>> ^NetRunner:

>> ^blankfist:
I wish there was a medical system in the US that took care of all of us. I really do. And I'd much rather my tax dollars go to that
We can make your dream of universal taxpayer-funded health care come true! I'll be counting on your support when the GOP tries to repeal Obamacare.
It'll be you, me, and Dennis Kucinich out there yelling for single payer, and getting shouted down by Ron Paul and all the rest of the libertarian and conservative movements who want to make sure we let people die if they can't pay for the treatment they need.


How are those cherries tasting you've been picking?

>> ^blankfist:

I wish there was a medical system in the US that took care of all of us. I really do. And I'd much rather my tax dollars go to that

We can make your dream of universal taxpayer-funded health care come true! I'll be counting on your support when the GOP tries to repeal Obamacare.

It'll be you, me, and Dennis Kucinich out there yelling for single payer, and getting shouted down by Ron Paul and all the rest of the libertarian and conservative movements who want to make sure we let people die if they can't pay for the treatment they need.

You have been awarded 1 Power Point for fixing the embed code for Dead Pool video Dennis Kucinich empties his pockets on The Colbert Report. Thank you for helping maintain VideoSift's reliability.

You have been awarded 1 Power Point for fixing the embed code for Dead Pool video Kucinich - Pocket Master. Thank you for helping maintain VideoSift's reliability.

>> ^raverman:
@Lawdeedaw I was thinking ideologically. But in practice you're right.
Perhaps the right is more open about supporting 'successful individuals and companies' above those on struggle street. But the left has the same dirty secrets and financiers and make more pious but expensive sounding promises they never actually come through on.
But how do we get away from this bureaucratically corrupt version of democracy to a system that better allows decisions that benefit the people as a whole - and takes power away from those who have unfair influence?


Easy enough---vote for the unique candidate. It's hard to notice him let alone tell if he is real. It doesn't matter left or right or even the dreaded "third party." Do it for the rest of your life if you can. I will teach my children this and try to have them do the same. But never, ever tire of the vote.

Just make sure it's not the greasy carsalesman...for me I vote Ron Paul on the right, Nadar on the 3rd party, or Kucinich on the left. In Florida, it was Charlie Christ. So few, but that's because they lose; after all, the nice guy finishes last... So fuck the game, I will cast my vote with the reset button.

Do it and worry about the future later. It cannot be any worse to elect someone you disagree with but who is different. As I have said, "Vote for an honest man and you may not get what you want. Vote for a liar and get what you deserve."

@NetRunner

I would vote for this man even if his platform is not my favorite...to me he could do a lot of damage. But unlike Conservatives and Liberals, I don't care. I care about the character...

@Kucinich, I applaud you sir.

@NetRunner (For brevity)

There is, in my mind, a bigger issue at hand than the tissue at hand (Sorry, Elmo in Grouchland ref...)
And that is the movement of society. Paul isn't, as I have note before, a means to an end. He is the first step in a million mile march. The only two things he can get done in office is 1--Change the direction of our nation's military might (Which is far more important than say Unions from a financial perspective.) 2--Stop federal enforcement of the drug war.


To say you don't trust him on certain things is odd. What would it take to earn your trust? And don't get me wrong, he won't start a movement to get certain things done (I.e., more tolerance for homosexuals)--he is the movement of the right to a center again (Where homosexuals are widely more accepted...) His best friend is politically a death-knell (Dennis Kucinich,) he has continued to hold onto his politically-doomed drug policies, he speaks freely, he doesn't take (much) money from the big guy...etc.

However, how well has Obama done to legalize gay marriage? (He can't, that's up to either the courts or the legislature.) Protecting the unions? (Can't, that's really a state level thing when it comes to practicality...I.e., if the state wants a loophole to doom a union, they can enact one.) One man isn't god in an office--and that's why I don't hate Obama for being a mortal man.

I just can't see myself voting for the never ending war between Big Business R and Big Business D... Voting for Obama or Bachman, or Clinton or Bush, is voting to continue that war and honestly I don't want a part of it. Once we realize this truism we can fix our nation.

