The random political thoughts thread (Part Deux)

[flippyshark]

Dullest sex thread ever.

[Alex]

If you're going to go down to Republican county treasurers (as that first list does) I suspect that Detroit, New Orleans, Chicago, and most of New Jersey would be willing to go tit for tat with Democrats.

[Alex]

Got to thinking about the general nature of public corruption and found that the Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section handles federal, state, and local corruption charges and reports to congress every year.

That link includes information on the departments porfolio in 2007. It really confirms just how boring and petty most of it is.

In 2007 838 federal, state, and local officials were charged with crimes with 739 convictions. Convictions (federal, state, local, and private citizens mixed up in one of them) by year below.

No breakdown by party affiliation. Though there was a law professor a couple years back who showed that the Bush DoJ was 7 times more likely to be investigating Democrat officials than Republican. They're study, though, did not include any information from before 2002 to show if that was a massive change from before (and of course we've all heard the accusations of a politicized DoJ).

1988 - 1067
1989 - 1149
1990 - 1084
1991 - 1194
1992 - 1081
1993 - 1362
1994 - 969
1995 - 878
1996 - 902
1997 - 853
1998 - 1014
1999 - 1065
2000 - 938
2001 - 920
2002 - 1011
2003 - 868
2004 - 1020
2005 - 1027
2006 - 1030
2007 - 1014

[Alex]

The Bush administration completely overused the state secrets privilege (it was misused to some extend before but I'm of the opinion that the Bush administration extended it to a ridiculous extent).

There seemed to be some expectation that Obama would decline to use it altogether, which is self-evidently (again in my opinion) ridiculous as well.

However, today a new policy on state secrets has been announced by the Attorney General and it seems like a very good position to me. The hurdle is significantly raised, many people have to sign off and judges will generally have the ability to review for themselves the evidence the government is attempting to exclude.

So far, most of the observers I've read from both ends of the spectrum seem to think it is a good change.

[BarTopDancer]

I really don't have a problem with the UN meeting with Gaddafi and Ahmadinejad. At least then when we blow them up... er I mean invade their countries we can say we did everything we could to communicate with them first.

I do find it amusing that Gaddafi won't stay in a hotel and brings a tent/homestead everywhere. He's currently trying to set up shop on some land that the Trump organization owns and "was leased on a short-term basis to Middle Eastern partners, who may or may not have a relationship to Mr Gaddafi"."

[scaeagles]

Going to have to bring something back to the forefront here....can't imagine why anyone would be afraid of political indoctriantion at school. Check this out.

I want it to be known I found this link on the Drudge report. I have no idea what school it happened at or how long ago.

[Alex]

If that was done as part of a public school exercise then I agree it probably isn't appropriate (I can't understand any of the lyrics beyond "Barack Hussein Obama" but I'll assume for arguments sake that they're some version of "we wish you were a religion so we could kill people in your name").

That said, this video and nothing I see in the comments identifies the context in which it is being done. For all I know those are all the children of the local Democrats for Pissing Off Republicans getting ready to perform at a $1,000/plate Obama fundraiser. Still annoying to see children put through that but of a different type.

So, any information out there on the actual specific context of what is going on?

ETA: Though whether this particular video is an example of indoctrination the fear I hear from you really reminds me of this (the Bush part is about 1:40 in).

I'll admit I fear what was in that video much more than the possibility of politically indoctrinating our children and producing a new Hitler (not that I'd like that to happen). At least Obama will eventually die.

[scaeagles]

That's creepy indeed. I would suppose the difference is that I am making the assumption that the one I posted was at a public school. It looks like a public school auditorium with an elementary school music teacher.

I have looked for the context of that video, but haven't as of yet been able to find any.

[Ruthie]

I have just been reading quietly but whoa, that video Alex linked is scary crap!

The one with the kids singing about Obama something or other does seem out of line for school but I get the feeling it was done by some overly happy to have Obama as President music teacher that didn't think the whole thing through. I could be totally wrong, just my reaction as I watched it. I didn't see it as so intently trying to convert/indoctrinate the little children.

[Alex]

I haven't either. And I'll be happy to say up front that if it turns out to actually be a school music class at a public school that I'll agree with you it is almost certainly* inappropriate.

I agree it is obviously a school auditorium of some sort. There's just nothing in the video that confirms it is a public school and that what is happening is a school related activity.

* Need a little bit of wiggle room since i can't make out the lyrics and I can imagine extenuating circumstances that would ease my discomfort even if this is an official public school activity. Could aslo be that it was inappropriate and official action had already been taken by the school administration in response.