US elections - is the fox guarding the henhouse

[cbell003]

too bad its all rigged, your vote doesn't count

[Snowman374th]

Men! Everything you find is going to have an impact on what you think and what your saying, Please note All your finding out is part of a bigger plan. Like the bible this has been rewritten to get the most out of it. When they are done there will be a new world here. And a new law running it. All those who oppose will be imprisoned or killed.

The Power in charge is what none of you will except. You do not know them but they know you! They have been watching and getting this ready.

[crock703]

Its a good thing you know just enough to sound dangerous, but are too juvenile to keep an audience.

Freddie/Fannie were bad news, but the deregulation and bad monetary policy at the Fed did this.

You can twist this into your race-war fantasy (white liberals give minorities more home lending, to tank them, and bilk their money)

I'm talking to a loose nut, nevermind..

[crock703]

lenders abandoned sound lending on their own, outside of mortgage lending, so your argument doens't hold up. Dereg allowed them to develop and use nonsense accounting and financial tools (mark-to-market, derivatives, etc), combined with the insane exec compensation everyone's priority became short-term results, be damned the consequences. Execs had a financial incentive and now the legal ability to leverage their lending companies beyond reason, and their imaginary wealth got exposed, NY tanked.

[joelramirezramirez]

if were going to seriously think about this theary.you are stipulating that i do an action before having had any response on your part.now i do not mistrust you on your word.but i wasnt born yesterday lol.the world is the same the worl around.

[joelramirezramirez]

amsterdam

[LTBL88]

Would you idiots shut up about america "not being a democracy because it's a republic"? A DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC IS A DEMOCRACY.

[shegax03]

Whaa? A democracy only refers to the voting process, not our government. We are a republic. Democracy? Well representative democracy is an oxymoron in and of itself. Democritus from ancient Greece would be rolling in his grave if he ever learned of "representative Democracy" Or "Electoral College". With corporations as they are, we are probably better defined at a plutocracy (Ruling of the Rich and Wealthy). 2 parties are not that much better than one. China is also a Republic ya know.

[LTBL88]

"Republic" in the context of America is differentiated from "democracy" in that inalienable rights cannot be taken away from people by the democratic process, etc. Saying "America isn't a democracy, it's a republic because its democratic system has safeguards for personal freedom" is correct on only a pedantic level and never serves a purpose in a discussion other than to look smart by correcting someone. You must understand that a political system based on citizen voting is a democracy.

[lives2live]

What makes you think we are a "democratic republic?" Let me quote a bit of what Hamilton and Madison (the father of the Constitution) said about democracy: "Hence it has been that such democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths." -The Federalist

[lives2live]

You believe that people who saw democracy to be "incompatible with personal security and the rights of property" would then turn around and form a Democratic Republic - a Democracy? Sorry. The word Democracy never shows up in the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. The only word that is used to describe us is REPUBLIC. And a republic is not a democracy. A republic is the anti-democracy. All you think you know is what you have been told in your government run school. Wake up.

[LTBL88]

What the founding fathers thought or said has no bearing in real terms on whether or not the US political system today functions based on democratic voting, which it does. To say otherwise based on rhetoric from hundreds of years ago is pedantic and nonsensical. Correcting Zinn for making a good point about the need for access to information because "the founding fathers said so and so hundreds of years ago!" is nitpicking. "The government brainwashed you sheep!" blah blah, how condescending.

[thelastemperor909]

republicans are just bad people blocking peoples votes and who are repub whites, white people ruin lots of things

[tburke64]

Dear Mr. McCain,

The behavior of your party during this election as well as the last two elections, has cost you my vote.

I used to support you. Do something to become the ethical man we need in office!

[nelson3300]

THIS IS A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC NOT A DEMOCRACY!!!! why dont people understand that..?

[lives2live]

Nelson, I hear ya bro. If people actually had a clue about what a democracy is, they would spit on that crap just like the founders of our country did.

Talk about a fast track to the demise of "Liberty and Justice for all"

A democracy means that whatever the majority says is law.

That gives the opportunity for a majority to strip away the civil liberties of a minority. Because you have no rights in a dem., they only exist in a republic. In a Dem, your rights are what we tell you they are.

[nelson3300]

hit the nail on the head. peace

[hasankhalid]

wow, the entire system is fucked up

[lives2live]

this channel is becoming more and more biased the closer we get to the election in my opinion. Not that I want McCain to win, cause I don't. Just an observation.

