As I recall from the good old days of the Cold War, when a Chinese official was caught with his hand in the public till, it was cut off and then he was executed----either or both. It was just one more sign of how barbaric our avowed enemy was.

I suggest that a cursory reading of almost any newspaper these days would offer proof that such a policy might be of value in this land of the free. As an example, this morning in the Washington Post there is an article about American farmers and how they are stealing from the government when it comes to disaster relief. The general belief among these hearty mostly Christian citizens is that if the government is offering, they would be foolish not to take it. It does not seem to bother any of them that they have to lie
to receive their ill-gotten gains.

Republicans used to make such a big deal out of welfare cheats---and no doubt there were many(If the government offers....), but these same Republicans had a difficult time with Republican thieves. Their usual response was to point out that Democrats did the same thing.


WELL, YES THEY DO. DOES THIS MAKE THE REPUBLICANS LESS GUILTY?

(get ready for this) What it means is there might be a fatal flaw in the American form of government. We have a system that is ready-made for thievery by the party in power. When the same party controls both the Congress and the Executive branch, where is the oversight? There is none. An action must be so flagrant that it cannot be swept under the carpet.

Let's face it. The Republican leadership has known about Foley for years, but because they are in power nothing was done about it. By the same token, the Republican congress spent eighty billion dollars(or some such stupid figure) investigating Bill and Hillary Clinton in Whitewagter and found nothing.
Yet this congress cannot get to the bottoim of who lied about what in order to get the Iraq War started.

Being a life-long Democrat there is a part of my psyche that looks forward to payback when(if) the Democrats regain control of the congress. God knows, the Republicans certainly deserve it. But a more rational element wishes that we could bring to an end the rancor and ugliness than entered the American political system with the advent of Newt Gingrich.

The problem is that the anger goes back to the time of the downfall of the Nationalist Government of China...when the Republicans accused the Democrats of LOSING CHINA. The Republicans were so stupid. They seemed to believe that China belonged to us. But the American people were even more stupid because many of them bought into the republican's story.

Now, over fifty years of rancor must be overcome. I am not one to forgive easily. I can only hope there are others with more rational heads among the leading Democrats. Of course, if the Democrats do regain control, Republicans will be all for burying the hatchet...as usual, a day late and a dollar short.

So ALL Republican Christian farmers lie, and cheat? Your asanine statement certinaly takes the heat off the Democrat/Athiest/Hindu/Buddist/Muslim farmers doesn't it?

__________________
Gun control WORKS! That's why it is so safe to walk the streets of L.A., Chicago, and D.C. at night.

You were pretty good up to there. Nancy Pelosi? Harry Reid? Are you serious? They will, as does the republican leadership, put party politics ahead of the citizens.

The faces may change this November, but the game remains the same....

__________________
"A committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing but together can decide that nothing can be done."
Fred Allen

"A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul."
George Bernard Shaw

"Politics is the art of choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable."
John Galbraith

It has been a very old chinese ( and in fact most non-european civilizations)
punishment for crimes and are part of a complex justice system that the communist veneer is only now starting to change. The particular maoist reform policy of THIS punishment of "capitalist" or "enemy of the people" was ( is) meant to encourage socialist reforms. Corruption was ( is) endemic to China ( and indeed all of human civilization ) and its social fabric. Communists used farmers/worker resentment against those who steal small time..
and broke many communities status quo economies..
They also trumped up charges of "economic crimes", too.

But wait...What are you implying at the end?
What are the premises you accept to frame the statement so?
You seem to agree with the Chinese ( you focus on "Cold War" i.e. communists) as to the justice system .. and you either accept that they ARE enemy..( although, you are unclear.. THEY are capitalism's, and the US'
"avowed" enemy )
OR you are ironic and are insinuating that they aren't oppositional.
DO you really want that kind of civilization grafed onto ours? That is as alien as grafting communist totalitarianism on China..
You really seem to want to remake other people's minds, don't you?




Oh my!, graft by elements of a nation at the expense of other taxpayers!

When did you wake up?.. Profiteering, graft, patronage, stipends, and a million other allowances have trickled state collected money into wrong hands
FOR MILLENIA.
The practice of "the dole" has been around for more than a century, and
has always been abused. As well as politicians with their open hands, and their patronage and bureaucracy..



