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bother and delay
April 06, 2005
ok, i hate tom deLay. with a passion. like, no way i could be civil if i met the man. i have very little regard for his existence at all. i'm not saying i want to see the guy dead. i mean, i don't actually have to see him dead, as long as... no, just joking, that's horrible.
let's say this - if, heaven forbid (and i don't see why it would), something happened to the guy that rendered him, err... less alive, that i personally wouldn't expend the energy to go outside to lower any flags to half-mast.
i can say that it's a genuine shame he'd never see the inside of a proper prison, where he'd suddenly give new meaning to the term "majority whip."
friend heather points out that he's relatively young, and she has faith that he can yet accomplish something that will land him in prison and make him somebody's bitch.
unfortunately, heather was just trying to cheer me up, but i know that political and social reality will dictate that the best we could ever hope for is that he'll become some mafia don's espresso runner.
with all that said, some of the headlines regarding the payment of $500,000 to members of his family by the nouveau-fascist "americans for a republican majority" are a bit misleading. for example, there's an admittedly funny one from the bbc. "sleaze allegations." sounds so british.
the problem is, see, that these aren't really "allegations"; they're not smoking guns, or even hardly-used water guns still in bubble wrap, unearthed through a haze of deadly intrigue and denial.
they were self-reported by the committee itself.
so, you wanna feel like woodward and bernstein? just point your browser to http://www.fec.gov/finance/disclosure/disclosure_data_search.shtml. it's actually quite fun, although the closest you'll get to "deep throat" is via some internet sites dealing in vintage porn. (it is interesting to see the campaign donations to delay from planned parenthood, though...)
while i generally like the bbc's reporting, this article, like a few others, never really gets around to mentioning the self-reporting thing. it insinuatingly points up the lack of job descriptions for the his paid family members, but doesn't indicate that not only is the lack of detail not unusual, but probably not even requested by the required forms (also available for your politico-masturbatory viewing on the FEC website)
the article, like most others i've seen, doesn't mention that these kind of expenditures are, sadly, probably perfectly legal in our system of "fair and equal political representation" (note: quotes often denote sarcasm).
it also doesn't mention similar scandals involving even prominent democrats like barbara boxer ($15,000 to her son's "consulting firm", which I'm sure is run out of the BMW 7-series the 15 large was probably a down payment for), and, well, probably just about everyone in congress. granted, at half a million bucks, he's bound to have set a new record, and it still makes him all the more sleazy. most articles only mention these things as vague defensive accusations on deLay's part.
the level of, um, fairness and balance in reporting does cover the spectrum, from the minority that discuss and explain these issues openly, to those many more that disclose them almost parenthetically or not at all. but i still have yet to see a headline that says "delay reported $500,000 paid to family," and you can see why. dry. too factual. won't sell. why do that when you can say "delay's wife, children, paid $500,000" to imply to the casual headline reader that a great scandal has been unearthed? and if you question the percentage of americans who are, unlike yourself, of course, "casual headline readers," take bush's percentage of votes last election and add, say, 20%. that's a lot.
as usual, my point is, i want to see this guy get the crap beat out of him, but i want to see it done the right way. let it be straight-up, unshady, a classy and just ass-kicking. as with so many things these days, the truth is bad enough - we don't need to weaken it with lies and exaggeration, we don't need to fuel his weasly cries of "wah, wah, the liberal homosexual jew-run media hates me, wahhh..."
what delay himself has reported is a good thing to hit him with, and we should thank him for being so honest about his arrogance, and then smite not only him, but the whole american campaign system with it. the public needs to know about it, but we can still be fair and clear and do plenty of damage with it. it's just another very subtle way for the media to get more mileage out of a misrepresentation.
ok, i'm done now. thank you.
on another news note - it was interesting to see the list of superstars at johnnie cochran's funeral. granted, the guy was an important figure and did some good for some good people, and even if he did some good for some not-so-good people, overall, he gave a lot of people a little more hope for their place in our "legal system".
still, oh, to be a fly on the memorial wreath:
OJ: what's up, mj?
MJ: hey, juice.
OJ: hell of a guy, huh?
MJ: yeah.
(silence)
MJ: i mean, he totally... i mean, you did...
OJ: oh, yeah.
MJ: wow. hell of a guy.
OJ: yup.
MJ: yup.
DIDDY: word.
SNOOP: i know that's right.
Posted by Rob at April 6, 2005 03:11 PM