Today, the now-slightly-less-overtly-corrupt Mukasey DOJ indicted Ted Stevens for covering up bribes from VECO. Who knows what Wednesday, Thursday, and News Dump Friday will bring?
This is the Republican brand now: The party that always uses its power for political and personal gain, never for the public good. And if the Democrats hadn’t branded themselves as the party that lets them, and sometimes even helps them (*cough cough FISA cough*), they would totally own November.
Thankfully, the Republicans have played their "Party Of Corruption" part so well that the Democrats should still roll pretty handily, despite their wheels of clay. Oh, and lookie! Ted is promising to stand and fight:
Senator Stevens’ campaign for re-election is continuing to move full steam ahead. Our office has been flooded today with calls and emails from supporters urging the Senator to press on. The message from them is clear: Alaska needs Ted Stevens in the U.S. Senate.
You go, Ted! You keep living that dream! Alaska needs you! America needs you! And Monica Goodling. And Tom Delay. And Duke Cunningham. And Larry Craig. And Brownie. And Scooter Libby. And Karl Rove. And every other sleazy, corrupt, unqualified conservative to ooze through the halls of government in the last eight years – we need you all front and center in the mind’s eye. Americans need to remember what they get when they vote Republican.
Yes, Ted is dirty
But who remembers the rest?
Look, Chandra Levy!
*"Corruption-y" is totally a real word.
Related posts:
- As Justice Stevens Winds Down, Will Obama Continue Court’s Trend to the Right?
- What, Ted Stevens Wasn’t Available for the Job?
- Amendments to Watch For Tuesday and Beyond
- Hammer Time: Tom DeLay’s Fancy Footwork Now Dancing with the Stars
- Laura Ingraham on “This Week”: Dick Cheney “Cuts Through” on Afghanistan Because “His Numbers Are Going Up”
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hiya eli.
Hiya, greenwarrior.
Sadly, the rightwing just doesn’t care. Frustrating! You can lay it out for them, but it just doesn’t matter.
Philip Munger is on his way to deliver the FDL TedFest! Poetry Collection — in the form of toobz, naturally — to Senator Stevens, with video to follow.
Maybe this will make up for Ted’s Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very-Bad Day.
bwahahahahahaha . . .
GOP is suffering from political indigestion (those darn tummy toobz!): if it’s Tuesday, they must be belchin’.
Eli!
Sen Begich!
yep.
Yes, their voters are absolutely hopeless. But there aren’t enough of them to win elections by themselves, except in the reddest of districts and states.
I know my entry was too late, but consider it a tribute.
Just
Go,
Ted
So what’s on the docket for tomorrow. I seem to remember that there’s another IG or OPR report or something we are anticipating.
Hi Eli! Jeez, I hope Toobz sticks it out, wins his primary, and gets beat bad by Begich. All these calls from Democrats for him to resign are, um, misguided. But I liked Harry Reid’s milquetoast reply the best: “It’s a sad day for him, for us.”
Way to assert message control over your caucus, Harry.
Here’s what a real Democrat did soon after the indictment was announced:
Support Jeff Merkley here
My name is Ted. And one day… I’ll be in prison, yo yo.
Ted Stevens, down the Toobz?
you! And Monica Goodling. And Tom Delay. And Duke Cunningham. And Larry Craig. And Brownie. And Scooter Libby. And Karl Rove. And every other sleazy, corrupt, unqualified conservative to ooze through the halls of government in the last eight years
You said a mouth full.
Fundmentall-y Patronizing-y.
Bring ‘em
ondown.He’s gonna miss that nice house….oh well.
Reid is useless. About the most gracious reaction I could stomach would be something along the lines of, “We are disappointed and saddened that our friend and colleague Senator Stevens has apparently succumbed to the Republican culture of corruption, like so many before him.”
Yeah, what a waste, eh? After all that, he doesn’t even get to enjoy it.
W is writing out the pardon as we speak.
I’ll bet the deck was pretty cool.
Ok Pups Digg this Post from Eli!!
Tooby, or not Tooby, that is the question.
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous indictments, or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them? . . .
To plead, perchance to beg; aye, there’s the rub . . .
Hey, does VECO do business in Mississippi? I hear there’s an ex-Senator down there who needs a new porch…
I’m getting more and more concerned with what seems like a nuclear melt-down of the Republican Party, this at a time when Democrats offer very few solutions.
