Third Party & Independents: Archives

If only this would turn into a sea change for the 2006 elections. I hope the Purple Party, Libertarian Party and Green Parties will be ready and able to offer voters some real alternatives to these bums leading us into economic oblivion.

Good article. However some Republican’s don’t seem that worried about him tainting the party.

This NYT article describes how Delay is raising plenty of defense fund money among his House Republican colleagues. This includes two of Delay’s cronies (Lamar Smith of Texas, who has given $10,000 to the defense fund, and Tom Cole of Oklahoma, who gave $5,000) who were placed on the House ethics committee this year and who may later be expected to investigate him!
The article claims that Delay has recently received money from “dozens of Mr. DeLay’s House Republican colleagues”, some of whom are:
*Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri (House Republican whip) has contributed $20,000
*Representative Henry Bonilla of Texas, $15,000.
*Former Representative Billy Tauzin of Louisiana, $15,000, (now president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America - the main drug company lobby)
Representative Jeb Hensarling of Texas, $5,000

Also many large corporations have been donating to his defense fund:
*Reliant Energy of Houston has given $20,000.
*Bacardi U.S.A., $3,000.
(both companies have been part of the grand jury investigation in Texas looking into DeLay and his political operatives in the management of “Texans for a Republican Majority” - accused of funneling illegal corporate donations to state Republican candidates in the 2002 elections.)
Contributors of unspecified amounts to his defense fund in the article also included these corporations:
*AMR (American Airlines)
*Bell South
*Coors Brewing
*Exxon Mobil
*Philip Morris
*R.J. Reynolds Tobacco.

To quote from the article:
“Documents introduced into evidence in a civil trial in Texas last month showed that Mr. DeLay had a larger role in raising corporate donations for the political action committee than previously known.
The documents, subpoenaed from the files of an indicted former fund-raiser for Mr. Delay as a result of a civil lawsuit against the political action committee, suggested that Mr. DeLay or someone in his Washington office had accepted a $25,000 check from Reliant in 2002 that was forwarded to Texans for a Republican Majority, and that he had a direct role in soliciting contributions from other corporations on the committee’s behalf.”

Delay may very well taint the party for 2006. but I wouldn’t base those predictions/hopes on the opinions of 6 RHINO’s.

If he’s guilty, remove him from office and give him some jail time.

Keep the same standards for everyone in any party, and dump the McCain-Fiendgold campaign finance bill, its a dumb law that did more harm than good.

Beagle, we agree up to the McCain-Feingold. That was an installment on much broader and more loophole closing legislation to follow. It will follow too. The only question is when. Our government has got to stop being bought and sold to the highest bidders, and polls are showing Americans are waking up to this fact in ever larger numbers.

Adrienne, thank you for those details. It is appreciated. I see a few companies I will boycott for the next few decades as I have AT&T for almost 20 years now.

David,
Do you think the Democrats might pick up a few seats in Texas because of Delay’s mishaps and his friends; whom are guilty by association?

David,

Glad we can agree on at-least parts of an issue.

Rather than a “installment”, wouldn’t it have been better to get it right/fair before it became law?

How about;….

No corp. funds to any campain

Personal donations to any campain/political party limited to $1000 a year TOTAL.

527 groups limited to sending their positions/views only to persons within that group, or those that signed up for it.

Nonprofit groups that fund/help/work for any political party/campain will be deemed “for profit” and taxed according to law.

Limit every fed. office holder to 3 terms or 20 yrs., which ever comes first, INCLUDING judges!

Lobbyists are fine, but their “lobby” will be limited to marching in the street(with proper permits) just like everyone else.

Free “basic” internet access included with phone service, it wouldn’t cost much when spread across the board and would allow poor people to reasearch facts/information.

Free speach should be EXACTLY that…FREE, limit political ad’s on TV to PBS and give every party equal time to express their views.

Satelite/cable service must include the top 4 news channels without extra charge for basic service,(the public owns the airwaves, show all or none), I prefer all personally.

I could add lots more (as I’m sure many could).

David my friend,

I could live with those, can you ?

