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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Roman Berry
Published Letters: 198 Editor's Choice: 10
Why exactly do I bother voting Democratic when elected Democrats apparently don't stand for Democratic values so much as they stand for CYA corporatism and ass kissing?
Barack Obama has previously expressed emphatic opposition to telecom amnesty and warrantless eavesdropping, but his opposition has amounted mostly to pretty words, not actions. That ought to change.
Yeah, it ought to change. But it won't. Does Obama ever actually get out front on a risky and contentious issue? (No, a speech that he have about war in Iraq before there was a war and before he was in the senate and before it mattered and before anyone was paying any attention -- with the lack of attention being why that speech had to be "re-created" for the campaign -- doesn't count.)
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. I'm a fool for thinking that elected Democrats were anything more than Republicans in cheap suits with a slightly kinder (sounding) bent.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Obama is supporting a Georgia blue dog who supports Bush's illegal wiretapping and calls for telecom immunity because it is politically expedient (at least in Georgia with the Obama push for a "new electoral map") to do so. This is change?
As I said previously this week, I am beginning to wonder why I vote Democratic. Perhaps I project my hopes for change upon a party that seems to just not give a damn any more. Perhaps it's time that I stop doing that.
See http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data for what graphs of the economic stats would look like if they were computed the way they were pre-1982. It isn't pretty.
For the first time since I was 18 years old, I will be voting for someone other than the Democrat in the presidential election. It seems to me that the best hope we have for our nation right now is to get a strong Democratic congress that is populated with not just more but better Democrats (which to my mind would leave the Obama-endorsed Bush Blue Dog by the name of Barrow out of the picture) and pressure that congress to act as a strong check on executive power.
Short version: I want a divided government.
I do not trust a single party government with a weak legislative branch bowing to the wishes of the leader of a cult of personality. I'd rather have John McCain in the White House with a Democratic congress than to have Barack Obama in the White House with a Democratic congress.
The Supreme Court? Advice and consent of the senate means that McCain would need appoint moderates. Tax policy? Nothing McCain can do there without congress either. Social Security? I think John McCain with a Democratic congress is a safer bet than Obama. Obama has repeatedly co-opted the Republican "Social Security is in crisis" meme and much like it took Nixon to go to China, it may take a Dem in the White House to destroy Social Security. No thanks.
I bear allegiance to no candidate and to no party. My allegiance is to the United States and the bedrock principles of the Constitution. To protect that, I will vote for division.
Vote for America, people! Not a candidate and not a party. Vote a split ticket. Vote divided.
Nearly a week ago I received an email from a friend in the Denver area. She was and is a supporter of Hillary Clinton and talks to me via email and forum posts on what is up with HRC even though she knows that I am not exactly a Clinton supporter. Anyway, she knew at least a week ago (if not sooner) that any money being solicited by Hillary Clinton to be used to retire leftover campaign debt would be used first to pay debts to vendors and that any money she had loaned to her own campaign was not a priority, that the loans made to her own campaign were being looked at as something of an investment that may pay future dividends and if not, well, that was OK.
So the bottom line here is that it really isn't that interesting that Barack Obama isn't asking his supporters to help the Clintons recover a portion of their own personal wealth. Why would he when Hillary herself isn't asking for such a thing from her own supporters?
Better reportage, please.
I guess I am just not sophisticated enough for this type of humour. How could I be when I didn't find it funny at all? Fact is, I found myself more offput than entertained. If this were a college essay and I happened to be the one grading, I'd be thinking C...minus.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
