Election Year
Jan 28 at 3:03pm by Jagwire X
Well it’s that time again folks. That’s right I speak of election year - two thousand eight. And once again we are presented with such a limited bunch of self-serving ego maniacs that I continue to wonder how this country keeps together at all. Really, my biggest complaint is the party system. We have a two party system, Democrats and Republicans. We allegedly have a multi-party system, with Greens, Socialist, Libertarians and other, but they are never in contention. It sort reduces the choice from an array of candidates to, well, two. The National Football League has a better selection process for how teams get to the Super Bowl. I don’t buy all the crap about uncommon and unconventional ideas remain non-influential and so a two party system flourishes. It’s a strategy to keep any other parties from gaining traction. It’s not like various Socialist ideals don’t overlap with Democrat ideals, or Libertarian ideals don’t have companion ideals that find traction in with Republicans.
Actually are some interesting candidates, Barack Obama (D, IL), Ron Paul (R TX), Mike Gravel (D AK) and Dennis Kucinich (D OH) for example, less self serving that most I’d say, but still full of sound and fury and a bit of demagoguery, you don’t run for president without a formidable ego at very least, even if you aren’t maniacal. You’d go home in tears every night.
Of course we’ve been dropped into an economic, social, political, and diplomatic mire, for which mitigation will be difficult at best, by the current Republican administration, so I shouldn’t hold too high hopes for the next CEO of the USA. Which is the problem, this is a government of the people, for the people and by the people - not a corporation to be run as so. We, citizens all, are stockholders in this nation and it is up to us to decide what we want. Or are we to lazy to make decisions for ourselves?
But I do hold out hope that things will get better. In any event this being an election year should provided plenty of fodder for blogging. We don’t intend to be another DailyKOS or Crooks and Liars (you should read them too) but we do hope to provide a skeptical (or perhaps cynical) view of the political landscape.
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Steal This Country
Nov 7 at 1:01pm by Jagwire X
Well it’s Steal This CountryTM day. I’m curious if the mainstream media will continue to gloss over election fraud and voter manipulation. I have absolutely no faith whatsoever in the election process at this point. I do not trust electronic voting machines - never have - as a programmer I know what can go wrong and that’s without people deliberately adding code that might be used to manipulate votes. I don’t like that I can’t get a paper receipt of my choices. Hell anything I order online and can print out a receipt for. Anything I buy at a store I can get a receipt for. But something as important as voting - “Nope, sorry pal, you’re out of luck. Just trust us.” Yeah, right.
No transparency means no trust in my eyes. As things stand now, voting is a privilege. It should probably be mandatory for everyone over the age of eighteen. At least that should be the case in national elections, hence the will of the people. When elections are won based on who can market their candidate better and move people to vote based on that marketing determines the turnout there’s something seriously wrong with this basic premise of a democratic republic. Failing the marketing campaign there’s always the possibility of just altering you non-transparent, receipt-less electronic vote.
I am extremely disgusted with the amount of corruption in our government. There is so much I can’t even keep track of it all. The level of hypocrisy that the Republicans have managed to attain alone should be cause for their being voted out of office, or in some cases jailed. No sane person should even consider voting for any of them at this point. I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better. Now I’m not saying the Democrats don’t have problems - no one party could ever come close representing me but the Democrats are generally closer than the Republicans at this point.
Its obvious that a two party system is not working. Vote for the lesser of two evils. Meh. I want some freaking choices here people! I want to be able to elect candidates that arent politicians, but rather statesmen. I want to see the money taken out of their pockets. I want to choose someone who, really cares about the environment. I want to elect a scientist. I want religion out of politics. I want to elect candidates who have a long view. I want to elect someone who doesn’t care about politics. I want to elect no one.
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Loyalty to the Truth or Loyalty to the GOP?
Jul 19 at 5:05pm by Anonymous
If, as former White House counsel John Dean explained a few weeks ago in an interview, there is “no chance” the Republican house would impeach Bush for lying to the American people, the nation has transcended mere blind partisan politics and entered a time of living fiction. This is the same Republican Party whose members badgered and hounded President Clinton until he was caught in a lie. His prosecutors, the legions of right-wing radio listeners, organizations dedicated to unearthing damaging material on Clinton’s past, showed a disgust for immorality in the White House. But when Clinton’s impeachment came, the vast majority of Americans refused to march on Washington demanding his removal from office. In fact a few went so far to march in his support. Americans, both for and against President Clinton, knew in their hearts, if not minds, that the question he was asked should have never been asked because it involved his personal life; not his public life.
Now, the situation has reversed. We have an unelected president who lies to the American people and the world, sacrifices innocent American and Iraqi lives to create a distraction from his disastrous ineptitude at home. This president can’t poke his head out in public without an angry crowd forming.
Still, the Republicans are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. The Republicans I know, the little rank and file footsoldiers who spent the late 1990s jeering at President Clinton, can’t defend Bush themselves. Something about American commonsense knows a high crime from a misdemeanor. No group, except possibly for American soldiers and Iraqi civilians, can feel as betrayed as Bush’s reluctant pre-war WMD believers. They shouted that anyone who stood against the war was a yellow, cowardly Quisling. They said any argument against the war represented pin-headed, politically-correct handwringing.
Now, of course, even if WMD were found it would be hard to prove they were of an imminent threat to US troops. So we continue to ask where are the WMDs? Where is justification for this elective war?
Yet, there is still no call for his impeachment.
If nothing else, we need no more proof that the witchhunt to bring down President Clinton had nothing to with moral outrage and everything to do with undermining the legitimacy of an elected president. Rightwing radicals who feel so sure about themselves they can seek to bring down an elected US president are an unsettling group. They feel like “the consent of the governed” means an expensive PR effort and spin job to deflect criticism. They have a religious conviction in their own arrogance and supremacy. They have no ideal other than the consolidation of power.
But what of their political strategy that depends so heavily on lies? What personal friend of yours would forgive such constant lies? What business partner? Most Americans parents don’t tolerate lies from their children. Why makes excuses for it from a Bush?
The lies, if tolerated by the American people, or the Republicans in Congress say a lot about our country today. For the people, you could say we live in a fact-free culture of images, of sensation. (Think of the images of Bush’s aircraft landing versus the realities it masked). One where lies, assertions, spin and advertising language go unchallenged. For the Republicans in Congress, it says party loyalty means more than truth, more than justice, more than integrity. In fact, integrity for them is measured by uncritical loyalty. In this way they are more akin to a street gang or crime family than a political party. Of course, in a healthy society both street gangs and crime families are considered a public problem to be rehabilitated or prosecuted.
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