[Peace-discuss] Blago-Burris circus

Wed Jan 7 16:40:00 CST 2009

Get real!  The system never paid any attention to The People; it paid
attention to an elite segment of some of the people.  Who are these unnamed
"They"?  If the masses allow themselves to be persuaded and sold a bill of
goods which they believe and then act on by casting their votes for someone
or some policy position no matter who or what it is, who the hell are you to
say that this is not representative democracy, is not how the system of
representative democracy works or should work, and not a representation of
the people.

You happen to be wrong.  U.S. Senators are suppose to be representatives of
the individual states and not the people, which is why each state gets two
senators no matter what their geographic or population sizes.  It is the
House of Representatives that is supposed to represent the people, which is
why Representatives are apportioned according to population and not
geography.

From: peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net
[mailto:peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] On Behalf Of E. Wayne
Johnson
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 3:28 PM
To: jencart13 at yahoo.com
Cc: peace discuss; C. G. Estabrook
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Blago-Burris circus

The system is broken and it doesn't pay any attention to the people.

They gave you 2 worthless choices

- McCain  (Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran)
- O-bomb-a (Yes We Can - Bomb Iran.)

They don't care which of those 2 you elect, because both of them are almost
exactly same thing,
and somehow they get the masses to believe that some how one or the other is
significantly different.

>>>And regardless of how IL residents (and others) feel about the situation,
Burris needs to get his paperwork sorted and then he needs to be seated.

The Senator is supposed to be a representative of the people 
and Blagojevich is a out-of-control Nero,
a Joker mocking the hapless people of Illinois.

Jenifer Cartwright wrote: 

The "problem" is that we have this Innocent-until-proven-guilty thing that
(supposedly) applies to everyone -- our enemies as well as our friends.
Blago hasn't been convicted of anything yet, and may never be -- other than
bragging and swagger (which seem to be  required for politicians), unless
somebody can prove he actually made/accepted a specific offer. And
regardless of how IL residents (and others) feel about the  situation,
Burris needs to get his paperwork sorted and then he needs to be seated.
(And at some point, Blago needs to resign To Spend More Time With His
Family.)

 --Jenifer 

--- On Wed, 1/7/09, Ricky Baldwin  <mailto:baldwinricky at yahoo.com>
<baldwinricky at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Ricky Baldwin  <mailto:baldwinricky at yahoo.com>
<baldwinricky at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Blago-Burris circus
To: "C. G. Estabrook"  <mailto:galliher at uiuc.edu> <galliher at uiuc.edu>
Cc: "peace discuss"  <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
<peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Date: Wednesday, January 7, 2009, 11:30 AM

True that selling a Senate seat is not much of a crime compared to making
aggressive war, particularly against civilians.  However, I don't think it
counts for much that our illustrious governor hasn't yet been convicted, as
you point out - after all, neither has Bush - or Obama.  (Obama hasn't even
been inaugurated yet, after which we *fear* that he *may* "kill thousands" -
and while it can be argued that his relative inaction has allowed the deaths
of many thousands, and we would have wanted him to fight for the anti-war
mantle he at times claimed, that's just not the same as being a
"blood-spattered con-man" I think.

It might be more like a politician who doesn't measure up to our
expectations - imagine that - but in this case one who may represent an
opening to make some gains, at times moderate, at times marginal, with any
luck on occasion significant gains, on various fronts, but only if we
organize to make it happen.

It is also true that it is hard to "fill the streets" for much of anything.
It's a lot easier to complain that we aren't doing it, I have to say.  But
even if we do try and fail to organize mass protests, it's more useful to
analyze why specific efforts fail and other succeed than to simply dismiss
the efforts of others.  

Personally, I think Just Foreign Policy has some worthy campaigns going on -
to try to block any attacks on Iran, for example.  At the moment, MoveOn -
though most of us are not usually fans - has a good project to rally Obama
supporters to push the most "progressive" agenda possible.  It's a good
idea.  Organized labor and other groups are all pushing what they think they
can, and many of these efforts seem to me to be worth our support - with
some glaring exceptions, like that nonsense I shared earlier about
"partitioning Iraq" or whatever.

There are promises that Obama made, like closing Guantanamo Bay, and
rhetoric he used, about "diplomacy" for example, that organizers can use to
rally for bigger and better causes, expanding on these ideas to call for,
e.g. closing *all* bases like Gitmo and the fmr. SOA, etc.  And there are
ideas where Obama has been "inactive" - like the Israeli occupation and
aggression against the Palestinian people - that need our efforts as well.
This Saturday at noon there is a rally against Isareli aggression in Gaza.
The Mosque had a meeting last night to plan local response to these attacks.
AWARE is planning an event for the local MLK Day activities.  These are all
worthy efforts.  And if we still have energy, and feel that more should be
done, we can meet together with people and plan more.

But simply to dismiss the lack of effort, paint Obama with a wide brush, or
accuse the antiwar movement of being coopted without backing that up, just
doesn't help anything, in my opinion.  But now i'm repeating myself. 

Ricky 

"Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn 

  _____  

From: C. G. Estabrook  <mailto:galliher at uiuc.edu> <galliher at uiuc.edu>
To: Ricky Baldwin  <mailto:baldwinricky at yahoo.com> <baldwinricky at yahoo.com>
Cc: peace discuss  <mailto:peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
<peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 4, 2009 12:02:49 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Blago-Burris circus

Yes, and, with the happy accident of the BBC (I like your coinage of
"Blago-Burris circus"), Illinois continues to supply a distraction from the
real political situation, as it did during the presidential (non-)election.

Consider two Illinois politicians. One may be guilty of nothing more than
bad language and politics as usual: he's been convicted of nothing, and --
innocent until proven guilty -- has exercised his legal responsibility to
appoint a senator. (I should think that Illinoisans would be more miffed at
the Senate's intention to disregard our legal procedures.)  He hasn't even
been accused of killing anybody, or even planning to.

The other Illinois politician is publicly planning to kill thousands, and by
his inaction has allowed the killing of hundreds this week alone by thugs
paid by our government.  But we're not planning to fill the streets to
prevent the public celebration of the inauguration of this blood-spattered
con-man.  Our dismay is displaced onto the pathetic governor.  As he might
say, fuck that...

--CGE

Ricky Baldwin wrote:
> Couple of even more annoying developments, from Nick Burbules's excellent
> news roundup ...
> 
> http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/3/94832/93890/631/679744
> 
> http://www.mydd.com/story/2009/1/3/19577/93035
> 
> And even the most superficial overview of Burris's past seems to suggest
that
> his current level of opportunism is par for the course, e.g.:
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Burris
> 
> Are we really going to have to start the Obama Administration arguing over
> non-issues like, "He's just a sneaky Chicago politician like that Blago
and
> Burris..." or "lynching" Burris, or (as someone shouted at last month's
demo)
> the claim that Obama is a Muslim [as if that were a problem, but of course
he
> isn't, followed by:]  "Oh, yeah?  Then why'd he change his name to a
Muslim
> name? [cue the sound of truck engine zooming away]" - or better yet, "Good
> luck with the Magic Negro," or whatever????
> 
> Don't we have enough problems to try to sort out, you know, with
depression
> looming and huge tracts of the planet drowning in blood, for example?
> 
> Ricky
> 
> "Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn

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