Why Am I Not Suprised?
Some things that have caught my eye today:
How did the GOP end up with such power? They cheated. And this is only the beginning. Don't be surprised if you start seeing Tommy-boy's name popping up on some of these civil (and criminal!) lawsuits. My favorite part is that the GOP pulls a judge out of retirement to hear this case because they expected him to rule in their favor. That's one of my few hopes for the appointee imbroglio in the Senate: They do tend to vote their own mind, regardless of whether or not it appeals to those that appointed them.
For those of you who think that just because you already have money and power that there's no need to cheat, Eliot Spitzer says that it apparently doesn't matter.
(Hmmm....dirty tricks in Texas politics, fearless crusader in New York government, yet some think that New York's an unholy place. Interesting.)
And the ever-excellent Eric Alterman expounds on how we are becoming an oligarchy. Scroll down to yesterday's entry for an eye-opening look at how we the people are paying for the corporate jet travel of the nations richest men and their families.
Yeharr
How did the GOP end up with such power? They cheated. And this is only the beginning. Don't be surprised if you start seeing Tommy-boy's name popping up on some of these civil (and criminal!) lawsuits. My favorite part is that the GOP pulls a judge out of retirement to hear this case because they expected him to rule in their favor. That's one of my few hopes for the appointee imbroglio in the Senate: They do tend to vote their own mind, regardless of whether or not it appeals to those that appointed them.
For those of you who think that just because you already have money and power that there's no need to cheat, Eliot Spitzer says that it apparently doesn't matter.
(Hmmm....dirty tricks in Texas politics, fearless crusader in New York government, yet some think that New York's an unholy place. Interesting.)
And the ever-excellent Eric Alterman expounds on how we are becoming an oligarchy. Scroll down to yesterday's entry for an eye-opening look at how we the people are paying for the corporate jet travel of the nations richest men and their families.
Yeharr
posted by Balloon Pirate at 7:50 PM
5 Comments:
I guess you missed this statement:
"DeLay, the second-ranking Republican in the House, was not a defendant in the suit, which was filed against committee treasurer Bill Ceverha."
DeLay is not even named in the suit and the headline is "New ethics setback for Tom DeLay"!?!
Wow, BP, thanks for shooting your previous post, A Medium is Rarely Well-Done to hell with yet another example of spin disquised as news.
BP's post is a good example of the deeply ingrained behavior in most pundits today. Instead of talking about the actual issues involved in these cases he waves headlines about like silly protest slogans:
"Tom DeLay cheated!"
Tom DeLay may very well be guilty of violating some campaign laws either intentionally or unintentionally. I haven't seen any actual proof of this yet. Just lots of allegations. He hasn't even been named in a criminal case!
"AIG is evil!"
Here, see, I have my own flag to wave: Kerry blocked Big Dig provision, then got large donations. It is interesting how you constantly assume that large corporations are evil conservatives, when in a lot of cases they are not. the CRP has statistical data on the demographics of polotical donations. Here's an interesting stat: 92% of all single donations over $1,000,000.00 were given to Democrats!
"Republican Power Grab!"
I read the article you linked to and I have to tell you it was hard to keep from laughing at the end. Alterman starts out sounding like a relatively reasonable liberal. The first two points, while full of spin, were good ones. On the third point: I will NOT concede that Gitmo is a "gulag", but if all of the allegations are true, we have a serious problem on our hands. The remaining points are really not worth comment. Alterman goes right up the scale from normal editorial "spin" to shrill, incoherent, liberal gibberish. The bottom line, the framers anticipated power struggles within our Republic. That is why we have elections! If the American people don't like their government they can change it! And, that is why I love our country!
Donley
Ouch oww ouch! That hurt!
...not you Donley. I just gave myself a paper cut.
Yup, you're right. DeLay wasn't named in the suit. They've pinned nothing on DeLay.
Yet.
However, just about everybody associated with DeLay short of his hunting dog has been named. But not him. How long do you think that's going to last?
This civil suit is but one of many suits, both civil and criminal, that are pending against the DeLay machine. Do you dispute the possibility that his name might be added to one or more pending suits?
And just so you know why this is such a big story: The money was illegally used to help elect republican Texas State legislators. With the first Republican majority since the civil war, (to wave the flag you so nicely made for me: Republican Power Grab!) DeLay directed the legislature to redistrict the entire state so that most, if not all, congressional districts had a republican majority. (Hey! That flag works great here too!) Those new republican districts solidified GOP control of the HOR in Washington, (flag waving arm getting tired now) with a whole bunch of Reps who are now beholden to....wait for it....
TOM DELAY!
(flag flag flag)
Your post is a good example of deeply ingrained refusal to see what is in front of you, and instead shooting yourself in your own foot.
But, as you said, no evidence yet.
There was really no proof Clinton was involved in anything illegal in the Whitewater scandal, yet that didn't stop the repubs from backing up a Brinks truck to Kenny Starr's office and saying 'sic 'em!'
(Keep going with that "I'm not a crook--I just surround myself with crooks' line, Tom. Worked great for Gotti.)
As far as "AIG is evil!" I never said that. Neither did Spitzer. What he said was AIG was a well-run, extremely successful company that didn't need to cheat, and yet it did. Donley: compare and contrast difference between news from New York government and news from Texas. Here, let me do it for you. The New York AG is investigating fraud in big business. The Texas AG is investigating fraud in Texas government.
Your comment is a good example of the deeply ingrained behavior in most delusional thinkers today. Instead of looking at the issues, accuse the other of distorting the issues, and accuse them of making silly protest slogans.
Oh, and (only) slightly off-topic: what's your take now on that protest slogan that went "Newsweek Lied, People Died?"
I've been to opensecrets before Donley.What's your point? Here's an interesting stat: in the 2003-2004 political cycle, Republicans received about $123 million more in donations than Democrats! I doubt that this disparity can be explained away by grannies stuffing fivers in envelopes and mailing them in.
As far as your take on Alterman: He is a widely respected, thoughtful, and above all well-researched writer. I wouldn't expect you to like or even understand what he has to say.
Yeharr
Thoughtful and well-researched, eh?
5 out of the 7 articles linked by Alterman were themselves editorials. That's hardly research. Unless you count parroting democratic talking points as research.
You see, I can check up on these kinds of things, so just saying it doesn't make it so.
Donley
Wasn't talking about that specific article, Sparky. I was talking about the man himself.
Thanks for playing.
Yeharr
istnw is so entrenched I can barely make out the top of his head...
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