Not so frothed up

It is interesting to watch parallel corruption being revealed in the goverments of Canada and the United States. You would think that there could be little similarity given that Canada's government is controlled by the Liberals, though they don't have 50 % of the seats and thus they must team up with representatives from other parties (there are more than 2 in Canada) in order to get any meaningful business done. This is called a minority government. In the states, the government is nearly fully controlled by the conservati...er, Republicans. So, even though the power in the two countries is held by parties of greatly contrasting ideologies (ok, so it's not that contrasting) the evidence of the adage "power corrupts" is in plain view north and south of the border.

In Canada, there is a scandal in full swing, and a nasty judge probing for terrible details about the former administration's misappropriation of funds. (Think Ken Starr) In short, it goes like this: The liberals have controlled the government for over a decade. The government spends billions on advertising itself each year. Some of these publicity contracts never went to bid, were simply given to some companies who, surprise, surprise donated large sums of money to the liberal party (it's ugly, we're talking envelopes stuffed with cash - all unreported). The perception is that the government was using taxpayer dollars to keep the campaign funds flush, and of course thereby giving the liberals a better chance of retaining power. Now that they have a minority government, there are backroom deals, bribes and traitors being unearthed. Now, I am clearly liberal minded, but they need to be out.

In the states, we have an administration who spends as much time on its self image (and this is what propelled me to write this morning) as it does lying about, well nearly everything. See more on Em's blog about reprehensible behavior by your elected officials.

In both cases, the governments don't deserve the power they have, they are abusing it and are lying, cheating and stealing in order to preserve it.

I understand why many people ignore politics altogether. I could get frothed up and run all over researching on the internet to fuel my froth further (as I did leading up to the war) but then I just have an ugly defeated feeling in the pit of my stomach. So, what's in it for me? (I'm a true American, eh?) It certainly didn't feel good when Bush won a 2nd time, and frankly, the quality of my life doesn't seem to ever change based on what political party is in power, so in 2005 I have remained distanced, dispassionate and maybe a wee bit cynical.

Don't look forward to more political topics on the blog. I think I'd rather go for quirky, funny, and poetic than bitter. It's hard to be poetic about politics.

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Yesterday afternoon, I had about 45 minutes to kill before my 3:30 lesson. As I sat outside smoking a cigarette, the clouds were thickening, threatening. The clouds were swirling but not moving in any uniform direction. Large quarter sized drops of rain began hitting the ground with juicy splat sounds. Darker and darker the sky became, and then, like there was some huge barrel in the sky being tilted, the rain came down and instantly turned the street to rivers, and spidery veins of lightning streaked across the sky. I took cover under a nearby awning and marveled at the amazing energy of the storm. I had no umbrella with me and I got soaked walking the block to my 3:30 lesson. It was still raining when I left the lesson at 4:30. I went down into the metro and popped out five miles away. It was bone dry. I asked someone if it had rained and they said "No, it looked like it was going to, but it didn't". Wow, I got to be right under a localized thunderstorm, it's too bad I didn't have a transparent umbrella.

Today, we have another chance for thunderstorms, but sadly I have a class from 2-4 inside a room with no windows. I'll take the camera along today though just in case. Ciao.