Political Process Integrity
2007-08-23 02:37:18
Undermining Democracy: Party Politics and Pelosi's Priorities by Hank Edson Political Pragmatism Many well-meaning, pragmatic politicians espouse party loyalty because the party’s general vision of how to promote the public's general welfare is sufficiently in line with their own. Under such circumstances, the compromises a politician chooses to make out of loyalty to his or her party is off-set by the benefits that result when party strength is applied in service of the general welfare. The goal remains government of, by, and for the people. Such pragmatic loyalty, however, still diminishes the integrity of the political process and the value of the political debate on which wise policy depends for its formulation. To appreciate that this is true it is helpful to compare the political process with the scientific process. Both processes involve an open critical discourse aimed at identifying the most accurate understanding of reality. In sc
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, Integrity
Feminist Commentary
2007-08-21 13:56:37
Even Cowgirls Get The Blues By Hank Edson James Carroll published an insightful column the other day, entitled: “Questions for Hillary Clinton.” In his column, Carroll makes the point that like her husband, Hillary has attempted to co-opt the Republican’s posture of being “strong” on foreign policy, meaning “dangerously prone to destabilizing violence.” My favorite observation from Carroll’s column is this one: “Coming into power as the world’s relationship to military force was being fundamentally altered by such figures as Anwar Sadat, Yitzhak Rabin, Óscar Arias, Lech Walesa, Mikhail Gorbachev, Václav Havel, Nelson Mandela, John Hume, Corazon Aquino, and Pope John Paul II, [Bill] Clinton was unable to claim what should have been his natural place among them.” Carroll's column can be found at: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/20/3283/.The Big Question Carroll poses for Hillary Clinton is thus: W
Progressive's Plea
2007-08-19 09:55:43
I Want a Candidate! by Hank EdsonI want a candidate who has the guts to stand up for gay marriage. For crying out loud, it’s just positive human commitment to care for each other. Where are our principles anyway? I want a candidate who says she is going to raise taxes—a candidate who wants to make taxes on investments equal to taxes on hard-earned salaries—a candidate who wants to raise taxes on the top 5% most wealthy who have captured all of the gains in economic growth over the last decade and more, while the rest of us have flat-lined. We all make this society possible; 95% of us are entitled to more equity. I want a candidate who will bust up monopolistic conglomerations of market share among too few corporations. We need a new Teddy Roosevelt to fight these Robber-Barons of Big Oil, Big Media, and Big Business. I want a candidate who will get serious about the environment. Again, we need a new Teddy Roosevelt. We need someone even better. I want someone wh
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Profiles in Shame
2007-08-17 14:35:08
A Few Facts Rumsfeld Omittedfrom His Resignation Letter By Hank EdsonTwo days ago, the Washington Post reported that a copy of Donald Rumsfeld’s November 7, 2006 resignation letter came to light as the result of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Associated Press. Rumsfeld’s letter was four-paragraphs long and contained 148 words. Like the recent resignation statement of Karl Rove, Rumsfeld’s letter spoke of the honor he felt in being allowed to serve his country and of the historical significance of this presidency. Like Rove, Rumsfeld omitted to reflect on the long catalogue of ways he had defiled the honor that had been bestowed upon him. Like Rove, Rumsfeld avoided acknowledging that the historical significance of the Bush presidency was shameful to the extreme. Neither men said anything about their responsibility for the most disastrous administration of our government in the history of the United States. And yet both men were resigning because the
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Profiles in Shame
2007-08-14 09:23:49
The Pride and Prejudice of Karl RoveBy Hank EdsonKarl Rove says he's deeply proud and grateful to have been a witness to history; I'd be proud to be a witness at Rove's trial. It’s wishful thinking all around. Rove’s not a witness, but a participant in history. And if he had something to be proud of, he wouldn’t be resigning. The only testimony I can offer is that of an outraged citizen who believes Rove should not escape responsibility for his role in the disaster that is the presidency of George W. Bush. If I can’t be a witness, I and the rest of the country at least now get to see what truths will come to light when Rove no longer can direct political cover-up and retribution from inside the White House. Perhaps we will all find out how hot the heat is that is forcing Rove to resign. It’s by no means the kind of career ending anyone wants who has spent a life in politics. But the story of Karl Rove, we should
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Political Process Integrity
2007-08-12 13:32:37
