This video pretty much explains that Congressional display. Every one of those politicians should be arrested, tried and thrown in jail for life as seditious traitors and complicit war criminals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6KLFrye9Xk&feature=related
I wonder what the young boy is up to these days? Next Prime Minister in 10 to 15 years?

Posted by: Morocco Bama | May 25 2011 11:07 utc | 4

Who stopped applauding first?
Stalin’s Duma had a bell.

Posted by: rjj | May 25 2011 11:19 utc | 6

Does the opinion of non-Uberwealthy, non-Big Business people in the US matter to the DC pols?
Ha!
Let’s see: Prior to Obama making absolutely clear he had taken single payer “off the table,” 78% of the public told a CBS poll (12/09) they wanted a single payer plan something “like Medicare.” Just before the final vote on Obama’s Big Health Industry Players Profit Protection Plan, two polls showed support for a single payer plan like Medicare to be in the low to mid-60%. Independents and Democratic voters were highly in favor of single payer, but even Republican voters were over 50% in favor (iirc). (There was little polling on single payer or Medicare for All once Obama made clear it was “off the table.”)
People want the Obama adminitration and Congress to do something tangible about unemployment; they tell pollsters they want jobs, jobs, jobs. And Obama? He does next to nothing — but will soon start talking a good game to try to fool the rubes into voting for him.
A House distict in western NY state, long held by Republicans, yesterday voted in a Democrat who campaigned against cuts or changes to Medicare, especially the Paul Ryan Republican plan to issue vouchers to be applied toward payment of private for-profit insurance plans for retirees 10 years after such a plan passed. This would mean a continual reduction in how much insurance retirees could afford unless they were well off to begin with. Obama congratulated the Democratic winner and said she would work with him on reducing the deficit — he did not emphasize the clear message of her victory. Since before he declared his run for the Dem primary, he’s said he wants to do “something” about Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
I don’t know this new representative’s actual stance on what Obama might do, altho’ a local station reported she said Medicare had to be “on the table” (uh oh); however, she won because the voters in her district do not want Medicare messed with, either for current recipients or for future retirees. It should be a clear, clarion call from the Dems that they will protect Medicare as it is. Doing so would probably mean they might retake the House and keep the Senate.
But Obama is the leader of the party and he is unable to take a clear stand. Of course, he took a “clear stand” against extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, but he muddied that message as well and then he pre-negotiated with the Repubs, giving away most of his bargaining chips. Finally, he gave the Repubs more than they ever thought they would get, including keeping hedge fund earnings as capitial gains (15% tax rate) while actually increasing what the poorest earners had to pay.
Polls showed the public overwhelmingly wanted to let the Bush tax cuts on the rich lapse, and a majority wanted to let all the Bush tax cuts lapse rather than extend them for the rich. A few House Dems tried to get a bill passed, but not enough Senate Dems were supportive.
Obama is doing what he wants to get done. He is a conservative running for office under the Dems’ banner.
And, with Obama in office, the Dems don’t seem able to stand for what used to be clear Democratic Party principles. Wall Streeters managed to accomplish a leveraged buy out of the Dem Party when they provided the big, early money for Obama. With the assets of their principles stripped out, the party may well fail.
So, in short, no, our national politicians do not listen to what the people want. They do not work for the people, and the know where the reall money comes from which permits them to be elected. And they who pay the piper call the tunes.

Posted by: jawbone | May 25 2011 12:40 utc | 8

” How do people in the U.S. really think about this? And does their opinion matter?”
The U.S. citizens are not allowed debate on the issue, they’re told what to think in our corporate media.
As to the second part of your question, jawbone @ 8, covered that quite well.
MB @ 5: Great video! Another opinion we’d never see in the mainstream corporate media. And we know the mindset in the U.S. today… If it’s not on the TV, it never happened.

