The Scariest Thing Of All

Whether you have to battle the snow today, or your community attempted to celebrate the holiday over the weekend, today is Halloween - or All Hallow's Eve, to some. It's a day filled not just with cherubs in costumes begging for goodies, but also with the mythological frights of kids and adults alike.

This week also marks one full year until the 2012 election.

What worries us most about the next 365 days isn't the news from this weekend about U.S. plans for continuing U.S. Persian Gulf military presence, or the ever-more-obvious effects of the Supreme Court's 'Citizens United' decision as outside groups succeed in buying ever bigger stakes in our American political process.

It isn't even the series of unnecessary and offensive abuses by law enforcement brought against the Occupy protesters this past weekend.

What scares us most is the ever growing list of needs the American people have that their Congress refuses to address - and that too many Americans may yet be more than willing to re-elect the do-nothing idiots currently sitting on their rears in the House and Senate.

Today SHOULD begin a race to accomplish something for a Congress that has so far done next to nothing. On the positive side, the Democratically-controlled Senate has no more breaks scheduled between now and their year-end holiday break. Unfortunately, the Republican-controlled House has at least two more weeks of "recess" scheduled just this month, with a target for their year-end break to begin the second week of December.

The super committee MUST make its recommendations for revenue enhancement methods - tax increases, mostly - and budget cuts by the end of this month. There are a whole pile of funding bills that MUST make it through multiple committees AND both the House and Senate, including agriculture, criminal justice, transportation and housing bills. And Congress has to make sure the government doesn't shut down - or even threaten to shut down, as has already happened three times this year.

In a country so desperate for so many solutions on so many fronts, we're glad that the President's advisor, David Axelrod, had the courage to say out loud this weekend, what so many Americans, left, right, and center have been quietly saying to each other for some time.

Axelrod said about Congressional Republicans, "...you have to ask a question, are they willing to tear down the economy in order to tear down the president or are they going to cooperate? Listen, there’s a reason why the Congress is at nine percent in some polls, approval, lowest in history. Because this is different than we’ve ever seen before."

So far, President Obama has been willing to do almost anything to try and get positive results accomplished for the American people.

When he hasn't been hamstrung by this do-nothing Congress - like in foreign affairs - our President has been amazingly successful. For that, we thank him.

That's not how our government is supposed to work, however - and it's certainly not how it works effectively.

As Halloween passes, and turns towards Thanksgiving - and the 2012 elections - we hope the political hopefuls and those already in office remember what we told them nearly a year ago.

When the polls open one year from tomorrow, our legislators will be judged on what they've actually accomplished for the 99% of Americans who've been decimated by the all-too-real real horrors of our current economy.  Without any accomplishments, the "grades" of those legislators will be zero - which is the same number of votes we hope candidates who have done nothing will receive.

We also hope the fear of a 2012 political "bloodbath" of do-nothing legislators losing their cushy jobs will scare some sense into those Congresspersons after all.

Friday Funday: More Reasons To Count Our Blessings

As we enter the Halloween weekend, in the heart of the Autumn season, we could focus our energies in one of two directions today.

We could choose to be terrified, blindly focused on the abuses - and near death attacks - that some Occupy movement protesters have faced across the country. We could be focused on the fact that Senate Republicans are fighting to keep American troops IN Iraq, instead of getting us out - or that our own media industry is cannibalizing itself again, as multiple radio companies fire more and more employees. We could even be worried about what President Obama will actually decide about the Keystone pipeline very soon.

There are a hundred different reasons for each of us to allow our own personal terrors to take over, to look at our somewhat dysfunctional government and throw up our hands in anger and frustration. Guns in state capitol buildings, crippling student loans, and the insane super committee are just a handful of those reasons.

Keeping all that in mind, the fact is, it's Friday! The weather is nice (at least in Lincoln) and the trees outside of Paul's studios are an incredible shade of red. Trees near our DC offices are a gorgeous array of autumn colors - and yes, it'll be 85 degrees and party sunny down at our Florida offices.

This is the other direction we can focus our energies, being positive. And the fact is, even if we leave aside the autumn weather and fall foliage, life IS getting better for most Americans.

Jobless claims this week went down, showing limited but favorable improvement. The U.S. GDP rose a to a surprisingly positive 2.5%, showing modest growth, despite the efforts of many Republicans to keep our economy down.

The President this week has said he was no longer going to wait for our dysfunctional Congress to do anything. So Mr. Obama took executive actions to help homeowners, help Americans buried in student loan debt, and help some of our veterans to get and keep employment when they come home.

Our editor Amy and her family will be thoroughly enjoying Halloween with their young daughter Charlotte this weekend. And we'll all be enjoying the fact that we can watch the Husker game against Michigan State on ESPN.

If we each choose to be positive - not pollyanna-ish, but realistically positive - we'd be willing to bet that you, like most of us, have more positive lights in your life than negative ones.

Of course, as it is Halloween weekend, we'd still recommend if you go out, that you carry a silver bullet, a crucifix, and some holy water, just in case.

Better safe than sorry, right?

Blind, Deaf, and Dumb

As strange as it may seem to anyone who's kept up on current events, there are still those people who appear to think the Occupy movement is just a phase, one that will wear itself out sometime soon, before any of the problems the Occupy movement has brought to light are resolved.

Those people are either feigning ignorance and stupidity, or they really are as dumb as they seem.

Even the Pope now agrees with the Occupy movement that the levels of social and economic inequality faced by people around the world - and especially in its richest nations, like America - can no longer continue. A committee from the Vatican released an official endorsement yesterday of series of economic reforms, aimed at the G-20 leaders summit, beginning a week from today in France.

One of the key reforms the Pontifical Council says that G-20 nations need to make is a financial speculation tax - in short, a tax specifically aimed at the kind of Wall Street thugs responsible for betting, losing, and trashing nearly every economy in the world over the last few years.

As at least some of our staff is Catholic, this gives us a fairly definitive answer to a question some on the American right have been posing about the Occupy movement: If Jesus were here, what would he think about the Occupy movement, and their attacks on Wall Street?

If the Pope really is a direct connection to God, as Catholics believe, it's fairly obvious to us that God isn't on the side of those on Wall Street who've created such an unequal system.

We're also willing to bet that same God wouldn't be looking too favorably on those who think that inequality should be made permanent - through violence, if necessary.

In case you missed it, members of the Oakland, Califonia police department unnecessarily attacked and teargassed Occupiers there Tuesday night - which landed one Occupy activist, an Iraq war veteran, in the hospital in critical but stable condition with a massive head injury.

As journalist Joshua Holland reported, the protesters may have annoyed Oakland officials with their chanting, yelling, and protests, but the Occupiers in Oakland were like those across the country - peaceful if not a little rowdy.

The decision to use unnecessary force and provoke the protesters by delaying lawful actions was made at a level far above the officers on the streets carrying out the orders. The nightmare that followed has already been duplicated in too many cities, from Denver to New York, and from Atlanta to Seattle to - now Oakland.

