I'm more worried about 'closed door' Super Committee meetings than another terror alert...

[Earth_First]

That is all.

[Autumn]

1. K/R #5

that's the truth.

[GeorgeGist]

2. I think it's more sensible ...

to think of it as the Supreme Committee.

[leftstreet]

3. K&R

[woo me with science]

4. You said it.

This country is turning into something ugly. Michigan is cutting off public assistance in this horrible economy, when there are no jobs. Our DEMOCRATIC President pushes for cuts in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. We are facing draconian cuts to social programs across the board, while the wars rage on. Millions are jobless. One quarter of our children live in poverty. People are falling out of the middle class, and the nets that would keep them alive are being taken away.

They are coming for us, and they are not even being subtle about it anymore. Did you see Jon Stewart's comedy riff on all this? It made my heart hurt:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-august-18-2011/world-of-class-warfare---the-poor-s-free-ride-is-over

And nobody in Washington is standing up for us. Our Democratic President is in bed with the corporations and pursuing Third Way policies. We have no defenders.

Yes, it is scary as hell, and people need to get angry.

[Autumn]

7. You know I have been thinking that everyone in

Washington, Democrats and Republicans alike have pretty much the same goal in mind. They just put on a show to make us think they are putting up a fight, but they really aren't. It's just a dog and pony show to get what they want and get us to go along with it. And they pretty much want the same thing.

:tinfoilhat:

[woo me with science]

11. You are right. That is exactly what is happening,

and it's not tinfoil hat at all. That they are on the same team is clear just by looking at recent history. Look at the changes in election process that have taken place just over the past 30 years. The very structure of election financing, debates, and balloting guarantees that you don't get a shot at the Presidency anymore unless you are backed by huge corporate interests. The infestation of our party by the DLC and the Third Way did not happen by accident, and it certainly did not come from the grass roots. The installation of representatives of the banks and corporations into both parties has been a planned strategy, and we are seeing the escalation of that strategy into policy. They have made their greatest coup by depriving us of a united opposition.

Robert Reich made a great little video about our economic problems. For me, the most telling part of the video was his drawing of a Republican and a Democrat screaming and pointing at each other, while a rich man picks both of their pockets. They stoke our hatred of each other and play it all just like a big football game where you are expected to support your team. But the real battle isn't between Republicans and Democrats anymore. The real war is between the banking/corporate wealthy, and the rest of us. I think you are exactly right that they distract us with the political show, but they are clearly in both parties and working from the same page. Fully 70 to 80 percent of Americans ACROSS party lines support cutting military spending, preserving SS and Medicare, and taxing the rich. How much of that has been on the table, seriously, from either party in this "representative" government lately?

Think about the major pieces of legislation that have been pushed upon us in the past decade, that massively profit the banks and corporations but are impoverishing the rest of us: The Patriot Act, the corporate health insurance mandate act, approval of spending for massive new military ventures, and the debt ceiling legislation and Super Committee. Look at how they happened, largely in a bipartisan way and often behind closed doors. In every case, the American people did not get to participate in the process, and we were told what was in them after they were passed. And look at the extent to which polls overwhelmingly oppose most of what they have done. They don't care. They keep doing it. We have seen the shock doctrine in effect at an escalating pace for some time now. We need to stop kidding ourselves. And now they are coming after the poor, elderly, and disabled in a bipartisan way.

Sorry for going on and on with stuff I know you know, because I've seen you post about it repeatedly. I am just really angry tonight at what is happening to our country. People need to wake up and really see what is going on here. We desperately need a grass roots revolution to reform our government and our party and make them represent us again.

[ixion]

5. As well you should. The so-called 'terror threat' is bogus

the antithetical "super" committee is a serious and very real threat.

[Raine]

6. Yup, the Super Committee will effect more people

and will be felt much longer than even a successful terrorist attack IMO. :-(

[RickFromMN]

8. Congress still has to vote on the super committee product. The President can still veto it.

Perhaps, this was a backhanded way, all along, to cut defence and other spending.
Perhaps, the people creating this super committee knew the product would be DOA.

[EFerrari]

9. Maybe that's what they mean by an ongoing unspecific threat.

:)

[tnlurker]

10. K&R

[Marrah_G]

12. sgreed

[Kalidurga]

13. Yeah I hate the idea of the super commitee...

I think it is a waste of time and money. If the can't get the job done in the regular congress how do they expect to accomplish anything in this committee? I guess that is the only thing that might save us, they are bound to be inept.

[SOS]

14. The 7-5 voting results are a done deal

Max "Wall Street" Baucus is on the committee.

It's right to be worried, but the outcome is utterly predictable.

[FiveGoodMen]

15. Absolutely.

The world's main terrorists are in the US government and the US media.

(And, as always, the pulpits)

[femrap]

16. Me, too.

I don't even see how this f*cking Committee is even LEGAL/CONSTITUTIONAL????? WTF?