Looks like a bigger crowd of volunteers for Bernie in Ohio than Hillary gets in IA.

I think it has deeper roots, going back to the post reconstruction era at least. Perhaps earlier.

Think of the railroad barons and our pals, the Wall Street bankers, who crashed the economy every few years. Think of Andrew Carnegie, the steel king, whose steel built the rails that J.P. Morgan and friends financed. And the dukes of coal, that kept the Carnegie works going, and their miners fighting and dying to unionize against the peonage of their working conditions and pay (Interesting factoid: Carnegie sold his company to J.P. Morgan in 1901 for $480 million[3] (in 2015, $13.6 billion), creating the U.S. Steel Corporation. (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Carnegie )

Consider Andrew Jennings Bryan's campaigns against the "cross of gold" that made money (and farm loans, in particular) so tight that small farms by the hundreds of thousands were repossessed by Wall Street bankers, throwing farmers and their families off their land and out of their homes.

T.R. improved the status of the citizenry by busting the trusts, imposing health, sanitation and safety regulations, etc. Then after WWI, the corrupt Republicans took over and ran the country off the rails and into the great depression.

FDR brought us back from the brink of a socialist revolution, and saved capitalism in this country. And look how he was paid back by the industrialist's planned coup and later trading with the enemy. And right up front and accounted for were the Dulles Brothers and Prescott Bush and Brown Brothers Harriman banking house. Notable employees included George Herbert Walker and his son-in-law Prescott Bush.

Immediately post war, The Dulles boys took over American foreign policy, founded the secretive national security state, kick-started the cold war, hired Hitler's scientists and spies, brought down democracies around the world, and founded the permanent MIC.

Eisenhower, JFK and RFK tried to stop it, And we know what happened to the Kennedy brothers for presuming to call halt.

Now think about the years and elections that ensued. Most everyone misses the fact that Republican and Democratic candidates were decided upon in smoke filled, all male conclaves, led by party bosses who were often none too honest themselves. The capo di tutti capos in those days were none other than Averell Harriman for the Dems and Prescott Bush for the Republicans. Remember that old Prescott hand picked Nixon. As for Ave, his blessing was required before any candidate could be nominated. In fact, his influence continued long after his death, in the person of his wife, the gorgeous Pamela Churchill Harriman, formerly the daughter in law of Winston Churchill. I recall either TIME or Newsweek mentioning that she had the final say in the vetting of Bill Clinton.

The lawyers and bankers who were charged with trading with the enemy, even after war had begun, were in charge of the republic. And we all know the rest of the story at this point.

I have begun to think that our heroes were anomalies in the smooth running of a corrupt oligarchic state.

When they talk about a level playing field, think of strip mining.

You don't get to the money shot by bringing the bottom of the mountain up to its peak. You level the mountain to get to the coal faster and more profitably. Oh... and you throw the waste into rivers and streams because who cares if your poisonous water kills the inhabitants. They're not your problem.

I may just have the right name ... and it reclaims some key words and memes from the repukes.

How about the Freedom Democrats along the lines of Roosevelt's four freedoms (though not necessarily the same exact words, as repukes have twisted so many fine terms that when they say freedom it means freedom for the global corporations, banksters and billionaires to loot and pillage the 99%. The thing is most ordinary people on both sides have no idea of that. They still believe that freed means freedom for the little guy, so most of the tea party types probably think.they're fighting to keep their own freedom from what they have learned to view as tyranny.

The.name could then seamlessly flow into the simple but powerful statement of "freedom from what" and "freedom to do what" which form our most basic core principles Like.Roosevelt's four freedoms, this works best as one simple declarative statement for each of our categories. Policies can then flow from these statements.

I think most Americans would flock to the polls to vote for candidates who are committed to our positions.

What do you think everybody?

Neocon Kagans were top Patreus advisors in Afghanistan.

I can't believe there aren't several threads on this huge WaPo story today. The neocons rolled Obama on Afghanistan and controlled Petraeus’s thinking.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/civilian-analysts-gained-petraeuss-ear-while-he-was-commander-in-afghanistan/2012/12/18/290c0b50-446a-11e2-8061-253bccfc7532_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines

Listening to McCain, does it seem to anyone else..

McC's speech struck my ear as the script either he or Romney had planned to give right after he " (R) pinned Obama to the wall on Benghazi in the third debate. Of course, O turned the tables on Rmoney with his "please proceed" response. I think I just heard the plan that was originally intended to take O down in a real October Surprise that he deftly averted. It's back now but way less potently in its potential to damage the president very badly. And I have very little doubt that the whole dangerous housewives piece was part of the plan ... tho maybe not in the way they intended.

WOW!!! Nobody likes what R is saying about education or econ.

O is getting big peaks as he contradicts the twit. And people are with O.

The CNN lines are going heavily for PBO.

Rmoney has been close to flat as he parrots our President. PBO is also doing especially well with women.

Is that the tenor section of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir over on the side?

Who are those glum white men and why are there no women in that group?

CNN is doing fact checking!

And they're doing it straight. They actually may be less depressing than MSNBC. I think I'll try it for a bit and see if it continues.