Write your Congressmen

Sunday, September 30, 2007

How black liberals (subliminally) view America?

Whose broad stripes and bright stars? -- baltimoresun.com:

"Republican front-runners weren't the only things missing from the presidential debate stage. The American flag was AWOL, too.

"The backdrop to the "All-American Presidential Forum," brought to you by Tavis Smiley and PBS, was a map of the United States, superimposed with a checkerboard of multicultural faces.

"Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, one of the presidential hopefuls, asked debate organizers to get Old Glory up there, too, according to Chris Cavey, first vice chairman of the state GOP.

"Cavey was acting as an escort for another candidate, Tom Tancredo of Colorado, and heard Hunter's request over his earpiece about half an hour before the show began.

"Escorts were wired. I heard [in the earpiece], 'Congressman Hunter is requesting a flag on stage,'" Cavey said.

"Request denied.

"Forum organizers also did not return calls seeking comment.

"The buzz among some Republicans was that organizers thought the flag might "offend" some members of the audience."

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Baltimore's voter turnout is lackluster at 28%

City's voter turnout is lackluster at 28% -- baltimoresun.com: "Though state officials had been predicting a paltry 30 percent of Baltimore's 331,987 registered voters would cast ballots in Tuesday's citywide primary, late in the day it seemed hitting even that would be a stretch.

"City election officials estimated that 82,921 ballots were cast at polling places Tuesday, representing about 28 percent of registered Republicans and Democrats."

And consider this: Maryland now offers convicted and released felons the opportunity to vote. There are about 50,000 ex-felons now re-enfranchised. [UPDATE: Sheila Dixon won the primary with fewer than 50,000 votes cast for her, total.]

Here's the part that should scare you: It's no stretch to see how they could not just influence an election, but actually put in place their own candidate, with such low numbers of the law-abiding turning out.

Thursday, September 6, 2007

Larry Craig, we hardly knew ye.

I'm not sure what to think about Idaho Senator Larry Craig. The media certainly painted him as getting busted doing homo-trolling in an airport men's room. However, after hearing the post-arrest interview recorded by the policeman who nabbed Craig, I'm not so sure that's so.

During the interview, the cop very much minimalized the offense by saying something on the order of "pay the fine, and that's it." Because the only thing they could agree on was that their shoes touched under the stall divider, Craig characterized the event between the cop and he as "entrapment." It seems it may be so, if Craig is to be believed. If one man's foot touches another, is that playing footsie? Of course, maybe the rules change when the pants are down. But a reflection on context may be in order, and maybe because the cop was looking for something, he mischaracterized innocent events as something else.

That an interview was even conducted under such circumstances, and that the cop berated Craig, saying he was "disappointed," and "no wonder we're going down the tubes," has me scratching my head. This just ain't kosher.

Craig did his dumbness by admitting guilt. I mean, that might take the prize for Stupid Acts by Congressmen, and that's takes some doing. Then, when the news hit Washington, the sharks came on in a feeding frenzy.

The surprise were the Republicans. It's going to be a tough election year for them, so it's no wonder they were antsy. Still, their vociferousness in denouncing Craig was a little off-putting. Doth the ladies protest too much?

The hypocrisy is still stinging. All over American politics are scandals and closet-skeletons, so much so that were should be used to them by now. Just discussing homosexuality and Congress, the first recollection should be the Democrats gay PooBah, Barney Frank. Remember, he had a live-in boy-toy that was a hooker running a gay prostitution service from Frank's residence. But the Dems rallied around him; they had the etics probe, but Frank survided the reprimand. That was what, 2 decades ago? And Frank is still there.

Guilty or innocent, Craig's situation really doesn't matter. We The People will never know the truth, anyway, would have never known the truth, and at the end of the day, Craig wasn't shacked up with a gay pimp running a homo brothel at his crib.

I'm just trying to figure out which is worse, and why one is forced to resign, while the other is held in high regard.

Politicians really live in a different world than the rest of us.