What's The Difference Between A Republican And A Democrat?

According to "The Kingfish" Huey Long the 1930s Governor and Senator of Louisiana, "The difference between a republican and a democrat is the democrat will skin you from the ear down while the republican skins you from the ankle up".

And so the difference between former disgraced Republican Speaker of the House Tom DeLay and the current Speaker Nancy Pelosi is negligible. On Pelosi's watch, we have $8 corn and $ 140 oil and a subprime meltdown. Israel continues to build illegal settlements with U.S funding on Palestinian land. Bush is talking to the Iraqis about long term bases. Where is the voice of oppostion or the voice with a plan to mitigate these catastrophes? Anyone hear Speaker Pelosi with a plan?

Maybe she likes it this way. Certainly she's not much better than Tom DeLay. When someone is silent who is in a postion to make a difference then the silence is assumed to mean satisfaction with the status quo. If the democrats add to their majority in the coming elections and also take the presidency they may try for more gun control. After seeing Pelosi and DeLay one should never give up their personal protection against Congress.

The Party Of Incumbents: The Oldest & Strongest Political Party In The United States

Who are you going to vote for? No matter what you answer the person who goes to Washington will join a new political party. The party doesn't have an official name. But it's hold on new arrivals is immediate and overwhelming. "All politics are local" is a truism. And the politics of our nations capitol is not immuned. Simply, the local politics in D.C. is about incumbents remaining incumbents and the incestuous players will do most anything to stay in their cushy powerful jobs. That's the explanation for the seemingly unchanged and predictably increasingly out of touch performance of our elected representatives since the founding of our republic.

The most recent example of the incumbent party trumping the democratic and republican parties is the complete capitulation of the anti-war 2006 congressional elections. That group led by Pelosi and Reid now routinely extend war funding. And what's more Pelosi and Reid will give this president all he wants and will also start the next administration with a free 6 months war funding starter kit.

As with all hypertrophies the incumbent party will only lose when an extraordinary event slams into their careful planning. In this case the extraordinary event will be the unequivocal failure of American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Time is on the side of the truth of things. Be truthful and life is a pretty easy thing to enjoyably live.

Another Banking & Brokers Crisis: Can't Learn If Can't Remember.

In 1999 during Clinton's tenure of office The Glass-Steagal Act (a.k.a. Banking Act of 1935) was repealed by the republican controlled Congress . The repeal was pushed by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and Citigroup's Chairman Sandy Weil, Secretary Of Treasury Robert Rubin who left government after Glass-Steagall repeal and joined Citigroup and Bill Clinton. The repeal let banks back into the brokerage business. Let Citigroup back into the securities business is an understatement. It was Citigroup's Smith Barney's unit that was part of the fraud at Worldcom that cost investors $ 150 billion in losses. It seems that Sandy and Robert and Smith Barney anaylist Jack Grubman just can't play it straight. The three should have gone to prison.

Banks by nature should be safe and secure. Brokers by nature are anything but safe and secure.Citigroups stock since reentering the brokerage and related security dealings has plunged from $56.00 per share to $19.00. Today Bear Stearns collapsed from a 14 month high of $170.00 per share and was acquired by JP Morgan Chase for $ 2.00 per share. Hello? Anyone remember why the depression-era banking reform legislation happened? What was dumb and risky for the banks in the 1920's and 1930's is still dumb and risky.

Also " Character is fate", acording to the 6th century B.C. Greek philosopher Heraclitus. That hasn't changed either.