The politicians in these cities - and the extremely wealthy campaign donors that support them - seem to have a strange delusion that threatening violence against the Occupy protesters is a tactic that will drive the frustrated masses back into quiet submission.

As we already mentioned, we hope these folks aren't as dumb as they seem. Or they could be in a state of delusional slumber.

If it's the latter, when they wake up, we hope the wealthiest 1% are forced to accept living in a reality that the majority of Americans already know is a nightmare.

Fairy Tales And Other Lies Politicians Tell Us

In case you've missed it lately, we've been ramping up our coverage of the looming Keystone pipeline battle with the only weapons we have here at the Daily Felltoon: cartoons and words.

It's been quite obvious that TransCanada has opened up its pocketbook in an last ditch attempt to buy or bully most of the lawmakers involved in authorizing the current proposed route for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

Not only did the forces of big oil recently manage to buy a favorable review from the U.S. State Department, but they've proudly been working with Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper - an anti-evironmentalist sometimes called 'Bush Lite' - in an obvious attempt to push a false sense of inevitability with the pipeline.

As we've noted multiple times, a majority of Nebraskans do NOT want the pipeline's route to cross the Ogallala aquifer. Even Nebraska's Governor, who we gave some credit to yesterday, has previously said that he does not want the pipeline to cross the aquifer (though he's willing to allow the pipeline to be built, if TransCanada routed it elsewhere in the state).

We wish that all of the politicians involved - local, state, Federal, and even those in Canada - would have shown REAL political courage months or years ago and stood up to the obvious bullying and barely legal bribery of TransCanada, the pipeline builder.

Too often, our politicians - of ALL parties - have waited until it's clear that decisions have already been made behind the scenes to take any sort of definitive action. Then when they make grand gestures, shaking their political lances, and waving flags of special sessions, we have a strong suspicion they may be mostly meaningless.

Our worldwide competition in China, in the energy business, has NOT been sitting by and biding their time. China has begun to forcefully drive their own demand for solar power up with feed-in tariffs that heavily benefit solar and wind power. They're also flooding the world market with heavily state-subsidized solar and wind products, while America and the rest of the world does nothing.

While those who support the Keystone pipeline claim that the pipeline's construction will generate jobs in the short term, our energy trade policies right now are further killing one of the only bright spots in the  American manufacturing sector... NEW, long-term, well-paying manufacturing jobs.

Serving up a short term benefit, with negative lasting effects for Nebraskans isn't just an unhealthy snack for the insatiable monster of big oil.

It's an outline for a story that ends in anything but happily ever after.

What Courage Can Do

Since we began The Daily Felltoon, one of our more distinguishing features has been that we'll occasionally give direct praise where it's due, and give direct condemnation when it's been earned.

Today, we have to give praise to a man we've often had disagreements with in the past, Nebraska's Governor Dave Heineman. The Governor did something on Monday that is increasingly rare among major politicians of any party – he took some definitive action.

Gov. Heineman called for a special session of the Nebraska Legislature in order to properly, legally, and thoroughly address the issue of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline. As we wrote on Monday morning before the Governor's announcement, it's obvious that Nebraskans have wanted their legislature to have a greater role in the pipeline process.

It now looks like Nebraskans will get their wish, even though the Speaker of the Legislature feels that a special session would be an exercise in futility.

While it would have been easy for Heineman, a Republican, to automatically side with the big oil interests of TransCanada, the Governor chose to do what was right, not what was easy.

The Governor's actions may seem worlds apart from the protesters on the streets of Cairo, or those of the Occupy protesters on Wall Street. Still, a similar kind of quiet determination, like that the Governor displayed Monday, has been a hallmark of the many revolutions that have been happening around the world this year.

Doing what is right has never been easy, whether you're a poor, unemployed person, or a political leader. From standing up to the terrible reign of Middle Eastern political dictators, to standing up to the corruption of the financial despots of Wall Street, the dangers are always many, and the costs are often high.

In our American political system, actions like Gov. Heineman's could be political suicide, if the Governor planned on running for other offices. In the Middle East, standing up for what's right has cost the lives of many.

There is even the danger of becoming that which you hate, as it appears some of Col. Gadhafi's captors tortured him before they killed him - just as Gadhafi had been rumored to do to his enemies.

Still, once a person displays the determination to do the right thing, it often becomes easier for others to do the same.

Once enough people have decided to do what is right instead of what's easy, the cowardly dictators and despots, whether political or financial in nature, have fewer and fewer places left to hide their ill-gotten gains.

In the Middle East, those abusive leaders who remain are becoming as paranoid as the power brokers on Wall Street, afraid that the rivers of red - whether blood or red tape - will swallow them up, and take away that which they've stolen from others.

The river might take back what they've taken - but justice won't happen automatically.

Like the Tunisians, the Egyptians, the Libyans, and even the Occupy Wall Street protesters, Governor Heineman's action that forces Nebraska's Legislature to do its job, is merely a beginning, not an end. We don't expect the Governor's new position  will instantly resolve the debate over the pipeline, or even stop the pipeline from eventually going through portions of Nebraska.

What we do hope is that this is a new beginning to solving a difficult problem.

Slipping On The Truth

There are plenty of times in the media business, when reading, sharing, and compiling stories and information, we may think we see patterns that - upon further inspection - aren't really there. As legitimate members of the media, if we simply run with those initial thoughts, we could lose our credibility and end up being called crazy - or, worse yet, be compared to some of our least legitimate media brethren, like Fox.

Upon further inspection, we can sometimes see those patterns really do exist - and that we may have simply slipped and found connections few others have yet to see.

Today, we're observing one of those patterns in the way three different stories are developing - new information on the Keystone pipeline, elections in Tunisia, and a local school board race in Denver, Colorado.

In Keystone pipeline news, it should surprise no one that the oil corporations are once again attempting to buy off our politicians to get what they want. As we noted last Friday, Mike Flood, the Speaker of Nebraska's legislature, is backing away from calling a special session to discuss forcing TransCanada to move the pipeline route or enacting more strict safety standards. Flood is still backing away, even though Nebraskans have made it clear they would like their legislature to have a greater role in the pipeline process.

What you may not have heard about with the Keystone pipeline is the latest news that Alberta, Canada paid four U.S. Republican Congresspersons to take a "free" tour of the oil sands pipeline. You also likely missed the news that the EU is likely to label tar sands oil one of the dirtiest sources of oil on Earth - which would mean the penalties and fines levied against tar sands oil would sap much of its already questionable economic benefit.

To us, these kinds of actions reek of the kind of crony capitalism many on the right claim to be so worked up against right now. It's another disgusting example of the corruption of our political and economic systems by the financially wealthy yet ethically bankrupt.

Sadly, this isn't just an oil company problem, or an American phenomenon being railed against by the Occupy movement.

