Comments on: Alan Grayson: A Congressional Candidate Who Fights Against War Profiteering & Waste, For Accountability

By: Jetsnet

Jetsnet — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:58:58 +0000

I'm lucky enough to be able to vote for Grayson, and it's exciting to hear him talking in our district about his efforts with war profiteers, but also addressing the more immediate concerns of citizens in a heavy service industry area. We're feeling squeezed, and Grayson is talking TO us, not just AT us. He is a really smart guy, and it's nice to see somebody who doesn't need to go to Washington, but is actually giving up a lot in order to be a civil servant. I'd thought that breed was extinct.

By: runasim

runasim — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 22:15:22 +0000

I enthusiastically agree with you that the guilty should be found and held accountable.
More than that has to depend on individual cases.

After our disaster in 'spreading freedom' I'm incurably leery of grand projects until I know all the details.

The post was great, though, and very informative.
I had never heard of Grayson.

By: DAMOZEL

DAMOZEL — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:41:16 +0000

PS. The Vanity Fair article is good (linked above).

By: DAMOZEL

DAMOZEL — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:40:44 +0000

I think suing contractors isn't punishment but 'making people whole.'

But certain officials --- as Vince Bugliosi and others have remarked -- definitely need more than just a time out for war crimes, profiteering, etc.

Just my opinion. I'm not a vindictive person. But there shouldn't be special rules for people in power that allow them to engage in conduct that would get lesser beings thrown in the jail.

After all, they're the law and order people. The only way to deter public officials from misconduct is to build in consequences. The rewards of wrongdoing are astronomical otherwise.

By: runasim

runasim — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:04:39 +0000

I was nodding in agreement for quite a distance in the post, but then I drew up short. Grayson's video statement gave me pause.

I definitely endorse accountability, but punishment is a tool for deterrence, a sometimes ineffective one, not the goal in itself. Grayson came across as looking for punishment as revenge, and from there it's too easy to cross over to political revenge. I definitely do not endorse revenge, not even when I'm hungry for it.

Maybe I'm quibbling about a nuance, but this particular nuance makes all the difference to me. What I'm looking for is accountability and deterrence. How punishmetn fits in as deterrence is a complex, not a simplistic, consideration.
That much can be learned from examining the effectivness, or lack thereof, of our prison system.

That Grayson's cause is just, I have no doubt.
I'd have to know more about his tactics and goals (his philosophy) to decide anything further.