September 30, 2006
Bill Warden Is No Moderate
Don't get me wrong. Bill, who represents House District 63 in the Montana Legislature, is a nice man. He's not nasty mean like some of the far-out rightwingers. Bill is popular and well-liked in the Bozeman business community. And he has a pretty good sense of humor.But Bill is no moderate. He votes with his leadership time after time. And the men who lead the Montana House Republican caucus are some of the most extreme in the state. So don't you believe any campaign material that claims that Bill was reaching across the aisle, because he didn't.
And for my money, that makes him too extreme for his district, because it's not about how pleasant or popular you are, it's about how you vote. Having campaigned in Bill's district in 2004, and knocked on just about every door, I think I'm qualified to make that judgement.
Here is an extremist bill that Bill sponsored to strip Montana law enforcement officers of their authority for helping the Feds enforce the law, and allow them to be prosecuted as private citizens for carrying out their official duties.
Once the law enforcement guys figured out what was going on, word spread pretty fast. The Judiciary Committee wouldn't vote to pass it, so Bill's seatmate Roger Koopman actually made a motion on the house floor to pull it out for general discussion. He got crushed 64-35.
Bill's opponent, JP Pomnichowski, is the kind of common sense Democrat that the folks in the south and east suburbs of Bozeman will find represents them better. Check out JP here. Extra bonus: JP is funnier than Bill.
Posted by Brady Wiseman at 09:42 PM | Comments (0)
Republican Leadership Protects Pedophile Congressman
Unbelievable. This Republican congressman from Florida, Mark Foley, resigned Friday after being exposed as a pedophile. And now we hear that the Speaker of the House, 3rd in line to the presidency, knew about it for months and did nothing.So does Mr. Speaker get busted for being an accessory?
Like I posted last week, conservatism has failed. These so-called conservatives really believe they are above the law. Had enough? Vote democratic on November 7.
Posted by Brady Wiseman at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)
September 26, 2006
Yes, we need to impeach King George
I'm running for reelection to the Montana House, which means I've been out knocking on doors and talking to my constituents. The anger and disgust with this administration are truly remarkable. This summer I've travelled from Whitefish to Billings, and it's the same story everywhere. People are fed up.
It's time to give it a name. The lies, the illegal war, the corruption, the kidnapping and torture, the illegal spying, the looting of the treasury, the stolen elections, all add up to this: high crimes and misdemeanors. It's time to take back our government from the crooks and plutocrats, and the quickest way to turn things around is to impeach George Bush.
I've written an indictment in the style of the famous 'bill of particulars' from the Declaration of Independence. You can see it here.
Should my constituents decide to send me back to Helena, I'll be introducing a resolution expressing the sentiment of Montanans for the removal of George Bush. For the survival of the republic, it's time for George to go.
Posted by Brady Wiseman at 09:40 PM | Comments (0)
September 24, 2006
Conservatism Has Failed
Conservatism has failed. After 21 years of being governed by conservatives (yes, even under Clinton), we now have the most corrupt federal government in the history of the republic. And that's saying something.
We're conducting a war based on a pack of lies, living under a police state, and struggling with an economic regime dedicated to shipping our jobs overseas and turning millionaires into billionaires, and devil take the hindmost.
How is it that the conservative philosophy, which was supposed to bring us smaller government, lower taxes, and less regulation, has instead produced a huge bureaucracy to spy on us, trillions owed to Chinese dictators and Saudi sheikhs, institutionalized bribery, and requires us to take off our shoes and unbutton our pants to get on an airplane?
Simple. Conservatism isn't about smaller government. It's about self-appointed moral superiority, which has produced immoral results every time it's been tried.
It started back in the 60's when they said that liberalism produced immoral results. Then in the 70's they started saying that conservatism was a philosophy based on morality and that liberalism, as a philosophy, was immoral.
In the 80's they took over with the election of Ronald Reagan. They got rid of the FCC fairness doctrine and amped up what we now know as talk radio and cable tv shouters. They started saying, loudly, repeatedly, and without discussion that liberals were themselves immoral and therefore to be blamed, shamed, and ignored. Finally, they got to the point where they could claim or imply that since conservatives based their beliefs on a moral philosophy, they must be innately moral.
And that, my friends, is when we crossed the great divide and hit the slippery downward slope to the swamp we're in now, where conservatives find themselves defending the indefensible. Torture, international kidnapping, peddling a pack of lies to justify invading and laying waste to far distant countries, looting the federal treasury, and spying on every American citizen in the name of freedom, just to get started.
Because when you see yourself as innately moral, as having a special connection to God, you can justify just about anything, because if you are doing it, it must be right.
That's the same recipe we humans have used down through the ages to cook up all manner of exploitation and repression. We simply convince ourselves that if we have our boot on that other fellow's neck, it must be for his own good. It's the logic of the Inquisition and the Holocaust, of slavery and robber baron capitalism.
It's not a failure of individuals that has produced the corruption, the incompetence, the daily ration of lies, and the deliberate political polarization. It's the philosophy. Conservatism has failed. It is intellectually and morally bankrupt. The claims of moral purity that support the whole structure have proven as fake as a hooker's smile.
The consensus (phony as it was) by which we have governed ourselves for the past 25 years has fallen apart. Our task now is to find a new consensus, a new vision for the future.
Stay tuned.
Posted by Brady Wiseman at 02:37 PM