Spot the inconsistency

[geekchick]

PANAMA CITY, Panama (AP) -- President Bush vigorously defended U.S. interrogation practices in the war on terror Monday and lobbied against a congressional drive to outlaw torture.

"There's an enemy that lurks and plots and plans and wants to hurt America again," Bush said. "So you bet we will aggressively pursue them but we will do so under the law."

He declared, "We do not torture."

Over White House opposition, the Senate has passed legislation banning torture. With Vice President Dick Cheney as the point man, the administration is seeking an exemption for the CIA. It was recently disclosed that the spy agency maintains a network of prisons in eastern Europe and Asia, where it holds terrorist suspects.

In local news, our illustrious Republican gubernatorial candidate Jerry Kilgore got caught sending out misleading flyers ( "2005 Official Democrat and Progressive Voter Guide-Governor of Virginia") urging people to vote for Russell Potts, a Republican running as an independent. It was identified as being paid for by Kilgore supporters, but that note was inconspicuous and easy to miss. What people might not realize though (I missed it myself) is that the Democratic candidate, Tim Kaine, just got fined for doing the same thing first.

God, I can't wait until Wednesday morning. The campaign mailings have been incessant; I must have thrown away close to five pounds of glossy paper in the last couple of months, almost entirely from the Republican campaigns. Way to go with the targetted mailing there, bub; both of us give lots of money to the Democrats and aren't going to vote Republican without a damn good reason. The most offensive one I've gotten so far was masquerading as a personal letter from someone who turned out to be a police officer's widow out in the Winchester area, in which they managed to simultaneously appeal to the rabid death penalty supporters by talking about how Kaine wouldn't support the state executing her husband's killer (which isn't entirely true anyway) and the current crop of racist, xenophobic suburbanites by slipping in, as an aside, that the convicted murderer was "in the country illegally". It literally made me sick to read this crap. That's even leaving aside the local races, with insinuations that the other guy might just be gay because he's not married and doesn't have a family, and the "vote for him and you won't be able to fry convicted criminals anymore" and "he'll impose the homosexual agenda on us all and force us to let them thar queers get hit with the marriage penalty too just like us godfearin' straight folks and OMGWTFBBQ think of the CHILDREN!" Traffic? Jobs? Anything relevant? Not so much with that, other than Kilgore's impractical "widen 66 inside the Beltway" slogan which appeared on campaign signs just last week. (Don't ask me how he plans to make that happen in any sort of effective way short of grabbing land from surrounding neighborhoods under eminent domain, and won't that go over well.)

I actually wasn't intending to vote for governor this year, because frankly it's going to be "slightly lesser of two evils". I don't like any of the candidates. I probably will go vote, although I'm voting against people rather than for them. This is one of those times I regret the fact that Virginia's governor is limited to a single term, although in two years I bet I'll be glad of it.

Comments

[greendalek.livejournal.com]

Nope. Definitely not missing Virginia. *sigh*

Although these days Vermont's just as funny...

[razil.livejournal.com]

Argh. Everything I've heard from friends in VA makes me so glad to not be there this election season with tales of the slimiest tactics anybody has seen in an election period. These two candidates (and their parties) certainly seem to have have made it a race to the bottom, and a choice between the lesser of two evils. Good for you for voting anyway.

[geekchick]

It takes some work to hit a new low in campaign tactics, but they managed to limbo under that bar. I'm impressed At least I haven't seen any nasty quotes from a candidate's ex-wife used in campaign ads yet. There's still a few hours to go in the season though...

[stitchinthyme.livejournal.com]

I've been tossing all the campaign mail unread, so I sympathize. I really want to make an effort to familiarize myself with the candidates and the issues before I go vote tomorrow, but I just haven't been able to bring myself to care -- they're basically all the same anyway. So I'll go vote Democrat across the board, and whoever wins, it won't matter much either way because I firmly believe that no good and honest person has a chance in today's political game.

As for the "Widen 66" thing, I've been thinking the same, and plus: widening the road won't help. Time and time again they've widened high-traffic roads and all that happens is that people who used to take public transit or alternate routes decide that it's fine to take the highway now, so the traffic grows in proportion to the extra capacity and then you're right back where you started -- one big parking lot. The answer isn't wider/more roads; the answer is encouraging public transit, carpooling, telecommuting, and flexible work hours so that not as many people are all on the road at the same time.

[geekchick]

I'm very tempted to write in "None of the above". Sheesh. None of them should be in office. I'll probably end up voting straight ticket though.

The answer isn't wider/more roads; the answer is encouraging public transit, carpooling, telecommuting, and flexible work hours so that not as many people are all on the road at the same time.

Exactly! But that soundbite doesn't play as well to NoVA types who are surgically attached to their cars, apparently. They've been talking about extending the Metro out into Reston/Herndon for years and years now, but they can't agree on who gets to pay for it. One of my biggest complaints about where I live is that there's almost zero public transportation; there are a couple of WMATA buses, but they're rush hour only and if you're travelling at a different time/different direction, you're out of luck.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I'm going to be oh-so-good and not subject you to my rant about Virginia and the death penalty. Not in the slightest.

I do express condolences over your governor's race, which looks like a mess. (Although I sort of wich we were having a gubernatorial election, rather than a special election about all these damned iniatives -- then we could vote out this stupid actor.)

[geekchick]

I'm going to be oh-so-good and not subject you to my rant about Virginia and the death penalty.

Thanks, as to be honest I'm beyond tired of even thinking about the topic right now.

[carpee-diem.livejournal.com]

You can write in theory "none of the above" by spoiling your ballot on purpose. That way you are voting, but not voting for anyone.. the more people that do that.. the louder the message. Perhaps its just me but it seems that ALL politicians have taken a major downturn lately.. my god.. scandals, idiots, and some unreal bull is going on out there.. not only in the US, but Cda as well.

I think I am going to run away to some abandoned Island...