On the bright side, perhaps all of this will vet the congress of some corrupt and dishonest members.
Tom
http://www.dare2believe.com
…Or prolong them and inflict them on your party. Whichever.
LOL
Oh, and everything in Alaska is cool. Very, very cool.
“to sleep porch, ants to dream…”
Wouldn’t happen. Too many of the dems play it really close to the line, if not cross it. So they have to take their doses of schadenfreude privately.
I am now totally regretting that I didn’t think to use the “Wanna Be A Cowboy” video for this post. “Ted, oh Ted, fighting off dangerrrr…”
make them fire ants and you’ve got the right idea.
Sigh….and the view…
http://www.alaskavacationpacka…..ckview.jpg
Oh, I know it wouldn’t happen. And I’m not even so sure they’re even feeling any Tedenfreude at all.
Great post, Eli. You need to copyright corruption-y.
Would Alaskans be so lucky that tomorrow’s announcement is indictments against Young?
I think it has been a pretty good week so far. When you can get Toobz Stevens indicted and Ms. Goodling (I swore allegiance to the president) smacked around in public it’s nice for me. Things are looking up.
losing one of the members of the club is never any fun. I wonder if they have a secret ceremony when they say buh bye.
Actually, it was Sara Taylor who swore allegiance to the president.
Or at least who admitted to it out loud…
Damn Veco carpenter ants…look what they did…they made toobz…damn internet:
http://www.donnan.com/images/CarpenterAnt2.jpg
With such ubiquitous Digging of all and everything, how can the Digg process have any meaning now?
But this has got merely silly from overexposure.
Thanks. I hear Son Of Ted is in the indictment toobz as well…
Sorry, wrong blonde. Someone did anyway and I was outraged.
Do you get kicked out of the Corrupt Bastards Club for getting caught? Or do you get extra points for staying on until they frog-march you into prison as Ted seems to be promising to do?
i totally disagree – digging is how we increase the readership at the lake. i’m sorry you find it silly – jane and crew do not.
And Don Young (R-VECO).
The Anchorage Daily News overview of the “Alaska Political Corruption Case” from last May lists three folks already tried and convicted, four more who pleaded guilty, two others charged and awaiting trial, and five additional people “connected with the investigation.”
Top of the list in that last category: Ted Stevens. Ooops — ADN needs to move him up a notch. Next in line as “connected”: Don Young.
Actually, Goodling’s report card shows that she asked career job candidates why they wanted to “serve” W.
That is the confusion.
I vote that there are two oaths…one to the Constitution, and the really important oath…to W. It must be out there somewhere in the form of a confidential agreement…I’m serious. Both blondes alluded to it.
I do not find Digging silly; merely the overuse of it.
Digg is a really important way to extend FDL’s reach to new readers, who may not be exposed to our DFH way of thinking. It’s great that folks remember to Digg, and I appreciate being reminded inthread.
It’s not mandatory, by the way! *g*
But it’s a tremendous compliment to the post-writer. And to the site.
Whether formal or not, their allegiance was clearly to Dubya and party rather than country and Constitution.
Write them out? Nope; I’m sure he has a mimeograph machine churning those babies out as we speak.
Oh, and OT (I haven’t seen anyone bring this up yet) gay couples from all over will be able to get married in Mass. any day now. The House voted today to ditch the 1913 law barring it and the Senate did it last week. All that’s needed is the Gov’s signature. That should be a quick one.
done deal
and what, Punaise, do ants dream of? Them?
Definitely. The thing that get’s me about those two is the similarity…of…ummm…”type”. Talk about profiling… Shudder.
I never know if digging is best or if I should try to Spotlight or..
Do you suppose Teddy will manage to drag down some of his BFF with him? Like, say, Sen. Inouye of Hawaii?
Bob in HI
Maybe they take a class in “where your loyalties rest” at Regent..
Evening, Eli;
Par-tay afflictions trouble me not a whit, Eli, ’tis what the blackguard and his cronies, on both sides, have done over the years, to the country, the Constitution, and the people, which, most tellingly, shall be the legacy of Stevens and far too many of his cohorts, today.
Try as I might, Eli, I can work up no pity for political parties or pusilanimous pipsqueaks.