In Tunisia this past weekend, where the Arab Spring began almost a year ago, the Tunisian people had their first legitimate election in many years. This one was held to elect an interim government to run the country while Tunisians complete their new constitution. The biggest problem regular Tunisians on the street had with this election wasn't turnout, or the vast number of political parties (about 100) they had to choose from.

As a story in the New York Times pointed out, Tunisian's biggest election complaint was the feeling their efforts at building a new government were already being undermined by wealthy Tunisians and corporate interests, who were trying to buy up the political process like they do in the U.S. - and buy their way into power in Tunisia's nascent government.

Those people who are in high positions of money and power seem to not even want to allow regular people to control some of the smallest, most local political decisions - like who gets on the local school board in Denver, Colorado.

Emily Sirota, a social worker, political activist, and wife of a local radio talent (who is one of our professional acquaintances), decided this year that she wanted to run for school board. Ms. Sirota's plans make clear she wants to help enact policies that would improve public schools while keeping costs low, instead of allowing private for-profit schools (who often care more about their bottom line than educating children) to use vouchers to skim public tax dollars into their private accounts.

For Ms. Sirota's desire to help the public schools better manage their public money, she and her family have had to face a disproportionately large amount of campaign money and negative media being thrown at her by her opponent. Ms. Sirota's opponent has been funded by traditional large right-wing corporatist interests, all people or groups with well-known ties to supporting the "haves" and "have mores" at the expense of everyone else.

To us, this pattern of attempting to pay off, buy out, or beat down anyone who stands against the interests of the currently wealthy individuals and corporations is exactly what the Occupy movement is protesting.

That the arrogant wealthy -  and the politicians they've bought - now seem like they're scrambling to stand up after stepping in oil (or something worse) merely proves to us we're not the only ones to slip on the truth once in a while.

Enjoying The Moment, For The Right Reason

Normally on Friday, we attempt to keep things a bit lighter - and to a limited degree, we're leaning toward the positive today.

After all, it is a Friday, so we've got a weekend awaiting us at the end of our workday. There's another Husker football game tomorrow, which we plan on enjoying. Some of our staff are already on a short vacation, visiting family halfway across the country (including a relatively new addition to the family). And...?

We get to say 'We told you so.'

While we certainly don't revel in violence or death, we do believe the capture and subsequent death of former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi is a good thing, in a number of ways.

To start with, the revolution going on in Libya is now done. At least the shooting. Mostly. Any obligation that U.S. and NATO forces had to that conflict has now been thoroughly fulfilled. That means the French and British forces that were assisting the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) on the ground can rapidly transition to their homes. The American air support and drone bomber forces can also pack up their equipment and come back to the United States.

That isn't why we're saying 'We told you so' though.

When we first wrote about the fall of Libya in this commentary nearly eight months ago, we noted that the Libyan people were quite unhappy with Mr. Gadhafi, and had been so for some time. When he needed to be removed from his position, it had to be the Libyans that needed to do it - not an outside force from France or Britain or NATO. And while NATO did bomb his caravan just before Gadhafi was captured and killed, his capture and death came at the hands of his own people, as we'd thought it should.

That isn't why we're saying 'We told you so' either.

We're saying "We told you so" today for a commentary we wrote seven months ago today, along with a cartoon that made very clear that Mr. Gadhafi's time was up.

In that earlier commentary, we also noted that President Obama was beginning a process of helping the world understand that America no longer needs to play "Supercop" at the first sign of ANY danger. As Thursday's events proved, there are many other countries who have more than enough ability and capability to fill roles that were once thought to be exclusively reserved for the U.S.

For many years now, Americans from both the left and the right have commented that we we can no longer play "Supercop" to the world, for a whole host of reasons. Still, no American leader had taken us down that path successfully - until now. Without loss of American lives. Within our budget for such events. And within a short time period.

That's exactly what we said seven months ago, that President Obama would do.

We understand - there are still many detractors who can't bear to give President Obama credit for ANYTHING. If Obama walked on water, these wailing whiners would cry that he couldn't swim.

Now, however, as President Obama has indeed succeeded, as we thought he would, the only thing most of his critics can do is float balloons full of wishes and hot air, while our President turns his focus back to our most pressing issue - getting his Jobs bill passed.

It's usually good to win and be right. It's even better to win and be right for the right reasons.

Our Sad Sick Friend

For a long time now - long before we even thought about creating this publication - we've been noticing both the fractures and homogenization of the Republican Party and those on the political right in America. Sadly, as though they've been overcome by a disease or some kind of growth, conservatives that we've known and watched at all levels have become more closed minded, and less tolerant of those with different views - especially over the last ten to fifteen years.

Tuesday night's GOP debate was a perfect display of - as Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen also noted - the obvious narcissism of minor differences that the current crop of GOP candidates for the office of President share.

It's not that there aren't legitimate differences between the candidates. For example, most of the candidates may not like The Fed, but they don't want to abolish it. Ron Paul, however, certainly does - and with the release of the audit of The Fed, we can't say he's entirely wrong to want to make massive changes there, with what The Fed has become.

For all of Rick Perry's attacking Mitt Romney Tuesday night over who did Romney's landscaping, Perry obviously believes in allowing immigrant children who were brought to the U.S. as youngsters, to be allowed to pay in-state college tuition rates, as is the law in Texas. Many of the other candidates vehemently disagree with him on that point.

Herman Cain insists his 9-9-9 plan would work to lower taxes. Nearly everyone else who knows anything about taxes says it won't.

All of these issues, while they show some minor individual differences, also tend to highlight a single sad fact. For Americans who are on the political right, political purity, as we've noted previously, has had some dire effects on their chosen political party - like nearly constant infighting.

The single worst effect is lack of original thinking.

For example, not a single GOP candidate focused primarily during Tuesday night's debate on the biggest issue in America right now: jobs.

The second biggest issue in America right now - inequality - is one that certain Republican candidates addressed with derision, if they mentioned it at all. They had no real solutions for the inequality Americans are suffering at present, and appeared to have no new ideas on how to make things better  - even while polls continue to note that many Americans who are part of the Republican base now side with the Occupy movement.

While many of the Republican candidates piled on Gov. Romney for Massachusetts' nearly universal health care insurance system - "Romneycare", as it's known - being a basis for the Affordable Care Act of President Obama, not a one of them had a workable, end-to-end solution to replace the ACA.

We agree that it's good for a single, large group to have some similar principles that it's many different members can gather around.

However, when the differences inside that group cause the kind of pointless bickering one might see from a multi-headed monster, without giving any significant benefit to the group's members, we tend to think members of that group who refuse to leave it are either crazy or ill.

Saving Their Own Bacon

Another day, and more Occupy Wall Street protests continue to fill a good chunk of the news cycle. After a month of protests, which are now happening around the world, it doesn't surprise us that there are those in the media - especially on the right - that are attempting to denigrate and smear the Occupy Wall Street movement.

