Saturday, October 07, 2006

The constipated body politic

Glenn Greenwald, on his Unclaimed Territory blog, had this to report on September 28th:

"Final passage of the torture/detention bill was 65-34...Twelve Democrats voted in favor, 1 Republican and 1 independent voted against (there may be one or two errors because I compiled the list while listening to the vote):

Democrats in favor (12) - Carper (Del.), Johnson (S.D.), Landrieu (La.), Lautenberg (N.J.), Lieberman (Conn.), Menendez (N.J), Nelson (Fla.), Nelson (Neb.), Pryor (Ark.), Rockefeller (W. Va.), Salazar (Co.), Stabenow (Mich.).

Republicans against (1) - Chafee (R.I.).

Jeffords (I) voted against...

But it is still difficult to understand the Democrats' strategy here. They failed to try to mount a filibuster because they feared being attacked as coddlers of the terrorists. But now they voted against the bill in large numbers, thereby ensuring those exact accusations will be made anyway -- and made loudly (the White House already started today). Yet they absented themselves the whole time from the debate (until they magically appeared today), spent the last several weeks only tepidly (at most) opposing the President's position, and thus lost the opportunity to defend and advocate the position they took today in any meaningful way. As a result, the Democrats took a position today (opposition to this bill) which they have not really defended until today.

They make this same mistake over and over. Isn't this exactly what happened when they sort-of-supported-but-sort-of-opposed the Iraq war resolution in 2002 because they were afraid of being depicted as soft on terrorism, only to then be successfully depicted as soft on terrorism because they were too afraid to forcefully defend their position? It's true that fewer Democrats voted for the President's policy this time around, but it's equally true that they found their voice only on the last day of the debate -- on the day of the vote -- after disappearing for weeks while they let John McCain 'debate' for them."

One has to wonder if this is going to change any time soon, do not worry you do not have to do anything but wonder, it is still in the constitution that we can wonder, is it not? This country we live in still operates on a percentage of the democratic ideals that we were taught in school( assuming that we were all taught from an edition of a textbook that had most of the same content, that we all paid attention in class, that our teachers taught us in a way that inspired us to learn- damn, thats alot of assuming!), or am I being an idealist for thinking such unrealistic, flowery, hippy-dippy mumbo jumbo? Please, it is a rhetorical question, folks, besides, I cannot hear you! Again, one might ponder about that. Think, think, think, bother, bother, bother...Maybe we are all plugged into the matrix and are experiencing some sort of virtual reality that we perceive and then accept as reality. What was it again that exactly set Neo free? Was it his belief in having control over his limits, and realizing that his fear is real, but that his love/belief in himself gave him the ability to overcome the fear? It wasn't the nano iPOD, thats for damn sure! Yes, I believe that sounds about right! Or does that sound left? Is left, right, and am I right to write about left being right? If the right rights are left, but not the "right" rights, then are there some left rights left? If you take the left step and then take the right step does some movement occur, or is this a movement?? It is good for the posture from the head to the bowels of our body politic - helps out our constitution too!!! Its alot better that having left your rights behind...that just continues our constant anticipation, or const-ipation, which we as a political country are.

Thanks to brave folks like Glenn Greenwald for his castor oil to lube our constitution and get the body moving in the right direction, and flush out this shit, this fear(war on terror), that we have been holding onto for way too long.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Foley, Hastert and Stevens, oh my!!!

Lay down your head Mark Foley, lay down your head and cry... yes, it appears that Mr. Foley had gotten a little too friendly with some of his constituants, well, not just constituants but pages, like interns, except in this case younger than say, Monica Lewinsky, just as an example, mind you! ABC news was sent some pretty lethal material (lethal in the career-sense) and no Mea Culpa of any kind was going to reconcile these differences:

"On September 29, 2006, ABC News reported that it had seen excerpts of sexually explicit instant messages Foley had sent to Congressional pages. The instant messages made repeated references to sexual organs and acts."

But herein is the rub (pardon the pun.)

"Federal authorities said the explicit messages could result in Foley's prosecution, under some of the same laws he helped to enact."(thanks to Wikipedia, CNN, USA Today and ABC News for the snippets.)

So, maybe this is a dispicable act, maybe Foley thought he was above the law, thought he was untouchable, maybe he just needed a good cuddle or hug; hello??? HELLO??!!?? Is there anyone home? Wake up, McFly!!! Hey look McFly, your shoe is untied, oop! You are so gullable, McFly!!!

So- who wins??? Well, since his congressional seat is up for reelection, and since it is past the deadline to enter in a new challenger, the freshly resigned Foley, incumbent, woulda-shoulda-coulda-but-not, is up against an independant and a Republican who changed sides(but really how much change did occurr)...oops did I say sides, I meant political parties, Tim Mahoney. ( http://www.timmahoneyforflorida.com/e3/index.php ) I know what you are thinking- no relation at all, none that I am aware of anyway! In a little quoted blurb Mr. "its time for honest leadership" Mahoney, is criticizing the president on not trying hard enough to locate Osama Bin Laden. Mr. Mahoney is putting his foot down...you do not want to get an Irishmans blood boiling! He thinks we should get tough on the Bin Laden-meister, and do what the 9/11 commission suggests...wait a minute does the frickin' commission report suggest anything??? Anything besides covering up the facts in a cloud of either bad and/or utterly boring writing with circular arguments? Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I guess 2 blogs got the ball rolling, forcing the blow that was dealt to Foley, one was the stopsexpredators blog on blogspot; the other blog, a more humorous offering (www.wonkette.com). See!??! Blogs are making a difference!!!

This second post is also about our lovely congressmen who serve "We the people..." ...oops I mean misserve! If you go to another fine established blog on our fine internet( www.chezlark.com), you will discover more lunacy. this bit has to do not only with the very internet that you are surfing on, but it alo has to do with the succession of power from the head dimwit down the line of half-wits, nitwits with nervous ticks and lunatics on the fringe. Ted Stevens, president pro tempore of the Senate, or locum tenens or placeholder for when Dick Cheney is unavailable to be president of the Senate, is also third in succession to the presidency, behind Dick and Hastert the House Speaker, well at least for the moment, since it seems that he knew this Foley deal for a year? ( http://www.rollcall.com/issues/1_1/breakingnews/15259-1.html. ) So...back to this Stevens dude...think of that guy talking to Paul Newman and George kennedy in "Cool Hand Luke" : "What we got here is failure to communicate...". Here, let me show you just what I am talking about:

"Here we have a situation where enormous entities want to use the Internet for their purposes to save money for doing what they’re doing now. They use FedEx, they use the delivery services, they use the mail. They deliver it in other ways and they want to deliver it vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck.

It’s a series of tubes.

And if you don’t understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

My favorite part is when he says that his staff “sent him an internet”. I would like someone to send me an Internet, please."
(courtesy http://www.chezlark.com/?p=666 posted June 30th, 2006)

So do yourself a favour and visit that chezlark link; you really should know who in congress is in power- but then again, I understand if you really do not want to know- it is really sad! I guess I totally missed the spin on this where the "It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes" bit was fit into a segment on Jon Stewarts the daily show. Again, this man is 3rd in line for succession of the Presidency. Its time for a change; its time for open honest leadership; paid for by the commission to cover up any thing that exposes too much of the truth, and Bullshit, its not just an expression, its a way of being!