Teddy, sometimes I have wanted to Digg a post, but when I saw how VERY much personal information Digg required me to give up, I got cold feet. Who knows what marketing, toomfoolery, or more nuisance things, to say nothing of pernicious things, one voluntarily opens oneself to by giving up all of this personal data? And in this political climate, what use is made of all this personal information regarding a DFH such as myself linked to lefty blogs? Mind, I was a genuine DFH in my salad days. Kept a shop in The Haight, too.
Why is all of that necessary merely to recommend a post? And this is demonstrably not necessary to verify the veracity of the Digg.
term(ite) limits.
I hear you.
A little Digg,
A little dance,
A little seltzer down your pants.
Eat Digg and be merry.;)
For tomorrow we have to call senators and congressmen again, the bastards.
Commander if Chief video.
Thanks, LS!
Gets lonely here sometimes.
Inouye’s confusion today when he said the indictment shouldn’t interfere with Senator Stevens’s ability to work in the Senate, shows he doesn’t understand the GOP caucus’s rules, as Stevens shortly afterwards stepped down from his committees.
Were I Inouye’s constituent, he would hear from me about his defense of his friend. I don’t want my Senator talking about “innocent until proven guilty” about US Senators — they should be above reproach and shouldn’t defend each other when under federal indictment for, essentially, bribery.* It’s entirely too clubby, especially when it’s across the aisle.
*And why is there a statute of limitations on bribery of public officials, anyway?
You are never alone here.
I was railing about this in an e-mail earlier today (or possibly yesterday). What I find so infuriating about the Democrats is that doing the right thing (ending the war, crusading against corruption and big-donor campaign finance, declaring Dubya’s use of “executive privilege” a sham and using inherent contempt to frogmarch Rove, Miers, Bolten, et al in for testimony, etc.) would be the best thing they could do politically, yet they still refuse.
The only conclusion I can draw is that they are either monumentally timid and stupid, or that they are beholden to many of the same financial interests as their nominal adversaries. (And that we have met their enemy, and he is us.)
i confess that i did not give completely truthful answers. :)
Mass. was not about to let California make all the out of state money, huh?
I’m sure Digg doesn’t check the veracity of the personal information provided. Surely you have several sets of identities to provide folks who intrusively ask for too much info — I know I do!
Or anywhere, for that matter…
Or, as Nancy Pelosi convinced me last nite with Jon Stewart, the Republican Congress is to blame!
The name’s Smith; I sell novelty shoelaces in Upper Volta.
Shhhhh….hehehehehehe
Hi NSA…waving!!!!
Must to entertain them, I’m sure they are bored….
Ah ha! Antimatters, at best, are hypotheticals, as regards human understanding …
And antiestablishments are far beyond the ken of simple bipeds, while antisocial patterns appear strange indeed to featherless bipeds.
I know for damn sure, I’m always whereever I am.
Do you get kicked out of the Corrupt Bastards Club for getting caught? Or do you get extra points for staying on until they frog-march you into prison as Ted seems to be promising to do?
It’s a little complicated. Getting caught loses you BIG points, but not necessarily expulsion. Points are hard to win back, because your own party will deduct more points so long as one stays in the Senate, refusing to resign. That loss of points is, however, evenly offset by the points gained from the opposing party faction of Corrupt Bastards Club.
So, it’s a net loss in points, but not necessarily an immediate expulsion. Resignation, or conviction, however, both are cause for immediate expulsion.
But there’s one last perk. On your last day in the Senate, you get to walk up the center aisle, with the members of both parties standing on their respective sides, saluting your final departure with heads bowed and checkbooks raised in tribute.
Love it, Margot. I went to the fridge and got out my antique seltzer siphon, had a little schnapps in your honour, and sang a chorus of “Oy vey, oy vey, mein Yoshke gain’t avek.”
