Political Games - Where the fuck’s the reset button?

I’ve frequently bitched here and elsewhere that Republicans need to clean up their own house (see my piece on the DeLay Rule below). And I’m certainly not going to shutup about it either. It’s something that needs to be done. However, I am not a Republican. Neither am I a Democrat, but, being “left”, they are the party I support in my 2-party system (2 rocks because it’s twice the choices of one!). And, since I promised in a post and in comments, here’s my bitching about the corruption from the left side of the aisle.

As noted in this excellent post which does some c&p of Ronnie Earle’s letter to the NYT (which, btw, is worth reading), there was this little nugget at the end: “It’s actually a travesty that Dem rules don’t require its leaders to step down from their posts if indicted.” The poster also suggests, as I did a week or so ago, that the Dems should actually adopt the rule (hell, stricter rules!) than the one the GOP just abandoned. The better piece, however, comes from Josh Marshall. I would also recommend reading the post he links in the beginning of his post. But here’s one part which stands out:

Before 1994 and, to a lesser degree, before 2000, Democrats simply weren’t in a position to adopt a genuine reform agenda because they were too implicated in the institutional corruption, the money chase, that is modern Washington. They could want change in some abstract way and they push for it at the margins. But their way of doing business on the Hill and in Washington generally was inseparable from it. It’s how they ran Congress; it was how they raised their money to win elections; their friends (and that means personal and professional friends) who’d already cycled into the lobbying sector made their money from it; and many or most of them expected eventually to do the same.

I know this paints with a broad brush; and in some ways it may paint an ungenerous picture. But it is in most respects accurate.

For some years after 1994 congressional Democrats understandably acted as though they were the natural majority just temporarily displaced. So all those tendencies remained. And, as I noted above, to a lesser degree, they persisted through 2000 because holding the White House created parallel dynamics.

The rest of his post is great too. This is something we can do. So here’s my suggestion: pick 4 local congressional representatives from each party, and your 2 senators, and email them telling them your opinions about the way they’re running business right now. Tell them what you want to see done. Tell them you don’t want just caucus rules but, more importantly, and as noted in the DailyKos piece I linked up top, congressional rules to curtail both parties. I can only bitch and complain to the Republicans and try to get fair-minded people from the other side of the spectrum to push ethics reform; I can actually influence the minority party right now. After all, the party elite is a bunch of scumbags there too:

How can our representatives in Congress hold themselves accountable when they fear little electoral retribution? Even those in the minority hold enough perks that it’s against their interest to push for a more competitive congressional map. In California, Democrats used the 2000 redistricting process to shore up their own cushy incumbent asses, rather than draw a map that could potentially send more Democrats to Washington. And if they stayed in the minority? Didn’t matter, so long as their jobs remained safe and sound.

So minority Dems work to protect their own fiefdoms. Majority Republicans toss aside all trappings of integrity and ethics to work the system to their advantage. And there’s really ultimately little the voters can do about it.

Democracy indeed.

Indeed.

Share This

Congress and the DoE decided to cut federal financial aid, and the rippling affect could cut aid by billions of dollars. The Pell Grant cuts won’t affect me (I’m not a low-income student), but raising the EFC will hurt. Way to go Republicans: the Party of Opportunity.

Share This

While we’re talking about Republicans breaking the law…

Some things, like the DeLay Rule, are outrageous but not that surprising.

But what I’m about to describe is outrageous and almost literally unbelievable.

As you’ve probably heard, the congress is pushing through a big omnibus spending bill this weekend. And at the last minute, Republican leaders tried to slip in a provision that would give certain committee chairman and their staffers unlimited access to any American’s tax return, with none of the standard privacy protections applying.

You heard that right.

They could pull anyone’s tax return, read it over and do whatever they wanted with the information. Those who would have this power would be the chairs and ranking members of the senate and house appropriations committees and subcommittees and “their designees.”

The key is that the privacy rights provisions, and criminal and civil penalties that go with them, don’t apply for the appropriations committees.

