The dangerous myth that our two-party system gives us a choice

it hasn't been true for the majority of my lifetime (now going on 63 years) even though i spent an unfortunate amount of time believing that it does... not any more...

once again, glenn says it best...

[I]t should be apparent to any rational observer that confining oneself to the two-party system -- meaning devoting oneself loyally to one of the two parties' establishments without regard to what it does -- is a ticket to inevitable irrelevance. The same factions rule Washington no matter which of the two parties control the various branches of government (see this excellent new article from Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson on the Obama administration's role in the BP oil spill, and specifically how virtually nothing changed in the oil-industry-controlled Interior Department once Ken Salazar took over [as was quite predictable and predicted]; Interior employees even refer to it as "the third Bush term"). There is clearly a need for new strategies and approaches that involve things other than unconditional fealty to the Democratic Party, which weigh not only the short-term political fears that are exploited to keep Democrats blindly loyal (hey, look over there! It's Sarah Palin!) but also longer-term considerations (the need to truly change the political process and the stranglehold the two parties exert).

i must admit that i was reluctantly won over to obama's campaign, a victim of my own belief that hope in the words that were coming out of obama's mouth was better than the despair that washed over me if i were to succumb to my darkest fears that mccain and obama were merely two sides of the same coin... it wasn't more than two months into obama's term of office that i realized that i, like so many other, had been had... i certainly won't say it couldn't happen to me again... after all, how am i - how are WE - to know what's really in someone's heart...? but i can say this... my cynicism and distrust of those in authority has deepened to an appalling extent...

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Pathetic irony

read this and weep...

A 20-year-old Romanian looking for work hid in the wheel well of a jet in Vienna and survived a 90-minute flight to London, police said Wednesday.

The man told British authorities that he crawled "under the wire" of the Vienna airport's perimeter fence and climbed into the undercarriage of a private Boeing 747 parked near a construction site for a new terminal, Schwechat police chief Leo Lauber said.

Lauber said the jet belonged to a high-ranking sheik from the United Arab Emirates and took off from the Austrian capital Sunday night without any passengers on board.

[...]

Britain has restrictions on the number of Romanians working in the U.K., even though both nations are in the European Union.

think about it... a poor romanian, a guy who's just looking for a job, a romanian the uk won't let in even though both countries are eu nations, stows away in a 747, fercryinoutloud, an unimaginably expensive flying machine, owned by a obscenely rich uae sheik, that then flies to the uk WITHOUT passengers... how sad is that...? at least he survived...

it reminds me when i was working at dulles airport in d.c., an arab sheik's unmarked A-340 would regularly show up at the private aviation terminal... i knew when it was getting ready to leave when i would see all sorts of the sheik's recent purchases being loaded into the cargo bay...

there's evidently no limit to the humiliations the super-rich elites can inflict on the masses...

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How rage becomes a virus - Chris Hedges on the Israeli genocide in Gaza

the sad reality is that it isn't just israel that's perpetrating this kind of atrocity... there's a very simple, straightforward reason that israel and the united states are so closely allied... how can the u.s. speak out against what it practices in its own foreign policy...?

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Of COURSE, Israel is willing to work with Washington

why wouldn't israel want to work with virtually its LAST uncritical ally in the world...?

Israel rejects UN call for international inquiry into flotilla raids

Ambassador to US dismisses Ban Ki-moon's suggestion but says Israel is willing to work with Washington

the cheese stands alone... well, almost...

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