What is Digg?96 Comments
- jbenson2, on 07/19/2008, -8/+57Nancy Pelosi must be punished.
- adayahead, on 07/19/2008, -11/+28A well-written brief review of the sad state of political affairs in the U.S. Anyone who ever claimed an opinion based on what the "founding fathers" intended should think about this issue, and its predecessor issue. That we need to have conversations about prosecuting our elected leaders for war crimes; that a high-ranked Justice Department official can advocate and defend torture and then return to his post at a law school in - of all place - what we in the Bay lovingly refer to as the People's Republic of Berkeley; all of this shows how much we need to remember (metaphorically of course) http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/96oct/obrien/blo ... that the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of liberty.
A must read for anyone who cares about reclaiming the future of our country. - TecK415, on 07/19/2008, -9/+25I think you mean it's ridiculous that they are not judged for their crimes.
Or, do you really think it's ridiculous that they should be judged for their crimes? - portnoy, on 07/20/2008, -10/+24This is all totally absurd. Our leaders have to be MORE legally accountable for their crimes than ordinary citizens, not less. How many of us have access to such a large number of legal experts to keep us on the "straight and narrow" as the president and his administration have? Bush's entire administration needs to face the courts for their actions, first in this country for their crimes against America and then in the Hague for their crimes against the world.
- lead2thehead, on 07/20/2008, -2/+14Oh, I could name LOTS of other reasons for why Nancy Pelosi is a disappointment.
- an0nymous, on 07/20/2008, -2/+13http://digg.com/politics/BOUGHT_AND_PAID_FOR_The_D ...
Greenwald's column for today. Evidently the DNC is going to have some nice totebags this year.
Seriously. - billfisher, on 07/20/2008, -2/+12I can't take credit for this statement, but I believe in it wholeheartedly: Individuals who are voted or appointed into a public position hold the peoples utmost trust, crimes committed by that person should be contain a sentencing structure 3x worse then the current minimum for that crime.
i.e.
Theft: 1-3 years
Public official theft: 3-9 years
These individuals have they're own "old-boy" networks and until "We the People" stand up and force more accountability, we are allowing them their "old-boy" network. - felman87, on 07/20/2008, -3/+12If only such a thing were possible. A lot of Americans have such a black and white view of things that they can't contemplate multiple party politics.
- govsucks, on 07/20/2008, -8/+16Well that's hard to do considering most people in this nation no longer believe in liberty but instead just the opposite, slavery to the collective. Telling people you shall not be free to choose your health care provider or you shall not be free to choose how your retirement is saved and invested for is hardly liberty. To FORCE people to participate in things like universal health care and social security is hardly liberty. Closer to reality, it is a mob of people who force the minority to serve their ends but it is not even close to liberty. So good luck getting the folks on digg to choose liberty over the nanny state. Diggers scream about turning over more control of our lives to government through health care and various other things and then complain that the government is overstepping its bounds by listening to their phone calls. Yes that's right, they turn over control of their LIFE to government and then complain that government listens to their plans for Saturday night....real liberty lovers these guys.
- palewook, on 07/20/2008, -6/+13Politicians in America aren't held accountable for their actions. Instead they get kickback job titles as payoffs for what they did while in office. The higher profile ex-politicians get book deals or tour the public speaking circuit.
Few ever serve 1 day in a jail. - bshock, on 07/20/2008, -0/+7I would argue that politicians who commit crimes should receive far more severe punishments than ordinary criminals. When a man robs a liquor store, he hurts only a handful of people. When a politician robs the taxpayers, he may hurt thousands or millions.
Or to be more Stan Lee about it, with great power comes great responsibilty, and when you abuse great power, you deserve great penalties. - spongya77, on 07/20/2008, -4/+10This is a blatant disregard for the rule of law. Taking this argument -just vote out those who commit crimes, or wait for them to leave- would lead to the following results: the whole Nuremberg-trials were a mistake. First of all, most of the laws those people broke WEREN'T EVEN LAWS at the time. Second: sure they did some evil *****, but as politicians, it should be enough for them to make them leave office. After all, the Nazi party was democratically elected. All the extra powers Hitler and his cronies held would have to have been revoked after the war, restoring the republic, and simply hold another election.
That is the logical result of this thinking.
