One thing that always irks me in conversations with some people is their insistance that for the most part, Democrats and Republicans are all the same, and if anything Democrats are ‘Republican Lite’. In some ways, I can see where those people are coming from and at times why they may believe that. For the most part though, I totally disagree and will usually rattle off five or ten things that I think seperate Democrats and Republicans in terms of philosophy.

This week in the capitol the differences between the parties couldn’t have been clearer. The Republican controlled legislature this week introduced or passed bills that would:

• Allow citizens to carry concealed handguns. (again)
• Ban cloning and stem cell research (again)

One one hand they say they’re ‘defending life’ but on the other they’re enabling people with the tools to take it.

In contrast, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle announced this week the state will be pitching in $16 million in energy assistance to help lower income residents pay their heating bills this Winter, when prices are expected to rise betwen 40% and 70%.

Why is the Republican controlled legistlature in Wisconsin spending it’s time re-introducing the same bills they couldn’t get passed in the past few years to limit stem cell research and let people walk around with concealed handguns, instead of helping out the citizens of Wisconsin who are facing a season of record breaking heating prices?

The difference in priorities couldn’t be more stark this week, and it’s just one small example of how Democrats differ from Republicans.

Update: Welcome to folks visiting from the Columbia Journalism Review today… feel free to add your thoughts below.

You might have heard yesterday that Republican House Leader Tom DeLay of Texas was indicted on a single charge of criminal conspiracy and forced to hand over his leadership role while the investigation continues.

It’s got to be a distressing time for the Republican leadership in America. Not only is their #1 guy in the House of Represenatives now facing criminal charges, but Sen. Bill Frist – the majority leader in the Sentate – is also under investigation for insider trading after he dumped all his stock in a family owned business days before a disappointing profit outlook was issued.

Then there’s the nominee for deputy attorney general Timothy Flanigan from the Justice Department who has ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff (who also has ties to DeLay of course), a man who is under more federal investigations than I can count on one hand.

Of course, we can’t forget that whole CIA leak thing in which it’s rumored that Karl Rove had a part in and will face jail time himself once the truth comes out.

So not only are the most powerful members of the Republican party in the House of Represenatives, Senate, and White House possibly corrupt, but so are other Republican figures in the Justice Department and Office of Management and Budget facing investigations as well. On every level of Government, Republican party leaders are being unmasked as a corrupt and power hungry people who think the law doesn’t apply to them.

Right now the Republican Party stinks of corruption. Thankfully in 2006 we have a change to clean house and restore some small bit of honor and integrity back to government.

Haven’t we heard this line before?

Two key elections are fast approaching. As these milestones approach, we can expect there to be increasing violence from the terrorists. – GWB 9/28/2005

If that line sounds familiar, it’s because the Bush administraion has been repeating it ad-nauseum since day 1:

• As the war draws to a close, we can expect an uptick in violence.
• Untill we capture Saddam, we can expect an uptick in violence.
• As the one year anniversery of the war nears, we can expect an uptick in violence.
• As the handover of power approaches, we can expect an uptick in violence.
• With the US elections coming soon, we can expect an uptick in violence.
• As we prepare to invade Falluja, we can expect an uptick in violence.
• As the anniversery of 9/11 gets closer, we can expect an uptick in violence.
• As elections approach, we can expect an uptick in violence.
• As the draft constitution is being finished up, we can expect an uptick in violence.
• As the constitutional referendum approaches, we can expect an uptick in violence.

Is it just me, or have we spent the past two and a half years preparing for ‘upticks’ or ‘upsurges’ in violent activity in Iraq??

When violence levels are continually increasing, maybe we should stop defining them as ‘upticks’ and just acknowledge that the violence in Iraq is only increasing as time goes on, despite the Bush administration painting an alternative rosy picture.

Nineteen Hundred American troops have now been killed in Iraq. That’s over 100 troops killed in just over a month and a half.

Still no plan for ‘winning’ this war, still no plan for even what defines ‘winning’ from our administration. Only continued rhetoric about freedom, terror, and how we’re ‘making progress’.

Meanwhile, journalists are being pulled off the streets by Iraqi police forces only to be found dead days later with their hands and feet bound; murdered execution style. Iraq’s great march towards freedom/democracy, sponsored in part by our friends at the United States Pentagon, is looking more and more like a meandering parade into an extreme Islamic state where individual rights are trumped by religous edicts, and women are forced back into the role of second class citizens.

Good to see our President’s heart is in the right place:

Bush and Republican congressional leaders, by contrast, are calculating that the U.S. economy can safely absorb a sharp spike in spending and budget deficits, and that the only way to regain public confidence after the stumbling early response to the disaster is to spend whatever it takes to rebuild the region and help Katrina’s victims get back on their feet. – Washington Post

Notice how that says “the only way to regain public confidence in the President and increase poll numbers is to spend whatever it takes”, and not, “the only way to rebuild from the disaster and to help the hundreds of thousands who are affected is to spend whatever it takes”.

One thing I’ve never understood about the Bush administration is their obsession with making it look like they’re doing the right thing rather than just doing the right thing to start. They wouldn’t have had to pull out the huge PR blitz last week in the first place if the President had just done the right thing to begin with. Instead, they focus after the fact on creating the impression that right thing is being done, which more often than not just doesn’t work (on top of being dishonest about it).

The huge amount of money we’re going to be spending on reconstruction along the Gulf Coast should be done because we’re honestly and genuinely concerned with rebuilding the area and helping the people affected by the Hurricane get on with their lives.

The focus of that money should be on repairing the cities and lives of the Gulf Coast, not the President’s reputation.

Jenny and I thought this was a photoshopped picture at first, but it’s straight from the AP:

“I think I may need a bathroom break”?

Our President. The most powerful man on the planet. Asking for a potty break.

This week, the honor of ‘GOP Moron of the Week’ goes to Wisconsin’s very own James Sensenbrenner, who represents the state’s 5th congressinal district, for being one of eleven congressmen who voted against yesterdays $51 billion relief supplemental for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Not only does he get moron of the week, but ‘Heartless Bastard’ of the day, ‘Jerk of the Month’, and ‘Morally Corrupt Conservative of the Century’.

Seriously, this guy is off his rocker and needs to get the hell out of office in 2006. This is probably a good time to mention that Bryan Kennedy is running against Rep. Sensenbrenner in next years race and is raising money for his run.

If you live in the Wauwatosa, Hartford, Brookfield, Mequon, or anywhere else in the 5th CD ask yourself if someone who denies relief funding for victims of America’s worst natural disaster ever represents you and your beliefs.