Our men in Congress

Our man in the 19th century, Bill Sali, has done everything he can and more to keep any changes to occur to the mining laws of 1872. I think he offered something like 19 separate amendments to the current attempt to update this archaic law, all of which were defeated. You have to give him credit for trying to slow down the overly rapid pace of change involved in our culture. Heaven forbid that miners would have to pay more than $5 an acre for land in these times of increasing inflation. Bill Sali is a nitwit. Vote for Larry Grant.

Speaking of nitwits, our Senator from Boise Cascade, Larry Craig, has now been "outed" big time. He has made the headlines all over the country as at least four men have now testified publicly they had sex with Craig or that he had made sexual overtures to them (actually, I think there are more than four). Craig must have been banking, all these years, on the fact that no one would really come out and admit to this. Apparently these four became so fed up with Craig's continuing claim to not being gay they felt they had to expose him once and for all. This is, of course, a terrible tragedy that could have been avoided. I'm sure that many people would not have cared if he was gay if he had just admitted it and had not acted so hypocritically about gay rights in the past. I guess Craig feared the citizens of Idaho would not have accepted a gay person as Senator, and he most probably was right (homophobia is rampant here in Idaho). But continuing to deny it even after he was caught soliciting sex in a men's room just added to his woes. The problem is not that Craig is gay, it's that he has proven to be both a liar and a hypocrite. Will he still insist on serving out his term? Why not? It won't make much difference as he's never been much more than a rubber stamp for the Republican party anyway.

Karl Rove continues to insist it was Congress who pushed for "war" with Iraq when the administration was resistant. He sticks with this in spite of the fact that both Democrats and members of his own party, as well as the public record, show that it is simply not the case. Rove apparently truly believes that if you tell a big lie often enough people will come to believe it. I don't think it's working this time.

It seems to be pretty much agreed that Bush's much ballyhooed Annapolis conference has no chance to result in anything positive without his active participation which apparently will not be forthcoming. Will Bush try to convince us that he tried but Israel and the Palestinians failed? Probably. Is there any chance that Israel will agree to a viable Palestinian state? Not likely. Does this whole plan for peace simply allow Israel to stall longer while they systematically steal more Palestinain land. Bet on it. Israel and the U.S. want to pretend they are playing a high stakes game with the Palestinians, but the Palestinians have no high cards. The whole idea of this conference was just another Bush/Cheney/Israeli fraud.

I guess the latest poll shows Obama leading in Iowa, with Hillary in second place. We'll see soon enough. Personally, I believe that thinking Iowa is going to determine anything much is just so much wishful thinking. Iowa hardly represents the rest of the U.S. I'm beginning to believe that if we can't have Kucinich it probably doesn't matter who wins. And what's this about an Obama/Bloomberg meeting? A Black man and a Jew plotting together for some political end? It doesn't bother me but I don't think it will fly too well with the rest of the country (I cannot overcome my natural cynicism when it comes to politics). Give me Kucinich or give me the same ol' same ol' corporate state.

LKBIQ:
"The privilege of absurdity; to which no living creature is subject but man only."
Thomas Hobbes