U.S. Politics (groan)

The Battle for American Unity is an article published at Faultline USA today in response to "2008 Politics - Voice Your Opinion" here at Right Truth about Unity08. Unity08 wants to start a third political party. Here's the beginning of Faultline's response to that:

Today many of us are disillusioned with our own two-party system. We are angered at the failures of both the Democrats and the Republicans. And most of all, many of us are longing for national unity.

Unity is vital to the strength and health of any nation but false unity, based on little more than gathering large numbers of the disillusioned, is bound to fail. When the core values of the large majority of Americans are in direct opposition, attempts at false unity can only do one thing and that is to ignore those core values altogether by concentrating on those issues where some consensus can be found. It might work for a while but eventually it fails. (more)

You really should go read it all here, but first I've mentioned below some of the political news on Presidential candidates today:

Senator Joe Lieberman repeated his calls to take military action against Iran. While Lieberman is not running for president, he is still a very important politician. He is still a Democrat, but when it comes to the war he's pure Republican.

Now Rudy Giuliani is ready to strike Iran, and he opposes a Palestinian state. (Infidels are Cool)

“It is not in the interest of the United States, at a time when it is being threatened by Islamist terrorists, to assist the creation of another state that will support terrorism,” the former New York City mayor said.

“Palestinian statehood will have to be earned through sustained good governance, a clear commitment to fighting terrorism, and a willingness to live in peace with Israel,” Giuliani said. “America’s commitment to Israel’s security is a permanent feature of our foreign policy.” (NewsMax)

More on Giuliani from Westminster Wisdom and Bits of News:

Giuliani forgets something about Bush- when they came in the Bush administration were focused on the great powers and nuclear relations, 9/11 shook them out of that to focusing on terrorism- lets hope that Mr Giuliani doesn't have the opposite shock as the great power politics of southern asia and the nuclear disputes about Indian borders make us perhaps look back on the halcyon days when all we worried about was Osama Bin Laden

HEY OBAMA: WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO SAY ABOUT THIS?, The Midnight Sun:

Our boys are kicking butt! Pay attention Obama and all other Defeatocrats:

US and Afghan forces searching for militants on the Pakistani border have inflicted heavy casualties on al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters, officials say.(The Astute Blogger)

Barak speaks: Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) welcomed a hike in defense assistance to Israel.

... said the assistance was necessary because Bush administration policies had endangered Israel. "The Administration's failed policies in Iraq, in a war that never should have been authorized, have strengthened Iran and emboldened Hamas and Hezbollah," he said in a statement Thursday. "That makes it more important than ever that the United States live up to its commitment to ensure Israel's qualitative military edge in a dangerous region. For that reason, I support the agreement on military assistance reached today."

UK politics get pretty interesting also. How Liberals (Unconsciously?) Pursue the “Politics of the Worse”, Augean Stables:

Jenny Tonge has already made her case for being the poster-woman for PCP1-2 when she explained that if the Palestinians have a death-cult in which they sacrifice their children on the altar of the shame-driven hatreds, it must be Israel’s fault (she didn’t actually put it that way; it might have gotten in the way of her sympathy for the underdog).

“If I had to live in that situation - and I say that advisedly - I might just consider becoming one myself.”

It really does make one tired, trying to hear what all the candidates have to say. Wondering whether they really mean it, whether they will change their minds as the campaign progresses. Also wondering if once they get elected they will even remember what they promised during the campaign. Makes one groan.
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Sharing the groan and Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson's Website, Rosemary's Thoughts, 123beta, Adam's Blog, Shadowscope, Webloggin, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, Conservative Thoughts, Public Domain Clip Art, The Uncooperative Radio Show! Special Weekend!, , Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Faultline USA, third world county, Right Celebrity, Woman Honor Thyself, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Comments

[Debbie]

Rastaman: I feel your pain. It's very frustrating. I think Putin is very dangerous, and I'm not sure Washington is paying much attention to him. Of course, they may be poo-pooing him in public, while getting serious behind the scenes. Who knows?

[Rastaman]

Giuliani is saying the right things. Whether he or any of the other candidates will actually do the right things or not is a toss-up. A lot of people didn't like Clinton, and I admit I wasn't paying much attention at the time. We weren't making war then, though, so if he wasn't doing what he said he'd do, shame shame. I'm paying attention now, though, and I see a whole bunch of elected buttheads not doing what they said they'd do, and far worse, doing a lot more stuff that they said THEY WOULDN'T DO!

So I have zero trust in any of them. You can all tout your favorite speechifier, it matters not to me. I hear what they all say and I can only hope at least one, the one who finally gets the job, wasn't lying his or her ass off to us.

About Putins revival of the Cold War, that goes hand in hand with the rest of his behaviour. He's been bullying and threatening former Soviet states and us ever since he became Russias president. He's a Mafia thug personality type. Now that he's allied Russia with China, he feels even stronger and bolder, which is why the flights, to attempt to intimidate us. Intimidation is his stock in trade, he was a career KGB thug before he became President Thug, after all. I think the real message behind these moves is the revealing of Chinas position toward the West. Unless China admonishes Putin to back off, then they agree with this increased level of hostility and we should take warning from it.

Rasta

[Debbie]

Francis W. Porretto: Excellent points all. Knowing a candidate's history and why they voted certain ways is important. But can we really ever know the "why"? Also electing someone with little or no political history is exactly like drawing straws.

But, it's still better than other systems, so I can't complain too much.

Thanks for visiting. Love your writing, so inspirational.

[Francis W. Porretto]

I think, for best efficiency, one should avoid ever hearing any candidate tell you what he believes or intends to do, while his campaign is in progress. Rather, study his past record in office. In politics, the past is a reliable predictor of the future. But remember when you do so that specific positions taken are less important than the reasons they were taken.

(But what about persons who've never been in office before? Well, we could select them by lot, I guess. How much worse could it be than the present arrangement?)