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

@Lawdeedaw - Individual members of the legislative branch don't have anything approximating the power of a president. It is true that idealists such as Kucinich, Wellstone, Weiner, Paul and Obama have managed to find a place in the legislative branch, but never have these idealists held the numbers to ever be a credible threat against corporate domination. (What's even more disheartening is the current epidemic of moronic idealists like Santorum, Bachman and Palin, who have been empowered by a decade of Republican campaigning that targets the lowest common denominator.)
Once the idealists enter the Presidential ring, all bets are off. McCain is a great example of a highly principled republican who was basically forced to renounce everything he ever believed in (most prominently campaign finance reform) to get a shot at the golden ring. Obama also broke his promise to only except public funding because he realized it would put him at a severe disadvantage. As long as our current system is in place, no presidential candidate (not even Saint Paul) has a chance of subverting it. This is not an insult against this man, whom I respect despite the fact that he holds some extremely naive economic views. This is just a frank assessment of how fucked up our campaign finance system is.
If you don't think Ron Paul plays the game too, then ask him about Texas pork barrel spending. There is a video on the sift where he freely admits to playing the pork barrel game. I don't blame him for it - you do what you have to do in a fucked up system.
I'm not here to bash Paul. My point is that our current system will not allow him to be what you want him to be, just as the system won't allow Obama to be the President I want him to be.
Speaking as someone who has already suffered through hopey-changey delusions, I'm just trying to save you some grief. Been there. Done that. I guess maybe you have to experience it first hand before you can truly accept this cruel reality on your own terms.
Until this system works for the voters rather than the funders, we are all destined for disappointment. I'd love to see a conservative-liberal truce until we can throw these money changers out of the temple.


You think Keynesian economics got us out of the Great Depression yet Paul's the naive one? Paul's been saying to get rid of the money changers his whole political career. If we had actually been following the Austrian school of economics, none of this would've happen. You can't give a select group of people total control of your economy and then not expect them to take advantage of it.

And Paul always voted against pork spending. That's hardly playing the game.

Obama hasn't been neutered, he was a fraud from the beginning. He's not bombing civilians and waging wars to secure campaign donations. He's been a puppet and PR salesman for Wall Street and their war machine from day one. He's not prosecuting white-collar fraud, he's prosecuting government whistleblowers. He's arming drug cartels in Mexico. He's using flying robots to rain down hellfire missiles in sovereign countries on the other side of the world. He's a neocolonialist. Not because someone is twisting his arm, but because that's what he signed up to be.
Obama can't be the President you want him to be because he's not that guy and never was.

@Lawdeedaw - Individual members of the legislative branch don't have anything approximating the power of a president. It is true that idealists such as Kucinich, Wellstone, Weiner, Paul and Obama have managed to find a place in the legislative branch, but never have these idealists held the numbers to ever be a credible threat against corporate domination. (What's even more disheartening is the current epidemic of moronic idealists like Santorum, Bachman and Palin, who have been empowered by a decade of Republican campaigning that targets the lowest common denominator.)

Once the idealists enter the Presidential ring, all bets are off. McCain is a great example of a highly principled republican who was basically forced to renounce everything he ever believed in (most prominently campaign finance reform) to get a shot at the golden ring. Obama also broke his promise to only except public funding because he realized it would put him at a severe disadvantage. As long as our current system is in place, no presidential candidate (not even Saint Paul) has a chance of subverting it. This is not an insult against this man, whom I respect despite the fact that he holds some extremely naive economic views. This is just a frank assessment of how fucked up our campaign finance system is.

If you don't think Ron Paul plays the game too, then ask him about Texas pork barrel spending. There is a video on the sift where he freely admits to playing the pork barrel game. I don't blame him for it - you do what you have to do in a fucked up system.

I'm not here to bash Paul. My point is that our current system will not allow him to be what you want him to be, just as the system won't allow Obama to be the President I want him to be.

Speaking as someone who has already suffered through hopey-changey delusions, I'm just trying to save you some grief. Been there. Done that. I guess maybe you have to experience it first hand before you can truly accept this cruel reality on your own terms.

Until this system works for the voters rather than the funders, we are all destined for disappointment. I'd love to see a conservative-liberal truce until we can throw these money changers out of the temple.

>> ^BoneRemake:
So.. Whats the difference then ? Every politician lies, "we" all thought barrack was gonna kick ass, and he is just another tool. Doesnt matter what name gets elected, they wont do what they say, they never do.
Politicians are salesmen for themselves, and you can not trust a salesman. I am in the stands on voting, people are stupid and there are a lot of them out there buying this shit.
PHOOEY


Sigh... no. The fact that politicians lie is the outcome--but the reason is FAR more important than the outcome.

