Isn`t Left vs Right just a distraction in America? A distraction from what is really taking place behind the scenes? We have an installed dictator and totolitarianism now, as we speak.

The staging of the 2004 election:

http://www.infowars.com/dictators.htm

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is not a distraction. It is an important and necesary struggle. What we call the right wing, world wide, is engaged in a serious and determined effort to limit democracy and govern all nations for the benefit of the wealthy elite and international corporations. The merger of government with corporate interests is defined as fascism. If standing in their path is defined as leftist, then so be it, but we must resist this trend with all we have in us if we want to leave a world worth living in to our children.

Bush and Kerry are the same? There's no difference between the two parties? Bullshit. That is just an old and tired ploy to discourage people from voting. The right can always inundate the political process with money, but they don't have the votes so they must do everything they can to suppress the vote, manipulate the media, and steer the debate away from the central question: do we want our governments to serve the interests of the corporations, or the people?

The threat to our freedom is from one direction-- the right, and the only counterweight to that threat is from the left. Accept that fact and choose your side, or stand on the sidelines and watch others shape your world for you...

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Let's face it, there is no confidence in government and the government has no credibility.  The government has to be toppled by the established legal means and prosecuted, for it has committed gross violations of law and morality.

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Holding hands with the right is just giving in. The Right Wing Agenda should be opposed by all good hearted people day and night until it is defeated. Every good thing in this country was gained through determined struggle. Appeasement has never, can never and will never work against fascism.

And, no, they don't control the vote yet. We should never allow ourselves to give in to any impulse to stop voting. Voting is the first, last and most important right that we have. When you stop going to the polls you have truly been conquered...

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there is soft support for aspects of the rightwing agenda by many Americans.  That doesn't put them firmly in their camp.  No need to alienate them from us completely.  Nevertheless, I am going to act kindly and civil to people on both sides of the perspective (except on Care2)

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Come all of you good workers
Good news to you I'll tell
Of how that good old union
Has come in here to dwell

(Chorus)
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?
Which side are you on?

My daddy was a miner
And I'm a miner's son
And I'll stick with the union
Till every battle's won

They say in Harlan County
There are no neutrals there
You'll either be a union man
Or a thug for J.H. Blair

Oh, workers can you stand it?
Oh, tell me how you can
Will you be a lousy scab
Or will you be a man?

Don't scab for the bosses
Don't listen to their lies
Us poor folks haven't got a chance
Unless we organize

The brave workers who fought for unionization in this country knew that there comes a time when you have to take a stand and choose a side. Much of what they fought for has been lost because of people forgetting which side they are on. Those on the Right never forget and never stop working to enslave us. Reach out your hand to a snake and you will get bitten every time...

Which side are you on?

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I know what side I am on, but I don't perceive many people on the other side. 

solidarity   

http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/music/artist/card/0,,404713,00.html

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When it comes to dealing with people who want undo the Endangered Species Act, privatize (or eliminate) Social Security, take away a woman's right to choose, manage our National Forests for the logging companies, teach evolution in our schools, refuse to address Global Warming, break the Unions, suppress minority voting, pack the courts with Conservative judges, break down the separation between Church and State, spy on us in the name of National Security, get us involved in unwinable foreign wars for the benefit of the oil companies...

As harsh as I can be.

There are two sides, and I know which side I'm on.

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14 characteristics that political scientist Lawrence Britt claims are unmistakable signs that any nation is moving in a fascist direction.

1) powerful and continuing nationalism

2) disdain for the recognition of human rights

3) indentification of enemies and scapegoats as a unifying casue

4) supremacy of the military

5)rampant sexism

6) controlled mass media

7) obsession with national security

8) religion and government intertwined

9) protection of coporate power

10) supression of labor power

11) disdain for intellectuals and the arts

12) obsession with crime and pubishment

13) rampant cronyism and corruption

14) fraudulent elctions.

If there isn't a democract landslide in the next election, number 14 is beyond a doubt in play.

