We don't have a government

[blues90]

We have a dictatorship tied to AIPAC or is it a form of fasism .

We voted for nothing but a hope in the dark caves of a lost world and the vampire bats are living in the white house sucking us dry .

Is it time for those who are awake to hit the streets and finally do something ?

Yeah , well I can hope for that more than I can hope for this government we are told we actually have .

What a damn joke , it far from funny , it's far from any word known to mankind .

[BayCityProgressive]

1. we don't control our government

We are no more in control of our congress than the people of China are of theirs.

[MedleyMisty]

2. I'm reading a collection of Bertrand Russell essays

And yeah - nothing has changed in 70 some years.

Only he says that he thinks fascism wouldn't take hold in the US. Well - that was before TV and schools might have actually taught critical thinking skills back then, I don't know.

He also seemed to think that Christianity was anti-fascist.

So when he's talking about fascism he hits the modern US right on the head, but for some reason he couldn't conceive of American Christofascism.

Sinclair Lewis saw it, though. Around the same time, too. But then he was American, and Russell was British and just lived here for a while.

Anyone know of a country that freed itself from fascism, as opposed to being defeated in war?

[robinlynne]

19. A fascist govt is a govt controlled by corporate interests. Aint no doubt about that.

[BuyingThyme]

3. Dictatorship or fascism? Both.

:hi:

[sam sarrha]

4. government has been outsourced to Halliburton..

[BlueStateModerate]

5. Don't be silly

Americans voted in 2006, and now Democrats are taking a route fairly different from the Republicans. They may not be following the DU ideology, but honestly, this forum is a bit to the left of mainstream Democrats. In 2008, we will get to decide who our new president will be. How exactly is that fascism?

[BayCityProgressive]

13. it isn't so much the

fact that the government is left or right. Most people have no clue who AIPAC is and would not like knowing that the US puts Israel's security before our own..yet we do. Most people oppose the war, the sanctions on Cuba, and the money involved in politics. It is the entire system that is deformed more than them not following an ideology that bothers me. Until campaigns are publicly funded with Instant Run Off Voting or equal ballot access for all parties, along with a recall option for all elected officials..the corporations and lobbyists are the ones who will truly run the government.

[BlueStateModerate]

23. Putting Israel before us?

I'm going to need a little more proof than your word to back that up. Sure, we're allies with Israel; we share some common objectives. That certainly doesn't mean that they control us.

[MedleyMisty]

18. Sure, because we elected Bush in 2000, right?

[BlueStateModerate]

22. The Florida election was a TIE

It was ultimately up to the Supreme Court to decide on a tie. I'm not terribly bitter about how they ruled. The national popular vote is irrelevant; we're a republic, not a democracy.

[bdamomma]

6. If anyone is watching C Span, Harry Reid Majority Leader

was just giving a speech to AIPAC, geez, what is it with AIPAC? again, you can see their undying devotion to AIPAC.

[AnOhioan]

7. All bow down to the mighty AIPAC

Our soldiers are dying for them, Our Congresspeople pander to them, This is not a Pubbie or Democratic thing, elected officials from both sides of the aisle bend over backwards for AIPAC money and approval.

[bdamomma]

8. Mighty AIPAC is true, AIPAC controls everything huh?

[AnOhioan]

10. Not saying they control "everything"

but they sure as hell control our foreign policy.

From the AIPAC website:

Achievements:

Securing Critical Foreign Aid to Israel, which totaled $2.52 billion in 2006 and will provide military and economic assistance.

Prohibiting U.S. aid and contacts with the Hamas-led PA until its leaders recognize Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and ratify previous Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements.

Extending U.S.-backed loan guarantees to Israel until 2011 and renewing the authority to transfer U.S. military equipment to be stored in Israel for use in a potential crisis.

Ratifying an agreement that led to the Israeli medical service Magen David Adom's admission to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement (IRC).

Condemning Iran for holding a conference casting doubt on whether the Holocaust happened. The resolutions reproached the anti-Semitic statements made by Iranian leaders and asserted the United States' commitment to preventing a nuclear Iran.

Passing the Iran Freedom Support Act, which renews and strengthens sanctions aimed at curtailing funds and international cooperation necessary for Iran to pursue nuclear weapons.

Passing the Iran Libya Sanctions Act, which seeks to reduce funds for Iran's nuclear weapons program by allowing sanctions against foreign companies investing in Iran's energy sector.

Reauthorizing the Iran Nonproliferation Act to include sanctions against entities providing technology to the missile and weapons of mass destruction programs of both Iran and Syria.

Fostering U.S.-Israel Homeland Security Cooperation by supporting the countires' efforts to sign a landmark Memorandum of Understading and taking U.S. homeland security professionals on trips to Israel to meet with their Israeli counterparts.

