Hah. This 'Bothrops' character says "..I swore off politics. It is too depressing. It is too depressing to know the truth. I got rid of all my political books/magazines, deleted my blogs, and stopped visiting my favorite political sites...right now I am just going to enjoy life and stop being depressed about something I can’t change by myself". To you,'Bothrops', that is the most rediculous thing i've ever heard. So politics, and the truth is depressing? Take it. Becoming a complete ignoramous is not the solution to your complete lack of integrity or resiliance. To some extent i agree that "ignorance is bliss", but you really can't turn back on knowlege. People like you, people who enjoy life mindlessly/ignorantly are the reasons politicians are unaccountable and why the system of propaganda prevails..It's the powerful people in this world who want you to give up and who want to make America a nation of thoughtless sheep. — Chriv'

"Politics are the entertainment branch of industry" -Frank Zappa "Politics are the shadow cast on society by big business" -John Dewey I spent election night in a bar in the lower-east side of Manhattan watching 60 or so teary-eyed sheep chant "Yes We Can!" to a TV image while waving fists. I thought, "Can What?". Realize Orwell's inside vision? Allow ourselves to be duped again, on a greater, more emotional scale? Elect a war-non-war president? Believe what we're told by our cult-like addict-like consumption of TV reality? Yes, we can. But I can't. And I won't. — Anonymous

1) Voted for Fisa bill (destruction of the fourth amendment) 2) Voted for the TARP banking bailout ($700 billion of taxpayer money to prop up disgusting banking institutions) 3) Repeatedly threatened air strikes against pakistan (death of innocent people) 4) Wants American troops in Irag repositioned in Afghanistan (more dead women and children) 5) Kept Robert Gates as Defense Secretary (the guy is a fuckin war criminal. Period.) 6) Appointed monsters like Rahm Emmanuel, Hilary Clinton, Eric Holder to prominent cabinet positions (change? hahaha) Give me a break. Obama does not represent a rebirth of anything. He is a stooge just like Mccain, Bush, Clinton, and the rest of the hacks trying to sell you the same old bull. Just please do me a favour. When Obama doesn't provide the change you wanted, hold his feet to the fire and don't justify corruption, death, and taxpayer theft. Democrat or Republican, its two sides of the same coin. Keep the Change, Obama. — Anonymous

I think it is hopeful that Obama can provide a message that echoes, at least, somewhat, to the revolutionary spirit of the '60s, however, I also think that in some ways, his is a message of blind optimism, though I can relate to that, in some respects. Like all people--be they individuals or groups, cliques or Communists--we all want, need and desire improvement, betterment in our lives. Obama, I think, refers to that as 'change.' One of my reservations is that I am far more in tune to small business and not being under the watchful eye of anything that harkens back to George Orwellian 1984--in other words, overly, overtly nosy people or, for that matter, the opposite extreme--radical revolutionaries like what's been happening in Greece (though that situation is a legitimate reason to be angry, I don't think that the answer is inciting violence to quell violence) and from what I've seen in the news and from what I've read, Obama is a supporter of the concept of Big Government. There are many things that I don't agree with in regards to Obama's political thinking--one thing that comes to mind, in particular, is that I recall him having said something about getting volunteers together and, although I realize that the economy is failing and the world is, quite literally, a financial, war-torn and utterly disorganized mess, I think that expecting people to volunteer for work that should receive payment--and all work should be paid work, unless it is considered of an extracurricular nature or an attempt to gain a foothold into a certain field--is like asking people to survive on eating sand. It's impossible to survive in the world without making an income, especially if you have goals and ambitions and you make or have shown effort to improve your life circumstances and you want to improve your life circumstances, as I'm sure we all do. Obama is an excellent orator. So is John McCain. They both have, as many public figures do, the gift of speaking somewhat eloquently, in a public forum. But, like in the X-Men (and I'm not a big supporter or fan of sci-fi, but I refer to it for the purposes of this comment), Obama, in some respects, has wound up in the Mr. President role, meaning he's got a lot of questions to answer and he's going to have to come up with solutions that please a lot of people who have a lot of differences. The subtle differences are not the ones that are concerning. It's the ones that are extreme that are going to be the most difficult. Among other things that concern me--and there are too many to mention--is that there is always this group of concerned people who seem to be almost in some sort of a vacuum like the Bermuda triangle. Our voices are heard in these forums by each other, but are our voices heard by anyone who really cares? And if we're busy trying to resolve issues and solve problems, what are they doing--pilfering our solutions as though they came up with them; going to parties and eating fancy food; traveling the world; thinking that they should travel the world while we sit at home, or wherever, doing all the problem-solving, or at least, trying to; using people for reasons that they're not fully aware of or that they don't fully comprehend; probably making more money than they should be; perpetuating our nightmares, and then pretending that they care about the world's disenfranchised and the world's poor and the middle class, and acting like they should be this year's or next year's Oscar winners? Rush's Geddy Lee might have sung that "we are all merely players," I think, a play on Shakespeare, and Tuesday Lobsang Rampa might have thought that we're all actors and to some extent, each of us is, but that isn't a reason to be blatantly dishonest about things that could hurt people to some great extent, nor is it a reason to pretend, particularly when the world has reached an all-time low. Is that really an excuse to party and turn a blind eye? Isn't it about time that the world and all the people in the world learned that if "we are all merely players," then there should be a hell of a lot more of us playing better roles and taking acting lessons on what it really means to be good, honest people? We don't have to be Mother Teresas or Ghandis or Martin Luther King Jr.s or Jesus or Mary or God or gods, teachers, students, or some hero--pretend or otherwise, living or dead--but did anyone ever think that it would help, at least a little, if those who aren't truly suffering in some way, inside or out, and those who actually have the resources to obtain the best care, acted more responsibly, more honestly and less deserving? Wouldn't it be an improvement if people didn't take what's not theirs to take and wouldn't it be an improvement if the answer to the world's problems wasn't to create more problems, only to pretend to find solutions? I'm waiting--sarcasm intended--for the world to end, so that I, too, can be a faker and pretend I'm in that Ultravox video for the song, 'Dancing with Tears in My Eyes.' By the sounds of things and the way the world is--lack of opportunities for those of us who are capable, honest, interested; people--quite often, those who have more wealth--who steal from people whose circumstances aren't that great; people who thwart people for the most innane, ridiculous reasons; an insane amount of disparity to which the answer isn't Communism; people who simply don't understand how to help themselves no matter how often they're helped and by that, I mean, given what they want. To top that off, there are all the wars, pestulance, greed--sounds like Revelations, or something out of the Astrology reading for my Astrological sign, Aquarius, from the year 2000 issue of NOW magazine, or a very diconcerting episode of that TV show, Millennium--anyway, by the sounds of things, it seems like there are a lot of people who want to be in that video, or think that's actually cool and totally missed the point of it. What's the world's population? It's like that's how many pretentious, fake, lying, thieving, canniving people there are in the world. If I were Barack Obama or any politician, or anyone who cares about human rights or themselves--and I thank God or what the hell, God is probably some jealous, disgusting loser (though I use that phrase, 'Thank God' very loosely, sometimes), I honestly don't know who to thank--that I'm not Barack Obama or a politician, I would start by weeding out all those fakers, all those users, all those abusers--and I mean abusers and users of people, people's property, people's belongings, people's rights. I sure hope that he--and his helpers, for want of a better word--isn't one of them. — Anastasia Silva

