Post Scripts

By Jack Lee

An open letter reply to Steve Thompson, et al,, Chairman of the Butte County Republican Party and others, who recently wrote in to Post Scripts. His letter can be seen below in comments:

Dear Mr. Chairman,

With all due respect to your position and as a former Chairman myself, let me say that Im disappointed, but not surprised that you have not addressed my concerns made earlier. Let me recap so you can’t easily avoid them:

1. Assemblyman Keene entered into a “private” arrangement with Dan Logue to succeed him. That is, he quietly selected Mr. Logue and this was done according to Mr. Keene’s own statement where he freely admitted that it was done several years in advance of this current election. Call it a backroom deal, a quid pro quo arrangement, or whatever; the fact is he did it and I have a problem with such an early selection. This selecting a successor business short circuits the routine election process.

2. By quietly picking his own successor and getting all the election details lined up and ready to go, this arrangement greased the election for one guy, Dan Logue. That shouldn’t happen. He was given the authority and prestige of Mr. Keene’s high office to get all the support and money he needed to the chagrin of all other challengers. I guess this is why many of Keene’s deep pocket contributors are the same for Logue, but that should not surprise anyone; this is all part of the game plan. This is the kind of strong advantage usually reserved ONLY for incumbents and it’s why incumbents are so hard to dislodge once the get into office, they have all the advantages of money and notoriety and this is why the voters approved term limits.

Do you deny this is a huge advantage for a new candidate like Mr. Logue, so much so that there is no longer a level playing field?

3. By using the prestige and the good works of his own office and even his own staff to support and bring along his [chosen successor] he is handing off the baton, keeping other candidates at bay and forming a future alliance all at once. It’s in theory a win-win for himself and Mr. Logue. Do you deny any of this?

4. Further, an incumbent choosing his own successor has the effect of not just discouraging the competition, it also restrains all the new ideas that come with a field of new candidates. Would you deny this is true Mr. Chairman?

5. The name of the game is…. money. Money equals power and power equals money. Its that simple.

This not a bad situation, it’s a terrible situation and we need reform to restore equal opportunity to our elections. The high cost of just running for office is a real big problem because a candidate almost can’t get elected… unless they take the big money and that comes with a lot of risk for them and for us voters. Just look at all the special interest legislation in California! They all do it, the republicans and democrats and the longer they stay in office the more addicted they get to the money!

It’s why politicians never stop money raising from their first day on the job. Raising money has become too much of what it means to be a good legislator. Taking in money and wriiting legislation is a dangerous combination. Would you deny this?

Mr. Keene, the outgoing incumbent, still has a whopping $220,559.19 in his “Friends of Rick Keene” fund and his “Rick Keene for Election” fund shows $647,957.29 …as of 03/17/2008. And he’s not even running for anything…yet.

6. But, the comical part is you people say I’m not a good republican because I won’t play along with this stuff and I want people to know about it? Again, with all due respect Mr. Chairman (and your tag team), in the real world most people think just like me and if you don’t think so you are out of touch.

Voters are tired of the games and sick of the special interests that buy off politicians and buy our elections. We want no non-sense legislation that place us before the special interests!

In summary: I’m making an ethical stand for what I believe and I wish more republicans would do the same. If they did maybe this party would not be in such a mess. How many more races do we lose before you guys get it?

We need to stand on principle, ethics and ideas and turn this into action! This is what made our party great and the lack of it will surely be our demise!

In case you have not noticed, we have failed our voter base in California and lost all but a super majority in the state legislature. Congress is next and the Presidency is at risk. When what we are doing ISN’T working and our ethics are in question it’s time for a change and that means we backtrack to those days when we really stood for something! Principles, ethics and ideas…then we act swifty to make those words into action!

Posted by Tina

Chvez envisions US as partner in fighting injustice, by Martin Baron Boston Globe

President Hugo Chvez of Venezuela had just wrapped up a press conference, extravagant in its theatrics, where he denounced an Interpol report that authenticated documents linking his government to rebels in neighboring Colombia. That lasted four hours, and then he extended a surprise invitation to a delegation of American newspaper editors on a “fact-finding mission” to Venezuela: Perhaps we can spend 10 to 15 minutes together over coffee? ** I beg for forgiveness if in my speech I’ve hurt any feelings back in the States. I ask for forgiveness. When I speak about the United States, I do not refer to the people, to the citizens. I refer to the elite that is governing the United States – and not even referring to all of the elite governing the United States. Because we have friends among the elite governing the US. The economic elite, we have friends. We have friends among the cultural elite of the United States . . . Danny Glover. Kevin Spacey came over here. Sean Penn. Those are my friends, close friends . . . And when they come over here, they say what they like and what they don’t like. And we still are friends. And that’s what we want. We want to be friends. And I hope that with the new government we can then open new space for exchange – and discuss. It would be a lie if I say I have no preference. However, I don’t want to take this personal, and take this candidate or that candidate . . . I shouldn’t say anything that might be used against someone. I’d rather be careful and see things from a distance. Our preference would be that whoever is elected, we might start immediately with some exchange. It is through talking we can then come closer and share and compare our views and then reach an agreement. ** I remember when I met George Bush for the first time. It was in Canada during the Summit of the Americas. We shook hands. And I said to him, with a lot of spontaneity and sincerity – and I know very little English – but I said this [in English]: I want to be your friend . . . I was hopeful for about 20 minutes. ** I would love, for instance, to be able to work with the United States, together, and other countries as well, regardless of the ideology, to work in the field of health, for instance, infant mortality, food production. In Latin America, we have 19 million malnourished people . . . Haiti, this is a disaster. Children that die of hunger. Education. So many things that we can do together. Forget about the complexity of ideology. No matter how we think, there’s a world waiting for us to tackle injustices. So I wish we can do that together. Well, if we couldn’t do all that, at least we can sit down and talk. ** What I am about to say might seem an exaggeration to you. But if the world had to choose a president – a president that could address the problems of the world, a president to lead the world, a president with the powers to do that – Fidel would be the man. Perhaps he’s not the only one. . . . He’s a machine, a human machine to solve problems, (with) a huge analytical capacity to analyze things and look for solutions to problems. I truly love him as a father, and it doesn’t bother me to say so.

After reading the entire article I have to say this again: it isnt that the whole world hates America, or our Presidentits that hard line revolutionaries, socialists, communists and terrorists hate America. Its a lot easier to run drugs, oppress people, make illegal deals with UN officials, nationalize businesses, take over private property, etc. when America is governed by weak, appeasing, accomodating, like-minded friends. Remarks made by Hugo Chavez mirror those made by many democrats and leftists in America. (also quite a few terrorists in the world) The change Hugo Chavez desires in our leadership is change for which he feels a strong kinshipjust like the kinship he has with Fidel Castro, Sean Penn, Danny Glover and Kevin Spacey. In the case of the president… who might that be?

Please vote wisely in NovemberI dont want to live in a country that mimics third world dictators and thugs.