Cleaning out the muck

Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Bob Ney, Duke Cunningham, and plenty of others remind us of why we need to throw the current set of bums out of Congress and replace them with a new set. Too many of "our" "elected" "representatives" are selling their offices and their votes to the highest bidder. While the whole thing is wrong, think about how much money it costs the taxpayers to do things like build the bridge to nowhere; think also about how much important work isn't being done because the money is being wasted.

I was glad to see the Democrats tossed out in the 90s; I even voted for Bush in 2000 to clean out the Augean stables of corruption that the Clinton Administration had become. And it's time to do it again to this bunch. The political issues du jour are far less important than maintaining and restoring the integrity of our governmental institutions. Tossing these bums out may be a start.

Watching the Alito hearings and their aftermath, I think I have figured out one big reason that the Democrats have been consigned to minority party status the past few years: they treat the public as if we're stupid and incapable of discerning what is real and what is not. Ted Kennedy endeavored mightily to portray Alito as a racist, sexist bigot, when he clearly wasn't. The great unwashed, me included, could see that Teddy was merely trying to score points and smearing a decent man in the process. The public can detect and condemn racism when we see it: I think the country has been truly shocked and appalled by such major events as Hurricane Katrina, when we were reminded yet again that there were hundreds of thousands of people, mostly black and mostly poor, who simply didn't have what most of us take for granted....like a dry house. I believe the country was also shocked several years ago when years of police abuse and brutality finally erupted into race-based violence in Cincinnati, which came off looking like one of the most racist cities in America, an appearance I still don't think it has shed. So people can detect racism and sexism, and condemn it when it exists. But Teddy et al. act as if the Democrats are the only barrier between evil Republicans and reinstitution of Jim Crow laws or worse. No one believes it, and more importantly, the playing of the racism or sexism card just seems like manipulation of the most cynical sort. So when Teddy thunders, he looks more pathetic than anything else. It must be frustrating for him and his kind to know that no one buys what he's selling anymore. The irony is that the reason he's out in the cold is that the movement of which he is one of the last leaders succeeded in truly changing our culture for the better. He should take credit for that, and go home.

First Post

Ok, here we go. I set this blog up today on a lark and now we'll see what will happen. A little bit about me: I live in Arizona (thus the sobriquet), work full time as a _______, and have a family. Haven't yet hit the half-century mark, but it's headed my way and closing fast. I'm interested in politics, culture, religion, ideas, travel, current affairs, and sports to some extent. I figure this blog will be heavy into politics and current events, and hope you'll feel free to throw your two cents into the discussion anytime you'd like. Anyway, that's it for now.