Let's Try YouTube Answers Insteadby Hank Edson(This Post was published by FreePress.org on August 15, 2007: http://freepress.org/departments/display/10/2007/2760)Worthless CurrencyWe all know why our presidential debates are worthless currency to the American people. We all know that the opinions the candidates will voice are calculated not to offend the contributions made by Big Business on which each candidate’s campaign depends. We all know that in our 24/7 corporate media culture, the power of the echo-chamber to exaggerate and repeat the slightest deviation from the conventional “wisdom” completely kills the impulse in the candidate to speak from the heart.Thus, none of us believe anything the candidates say is really going to make a difference. Whether they get elected or not, whether they live up to their promises or not, nothing they promise will make a difference because they all have been trained to promise virtually nothing. They ha
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, Integrity
Democracy on the Rack
2007-08-05 23:00:49
The New Feudalism of the Republican AllianceBy Hank EdsonChess Anyone?Chess is a game that portrays the old power structures of feudal Europe and recognizes the alliance of different authoritarian interests that kept the people of society under the yoke of service to the elite.The king and queen represent the economic oppression asserted through a monopoly on land ownership in an agrarian society. The bishop represents the psychological manipulation exercised by the church. And the knight represents institutionalized brutality. To keep the pawns producing fortunes for their castles, the king and queen, the bishops and the knights worked in close cooperation just as the corporate monopolies of Big Business, the false prophets of the Religious Right, and the Neo-Conservative war-mongers do today. Let’s face it we are in an era of new feudalism. The Republican Alliance of economic oppression, religious manipulation, and institutionalized brutality controls ou
Campaign 2008
2007-07-29 22:00:51
Third Party IronyThe marginalized third party would become the Democratic Party. By Hank EdsonPulling a LiebermanRalph Nader was right, sort of. He did say, after all, that Democratic Party politicians had no reason to listen to the voters on the left whose vote they regarded as “in the bank.” Well, they are not listening. Roughly 70% of democrat voters now favor impeachment, but the democrats in the House of Representatives aren’t budging. We want our troops home, but the “surge” continues. As a result of the Democrat’s betrayal of their mid-term victory, the woman in charge, Nancy Pelosi, is being challenged for her seat by Cindy Sheehan as an independent. It may be different to run a third party campaign for president than to run one against the Speaker of the House of Representatives, but this distinction should not drown out the obvious truth: we cannot rely on the lesser evil as a solution for the great
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Four Awful, Horrendous Truths
2007-07-22 20:52:27
Why We Must Leave Iraq ASAP: It’s the Only Way to Fight Our Real Enemy By Hank Edson (This Post was published by CommonDreams.org on July 23, 2007: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/23/2697/)The first awful, horrendous truth is we don’t know our own real enemy. It’s not Al Qaeda, it’s not Saddam Hussein, and it’s not terror. None of these pose a threat to the existence of our democracy. Properly managed, Al Qaeda has far less ability to inflict physical injury on Americans than do Americans who misuse hand guns and automatic weapons. In 2005, handguns killed over 30,000 people in America. Even with these deaths, we do not feel our democracy is in danger. The second awful, horrendous truth is that almost all our elected Democratic and Republican leaders incorrectly believe there is no enemy. They do correctly understand that we are not fighting the war in Iraq against an enemy, but rather for a reason—a strategic objective: the control of Mi
Questioning Authority; Promoting Process
2007-07-16 20:14:11
By Hank EdsonThe old bumper sticker, “Question Authority
!” was good advice we seem to have abandoned about the time George Orwellian Bush took his oath of office. Or perhaps, we let go of it before that, say, when we accepted the Supreme Court’s authority to dispense with the need to count votes in Florida in 2000. In truth, this bumper sticker was worn away bit by bit over the last three decades by a Republican Party hard at work furthering goals that were ultimately authoritarian: Big Business’s economic monopolism, the Religious Right’s infallible religious orthodoxy, and the Neo-Conservative’s military unilateralism. Little by little, our reminder to question these things got stripped from the car we were following, and for some reason it’s message didn’t stick where it mattered most: our consciousness.It didn’t stick because, as good as its advice is, “Question Authority” is only halfway down the road to wisdom. Wha
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Political Accountability
2007-08-26 15:42:58
Overlooking the Obvious On ImpeachmentBy Hank Edson Does One More Outrage Really Matter? It may seem completely unnecessary to pursue yet one more ground for impeachment when we already have so many. In their book, The Case for Impeachment, journalists David Lindorff and Barbara Olshansky have cited, for example, seven classes of impeachable offenses Bush and Cheney have committed: Lying to Congress and America about the need to invade Iraq, about the existence of an imminent threat to the United States, and about the existence of a link between that alleged threat and 9/11. Refusing to cooperate with congressional and 9/11 investigations; Violating the bill of rights by detaining US citizens indefinitely without charge, by detaining and deporting legal residents, and by illegally authorizing the national Security Agency to spy on American citizens without a court order. Abusing power by adding over 1000 signing statements to legislative acts passed by Congress.
