Short political rant

OK. Every American should be pissed off about this regardless of which candidate they support.  In America, a country that supposedly is the greatest democracy in the world, we the people no longer get to choose who the candidates are.  The coporations get to choose for us.  What makes me say this, it is the restricted debates that are held by the major media outlets.  The most blatant example happened this past week. NBC a media coporation owned by GE set up rules for being eligible to participate in the democratic primary debate, invited the 4 top candidates, then they rescinded their invitation to the 4th candidate (Dennis Kucinich) only allowing the top 3 candidates participate.  Kucinich took them to court, won the first case, NBC took it to the Nevada supreme court and this court rescinded the first ruling, stating that it was the TV network's 1st ammendment right to exclude Kucinich.  What about fact that they coporation is suppose to use the public airways to promote the public interest? What about Kucinich's right to free speech? Why is this a problem, its a problem because it means the coporations are choosing for us who is the top candidates.  They are the ones who control access to the masses, they are the ones who run the polls.  How is a candidate suppose to get high ratings in the poles if the public can't here his or her message, and how can this candidate get his or her message if they can't participate in the televised debates.  In this particular example, Kucinich is the one candidate out of the 4 that were originally invited that was truly different.  Obama, Clinton and Edwards all have very similar stances on the issues.  They each refrain from giving straight answers to any tough questions and since they're all the same they don't want to push each other to be more specific.  These 3 have all taken money from coporations and special interests and so they get the attention from the media and in turn are afraid to go on record (and likely will instill any real change if elected president) because they owe these special interests.  Kucinich is not afraid to be specific about his stances on the tough issues because he doesn't have to answer to any coporation or special interest, only to the American people.  Now republicans should be just as upset by this as democrats, because the one republican candidate that isn't afraid to stand up to coporations and special interests, Ron Paul, gets shafted in the same way.  So is this a country For the people, By the people, or is it For the coporations By the coporations.  
Here are a couple of links discussing this matter:
Click HERE
and HERE


Here's a link to here Kucinich respond to some of the questions from the debate that he was excluded from: Click HERE
 

And here's an interesting website were you can rank where you stand on the issues and see which presidential candidate best lines up with your views: Click HERE.
 

OK. Enough of the rant.

ALT show this Saturday

My band, Astronaut Love Triangle, has a real gig this Saturday.  We open for a blues rock band at Martin's in Jackson, MS.  For anyone who reads this and are local come see us (10pm).  I'm going to try and get video's posted of it afterward.