Passing Congressional Resolutions that demonstrate overwhelming support for Israel's right to self -defense in the face of attacks by Hizballah and Hamas.

Designating Hizballah's TV Station as a Terrorist Entity through legislative language as well as support of a letter to President Bush signed by 51 senators.

Passing the Syrian Accountability Act, which allows the president to sanction Syria for its continued involvement in Lebanon and support of terrorism.

Increasing Military Aid to Israel by working for $1 billion in government grants that will help cover the escalating costs of the war on terrorism.

Keeping World Pressure on Hamas, by working to pass a House Resolution before PA elections that warned of serious policy implications for U.S.-Palestinian relations should Hamas be part of the Palestinian government.

http://www.aipac.org/about_AIPAC/default.asp




Bolding mine

[manic expression]

9. You think it was ever your government?

It's ALWAYS been bourgeois, it's NEVER cared about the majority of the people. Our government is intricately tied to capitalism and the capitalist class, and so its most central interests are the same as that class.

So many people walk around, stunned that the government of the bourgeoisie doesn't care about them. Until you wrest control from the hands of the bourgeoisie, NOTHING WILL CHANGE. It is time for the people to take control of society.

[BayCityProgressive]

15. Agreed

[live love laugh]

11. A caller on Air America said almost the same thing today...

that democracy is an illusion and voting means nothing in reality. That we are a plutocracy and both major parties are beholden to monied interests instead of the citizenry.

[manic expression]

12. What's the solution?

if the system we live in keeps on doing this time and again (this isn't new, you think Clinton was a man of the poor?), isn't there a need to get rid of that system?

[live love laugh]

14. Yes there is a need to revamp the system. How will it be done?

I don't think it can be done save for the utter destruction of the planet itself due to greed.

We have essentially become a police state. Somebody here mentioned seeing a van with "Homeland Security Federal Police" on it yesterday. People who try to revolt can be disappeared without a trace and it won't make the news. If not disappeared they'll show up in court in Jose Padilla's condition.

As Frederick Douglas once said:

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

[manic expression]

16. Revamping has failed us before

Neither FDR nor LBJ could stop this from happening. A mere decade after FDR's administration ended, the cities were gradually turning into pots of poverty (white flight). The fact is that revamping the system will not work, it will simply revert to the same exact place.

Also, since the government's interest is clearly opposed to our own interests, what is the point in working within that government?

The answer lies in the question. If the system does unacceptable things, then the system is unacceptable. The answer is to end the system entirely. What is the system, exactly? It boils down, as it often does, to profit. Capitalism is the system which must be overthrown, and only then will society be able to improve itself. Presently, the bourgeoisie control society for their own gain, it is high time the people take control of society and create a world of equity and democratic control.

[stillcool]

17. Hitting the streets....

I don't understand how that changes anything. If I thought my life, or my death, could affect change..there would be something to consider, but I don't see it. Rather than discussing the every day scandal du jour, it would be nice to talk about what options are really available. What about the global community? If the problem is multi-national corporate control, is the solution not multi-national people power? Or, if the solution is one community at a time, than it would seem claiming independence from the federal government and corporate law might be the way to go. The end has been predicted for years now...I recall 2006 as being the year the bottom was to fall out. Now here's a poser...perhaps it did? So much of this bullshit provides a real mind-fuck.

[live love laugh]

20. I agree. One man is powerless. I know the sentiment behind

all those sayings about what one man can do but millions have risen up around the globe and protested against the plutocrats and it's barely heard.

Somebody posted a video of Bill Kristol being heckled at a college campus and they mentioned how he kept snickering. Kristol basically dismissed those hecklers, writing them off just like the American people have been written off and no doubt snickered at by the likes of BushCo.

The ONLY thing that won't be written off by the Kristols and the Bushes is violence and upheaval. They know that one day people will grow tired but they have planned for that--there was no Gitmo in the '60s and '70s when people protested, just tear gas and state police and a media that broadcast actual current events.

I think you were right, 2006 was the end--or was it 2000? Whatever year it was, the end has come and this thing will just have to play itself out. A revolution depends on people caring about a cause and to care they have to be informed. At this point, people are much to busy watching the Anna Nicole saga and they will continue to watch until their "tay vay scranes" (think Bush when you pronounce that) flicker out from war or the inability to find work and pay the electric bills.

[ends_dont_justify]

21. We don't have a dictatorship either

Dictatorship signifies someone is in control. No one is in control, we're just blocked from getting any kind of logical control ourselves. It's worse than anarchy -- in an anarchy we're not being steered into danger. It's more like a hijacking of the USA and looting it of all its resources before sinking it.