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Campaign 2008
2007-08-29 14:19:21
Edwards: Does He Mean It? By Hank EdsonThe Sincerity Question We Don’t Need to AskFor the last seven years, we have been asking ourselves, “Does George W. Bush really believe the stuff he says.” For example, while campaigning for office, George W. Bush reportedly told a group of supporters in 1999, “I believe God wants me to be president.” In July of 2004, he re-asserted this faith, stating, “I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn’t do my job.” When Bob Woodward asked Bush if he asked his father for advice regarding going to war with Iraq, Bush replied: “ He is the wrong father to appeal to for advice. The wrong father to go to, to appeal to in terms of strength. There's a higher Father that I appeal to.” The sincerity question is beside the point when it comes to George W. Bush, however. Time and again, pundits have essentially defended the President by asserting their opinion that he actually believes t
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The Wisdom of the Best about the Worst
2007-09-20 21:25:34
What Would Lincoln Do? “Woe unto the world because of offenses; for it must needs be that offenses come, but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.” By Hank EdsonOne of the often quoted facts about the American Civil War is that more Americans died in it than died in all the other wars combined. The number of American Civil War dead is estimated at approximately 620,000 people. The President who presided over this carnage we regard as our greatest. Why do you think that is, dear reader? Isn’t it at least a little strange? Before you answer, let me suggest we take a moment to read Lincoln’s own thoughts on this carnage. In his second inaugural address, Lincoln spoke of man’s intentions and man’s relationship to God, in an attempt to puzzle out the meaning of so much terrible death. Referring to both sides of the war, Lincoln reflected:“Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundame
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The President's Hostages
2007-09-17 10:21:51
The False Dilemma Over War Funding By Hank Edson Last week General David Petraeus gave his long awaited report on whether President
Bush’s troop “surge” plan had achieved sufficient success to reverse the opinion of two thirds of Americans who want our troops brought home ASAP. President Bush then gave a national address in which he was expected to lay out a clear strategy for moving ahead in Iraq based on the success of the surge or for pulling out of Iraq based on its failure. Of course, what the American people got from the Bush administration was predictable based on past performance. What we got was an artfully vague choreography of political manipulation in which the big picture was hidden from view, a few positive details were exaggerated, change was postponed, and deception was employed by presenting a plan to “reduce” troop levels that merely brought the number of troops in Iraq back to the level they were before the “surge
Campaign 2008
2007-09-13 16:35:02
Senator Clinton: Change from Within or More of the Same? By Hank EdsonThanks to our lucky stars, The Declaration of Independence did not justify compromise; it did not state that “we have found a way to work with the monarchists, such that we will be severing our ties with our parent corporation and spinning-off a new elite, which will hence forth direct slavery operations under a more liberalized profit sharing program.” Hillary Clinton is the subject of Newsweek’s cover story this week. Newsweek’s portrait of her is largely flattering describing her as a politician whose life has been committed to making change within the system. In the final question of her interview, Jonathan Darman asks, “What about the biggest difference between Hillary Clinto
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Measuring the Death Toll
2007-09-11 09:19:55
On 9/11, The Question Is: What Are We Forgetting? By Hank Edson Less than 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001, the culmination of a criminal conspiracy that was years in the making. According to the Center for Disease Control, in 2005, 16,885 people died as a result of alcohol-related car accidents in the United States. Thus, the annual death toll resulting from a culture of alcohol addiction, callous disregard for personal responsibility, and a consumer industry that markets intoxication as happiness is over 5 times the death toll arising from terrorism in the United States in the worst year ever recorded for terrorism in America. In 2005, handguns killed over 30,000 people in America. This is 10 times the worst ever annual death toll for terrorism in America. Like the culture of Alcohol, we deliberately sustain a culture of...READ MORE!