[jandrewmurphy]

biased toward what? toward reality and away from what the MSM reports?

[historywillabsolve]

i don't think it's possible to be completely unbiased. if you're honest, you make your view point known. if you're dishonest you hide your agenda behind a cloak of "objectivity" like the corporate media.

[jeremybalfe]

Good point.  Very true I think.

[lives2live]

I think you are correct about that. I haven't the slightest problem with people being biased. Its completely natural, while pretending to not be biased in essentially a lie, and I would certainly prefere the truth.

But I guess all I was saying is that I was tired of hearing the same side of things over and over again. Would anyone honestly say that McCain has no good policies? If this was an unbiased news org. we would see the best and worst of both sides.

[historywillabsolve]

You've probably seen deeper, more analytic criticism of Obama (FISA flipflop, his cozying up to the AIPAC lobby, his bellicose rhetoric towards Iran, & his LatAm foreign policy, etc) from RealNews than any of the major news networks, which don't really do a job of parsing the truth from all the bullshit, but act more as an echo-chamber for the public relations industry hired by political candidates and special interest groups. Sorry if your own conservative biases prevent you from seeing that.

[TSM9356]

bush did this 4 years ago. terrible.

[Ahmedo1984]

Here in the Netherlands we have real Democracy. I am not a fan of Democracy because it has flaws but I can say that there is 100% fair elections, Everybody has health insurance and if you have no work Goverment pays you 750 Euro per month and helps with anything possible and for a country with 17 million habitants we have a very good economy and a good life. And Americans can imigrate easily so you are welcome we have still farmland to build on :p

[Idtelos]

send me a plane ticket...wait...nevermind... NWO elitist families ruling the world live there.

[Ahmedo1984]

They live everywhere if you want to look from that point of vieuw most of them in America!

[crock703]

dereg allowed lenders to rewrap the bad mortages as more abstract securities (creating incentive to make bad loans.) It also allowed lenders to leverage themselves beyond reason, so that they'd need to be "too big to fall." Leveraging is what has given this crisis its magnitude.

What you mentioned did have a strong bearing, but remember than Freddie/Fannie lost market share to other mortgage lenders in the subprime peak, so no one was twisting the industry's arm.

[777CARL777]

The only trash that needs to be cleaned up is Bush, McCain and their fellow war criminal friends. You guys are so desperate it makes me laugh with glee. Defending war criminals must be very hard to do, good luck.

[inderneil]

lol americans are lololol ok 90% jews runs the system ok well enjoy jewish cola

[cutegual]

USA have zero Democracy.

[kjpdqpb]

I have concieved the answer. I was walking to college when it struck me.

We currently pay Officials and Politicians who merely strut about making broad declarations and doing essentially nothing; Why then, do we not take the moment and see my system?

A nation wide system of Election officials.  No real head, no real president, but a system that needs 2/3's vote to do things. We would have an election like vote 12 or more times a year. we wouldn't need electoral representation.

[ogjimkenobi]

What the fuck?!? Can't this country get anything right?!?! It's within our technical capabilities to get shit like this done correctly, so why the hell are we screwing it up so bad?

[joelramirezramirez]

the two greatest presidents of recent times are ike and carter.ike for standing against the industrial milatery complex and carter for standing against enegy depandance.

[random63x]

Carter's was one of the worst presidencies since WWII. He left our country in terrible shape. Most recently he was caught trying to lie about reaching some agreement with Hezzbolah (sp). Not a good legacy at all.

[joelramirezramirez]

how many houses has any other president built in new orleans and the rest of the country?the relative economic stabilaty that ragen inherited was infact becouse of programs carter implamented.were as the current economic crisis is do to the reganomic polacy wich has bin followed by the republican party as verbatum.if the u.s. had followed carters plan for energy indepandance the u.s. would asheradly have side steped a lot of the problems we are facing today.regans polacies/ussr inconclusive.

[random63x]

Reagan inherited a terrible economy...stagflation w/ skyrocketing oil prices. I'm not sure how the current crisis is Reagan's fault. Both parties share a lot of blame, but in any case, hard to see how it's Reagan fault for Fannie/Freddie, Greenspan's monetary policy, Clinton & Bush's policies, etc.

[joelramirezramirez]

i agree neither party dose it for me.the curent problem is due to reagan saying goverment is not the solution its the problem.nearly every one i have heard who is reportadly an expert agrees deregulation had mostly to do with the crisis as it is.reagans idea of how the goverment should work without reagan as harball as he was i do not think ussr would have colapsed as soon as it did so?

