. if they didn't, they are merely incompetent.

or maybe the world is just too complex for oversight, but then we can say to congress, why is it not kept simple?

the american system worked ok when cotton went out and slaves came in. it coped with intrastate deals of salt fish and timber. but times have changed, and the economy has changed, and maybe the character of the people have changed too.

maybe it's time for a new constitution, one whose aim is not to protect the smarties when their deals come unstuck.

read "the decline and fall of the roman empire" and know the future of the usa.

to prevent 'overnight' emergencies of calamitous dimension. in fact, people were warning about this potential disaster years ago. this isn't an overnight emergency, it's a case of your reps and senators playing golf while this financial hiv-aids was chewing through the financial system.

the first thing that needs doing is to fire everyone who was supposed to be minding the shop. start with paulson and bernanke, but don't stop there...

replace those reps and senators that have forgotten why they're there.

he'll say and do anything for that purpose. the only reason to vote for him is that he isn't a republican. that's a good enough reason.

but if you want rational government, you need democracy. with initiative and recall, the people can keep an eye on washington and weed out nutters, incompetents, and gloryhunters.

you can't change the system by changing the faces. it needs a constitutional amendment, something like that urged by mike gravel. it also needs enough citizen-quality voters to press it through. unfortunately, the cow-quality voters remain in the great majority, so the decline and fall of the american empire will continue.

incidentally, why isn't the nuclear capability of states with nuclear capability a threat? especially that of the usa, the only one to actually use atom bombs...

poor old iran- their only crime is to resist the american empire. inside the beltway, that's the unforgivable offense.

while cops find out if they're crooked, or lazy, or just incompetent.

but the american constitution makes no provision for citizen recourse, if all the pollies have a bi-partisan policy to raping the tax cows. that's why americans need citizen initiative and recall powers, as democratic countries do.

no use getting righteous, mr keillor, the system is what it is, you want a better society, you have to change the system. until then, bend over and be quiet.

but some are better than others. a rational person would have figured all this out before now, but there aren't a lot of rational persons in the american electorate, as recent history has demonstrated.

vote for obama, folks. he won't save america, but he will delay the crash.

a few people have noticed the pollies aren't running the country very well. not for outsiders, anyway. the bad news is, damn all they can do about it.

suddenly, a terrible crisis appears. it snuck up on them. senator dodd is very concerned for america, especially the little peepul. so is senator kyl, bless them both. but their job was to know what is happening, and when they are snucked up on, they are failures. incompetent at least, very possibly owned by the fast money smarties.

will they lose their jobs? doubt it.

"you get the government you deserve", heard that one? americans are dumb, ignorant, lazy, and merely self-indulgent. until the voters say 'basta', the pollies and smarties will go on milking the mugs of their tax money while wringing their hands and crying "it's a shame, but necessary, be brave!"

there is a way out of the swamp. organize citizen action groups, force the enactment of a constitutional amendment instituting an accessible and effective power of citizen initiative referendum.

i don't think america is at that level of social evolution. so plan 'b' is, don't listen to the news, tell your kids everything is ok, and pray a lot. come to think of it, plan 'b' is already so popular that it probably caused most of the nation's problems.

unlike like citizens in a democracy, who can act through citizen referendum, the people in america can only watch as the pollies and the smarties dip into the public treasury.

it's not that the american taxpayer is credulous, they know they're being diddled, it's just that they have no means to stop it.

barring a second american revolution, the pollies and smarties will continue to prosper, a clear example of the general field theory of politics:

"you get the government you deserve."

when you do business with the public, you put your business in public view. the web can do it.

government is public business, and everything pollies say and do should be on the web immediately.

very hard to be crooked or incompetent for long in public view.

it won't happen because, while it would be good for americans, it wouldn't be good for politicians and grifters in big suits. and they run america.

it's an old idea, usually called 'democracy'. it used to be so popular that the oligarchs hi-jacked the word, saying that they would do 'democracy' for us. they called it representative democracy at first, don't bother with representative anymore because the mugs have forgotten the real thing.

a nation with democracy can use citizen initiative to set the rules, and they can prosecute grifters in big suits, without having to wait for some politician to act.

democracy has a big weakness, though- it needs 'citizen quality' people. americans may complain about being treated like cattle, but they won't actually do anything. so maybe the 'government you deserve' rule applies..