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, Death Toll
Political Process Integrity
2007-09-10 00:27:04
Electoral College Chaos in California By Hank EdsonBack in June, I posted an article entitled, “Campaign Issue: Targets in the Electoral College,” in which I wrote, “ As 2008 approaches, the Democratic nominee should make scrapping the electoral college a campaign issue.” I lamented that “[w]hat was once the key to building a democratic union has today become a means of isolating the weakest link by the anti-democratic ideologues that have taken over the Republican Party.” That’s the reason the Bush campaign was able to steal the presidency first in Florida in 2000 and again in Ohio in 2004. While writing these thoughts I was anticipating that yet another battle ground state would become the shame of the nation in the next election. The Republican Party would rape Pennsylvania or Michigan of its political process integrity in 2008. Perhaps this prediction will come true. In the mean time, however, a new development has arisen
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, Integrity
Campaign 2008
2007-09-07 15:13:10
Bill’s New Book Is "Giving" Me A Headache (This Post was published by CounterPunch.org on September 14, 2007: http://www.counterpunch.org/edson09142007.html)By Hank Edson Former President Bill Clinton is touring the talk shows selling his new book, Giving, and it’s giving me a headache. I don’t like the way Clinton co-opts corporate friendly, conservative policy and rhetoric and then brands it as a new form of liberalism. It’s as annoying to me as George W. Bush’s attempt to co-opt a social conscience from truly progressive proponents of democratic principles. In the case of Clinton's new book, “Giving” just reminds me too much of Bush’s “Compassionate Conservatism.” Clinton’s preaching of the civic duty of philanthropy sounds too much like Bush’s “Faith Based Initiative.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against giving. I am n
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The Voters' Role
2007-09-06 00:16:36
Building Progressive Unity By Hank Edson A week ago I wrote an opinion piece about John Edwards. Edwards had taken a step out onto the ledge of progressive rhetoric, and, while he was out there, I wanted to give him a push. That is, I wanted to see him truly commit to the plunge implied by his posturing. The article was published in CommonDreams and the blog-style forum discussion that followed directed my attention toward the process of public discourse. Initially, many readers were frustrated that more truly progressive candidates, such as Dennis Kucinich, Mike Ravel and Ralph Nader, were ignored by my article. Interestingly, their criticism was not aimed at what I said, but at something I failed to say. Although these readers did not seem to recognize value in challenging a more mainstream candidate to become more progressive, I did recognize value in their complaints. Because the mass media neglects these truly progressive candidates so severely, writers on the progres
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Campaign 2008
2007-09-03 23:30:57
Edwards/Kucinich 2008? By Hank Edson (This Post was published by CommonDreams.org on September 4, 2007: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/04/3597/)The Gold Standard for Progressive Candidates Last week, CommonDreams published an article I wrote, which was in part about a speech made by John Edwards. In the speech in question, Edwards set forth the rule by which I think all candidates for the presidency should be judged: Are they anti-corporate power or are they corporate owned? I titled my piece, “ Edwards, Does He Mean It? ,” but CommonDreams gave it a new title, which better suited the full scope of my discussion. Without its original title, however, many readers interpreted my discussion to be an endorsement of John Edwards. In fact, it was meant as a challenge: “You have spoken bold words, Mr. Edwards; now, show us that you really mean them.” Thanks to reader participation in CommonDreams-type forums, we all learn a tremendous amount ab
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BLOGGERS UNITE!
