That’s something of a novel concept these days, isn’t it? By, for, and of the people. Kinda stands in contrast to the system we’ve got now, which seems to be government by the lobbyists, for the corporate special interests backing them, and of an entrenched Washington elite that recent history has shown to be catastrophically arrogant and out-of-touch. And the people? Who needs ‘em?
Posted on www.truthdig.com
By Will Durst
Last week, a clandestine cadre of controlling conservative Christian captains (bunch of right-wing religious nut jobs is what I’m getting at) threatened to run from the GOP like ducks from an alligator the size of a Buick if any infidel they don’t anoint is nominated for president. And yes, a specific former New York City mayor was mentioned. Funny you should ask.
At a meeting in Salt Lake City (where else—you thought Vegas maybe?) Heaven’s Soldiers collectively decided they would rather support a burned-beyond-recognition, duckbill platypus with wire-coat-hanger hands than a certain Mr. Rudolph Giuliani. Apparently the Mayor of 9/11 is not the answer to their prayers.
Oh, they have their reasons. Giuliani’s serial inclination to appear at fundraisers in drag, resulting in his being photographed wearing a dress more often than Hillary Clinton, could be one. His brazen courting of the pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-gun control wing of the Republican Party might be another. The fact that the Rudy clan, including both ex-wives (two too many), are campaigning for other people doesn’t help much either. A bit of a sticky wicket that: trying to swing Independents with your Family Value bona fides when your own family hates you. With megaphones. more »
Paul Krugman put a bee ee ay yootiful column up a few days ago about how the Bush Administration is busily resurrecting practices that were discarded as ineffectual and dangerous all the way back in Medieval Europe (the tax farming reference is explained here, by the way). What’s remarkable about this isn’t so much the knuckleheaded incompetence with which these things are executed or the sheer grasping avarice motivating them - these things are simply expected from the Bushies at this point. Rather, what’s really interesting here is what this reveals about their ultimate goals and motives, and by extension those of the broader conservative movement that nurtured them, brought them to power, and enabled (enables, rather) their every excess not merely willingly, but with what appears to be positive glee.