In Failed States (2006), Prof. Noam Chomsky, a preeminent linguist and one of this nation’s most prolific political writers, concludes that the U.S. suffers from a “democracy deficit” --- the significant gap between the policy positions of the electorate and their elected representatives --- which he attributes to the manner in which “elections are skillfully managed to avoid issues and marginalize the underlying population…freeing the elected leadership to serve the substantial people.”
The deficit is especially acute in what Chomsky describes as “the most dysfunctional healthcare system in the industrial world.” Chomsky notes that a single-payer system --- that is a system in which all medical providers would be paid by a government entity as now occurs with Medicare --- has long been overwhelmingly favored by “a considerable majority” of the American people, but routinely dismissed by both the corporate media and the leaders of both political parties as “lacking political support” and not being “politically possible.”
Single-Payer and the 'Democracy Deficit'. Or, 'Why corporate control of the media may be hazardous to your health'...
Study: Life, Health Insurers Investing Billions in Tobacco Companies
The primary reason to avoid trials upon a guilty plea is to prevent public disclosure of the details of the torture we inflicted on these detainees. Despite that, the word "torture" never once appears in this NYT article. Instead, according to the NYT, detainees in CIA black sites were merely subjected to "intense interrogations." That's all? Who opposes "intense interrogations"?The NYT's nice, new euphemism for torture
Senator Richard Shelby: working for the FED, and not YOU! They don't want YOU to know what's going on at the FED!Does anyone else think this is huge, how our government doesn't work for us, and throws us the finger right to our faces? A Senate amendment hand-written onto Rep. Ron Paul’s “Audit the Fed” bill by Top Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, effectively neutered the landmark legislation.
Legislation to give Congress greater oversight of the Federal Reserve was severely watered down on the Senate floor Wednesday in private negotiations between two powerful Republican senators.
All the News NYT Does Not See Fit to Print
