they are holding so much yank money they don't want to bury you. probably.

but socialist economies, and command societies, won't want to bail out free market pirates for ever. it's just a matter of time until the u. s. marine corps has to do all the negotiating.

makes you wonder why anyone would want to be president. well, bush's family has made a good thing out of it, with their holdings in oil and munitions.

from the gettysburg address: "of the people, by the people, for the people." remember them? the encapsulation of democracy in nine words.

wouldn't it be nice if the federal government was "for the people?" harry reid, with all the beltway grandees, is daily demonstrating that you don't get government for the people, without government by the people.

are not organized systems, but rather labels devised to describe activities in human society, when our field of operations changed from the natural world to human society itself.

capitalism and free markets are just the 'law of the jungle' and 'survival of the fittest' in a business suit. so the convulsions of the business and financial world are to be expected, the natural result of chaos inherent in secrecy, greed, and power-lust driving human society.

if george soros says a serious disruption is imminent, don't make a big bet against it: he's very smart, he's seen it all from the inside, and probably too old to be seeking personal advantage.

i wish mr soros would put some money behind the 'initiative for democracy' that mike gravel is promoting, i think it's the best chance to bring peace, stability and justice to the usa. but maybe he figures trying to civilize americans, or humans, is a lost cause.

and the repubs scrape in, everyone will say "gollleee, why didn't we go with the 'champion-of-the-people' white guy?"

an edwards/obama ticket, or edwards/clinton, looks like a reasonable way to close off the faint hope the repubs might have. but hey, 8 years of dubya did no real harm, right? and better the grandees of the democrat party should indulge their egos at the expense of the nation, right?

unless you think edwards is a substantially worse candidate, of course. and it is true, corporations are not rushing to support his candidacy, and the mejah clones ignore him. but we are talking about the democrat party, aren't we? maybe gore vidal was right:"... a right wing party, and a farther right wing party."

still, putting aside concerns about national survival for the moment, doesn't the prospect of a woman or african american as democrat candidate warm your your little heart?

are not the answer, even if sincere. they can't change the system. a system change will happen when a lot of ordinary people demand a better way of doing things.

personally, i think mike gravel's 'initiative for democracy' is a good way forward. the way to make government work for the people, is to make control of government by the people.

maybe i'm wrong. or maybe the american people are to ignorant, dim, and lazy to organize for their own benefit. watching 'american idol' instead of doing your history homework has that effect.

any democrat is gonna stroll in. if so, this is a good year to introduce america's rednecks to the concept of knuckling their forelock to a black, or a woman.

but america put dubya in office twice. there's a lotta rednecks out there. it might be a close election after all. if the dems lose by 1000 votes in mississippi, are you still gonna feel good about selecting a candidate that's got a 5-50% 'never' handicap among the electorate?

or are you going to think " gee, maybe we should have tried to put a candidate before the electorate that doesn't cause lock-jaw in the bayous."

please, people, the whole world has had enough of 'democracy-spreading', as realized by sac and the u. s. marine corps. give us a rest: select a politician like edwards, competent, unthreatening, and not visibly enthralled by fantasies of world domination.[correction: not edwards. he's wholly owned by the israel lobby. is it too late to go for gravel?, or biden? or dodd? yeah, it was always too late.]

now that i think about it, an empire can't have a virtuous emperor. virtuous people don't apply. probably marcus aurelius beat his wife.

as for equal opportunity: 150 million men, and more women, are not going to be president. their opportunity is zip. you want equal opportunity? select by lottery.

the one-eyed man ain't popular. and any virtuous citizen makes people nervous, is he right in the head?

still, where can you go but up, after dubya?

how dubya got back in. "vote for mccain, get more of the same!"

if you want to know where the problem is. mike gravel's 'initiative for democracy' recognizes these problems, and suggests a way to resolve them. if you're not publicly backing the 'initiative', if you're not even discussing the need to inject real democracy into the constitution, then you're backing the system as it is, while making a hypocritical living by crying "shame!".

there's a lot of that going around, anyone who makes a living from politics has an interest in the system as it is. but if you want a different result, you need a different system.