Every politician lies. WHY? Because they wouldn't be elected if they didn't. We would punish them, shit on them, and ruin their lives if they told half of what they believed. We do this every election cycle!

We the people make the salesmen.

Why are there so few nice guys left? Because the world eats them up and spits their fucking carcasses out. I hate myself sometimes because I used to be a very nice guy and was sharted on every day from everywhere. Now that I have become wiser, harsher and less likable? I am more liked. I cannot fathom that in any manner.

You’re not stupid for voting for someone you believe is telling you the truth, you’re stupid for going into an election bar, being smooth-talked by some slick fuck in a nice suit, and going home with him to his ballot. Then, when you're crying to your friend about the disease you caught, the same friend that is the honest guy you left at the bar all alone, you wonder why he hangs up the phone on you… You wonder why he doesn't try or care. Because he did try and care--and you didn't.

Sorry for the long tirade. But the excuse is shallow on me. How to stop the lies is far more valuable than to note that they do... Here is a comment I wrote in another video, "On the right, on the left, why can't all politicians be as decent as Paul? Forget what you believe in and vote for the candidate that is most decent as a human being. Because, if you vote for a liar who "believes" as you do, you won't get anything but dick."

I would vote for Dennis John Kucinich too, for the same reason of truthiness. And I am far from liberal... And I am sure Blankfist would too, because, if not, then he would be a very shitty voter. Just like--all the other shitty voters who are damning us all.

Debt Political Theater Diverts Attention While Americans’ Wealth is Stolen

Kucinich:

We have to realize what this country's economy has become. Our monetary policy, through the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, privatized the money supply, gathers the wealth, puts it in the hands of the few while the Federal Reserve can create money out of nothing, give it to banks to park at the Fed while our small businesses are starving for capital.

Mark my words -- Wall Street cashes in whether we have a default or not. And the same type of thinking that created billions in bailouts for Wall Street and more than $1 trillion in giveaways by the Federal Reserve today leaves 26 million Americans either underemployed or unemployed. And nine out of ten Americans over the age of 65 are facing cuts in their Social Security in order to pay for a debt which grew from tax cuts for the rich and for endless wars.

There is a massive transfer of wealth from the American people to the hands of a few and it's going on right now as America’s eyes are misdirected to the political theater of these histrionic debt negotiations, threats to shut down the government, and willingness to make the most Americans pay dearly for debts they did not create.

These are symptoms of a government which has lost its way, and they are a challenge to the legitimacy of the two-party system.

I'll say it again. People need to wake up and notice that they should have voted for Kucinich and should vote for him the next time around. Screw Ron Paul - Kucinich is a left golf wangin' social democrat and that is where it's at. Plus, he get's hotter babes than you who are probably around your age hahaha!

@blankfist upvoted. I'm not at all pleased about it.

In terms of the "my party is better than yours" contest, here are the vote tallies:

Senate Nays by party: 19 Democrats (I'm including Bernie Sanders in there), 4 Republicans.
House Nays by party: 122 Democrats, 31 Republicans.

I'd love to grow those numbers on both sides of the aisle.

Some notable names in both lists:

Pelosi: Nay
Weiner: Nay
Kucinich: Nay
Franken: Nay
Leahy: Nay (and filibustered with Rand, not that the press or CFL mentions that)
Brown: Nay

I want more Democrats in Congress like them, and fewer like Ben Nelson, Joe Lieberman, and Joe Manchin (all voted Aye).

Oh, and this came up in one of my google searches in trying to find those roll call lists: http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2011/05/28/tea-party-roll-call-may-2011-patriot-act/

Looks like the House Tea Party caucus voted overwhelmingly in favor of renewal.

>> ^enoch:

i like ron paul.
i dont necessarily agree with all his positions but i respect a politician who has remained steadfast on his positions through the years.
i think kucinich and sanders are the only other politicians who are the same in that regard.
all the others are just blatant whores.


My thoughts exactly on Sanders and Kucinich. I would gladly take more of them in congress even though they don't represent me exactly just because I know they represent SOMETHING other than getting reelected.

i like ron paul.
i dont necessarily agree with all his positions but i respect a politician who has remained steadfast on his positions through the years.
i think kucinich and sanders are the only other politicians who are the same in that regard.
all the others are just blatant whores.