No one should be above the law. Especially when human lives (OK, I admit, NOT American ones) are lost as a consequence. People in Washington should be held responsible for the pain and suffering they wreak upon the world, from the Americas to the Middle East. Everybody, from the architects of the Iranian coup to the architects of the Iraq war should be put to trial. Otherwise the US cannot masquerade as the upholder of moral values and international law. Only as a big bully that everybody's so scared of that they do not dare to call what he is. - trippinlikegod, on 07/20/2008, -8/+13Or a spineless nation.
- quesi, on 07/20/2008, -0/+4-7 in 3 hours.... it is - hahaha, the megaphonies in da hzowse
- DeskFlyer, on 07/20/2008, -9/+13Since I think we already agree on this, a better article would have been to describe how this will actually be accomplished. With the joke of a Congress we have now, this is not possible.
- hugolp, on 07/20/2008, -6/+10Will never happen. They will promise the promise land before letting the people touch their salary. Plus, politicians legal salary is just a tiny part of the politicians real salary.
- liuite, on 07/20/2008, -0/+3we have lots of politicians who have supported the takeover of corporatism and should be jailed or ousted. phil gramm was the key architect of banking deregulation which has lead to the mortagage crisis. private equity is encroaching upon the banking industry and expect an unconditional bailout because they are "too big to fail". we need to stop our corrupt politicians from bankrupting our country!
- SteveSgt, on 07/20/2008, -0/+3Sarcasm and irony do not Digg well.
- Corrosionx, on 07/20/2008, -0/+3All politicians are criminals. They all think using violence against innocent people to provide services or to achieve political or social goals is acceptable.
- spongya77, on 07/20/2008, -3/+6Well, technically speaking the leaders of Nazi Germany did not break any laws. All the crimes against peace, humanity, and all was retroactive that they were hanged for.
The problem is that these laws ARE valid, like it or not. Launching war on false pretenses, invading another country, ordering torture, illegal wiretaps (I'm not sure if you know the meaning of "illegal"), exposing CIA covert agents, and the list is really long, are against the law, international, and domestic. Because, guess what? The international laws are just as binding to the USA as any other country. - mt1955, on 07/20/2008, -0/+3Shall I tell you what the real evil is? To cringe to the things that are called evils, to surrender to them our freedom, in defiance of which we ought to face any suffering.
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca - WallyAnti, on 07/20/2008, -8/+10So let me get this straight. Prison is a deterrent, but only for civilians. Sorry, but I don't buy it. If Ford wanted the nation to "move on" I think we should have made a great spectacle of what happens when you betray your nation so obviously. In my mind the pardoning of Nixon is the reason we have the situation we have now where almost every American doesn't trust the government to tell them the truth. Why should they tell the truth. They have no incentive to do so.
- bobbi21, on 07/20/2008, -0/+2Man, listen to republicans attack clinton on this is like listening to Hitler attack some dumb kid for littering. Yeah, Clinton lied (about a personal issue but yeah still lied), and should go to jail for that. Bush lied like a hundred times over and his lies were in an attempt to kill millions of people.
Seriously. Bible quote time "Why do you see the speck in your brother's eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye". There's a bleeding forest in bush's eye yet you're complaining about this splinter. Sure pretty much every politician should be in jail for some crime and we all know it. But we have to start somewhere and I would start at arresting the orchestrator of mass murders over the 80% of men who cheat on their wives and lie about it (usually not to a federal Grand Jury but the fact that it got that far is already ridiculous and I think you get my point anyway). - dupswapdrop, on 07/20/2008, -0/+2Anyone who is in a position of public trust that commits a crime should be punished severely. In this day and age most of these people get off with out so much as a slap on the wrist!
- oldgal, on 07/20/2008, -2/+4We have total liberty to elect criminals...obviously. When we reelect criminals, then are we not complicit in the crime? From a more practical viewpoint, the line of succession to president precludes impeachment in this instance. I am all for prosecuting after the fact if we can do it without getting our panties all in a bunch and distracting from the serious clean up and problem solving work that needs to be done.
- Hangly, on 07/21/2008, -0/+2I've had plenty of trouble in my life for trying to be a principled person.
So I'm sorry, I can not accept your generalization. - SatoriSeeker, on 07/20/2008, -1/+3Haha!
- inactive, on 07/20/2008, -9/+11The king and his court are not above the law... unless you have a spineless congress
- phogasmic, on 07/20/2008, -8/+10I am not surprised that politicians on both side think that they should be above the law, but I am absolutely disgusted that this idea is so persuasive in Washington. F*** harmony! There may be harmony in Washington because they are ignoring Bush's crime but there isn't harmony for the people being tortured here, or the people being tortured in other countries because the US has made torture acceptable..... We have fallen so far under Bush, its so sad.
