Arguments in Congress/Casey Anthony (again)

Okay, this is addressing two things I am starting to find really stupid, the reaction to Casey Anthony and what is going on in Congress.  Both are symptoms of some of the things wrong with our society and our news media as it functions.  Both force me more and more to be cynical of the world I view, even though I try as hard as I can to be an optimist in a situation.

With the Casey Anthony situation, it goes back to the public opinion, built up by media who indicted her before she entered the courtroom.  Her family has essentially had to go into hiding and she may do the same for a little while.  To me, the worst is the attack in Oklahoma.  A woman in Oklahoma was brutally attacked and almost murdered by someone driving their vehicle and the only thing she was guilty of is looking like Casey Anthony.  According to the look-alike Sammay Blackwell, "She said that I was trying to hurt babies, I was killing babies and she was going to stop it before it happened again".  This is where I really start hating the person who is crazy enough to take vigilante justice into their own hands.  This person was clearly too stupid (or not enough aware) to realize that Casey Anthony was still in jail.  This was only a few days after the trial.  

The Jurors have tried to cash in too.  One demanded thousands of dollars to be granted an interview.  This is a ridiculous ploy that threatens the integrity of our whole legal system.  Jurors are supposed to be servants and if they can start getting paid for interviewing about a high profile case, that can open up a door of potential corruption.  Also in the legal system, there are many petitions for "Caylee's Law" which would make it a federal crime to not report your child missing.  I understand the reasoning and logic behind it, but would it have helped Caylee?  Would it actually help people?  You can't just look at a law as what you want it to do, but look at it pragmatically.  You have to view what it likely will do and what the consequences may be.  The consequences may be getting the federal government involved in small domestic situations and regulating parenting.   That could have some very bad unintended consequences.

In Congress, nothing is going on.  Yes, there is a lot of news, but its nothing.  I am actually a bit surprised and impressed at how much Obama is willing to bend over backwards and compromise his principles just to please people like John Boehner who have their head in the sand.  Obama has compromised so much on key issues that he was classified by a former Reagan policy analyst as a moderate conservative in practice.  Still, the GOP is refusing to compromise though, even though he has cut budgets, raised the medicare age, and is proposing a bill that is more to the right than the average american.  I am not just hating on the GOP.  The Dems in congress for a while were not compromising, but it took the president to get closer to some compromise on this budget.  Unfortunately, the economy is seriously on the brink of shutting down many services if a budget is not done soon.  While the blame will fall on the president, it is the politics game in Congress that is to blame.  

For example, this was part of a yahoo news headline today about the situation: "House Republicans get partisan payback".  There are 2 problems with this.  First of all, there is a definite spin on the story.  As usual, the media is just making everything seem even more ridiculous than it may actually be.  Secondly, if it is true that this is at all "payback", I have officially lost respect for every Republican in the Senate.  Politics is not about payback, retribution, and putting your head in the sand.  This week, the U.S. could go into a financial default and you still don't want to compromise on simple issues like the debt ceiling?  Your salaries are paid for by the people who you serve in this Democracy.  You are elected by the people and represent and serve the people.  Now is the time for the members on both sides to act like it.