The most well-known smear merchants of the right wing propaganda squad - Andrew Breitbart, and his acolyte, James O'Keefe - have been spotted at Occupy events, spreading lies and attempting to tarnish the image of the protesters.

There are those who claim that the Occupy movement is anti-semetic - which it is not. The lobbyists on Wall Street have also been raging against Democrats and those on the political left for supporting the Occupy movement, attempting to paint the grass roots uprising as a fake political ploy - which it obviously is not.

The most disgusting smear of all though, came from yesterday's Wall Street Journal, and pollster Doug Schoen. Schoen attempted to claim, based on his own polling data, that a majority of the Occupy protesters (in his less than scientific sample size) were opposed to free-market capitalism and supported radical redistribution of wealth.

What makes Schoen's conduct so disgusting to ethical members of the media, like us, is that Schoen's own claims can't be backed up by his polling.

His polling said the largest percentage of the Occupy protesters - 35% - had "Influencing the Democratic Party, the way the Tea Party has taken over the GOP" as their major goal. "Radical redistribution of wealth" didn't even make it into Schoen's poll.

If Schoen had examined his own polling data, he would have seen that the single biggest problem Occupiers have with our current government has nothing to do with left or right. It's the influence of corporate and special interests on the decisions our government makes – in other words, the unequal influence of unlimited, big money.

As most legitimate members of the media have already acknowledged (including us), the Occupy Wall Street protests are focusing attention on America's second biggest problem - fiscal inequality.

Sadly, America's biggest problem was aptly pointed out by Rep. Barney Frank two nights ago - that Americans love to complain but don't really seem to want to do anything about it.

As Frank noted, while not everyone agrees with every point of every protester, the general thrust of the Occupy movement is something most Americans favor. But agreeing with something isn't enough. We have to act if we want to get anything done. And in America, in our political system, that means voting.

If this movement is to mean anything, those involved must do more than simply hack away at the pillars the fat pigs on Wall Street are hiding atop right now. There must be  political solutions created, and then people will need to get involved in the current political system - and VOTE. The ineffective legislators will need to be voted out, and effective ones voted in.

Pressure will need to continue to be applied until those new legislators do what they've been voted into office to do.

Those at the top are actively working to save their personal bacon right now. The rest of us, in our own way, need to similarly follow through.

Thirty Or Less

One of our staff members recently got a new iPhone - along with quite a few other people we know - and the thought that bounced around for us today is that modern technology has given us some pretty incredible developments. With those advances in technology come a lot more numbers than we ever used to deal with.

For example, a pile of polling results were dumped  in the laps of the media yesterday. Apparently, New Yorkers - even Republicans - back the Occupy protesters at a 3-1 rate over the bankers on Wall Street. Ninety percent of New Yorkers think it's "okay" that that Occupiers are protesting.

If you'd prefer earnings numbers, Citigroup on Monday announced a third-quarter profit of $3.8 billion, up 74%. For a company American taxpayers bailed out three years ago, things don't seem all that tough on Wall Street these days.

There were even Pew Research Study numbers that have finally proven, once and for all, that the media is no longer liberal. When Sarah Palin gets favorable media coverage more than 30% of the time, while President Obama receives less than 10% favorable media coverage on average, anyone who claims the media leans left is neither fair nor balanced.

The strangest number we've seen lately, though, happens to be GOP Presidential candidate Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan - which sounds disturbingly like a Godfather's Pizza special, instead of a governing, tax, and budget theory.

Every legitimate examination of Cain's plan that we've seen says it would be a disaster for the Federal budget, and even worse for poor and working class Americans. In short, it would turn the current tax code on its head, and bury everyone but the wealthy with higher tax rates. The 9% sales tax alone would destroy many on the bottom rungs of our economic ladder, who find it difficult to even pay for a pizza.

Put bluntly, if your state and local sales tax is already 9%, Cain's idea would add another 9% on top of that.

Cain even admits it would raise taxes on the middle and lower classes - and yet for some reason, he still thinks Americans will rally around his plan, even after they figure this out. Maybe Cain should use a technological development known as "YouTube" to see exactly how large chunks of Americans feel about the wealthy being taxed less, while the rest of America has to suffer.

Somehow, we're not entirely surprised at Cain's feigned ignorance of facts regarding his own 9-9-9 plan.

His ties to the right-wing corporatist Koch brothers are well-known, through the misleading and mockingly named group "Americans For Prosperity." Cain's 9-9-9 plan would heavily benefit groups like AFP, companies like Koch Enterprises, as well as extremely wealthy individuals like the Koch brothers - and even Cain himself.

Even with all the numbers, statistics, and technology we've talked about today, the one constant that still hasn't changed is this: as long as nearly unlimited money is allowed to control our political process, the person who has the most money in most elections wins ninety four percent of the time.

If it takes you longer than thirty seconds to figure out that isn't an example of a properly functioning democratic republic, we're not sure anyone can deliver you from your sad state of delusion.

We Have Yet To Reach The Promised Land

We hope you had an enjoyable weekend - or at least got the chance to spend some time outside.

If you did get outside, maybe you saw still expanding growth of the Occupy protests. They seem to be happening everywhere these days - in Minneapolis, in Lincoln, in Omaha, in DC, and in places all over the world. The media continues to focus on both the peaceful arrests of protestors, and the occasional violence - like in the protests in Italy - because many in the media still don't seem to understand what the protests are all about.

Sadly, it appears that much of the media would rather focus on the political garbage being flung about as the 2012 election battles begin to take shape.

The real issues that are behind all of the anger of the Occupy protestors are things that some groups of Americans have been facing since well before the days when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marched on Washington - the kind of extreme economic inequality that takes away any real chance to succeed for millions of Americans.

The issues of jobs and justice were exactly what Dr. King was fighting for when gave his historic "I Have a Dream" address on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial nearly fifty years ago.

In Washington, DC this weekend, there was another march for those same reasons - The Justice and Jobs March. Many of the Occupy protestors joined that march - and, we feel, rightfully so.

President Obama continues to beat the drum for jobs, much as he has in one way or another since before he ever took office. Lately, his focus on jobs has become a near-deafening pounding to those who are listening to what the American people actually care about.

While writing legislation is the job of the Legislative Branch, this President did the job that Congress either refused to do or was incapable of doing. He wrote, had scored, and delivered complete, a jobs bill to Congress, so that they could debate it and maybe solve the problems of some of those millions of Americans out of work.

Disgustingly, Republicans in Congress wouldn't even discuss allow the bill to be debated, as they stalled the bill in Senate procedures last week - further proving that their priorities are politics, not helping their constituents.

The President remained unbowed, however, much as Dr. King did in his struggles for racial justice. The President said in his weekly address, that he'll now begin pushing Congress to vote on each piece of his jobs bill, one by one if he has to, beginning with teachers and first responders, like police, fire, and medical personnel.

At the dedication of the monument to Dr. King, President Obama also reminded everyone of the odd similarities between then and now.