2007-09-26 23:43:43
Vote Green To Stop the Abuse Of All who Depend Upon a Clean and Natural Planetary Environment!September 27 is Bloggers Unite Against Abuse Day: MP3 is Proud to Participate By Hank Edson The hardest part about abuse in all its forms is that it almost always involves a cycle of repetition magnified through a complex network of co-dependent relationships, wreaking a social havoc that spreads outward in incalculable shudders through the lives of one’s community, as an earthquake shaking city skyscrapers. Such is the case with the largest scale, if not yet the most violent or egregious, case of abuse human beings have ever known, committed, or suffered: global warming. So who are the abused and who are the abusers? What is the community in peril here? Obviously, we are all touched in some way. As a spiritual person in a scientific way, believing that there is a conscious intelligence at the quantum foundation of existence where light energy and creative inten
Profiles In Shame
2007-09-24 18:46:06
A Bad CharacterBy Hank EdsonRecent events have me thinking about character. Character is the perennial campaign issue the GOP falls back on whenever their pandering to the wealthy leaves them no other reason to offer the American People for voting Republican. “We may be stealing your last hard earned nickel,” they say to us voters, “but at least we have moral strength!” Hunh?The False Wall Between Morality and PolicyIt is bad enough that the GOP has so long succeeded in compartmentalizing personal moral character in the public eye as something completely separate from one’s positions on policies regarding the social welfare of the vast majority of voters. For years the media has bought hook line and sinker this illegitimate segregation of the private and public spheres. As we all know, for example, the talking heads raged over Bill Clinton’s betrayal of his marriage as though it were the most condemnable mor
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Jena and American Racism
2007-10-02 14:03:41
America’s Crime Against Its Own Humanity By Hank EdsonWe are a nation and a culture recklessly out of balance in many more ways than one. I will not count the ways here, but will say that in addition to war, the criminal abuse of our political process by our executive branch, and global warming, we also have our own deep seated racism still twisting our American
soul and we must not ignore it in the coming presidential campaign. Now, as always, but now more than ever, it is a time when we must try once more to look at our own moral culpability as a society straight on. Lately, reality has been challenging us to do this, but we have been resisting with all the determination of a corporate media intent on discussing O.J. Simpson rather than focus on what happened in Jena. Jena is a challenge for us to look at ourselves more honestly, a challenge to look more thoroughly, more deeply into just how strong our racism remains inside us. JenaIn case you are
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A Call to Protest!
2007-09-29 16:53:18
Let’s Honk Our Horns as a “Last Resort” By Hank EdsonOn March 8, 2003, President Bush gave a presidential radio address discussing his “War on Terror.” A major portion of his address was devoted to his claims that Saddam Hussein was not complying with weapons inspections, was not disarming, and that “he possesses weapons of terror.” He ended his address, saying, “We are doing everything we can to avoid war in Iraq. But if Saddam Hussein does not disarm peacefully, he will be disarmed by force. Across the world, and in every part of America, people of goodwill are hoping and praying for peace. Our goal is peace -- for our own nation, for our friends, for our allies and for all the peoples of the Middle East. People of goodwill must also recognize that allowing a dangerous dictator to defy the world and build an arsenal for conquest and mass murder is not peace at all; it is pretense. The cause of peace will be advan
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Progressive Profiles
2007-10-09 17:59:03
What’s It All About, Barack? By Hank Edson Is it just me, or has America already gotten tired of the 2008 presidential campaign, more than a year before the actual election? Has the corporate media winded itself in its frenzied impulse to hype meaningless content 24/7? Why does it seem in early October 2007 that the 2008 campaign has already come and gone, complete with YouTube presidential debates, “fundraising primaries,” and book tour after book tour? In the eerie emptiness of campaign news, we have a moment of contemplation available in which to reflect upon the strange Twilight Zone of historical moments in which we presently find ourselves. This is the first presidential campaign in over 50 years with no incumbent president or vice-president seeking the oval office. We find ourselves not only at war, and not just the unjust aggressors in that war, but also the duped people of a demo
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, Profiles
Can We Stop the War and Torture?