At the last minute, Senate Democrats caught the language (keep in mind these omnibus bills can be like phone books), protested and the Republicans beat a hasty retreat. Some of it is discussed in this AP article at MSNBC, though they lamely call it a “tax-disclosure gaffe.”

As if the “Patriot” Act hadn’t made it perfectly clear, the people in charge of the new GOP don’t like privacy, be it about consensual sex between adults, your reading material, your email, and this attempt at your tax returns. Of course, that doesn’t mean all the republicans wanted this…

The Republicans are acting like it was all an innocent mistake. And it seems clear that there are Republican senators who didn’t know anytihng about it and are pissed. But clearly this was no accident, unless provisions have started to write themselves.

via Josh Marshall

Share This

Source. Simply put, the Republicans are overturning an ethics law which requires congressional members to give up their posts if indicted in order to protect their House Majority Leader, Tom DeLay. The irony?

House Republicans in 1993 — trying to underscore the ethics problems of Dan Rostenkowski (D-Ill.), then-chairman of the Ways and Means Committee — adopted the rule that requires a party leader to surrender his or her post if indicted by any grand jury, federal or state.

They do something right, then one decade later turn around and change it so they can stay in power. I’ve said this before and I’m saying it again: The current GOP leadership is corrupt and Machiavellian to the core. Power trumps legality, common sense, and even ideology to them. Republican supporters, your ideology aside, you need to clean up your house. I know there are good Republicans working to clean things up (no, not John McCain, he chickened out this campaign season; I mean the regular supporters of the party), and if you are a GOPer, you need to get in touch with them and start putting pressure on the GOP leadership. We on the left are taking care of the infestation of corrupt Democrats, don’t worry; if there’s one thing I’m not, especially on this kind of thing, it’s partisan. I will soon be writing something regarding the Democratic Party elite (and by “elite”, I mean “the rich people currently in charge of the place”).

Share This

This morning the local teenybopper station did something pretty nice: They invited family members of veterans to call in and leave messages for their loved ones serving overseas. Young men told their brothers, in voices high and frightened, to kick some ass. Young women, including one who sounded about 12 but said she was 20 and six months pregnant, told their fiancees and boyfriends and husbands and fathers to come home, that they need you here, please come home safe. And moms, and God this was hard to hear, moms told their sons and daughters they missed them. The airhead hosts were crying and trying not to let on that they were. One of them said, “I don’t know anybody in the military, but all of you do. We should think about them more often.”

Tomorrow, they’ll go back to Ashlee Simpson and Britney Spears, no doubt. We have the collective attention span of gnats in this country, and nothing demonstrates that more than our need to designate days to honor veterans, days to honor those who truly do speak about their work in terms of service. We shouldn’t need a day for it, but if a day is what it takes, then let’s take a day, today.

source

Share This

A recently posted something about conservative opposition to gay marriage. To be honest, that was the beginning of me trying to gather information on the subject on my blog so I can later write a large piece on it. Here’s the newest bit (funny yet serious):

While there my wife, still mourning the stupidity of 59 million of her fellow American’s asked, “Was it the gay marriage thing? Did we lose because of that? Maybe the democrats should support civil unions but not gay marriage itself.”
My answer to that was simple. Klingon weddings. Yes, Klingon weddings. How can a society that allows Klingon weddings ban gay marriage? It can’t

The 14th Amendment won’t allow it.

We allow Klingon marriages, but GOD FORBID two people of the same gender who are dating have the same rights as my straight parents. gah.

Share This

I know there have been a lot of calls from the Republicans and faux-Democrats to the Democrats and liberals to work “with” them, and many of these calls have been legitimate; unfortunately for the Republicans who are fair-minded and really want to work with the left to maintain at least a semblance of fairness, those in charge don’t give a damn. This call was also given out in 2000, and the Democratic party leadership, despite warnings from their base, followed almost lock-step. To repeat this mistake again would be foolish. President Bush has already declared that he will work with the people who “share his goals.” erm… doesn’t this mean only 51% of the people who voted? Just a tip: Yes, you won the election; yes, you gained the most votes of any president-elect; on the other hand, more people voted against you than any other sitting President, and you won by the narrowest margins of any sitting president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916. Don’t get too cocky about your “mandate“.