He said, "It is right for us to celebrate today Dr. King’s dream... yet it is also important on this day to remind ourselves that such progress did not come easily... it is worth remembering that progress did not come from words alone.  Progress was hard.  Progress was purchased through enduring the smack of billy clubs and the blast of fire hoses.  It was bought with days in jail cells and nights of bomb threats.  For every victory during the height of the civil rights movement, there were setbacks and there were defeats.

"Our work is not done... First and foremost, let us remember that change has never been quick.  Change has never been simple, or without controversy.  Change depends on persistence.  Change requires determination... when met with hardship, when confronting disappointment, Dr. King refused to accept what he called the “is-ness” of today.  He kept pushing towards the “ought-ness” of tomorrow..."

"We can’t be discouraged by what is.  We’ve got to keep pushing for what ought to be, the America we ought to leave to our children, mindful that the hardships we face are nothing compared to those Dr. King and his fellow marchers faced 50 years ago, and that if we maintain our faith, in ourselves and in the possibilities of this nation, there is no challenge we cannot surmount."

Friday Funday: Fun With Family

There are a whole host of reasons why everyone on our staff enjoys both weekends and traveling, but one of the most important reasons is when we get to combine the two so that we can see our family, whatever that means these days.

This weekend, some of our extended cartooning family will be conveniently located near the Mall of America, in Minneapolis, for the Fall meeting of the North Central Chapter of The National Cartoonists Society. Another part of our family will be in Washington, DC, where the official dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial will be happening.

We're willing to bet that - like us - you've also got some friends you've known so long and so well that they're more like family than anything else. If the crazy stories you have from spending time with your "chosen family" are anything like the stories we have, we imagine that your tales are filled with laughter, love - and things you can't actually publish if you'd ever hope to get another gig. [Bucky - we're lookin' at you.]

The family we choose in life is almost more important than that in which we've been brought up. These are the people we bring into our homes and lives - and this weekend, some of them are people we'll be sharing with you, our readers.

If you're lucky enough to be in the Minneapolis area this weekend, we invite you to come out and see some of our family at the Midwest Comic Book Association FallCon. Stephan Pastis of "Pearls Before Swine", John Hambrock of 'The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee", Jerry Van Amerongen of "Ballard Street", as well our own wonderful editorial cartoonist, Paul Fell, will be there. Frankly, the entire membership of the North Central Tooners are incredibly talented people you might know - and we hope you get a chance to meet some of them this weekend.

If you're lucky enough to be in DC, the events around the Tidal Basin at the dedication of the MLK memorial should be beautiful, and include some folks you might also know, like Aretha Franklin, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton, Vice President Biden, and a guy one of our staff members calls his old boss - although we'd recommend that you call him President Obama.

No matter where you are this weekend, we hope that you take a moment and give thanks for your family of all kinds, whether they're the ones who chose you, or they're the 'family' that you've chosen.

Sure, there may be members of your extended family that occasionally make you want to grab the duct tape, and "assist" them to be quiet.

Just remember - they're family, and in a shorter time than you know, you'll all be strewn to the four winds again, back in your own homes... and wishing you had more time to spend with them again.

We hope you will enjoy your weekend as much as we will.

Dancing To The Wrong Tune

While the actions of the conservative mainstream shouldn't be too surprising to anyone anymore, the resistance by many on the political right to accept reality still has a way of shocking us.

Both the fact that the Occupy movement is still growing, and that its general reason for existence is legitimate are both facts we've seen, heard, and read and that most on the far right are attempting to stomp out.

For example, "Biden Warns of More Rapes and Murders If Jobs Bill Is Not Passed," a headline that screams from the conservative 'Weekly Standard' website, is a disgusting attempt to impugn Vice-President Joe Biden. The facts that the V.P. stated yesterday in Michigan aren't unusual. As the economy has worsened, Flint, Michigan's murder rate has climbed as the ranks of its law enforcement personnel have been reduced.

This isn't some wild-eyed statistic. Numbers like these, saying almost the exact same thing, have been common, factually-based knowledge for years.
When there are more people out of work, crime rates go up.

In a sane world, the goal of a normal society in an economic situation like the one currently facing the U.S. would be to do whatever is necessary to increase the number of jobs as fast as possible. Passing a bill which would directly create or save jobs in the public sector and encourage job creation in the private sector would be one rational choice.

Something, perhaps, like the American Jobs Act, proposed by President Obama.

In the U.S. Senate, however, legislators seem to have a different goal. In case you missed it, the U.S. Senate voted on the right to debate the President's bill this week - they weren't even voting on the actual Jobs bill, just the right to talk about the jobs bill - but Republicans effectively filibustered the discussion, so the bill went nowhere.

It's an obvious fact, Republicans don't want the economy to get better. Period. We're not going to beat around the bush about it any more. Far too many Republicans have become dangerous obstructionists, acting as though anything that's good for the President is bad for them. Cowardly centrist Democrats, like Montana's Jon Tester or Nebraska's Ben Nelson, enable those Republicans with wimpy behavior of their own. Nelson and Tester are obviously more concerned with saving their own jobs than they are with saving the jobs of their constituents and putting folks back to work.

Their actions, and the actions of any legislator who stands against a jobs bill right now seem counter-intuitive to us, since two thirds of Americans are in support of President Obama's jobs policies. Further, one of the key provisions of the President's bill - to make sure that the jobs projects are paid for - was to raise taxes on the richest Americans.

Sixty four percent of Americans agree with raising taxes on the rich - and that includes Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. Many of these people may still be out of work in 2012 - and they will certainly remember which Congresspersons stomped on a perfectly viable plan to help more Americans get jobs.

P.H.D. In HHS

For our readers who also pay attention to other Nebraska-based news media, it may have seemed like a homecoming of sorts this week for a story that most Nebraskans would prefer to put behind them.

Instead, no matter how many times Governor Dave Heineman and the heavily conservative Nebraska Legislature attempt to sweep the political, economic, and personnel disaster that is the current Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services under the rug, the filth of failure keeps emerging.

The Department of Health and Human Services - also known as HHS - is back in the news for multiple reasons.

To start with, the Beatrice State Developmental Center - known to many as the BSDC - is back in the spotlight and again, the news isn't good. This time, multiple BSDC staff members were accused of abusing the Center's disabled residents, or simply ignoring abuse of BSDC residents.

According to state Sen. Steve Lathrop, chairman of a legislative oversight committee, the BSDC - and indeed, the entire Nebraska HHS - appears to be sliding into a pattern of cutting corners and overworking staff that got the HHS into serious trouble not that long ago.

If this sounds all too sickeningly familiar, this isn't the first time HHS has failed in its responsibilities of caring for some of Nebraska's most vulnerable citizens.

Understaffing, overcrowding, and abuse previously led the BSDC to lose its Medicaid certification and the Federal funding that comes along with it. The Department of Justice got involved, and the Unicameral set up the commission that Sen. Lathrop currently chairs to look into these charges.

