Semantics nit-pic: Why has that stupid term ‘Welfare State’ become so popular with progressive writers? That term is loaded and does not serve to help the progressive cause. Whatever happened to ‘Commonwealth’? You know, those things we hold in common. Even the worst Tea Baggers in my neighborhood can be reached through that word, though [...]

My take on your three points, by para: No. Both defensive and offensive. Trying to stop something and trying to start something. You know. Always that inescapable duality. (suggest: Sun Tzu – Art of War.) I’m a fisherman, correcting flaws and corruptions in my gear makes it work good. Revolution has never worked, really. Look. [...]

Oh. You’re a maoist musketeer. How’s that working for you?

Yes. And thanks for the report. Added some things, in the post above yours, that I should have included in my piece. I’m a cheerleader in California, and you know my view on Occupy K Street. As I see the cops fracturing the physical occupation, my intent is to help draw focus on occupying the [...]

Hey! Whoever posted that video of the K Street Occupation, thanks!

Of course. Corupt payola is only one tool used to prop up the regime. Everybody knows that. Yet I see little ultimate value in the helter-skelter approach, alone. My article suggests a methodical approach with focus on a popular, possibly uniting issue that most Americans agree on. Paine, Henry, Jefferson, Franklin and the early writers [...]

Thanks for reading. I think wayoutwest expresses the feeling of hopelessness a lot of us feel. Yet, if there is a single issue that right now galvanizes citizens of all political stripes, Lobby Reform is it. This is a viable focus that Occupy might win on. If this one change could be achieved, the affect [...]

“…without power these ideas are pipedreams.”

Good thing Thomas Paine didn’t believe that.

And your last paragraph indicates that you don’t really believe that. So there’s hope. Nothing ventured…

The only real power is Cause & Affect. Everybody contributes.

Thanks for reading me.

Really. There is no Tea Party and there never was. Only another label stuck over the same Rebublican brand. Something catchy to motivate the far-right fatties and skinheads. And shame on liberal journalists who’ve given the label the credibilty of mention while refraining from pointing out what it really is: simply the same old Rebublican [...]

Under the present system we continue toward derailment. Corruption is built in.

Three things we must accomplish: Publicly held and financed presidential elections; term limits; lobby by petition only.

Nothing I’d like better than to see the whole bunch of them blasting off like naked rockets to be with Jesus in the clouds. Maybe in a hundred years… And those bumper stickers, though disturbing enough, are innocuous compared to some I’ve seen, including one of Obama behind crosshairs. No caption. Their saint, Ronald Reagan, [...]

My friend, you have yer finger on this thing. And the latest information being released from the FBI investigation backs what you write. He was a frequenter of Right-Wing blogs and clearly immersed in the Republican milieu. Gee, who’d of thought.

At this time, the debate is moot. Progressives won yardage during the Vietnam War period because they were backed by the hammer of far-left factions like SDS, the Weather Underground, Black Panthers and many others no longer existant. It is going to take much more than a rhetorical front to actualize the Commonwealth, by the [...]

Twain: don’t expect help from the government. We are long past being a participatory democracy. Make no mistake: the Right is firmly in control of the government.

And therein we witness the insane belief system at the core of the Right. They have made the construct of the tinderbox real. God directs their mission. Is anybody still so naive as to think there is any kind of civil discourse that would sway these people? In the end, they control all political and [...]

Make no mistake: we are all the way there. And the usual twaddle on the Left, debating whether we are or not. The Right laughs at us.

Very good comparison. It is amazing the number of American progressives who’ve left for Canada and South America in recent years.

“Whatever rhetoric the left produces, its talk must be a conspicuous feature of a large social movement.” As a freelance journalist, I produce rhetoric continually. This has brought me death threats for even innocuous commentary in our local paper. I live in a region where these people and their ideas are accepted status quo. They [...]

Sad truth in your post. As a freelance journalist living in Northeastern Washington, close to the Idaho border, I live the truth of what you say. The crazies are not fringe here, they are the status quo. They consider violence against a “lib-rul” a victory for God. They are beyond reason, make no mistake. Even [...]