now that justice stevens is retiring, all other justices, plus the new nominee, have schooled, taught and/or administered at harvard and/or yale.  all of them!  look it up.

Bill Moyer's "Journal" is no longer on the air.  He retired from broadcast, much to the relief of those on whom he shined a bright light of accountability through journalism. 

Much of the content of his last few programs concerned the financial disaster that we have experienced in the past couple years.  He has interviewed authors, regulators, commentators, analysts, politicians, etc. for the purpose of explaining what happened, how it happened, who was (and is) responsible and steps needed moving forward.  Moyer is an excellent interviewer and commentator that has the gift of presenting an issue from multiple perspectives and leaves the viewer with a greater understanding of the issue without dumbing it down.

Two concepts came up in recent interviews regarding the financial crisis that really piqued my interest.  In separate interviews, the terms "oligarchy" and "plutocracy" were used to describe the conditions that have evolved to allow the financial institutions to get away with what they have that has created the circumstances that we are struggling with today. 

1) there is no difference between the democrats and the republicans, the demopublicans. whichever party is in power we get more intervention, foreign and domestic.  make no mistake, central power (government, banking media) intervention had alot to do with our current financial and economic problems.

2) we have been moving left as a country for decades, most times slowly (ie frog in pot on stove) and sometimes quickly (new deal, great society, now).

as always, we must define our terms, keep it simple:

liberal: more government (taxes, spending, entitlements, DEBT, rules, etc.)

conservative:  less government

the choices: anarchy, democracy, republic, oligarchy, dictatorship

the word 'democracy' does NOT appear at all in the declaration of independence, the bill of rights, or the consitution of the united states of america.  not one time!

james madison, the father of the constitution, said that democracy is dangerous and we should not have it.

ben franklin, when asked what kind of government we have, replied "a republic, if you can keep it"

yet, most people have been told and taught that we are a democracy, we have always been a democracy, and that it is not only good, but needs to be exported around the world.

someone please explain me

The Problem of Minority Party Rule

By Michael Kleen

After each presidential election, partisans and pundits alike are quick to declare an electoral mandate for the winning candidate. In 2004, incumbent President George W. Bush himself told reporters, “I earned capital in this campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it… When you win, there is… a feeling that the people have spoken and embraced your point of view.” Echoing those sentiments, Vaughn Ververs at CBS News called Barack Obama’s 2008 victory “a sweeping mandate for Obama’s campaign mantra of change.” 

But does the winning candidate really have “a mandate” or “political capital” gained from having been chosen by a majority of the electorate? The data suggests otherwise, and the implications for this more accurate picture—that of a highly partisan minority imposing its will on the electorate—are troubling at best. This reality upends the traditional problem of representative government (tyranny of the majority) and calls into question the legitimacy of an activist, centralized state in a democratic republic. 

President Obama was in Illinois yesterday and was met with tea party protesters which turned into a near riot according to local news. 

A Facebook group praying for the death of Obama reached 1 million. 

Limbaugh and Beck continue to refer to Obama as a racist, a socialist, a Marxist, and a variety of other unflattering and inaccurate "ists". 

The Southern Poverty Law Center reports that hate groups have increased dramatically since Obama took office.

Using a clever trick of perception, Tim Wise asked reader of his blog to imagine the public reaction if the "Tea Party" antics and those of political representatives and celebrities were played out by a predominately black demographic rather than the almost exclusively white make-up the individuals in question.  It is a powerful perspective.