AJ

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Artist/Band: Ochs Phil
Lyrics for Song: I Ain't Marching Anymore
Lyrics for Album: There But for Fortune

~

Oh I marched to the battle of New Orleans
At the end of the early British war
The young land started growing
The young blood started flowing
But I ain't marchin' anymore

For I've killed my share of Indians
In a thousand different fights
I was there at the Little Big Horn
I heard many men lying I saw many more dying
But I ain't marchin' anymore

chorus)
It's always the old to lead us to the war
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the saber and the gun
Tell me is it worth it all

For I stole California from the Mexican land
Fought in the bloody Civil War
Yes I even killed my brothers
And so many others But I ain't marchin' anymore

For I marched to the battles of the German trench
In a war that was bound to end all wars
Oh I must have killed a million men
And now they want me back again
But I ain't marchin' anymore

(chorus)

For I flew the final mission in the Japanese sky
Set off the mighty mushroom roar
When I saw the cities burning I knew that I was learning
That I ain't marchin' anymore

Now the labor leader's screamin'
when they close the missile plants,
United Fruit screams at the Cuban shore,
Call it "Peace" or call it "Treason,"
Call it "Love" or call it "Reason,"
But I ain't marchin' any more,
No I ain't marchin' any more

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pure motherfucking ignorance

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The republicrats define for you what is left and right. For example, the ratification of the Kyoto protocol is neither, because both major parties are owned by the same people so they both oppose it. That is why it isn't a big issue come election time, even though the majority of Americans support ratification. A minor party could take the issue and run with it, if it weren't for the flaws in your democracy that destroy any chance a minor party might have.

The republicrats trick you into thinking that the incompetence of your government is a partisan issue that can be resolved by switching between major parties. It can't. It will be resolved when you fix the flaws in your electoral system.

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The Republicans are blocking Kyoto. The Democrats would sign it.

Republicans are trying to drill ANWR. Democrats are blocking it.

Republicans want to take away a woman's right to choose, Democrats are protecting it.

Republicans want to log our last Roadless Areas and remove Endangered Species Protection. Democrats won't allow it.

Every important issue breaks down the same way. The differences between our two parties are real, they are fundamental, and they are clear.

Left/ Right Polarization is not a distraction-- it is a vital and essential struggle.

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The Democrats would sign it.

The democrats have already blocked ratification on previous occasions.

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You don't know what you're talking about...

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Al Gore??

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you're going to try to discuss current events...

try reading one of these once in awhile...

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You see, the republicrats want you to swear allegiance to one of their two faces, but all they will ever offer you in return is the crumbs off their table - not the important changes you need. Rather than working on the naive assumption that the current system will give you what you want, you need to reform the system that has created all your problems. Flipping the same coin over and over again won't get you a different coin, no matter how vigourously you flip it.

http://www.nationalcenter.org/KyotoSenate.html

On July 25, 1997, before the Kyoto Protocol was finalized (although it had been fully negotiated, and a penultimate draft was finished), the U.S. Senate unanimously passed by a 95–0 vote the Byrd-Hagel Resolution (S. Res. 98)[7], which stated the sense of the Senate was that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol...

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How to become part of the solution, not part of the problem:

Electoral Reform

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Archie, there is no left in the US.  there is just right and more right.  In many countries, almost all parties are more left than the Democrats.

Would Kerry have stopped the war?  Come on.  electoral reform is a solution better than any drivel from Reps. or Dems. trying to justify such a criminal electoral system.

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for this comment:

http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=9603&pst=494327

Archie L.
you 9:36 PM
are the stupidest goddam moron on care two...  

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and I apologize fot spelling "Damn" wrong....

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the title, "stupidist Godamn Moron on Care2 goes to Robert T, hands down.

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If they could learn from nice words, then they would never hear ugly words.

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Are the Bushes and the Clintons trading marbles?

First a Bush, then a Clinton, now again a Bush, what's next Hillary?

Do you call this democracy, or dynasty?

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When Reagan took over, the strong economy during the Carter administration suddenly was about to collapse, leading to worldwide depression and war and oppression, with daily failsafe runs against Russian sovereign territory.  No one had confidence in his government and his policies.  The Democrats must always win the elections vs the Republicans, because then the 95% less fortunate have hope of a better life, of increase, if they work harder they think they can be successful or even become rich.  With the Republicans every thing is reorganized, downsized, the treasury looted by the rich, pay scale much less, etc.  The Democrats represent big labor interests, the interests of minorities, etc.  The Republicans only represent the interests of the very rich.

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http://www.skeptictank.org/isaac.htm   

The Reagan Doctrine by Isaac Asimov
From The Austin American-Statesman, May 10, 1981

Some time ago, Ronald Reagan pointed out that one couldn't trust the Soviet government because the Soviets didn't believe in God or in an afterlife and therefore had no reason to behave honorably, but would be willing to lie and cheat and do all sorts of wicked things to aid their cause. Naturally, I firmly believe that the president of the United States knows what he is talking about, so I've done my very best to puzzle out the meaning of that statement.

