Draining the Swamp

woodchip · Post by **woodchip** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 3:47 pm

So Sen. Pelosi's much ballyhoo'd proclamation to \"Drain the Swamp\" if the Dems won control of the Senate is now bearing fruit. Her first attempt at digging a ditch was to pick John Murtha as Majority leader for the House of Representatives. Murtha is so unethical that a George Soros backed blog
rates Murtha as one of the 20 most unethical politicians in congress
http://www.citizensforethics.org/activities/murtha.html.

On Ms Pelosi's 2nd attempt to dry out the bogs, she names one Alcee Hastings to chair the House Intelligence Committee. Whats so bad about this guy?

\"William Borders was a prominent Washington, D.C. lawyer when, in 1981, he was charged with conspiring with his good friend, federal judge Alcee Hastings, to solicit bribes from defendants seeking lenient treatment in Hastings’s courtroom. Hastings was charged, too, though the men were tried separately. When it was all over, Borders was convicted, disbarred, and sentenced to five years in jail. Hastings was acquitted, but later impeached and removed from office.\"

http://tinyurl.com/ykhouc

Now this certainly does not jive with the hue and cry that the morally rightous exclaimed over the testimonial one Trent Lott gave to Strom Thurmond's on his100th birthday. Nor does it give Ms Pelosi any credibility that her word is her bond. What is troubling that right out of the gate she is picking people for leadership roles that makes limburger cheese waft delicately and pleasantly to the voters at large. Keep going Pelosi, it is obvious you have not learned the lessons of the most recent election.

Skyalmian · Post by **Skyalmian** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 4:24 pm

Dakatsu · Post by **Dakatsu** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 4:40 pm

Why doesn't she just pick herself? I mean, wouldn't she be the most powerful woman in America, like 3rd in line?

fliptw · Post by **fliptw** » Fri Nov 24, 2006 7:13 pm

Dakatsu wrote:Why doesn't she just pick herself? I mean, wouldn't she be the most powerful woman in America, like 3rd in line?

Cause she's speaker of the house.

Ford Prefect · Post by **Ford Prefect** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:21 am

And this behaviour by politicians surprises you Woodchip? Is there some stirring of touching faith in the inner goodness of the elected that we haven't noticed before?

woodchip · Post by **woodchip** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:36 pm

Surprise me? No. What does surprise me is how quick Pelosi forgot her pre-election rhetoric. Could of at least had the good graces to wait a bit so the main stream press had a chance to do a little pre-spin. You know how the uninformed electorate likes the choclate eclair journalism that supports the liberal natterings.

Will Robinson · Post by **Will Robinson** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 12:56 pm

It should make everyone angry!
Bush came into office talking about a new tone about civility and reaching across party lines, about responsible corruption free government...

With only a few exceptions he and the republicans proceeded to do and end run around the democrats opposition every way they could and have proven to be far from corruption free!
The democrats of course set new records for completely refusing to cooperate and obstructed everything they could often at the expense of the common good of the citizens. They put their party above all.

So now we have Pelosi and company coming into power saying they will be corruption free, that they will reach across party lines, that they will set a new tone etc. etc.
Sound familiar?

Obviously they have no intention of doing things any differently at all!

But that is not what you should be mad about. Well you should but there is a much bigger problem and that is the press isn't going to point this out much at all. Things have become so bad in our politics and the politicians have become so brazenly corrupt and consumed with protecting their party at the expense of decent representation that there just can't be any integrity left in our free press! They are the citizens only real weapon to keep the political machine from completely grinding the citizens under its wheels!

I fear we are witnessing the decline of western civilization as we know it. Sooner than you think we will all be drones working for the corporate government who will fall into ruin at the feet of a new super power lead by some foreign entity. Some religious faction out of the middle east perhaps after they over run Europe...some socialist conglomeration out of eastern Europe with a french sounding name...no, probably we'll all be learning how to say \"Yes master\" in chinese.

By the time we are visited by extra terrestrials we will be in chaos.
It's embarrassing that we are allowing our great society to implode into the equivalent of the background of a mediocre, predictable, science fiction movie plot.

woodchip · Post by **woodchip** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 5:16 pm

So how do we go about a grass roots effort to put term limits on congress so it is voted in all 50 states?

Will Robinson · Post by **Will Robinson** » Sat Nov 25, 2006 10:08 pm

I don't know. Someone from outside the fraternity would have to get elected and have won on a platform of reform so the other congressmen would know just why he got there. Then he would have to be able to get airtime, talk right past the cameras right into the hearts of americans. point his finger at the corruption and good old boy network that the other congressmen support and challenge every other district to elect a representative like him instead of playing into the hands of the one-party-disguised-as-two.
Only when we have enough members to pass legislation will reform happen. The good thing is that doesn't mean you have to elect a majority of these reformers before there is a chance, you only have to get a few of them in but noticed for why they won, because then a lot of the incumbents from either party will jump ship and join them the minute they think their constituents are going to do the same thing! Faster than John Kerry can take both sides of any issue they will suddenly find their independence like a death row inmate finding Jesus they will become born again as their peoples candidate selling the party out to the Romans like Judas!
That's the one thing you can always count on a politician to do, that is, to completely change his ways the minute he thinks he's about to be voted out!

It would require that special someone to get the ball rolling though, or some special circumstance to cause the people to want to flush the big toilet.
Something like a major depression or world war that we take a big ass whooping in. So hope for the special someone and not the special circumstance because who knows what kind of scumbag with a platform of scapegoats and prejudice might rise to power in the wake of a disaster or dire economy *cough*Hitler*cough*

woodchip · Post by **woodchip** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 8:11 am

I was thinking more along the lines of a coordinated ballot initiative where-by with the correct amount of signatures, such a term limiting proposal could be presented to the poeple to vote upon.

Will Robinson · Post by **Will Robinson** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 9:53 am

woodchip wrote:I was thinking more along the lines of a coordinated ballot initiative where-by with the correct amount of signatures, such a term limiting proposal could be presented to the poeple to vote upon.

I don't know how many states have the ballot initiative capability but even if they all do, your campaign to nationalize the issue to get people moving on this in every state will go up against the strength of the national democrat and republican parties, and all their resources that will be used to undermine your effort and turn away the voters from supporting your agenda. David vs. Goliath....

The press would probably stand back and wait for the smell of blood looking for the moment when you say something just-not-right so they can loop it on prime time like Howard Dean's scream or Ross Perot's paranoid rant...
You will be swiftboated or painted a communist or something before the end of the second news cycle!

I wish it was that simple to be able to just use the system to gain momentum for reform but I fear the system has been taken over by the one-party-disguised-as-two. For example, Ralph Nader couldn't get included in the presidential debates or even get his name on the ballot in many states!
And look at how many names on petitions he had! It's an outrage that the press just yawned at.
Who decided his voice should be outlawed from the debate? It wasn't the voters or anyone looking out for their best interest that's for sure, it was someone looking out for the best interest of the one-party-disguised-as-two!