Your browser may have trouble rendering this page. See supported browsers for more information.

This page shows the source for this entry, with WebCore formatting language tags and attributes highlighted.

Title

On Congressional Resignation

Description

Michelle Bachmann is a member of the U.S. Congress. She has said: <bq>Literally, if we took away the minimum wage—if conceivably it was gone—we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level.</bq> She seems to be all for a race to the bottom, selling out every American in an ideological adherence to what she would no doubt call free-market principles. Turning her opinions into policy would be suicidal for the nation and would hurt nearly everyone. That she can even hold such an opinion, not to mention promulgate it as a member of Congress, indicates that she is not only stupid, but immoral. Eric Cantor is also a member of the U.S. Congress. After the recent spate of tornadoes wiped out whole towns in the American midwest, including Joplin, Missouri, he reasoned that supplemental spending to help those people would have to be offset by spending cuts: <bq>There's not a question that there are going to be offsets if there is a request for a supplemental.</bq> Such a reaction seems needlessly callous; he didn't talk about offsets when he approved any number of other budget increases, which benefited the military or big business instead of average Americans. His opinions also directly affect his policy decisions---gargantuan handouts to cronies are grand whereas minor outlays for poor people in need must be carefully examined---making him likewise stupid and immoral. Jon Kyl is a U.S. Senator and declared a clear falsehood on the floor of the U.S. Senate when he stated that: <bq>If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that's well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does.</bq> Later, instead of simply retracting the statement and saying he was wrong---his office later admitted that he took his information directly from extremist anti-abortion propaganda---he confirmed that he deliberately lied when his aide clarified that his speech: <bq><b>was not intended to be a factual statement</b> but rather to illustrate that Planned Parenthood, an organization that receives millions in taxpayer dollars, does subsidize abortions.</bq> Kyl knowingly lied on the floor of the Senate to further his own political ends. He is stupid and so ideologically blinded that he will lie to make his own imaginary world trump reality. Anthony Weiner is a U.S. Congressman who sent pictures of himself in his underwear and wearing just a towel to several of his Twitter followers, none of whom have pressed charges (they can't; they're of age) or even really complained at all.<fn> His actions, while stupid, don't really have an affect on his policy decisions. Guess which one is on the verge of being drummed out of office? That's right: the flasher. Bachmann advocates a return to indentured servitude? No problem. Cantor thinks people only get disaster relief if he gets to cut Medicare? Sweet. Kyl openly lies on the floor of the Senate? Par for the course. Weiner sends a picture of his erection in underwear to a fan on the Internet? Drum his ass out of office. He's not a complete idiot; he's the kind of guy who'll take a picture of himself in his underwear and send it with his public persona. He is very intelligent, well-spoken and thoughtful on other important issues. Many, many people -- even otherwise intelligent ones -- are nearly hopeless at technology and completely underestimate both its implications and the lack of security and privacy that they have when using it. <img attachment="anthony-weiner-lewd-photo-twitter-gym-towel-shirtless-picture-sexting-rep-congressman-democrat-new-york-scandal-affair-women-locker-room-nude-naked-muscles-wife.jpg" align="right" class="frame">That's not to say he wasn't being stupid: you're a Congressman; act like it. Earn the dignity of the office. It's understandable that these things happen, though. The American electoral system is built to filter for egomaniacs. It's hard to find a person who can actually get elected to office who doesn't love himself more than anything else in the whole, wide world. But you can't do this kind of stuff; you're bound to get caught. Or at least do it with a different cell-phone or Twitter account than you use for political stuff. For God's sake, the naiveté is embarrassing. It's unlikely, though that the adivce given in the article, <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/on-anthony-weiners-hobbies-20110603" source="Rolling Stone" author="Matt Taibbi">On Anthony Weiner's Hobbies</a>, will be taken: <bq>[W]hen you’re a certain kind of famous, there are a few things you’ve just got to give up in life – like uploading pictures of your dick, for instance, or tweet-herding hot twenty-something women by the hundreds. Is it really that hard to find other hobbies?</bq> People are bundles of cognitive dissonance: the nicest people believe -- and vote for -- the most heinous things. That doesn't mean they're not nice to some people. It usually means that they can't think critically and possibly suffer from an ethical deficit. Usually more of the first than the second, though. Some politicians seem like such nice guys up close and personal but advocate abhorrent policies that ruin millions of lives (e.g. George W. Bush) while other politicians advocate progressive policies that help millions of people but are kind of obnoxious and egotistic (e.g. Anthony Weiner). Which is worse? Clearly the former, but it's the latter that gets pilloried. Throwing out the baby with the bathwater is kind of how America got to where it is -- especially since when guys like Weiner screw up, he's far more likely to 'fess up and resign in shame than the guy who'll just keep doing damage. Joining in on the 100%-good-or-pillory-the-motherfucker-already gets America the government it deserves. <hr> <ft>There have been other tidbits, purported to be from Facebook, though it's hard to imagine how those were released. The messages were unlikely to have been posted publicly, so private messages were released. The version shown on the Daily Show included the woman's name, which is hardly likely if she released it. It's unlikely that Weiner released it. Did Facebook release the messages? Or are they just completely faked, like pretty much all other <i>hilarious</i> Facebook messages online? (There are whole sites dedicated to this kind of stuff.)</ft>