[Vision2020] Missed votes...The Payoff...Vote The Bigot Party!

[lfalen]

Ted
I'll take Thomas Sowel any day over Norm Chomsky
Roger
-----Original message-----
From: "Ted Moffett" starbliss at gmail.com
Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2008 23:38:02 -0700
To: "Paul Rumelhart" godshatter at yahoo.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Missed votes...The Payoff...Vote The Bigot Party!

> What are "we" paying them for?  Good grief, Paul, you are too smart to pose
> the issue in this manner.  "We," as in the average taxpaying Jane or Joe, do
> not pay them, at least not the big bucks.  And the legislation that they
> vote on is often written in secret, worded by the very financial interests
> who are controlling the politicians who vote or don't vote.  The appearance
> of participation or not in the voting process in the US Congress is often an
> expression of back room manipulation and crafting of legislation, aimed at a
> vote outcome that is carefully planned by the powerful financial
> interests financing the politicians.
> 
> The control of the US Congress, especially the US Senate, is in the hands of
> those who fund campaigns and lobby with the deepest pockets: the Fortune 500
> corporations and millionaires and billionaires.  Even the grass roots
> Internet financing of some candidates is dwarfed by the billions at the
> disposal of the economic elite, on the left or right, who control
> media exposure as media has become increasingly consolidated (so much for
> diversity in that marketplace, as right wing talk radio dominates, even with
> Air Americas emergence) as never before.  US Senate races and re-elections
> are realistic only for candidates with massive financing, and no one can
> seriously run for president in this day without funding exceeding 100
> million dollars.  Am I correct?
> 
> Given we worship money and the power it offers, is this a surprise?  Any
> candidate who poses a serious challenge to the power of corporate America,
> will discover the power of money to undermine or marginalize their
> campaign.  Look at the real deal libertarian Ron Paul's drift into oblivion,
> in part due to the corporate controlled media ignoring him.  Or the "Swift
> Boating" of John Kerry, financed by some very deep pockets.
> 
> Right or left wing, conservative or liberal, are political stereotypes to
> manipulate the public to pursue an agenda based on maximizing wealth and
> power for a economic elite, now expressed in a multinational globalized
> economy.  The national sovereignty of the United States is more and more
> becoming a quaint notion, the struggling US middle class more and more an
> economic embarrassment, as US jobs move overseas and our labor force
> competes with under a dollar an hour foreign workers supplying goods to a
> global marketplace, a fact that Obama and McCain appear hesitant to
> emphasise as a dominate campaign issue, though Ron Paul certainly has.
> Whether Obama or McCain wins this election, they will be facing the power of
> the multinational economic elites to control out government, so I wish them
> luck.
> 
> We have "The Best Democracy That Money Can Buy" as Greg Palast titled his
> book on this subject:
> 
> http://www.gregpalast.com/
> -----------------
> Kudos to capitalism... Those who succeed in achieving the most wealth and
> power should run the nation.  They earned their power and wealth based on
> their superior talents and work ethic, correct?  You don't realistically
> think that the average Jane and Joe getting by on low wage jobs should be
> able to control the government via their puny tax contributions to a
> politicians pay?
> 
> And if the US Congress appears lazy and ineffectual, don't despair!  Private
> free enterprise will run our lives with the magic of the marketplace solving
> all problems... After all, government is just in the way of the workings of
> this marketplace "magic."  Or are you one of those "socialists" who harps on
> about the need for regulation of capitalism by the government, suggesting
> the unregulated capitalist market does not serve the best interests of the
> nation (Blackwater private sector taxpayer funded soldiers of fortune paid 5
> times what a soldier in the US military earns...The fairness of the
> marketplace in action?)?
> 
> I won't attempt to more fully "unpack" the implications of what I wrote in
> this post... Those of more intelligence and erudition than I have already
> spoke (Noam Chomsky, one of the greatest political intellectuals of our
> time, for example), and are being ignored, it appears.
> 
> However, given that my post on Monday, August 18, 2008, in which I mentioned
> Plato's view of democracy, and how it relates to local elections, the wisdom
> of the voting public, and the politicians elected, was dismissed by some on
> this list as though it was impolite and unreasoned, I offer it again now as
> commentary on the foolishness of the voting public, controlled by the
> science of persuasion in modern political campaigns ("Vote For The Bigot
> Party," as the protester in downtown Moscow declared).  Get ready for the
> "Swift Boating" of Obama or McCain (a nonpartisan take):
> 
> http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/2008-August/055439.html
> 
> Plato might have been correct, that Democracy is flawed, that society should
> be run by committees of experts, who really know what they are talking
> about, rather than by politicians with questionable expertise, elected by a
> public of questionable wisdom... Or do I misunderstand Plato's "Republic?"
> [image: DaveGProtest]
> 
> Ted Moffett
> 
> On 8/31/08, Paul Rumelhart <godshatter at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > I hope this topic becomes large enough and loud enough of an issue to
> > actually shame our Congressmen and women into actually participating
> > and/or voting occasionally.  I was on leave for a few days when I was at
> > the Naval Academy and toured DC.  This was in '86, I believe.  One of
> > the things I did was watch a session of Congress.  I don't remember if
> > it was the House of Representatives or the Senate.  It was a surreal
> > experience.  There were, literally, a dozen Congressmen there.  Almost
> > every one of them was reading the newspaper and paying absolutely no
> > attention to the Congressman that was speaking.  The one that was
> > speaking was expressing enthusiastic support for something, I don't
> > remember what.  Not one of the Congressmen that were there acted as if
> > they even heard what was going on.  That one visit trashed my view of
> > our legislative branch forever.  I was actually naive enough at one time
> > to think that the idiots running this country actually cared about
> > something.  If we're not paying these guys and gals to discuss and
> > debate the issues, let alone vote on them, then what are we paying them
> > for?
> >
> > Paul
> >
> >
> 
>