Well, it looks like the Democrats will be taking both the House and the Senate! This is probably the best news I’ve heard in a long time – not due to any great virtues of the Democrats, but rather because their level of corruption is a few notches below the Republicans. (So in other words, only “quite corrupt”). I’m looking forward to seeing if Nancy Pelosi will introduce some actual oversight to assess the damage caused by six years of ignorance, fear-mongering and congressional rubber-stamping.
Just maybe, the US can move out of its traditional role and work toward becoming a source of stability in the world.
But I’m not holding my breath.
Ah Ben,
You must be listening to too much of those main stream media lies. Those lousy Dems, are far more full of corruption, and the worst part is that they don’t do anything to fix it (ie. William Jefferson and his $90k bribe in the freezer, and another soon to be head of Intelligence who was one of 6 judges ever to be impeached). I can’t wait for my taxes to go up, illegal aliens to get thier citizenships, and the white flag waved to Bin Laden, and all the other terrible things that they are going to force upon us. Oh well the US survived Clinton, they will survive this.
Dan! Very good to hear from you – and I got your email: congrats on the Big News! I’ll follow up with a personal email, but first I think a short response is in order..
Comparing the Democrats and Republicans in degrees of corruption is rather like comparing Hitler and Stalin in degrees of evildoing. I mean let’s face it: neither were exactly going to win the Nobel Prize for humanitarian work. I’ve only been seriously reading up on US politics for a couple of years but it’s perfectly obvious to me that your entire government is as corrupt as, say, Jack Abramoff (zing!).
I was genuinely delighted to see the power swing to the other side since, judging from the vindictiveness and sheer puerility of the Republicans over the last few years, come January of 2007 we’ll probably see some of those favours being returned. And what better way for the Democrats to get back at them than a little accountability? Hold their feet to the fire for Iraq, warrantless wiretapping, the death of Habeus Corpus. In the long term, no-one will be much better off – but in the short term, sweet, sweet revenge.
William Jefferson? Yup – that’s one corrupt bugger. Now I certainly don’t want to come across as an apologist for the Democrats, but let me respond with a few celebrated instances from the other side: Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Mark Foley, Dennis Hastert, Bill Frist, Scooter Libby, Brownie – and that’s off the top of my head.
Oh, and with regard to media bias: I actually don’t watch main stream media (I don’t even have a TV). I go straight to the ultra-left, communist vegan news up here in Socialist Canada.
But I kid.
I’m not a vegan.
I find it very funny that both the left and right accuse the media of bias (poor buggers, always in the cross-hairs).
Email you shortly… :-)
Yes, yes, yes we all know that there is corruption on both sides, but the one point I was aiming at was the fact that those republicans are now gone, and not a single one of the democrats have even had a hand slapped, by the party or especially by the media (and Abrimoff has dealt with the Dems as well, not pointed out much). In fact the media has been the biggest of appologists for the faults shown by any of the democrats. I find much of the things that are being said are true doublespeak (to bring back our English studies). With Jack Murtha being denied to Nancy Pelosi to head the majority people in the news and her supporters in the party are calling it a victory for her (doesn’t make sense to me).
I agree a little oversight is a good thing, unfortunately highly sensitive things like telling the terrorists on how we are watching them are only going to become more evident and all of those abilities will be lost. The one important one the “warrantless wiretaps” are themselves a mis-nomer, they are warrantless, but they are not wiretaps, no conversations have been recorded only tracks of who called whom something I believe is available to almost anyone. The average police department has more free reign over this type of information than the government has at this time.
And now for one of my favorite examples of media bias. CNN has reported that the riots in France that have now actually been going on for more than a year now have been carried out by “disaffected youths”, I can barely think of a single organization that has the guts to point out that they are all Muslims doing it, a rather important piece of the whole world picture I would think.
I must commend you on your knowledge of the US poilitcs though, you know far more than the average Democrat voter out here.
Enjoy the tofurkey for Christmas you bleeding heart Commie (lol… just kidding). Have fun with all the work. THanks for the email too, I’ll call you sometime soon.
Dan
> Yes, yes, yes we all know that there is corruption on both sides, but the one point I was aiming at was the fact that those republicans are now gone
You’re more optimistic than me. ;-)
> not a single one of the democrats have even had a hand slapped, by the party or especially by the media (and Abrimoff has dealt with the Dems as well, not pointed out much). In fact the media has been the biggest of appologists for the faults shown by any of the democrats.
Well, over the last year or so, the Republicans kept shooting themselves in the foot in such public ways due to their daft, illegal, arrogant actions, the attention has been constantly on them. The more sensationalist the better in today’s media – and the Republicans haven’t disappointed. [Mark Foley + House Chairman on Missing Children = Sex with Pages? I mean, good grief. The hypocrisy is hard to miss - not even by the news outlets.] The Democrats have just kept a low profile, sneaking over the finish line to win gold. Rather like Harper did up here in the last elections.
