Phil Gramm’s wife was heading Born’s FCTC before she was appointed by Clinton I believe. And she then went on to glory in Enron’s back rooms. And her husband Gramm wrote the deregulating Modernization of Commodities bill that destroyed any hope of regulating the markets..

Brooksley Born was the woman who was the only true HEROINE but, like Hillary Clinton after her, she was vilified and destroyed by the boys’ Club in Washington. Born was told by Greenspan that he didn’t mind about “Fraud” in the markets as it was not a problem. Talking about ethical relativism!

(p.s. Hillary tho has not and will never be destroyed. She knows how to play and beat them at their own game!)

by what mechanism would the people override the rule of law in your fantasy world? more to the point, why would they NEED to if they can just rewrite the laws according to rule of law?

1. the dictionary defn of republic is: “a state in which the supreme power rests in the body of citizens entitled to vote and is exercised by representatives chosen directly or indirectly by them.” which is just what you seem to saying a democracy is. ‘people’ is in the word, after all.

2. what you’re describing (mostly) is a constitutional system. we can have a constitutional democracy or a constitutional republic (or both, actually).

3. where do you think the law that is the rule comes from? from democratic institutions–we elect representatives who get together to vote on the laws. just b/c we use democratic means to create our laws doesn’t somehow demean the rule of law. there’s no connection.

most of your arguments pertain to a pure, direct democracy. which we don’t have. we have a limited democratic constitutional republic. these are just words, they DESCRIBE our system of government.

2. it’s communism that is a proven failure. there are several problems with the direct line between that and obama’s vision: a) those were dictatorships. b) they were attempts at pure communism. c) there are some very successful examples of socialism (not pure socialism) at work in europe today. you may think of europe as a bogeyman, but in fact many countries have a very high standard of living, including health care, longevity, and vacation. doesn’t sound all bad does it?

here’s the problem. its not just a label, its a belief – not just with the general population, but with our elected officials as well. if everyone agrees that the will of the people over-ride any written rule, its simply a matter of conditioning the populace to support your agenda. its an end-around of the laws that have governed us so well for so long. and its not just the democrats that have been doing this, its a game that has been played out for several decades now.

we as americans must put our foot down and forcefully declare “no more”!

“anyone who would sacrifice a little liberty for a little security will lose both, and deserve neither.”

there isn’t anything wrong with individual social programs. they can be quite helpful (when done right). the problem is when we have too many that are too large, that become ever intrusive to our daily lives. at some point they are taking more from our checks then they should to support the “many”. at this point one could argue that we would be crossing the threshold into socialism. its also worth pointing out that socialism is the root of both fascism & communism.

the problem with socialism is its a proven failure. even before cuba, n. korea, or the USSR, the pilgrims unknowingly gave it a shot. when they were almost wiped out in the first year, bradford decided to change things a little – he let them own their property and keep the food they produced, instead of putting it in a common store as they had been doing. production increased so dramatically that not only did they thrive, but they also produced enough surplus that they were selling it to europe. even before the time of karl marx, joseph stalin, or fidel castro, socialism had lost to capitalism on basic principles before either had a chance to be packaged as ideologies and marketed to the world.

yes, we have a democratic mechanism in the hiring/firing of our officials, but that is the extent of it. people need to realize our true rule in US government – we are essentially the HR department, and for some time we have been neglecting our responsibilities!

but this lone democratic mechanism dosen’t conflate us into “democracy” – its just a common sense way to decide who will represent us in our federal government. one must really admire the shear genius of those who so carefully crafted this nation – we are a republic, not a single state (like rome) but a federation of independent states. our officials do not inherit titles, but must be chosen by their constituents (or at least, thats how its SUPPOSED to work). even at it core it is divided into three branches that offset each other, each holding power equal to the other in its own right that keeps the whole thing in check & preventing either entity from becoming too powerful…. so long as the rules are adhered to, and the people (aka “HR department”) do their job. it isn’t our place to clamor in the streets to demand the frivolous or force the hand of washington to suit our local special interests, its our job to watch them vigilantly, and throw out the bums that aren’t up to snuff.

You can ease out of your positions with gibberish but strip off the veneer and what residue remains is the essence of greed and corruption. It is difficult to address centuries of bad judgment in a few paragraphs.
That would take bound volumes; this forum is not set up for that. But it offers the opportunity to speak our minds and perhaps chip away at false premises.

We cannot solve our current crisis with more theorizing. Only government action can tackle that issue. And the U.S. Congress, the administration, courts and media are owned by foreign bankers. Helllloooo. They call the
shots. All else is wishful thinking and you cannot whitewash this mess with preapproved, pat rationale or rationalization.

Jump out of the controlling Matrix and regain
your intellectual freedom. It is frightening,
akin to your first day at Kindergarten, but also
quite liberating–the first step to becoming a fully-realized adult.

(Also, pray that Obama doesn’t sign the Copenhagen Treaty on Climate Change. In fact,
do something other than chatter; contact your
representative–wouldn’t hoit.)

and, yes, majority rule can lead to majority tyranny, which is why we have the minority protections of the Constitution. but none of this has anything to do with socialism. you’ve been watching too much glenn beck.

There have been monopolies that have been a great blessing to consumers, like Standard Oil and Alcoa, and more recently Microsoft could fall into this catagory, and they achieved their prominence because they did NOT gouge customers, and they did NOT have backdoor deals with corrupt politicians.

Except, they did. Bill Gates might be a better marketer than his competitors; but this does not make him or his company a better designer of computer software.

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2000/0403msverdict.html

(Did he win on appeal?)

We need strong regulation with ferocious teeth AND a free economy. By that I mean we encourage capitalists to get ahead on their ability and not by chicanery or criminal enterprise.

Ferd:
Yes, that’s what I’m driving at. What most people (including you, Onofre’s Arm) don’t seem to get is that the scoundrels are always with us and capitalism, by its nature ans its internal structure, tends to accommodate, hide and reward them.

Right now they have taken over this country and are pillaging its wealth with absolute impunity. If we are to survive as a nation, this has to be stopped.

And just to make my point clear Ayn Rand is a intellectual pygmy whose absurd ‘philosophical’ rantings only served as cover for the the stupid, the selfish and the greedy. And, yes, I’ve read her ‘work’ including her astonishingly bad novels. No one who is serious about philosophy has any respect for her at all, only gullible fools and weasels looking for cover promote her drivel.

Onofre’s Arm: if you’re waiting for John Galt you might as well join the others under the Obama bus.