Now, what sparked this entry? It wasn’t the “share my goals” thing, or the mandate thing, or Bush applying a 1 question rule at his press conference; it was this little gem that Atrios dug-up. Now, I read the whole thing, so I understand it is partly tongue-in-cheek; but the author admits ” it is nevertheless serious in pointing out the cancer that continues to threaten our body politic.” What is that cancer, you might ask? Why, it’s liberals of course! Yes, the same liberals who apparently have captives and only represented about, oh, 49% of the vote. Granted, the guy who wrote the “expulsion” thing isn’t serious about the expulsion, but combine that with his admission that we are a “cancer” on culture and the calls to have “the Democratic Party virtually obliterated and left as a rump of people like Stephanie Herseth who both mostly agree with us anyways and are easy on the eyes.” (also from Atrios)

I would be happy to work with anyone (Republicans, Constitutionalists, Libertarians, Democrats, Greens, Communists, Socialists, whoever), but this eliminationist attitude from the right makes it impossible to approach or compromise without looking over my shoulder for the coming knife in the back.

Oh, and one last thought, from the Human Events article:

* BUSH USA is predominantly white; devoutly Christian (mostly Protestant); openly, vigorously heterosexual; an open land of single-family homes and ranches; economically sound (except for a few farms), but not drunk with cyberworld business development, and mainly English-speaking, with a predilection for respectfully uttering “yes, ma’am” and “yes, sir.”

* GORE/KERRY USA is ethnically diverse; multi-religious, irreligious or nastily antireligious; more sexually liberated (if not in actual practice, certainly in attitude); awash with condo canyons and other high-end real estate bordered by sprawling, squalid public housing or neglected private homes, decidedly short of middle-class neighborhoods; both high tech and oddly primitive in its commerce; very artsy, and Babelesque, with abnormally loud speakers.

ok, let’s make sure we get this straight: whites good, ethnic diversity bad; Protestants good, religious tolerance and diversity bad; vigorously heterosexual (and forcing that on others) good, sexually liberal (or allowing others sexual liberty) bad; single-family farms good [note: i agree with this, but most farming in this country is now run by corporations, so this is just a stupid argument], condos bad, expensive real estate bad [you mean like Bush’s ranch?!], public sprawl bad [I agree, but his apparent solution to this is to get rid of the people there, while people on the left have actually advanced ideas to try and solve the problem]; economically sound good [like Ohio! er… wait… Mississippi! wait no, they’re almost 3rd-world… ok, I have no idea wtf he’s talking about], cyber business bad [i guess that’s why he posted this ON THE INTERNET!!!!]; English speaking good, other languages bad; respect good [like saying “yes sir”, “yes ma’am”, and “go fuck yourself”!], loud talking bad [like Zell Miller!].

Not only is this bs (as well as intolerant), it’s also disparging towards a large number of Bush voters. What about the minorities who voted for Bush? What about the non-Protestants, or the gays, or the business leaders who’ve driven their companies into the ground and need Bush’s high tariffs, or the suburban voters, or people without respect, like Dick Cheney and Zell Miller? And you wonder why we won’t work with you? You don’t even respect or work with the people who vote for you!

UPDATE: David Neiwert has an excellent post on the subject.

Respecting those from rural areas, those who hold deep religious beliefs, doesn’t force progressives to compromise their own beliefs or standards. It simply means being part of a democracy, which is enriched by its diversity. Certainly traditional rural values should have a place among all that diversity that liberals are fond of celebrating.

I second that.

Share This

Now we’re getting somewhere!

The truth is that I don’t give a fig about John Kerry or John Edwards. The three things I really care about are freedom, peace and justice - and it doesn’t seem that any of the puppet masters leading this insane dance consider those things to be important at all.

