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Don't worry, there's still Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzalez to make sure that President Bush continues to chip away at our freedoms and test the limits of the Constitutional powers of the Presidency.
Rumsfeld was never the worst of the President's inner circle. He just had the bad luck of being in a higher profile position than most of the others, and he made of himself a lightning rod because he comes off as arrogant and dismissive.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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Yeah, I totally suck the life outta this place.
Look, I'm not actually cheering too much the major shift in control of the House (and now the Senate if the reports are true). The problems I see with our government are structural, and GWBush has emphasized some of them with his moves to solidify Executive powers. Congress is a problem no matter who is in there.
The departure of a person like Rumsfeld will not solve the problems I see with the Iraq war either.
And the fact that the President has acted so quickly post-election has more to do with solidfying his base than appeasing the opposition from outside his party.
There's going to be a lot of sickness in our government between now and through the next Presidential election.
I think the people are waking up to the fact that neither party is actually "good" for America if they aren't willing to fix the problems with the three branches of government, and basically come up with some ways to ensure responsible action.
Posts: 22497 | Registered: Sep 2000
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The problem being though Bob, that most people might know that both parties are bad for us, but that isn't going to change anything for awhile, because most people refuse to vote for a third party, taking the risk that the two main parties now will just run away with something, so they vote for their lesser of two evils, to avoid the really bad guy from taking advantage of your vote for change.
To change things, you either need a HUGE grass roots effort to promote a third party candidate, which has yet to happen. Or, like in the past, you need a major figure to start a third party, on the scale of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama joining together to create a third party with someone like, well, what would have been, Lincoln Chafee.
People on both sides refuse to do it, for obvious reasons. If either side fractures, then the other side runs away with it. It only works if the moderates of both parties break away to form a unity party, and we get three even parties, all across the political spectrum.
I just don't see it happening.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Bob_Scopatz: I think the people are waking up to the fact that neither party is actually "good" for America if they aren't willing to fix the problems with the three branches of government, and basically come up with some ways to ensure responsible action.
Wow, that is so much what most of my family is saying. I actually got involved somewhat in this election because of my bumping with opinions here and other friends. And I eventually took one of those political quizes to see where I was on the political spectrum, and I was clearly a Libertarian/Democrat.
This boggled my mind as I have always supported Republicians. Been thinking strongly about it, and decided that there are key religion issues that the Reps "support" and the Dems don't, like abortion, public display of religion, gay marriage, death penalty, legalization of drugs, etc.
But everything else I'm pretty much Demo. But I still don't like a lot of Demos, like I despise the mayor of my city.
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"And the burning bush did speak, saying unto Moses 'Inhale me not, or though shalt surely freak out.'"
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Wiki doesn't mention it, but I've heard the term comes from Yellow Dog Democrats who were strangled by the Democratic leadership for so long they turned blue.
Posts: 6316 | Registered: Jun 2003
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Rumsfeld is a squash player. My husband sent me an amazing article about him as squash player, and how he would force everyone he played to play hardball squash, the older, American version that no one plays anymore. I will see if I can find it.
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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quote: In some ways, squash offers a window into Mr. Rumsfeld’s complicated psyche, revealing much about his stubborn competitiveness and seemingly limitless stamina. Pentagon officials and employees say Mr. Rumsfeld’s play closely resembles the way he has run the Defense Department, where he has spent six years trying to break the accepted modes of operating.
“He hits the ball well, but he doesn’t play by the rules,” says Chris Zimmerman, a devoted squash player who works in the Pentagon’s office of program analysis and evaluation and is sometimes in the Pentagon athletic complex when Mr. Rumsfeld is on the court.
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