Stupid "leaders." Beholden "leaders." Flip-flopping "leaders," and lawless "leaders." More than EIGHTY percent of the population feels this way, yet we keep putting up with this shit. When you boil it all down and look in the bottom of the pan, it comes down to corporate money, of course. Corporate-owned media, candidates, and legislation written directly by them. There's no need to trot out examples of this stuff anymore; that would be like saying "prove to me that trees exist."

When are advocacy groups going to coalesce around the single theme of comprehensive lobby and campaign financing reform? It seems to me that this is the problem of our time, and nothing of any significance that is any good for this country or its citizens will happen until the criminals...er, excuse me, leaders of our country are forced to work in a more ethical manner (notice I even qualified that). When are the Move-Ons, the Firedog Lakes, the HuffPos, Daily Kos's, CAGAs, and all the others going to see that the only real way to effect change that has a truly game-changing impact is to work together, pool resources, and doggedly pursue a unified agenda?

Too many different ideas and personalities floating about you say? Pish posh! Our government is egregiously wasteful, propagandizes its own people, and is criminally negligent in managing the nation's finances. It's time to focus on the one issue that prevents progress on all others. Otherwise, we will continue to sit here, bitching about the same corruption, same lawlessness, same criminal behavior we've allowed to go on for decades.

What does this have to do with McCain? Look at how he's behaving. Look at how he's selling his soul out. Why is he doing that? Who will it benefit? Idealistic? Ya. But really, what other choice do we have at this point? We can dissect all we want, but in the end, if there isn't one common goal to focus on and move toward, nothing much is going to change.

Since Glenn was so kind as to provide a means for contacting the playa (remember, don't hate the playa, hate the game!), I decided to email her. I hope many of you do the same. Won't change the outcome, but will annoy the bejesus out of her if her inbox gets flooded....hehe

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Ms. Koles,

I'm writing to you from a small, midwestern city in Missouri to let you know how saddened I am by your behaviors as they relate to your and your company's refusal to run the Blue America television ads which discuss Chris Carney's actions (or inactions) regarding telecom amnesty.

It's difficult to conceive of anything less American and more fascist than for a large cable television conglomerate to refuse to run ads on its stations which are critical of a legislator because your company doesn't like the content discussed or because your company financially supports that legislator and his corrupt actions. I know you and your superiors have rationalized your decisions through your attorneys in what can only be viewed as obviously and transparently absurd reasoning, and those actions only prove how insidious and corrupt your company really is.

But what I wonder is: how, as an American, and as someone who believes in the American Dream and the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution, can you live with yourself and sleep at night when you, personally, are a central part in suppressing legitimate political debate and standing with those who censor that which they don't like? What kind of civics lessons are you teaching your children by your actions?

I'd wager you don't give it much thought, because that would cause some rather painful introspection into what you do and why you do it. And we all know how introspection and having a conscious has no place at the table of big media when there are profits to be made and candidates to be funded.

This article, and Glenn's assessment of it, are critically important. Thanks again, Glenn for your dogged pursuit of this issue. So many of us appreciate it.

But equally important, IMHO, is how this serves as stark and incontrovertible proof that Congressional Democrats also simply cannot be trusted to uphold any meaningful sense of the words "public interest" or "public trust."

Vote..........them.......ALL.......out.....of.......office.

You may think that is an oversimplified answer that may do more harm than good, but really, think about that again. It's just not possible.

I think most people are just playing the waiting game for them to leave office, and are satisfied with that. Quite a sad commentary on our demokracy.

I too am interested in getting hearing more about this issue from Glenn and others. Interesting, isn't it, how you've not heard a thing about it from most of the MSM. *insert Gomer Pyle voice here* Sur-Prahz Sur-Prahz Sur Prahz!

I just watched on CNN a report indicating that Bush wants to capture Bin Laden before he leaves office in January, and thus, a new redoubling of efforts is taking place to that end.

It's sad that the first thing I wonder is how much additional tax money will be cheated from us, and who it will be given to. Because as we know, anytime anything military is announced by the Administration, it's A) a lie, and B) a way to defraud the public and enrich the MIC.