- phogasmic, on 07/20/2008, -8/+10Digg is dominated by Bush supporters on Sundays. ... shouldn't you guys be in church or something?
- OC73, on 07/20/2008, -9/+11Spoken like a true leftist.
- holywood, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1Revolution! Revolution of a new Republic!
- hylas, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1So what are you going to do about it?
Full List.
This is the new, updated, Republican - Democrat House and Senate Political Hit List:
http://digg.com/political_opinion/Bush_Dog_Opposit ... - chaos7, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1"While common Americans should be imprisoned when they break the law"
stopped reading right there. buried. - Hangly, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1In a sense, that's the only real corrective force on the system.
- punkpatriot, on 07/28/2008, -0/+1NANCY PELOSI MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE!
The more money that Cindy Sheehan raises, the more accountable pelosi becomes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUi-oIEARVQ - Murdats, on 07/20/2008, -6/+7then they will just run to the companies to get their money.
oh wait, they already do. - caleb4mj, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBfjU3_XOaA
- Hangly, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1(psst, these people aren't real.)
- CaptOblivious, on 02/15/2009, -0/+1govsucks,
"Telling people you shall not be free to choose your health care provider or you shall not be free to choose how your retirement is saved and invested for is hardly liberty. To FORCE people to participate in things like universal health care and social security is hardly liberty."
You sir are a troll or a total ***** idiot.
To burn down strawman one,
No one, anywhere, is telling anyone that they may not choose their health care provider. A single PAYER system (ie: the government) is not a single PROVIDER system.
To burn down strawman two,
Whilst social security is not the best system, for the aged and destitute it generally means the difference between freezing and starving to death and not. I personally don't mind paying into a system that prevents old people from freezing and starving to death in the streets. I HOPE never to be one of them but fortune is a fickle bitch.
If you do, I suggest you get rich and cheat on your taxes, then you wont have to contribute to those less intelligent, skilled or lucky than yourself.
Of course if I find you taking a single dollar out of that system when YOU end up destitute and freezing I shall stand over you pointing and making an example of your "obvious superiority" to those you hold in such contempt. - Hangly, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1shut up
- kd1s, on 07/20/2008, -0/+1In the case of Bush I have some faith that he'll not be on the talk circuit once he leaves office but instead on trial at the Hague for war crimes. That would be a start, no get out of jail free card in essence.
- nuentendu, on 07/20/2008, -8/+9Take the alcoholic coke head out of office and put him in a cell, black bagged and all. See how he likes it.
- denizen42, on 07/20/2008, -8/+9Criminals punished?.......That's brilliant!
- BlacklabelSAR, on 07/20/2008, -8/+9"pre-emptive pardons"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OligarchY
fta
"The Iron Law of Oligarchy
Some authors, such as Vilfredo Pareto, Gaetano Mosca, Thomas R. Dye, and Robert Michels, believe that any political system eventually evolves into an oligarchy. This theory is called the "iron law of oligarchy". According to this school of thought, modern democracies should be considered as elected oligarchies. In these systems, actual differences between viable political rivals are small, the oligarchic elite impose strict limits on what constitutes an 'acceptable' and 'respectable' political position, and politicians' careers depend heavily on unelected economic and media elites.
The historian Spencer R. Weart in his book Never at War argues that oligarchies rarely make war with one another." - SatoriSeeker, on 07/20/2008, -1/+2Please evolv.. err intelligently design a few ***** brain cells you Fox Newsophile. Way to fall for the sham media and the paid blowhards who retire to multimillion dollar homes after a hard days work of convincing common people in party A to stay angry at the common people in party B so they discover it's really US (the ruled) vs them (the rulers) and not Red vs Blue.
- Hangly, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1In China if a public official is convicted of official corruption they execute him.
I think that's a little extreme, but it's better than doing nothing. - grneye53, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1Here's the cry you hear when escaping responsibility "EXECUTIVE PRIVILEGE" where's Danny Glover now ?
- inactive, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1http://digg.com/users/floatingorb/gallery/5456542
Bush in his cell: "It's not so bad, I can has paddle ball game on Tuesdays." - nomojunkscience, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1"The word ‘Fascism’ is almost entirely meaningless."
-George Orwell. -
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