But stuff like this sure makes me happy. Ron Paul has introduced The American Freedom Agenda Act of 2007, which
would repeal the Military Commissions Act of 2006, restore full habeas corpus requirements, prohibit the use of secret evidence under all circumstances, and end the practice of rendition to other countries to torture terrorism suspects. It also would grant standing to Congress to sue the President over any signing statement that proposes that the President may ignore any provision of the legislation for any reason.
Now I don't agree with Ron Paul on everything, there is a limit of how aggressively I want to pursue libertarianism. But it is nice to daydream that Hillary or Obama or, heck, ANY sane person running for president, would back this bill. None of them will, because polticians who aren't "crazy", are in fact power-hungry. Hillary actually spoke the other day about "reviewing" all the power-grabbing policies of the Bush/Cheney administration, which is a step in the right direction, but she of course stopped short of actually promising to give up any of the new powers Bush has invented for himself. It is hard to blame her, how many politicians willingly give up power? Only Ron Paul apparently. Of course what that means is that we the people are supposed to put our own checks and balances on the politicians, but with W's reelection, we gave them the stamp of approval they needed, and it will be hard hard hard to move this backwards now. I hope we can do it, but I'm getting all old and cynical now. ::grin::
Anyway, for today, I ::heart:: Ron Paul.
Posts
My dear friend. I have to agree with you on all fronts. I have found this time around that I am falling into the old pattern of "who is the lesser of two evils," and that frustrates me to no end. The one thing that I keep going back to was something that Bill Clinton said when I heard him speak live at the Dorothy Chandler Pavillion, "Once we stop accepting the smear campaigns we will see change." Now, I haven't read a great deal on who said what, but it appears right now that Hillary is heeding her husbands words, and not smearing her opponents.
ReplyDeleteThere is something about Obama that bothers me. I can't put my finger on it, but I just don't trust him. OK, I really don't trust any of them, but it's just a feeling with Obama. Of the republicans I just can't support any of them. Romney called Obama "Osama" and Rudy can't decide who he is, or who he is supposed to be. I used to like McCain until he started playing partisan politics, and started bowing down to W. I guess there are a few more months until I have to make a decision, but I doubt that anything will be revealed between now and then that will sway me one way or the other.
A movie/tv star just might work. ::grin::
ReplyDeleteDo you seriously believe that Hillary is not a power monger or that she is honest in her politics and has no agenda?
Robb, you do not have my permission to get old, nor to even speak of it. Maybe David, but not you. ::ducking and running::
I don't know what you mean by "agenda". That is a word Uncle Kevin likes to use in a derogatory way, and to me is just a vague and almost meaningless insult. Give me something specific and I'll respond.
ReplyDeleteOf course Hillary is a power monger. The bright side about her though, is that she is and has always been concerned about what people think, and if the public exerts pressure on her to do something, she will do it. That would be a huge plus over the current administration. Case in point, at least she is talking about reining in the power-grab. On the other hand we have Rudy, who when asked if water-boarding is torture (isn't it funny that no one will answer that question? Actually the opposite of funny) he hemmed and hawed and finally said "It depends on who does it." Are you kidding me? Are we that lost as a nation? So when the Khmer Rouge waterboards - and I've been there, I've seen the results and felt the evil - it is torture. But when we do it, it isn't?
I don't want to get too into the torture thing, I still have a Survivor update to write which is far more entertaining (ah, escapism!). But that one answer tells me everything I need to know about Rudy Guiliani, and that though I thought he did some great things in NY, I will never, ever vote for him to be president. And was that admission big news? I dunno, I just saw a few blips on some blogs.
Rixter -
You are right too, I loved McCain in 2000, but he has completely lost his way. Depressing. What is funny (that word again) about Romney calling Obama Osama, is that it was so clearly staged. He said it right, and then went back to correct himself and said it wrong, like he almost forgot he was supposed to do it. Shameless. The Fox news guys do it all the time, but I expect them to be lame. Romney doesn't seem to be as personally dangerous as Rudy does, but since he clearly has no backbone of his own - well, do we really need another president like that?
Interesting that you don't trust Obama. It isn't like I've paid near enough attention, but you are the first person I've heard say that. His whole appeal seems to be the whole "ray of hope" thing. Of course, my coterie of political savvy friends is small to say the least, but still.
I'm warning all of you blog readers, I'm keeping this in the comments for now, but there is going to be more of this in the coming year.
As one of your non-politically-savvy friends (I have my views and opinions but never seem to be able to articulate them intelligently when the need arises) I'm looking forward to your posts on these topics.
ReplyDelete