Face It, The System Is Rigged, And

While History Never Repeats Itself, Political Patterns Do.

I Am Deeply Devoted To The 27,000 Songs I Can Take Anywhere On My Ipod Classic As Well As The Exquisitely Engineered Macbook Air On Which I Typed This Column.

The Ability Of The 1 Percent To Buy Politicians And Regulators Is Nothing New In American Politics - Just As Inequality Has Been A Permanent Part Of Our Economic System. This Is True Of Virtually All Political And Economic Systems.

Whether One Agrees Or Disagrees With The Tactics Of The Occupy Wall Street Movement, It's Easy To Understand The Inspiration For Its Anger As Well As Its Impatience.

There Are More People At Obama's Table Offering Ideas Than There Were Five Years Ago, But When It Came To Facing Up To The Republicans' Threat To Force A Double-dip Recession If They Didn't Get Their Millionaires' Tax Cut, They Still Amounted To Nothing. And Therein Lies Our Fundamental Problem.