Cringe? I am well familiar with the incident. I think her actual response is anything but nutty. I am proud that I voted for her in the first primary and proud to have had her as my senator. I have never heard her whine about anything and the statement from that rightwing site is a mischaracterization at best.
That’s exactly what I was saying, an no problem about the misunderstanding. And definitely there are other people who’d probably be willing to sell themselves into slavery; hardcore drug addicts were just the first population I thought of. Heck, you could probably find some folks willing to do it for noble reasons: parents with too large families, for example, who considered selling themselves into slavery the best means of supporting their family once the free market was unencumbered by a social safety net.
Daniel
My understanding of the Saudi drug trade is that most smugglers are poor, elderly Pakistanis. The smugglers give them drugs to take into the country. If they are caught, they are executed, but their family is taken care of. Hey, they’re going to die some day soon anyway, right. If people will face swift and certain execution for money, it’s not at all at tough leap to believe that people will face slavery for the same. And even easier to imagine parents willing to sell their children into slavery. It allegedly happens with daughters of poor families in Southeast Asia all of the time. Daughter is “sold” to someone who will get her a “good job” in Europe or America or just “the big city”. She ends up chained to a bed in a Bangkok brothel in Chinatown. Plenty of current real world examples to support that this is where things could go, much less the historical perspective that in a free market slavery will happen. The only question is where the supply will come from.
This I did not know. I still think my statement about the strategies of state party leadership personnel is valid, at least insofar as we are discussing a state that actually has a viable opposition party. I imagine there isn’t a lot of competition for the top slots in the Idaho Democratic Party, whereas the Illinois Republican Party offers less room for strategic missteps.
That’s true; I’m not disagreeing with your point in general, just picking at it. I agree that the situation in Illinois is far different from that in Idaho. I’m actually astonished that a state like Illinois could not come up with a viable candidate. All the publicity could have done nothing but help a realistic candidate - it wasn’t a sacrificial lamb situation at that point.
Well, what were the timelines? I seem to recall reading about several days ticking away while celeb after celeb declined to be the replacement for Jack Ryan. And all the while Obama was looking more and more like a golden child. How much longer did they have for the search before you would have characterized it as a sacrificial lamb situation?
I merely wonder how anyone with a name so similiar to Osama could get elected among today’s ignorant, terrorist-obsessed population.
A day or two would have worked, I think. Obviously I don’t have a great deal of familarity with Illinois politics, but I would have expected that in a viable two party state potential candidates would have to be careful not to get trampled in the rush. That’s certainly what happened here when Campbell declined to run again, and if Salazar or Coors dropped out even today, there would be a top-flight replacement willing to go for it.
The Republican Party in Illinois depended on a drivers license in exchange for campaign contribution scheme for a lot of its fundraising. This scandal broke hard just after George Ryan was elected. A semi truck driver who should likely not have a driver’s license killed a family in a van. This scandal ended Ryan’s career, took down many around him, and lead a lot of Illinoisans to be pissed off at the state level Republican Party. Also in the last governor’s election, which was between a Ryan (not related to George) and Rod Blagojevich, it seemed like the Republicans had forgotten how to raise money the traditional way. Either thatn or no one wanted to be associated with them at that time.
Any sensible seasoned republican politician wants to distance him or herself from the scandal and those involved. Voters are still pissed off and the scandal will be brought back up because Ryan has not been convicted or acquitted yet. Running for an important office is a surefire way for a seasoned politician to get their associations with the corrupt bunch back in the news and fresh in voters’ minds. They are staying put and only running for the offices that seem sure things.
Any sensible young republican does not want to be associated with this scandal or mix with any politician who many later end up in prison for it. Young republicans are biding their time and waiting until this blows over. The Illinoisan republicans are not raising massive funds anyway (at least they weren’t when I last checked) so there is nothing to be gained by getting involved with them. We are in a big budget crunch so anyone in any office is going to get associated with bad news. If the young republicans politicians wait, then when people are sick of the current bad times and they stop wanting to punish the republicans, then they can run a rebuilder of the party in Illinois and not be saddled with all the bad stuff.
Thank you, lee. That explains a lot to me. I had thought the drivers license thing was just your garden variety corruption.
IIRC, they spent two months without a candidate.
Checking for cites:
6/25/04 - Jack Ryan withdraws from the race, 3 days after the news breaks.
8/9/04 - Alan Keyes accepts the nomination
Well, more like a month and a half. Still, not exactly speedy.
And skutir - surprisingly, I haven’t heard of any name confusion around here, though there was a rumor that someone wearing an “Obama for Senate” button while in DC earlier in the summer provoked a huge double-take by at least one politician. This was before the DNC, of course.
No, it was not. We are used to that here in Illinois, from both sides. When that family got killed it hit home with a lot of people that it really matters that drivers, especially truck drivers, need to be able to drive. One facility specialized in getting licenses for those that did not speak English. Not that that is the reason these people should not have licenses. For the group of drivers that had gotten their license from the tester in question, they held retests. There were harrowing reports on the news of the testers getting out of the car mid test for fear of their life. These are veteran DMV employees fleeing the car in mid test!
I guess I can not agree with you here. If you google modern slavery you get lots of sites showing modern slavery is alive all over the world. It even exists in The United States.. This is not just low wage laborors but actual chatal slaves. Child labor exists inThe United States, but mostly is an issue of the rules not being enforsed. However many of the goods we use from day to day may have been made by a ten year old.
It contradicts my earlier post, but now that I think about it, you’re right - Eric Schlosser mentions people being convicted (in the last few years) of keeping people in slavery in Reefer Madness. They were forced to work, IIRC, in tomato plantations in Florida.
I still can’t believe that on my 6 mile commute to work, I actually see a Keyes poster in someone’s yard. I can’t imagine any circumstance in which anyone would openly show their support for that douche.
Go Obama! I’d vote for him even if he were running against a real candidate.
I see one too! It’s at the corner of Montrose and Kildare, if’n you want to see a Keyes sign and haven’t.
I agree with her. We do have child labor, we just outsource it overseas or hide it in sweatshops in our major cities. Same goes for slave labor, especially white slavery. People are perfectly willing to accept forced labor conditions as long as the low, low prices keep getting lower.
I agree too. Unfettered capitalism is an amoral system fueled purely by greed. Mosley-Brown’s staements are not speculative. We have Amercan corporations farming out labor to children and slaves as we speak…and the American consumer is perfectly willing to take that bargain on a shovel or pair of socks.
Don’t even get me started on the diamond or the chocolate industries…
And here is a pic.
No doubt! There are at least five Keyes posters on a two-mile stretch of Meecham. I guess these are single-issue voters (particularily since Keyes seems to be a single-issue candidate).