Let me begin by presenting this "Reagan Doctrine" (using the term with all possible respect): "No one who disbelieves in God and in an afterlife can possibly be trusted." If this is true (and it must be if the president says so), then people are just naturally dishonest and crooked and downright rotten. In order to keep them from lying and cheating every time they open their mouths, they must be bribed or scared out of doing so. They have to be told and made to believe that if they tell the truth and do the right thing and behave themselves, they will go to heaven and get to plunk a harp and wear the latest design in halos. They must also be told and made to believe that if they lie and steal and run around with the opposite sex, they are going to hell and will roast over a brimstone fire forever.

It's a little depressing, if you come to think of it. By the Reagan Doctrine, there is no such thing as a person who keeps his word just because he has a sense of honor. No one tells the truth just because he thinks that it is the decent thing to do. No one is kind because he feels sympathy for others, or treats others decently because he likes the kind of world in which decency exists.

Instead, according to the Reagan Doctrine, anytime we meet someone who pays his debts, or hands in a wallet he found in the street, or stops to help a blind man cross the road, or tells a casual truth -- he's just buying himself a ticket to heaven, or else canceling out a demerit that might send him to hell. It's all a matter of good, solid business practice; a matter of turning a spiritual profit and of responding prudently to spiritual blackmail.

Personally, I don't think that I -- or you -- or even president Reagan -- would knock down an old lady and snatch her purse the next time we're short a few bucks. If only we were sure of that heavenly choir, or if only we were certain we wouldn't get into that people-fry down in hell. But by the Reagan Doctrine, if we didn't believe in God and in an afterlife, there would be nothing to stop us, so l guess we all would.

But let's take the reverse of the Reagan Doctrine. If no one who disbelieves in God and in an afterlife can possibly be trusted, it seems to follow that those who do believe in God and in an afterlife can be trusted. Since the American government consists of god-fearing people who believe in an afterlife, it seems pretty significant that the Soviet Union nevertheless would not trust us any farther than they can throw an ICBM. Since the Soviets are slaves to godless communism, they would naturally think everyone else is as evil as they are. Consequently, the Soviet Union's distrust of us is in accordance with the Reagan Doctrine.

Yet there are puzzles. Consider Iran. The Iranians are a god-fearing people and believe in an afterlife, and this is certainly true of the mullahs and ayatollahs who comprise their government. And yet we are reluctant to trust them for some reason. President Reagan himself has referred to the Iranian leaders as "barbarians."

Oddly enough, the Iranians are reluctant to trust us, either. They referred to the ex-president (I forget his name for he is never mentioned in the media anymore) as the "Great Satan" and yet we all know that the ex- president was a born-again Christian.

There's something wrong here. god-fearing Americans and god-fearing Iranians don't trust each other and call each other terrible names. How does that square with the Reagan Doctrine?

To be sure, the God in whom the Iranians believe is not quite the God in whom we believe, and the afterlife they believe in is a little different from ours. There are no houris, alas, in our heaven. We call our system of belief Christianity and they call theirs Islam, and come to think of it, for something like twelve centuries, good Christians believed Islam was an invention of the devil and believers in Islam ("Moslems") courteously returned the compliment so that there was almost continuous war between them. Both sides considered it a holy war and felt that the surest way of going to heaven was to clobber an infidel. What's more, you didn't have to do it in a fair and honorable way, either. Tickets of admission just said, "Clobber!"

This bothers me a little. The Reagan Doctrine doesn't mention the variety of god or afterlife that is concerned. It doesn't indicate that it matters what you call God -- Allah, Vishnu, Buddha, Zeus, Ishtar. I don't think that president Reagan meant to imply a Moslem couldn't trust a Shintoist or that a Buddhist couldn't trust a Parsee. I think it was just the godless Soviets he was after.

Yet perhaps he was just being cautious in not mentioning the fact that the variety of deity counted. But even if that were so there are problems.

