Archive for April, 2008

Thoughts on a Brokered Convention

April 17th 2008

With each passing Democratic primary, I’ve been led to believe that a definitive answer would somehow emerge and we would know for sure who the Democratic nominee would be. Surely to God, I thought, if she loses the Texas and Ohio primaries she’ll bow out. Or, he’ll bow out.
But no. Barring a miracle next Tuesday (April 22) in Pennsylvania, we will be treated to the worst of all possible outcomes: A brokered convention. Clinton and Obama will drag each other, kicking and screaming and bickering all the way to a bloody finish line that will satisfy no one. Certainly not me.

This is not an original thought, by any means, but it is the thought that I wake up with in the wee hours of the morning (just after I realize I need to pee):  If it will take the superdelegates to decide this mess, then why have the candidates spent half a billion dollars on ads and campaigns? I mean, why not just go straight to convention and let the superdelegates hand us a candidate?
This past year has been one of excesses. Money, vitriol, endless debates. Volumes have been written and spoken, and for what? So that we could watch the final Philadelphia debate descend into trivia like, why doesn’t Obama wear a flag pin? Why did Hillary lie about her trip to Bosnia 15 years ago? (And yes, honey, she DID lie, even though she bats her lashes and says, “I misspoke.”)
Aaargh! I am so tired of those two. And the other guy, doddering on the brink of old age with his WW II mentality — is that the best the Republicans had to offer? 
I wish we could roll back time to the week before Gore won Florida only to have Bush steal it away. I wish we could somehow warn Floridians about the defective ballots. 
What an ice cream social a Gore America would have been compared to Bush’s America.
I know I’ve said this before, and yet I feel like no one believes it. If all the millions of passionate and first-time Obama voters watch the convention and see that their votes did NOT count, if they see the old party hacks crown Hillary, they well may never vote Democrat again.
If all the voters who chose Hillary see Obama annointed at the convention by their own state leaders, do they not have the right to scream blue murder?
Who is going to be happy when the dust settles?

Posted by Gita under National | No Comments »

Alabama’s Village Idiots, Part 4

April 17th 2008

A decent bill has a fair chance of passing the Alabama Legislature in the next week or so, mirabile dictu! But so does a stupid bill. You decide.First, the good bill. It would remove the sales tax on food for an individual shopper. (Restaurants and corporations would still pay a food tax.) The House has already voted 63-38 to let state voters decide whether to take the 4 percent state sales tax off groceries. Next, the Senate must agree. Then the issue would be on the November ballot.Now you might wonder, why does this need to go to the voters? Why can’t the Legislature just insert the knife and cut out the regressive tax?
Most states would do just that.
But nooooo.  Not Alabama.
See, we have a state constitution drafted in 1901 that, due to political wrangling at the time, prevents lawmakers from taking steps to actually GOVERN the state. Instead, the question of removing a tax requires a cumbersome  constitutional amendment for the voters to decide.
So we have to endure seven more months of rising food prices taxed at 4 percent until the referendum.

I have said it before and will say it again until we get a new state constitution: Don’t move to Alabama if you can help it. The illogical contradictions of this place can make you crazy. 
But meanwhile, our lawmakers are considering a stupid bill.
It would bar “People convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude” from seeking elected city or county offices in Mobile
County. Never mind that this bill would rob us of many colorful characters. 
Worse, the legislators cannot agree on exactly what constitutes such a crime.  The Mobile Register newspaper reports this quote: “Moral turpitude can be anything the court decides,” said Rep. James Buskey, D-Mobile.  And this: “For shaking loose change in their pockets,” added fellow Mobile Democratic Rep. Joseph Mitchell. That about sums up my feelings. I’ve never been a fan of turpitude of any kind, moral or otherwise. Let’s keep it as vague and far-reaching as possible, what the hell!But wait!  Rep. Jim Barton, R-Mobile, a sponsor of the bill, said he thought the law would apply to crimes such as solicitation of prostitutes, driving under the influence of alcohol and possession of drug paraphernalia.I say, why stop at paraphernalia? Let’s go full tilt and include: Owning a still, growing poppies and keeping hypodermic syringes around the house.
By Gum, let’s drum turpitude out of Alabama, once and forever.

Posted by Gita under Alabama | No Comments »

Congress and the Corporate Teat

April 5th 2008

Here’s an eye-opening web address:  http://change-congress.org:80/

Go there, click on your Congressional district on the map and see how much bundled money your representative is getting. What is bundled money? It’s money collected from different corporations and lobbyists by a political action committee, or PAC, that hides who the true giver is.

For example, large coal and methane producers might form a PAC, give it a name like “Energy PAC, ” throw in a half million each and VOILA!  That’s a nice gift to a candidate at election time.

Why should we care? Because it is a way that special interest groups and powerful companies can get to your elected Reps and hold influence over them. For instance, the next time a clean-air bill comes up for a vote, Energy PAC might send a friendly reminder to the lawmaker about that campaign gift.

Could you or I compete? Do people who live near smokestacks get to play golf with Dennis Hastert and Mitt Romney? That’s a negative.

In Alabama, Artur Davis, a Democrat representing Birmingham, got 57 percent of his campaign moola from PACs. That kinda surprised me because Artur is so progressive — at least he talks the talk. None of ’Bama’s Congressmen took zero PAC money. A few, like the GOP’s Mike Rogers took less than a third of their campaign dollars from PACs. So, obviously, we in Dixie have a long way to go before we wean our politicians from the Big Corporation teat.

There is a movement to change Congress and to take the zero-PAC-money pledge. Good luck, right?  Some of the good guys include: Clyde Malloy of Florida’s 7th; John Driscoll out of Montana’s 1st; Josh Lanier from Georgia’s 1st. Current Virginia candidate Sam Rasoul had this to say in his video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HFhGJnVLnE

Posted by Gita under National & Regional | No Comments »