Well, it is with great reluctance I reveal further evidence that I live in an insane asylum. It comes in the form of the following news byte as reported at newsday.com.
That's where I read Hillary Clinton ("It takes a village to raise a child, a bomb to raze that village,"- that Hillary Clinton!) is quoted as saying of her leading challenger, Barack Obama, as being "too far left to be elected president" -- citing a decade-old questionnaire indicating Obama once opposed the death penalty, backed socialized medicine and supported a ban on hand guns.
Counter point: According to the Newsday.com story, Obama really supports a national health insurance care system that maintains the health of the health insurance industry first, Americans second. Obama is not against a hand gun ban, just stringent controls on them. As for capital punishment - he supports it only for "severe crimes" (?? Dada note: I thought that's what we have??).
Counter counter point: As for Clinton's claims Obama is too liberal to be president from views expressed on his 1996 candidate's state senator questionaire? Obama never signed that questionaire. It was filled out by a campaign aide.
But the point I take from all of this is the two party system in this country is a farce. Democratic candidates have become so damn afraid of stepping off the line they're straddling in the middle of the road lest they be labeled liberal or "too left" for America while Republicans control the entire right lane of the roadway, many straying onto the right shoulder with impunity.
I am, indeed, in a loony bin so insane I'm thinking my only chance of escape is a total financial collapse of the American economy under the oppressive costs of an empire we can no longer afford, or maybe the rising seas of global warming will inundate the power centers of the world so perilous to us all.
Insane? Maybe. But the alternative to dramatic financial collapse or environmental disaster beyond comprehension is sounding more and more preferable to the danger now being served up by the insanity of the current American political system.
6 comments:
sadly you are not insane...you are dead on...sigh....
If she is elected I might have to move to ????? hmm, Canada????
There isn't a left or right in American politics -- it's all about wusses, Republicans and Democrats. Even though I disagree with Ron Paul, I respect him and his straight forward points of view. If only we had someone on the left to stand up and speak "truthiness." Not!
Amen, amen! And so today's a new day, but with the same old outrages--Bush vetoes SCHIP again, democrats cave to Bush's every budget demand, etc., etc.
It's Groundhog's Day! But how can that be? Yesterday was Groundhog's Day, as was the day before and the day before that! Appears we're stuck in a loopy loop.
But as I was watching Michael Parenti on TV this morning remind, "You think Bush and Cheney don't care what we think?"
"It's the only thing about us they DO care about."
Sadly, I think we American's DON'T think. If we did, why would congress be so up sort of, kinda, a little, upset about the destroyed CIA water board tapes?
Hell, we got the goddamn pictures from Abu Graib from a couple years ago. Rumsfeld is a fuckin' torturer; Cheney's a fuckin' torturer, as is Bush, and Gonzales and Rice -- just as WE are all fuckin' torturers.
But let's not think about it.
Let's pretend this latest revelation of purposely destroyed tapes is some shocking aberrant event, not part of a pattern. Let's pretend to be outraged (again, for a few days). This too shall pass, just like the entire American empire shall pass.
And meanwhile--as you plead, eprof--for a voice on the left to stand up and speak, has once more been silenced, i.e., Dennis Kucinich will not be allowed a place on tonight's stage with the liberal democrats.
I tried to watch the Dem debates today, I really did. First I had to find FOX on the line-up, which was difficult as I can hardly remember where to look for them. In the news bloc, the entertainment bloc, the comedy bloc, the punk'd bloc?
Then I had to watch Frank Luntz explaining his small group of people twisting a dial to indicate how they "felt" about the candidate as each one spoke. He says, based not only on what they are saying, but body language, mannerisms, likeability, etc. And we will be treated to seeing their dial-twists on a graph during the whole debate! (the sound you hear is me gnashing my teeth) ...
Then the debates begin, but typical of FOX, the candidates are relegated to small screen (on the LEFT side), while the majority of the screen is taken up with an irritating graph of Frank Luntz' group of dial-twisters. Below all that is a constantly flashing "ALERT" to tell us the current news in the fight against steroids in sports. Below that is a racing, distracting news scroll. White the candidates are talking, FOX periodically uses the "ALERT" box to interrupt the steroid coverage & tell us interesting tidbits about the candidates' backgrounds ... for instance, that Sen Dodd's father was censored by the congress during his tenure there!
Then I notice the bad lighting. For FOX's repub debate, everyone appeared in the peak of health, all rosey & unwrinkled (except Ron Paul), close-ups allowed you to feel you were right next to them having a little chat. But for the FOX dem debate today, they are small figures on a partial screen with lighting so awful, everyone looked ill, Obama looked like a week-old corpse, Hillary's facial lines & eyebags were prominent. As the camera does a group pan, they are so washed out as to seem B&W, not color, like TV from the 50's. Oh how bland & out-dated they all appear, not like the "vibrant" repubs!
Don't even get me started on that Luntz graph. Suffice to say, it was rigged just as you would expect, so that the center is low & little thumbs-up or thumbs-down indicators are purposefully placed so that it takes a lot more dial-twisting to be in the positive region than the negative.
I had to abort my patriotic efforts early. Just couldn't take any more. Besides, I had already learned all I cared to know about sports steroid use!
ps, Kucinich not being there probably didn't make much difference. Even when he is there, they never call on him. Besides, I think he's getting ready to drop out or go 3rd party with Ron Paul.
I am endlessly fascinated with the US perception of left and right. I am pretty much a centrist I think, but I'm still way left of most left wing Americans.
Hillary, bless her cotton socks, is a straight down the line 'Liberal conservative - note the capitalisation of Liberal.
Obama is to the right in my books, though he does talk about issues of social equity, but then so does Hillary.
I think both of them suffer from not being Bill, but then Bill seems very careful about who he shares his essential being with.
When the right is so very wrong, it's time to Impeach. Sign the petition:
http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com/
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