The real danger here is that whatever good has been capable of manifesting itself lately, whatever good sense, caring, honesty is beaten to the ground by sheer power of the corporate coffers and its ability to control the Word and the Airwaves.

You and I know that well over 50% of this country wants Impeachment of at least Cheney. You and I know that over 50% want this war over yesterday. A much higher percent of the nation wants no part of torture.

High percentages want single-payer health insurance even though we don't really get to hear details and comparisons of this very often.

None of these things seem to matter.

What people want and what the "vote" produces are completely different animals.

Our expectations have been dashed. We keep accepting less and less. THAT is why our democracy is going (if not yet gone).

Look at this nonsense called the political primary process with its phony debates.

BEFORE even half of the country gets to cast "votes" in this silly game (whose rules people accept for no reason that I can fathom), any and all candidates with ideas related to the truth or reflecting the Majority opinions, have been winnowed out already — by the media and the high finances. No "opposing" thought, puh-leez!

We are PERMITTED (oh, thank you, thank you, sir!) to choose from Hillary or Obama...OR...one of the others — I can't even go there.

They ALLOW us this. PRE-chosen, pre-vetted, bought-and-paid-for personalities, but will not allow rocking of the boat. Most folks act grateful for this, and now seriously jump into the debate of: "change" vs. "experience" like choosing features of a car. There are only so many times you can ask yourself if you want leather trim or not. Perhaps a more apt metaphor would be choosing which model electric chair we want: ohhh, this one is more comfortable, but THAT one is more powerful, quicker.....

You could say our "election process" does not permit us to rock any boats -- even if that is what the majority clearly wants. It has too many strings attached, too many tricks, and when even those tricks don't work, well, you still have Diebold and others (plus the Supreme Court) to pick op the slack.

What is NOT permitted is getting the population really informed or (heaven forbid) expressing an informed opinion in a way others could hear about it. Witness FTAA meeting, Miami FL, 2003: eight million dollars of Iraq funding to arm our police against American dissident thought. Did anyone notice? A harbinger, perhaps?

We get pissed when corporate media does not give coverage to impeachment or to hundreds of thousands protesting the war, or to Dennis Kucinich's platform. We get pissed when neocons play fast and loose with the nomination of judges to place those willing to use restrictive voting laws.

So why aren't folks getting pissed that media — and the other "democrats" — allowed legitimate candidates (and, more importantly their IDEAS) to get eliminated so early, well before over half of America gets to even give their opinion. It's like one fifth of the country gets Election A, while the rest get Election B. Why do voters become so docile and compliant, so obedient when it is soooo clear the game is rigged?

Who was it then, who silenced Kucinich, if not the Democrats themselves? Why didn't they stand tall and together to say in Iowa: "if Dennis can't speak, then NONE of us will speak"? Does this differ much from how they silenced Dean in 2004 and Michael Moore when he tried to help? Now the DLC is running and encouraging candidates against Dennis in Ohio. An accident? You tell me. They did the same to McKinney in Georgia. No one who questions the game or the rules is allowed in.

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