Yet the abuse happened anyway.

We haven't even gotten to the HHS official in charge of Nebraska's failed child welfare privatization project, who is resigning at the end of this week. There's also the ridiculous HHS ruling on a new county jail construction project near Nebraska's capitol city. That HHS ruling could cost Lancaster County hundreds of thousands, or possibly millions of taxpayer dollars, to fix - even though neither the county or the state is responsible for the expensive construction screwup.

We will be the first people to tell you that government - when it's operated properly - is RARELY the problem, and is often the solution.

The Nebraska HHS, however, isn't even close to being operated properly.

HHS's biggest problem seems to be senior executives and managers who insist on blithely blowing past massive cost savings on their crusade to privatize the entire Department, and slashing costs far beyond the point of sanity.

Paying for an adequate number of quality employees could have alleviated many of the problems now facing HHS - and also Nebraska taxpayers. Improving on the state system for child welfare instead of trying to privatize the system seeing to the care of many of Nebraska's most at-risk children also could have saved Nebraska taxpayers a whole pile of money in the long term.

Instead, Gov. Heineman and many of our state senators have been trying to hide the inconvenient truths about how bad Nebraska's HHS system has become by flashing their P.H.D.s - Pile it Higher and Deeper - on HHS's problems.

It's long past time they should make an honest effort to clean up the mess they've made.

Unsurprised

As the Occupy movement has continued to grow, expanding to Denver and Des Moines - and even Idaho Falls - along with hundreds of other places, both inside and outside the United States, the topic has also begun to take a growing share of breath from the media.

For all the arrogance, bluster, and fake surprise being thrown at the Occupy movement from the corporate right, we can honestly say what's happening on Main Street everywhere shouldn't really be a surprise to us or anyone in the legitimate media.

The factors that have caused this movement to finally spark have been building for many years. Take the problem with lobbyists.

Anyone who hasn't been blinded by the right-wing propagandists (that even THEY don't trust anymore) has known for more than thirty years that lobbying and lobbyists have become a real problem in our American form of government - especially over the last decade. Companies that have bought and paid for the best lobbyists apparently seem to have done SIGNIFICANTLY better than their competition or the market over the last decade. The data, released by Thomson Reuters, merely proves what we already knew: that the richest corporations are willing to pay off everyone - including and especially politicians - because in the end, it helps their bottom line.

It was also highly predictable that the money the government gave to bail out the Wall Street banks and investment firms near the end of the Bush Administration could have been used more wisely. As a Reuters chart created by Nobel-prize winning economic journalist David Cay Johnston shows, if the money used to bail out the Wall Street banks and their wealthy corporate friends had been used differently, we could have funded Social Security for another 21 years. We could have funded Pell Grants, at current levels, for over 400 more years, or unemployment benefits for the entire country for another 92.6 years.

Again, we're not surprised. Members of both our media profession and the general American public have seen this kind of fiscal waste building towards events like the Occupy protests for many years now.

Ezra Klein of the Washington Post noted over the weekend that there may have been different things the Obama Administration could have tried over the last couple years to mitigate the circumstances our economy is in now. As Klein discovered on further inspection, the chances are good that no matter what the President had tried, our country would still be suffering from a hangover caused by thirty-plus years of mostly irresponsible governing.

The reasons behind the economic disasters we're all living through range from the relaxation of all kinds of banking regulations, to the near elimination of campaign finance reforms. The end result is a series of events that many Americans have predicted for years, our staff among them.

For far too long, the greedheads on Wall Street, already the cathedral of avarice in America, have been willing to burn their pages of the social contract - the contract that gives every one of us a shot at the American dream  - in exchange for raking in a few more dollars.

What the folks on Wall Street - "the haves" and the "have mores" as former President George W. Bush once called them - never thought would happen would be that the bulk of the American people would finally stand up for themselves, and that the idea of protests would once again catch fire, like they did in the 1960s. That the people might change their own politics directly has been an idea the Wall Street pigs have only had passing nightmares about for some time.

To us, their shock and surprise is just further proof of how disconnected the Wall Street types really are from the reality the rest of us face daily.

There are a great many things this movement can be called - but unexpected isn't one of them.

Hanging By a Thread

As we've been pointing out for several weeks now, and as we addressed pointedly last week, the Occupy movement - which is beginning its fourth week today - doesn't appear to be a temporary event. It continues to grow, with Occupy movements even popping up outside the U.S., in places sympathetic to the American worker.

Unlike the Tea Party movement of the last couple years, this movement has NOT been paid for by wealthy, secretive corporate backers. In fact, the Occupy movement is - in some ways - an answering call of reality to the ginned-up outrage of the Tea Party. Tea Partiers were mad - but they either weren't really sure of why they were angry, or they were angry for reasons many of them still refuse to honestly admit, like their own disgusting racism and classism.

What the Occupy protestors are angry about is the social contract they were sold - and on which most Americans have now been shorted by their own country.

There are those who expect the protestors to deliver some kind of list of demands, as though disgruntled Americans were simply another specialty group to be placated and then ignored. As another editorial over the weekend put it, "It is not the job of the protesters to draft legislation. That’s the job of the nation’s leaders, and if they had been doing it all along there might not be a need for these marches and rallies. Because they have not, the public airing of grievances is a legitimate and important end in itself."

Politically, it's easier for politicians today, especially members of Congress, to focus on evil-sounding boogeyman ideas, like voter fraud - which really doesn't exist in America today - than the real issues that are dragging our economy down, and keeping the middle class hanging on by a thread.

One of the biggest single economic problems facing us is the irresponsible conduct of the banks, that was allowed after we got rid of the laws like Glass-Stegall, which were put in place after the banksters screwed the country the last time and plunged America into the Great Depression.

The disastrous real estate crisis for which the banks are responsible has yet to be dealt with in any serious way. Until the banks are forced to eat, swallow - and quite possibly choke to death on - the lies and the unheard of pile of debt they sold to unsuspecting Americans to feed their own greed, they can't honestly clear their balance sheets. Until the banks can get a grip on their situation, they truthfully shouldn't be lending - which means borrowers can't really get a grip on their much smaller portion of responsibility in this mess either.

The sociological problem we face is also a massive one. Even more than the massive economic issues, this is what the Occupy protestors are really railing against.

As George Carlin said in his legendary rant about the American dream: the super-wealthy in America don't give a damn about the working people in America, or really anyone else. They've bought off the system, and they think they can do what they want. "It's a big club - and you ain't in it! You, and I, are not in the big club.

"By the way, it's the same big club they use to beat you over the head...  with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy... Good, honest hard-working people; white collar, blue collar it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good, honest hard-working people continue... to elect these rich... suckers who don’t give a [damn] about you..."

Far too many of the 99% of Americans have been conned into thinking our politics is a football game, and they must root for the team that might someday help them - if they can somehow, magically become wealthy. The fact is, there is no magical way to become wealthy - and as we've said before MANY times, politics is NOT a game.