[ I hope I’m not coming across as cynical. :-) ]
> I find much of the things that are being said are true doublespeak (to bring back our English studies). With Jack Murtha being denied to Nancy Pelosi to head the majority people in the news and her supporters in the party are calling it a victory for her (doesn’t make sense to me).
Agreed; that’s politics for you. Rather than admit Pelosi screwed up, they instead wrap it in a bow and give it a nice positive spin. But my take was that the media pretty much recognized it as a slap in the face for Pelosi. I believe even the NY Times (hardly a conservative rag) said it was an inauspicious start for Pelosi. But yes, the doublespeak drives me barmy too. Let’s turn on the TV for a sec:
*click*
Republican: “Look, it’s as simple as this: do you want to Win or Lose in Iraq?â€
Democrat: “We want to Win!â€
Republican: “Well you’re talking about Cutting and Runningâ€
Democrat: “No, we’re…â€
*click*
Sod that. I mean, for heaven’s sake it’s enough to drive an intelligent person insane. Reducing a complex issue into “winning†and “losing†is ridiculous. But this is the kind of nonsense we hear, day in, day out. If we can’t even raise the quality of discourse we’re never going to be able to create an informed opinion about anything – I say “weâ€, but it’s not quite as bad up here in Canada. Yet. Framing the problem of Iraq as a false dilemma does no one any good – but it sure makes good TV (at least, for a large chunk of the population, apparently).
America is *desperately* in need of a third party, one that presents a real alternative to the Democrats & Republicans. (Well, it needs that or a good revolution. My vote’s for the latter. I expect you to lead the way, Danny). But the extreme polarization acts as an excellent tool for preventing the rise of an alternative viewpoint. It’s like Republicans and Democrats they’re on different planets or something. And maaaan do they hate each other.
Anyway, I really must do some work. That and eat some tofurkey.
Speak soon -
Ben
More to come, but to comment on this:
Well, over the last year or so, the Republicans kept shooting themselves in the foot in such public ways due to their daft, illegal, arrogant actions, the attention has been constantly on them. The more sensationalist the better in today’s media – and the Republicans haven’t disappointed. [Mark Foley + House Chairman on Missing Children = Sex with Pages? I mean, good grief. The hypocrisy is hard to miss - not even by the news outlets.] The Democrats have just kept a low profile, sneaking over the finish line to win gold. Rather like Harper did up here in the last elections.
The thought of hypocrisy seems hardly to be soley on the side of the Republicans in such a case. The best example for this is the recently deceased Jerry Studds who was quite open with the fact that he actually had a sexual relationship with one of his underage male pages (and was proud to almost have a threesome with two of them) , and he was not only re-elected 3 times to Congress he was given several standing ovations by the Dems for his openness, and given rousing support at the time of his death. This from the same people who hounded Foley for sending messages to a page who turned out not to even be underage. Quite the double standard.
Heya.
I confess I was unfamiliar with Gerry Studds, but from reading up on him a bit I see that this happened in… 1983. Look back far enough and you’ll be able to cite evidence of every form of corruption in both parties. Have you heard Jefferson used to bonk his slaves!? Good grief!
But at least Studds came out and admitted it, and in doing so became the first openly gay congressman. I’d personally give him a slap on the back for that… and then wash my hands since he’s been busy decomposing the last month.
I guess what I object to with the Republicans is how they take the “moral high ground” on so many issues.
Democrats? They’re a bunch of liberal, left wing, tree hugging atheists. One of them sleeps with underaged boys? Big surprise. But when a Republican does it, ahh! They’re held to a different yard stick. And I’m not sure that’s a bad thing. If you’re gonna talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk.
Foley was the foremost opponent of child pornography. He was a chairman on the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. I mean, c’mon! I couldn’t care less about the fact that he was homosexual, but I sure as hell DO care about the hypocrisy.
It has been overlooked by many people in the news once again that the Foley case was not with a minor, he was 18 I believe not a minor in any way (not that this is an excuse to act this way at all). Thanks to the wonderful blogosphere to point that one out. Also, the conservatives should be held to a high standard, but it isn’t really a good plan to have one party that seems to be free of any restraint or any real punishment for it’s own sins either. I can’t think of a single Dem that has stepped down in disgrace at all, and there have been plenty of people that should have for them, not just the republicans.
And as for the “winning” or “cutting and running” so far those seem to be the only options on the table right now, and my choice, no matter how hard it seems, is to finish what has been started. The last thing the world needs is to have the Bin Laden’s of the world to have more belief in the “US is a paper tiger” viewpoint. We may as well just had them the sword to cut off our heads right now if that happens. On way or another we need to reduce this evil group to as small and unorganized of a number as possible.