A 1999 bill introduced in the House of Representatives (which as far as I can tell never became law) stated that 3.9 million Americans were currently disqualified from voting due to felony convictions. The laws vary by State, ranging from four with no voting restrictions whatsoever, to 14 States who permanently deny voting rights. Eight other States require a pardon or order from the Governor, and 16 States disallow using the States' procedure to restore voting rights for federal convictions, the only alternative being a Presidential pardon. Simply put, it's highly unlikely most convicted felons will ever go to the polls again.

He is, and you are, absolutely right: we have allowed the rich to buy the government from the people, and there is little now, short of a military coup or a massive civil uprising, that can stop them. The country is no longer teetering on the edge of insanity; it has fallen over the edge and is heading quickly for a splatter.

We must vote out the scoundrels who stole democracy.

Bill Moyers said: "The vast inequality of this new gilded age didn't just happen. Nature didn't ordain it, the market require it, and Adam Smith's invisible hand doesn't sustain it. What happened is the rich declared class war and spent what it took to win. Not exactly a new story of course but the extraordinary new concentration of wealth and power created a juggernaut that makes it harder and harder for democracy to work for all of us. The rich buy the laws and loopholes they want from Congress and from the White House they buy executive protection for their privileges. So government winds up promoting the extremes instead of moderating them."

Amen Brother Bill. He went on to mention the new laws enacted by Congress in the wake of the Enron scandal that did nothing to limit the conflict between auditing and consulting services of the accounting firms and called by critics "The Ken Lay Protection Act." He mentioned the new $190 billion farm bill that will put a new $50 billion into the pockets of the richest and largest farms in America. He says the new Energy Bill will transfer taxpayer money to the richest energy companies. He said the stock option reform that would limit the practice used by Enron not to pay tax in 4 of the last 5 years is on this day being blocked by the White House, lobbyist and Senator Leiberman. The laws to fix the derivatives that Enron used in its bag of tricks were blocked by Senator Graham of Texas.

He closed his commentary by saying: "Yes, the rich declared class war and won. All that's left now is for politics to divide up the spoils."