[random63x]

Hey Joel - my problem w/ that is no one has shown me any proof that deregulation is the problem. regulatory spending as increased under bush. there may well have been deregulation that contributed, but i'd like some specifics. maybe the ppl you've talked to know something?

[chopin65]

This video is a breath of fresh air in the stale and fixed coverage of network TV. It is a pity the public cannot see more of it.

[pongman]

Yeah voted early in Florida and the lines were an hour and a half. I saw a few people who left when they noticed the lines wrapping around the library. So much for voting early and often.

[IceHockeyJedi]

republic=rule of law

democracy=majority rule

This is more than mere semantics.

They wanted a republic, we got an oligarchy.

[magiorey]

Republic is an abbreviation from the latin expression "Res Publica" which more or less translates as "government of the people" so the correction pointed out earlier by someone else was actually correct. Democracy is indeed greek fo "rule of the people", not much of a difference...

[IceHockeyJedi]

Demos=people, Kratein=To rule-democracy "people rule"

Res=Thing, Publica=Public-republic "the law"

There is a difference, democracies have been taken advantage of for centuries. If something is approved by the majority of people, it doesn't make it right. We've been taken advantage of as citizens.(now known as "consumers")

[rlc2052]

The Real Democratic News... For shame.

Unsubscribed

[yay1912]

This video was pretty harmless.

Why unsubscribe over this video?

[SailorWuvsPeanut]

Yay1912, re: "This video was pretty harmless. Why unsubscribe over this video?"

My top two guesses:

It isn't screaming about things like "the duopoly", so it pissed off a Nader Raider.

Or, because the video highlights Republican efforts to suppress voter turn out, it pissed off a Ron Paul fan who sees Republicans as the lesser evil.

Could be another reason, but those guesses are at the top of my list.

[lordblazer]

there is a title error. This should be a pt 2 or is this just a repost of somethign already posted.

[IceHockeyJedi]

Why is this old man in the beginning worrying about our "democracy"?  The founding fathers didn't want this country to be a democracy, they wanted a republic. Unfortunately, we ended up with a oligarchy.

Hey, Real News. If you want donations, start telling the WHOLE truth!

[lordblazer]

you do know a republic is a form of democratic country. BTW. The electoral college system was set up in a time period when travel was slow and the spread of infomation was even slower. Its outdated in short. Sooo wtf? The founding fathers couldn't have imagined that America would become the country it is today, and that the world would be the way it is today both the good and the bad. I mean ipods, computers, internet, instant communication from anywhere on the globe.

[BritishSocialism]

The "founding fathers" didn't have such uniformed opinions.

[truthspeaker969]

why are democrats not agressively promoting and demanding constitutional paper ballots instead of hacked & fraudulent touchscreens from republican-bully-companys ?

is this all a huge theatre ?

[lordblazer]

my home state does paper ballots. I voted absentee because I live abroad so my vote isn't counted.

[truthspeaker969]

"my home state does paper ballots. I voted absentee because I live abroad so my vote isn't counted."

I don´t get it, why shouldn´t your vote be counted ?

[random63x]

Thus continues Real News' slide towards being a wing of the Democrat party. The Democrats are no better here...there is widespread evidence of voter manipulation via organizations like ACORN, but you won't see that reported here. Instead we "need the Real News"...to help propel Obama to the presidency?

[lordblazer]

eeveryone is saying this but all of the candidates have been slammed quite hard by TRNN

[magiorey]

Sorry, i accidently marked one of your comments as spam, totally unintended, my apologies

[random63x]

Maybe I missed it, but I haven't seen any reports critical of the Democratic Party or Obama's methods.

[smackysam]

random63x.. you're a kool-aid drinker. there is no "widesrpead evidence" of voter manipulation by ACORN, just a tiny percentage of bad signatures out of millions of real ones their canvassars collected to get people registed to vote (something which ACORN itself flagged and reported before handing them in to the registry). all of that fuss the GOP is making about ACORN is just a cover to suppress the minority and low-income vote (which vote overwhelmingly for the Democrats)

[777CARL777]

Republicans are just plain evil, thats all there is to it. Maybe they know that when the elections are honest, they lose. Furthermore, they are probably worried about being charged with crimes like their buddies Duke Cunningham and Ted Stevens.

[cosmlayla]

They are trying to steal this election again.