For instance, the Iranians are Moslems and the Iraqi are Moslems. Both are certain that there is no god but Allah and that Mohammed is his prophet and believe it with all their hearts. And yet, at the moment, Iraq doesn't trust Iran wo  [ send green star]

But then, you know, they are Moslems and perhaps we can't just go along with any old god. I can see why Reagan might not like to specify, since it might not be good presidential business to offend the billions of people who are sincerely religious but lack the good taste to be Christians. Still, just among ourselves, and in a whisper, perhaps the only people you can really trust are good Christians.

Yet even that raises difficulties. For instance, I doubt that anyone can seriously maintain that the Irish people are anything but god-fearing, and certainly they don't have the slightest doubts concerning the existence of an afterlife. Some are Catholics and some are Protestants, but both of these Christian varieties believe in the Bible and in God and in Jesus and in heaven and in hell. Therefore, by the Reagan Doctrine, the people of Ireland should trust each other.

Oddly enough, they don't. In Northern Ireland there has been a two-sided terrorism that has existed for years and shows no sign of ever abating. Catholics and Protestants blow each other up every chance they get and there seems to be no indication of either side trusting the other even a little bit.

But then, come to think of it, Catholics and Protestants have had a thing about each other for centuries. They have fought each other, massacred each other, and burned each other at the stake. And at no time was this conflict fought in a gentlemanly, let's-fight-fair manner. Any time you caught a heretic or an idolater (or whatever nasty name you wanted to use) looking the other way, you sneaked up behind him and bopped him and collected your ticket to heaven.

We can't even make the Reagan Doctrine show complete sense here in the United States. Consider the Ku Klux Klan. They don't like the Jews or the Catholics, but then, the Jews don't accept Jesus and the Catholics do accept the Pope, and these fine religious distinctions undoubtedly justify distrust by a narrow interpretation of the Reagan Doctrine. The protestant Ku Klux Klan can only cotton to Protestants.

Blacks, however, are predominantly protestant, and of southern varieties, too, for that is where their immediate ancestors learned their religion. Ku Kluxers and Blacks have very similar religions and therefore even by a narrow interpretation of the Reagan Doctrine should trust each other. It is difficult to see why they don't.

What about the Moral Majority? They're absolute professionals when it comes to putting a lot of stock in God and in an afterlife. They practice it all day, apparently. Naturally, they're a little picky. One of them said that God didn't listen to the prayers of a Jew. Another refused to share a platform with Phyllis Schlafly, the moral majority's very own sweetheart, because she was a Catholic. Some of them don't even require religious disagreements, just political ones. They have said that one can't be a liberal and a good Christian at one and the same time so that if you don't vote right, you are going straight to hell whatever your religious beliefs are. Fortunately, at every election they will tell you what the right vote is so that you don't go to hell by accident.

Perhaps we shouldn't get into the small details, though. The main thing is that the Soviet Union is Godless and, therefore, sneaky, tricky, crooked, untrustworthy, and willing to stop at nothing to advance their cause. The United States is god-fearing and therefore forthright, candid, honest, trustworthy, and willing to let their cause lose sooner than behave in anything but the most decent possible way.

It bothers the heck out of me therefore that there's probably not a country in the world that doesn't think the United States, through the agency of the CIA and its supposedly underhanded methods, has upset governments in Guatemala, Chile, and Iran (among others), has tried to overthrow the Cuban government by a variety of economic, political, and even military methods, and so on. In every country, you'll find large numbers who claim that the United States fought a cruel and unjust war in Vietnam and that it is the most violent and crime-ridden nation in the world.

They don't seem to be impressed by the fact that we're god-fearing.

Next they'll be saying that Ronald Reagan (our very own president) doesn't know what he's talking about.

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I think the real struggle now is between the Corporate Interests that want to control our lives (and who now control the "top tier candidates" for President in both major parties) and freedom loving individuals of various political persuasions..

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Libertarianism is a political philosophy maintaining that all persons are the absolute owners of their own lives, and should be free to do whatever they wish with their persons or property, provided they allow others the same liberty. Broadly speaking, there are two types of libertarians: consequentialists and rights theorists.^[1] Rights theorists hold that it is morally imperative that all human interaction, including government interaction with private individuals, should be voluntary and consensual. They maintain that the initiation of force by any person or government, against another person or their property — with "force" meaning the use of physical force, the threat of it, or the commission of fraud against someone — who has not initiated physical force, threat, or fraud, is a violation of that principle. This form of libertarianism is associated with Objectivists, as well as with individualist anarchists who believe opposition to the State (i.e, government in general) is consistent with this principle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism

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