hello? anyone out there?

credit where it is due: ralph nader's "crashing the party":

Voters are left with limp imagery, hackneyed slogans and omnipresent thirty-second propaganda advertisements.

so fucking true. politicians don't give the populace enough credit. throw us no more bones but instead a sirloin steak. we promise to take our time and savor each entree your party and platform are serving. is america content on heaping the empty calories of recycled rhetoric, negative attack ads and status quo politics on our plates? sadly friend, the answer is a resounding yes. the buffet of ignorance; whether voluntary or not, is open for all comers.

what will it take to have us drop our ipods and devote the same attention we pay to every minute detail of american idol to the idle american politics? who's to help us say 'no thank you' to another white, rich male from being elected?

both political parties have helped drive the apathy in voters' heart and they like it this way. our sham democracy is nothing more than an elaborate play. the american people are the extras. big business with their formidable k street warriors are the protagonists. we have no lines. all we have is what they give us. a soundbite that has been encapsulated into a few scant seconds lest they lose our interest. indeed as nader points out "Dr. Pavlov soon becomes the patron saint of the political horse race."