Obama is a sign of what America can accomplish. I hope he can bring us back to where we need to be. — Anonymous

I expected to see more counter-culture here - thoughtful, varied, independent voices. I'm surprised and a bit saddened that so many of the comments here speak in the same tone: mainstream culture as seen on TV, cynical, blame-oriented, name-calling. I expected more creativity, originality, perceptiveness, and individuality here. I expected a different culture. — Anonymous

Oh, and "American democracy" has never existed. Outside of cases in Catalonia, Argentinia and Bengali India, democracy has never existed full stop -- even those exceptions were fraught with apprehensive quote marks and problems of their own. When Tocqueville remarked about democracy in America, he was doing so from the point of view of a 19th Century Frenchman in a world strangled by despotism and absolute monarchy. Even then he was reaching. — Anonymous

The only thing that will save the planet and this shit hole of a country is a complete collapse of society and western civilization as a whole. Obama is related to Dick Chaney... Also, look at the extremely corrupt way the Illinois government (by the dems) is run. I wish it were as easy as just "voting" away the problem. This problem that we have is like cancer or some other terminal illness. It just can not be simply wished/"voted" away. A little while before the election I swore off politics. It is too depressing. It is too depressing to know the truth. I got rid of all my political books/magazines, deleted my blogs, and stopped visiting my favorite political sites. Even activism will get us no where at this point..... Sometime we will get to the point though when things will really change. I hope it is in my life time. Then I will be interested in politics again. for right now I am just going to enjoy life and stop being depressed about something I can't change by myself. — Bothrops

Obama is another good puppet now starring in the new season of the grand, serially hollywood produced jem: American politics. Now the facts that the series is in it's like 50th season and that the last season's plot sucked, a revision had to be made of course. Since Reagan (who is the first U.S president I can remember since having been on this earth), the major brush strokes of the script have been thus: A republican dude who fucks up but makes money for the country is followed by a democratic dude who reinstates "American" ideals of free speech, prosperity, democracy, freedom, civil rights, etc., so the perpetual dual image of the U.S as both a controlling, belligerent leader and the humanist, democratic, liberty loving saviour are forever retained. Obama is only a blackface in this forever going tragedy. He is not black, he is a character brought back from the movies of the 20's: A white man, painted in black, acting his part of the clown. in other words, the u.s fucked up bigger than assumed with bush so she had to cover up with a clown cuter than clinton this time . — Zeynep Aksoy