So, what the hell can we do?

The image of the puppet show fades and is replaced by a scene from the movie loved by toddlers everywhere: Finding Nemo. A net has surrounded the school of fish, and they’re being pulled in a tangled mass up to the surface. The fish are swimming in every way, in a panic that makes it all the easier to haul them in.

It’s up to Nemo, who isn’t even caught in the net, to swim in to that mass of panicked fish and try to convince them, one by one, to swim down all together so that they can pull the net loose and swim free again.

I’m not sure any longer that party politics gives us any real solution to the crisis of stampeding nationalism that is threatening to rip America apart. The only path that seems to have any chance of success is for dedicated citizens to break free of the dance choreographed by the conservative elites, take a deep breath, calm down, and then talk.

We can’t let our politicians do the talking for us any more. We must talk carefully to each other so that the fear upon which George W. Bush and his crew are thriving can be calmed. No single one of us can see the whole of the path out of this terrible mess, but I’m hoping that if we look togther, we can find the way to some much deserved peace.

The whole entry is great. Check it out, and check out Irregular Times.

Share This

For those who deny the similarities:

“Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red and he placed them on separate continents,” wrote a Virginia appeals court judge as late as 1965. “The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix.” Not only was intermarriage considered anti-Christian, it was deemed morally repugnant. “Intermarriage between whites and blacks is repulsive and averse to every sentiment of pure American spirit,” said Georgia’s Sen. Seaborn Roddenberry in 1912. “Let us uproot and exterminate now this debasing, ultra-demoralizing, un-American and inhuman leprosy.”

Replace “races” with “sexes” and change the colors to “man and woman” and “intermarriage between the races” with “marriage between people of the same gender”, and it’s identical arguments. The Supreme Court ruling which made interracial marriage legal should be applicable, but shockingly the conservative courts and legislatures refuse to apply it.

Share This

But there are still issues in this country. Poverty is on the rise. Uninsurance is on the rise. Insurance rates are on the rise. Standard of living is rising faster than income. More and more jobs are becoming part-time and lower paying. The gap between rich and poor is growing. The national debt continues to grow at over 400 billion dollars a year (1.8 trillion in the last 4). Other nations grow poorer and poorer, sicker and sicker, as the U.S. spends less and less on foreign aid. The environment is becoming increasingly infringed upon. And of course, there are the wars. Violence needs to once again become the absolute last resort. Diplomacy needs a rebirth.

The Republican party controls all the levers of power right now (including the corporations who own the media), from the executive branch, Congress, the courts, most governorships, and most state legislatures. So in other words, I can’t do anything via the usual government channels. Thus the only thing left to me is petition, contacting/pestering my officials, and protest. 2 is unlikely to do anything, and 1 is marginal; protest is thus my only option.

If anyone wants to join in my Inauguration Day protest (not protesting the election, just protesting the policies of the past 4 years), let me know. If you’re interested in political activism, let me know. We’ve got a long 4 years ahead of us. Someone has to put a check and balance on these guys.

Sorry Everybody… this really says it.

Share This

Let’s all find a supporter of the other side and give them a big hug.

People are more important than issues.

Share This

Tomorrow’s the big day. Everyone knows who I want to win, but let me say this: If you have deep feelings for the other guy, and you honestly believe he deserves 4 more years, and you think my entries and articles full of shit and unconvincing… then vote. It’s your right, and you should use it. Furthermore, if you catch anyone, from any party, pulling voter fraud/block shit, report it immediately.

That being said, I officially offer my endorsement of John F. Kerry for President. While his pro-corporate, pro-media, and hawkish positions concern me, he is, for me, the better of the 2 candidates. He is more environmentally friendly, more impovershed friendly, and more civil/human rights friendly. He also will present a new face, a new diplomat from America, to a world which has gone from being our closest friends immediately after September 11th to being increasingly annoyed or even hostile to our actions.

Share This