I don’t have a lot of time tonight, but I wanted to throw this out there for all the conspiracy buffs in the audience.
I was just sent an interesting piece of video by a reader in New York. It’s of a recent call between Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and author Greg Palast on the subject of election fraud. I can’t get into all the details right now, but one of the thoughts put forward by Palast is that Karl Rove’s decision to leave the administration earlier this summer was somehow connected. One wonders if it might be true, and, if it is, if anyone will care. Kennedy and a few others have been beating the “election fraud” drum for a while now, and my sense is that people just don’t give a shit, even if it’s true.
[It’s probably worth noting that the University of Florida journalism student that was tasered during a John Kerry speech the other day was carrying a book by Greg Palast with him at the time… If you don’t mind the thought of being tased, you can buy a copy of “Armed Madhouse” by following this link.]
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Since the entire Democratic House and Senate have whimped out for the last two terms of the GWB administration, PLUS Gore whimping out after his election “victory” and Kerry the same after Ohio was “stolen” by Rove … us “angry” folk have shuffled over to MoveOn.org … and have found nothing but silly publicity-grabbing ads and lots of irrational screaming.
My Quiz answers resulted in a Kusinich match with Richardson and Ron Paul closing in. Those guys could never get elected unless Osama got more accurate in the D.C. area. So … what are we to do?
In the meantime, we have a term-limited do-nothing legislature in Michigan and a city government about to fall on its ass … so I’m gonna concentrate on local matters … to save my own butt. I like this town and the people in it. We’re a Federal Union, so let’s think Michigan first, Washtenaw County #2, Ypsilanti #3 …and be satisfied with that.
Kucinich’s wife is a heartbreaker … but he is not electible. Elliott Richardson is very qualified, but is not electible. Ron Paul could be my guy, but not electible.
I have my Gore/Obama ’08 button … and am willing to support that ticket as a fourth choice. Edwards is sweet, but will get nowhere fast with Congress.
In fact, I’d almost like the County to secede from the State and the Nation. Jennifer is not able to get anything going in Lansing. Dingell is a joke. Perhaps the UAW strike can help unravel things a bit more to get us to a boiling point faster.
I’d like to see a Michigan/Washtenaw/ Ypsilanti solution ASAP. I told someone in Riverside Park the other day, I’d donate 10# of doggie doo-doo if someone would simply turn on the fan. We need a crisis. Then, perhaps, we’d have change.
Egpenet, you might want to consider the possibility that there might be something going on in these situations besides people just ‘whimping out’. I worked for a congressional candidate who, in the heat of the race, ‘whimped out’ and withdrew. Of course, his life was threatened by a high ranking union official, so that would be a pretty high bar for what is considered whimping out. It is easy to sit in a comfortable position where your actions aren’t threatening anyone’s pocketbook or power, and suggest those who ARE in those positions are ‘whimping out’ all the time and call them a names. Congressman Dingell may not share your positions on all issues, and he certainly doesn’t share your comfortable position far away from the heat of politics, but he is certainly no “joke” and he has done a far more impressive job of advancing Democratic values than any of his whiney critics on the left have ever managed.
You’re right, Robert, we should just assume that the life of every politician is being threatened and excuse them for their actions. Remember GW’s black eye a few years ago that was attributed to a pretzel? I bet someone beat him up. Same goes for Cheney. I be they threaten to shut off his heart every time it looks as though he’s going to leap to the defense of the constitution. It’s not their fault. They’re just scared. No one is to blame!
Hyperbole is no argument, Fred. My only suggestion here is that egpenet consider that there are more variables involved than those which any child could gather. I never said anything about not holding government officials responsible for their actions or failures to act. Clinging to a simplistic (and grossly inaccurate) view of power politics just because it makes judgment easier, and removes oneself from any responsibility, ultimately does a disservice to the causes one might think they are advancing.
Informed public opinion and pressure is a thousand times more powerful than any elected individual could hope to be. Individuals are vulnerable in a way that masses of people, dedicated to a cause, are not. Is that something you want to debate, Fred?
The people of this country clearly deserve their share of the blame. They sat by and allowed this to happen. They were too scared, too compliant, too stressed and too lazy to know any better. Our politicians, however, knew damn well what was happening. Hillary sat on the Intelligence Committee. She knew that we were going to war based on trumped up charges. She went along though because she didn’t want to go against a popular president in the wake of an attack on America. She knew it was wrong, but she allowed it to happen. Your explanation of “it’s complicated and that’s the nature of politics” just doesn’t cut it. The buck has to stop somewhere.
Robert, you beltway geeks have it all backward! It is the congress that needs to be well-informed. And all they need to do is ask how we’re doing (or not doing), getting health care (or not getting health care), watching everything go up with real inflation (and not being able to pay bills, let alone save money.) Dingell has a LOT of individual programs, but when you add them all up … he has missed the BIG one, which is global warming … spotted owls and a clean Rouge helped to build his reputation … but he flat out MISSED IT.
Congress is ill-informed and the lobbyists are calling the shots … including Pelosi’s agenda.
I would say the buck stops with everyone, including you and me. So of course that doesn’t mean Hillary, Pelosi or Dingell should be given any sort of pass on anything.
I do agree with most of what you are saying, Fred. I just don’t think it’s astute or helpful to assume there isn’t anything more going on with such complicated matters. Everyone chooses a different strategy to effect change. Some people choose to completely disassociate themselves as a strategy. Others get right in the thick of things hoping to gain the power of influence from the inside. Any position involves a trade-off.
I also can appreciate your point of vie on this egpenet. It’s just that you and Fred are so ‘slash and burn’ about everything. So, while emotionally I can identify, I have to point out what I see as a destructive impulse.
On another note, a guy out east that I know wrote me this comment on RFK,Jr’s Rove accusations:
“I just can’t listen to RFK Jr. anymore. Ever since the God damned Rolling Stone article where he misrepresented decades of vaccine research, accused unaffiliated biologists all over the world of conspiring to retard children, and generally breathed life back into the absurd ideas both that vaccines cause autism and that one can “cure” autistic children through chelation . . . blah. That guy will put his name on anything his sycophants pass under his nose. I’m bored with him. There are plenty of reasons GWB and Rover should be incarcerated. I’ll take the ones RFK Jr. isn’t advancing.
Sorry for the invective. I just can’t stand that dude. Anyhow, hope things are going well out West. I’m giving all my money to Mike Gravel and moving to Canada.”
Anybody wanna carpool up to Birmingham today and get Karl Rove to sign our copies of his book? Maybe we can also ask him about SmarTech and the routing of Ohio election results through their computer servers in Tennessee. I’d love to share my 2004 Ohio reminiscence with him.
Rove is signing his book at Borders there in Birmingham at 4pm then going on to blow some smoke at some event in Troy afterward.
Yesterday, Rove was delt a defeat by the Tea Party in Deleware GOP primary when Christine O’Donnell beat the power-brokers choice, Representative Mike Castle.
Poor Rove. Without the power of the executive branch at your disposal, you can’t go around rigging major elections at will.
“We were looking at 8 to 9 seats in the Senate, we are now looking at 7 to 8 in my opinion,” said a visibly-unhappy Karl Rove.