Good to laugh.
good thing Ted lubed the toobz for McJohnny-come-lately:
each and every day!
so I was at my friends daughters wedding last week and something VERY disheartening happened;
just about everyone, including the democrats, including the bush haters, “were afraid of Obama”, they thought he “would be bad for Israel”, some actually believed he wouldn’t stand for the pledge of allegiance
and others, people who have been complaining about bush for all these years, actually said;
“well, McCain has often spoken out against bush and I need to see these two in a debate before I decide”
while none of my friends will admit it, I guarantee, all of this “wondering about Obama” is veiled bigotry, they will not admit they don’t want to vote for a black man but that is the only reason “they have questions”
I have found that I live in a bubble, where I thought the majority of Americans couldn’t possibly vote republican, I have had the rude awakening that even among bush haters and democrats, there are those that will vote according to their bigotry
combine that with the gamed machines, the “caging”, the long lines and too little hardware in democratic precincts and this race is far closer then I would have ever imagined
I read somewhere that Governor Patrick has a big signing ceremony planned for next week, but that the law isn’t effective for ninety days. more here
Has he progressed beyond the “A computer is not a truck” stage?
“Cindy…what’s my password, again?”
I’m not certain it is ‘either or’, Eli. Perhaps all apply. Monumentally, with emphasis on the first part, as ‘mentally’ their deficit is absymally evident.
Indeed, Eli. we are their worst nightmare. And we.just.won’t.shut.up.and.go.away. More power to us!!!
You really have a seltzer siphon? Cool!
Digg thinks I’m as old as a giant redwood. Well, OK, not that old but older than I really am.
I am trying to imagine just *how* racist I would have to be to willingly vote for four more years of Republicans destroying the country.
I can’t come up with any answer less than “very fucking”.
Yep, he sits on the laptop so he can see over the dashboard when he’s driving the Straight Talk Express.
And he loves that wonderful drink holder-thingy that slides out when he pushes the little button.
All your points are returned to you when you become a lobbyist.
Another day, another one….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMenB9Ywh2Q
“I will have no truck with this newfangled gizmo called the internets.”
Let them eat duct tape:
At last, McCain has found Obama’s Achilles heel.
With a running mate like Tom Ridge, to remind every voter of
their high-quality experiences with DHS, how can McCain lose?
Very, very…
very…
very.
That would have worked as well, but I like “Wanna Be A Cowboy” better musically. And videoically.
Did not mean to jump at you, just meant to ’splain.
I think you are absolutely right about the collection of information, by the way.
I’m still praying he picks Lieberman.
This is good:
Agreed….I’ve been out partying….hehehehheheeee
LS,I’ve had some very condescending put downs. Not that I can’t take it, but one wonders sometimes if the game is worth the candle. I have been a reader of FDL since its very inception, but since delurking, I have been, to put it mildly, surprised at the cliquishness and intolerance of some members. Some seem to be stuck in high-school modes of behaviour, and threatened by opinions not their own. I have even been accused of not expressing myself well, and of being beneath serious consideration here. I have never been interested in usurping certain members from their pedestals, but nonetheless I receive these rather vicious put-downs. Ad hominem attacks, and sometimes attacks on the merits of my comments, which are ignored. The former are unacceptable in any civilised community of discourse; the latter, if expressed to the points in dispute, are part of the game, I suppose. Time I devote to FDL is time taken from my scholarly research and writing, you see. I come here because I have believed in the projects of Jane and ReddHedd. And because I have been a lifelong believer in community.
It’s insanity for McCain to pick someone who served under BushCheneyCo, but we can hope for it nonetheless. Ridge was vetted for veep in 2000, so Cheney knows all his dirt already. Well, all the dirt up to 2000. No, actually, all the dirt since then too!
i’m sorry you thought i was putting you down with my response to your comment.
Yeah, that’s the ticket: more “finding out what’s gone wrong there.”
Jeez, can’t we have a little new-broom-sweeps-clean or throw-the-rascals-out from our nominee, or is that too uncivil?
calling them bastards to their faces?
As for MA and the $$, I tried to tell my former state reps before I left that it would be a financial boon but they didn’t listen. It probably did take CA cashing in for them to get it. Better late than never. So soon both coasts will have one state doing the honors.
I regret that any of us feel they need to hold back in their comments. Hope you will perservere, and LS you are not alone in your view of the world.
PBS NewsHour had Carol Leonnig from the WaPo on commenting about the case. This was the bit that I found completely incredible.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb…..07-29.html
How can you not notice that someone has given you a quarter of a million dollars in goods and services, including a massive redo of your home? How can you unknowingly fail to report it as required by law for 7 years running. Only in the koolaid laden atmosphere of Washington would anyone advance such an idiotic legal theory with a straight face.
