I think you are being rather harsh on the voters. After all, the majority did not vote for this gaggle of gangsters. Both the 2000, 2002, and 2004 elections were rigged. As long as the elections are fixed you can't blame the voters because their will has been thwarted and denied.

You miss the point, Vinnie. The Ecuadorians didn't vote to have their Supreme Court fired any more than the American voter selected King George and the Court Jesters to run things. My complaint is that the American voters are complacent over this anti-democratic action while the Ecuadorians are out in the streets in defese of their liberties. The Ecuadorians obviously feel more strongly about their country than Americans do.

It's all because of air conditioning and no more front porches. Seriously, we are no longer a nation made up of all the people. We're little tiny self-contained family units driving to work in our own cars, and coming home to shut ourselves up in the house.

We've had it so good for so long here, and have retreated so into ourselves that we don't care, because we're doing okay, and it really won't affect us because we're good people.

We're no longer part of anything bigger than our own little worlds. I think that's at the root of the problem. Also, it doesn't hurt that government's done an outstanding of pretty much convincing that what we think or do won't matter.

Well, having a conservative media doesn't help either. During the Clinton years, we were told every night what was going on, from Health Care Reform to gays in the military to a "sex scandal". Now they are silent.

In Ecuador corrupt governments and rigged elections are a part of history. Americans want to believe that everything is as usual. True, the right wing media doesn't help but until there is real pain i.e. massive forcloseures, bread lines and other depression like events inertia will allow the cabal in power to continue their business as usual.

The only thing that can be done is to organize and work to get a better congress in 2006. Many including yours truly worked last year in hopes that enough people would 'get it.' Whether they get it before 'it' gets them or not is as of now an open question.