McCain-Feindgold is the worst law against free speech ever adopted. Part of free speech is being able to use your finances to give voice to your opinion.

Although I would prefer to spend my money campaigning creatively by myself, I have no moral right to prevent others from spending their money as they please. You want to talk about Orwell and Huxley? At least be consistent!

On the other hand - regardless of what the laws are, if Delay broke them he should be ousted and jailed for it. I won’t tolerate this in my party.

The problem is when those with comfortable finances use them to cynically manipulate those without. The idea is for everyone to have free speech - whether or not they have money.

Damn! I hoped that the Regressives would nominate Delay for president in 2008. I guess now I’ll have to support Neil Bush instead.

Check out the list of co-thugs who have been paid off by the DeLay PAC at: DeLay’s Dirty Money.

Gandhi, read “Animal Farm”.

You said: “McCain-Feindgold is the worst law against free speech ever adopted. Part of free speech is being able to use your finances to give voice to your opinion.”

Animal Farm discusses the consequences of your belief that some peoples free speech is more ‘equal’ than others free speech in the halls of government. If money determines whose voices are heard in government, what good is free speech in a democracy?

David, I’ve read Animal Farm a few times… in fact I was thinking about that very quote as I made my post, but chose not to elaborate on it. So now I will. This will be an unpopular post, and I plan to enjoy everyone’s responses to it.

Is money really the only way to be heard? How about strength in sheer numbers? Didn’t the protests in the Civil Rights era accomplish something?

We’ve seen a “purist” form of democracy before, but it didn’t look very nice. It was the French Revolution. The oppressed threw down their rich oppressors, but what happened next? They proceeded to do away with laws, order, religion, and all semblance of civilization. Ultimately they cleared the stage for Napolean.

In fact, one of the deeper lessons from Animal Farm might be how closely it resembles the French Revolution. A story of how the very heroes who through off tyrany became the new tyrants. Idealism went amuck because the heroes had mixed motives. They never really wanted democracy. They wanted control.

Read an account of the French Revolution, such as “A Tale of Two Cities” or “The Scarlet Pimpernel”, and you’ll find something very interesting. There was never really such a thing as democratic rule, even in the early stages of the French Revolution. It was about a few people who knew how to work the crowd and control their minds. Well let’s get back to money.

You’re saying that some people have more control because they have more money. Well, here’s the problem with that idea. America is not an aristocracy, as France was. There is a book somewhere that describes the four generations of wealth:

The first generation creates it and grooms their kids (the second generation) to take it over.

The second generation maintains their wealth wisely, but doesn’t teach their kids to do the same.

The third generation squanders their inheritance, leaving the fourth generation to start from the beginning again.

Because of this pattern, everyone knows they can become rich or they could lose their riches. And then there are the lessons to our generation from Ken Lay, Martha Stewart and the others.

Democracy has never been truly “equal” in the sense that you want it to be. “All men are created equal”, “life, liberty, and the PURSUIT of happiness”, but the government’s job is not to guarantee happiness. Its job is to give you the right to stand on the street corner and say what you want - not to pay for you to run an ad on every TV station in America.

In the beginning, only American landholders were allowed to vote. They were the short-lived American aristocracy. Today we should let everyone vote. But we can’t let anyone walk in without showing ID. If people are too lazy to register beforehand, they don’t deserve to vote; they need to be able to prove their citizenship. I say this objectively - I’m from an immigrant family. (It’s also a lot easier to vote illegally if you’re not required to be registered beforehand; this needs to be done away with).

Don’t try to keep the rich from using their resources. They’ll simply find a more creative way to use them (i.e. “Swift Vets” or “Farenheit 9-11”) and in the meantime you’ll have created more red tape for everyone else. Personally, if I’m not allowed to donate to the Republican party, I’ll put up tens of thousands of these flyers for the next presidential election. The elections will certainly be more interesting that way, but I don’t think most Democrats here would prefer that to a “Frist/Rice 2008” sign.

Don’t hate the rich too much, because they make the system work for you. As it is said: “Capitalism is dog-eat-dog. Communism is dog-eat-nothing.”