Posted by: ben | May 25 2011 14:19 utc | 10

Western-style democracy is past its sell-date.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in the US.
The tradition of individualism, of personal relations (transactions between individuals rather than constituted groups of citizens), of ‘free markets’ (i.e. unleashing power relations, making bribery and co-optation official, and allowing certain dominant groups such as corporations the same rights as individuals), of a culture of reward + punishment, a penchant for story-telling, and, last but not least, the adulation for wealth, ownership, power over other’s lives, gained thru individual endeavor, have all contributed to making a mockery of democracy.
Democracy has become a sleazy, sub-par, lower than B-serials, TV show.
The full flowering of the mentioned values (one might add others) is incompatible with a political arrangement where the majority opinion has some say, in a country of 300 million people with a staggering % on the bread lines, so to speak. The values might have been natural, productive, understandable, several hundred years ago, with much territory to conquer and exploit, as well as a population to kill off and the subsequent affordability of imported, indentured labor – black slaves.
Unfortunately, the powerful all over the world have latched on to similar values, memes, organizational / Gvmt. principles, etc. Or found re-affirmation, justification, etc. – another topic.
In some sense, what we are witnessing is a wish for return to a glorious past, a freer time, but now institutionally engineered in a complex bureaucratic structure, and a clumsy, ersatz political scheme that will *perish.* Traditionalist, sentimental, backward-looking, even hopeful in a way, for a small section of society, who believe that control will fix our world predicament.
Israel and Saudi both embody values and function according to exclusionary, hateful, repressive, controlling, exploiting, procedures. Despots, scammers, colonizers (Isr.), admired and sustained 100% by the superpower. All salute! Clap! Endorse!
Sadly, killing Palestinians or impoverishing poor whites in the US even more won’t contibute to any positive outcome.
In my mind, all is linked to de-growth, the fact that ‘economic’ growth can no longer really continue, has not been ongoing, except in certain favored spots, constructed to demonstrate its continuing possibility.
We are all in an end-game scenario, so almighty intestinal aggro surfaces – the need to attack Lybia (nato), a backlash against illegal workers who actually contribute cheap labor that pays for (say) food stamps, a burgeoning hate of Muslims who control oil reserves, etc, etc.

Posted by: Noirette | May 25 2011 16:30 utc | 12

noirette, the very great film maker, béla tarr, in his last extraordinary film, ‘cheval du turin – the turin horse’ arrives at the same conclusion. it is finished. the world, that is

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 25 2011 19:51 utc | 14

DE Teoduro. Great comment

Posted by: Cloned Poster | May 25 2011 20:39 utc | 16

Very sad how the US Senate/House loves prefers all things Israeli, no matter how obnoxious. Zionism, mental disorder or criminal cult?

Posted by: nimitz | May 26 2011 4:53 utc | 18

i think we are being brainwashed. there’s a great article by noura erakat Constructing the Prototypical Terrorist in America: Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian

mainstream media portrayals have worked to create a group that others and excludes Arabs and Muslims as menacing threats, intransigently foreign and disloyal—this process has not accounted for Israel’s centrality in the construction of an insider American identity. The US’s long-standing relationship to Israel may have begun as a strategic choice at the height of the Cold War and the ascent of Pan-Arab nationalism, but it has come to constitute a pillar of US identity. The US political establishment- its legislature, executive branch, and judiciary- works in concert to construct the national boundaries that include Israel and exclude those critical of the State and its policies. In light of this, the prototypical terrorist is not only Arab and Muslim, as would be the case in an examination of US-domestic policy only, but also Palestinian. Palestinian in this context meaning all actors posing a threat to Israel regardless of ethnic and national distinctions.
….
The lawmakers’ choice of language and tone both reflects Israel’s insider status and works to construct its critics as threats to US national security. While the description of Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East, works to distinguish Israel from its authoritarian counterparts, it also acts as a marker that others Israel’s Arab and Muslim neighbors. Their written and oral statements condemn the US President in defense of a foreign state; describe their relationship to Israel as moral; describe the US as Israel’s guardian; and affirm the immutability of the US’s relationship to Israel irrespective of circumstances. This behavior is more reflective of a family dispute than a diplomatic affair and works to reify the boundaries circumscribing American national identity wherein Israel enjoys the privileges of inclusion.

i rec the whole thing

Posted by: annie | May 26 2011 20:13 utc | 20

thanks cp
hey, i’m in the middle of reading a dkos diary from yesterday which is very instructive wrt a majority reaction of dems to the disgraceful kowtowing to bib yesterday. especially check out the updated section
there’s a well greased zionist element at the site calling themselves ‘team shalom’. they really make an effort reeling in the criticism of israel but there are just a few of them and they are not managing the groundswell of anger too well.
the diary made the rec list and has over 500 comments. seems the overriding theme does not reflect well on israel and there is nothing ‘fringe’ about this site, it is very moderate as i am sure most of you know. check it out.

Posted by: annie | May 26 2011 20:58 utc | 22