It’s been a while since I made any political comments. Truthfully, politics have frustrated and angered me to the point that I no longer follow it as well as I used to.
As a general and rather casual observation, national politics have evolved into an obstructionist name calling fiasco, with no thought given to sincere problem solving. Here are some examples.
1. The Democrats have launched a campaign to point out that the involvement of the United States in Iraq was based on faulty intelligence. (Haven't we already beaten this dog?) They maintain that Bush “cherry picked” the reports to support his personal vendetta against that country’s president. They fail to mention that their own party members (most notably Kerry and H. Clinton) read the same intelligence report and clearly supported a war to overthrow that great humanitarian Suddam Hussein. The truth is, the minority party sees Bush’s low poll ratings and is hammering away to win seats in the next election. If the Democrats have a comprehensive plan to defeat terrorism; lets hear it!
2. The hearings regarding the appointment of the Supreme Court Justice are a joke. Should the nominee’s record be examined? Of course it should. If a nominee lacks the experience necessary to carry out the tasks of so important a position, they should be eliminated post haste. I believe nominee Meirs was a case in point. On the other hand, if a nominee is qualified, even though they may have different views than yours or mine it should not disqualify them. Other than whether or not they have the necessary credentials, the only question that’s pertinent is whether they will uphold the constitution of the United States. Congress makes the laws and the Court interprets them. If Congress has done its job well, it shouldn’t fear that a justice would misinterpret any law it has written. The truth is most of the hearings are blatantly obstructionist.
3. In order to keep this fairly short I won’t get into details. It regards a letter to the editor of our local paper. In it, a citizen went on a rant “exposing” how Bush and Cheney have been profiting from everything from the war in Iraq to the price of gas. I don’t know if that’s true or not; and neither does the writer of the letter. My point is, if a person makes a statement; support it with facts and if it’s an opinion; say so. If that person is unable or unwilling to do either then he or she should say nothing.
4. Although I could go on, the last item I’ll comment on is impeachment. I’m specifically referring to a bumper sticker I saw yesterday calling for Bush’s impeachment. Impeachment is not a devise to be used by the losing party to reverse the outcome of an election. It is a devise to accuse an elected official of illegal misconduct. If you are unhappy with the performance of an official, simply vote him/her out of office during the next election. If it can be shown that an elected political figure has broken the law; impeach him. This action is nothing to be bandied about lightly.
Both parties are guilty of “playing politics”. As trite as this rhetoric is, wouldn’t it be refreshing and maybe even helpful, to see them attack the myriad problems that this country faces instead of each other.
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4 comments:
Well Murph, though you and I are very far from each other in the political spectrum, I pretty much agree with you on every point. If only congress could do that huh? Though I do love critiquing Bush like any good liberal, it is getting a little old, and I'm not saying that the heat should be taken off of him for things that he should be responsible for, but it would be nice for us to focus our energy on the present and futures instead of constantly searching the past (though I'll point out that if a Democrat were in office right now, the same exact thing would be happening from the conservatives).
Oh Howard. Aren't you just playing politics too? You start and end your comments with BOTH parties are playing politics. But everything between you only bash Democrats, call democrats names (ie losers)and defend bush. If you really think both parties are playing politics, why don't you bash bush alittle, call Republicans some names and defend Democrats too?
Saddam Hussein was an awful dictator but he had nothing to do with flying two airplanes into the world trade center, one airplane into the Pentagon and one into the ground. That was Osama. Kim Jong-Il and President Mohammed Khatami are bigger enemies of the United States. One we know has nuclear weapons and is threatening us with them. The other is openly and defiantly working hard to get nuclear weapons. Now that Bush and Chaney have tied us down in Iraq, where there never were any nuclear weapons, we are limited to trying to talk North Korea and Iran out of their weapons programs. W stepped directly into Osama bin Laden's trap when he took us into the quagmire of Iraq on what he knew was faulty information the American people would believe, including me. I applaud bush for attacking the Taliban and Al-Qeada in Afghanistan. They are the ones who attacked us and then protected Al-Qeada.
After the Republican prosecutors present their evidence against Republican lobbyist Abramoff, Republican Congressman Tom Delay, Republican Congressman Bob Ney, Republican Senator Conrad Burns, ex-Chaney chief-of-staff Scooter Libby, bush chief-of-staff Carl Rove, Republican Congressman John Doolittle, and on and on, it will be clear to all what the Republican Party is. There will be a few Democrats involved too. (Not Fox News) I hope they all get what they deserve.
I hope I didn't ruin your blog.
Your friend
Ned
Ned
Glad you're still looking in on the page from time to time. And you certainly didn't ruin it!
I am just a little confused however...ok, nothing new there.
1. I didn't intend to imply that Democrats were "losers", in a name calling sort of way..... I did mean to suggest that any party that loses an election should not use impeachment in an attempt to reverse an election.
2. You suggest that after all is said and done it "will be clear to all what the Republican party is". It's clear now!......p-o-l-i-t-i-c-i-a-n-s. Do I like it?...Noooo...Do I support them?...Nooo. Will that change the nature of the beast?...Nooo. As you point out, it isn't limited to only one party either. Politicians will usually act like politician, otherwise they would be... oh I don't know... pharmacists.
3. I went back and looked, and didn't see any reference I made to Fox News.... where did that come from? Ok, ok, you found me out, I let my subscription to both the LA and NY Times run out... I've been reading mostly non-fiction recently.
The truth is only a look back will reveal the truth... and I'm talking about a looong look back.
In the meantime, keep those cards and letters coming.... they're fun!
The Fox News thing belonged in an earlier version. When I editted the previous sentence I should have deleted the part about Fox News.
Again, after I posted my comments I read them and banged my head against the monitor for not removing the then senseless verbage.
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