Damn the politeness...

We have been far too polite regarding the current Administration. Here is one take on what is really happening: http://www.ericblumrich.com/14.html.

Three or four of the 14 points are perhaps a bit overstated; the rest seem pretty on point.

Judicial restraint hypocrisy

With the hearings under way on Roberts, all the talk is of judicial restraint vs. judicial activism, of states' rights vs. "heavy-handed government". Hypocrisy has become accepted truth. The fact that liberals have allowed the debate to be framed that way just demonstrates how brain-dead they are. As conservative judges have weighed in against medical marijuana, the right to die, and personal privacy, and in favour of federal police power, one thing becomes abundantly clear, if it wasn't obvious already: they like getting government off our backs only when it suits them. The reality is that you can predict most judges, not based on their adherence to abstract principles of jurisprudence, but based on who is standing before them.

If the people in front of the bench are long-hairs, drug users, single moms, elderly, sick, gay, or black, you can almost bet they will feel the full weight of the system come down on their heads. By the way, the same can be said of liberal judges: if the people in front of the bench are corporate executives, white, rich or powerful, they will feel the wrath of the system come down on THEIR heads, no matter how ethical they are, or what exemplary lives they have led. (To liberals, there is no distinction between the entrepreneur who risked everything to build a company, and the thieves at Enron.) The difference is that liberals have allowed themselves to be tarred as activists, while dangerous bullies like Scalia get away with murder because they are "strict constructionists". Only when it suits them, of course.

Escape from Insanity

Off to Asia in the morning. Away from the blame game being played by the Bush administration. Blaming the victim has never sunk so low. Those of us who see this administration for what it is, have been too polite, for too long. It isn't politically correct to use inflammatory language. But let's face it--from scapegoating minorities, starting wars based on lies, occupying foreign lands in the name of "civilizing" them, and evoking hysterical religiosity to justify it all, I challenge someone to show me how this is not a fascist administration. We are just lucky that there are still some checks on absolute power.

Meanwhile, as America aggressively squanders its great gift, two billion people in Asia are working, day and night, to get a piece of the action. Some things to note about them: they respect teachers, they watch less TV, they are less religious, they study hard, and they are hungry as hell. They can't indulge in the kind of smug, fatuous, and dangerous conceits that led us into Iraq, and that have let us stand by as millions of our own are killed or made homeless. Just how do the super-patriots in the White House think that their short-sighted, self-destructive policies are going to keep us Numero Uno, in the face of such competition?

America-haters and the Double Standard

On 9/11, Matt Drudge commented that the loss of a bunch of investment bankers was not so bad ("after all, they're scum" he said). To him, the outrage was that a bunch of towelheads would have the temerity to take it upon themselves to violate US sovereignty. Soon after 9/11, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson justified the attacks on America as God’s punishment for tolerating sins such as feminism, homosexuality, abortion and drugs. Have they had any comments on the disaster in New Orleans and Mississippi? Their silence is very telling.

Meanwhile, our old friends at Move On have undertaken a national fund-raising effort on behalf of the victims of Katrina, even asking Move On members and supporters to offer their homes as shelter for those made homeless.

How is it that the folks at Move On, whom so many have accused of being “America-haters”, have shown more solidarity with their fellow Americans, than the uber-patriotic Robertson, self-anointed messenger of God?