3 posts tagged “election”

Reason Magazine is a fun read. Even if you don't agree with its Libertarian point of view, it's hard to argue with their primary concern: freedom is good, and America needs more of it.

They recently posted an excellent entry on the coming elections, and how journalists of all kinds frequently lob soft balls at candidates.

Included in this entry is a list of 20 questions that the frontrunners of both parties need to be asked. These are questions that should make the candidates think, and on topics that the candidate probably doesn't have talking points to crutch them through answering them.

I'm going to repost the questions here, but you should still check out the article.

1) Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani
"When you were mayor of New York, you made two attempts to extend your term in office. You opposed a term limits bill that voters passed; you publicly speculated over staying in office after September 11, and only reluctantly stopped a third party from nominating you for a third term after the state legislature made it clear they wouldn't allow it. Given that the last six years have seen a vast expansion of presidential power, how can Americans trust you not to abuse the office and seek more and more personal authority?"

Yes, that's more of a demand than a question. Easy to forget, but we're allowed to make those, too.

Well, I can't wait until Wednesday, and all of this election crap will be over.

I don't care what Republicrats say to each other, I'm voting Libertarian. Across the goddamn board.

You say it's throwing my vote away?

It's not. I'm not voting for somebody I don't like in order to keep somebody else I don't like from taking office. Do you think I should abandon my core principles just because the people who do represent my opinions will never win? That's insulting and stupid. If that's the case, then why bother voting at all? Why bother even pretending that you have a mind of your own?

I'm not voting for a Democrat just because I'm pro-choice and they are, too. Will Democrats ever actually try to legalize full civil union rights for homosexual couples? Will they ever actually try to pass a constitutional amendment protecting a woman's right to abortion? Of course not. Those are wedge issues. By pretending that a massive tide of anti-this or anti-that voters are poised to take those freedoms away, they create a need and an enemy - perfect ways to keep the votes rolling in and the campaign donations growing.

Take this crap about John Kerry, for instance.

He wasn't insulting the troops, dipshits. Do you really think he would commit complete career suicide? Do you think that he, speaking in favor of a Democrat running for an important office in an important election cycle, would actually say something so patently false and infuriating?

Of course he wouldn't.

He said that if you don't get an education, you could be "stuck in Iraq." This comment took place directly after a series of Bush bashings (saying that Bush is in a "state of denial and a state of deception"). The constant mantra from Democrats is that Bush is now "stuck in Iraq."

So, what's more likely? That Kerry, who already lost major points among veterans in the years following his own military service, and more recently got hammered by the Swift Boat smear campaign, would completely switch gears in the middle of a speech and start throwing insults at the very group of people that he himself once belonged to?

Or is it more likely that he was still insulting Bush for being "stuck in Iraq," citing the oft-repeated meme that Bush is stupid?

It doesn't make any goddamn sense for Kerry to be mocking the troops.

If a Democrat even suggests an ounce of ill will toward American soldiers, the conservatives make all kinds of noise about how much the evil liberals hate America.

It goes the same way with Republicans, too. For instance, any time a conservative even mentions race, he's labeled by the liberals as a racist.

So put down your outrage, force your knee to stop jerking, and think things through a little.

Kerry was making fun of Bush.

So apparently if you write a book that's, you know, fiction, it might cost you a whole ding-damn election.

It's not like he actually did any of the things that his pretend characters did in his pretend world.

I am not speaking as a biased douche, either - I don't believe that what Mark Foley did was all that bad, either (as long as what he did was simply send flirty, icky messages).

There's this thing called thought crime. Arresting people for possession of child pornography is, I think, an example of arresting on the basis of thought crime.

Why is child porn illegal? Because it exploits and abuses the subject, the child being photographed. Child abuse, especially child abuse of a sexual nature, should be really illegal.

But it should not be illegal to possess a record of the abuse. It's disgusting and awful and just about the least-appealing thing I can think of (you all know how I likes my women - I like them to be women), but should it be criminal?

One argument: a person who has child porn is a person who might be up to something else (like making some of his own).

Fine. Arrest him for that crime.

I fear for our country. Freedom used to mean something, I hear.