I would have thought you’d cash them in at that juncture—kind of like frequent flier miles.
Look.
If you are for peace, justice, and rule of law, anti-governmental corruption, stating your position on legislation…..I don’t see a problem. If you don’t take anything personally, and you don’t make personal attacks, your contribution should be fine.
No problem.
I come here because I have believed in the projects of Jane and ReddHedd. And because I have been a lifelong believer in community.
I have to say that I cannot disagree with your take on some of the group behavior here. I think that there are aspects that rub a lot of people the wrong way, sometimes.
But, what you said, (above copy) is what is more important than the, lets call them inconveniences. There are some people who think and speak differently. That’s all it is. Kind of, ya know?
I’ve developed a bit more thick skin since I’ve been here. :)
Well, I suppose they could mount some kind of Alzheimer’s defense, but that probably wouldn’t do wonders for his re-election campaign…
John Gorenfeld has found something rather incredible from the RNC.
Ted bemoaning the liklihood that the fates may well deny him his dream of dying with his senate graft boots on- taken while opening bribe checks from friendly business acquaintances.
Yeah, I got it whilst teaching abroad. Lovely old glass bottle covered in chain mail.
Here in the States, at least in Los Angeles, seltzer is delivered to ones door in antique siphons. (I do not live in Los Angeles; I am a northern California type, and the Sierra Nevada is the geography of my heart. I have spent 50 years wandering and wondering in the Sierra during all of my academic long vacations, save for the time I taught abroad and then wandered in European mountains.)
I also acquired a taste for sparlking mineral waters whilst abroad. At 6 cents for .75 litre bottles, it was a treat.
Margot, you can purchase modern knockoffs of the old seltzer siphons at upscale kitchenware purveyors, but these are intended to make soda water.
Senators have to sign their name on the disclosure forms. But I’m sure there exists a Ken Lay defense therein: I relied on what I was told was in the forms when I signed them.
Hope his lawyers and accountants are lawyered up, or at least have donned their anti-bus suits.
LS – i finally caught up on the threads to say, re the Loyalty Oaths to W – absolutely there were such! We have witnessed a coup, infiltration of DOJ (where we would go to rectify matters), complete with SS (Blackwater – not yet deployed here). You have been right on the mark.
said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.).
Always wondered where Beaver Cleaver ended up.
Real name is Emanuel – who knew?
No, no Suzanne: I have never felt that about you. I have documentary evidence of some pretty harsh and vicious comments directed my way. You are not one of them.
Did you notice my comment regarding your move? I can send it you, if you have not seen it.
I work very late into the night and sometimes my comments must go unseen as I post so late.
Now the Girdwood Estate is the spot-
From the Feds the indictments are brought.
But now Ted ain’t no quitter-
His rep in the shitter-
Duke Cunningham saved him a spot.
Come and welcome masaccio!
what should obama do for us upstairs
i saw it.. that was cool about the shipping container.. very similar to the pod i’ll be using
thank you
If you plan on breaking the law in broad daylight, it’s a good idea to take over the police if you can.
Teddy, you have not jumped at me. You have always, in my experience, been tolerant, and with a great deal of well-considered comments to make. It ain’t you, babe, if I can be permitted such form of address. :-)
Which is why, in a greneral sense, Teddy, that many conversing here do not use their own names.
I do, but since I have long been a person of ‘interest’ to certain mindsets, and know that ‘my’ file dates from the early sixties, I am not much worried.
I am, however, in complete agreement with both you and cleanth as regards the collection of data by those whose genuine need of it is slight, at best, and perhaps FDL and others should open a dialogue regarding this topic.
Only the mindless have ‘nothing to hide’, obviously, but what genuine need has a supposedly democratic ‘government’ to deliberately destroy, rather than to protect privacy, unless it is to engender fear and dissuade ‘participation’, thereby belying its claim of legitimate democracy?
I can’t believe that trading an old car for a new one and not claiming anything on the deal was an innocent mistake.
I think it’s encouraged, actually…
new post http://firedoglake.com/2008/07…..do-for-us/
There is that program…I can’t remember the name…that is all over the states…that uses law enforcement and business people….somebody help me…?