As Carlin reminded us, "It's called the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it." These protests are Americans finally waking up. That they are rightfully angry terrifies those who stole their opportunities away from them while they were asleep.

One of the scariest things about this whole situation is that many of those currently in power don't yet seem to realize - it is they, and not the middle class, who is hanging onto their status by a thread.

Friday Funday: Just Figure Out What's Next

As we're certain you've heard by now, Apple co-founder and innovator Steve Jobs died this week, after an incredible eight-year battle with pancreatic cancer.

There have been so many stories shared about Mr. Jobs; how he and Steve Wozniak began Apple; how Jobs got fired from the company he created, which spurred Jobs to create NeXt computers; and how he built Pixar into the company we've all come to love.

Of course, Mr. Jobs' commencement speech at Stanford has also made the rounds on the internet, and in conversation, quite a bit these last two days. If you haven't yet read or watched Mr. Jobs' Stanford address from 2005, we highly recommend you do so now.

For all you may have seen, read, and heard though, there's just... one more thing... at least one more story about Mr. Jobs that we're fairly sure that most of you haven't heard yet.

There's a story told among some of Apple's most veteran fans, those who remember Apple before the Mac, who know that Lisa isn't just a girl's name, and who were once called 'Apple evangelists - like our web guru, Shawn. The story goes that, shortly after Steve Jobs had dropped out of college, he went to India and got lost looking for a wise man. After some searching and stumbling through somewhat rural towns in India, Jobs had yet to find the guru - but, in a strange twist of fate, the wise man found him instead.

When the wise man 'discovered' Jobs, he ran up to the young American and screamed, "You!" !" - not in a hateful way, or the way you'd call out a thief, but in the way someone would exclaim if they had just found the one person they'd been looking for all their life.

This wise Indian yogi put his hands on Jobs' head - which Steve thought odd, but went along with anyway. After a few moments, the wise man stepped back and told Jobs, "Someday, you will change the world."

And he did.

As Jobs himself once said, the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.

As we head into a weekend filled with travel, P.O. Pears burgers at the UNL Dairy Store, and maybe even checking out a few Occupy rallies, we hope you'll remember something else Mr. Jobs once said, in an interview with NBC's Brian Williams.

When Williams asked Jobs to think of where he would fit, in the great pantheon of American inventors, Jobs tried to beg off, not wanting to truly answer the question. Williams pushed the legacy query though - and Jobs' answer is one we hope sticks with you as much as it has with us.

Steve said, "When we [humans] finish doing something that we're really proud of, we want to get onto the next thing. So, you know, I think if you do something and it turns out pretty good, then you should go do something else wonderful and not dwell on it for too long. Just figure out what's next."

We hope that whatever is next for you turns out pretty good too.

"Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — Steve Jobs

Will Do Anything For Office

There have been a lot of news stories in the last 24 hours, not the least of which is the death of Apple computer founder Steve Jobs, one of the topics we plan to address tomorrow. To his family, friends, and fans, we add our condolences to the millions of voices thanking him.

One of the biggest pieces of news in the political world, is that Sarah Palin, the former half-term Governor of Alaska, has announced her decision not to run for President in 2012 - as we were certain was the case. Of course, the highly lucrative paycheck that we're sure Gov. Palin receives from Fox News probably also helped sway her decision this time around - even if Fox President Roger Ailes only hired Ms. Palin because she's "hot and got ratings" for his television network.

So Republicans are stuck with the group of candidates they have - which, for many Republicans, means the Republican version of John Kerry, in Mitt Romney, except without the war hero record and long history of solid national policy experience.

The fact is, if Mitt Romney can be judged by his record as a governor, and his actions as president and CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, he appears to be a somewhat socially moderate, somewhat fiscally conservative, corporate-friendly Republican.

While the totality of his policies and past actions don't sit well with most liberals, if he were positioned as a reasonable moderate, more than a few moderate progressives and centrists might be able to be won over by a candidate with Gov. Romney's background.

Instead, for months now, the regressive right has continued to deny what most of them already know, deep down, to be true: Romney is the most likely candidate for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination.

That hasn't stopped Republican partisans and pollsters from claiming - in vain - that the decisions of Chris Christie and Sarah Palin not to enter the race are going to make things easier for Herman Cain. Or Rick Perry. Or someone. After all, as noted polling and statistics expert Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight.com, mentioned earlier this week, "Cain, Perry, Bachmann, Trump, Giuliani, Romney, Palin, Gingrich, Huckabee, and Christie have all led at least 1 national poll this year."

If this were a political landscape not already ravaged by hyper-partisanship and toxic levels of propaganda, we can honestly see at least two candidates among the current GOP field that sane moderates and even a few conservative Democrats might vote for.

The problem is one we pointed out on Wednesday - that the extremist far right has been purity testing every candidate that comes before them. Their fanatical insistence that each and every item on their checklist of dogmatic loyalty be met means that Romney keeps trying too hard to prove his worth to people who will never really like him anyway.

That isn't to say the Republican partisans and those on the far right won't vote for Romney in the end. If they vote at all, they'll vote for Gov. Romney, only because they can't stand President Obama.

Just because they vote for him, though, doesn't mean they have to like Mr. Romney.

And no matter what he does, or what positions he takes, that's not likely to be something that changes.

The Price Of Purity

Now that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has officially announced that he is NOT going to run for President in 2012 - as we were fairly sure he wouldn't - and several states have moved up their 2012 primary dates, the Republican field of candidates running for President appears to be set.

Contrary to what you may hear from their cottage propaganda industry, Republican voters are still not happy with the choices they have staring them in the face for 2012.

The fact is, as much as Republican partisans and the GOP wish 2012 could be the American political right's answer to the impassioned and lively primary season that the Democratic Party had in 2008, next year is really shaping up to be more like the right's version of 2004. The man who will likely get the nomination - Mitt Romney - is a perfect example of extremist Republicans refusing the attainable good, and insisting on the impossible perfect.

Like it or not, Gov. Christie and Gov. Perry also fit oddly similar, but not identical roles.

Before Rick Perry got into the race, Republican partisans seemed to swoon at every mention of his name. They lobbied for him to join the race, and said he was just what the Republican Party needed to win in 2012. So Perry joined the race, and not long after, he was topping the polls, beating the entire GOP field, including Mitt Romney.

That is, until Republican voters got to know him. And his HPV decision in Texas. And his penchant for the death penalty - in nearly any case. And his inability to debate well. And, most recently, questions about his true views on race.

As we noted when discussing today's edition, the Republicans' flirtation with candidates is like the ABC Network television show The Bachelor (our Assistant Editor's favorite guilty pleasure - and heckling target).

There's a reason that so few of the pairings from that show are able to withstand the real world. These people are sent on the most lavish dates in the most gorgeous and exotic locations the producers can dream up - on a sky's-the-limit budget. Under those circumstances, it's very easy to let yourself be convinced that you're in love with just about any other moderately attractive person of your favored gender.

