...there's all those Democrats to push President Jesus to the left.

bitches.

Amen!

The whole Sirota schtick is as dull as rocks. And as phony as a Bernie Madoff investment. If you didn't have Washington insiders to rant about, you wouldn't be employed. Own it.

They cannot do any worse than the people they are replacing.

Hope and Change are now in town as Smoke and Mirrors; new campaign script but same old players! Maybe this time around with enough input through this 2 way media we can create some real change in the near future when this scenario finally plays out to be the same old polical game and becomes really visible to those in this country that really care about our real values!

David hey its about time someone seeing washington for it really is fakes,frauds and powermoners and freemason push boys and girls now what are you going really say about it the power of the pen or key board is mighter than the sword .David these tyrants have hijacked us for decades.isnt time to actually give the power back to the people.Oh no they dont want that they want to keep us at each others throats. lets hope President Obama doesnt get suck into the darkness of the political thugs in DC.crooks and thieves david call it like it is You now john mcain came up with his own plan that blows me away I thought he said cindy paid all the bills and he didnt know about the economy. I will put all my chips in that Phil Graham is in a room some where writing these republican tax cuts and wrote the bill that mclost the race.put on the senate floor not unless cindy did it.someone should ask mcsame that question did he write his own bill or did Phil Graham in a back room somewhere.remember all my chips are on the table that Phil graham wrote john mcain senate bill for stimulus.Come on david go ask him

Clearly we need to pass the "Fairness Doctrine", a law stating that any person whether radio personality, blogger, editorialist or journalist who dares criticize our beloved Dear Leader will be countered by equal time for Obamabots to malign and slander said critic.

Beyond rehabilitation ........ only a purge by the people will enable the country to move forward toward a democracy for everyone rather than an elite that has more than they can ever spend and cares for no one.

Because of the lack of ethics and the inability to promote cooperation we are doomed .....

Only the spirit of revolution can save us ....

oh, no. I do fear you're right. Do they just purposefully toss the ball back and forth as theater, while making us believe they really have a different ideology or goal? The difference appears to be that one really wants to return to a feudal system, and the other wants to throw the rubes a few coins. damn, I don't even like cake...

Do you actually have a point to make about Sirota's article, or are you just venting?

Some of you think that because I criticize politicians that you support, that I am a republican. I have stated repeatedly that I find the republican party as repugnant if not more-so than the democrats.

It really is time for the French solution. If obama's fear mongering "stimulus" bill goes through, all that money that will wind up in some thief's pocket will have to be paid back by us.

Do any of you recall the "politics of fear" campaign waged by the dems? To date, not once can I recall any other president state that if do not enable him, that the country will never recover. No, that distinction goes to "hope over fear" obama. Congratulations for electing him.

Suckers.

That’s why I voted Green again. (GREEN, not Nader.)

I didn’t want to believe in Change You Must Be Brainwashed to Accept™.

And, Nepats, here's five bucks. Go buy a clue.

Can we get real here for a minute?

This so-called bailout is just another heaping helping of the burnt baloney that got us into this mess - the idea that a nation can base its economy on smoke and mirrors.

What right-wing ideologues call "The New Economy" is built around the idea that an economy doesn't really have to make anything, that we can just figure out clever ways to re-package and market and leverage what other people make (people who work for much less money), dress it up with advertising and high tech - and make a killing off of it. Whether it's shoes, computers, complicated financial instruments or even war, we don't make the stuff - we make the stuff that sells the stuff.

Now it turns out that the stuff that sells the stuff was nothing but hot air.

So what do we do?

Look for another source of hot air.

The government.

Can't you see that this can never work? That it's just the desperate gambit of an addict who's supply of good stuff has finally dried up?

You can't base an economy on government handing out money for people to pay each other, any more than you can base an economy on pyramid schemes that assume the price of houses will go up forever. To even attempt such a thing is a to molest the very concept of what an economy is.

Now all of a sudden we say we want to "create" jobs.

After 30 years of shipping every job we could get our hands on overseas.

You want to know what happened to our economy?

Mexico happened to our economy.

China happened to our economy.

That's the root of the problem: we loaded our economy on a boat and shipped it overseas.

No, wait a minute. That's not the root of the problem.

That's the trunk of the problem.

The root of the problem is that have a political system based on money.

Thus, the hot air solutions.

What are the chances that our public officials, who owe their very existence to the interests who bankroll them, are going to attack the root of the problems we face?

Approximately...nil. Unless we find a way to force them.

There are going to be no bills proposing new tariffs on products made in China. There are going to be no bills that make it illegal for an American corporation to park its assets in the Cayman Islands. There are going to be no bills that contain minimum environmental or labor standards for imports. No relief for people in hock to credit card companies. Nothing that would threaten the stranglehold of insurance companies on the healthcare system. Nothing but a wag of the finger and a dog-and-pony show in front of an "outraged" Congress for the banking industry.

You can go down the whole list of entrenched interests, the "shareholders" who own our "economy," who happily pay-to-play in our current pay-to-play system. They will all be protected for the simple reason that they have paid, and will continue to pay, protection money.

But what about the unprecedented grassroots fund-raising machine that elected Barack Obama? That money came overwhelmingly from small donors with no special interest except the demand for change. What about their interests?

Yeah. What about their interests?

For some reason, they don't seem to command the same respect as, say, that of manufacturers of children's toys.

I have no clever, one sentence answer for that one.

How come the interest group that paid the most has the least clout?

Maybe in order to have clout, you gotta use clout.

And so far, our guy hasn't shown the inclination to use clout. For a guy from Chicago, he seems strangely dainty. He talks about bipartisanship. We didn't pay Barack Obama to be bipartisan!

We paid him to change things.

We gave Barack Obama, in denominations of $5, $10, $100, the clout to fundamentally change things. We gave Barack Obama 65 million votes. We gave Barack Obama a 75% approval rating. We gave Barack Obama over $745 million. Surely we should get something for our $745 million - besides the president's "appreciation," as Blago would say.

For $745 million, we oughta be fucking golden.

There's a famous Claes Oldenburg sculpture in front of the Social Security Building on West Madison Street in Chicago. It's a 100-foot tall baseball bat made of polished stainless steel. It's time for Chicago's newest slugger to pick up the goddam bat - and swing it!

That's what we paid Barack Obama for.