My friend, I certainly understand how you feel! My own Father has gotten on my case wondering (shouting while damn near expiring in a fit of apoplexy, actually) how someone who “Served in the Corps could become so goddamn liberal!” Even my oldest most liberal friends for the most part are war mongering American exceptionalist types (a complete 180 over the years) that are reluctant to speak to me anymore.
It helps to own de judge, as well.
;~D
“Didja put that Land Rover swap on the form?”
“Sure, Senator, it’s in there.”
Done.
LS: When I receive a vicious ad hominem attack which states that I am not worth responding to and that the attacker does not waste his time with people who cannot frame a discussion….
You suggest not taking anything personally. BUT, LS, if we are not invested in our comments, why bother? Then it is just venting wind.
I am interested in the merits of the arguments (positions) adduced, not in the putative merits of the posters. I have come to value what I take to be aspects of the personalities of several posters, here, including yourself.
I always take such things in this perspective:
Lots of good people here – smart, too. And lots of snark. Don’t think it’s personal like some sites. Like having you here. :)
cleanth;
Clearly I missed what happened, but, so far as I’m concerned, your presence here is most welcome, for, as Sander O once put it (paraphrasing here), ‘Firedoglake IS the comments and those who make them,’ (as well as the posters, the headliners, who stive to enlighten, but it is the wealth of comments which embolden and enhance the community here).
I hope you will stay, for your comments are pithy, honest and powerful.
I cannot pull up its name just now; been on-line too long and mind is going to jello.
But–this programme enlists business people, including delivery persons and so forth, to spy on their fellow inhabitants and report anything deemed “suspicious”. Shades of Soviet times. I spent considerable time abroad, some of it in formerly communist countries, and I well recall that all buildings had a “porter” in a little lodge at the entrance who spied on the inhabitants/workers within. The academic institutions where I taught in those places had such spies among the faculty menbers, too. We are getting there in the USA now.
The programme to which you are referring gave indicia and perks to these spies here in the USA. They also were promised “access”. And ego props which would appeal to such authoritarian-minded sorts.
And I have been a lifelong believer in the community.
How old are you
You would probably be shocked if I sent you the personal attack received from one of the FDL “heroes”. Of course I will not propagagte this, but I can aver that it was indeed personal and very vicious.
Thanks for your very kind words, which are appreciated.
Over 60, less than 70, Mike. Retired professor. Lifelong DFH lurking in there, too.
Thanks, DW.
And thanks to Firepups who are tolerating this exchange tonight.
DW, I may have misused the term “posters” here. I have in mind those who post comments. Seems from what you have written that they are more properly denominated “commenters”. The worst attack I have suffered here has been from a poster to me, a commenter.
Thanks to one and all for allowing me to get this matter off my chest. Glad now to be among most of you.
Mike has innocently misquoted me:
I wrote: “in community”. Clearly I could not have believed in FDL all my lifelong! But I have done since the very inception of FDL. I was there at the very beginning.
…and then there’s me.
;~P
i believe you are mistaking misquoting with snark :)
The worst ‘excesses’ I have seen, and experienced came from a certain poster, as many here will not doubt recall.
This poster was quite lacking in the social amenities, and I confess, I was most happy to leave said poster as ‘found’.
Most of us here are happy to learn from others, some of course, are probably not, but by and large most ‘excess’ surrounds political intractability and arrogance.
Misunderstandings do occur, but most here take themselves to task when the misunderstanding becomes uncivil or personal.
At least such I have observed.
snark?
here?
Fainting couch, STAT!!!
;~P
One of the things drummed into the heads of graduate students in academic fields is the ability to give a good and fair account of positions with which we do not agree. I may sometimes adduce a position which I do not necessarily advocate, but I do so in order to make a point, or to advance or evince discussion. I recall remarking to Suzanne that in one wise I was playing “devil’s advocate” and she wondered if I saw that as my rôle in FDL. I do not, if by that is meant a professional gadfly for the thrill of it. I do believe that there is much to be said for following through discussions where one sometimes adduces arguments (in the intellectual sense of argumentation) for the sake of pointing up aspects. This will entail taking various positions for the sake of argument (discussion). I think that I make it quite clear where I stand, personally, but there is so much more to the field of discourse than merely personal hobby horses.
Anyway, I have a constitutional aversion to being
–Keats
/s
[To avoid misunderstanding, argumentation, in the philosophical and mathematical senses, in rhetorical senses, means adducing a coherent position statement.]