2007-10-04 21:05:32
New Secret Torture
Memos; Nationwide Protest on October 27th! By Hank Edson Just as they say that the one thing that never changes is change itself, the one thing we have learned about the Bush administration is that we always have more to learn. Today, The New York Times has published an important article by Scott Shane, David Johnston and James Risen detailing the Bush administration’s still active pursuit of the right to torture, now three years after the passage of the McCain Detainee Treatment Act, which was intended to outlaw what was already twice illegal: torture under the Geneva Conventions ratified by the United States in 1955 and also under the the U.S. War Crimes Act of 1996. Some of the story has entered into the public lexicon, “the torture memo,” “Abu Ghraib,” and “waterboarding” are now sadly common usage in American English, a fact that makes me want to resort to the Oxford Dictionary of Cu
MP3 Away: Replay of June Torture Post
2007-10-17 05:11:01
We Want Our Humanity Represented! Impeachment for Torture
, Now! by Hank Edson(This Post was published by CommonDreams.org on July 1, 2007: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/07/01/2227/)There is no shortage of reasons why we should impeach President Bush and Vice-President Cheney. Their crimes are so extensive and so egregious that it is hard to find time to grasp just how deliberate their pursuit has been over the past several years. Today’s topic, torture and how impeachment for torture is necessary to the representation of humanity in our democracy, does not even cover the subset of impeachable offenses: war crimes. By my count, this subset contains six separate impeachable war crimes committed by Bush and Cheney: (1) the supreme war crime of commencing a war of aggression, (2) torture, (3) extraordinary rendition, (4) termination of habeas corpus, (5) inhumane weaponry (such as daisy cutters, depleted uranium shells, and phosphorus bombs), and (6) the usurp
Demand Impeachment!
2007-10-23 19:28:00
Extraordinary Rendition: Apologies Are Not Enough By Hank Edson After Two Years, It’s Still Business As Usual The Bush administration’s determined and diseased compulsion to torture ought to be reason enough to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, but sadly, it is far from the only reason for taking such politically responsible, humanitarian action. The White House has claimed itself justified in the exercise of a totalitarian brutality that begins with unprovoked shock and awe mass murder of innocent populations, and then swiftly proceeds past torture into the worst nightmares of Joseph Kafka or George Orwell. We are all hopefully aware by now that the depravi ty of the war on terror extends well beyond heinous torture and involves something the administration refers to as: “extraordinary rendition.” Extraordinary rendition consists of the seizing of foreign individuals in the midst of their daily lives, refusing them any communi
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A Call to Duty, Drafting Mr. Gore
2007-11-07 22:36:37
The Answer to Bloomberg? Ad-Free Gore! By Hank EdsonI originally posted this piece in a slightly different form back in June, when Bloomberg decided to drop out of the Republican Party. Since Newsweek devoted it's cover story to Bloomberg this week, I thought it was time to reiterate the thoughts I had in June.When New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg broke from the Republican Party this June, there was widespread speculation that he would make an independent run at the presidency using his own fortune. This past week Newsweek renewed interest in this possibility by devoting its cover to Bloomberg’s presidential ambitions. Bloomberg, however, is just the latest act in a political season burgeoning with discontented energy after six plus years of the worst presidency in our history. To begin with, there were all those
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Handmaiden to the GOP
2007-11-18 23:14:28
Fire Robert Novak! By Hank Edson "I may have called you a douchebag... but I only said those things because I honestly think you're a horrible person!" -- John Stewart Robert Novak’s unseemly brand of journalism should have been amply demonstrated by his role in publishing the identity of an active undercover CIA agent, exposing her and multiple other agents around the world to life-threatening danger. In how many professions, after all, would a person be allowed to cause the type of damage and danger that Novak’s revelations caused and still be allowed to keep their job? In how many professions would it matter whether or not the individual who caused the
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