I'm depressed. How did we get to the point that...

[sfam]

Americans are angry when the Supreme Court (barely) restores the right of Habeas Corpus to detainees held for 6 years.

How did we get to the point that people don't want to revisit why our government lied to us to get us into a war that has bankrupt our country while killing over 4000 soldiers and an undetermined number of contractors?

How did we get to the point that most people are saddled with $4.00 a gallon gas while the top 5% of the country have never had it better?

How did we get to the point that we no longer have an independent, free press? At best, we now have biased folks on the right shouting to biased folks on the left. The days of actual truth seeking seem long past, having long been overtaken by "balanced" reporting of "both sides".

How did we get to the point that well over 90% of our congressmen and Senators are virtually guaranteed re-election, even though as a group, they have done a job so crappy as to continually disgust the entire country? How did we let our representative democracy get gerrymandered away?

How did we get to the point that our country's finances are virtually guaranteed a massive train wreck when all the baby boomers retire? Given the non-stop Christmas-like binge spending over the past 8 years, it's almost a certainty at this point.

How did we get to the point that we are on the precipice of possibly ruining planet earth while doing little to even make an effort to slow its destruction down?


Obama is now our Nominee. I do believe he is a transformational figure. If anyone can begin to address these problems, I think it will take someone who can actually bring the regular citizens back into the process while transcending party positions.

That said, we Americans really have dug ourselves a pretty big hole.

Can we? Can we really fix this?

[Doctor_J]

1. Read The Turner Diaries if you want to see where we're headed

if we don't make some substantial changes really soon.

[cliffordu]

5. Isn't there an extreme racist component to those books??

[Doctor_J]

16. Yes in the book the revolutionary force are a bunch of white supremecists

fighting against a "PC" government. But the bigger story is about a government that becomes a criminal enterprise that is completely unresponsive to the people, with political prosecutions, lawlessness, oppression, joblessness, and state-run media. The US is headed rapidly toward 3rd world status, and we'll eventually have one of those peasant uprisings like they have in Central America.

[sfam]

23. I don't think we need to read that book to see the writing on the wall...if we don't have...

a representative democracy, than all the rest of this stuff quickly doesn't matter. This is pretty much the core of our democracy. If that goes, so does pretty much everything else.

[newmajority]

18. Uh, we saw what the "Turner Diaries" can do back in 1995

It was Tim McVeigh's favorite book :(

[Doctor_J]

21. I know. I am afraid that if we can't get back to honest elections,

honest media, constitutional law, and so forth, we will end up with a disaster on our hands.

[cliffordu]

2. I think there will be a "readjustment" - another

world wide depression and then, maybe a saner country.

Or we have a prison planet.

I hope Obama can help US make the changes we need to make. I believe, however, that he ( and thus, we) are too late.

[sfam]

6. And here I was SURE the first response was gonna be, "Yes We Can"

I guess everyone is a bit depressed and worried about this stuff too...

[FrenchieCat]

3. When Bush said he "disagreed" with the SCOTUS.....I asked myself

How come in 2000, the SCOTUS was the law of the land with its idiotic Bush V. Gore decision and no one could say a damn word.

This country under Bush really, really sucks.

[sfam]

13. My fear is how long it will still suck once he's gone...

Some of these problems can be address. Iraq, world opinion of the US, beginning to do something about our energy policy, adding regulations in the housing market and so forth.

Other problems seem more fundamental, like the loss of representative democracy and the lack of a free press.

I just wonder whether these things can even be repaired now.

But yeah, this country under Bush really does suck...HARD.

[midnight]

4. It is all about when are we going to fix this. I believe in sooner

than later.

[Lorien]

7. Apathy> Television>the mainstream media> megacorporations> GREED

n/t

[cliffordu]

8. Yep -

[panader0]

9. Yes We Can!!

It's time for the pendulum to swing back. I too think BO is a transformational figure. Nearly every other nation in the world is excited to have him elected so the people of the entire world can start to work out solutions to our problems, not just to use the office of POTUS to line their pockets with oil money.

[sfam]

15. Where is Terry Mcauliffe when we need him...

He could say with conviction that this will all be straightened out!

But I absolutely agree with you that if anyone can address this, Barack can.

Its just that the problems have grown so large...

[NC_Nurse]

10. Sadly, this has been going on for some time....

I'm not angry anymore, just tired.

I really hope Obama delivers on his promises. :)

[randr]

11. Thank you

I am printing your post to share with as many people as I can.

[peacebird]

12. record breaking tornado season underway... Highest number of deaths from tornadoes since 1998

I am concerned that we may not have enough time to reverse the damage of climate change, that Dr James Lovelock may be right. I had always believed we would find a way to solve the problems, that necc. was the mother of invention... etc, etc...

I find myself wondering if we have pushed past a tipping point in our arrogance.

sigh.

[frogcycle]

14. to all your questions save the last

read Right is Wrong by Arianna Huffington

A VERY good read

as to the last - in a generation or two, maybe

[newmajority]

17. It's the goddamn fucking corporate whore media!!

They are literally trying to spin this as "the court compromising the pResident's ability to fight the (so-called)war on terra"

[sampsonblk]

19. Lack of leadership is one of the many problems

How did we get to the point where a pResident can be so crooked and not get impeached? How did we get to the point where the "opposition" is afraid to even say the words "criminal" and "impeachment" and "illegal" in public?

If we had courageous leadership, we might be able to come back from this dark period. So far, its not looking very good. Everyone's looking to save their own skins.

[Radio_Lady]

20. Well, I voted for hope... and thought it would come from Nancy Pelosi and the other Dems in 2006.

Sadly, this Congress has been gridlock negativity from start to finish. But Oregonians have another chance in November.

I just found out that in our state of Oregon, where we have one Democrat (Ron Wyden) and one Republican (Gordon Smith) as our senators -- when one voted YEA and the other NAY -- during voting in the Senate -- 1500 times -- they canceled each other out!

We are working hard for Democrat Jeff Merkeley to replace Republickook Gordon Smith.

[sfam]

22. Exactly. If they were a congress interested in the public good, impeachment hearings would have...

begun NLT 2006. For both Bush AND Cheney.

But that would have made us lose the election in 2008, and we can't have that. Better to let our country slide into the shitter than to lose a chance at 2008...

[sampsonblk]

24. Well said - nt

[eleny]

25. The Kool Aid has been steady and strong

And yes, we can fix this.

The icing on the cake for today is Scalia has made a damned fool of himself with his ranting dissension. And there's not a thing he can do about the decision. It's final. Happy Heartburn Day, Anton, you asshat. History is going to be very nasty to you. I'd get a piss-proof grave, ya bastard.

[Cha]

26. It is major depressing

but life can change on a dime.. that's why we have to keep working and going forward 'cause we're a lot better off, even if it's by increments, than we were 8 and then four years ago.

Thanks for your work, sfam.

[happydreams]

27. I've thought about some of your questions ...

One way we got here is 9/11. Chaos works wonders for fascists. It is depressing how easy it is to stage something like 9/11 and then use it to condition people to accept the previously unacceptable.