Miscellaneous

Sorry for such a late start, but another busy day at work kept me from hitting the internets for most of the day--and a special on shrimp at the local grocery store will keep me a tad busy this evening (well, it's frozen, but peeled--and at 5 bucks a pound, I'm not complaining. Time for a good shrimp curry).

Prowling around, I noticed that America Blog discovered Jeff Gannon is more than just a media whore (graphic content for those who go look). Hmmm. So, now we have the spectacle of the "family values" party embracing dope fiends AND sex workers...the irony is just too much. Next thing you know, Tom Delay will proudly announce he's a card carrying member of the ACLU.

I love watching all these folks who, as Atrios noted a couple of days ago, had no trouble with the Starr Report suddenly all a titter with the left noting the hypocris...IIRC, Guckert issued a challenge, not at all unlike "bring 'em on." Well, it was brought on, alright.

On that note, our $300 billion dollar investment in Iraq has brought on Iran lite in Mesopotamia, although the Gray Lady is doing its best to declaim that the chicken shit really--no, really--has a tinge of chicken salad aftertaste. That ought to be worth another $82 billion in off-book spending, according to the cabal occupying the White House--no doubt to be bundled into wads of $100 dollar bills and passed around like hush money.

By the way--Riverbend has a few things to say about the rise of fundamentalist Islam and associated mores--as usual, she's worth reading carefully.

Violence erupted in Lebanon, and while this can't be specifically tied to the Bush administration, I think one can say that the overall Bush policy in the Middle East, which embraces violence, helps set the stage for this kind of thing, i.e., violence begets violence. Wonderful. Just when it's critical that cool heads prevail, the "leader" of the free world displays all the signs of adult ADD and a childlike fascination with implements of war. That'll send a message.

Oh, and while I didn't note them this weekend--mostly I was trying to get over a cold that was the major thing I caught at Mardi Gras--I took a long look at this post from Hullabaloo, which links to a very informative New Yorker article about "extraordinary rendition." That sterile sounding phrase is the polite way of saying "send 'em to Egypt, send them to Syria--but wait till I'm outta the room." Contract torture--easy to get used to if you're Abu Gonzales. Digby's post AND the article are worth a long look.

Finally, I actually did try to note this morning a post I saw at Crawling Westward and the Advocate article Timshel linked to by Adam Nossiter that has enough irony to short circuit a major substation, but work had to be done. Short version: farmers in Louisiana, who voted red in large numbers, are feeling blue about the decision by Bush to make massive cuts in agricultural subsidies. However, they still support their dear leader...

I don't quite know how to react to stories like this--there's a certain part of me that looks at sees the dog who continues to get excited at the sight of their owner, even when there's no doubt the owner only wants to beat the shit of them--again. Yet, in a strange way, I can appreciate the values held by these folks, even the notion that "everyone must sacrifice a little," be it for the cause of patriotism, or god, or whatever. The Democrats need to appeal to these folks (something the DLC did a TERRIBLE job of doing)--and, it might not be as difficult as you'd expect. The Dems don't need to abandon the idea of tolerance or diversity to be successful--but they DO need to take it to the GOP, particularly THEIR leadership, and point out THEIR hypocrisy while at the same time taking steps to ensure that, say, rural lifestyles will be a bit more than fodder for a reality show starring a hotel heiress. Democrats need to stop apologizing, and start attacking. Which is why, to complete the circle, pointing out Gannon's bizarre dualisms is fair game. So is noting that Rush Limbaugh is more than just a big fat idiot--he's a big fat drug addict, too. And it's sickening that Abu Gonzales can't flat out say that torture is wrong (and stupid, as anyone who knows anything about interrogation knows).

If the Democrats began to show some spine, I think the GOP would literally implode.