Gee.. "hearty christians"? as a focus?.. your bias is showing, tuck it back in, and zip it up.
And as usual the pseudo-indignance of a posing activist.



Umm... Lets see.. Wilson started the idea of state as social "regulator".. It was Coolidge and Hoover who cemented it..FDR who REALLY used every conduit of govt to get dollars into any vote controlling hands he could..who made whole bureaucracies for the application of LEGAL graft.. and who did it for TWELVE years( almost)..It was Johnson who started the war on poverty
and again institutionalized "entitlements"..
Not even the legal pretense of "hand-in-the-till", anymore..
a party that has , OVER DECADES, used every office and legislation to
REDISTRIBUTE money to voting blocs..( and with sticky fingers along every trough)
Now the money/lobbying/favored legislation goes back to FDR, but not Eisenhower.. JFK( and his GANGSTER nazi-sympathizing father), and EVERY dem in the sixties.. LBJ became a mogul in media AND funnelled billions into Texas, as well as the poor in W Texas, and every urban neighborhood.
The democrats have championed Planned Parenthood, and abortion AT EVERY TURN. They have ensured those "options" are in every urban ( that is: Black voter) community, and have made sure that no social stigmata is attached to such.
In fact over decades, the democrat party has created a victim mentality/rights voting machine that HAS trickled billions into party flunky
hands AND enriched party elitists..
Like daschle, Wright, and the latest proof of Harry reids LONG time land /legislation graft scheme.
So sorry.. there are criminal oppurtunists forever.. The dems encourage society to tarnish, just so that THEY can accomplish their thieveries.



Why, yes, you hit on it , and with no other explanation..
you launch into another editorial..
Gee, you can't be tackling the system unless you understand it.. and you can't keep mixing in premises..Oversight? Are you talking about local and state and federal graft/bribery/and corruptive legislative cases, or are you talking about the role and perspectives of our tricameral representative democracy?
Are you passing judgement from a party's perspective? or are you using mock-indignance to complain about your own party's lack of control?
( clearly you AREN'T neutral)
Wait.. NOW you bring up Foley?
uhh.. Not that his BEING a homosexual .. and one who was in the closet,
have anything to do with this, but..
The political community of DC ( which I presume YOU are not a member )
has quite a number of social misfits, who still serve at the public's will. Are you saying that active communication of a salacious matter SHOULD be monitored?
Domestically? Sexual content? You are saying that politicians should be concerned with peccadilloes by their "brethren"?
( never mind, that THAT is mock naievete and pseudo-indignance)..
is it the CRIMES committed ( which are, what exactly?) or the homosexuality?
If the latter, then it is democrats trying to hoist republicans by a PERCIEVED petard..
Republicans are considered..by the shallow, biased liberals, as being existentially opposed to homosexuality.. that in fact christian/right-wing/conservative "types" would secretly eliminate "queers"..
Which is extremist sloganeering propaganda. The fact may be that Christians in general, are discourageing of homosexuals as a lifestyle, and conservatives are OPPOSED to homosexuals as a political force/agenda, does not mean that there aren't gay conservatives, republicans, and not all of them are open.
( Its possible that they consider it private and irrelevant to their ability to represent their constituents.)..
If its behaviour that is tarnishing to the "sacred" Congress, or is just socially reprehensible..
Does Barney Frank mean anything to you?.. The fabric of the Congress does not weave around self-evisceration.
Why do you?
And if you want republicans to dismember themselves.. perhaps you should look in your own closet.

A life-long democrat..
that must mean short memory and lack of judgement.


who came in with JUST the reform fanfare of a post Watergate era.. He came into Georgia with Jimmy Cahrter, remember?

ooFAH.

I can understand why 'stilldizzy' is still dizzy. I include Democrat farmers as well as Republicans. But this jerk is so fucking partisan that he cannot even blame the bad guys if it might include any of his holier-than-thou Republicans.

Remember farmers--the salt of the earth type---well, we have Arcger, Daniels, Midland, so who needs the farmers?

Thats why we need some real new faces

http://www.lp.org/

check it out

YES All christian farmers lie and steal.

__________________
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

— Benjamin Franklin

The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.

John Adams from the " Treaty of Tripoly, article 11