Liberal and Loving It

Democrats get blowjobs, Republicans get indicted

Now is an opportune time to review the Clinton administration with the Bush administration. Yes Clinton cheated on his wife and had a tawdry affair in the oval office. But I prefer that to the criminal actions of Scotter Libby, Tom DeLay, and probably Karl Rove.

Which got me to thinking about the difference between Democrats & Republicans. So lets take a fast look at history:

FDR - D: Sex: Lucy Rutherford; Indictments: none (amazing considering the growth of the federal government and the total dollars spent in WWII).

Truman - D: Sex: no; Indictments: none

Eisenhower - R; Sex: Kay Summersby; Indictments: none - so acted like a Democrat. But today's Republican party would consider him a Democrat also so it does fit.

Kennedy - D; Sex: with every woman in the White House except Jackie; Indictments: none.

Johnston - D; Sex: with every woman he ever met; Indictments: none.

Nixon - R; Sex: no; Indictments: can you say Watergate?

Carter - D; Sex: "lusted after other women in his heart"; Indictments: none.

Reagan - R; Sex: no; Indictments: Iran-Contra for starters but there was a lot more.

Bush I - R; Sex: no; Indictments: Not as many as Reagan but he only had 1 term.

Clinton - D; Sex: oh yes; Indictments: none.

Bush II - R; Sex: no; Indictments: Scooter Libby, Tom DeLay, & shortly Karl Rove.

So there you have the real choice of the political parties. You can elect a Democrat and get someone who fools around on the side, but doesn't break the law. Or you can elect a Republican and get someone who only has sex with their wife, but has numerous appointees who break the law.

And this would explain why Kerry lost - it was clear he would never cheat on Theresa - so he didn't fit the Democratic mold. Same with Gore. He actually won but the real reason the Supreme Court threw the election to Bush was that Gore didn't fit the stereotype.

Disclaimer

Ok, the above was written tongue in cheek. But it does fit the data.

Trackbacks: Mudville Gazette, Daily Kos, Taylor Marsh, The Indepundit

Oh wow - they're voting

As I searched for news this weekend about the voting in Iraq, two things hit me.

First - at least for the last couple of days, Iraq has been a functioning democracy. Interest groups were trying to influence people's votes, everyone but the insurgents was trying to get the vote out, and the people went and voted.

And equally important, this was not a rubber stamp. There is a significant percentage of the electorate on each side of the question. And they were taking their differences to the ballot box. This may be the first time in history that a major political decision is being fought out at the ballot box.

So congratulations to the Iraqis. This is a reflection of their culture and their society and it shows them as a very admirable people.

Second - there is almost no news about this. On CNN the lead is about Condi Rice's view of the vote. On MS-NBC it's about Bush's view of the vote. The NY Times showed how a newspaper can deliver the news with much more depth - they lead with both the Condi Rice and Pres. Bush stories. Out of curiosity I went to Fox News (my first time - I swear) and they actually lead with a story about the election itself.

There is something wrong when an amazing story like this is being covered in such a peripheral manner. And when Fox News is the best source for such a large story - yuck.

Maybe I'm making more out of this than I should. But I think this story is gigantic. And the story is what happened in Iraq - not what some of our political leaders think of it.

Trackbacks: Mudville Gazette, DailyKos

The big problem is K-12

In today's Daily Camera Rich Jones discusses the need to increase the number of students going in to (and assumedly graduating from) college. His main remedy is to increase funding for poor and minority students that otherwise cannot afford college.

However, this is at most a secondary problem. At present the vast majority of students that can succeed in college are going to college. Maybe not their first choice and maybe not the one that is best for them. But they are going there.

Where we are failing is in K-12. (All following numbers from the GAO report on Army recruitment.) In 2002, 52 percent of Hispanics graduated from high school compared to 56 percent of African Americans and 78 percent of Whites. However, of the youth who graduated from high school in 2002 only 40 percent of Whites, 23 percent of African Americans, and 20 percent, of Hispanics had the skills needed to attend a 4-year college (13).

In other words, even if we offer a full-ride scholarship to any college to every 18 year old, over half of them cannot make any use of it. College scholarships help a small number of people that could make effective use of a college education but can't due to their financial situation.

However, for the vast majority of our children, we are failing them in K-12. This is a crime where we are sentencing them to a lifetime of minimum wage jobs with no way out. This is one of the biggest problems this country faces. Fix this first.