What Were The Voters Thinking ?

There were a lot of new right-wingers elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the last election -- more than I would have liked to see.   But that's the way it is with elections -- sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.   But there are a couple of new representatives that has me wondering just what the heck were the voters in their district thinking.   Do they really want this kind of person representing them?

Take for example Rep.-elect Allen West (pictured above).   He's a true fringe right-winger and has said a lot of nutty things, but his latest utterance has me believing he really shouldn't have been elected to any position -- not even dog-catcher.   He is so far to the right that he believes the government should have dictatorial powers, regardless of what the Constitution says.

Listen to what West had to say about WikiLeaks and the American media while on a conservative internet talk show last week.   He said,   "Regardless of whether you think it causes any harm, the fact that here is an individual that is not an American citizen first and foremost, for whatever reason gotten his hands on classified American material and put it out there in the public domain.   And I think that we should also be censoring the American news agencies which enabled him to do this and also supported him and applauding him for his efforts."

Those are some pretty scary words.   The best protection our democracy has is freedom of the press and free speech.   Our Founding Fathers knew that the representative democracy they were creating wouldn't last very long without a free press that couldn't be censored by government -- that's why they put it in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

The fact is that if the government can censor one thing in the media, they can censor anything.   Does this fool really want the government to have the power to tell the media what they can and cannot say?   It makes me wonder if he's even read the Constitution or has any idea of the freedoms guaranteed to Americans by it.   Personally, I think anyone who thinks the government should be able to censor the media has no place serving in the government.   What were the Florida voters thinking when they elected this guy?

And then there is Rep.-elect David Rivera, also from Florida.   He won't even be sworn in until January 5th and he is already being investigated for corruption.   It seems that while in the Florida legislature he spearheaded a political campaign to get voters to approve letting parimutuel venues install slot machines.   Just weeks after he ran this campaign, the Flagler Dog Track (now called Magic City Casino) paid $510,000 into a company called Millennium Marketing -- a company co-managed by Rivera's 70 year-old mother, Daisy Magarino, and his godmother, Ileana Medina.

Rivera denies that he received any of the money, but admitted being "designated by Millennium" to work on the campaign after they were hired by Flagler.   He also admits suggesting that Flagler hire Millennium Marketing when they expressed an interest in the slot machine campaign.

However, an attorney for the dog track, Roberto Martinez, says it was Rivera who approached the track owners and asked to manage the campaign.   It was also Rivera who suggested that instead of giving money directly to him they should hire Millennium Marketing.   And the contract between Millennium Marketing and the Flagler Dog Track contained the signatures of both Medina and Rivera.

Does this fool really expect people to believe he didn't receive any (or most) of that half-million dollars?   This whole affair reeks of corruption, and now he is about to be sworn in as a U.S. congressman.   Again I ask, what were the Florida voters thinking when they elected this crook?   Do they even care about honesty any more?   If he can sell his position and influence as a state legislator for $510,000, just think how much more he can make as a U.S. congressman.

Just think about how much trouble this country is in when a fool and a crook can be elected, and all they had to do was parrot the talking points of the teabaggers and other right-wingers.