That is, until you go back home and try to hit the town for date night with 'private romantic island' tastes - and a Chuck E. Cheese budget. Fantasy collides with reality.

For all the pining and lamenting that some are still doing about Chris Christie, the fact is, he's not who the extremists dreamt he was.

He's a socially moderate governor from a heavily liberal state in the Northeastern U.S. When the far right would want him to whisper sweet political nothings in their ear, they'd end up flat on their behind, shocked that Christie would do something like stand up for one of those brown-skinned Muslims, and call regressive Republicans crazy.

The brutal collision between fantasy and reality that we saw when Perry entered the race would inevitably have been repeated in Christie's case. The fact is, upon real inspection, there's really no one that can pass the purity test of the modern Republican Party. This group of Republicans has standards that not even Ronald Reagan himself could ever hope to meet.

What chance do they think anyone else has of measuring up?

The Reason The Protests Are Happening Now

Yesterday, we showed you what we feel is the single core solution that will allow the resolution of the majority of the economic problems Americans currently face. If we get money out of the political system in the United States, the system will begin to function again, to the benefit of ALL Americans, not just a few.

Sadly, getting things fixed in our society isn't as easy as having Steve Jobs and the rest of Apple whip up a new iPhone, with new apps that magically fix everything. The problems facing our society are issues that have been ignored and grown over the last thirty years.

Much of the mainstream media is still ignoring the Occupy movement, which is now in its third week. There's no question - this movement is far more newsworthy than many of the stories our colleagues are wasting their pixels, ink, bits, and bandwidth on.

Still, for those of our colleagues that have finally begun to cover the Occupy movement, the primary question they're asking - "What do these people want, specifically? " - is the wrong question entirely. "These people" are our fellow Americans, and what they want specifically is as varied as the millions of Americans who are suffering through the disastrous economy that is generating these protests from coast to coast.

Thousands are "Occupying" now. Millions more are speaking out online - for now. The question that worries us the most is "Will this accelerate - and badly?" That is not at all our wish, though - and we hope it isn't yours either. It's also not the question the media should be asking.

The question our media colleagues SHOULD be asking is actually sickeningly simple: Why is this happening now?

You can find the answers in post, after post, after post by Americans involved in the Occupy movement  at the website wearethe99percent.tumblr.com. There are Americans of all ages there, all races, and nearly every life situation you can imagine. These are people who've worked hard, busted their asses, done everything society told them to do. They've gone to college or tech school, served in the military, faced their demons of mental health and gotten treatment, expensive though it's been.

They've taken care of their parents, their kids, themselves in the best way possible. Many live with family, in hand-me-downs. Many don't have TVs, computers, or even rooms of their own. Most don't have pets, and some don't even have shoes. Seriously. In America, in 2011. Most of them have more than fulfilled their end of the social contract with our American society.

They want what America has promised to the world, what America has advertised as possible for anyone to achieve, especially since the end of World War II. They want a fair chance to work for a better life.

This is happening now because that chance is being actively denied to them. It's even being denied to the President they elected to help them change America, for the better.

President Obama has been NOTHING but compromising during his first term, bending over backwards to try and find common ground with those whose only goal is his failure. Yet, Republicans like Eric Cantor revel in stopping the President's JOBS plan - the ONLY legitimate jobs plan even presented to Congress. What's more, House Republicans are planning on fighting another massive battle with the President - instead of helping millions of Americans in desperate need of a chance for a better life.

No one is asking for a handout. Everyone simply wants a fair, legitimate opportunity. But those at the top don't wish to give even that anymore. So we get what you're seeing now: protests, popping up all over the country.

These protests are a precursor. They are a last cry for hope.

Think of these protests as the Revolutionary Warning App for our society.

Here is the thought process we fear may take over soon: If hardworking, decent, intelligent, spiritual, honest Americans are denied all hope, then why, exactly, should those millions of Americans continue to play by the ethical and moral rules of society? The top one percent on Wall Street didn't - and look where it got them.

How To Win The War On Wall Street? Get Money Out Of Politics.

In case you've been out of the media loop this weekend - or frankly, even if you have been paying attention to much of the mainstream media - you may have only begun to hear about the Occupy Wall Street protests currently happening in New York, and beginning to spread around the country. We've said for some time that these kinds of events were likely to happen here in America and, once again, we're sadly correct.

While we're not in favor of mob rule, or thinly veiled attempts by police to cage, trap, and arrest protestors with legitimate grievances, we tend to agree with the protestors that it's high time someone focused on the white-collar criminals on Wall Street. While these "masters of the universe" have been sipping champagne from their balconies as they point and laugh at the Occupy protestors, they've been continuing to use the letter of America's economic laws to gut the spirit of those same laws - just as they've gutted the spirits, rights, and bank accounts of America's middle and working classes.

The methods of payback suggested by some - like comedienne Roseanne Barr, who said over the weekend that bankers and Wall Street Types should be guillotined for the damage they've done to our economy - are extreme. That kind of violent rhetoric, while it may feel good, really has no place in a modern, civilized discussion in the media.

That said, we fully agree that retribution of some kind is not only likely by the aggrieved in America's working classes, but warranted.

The fact is, while the myriad different factions that seem to upmake up the Occupy Wall Street contingent are using a somewhat ineffective decision-making method, and they've yet to officially coalesce on a single goal, they have no lack of ideas. Some of their ideas have been echoed by mainstream media figures, like imposing a financial transactions tax, or closing the carried interest loopholes (which allow the ultra-rich to effectively put off paying income taxes on their investments until the third Monday of never).

We think the Occupy movement should listen to the message that some progressive media and labor leaders have been trying to guide the Occupy protestors towards - to get money out of politics.

Even the most insane members of the Tea Party seemed to understand that a simple, basic message was needed to unite all their various factions. We're certain that the millions of dollars of right-wing corporate astroturf money and professional political and media guidance helped the Tea Partiers come up with their primary message, that Americans were taxed enough already (T.E.A.). While the facts continue to prove the Tea Partiers wrong on that issue, the lesson that can be learned from their movement is a basic rule of effective mass communications: have a simple message and stick with it.

That message should be "get money out of politics."

As we've pointed out more than once, even Warren Buffett has acknowledged multiple times that, "There’s been class warfare for the last 20 years, and my class has won." As Buffett has elaborated, his class has won because they've basically bought the laws and legislators, on all levels, that have given the wealthy an unfair advantage over the other 98% of Americans.

That unfair advantage could be significantly leveled if the Occupy protestors followed the message we’ve mentioned above, to “get money out of politics.” To that end, former Wall Street trader, and corporate media figure Dylan Ratigan and other media figures - including our own webmaster - have begun supporting a constitutional amendment to do just that.

Getting the money out of politics won't be easy to do well or correctly. Then again, nothing worth doing is.