Bait and Switch


Busy day over here, although I made my usual rounds around blogaea--and, of course, last night I listened to Dronorator-in-Chief make his televised dronoration...hmmm...

I guess, "Hey, look over there!" in so many words doesn't qualify as a second term agenda.

On the other hand, changing the topic, as opposed to "changing the tone," might well be as much a strategery as anything, given that the REAL problems facing this country are either direct results of Shrubian initiative--tax cuts for the rich and wars of choice--or Shrubian response, i.e., the Gulf Coast's non-recovery on the cusp of a new hurricane season. So, they've reached into the grab bag and pulled out a real red-meat, if not entirely red-state issue...

Call it a variation on the "Southern Strategy", although el presidente Arbusto apparently didn't quite hit the mark--I suppose that's because he eschewed the position taken by World Nut Daily and their fellow travelers vis-a-vis non Caucasians: a final solution, (en Español, una solución final). On the other hand, what he DID propose: Guard troops on the border, biometric identity cards--well, Leviathan would be pleased.

So, no one's real happy...except maybe Shrubusto's handlers (see Rove, Karl) who, at least for a few fleeting moments, have managed to divert attention from the reality of miserable failure overseas and at home (not to mention the upcoming summer blockbuster, Karl's Frogmarch)..., where, (at home, that is), I've been keeping up with Oyster's--and those to whom he links--analyses of the pending election for New Orleans mayor...another example of GOP bait and switch. Have a look.

Oh--and Jeffrey really hit it dead on when he made the explicit comparision between Shrub Dubya Bush...and C. Ray Nagin a while back. Sorry for not pointing to it back then.

Hmmm again...I seem to have lost focus, so let me try to get back on at least a semblence of a point. I suppose what I'm trying to note is how, be it on a local, regional, or national level, yer GOP is far less interested in, ahem, public service, and much more keen on waving bloody flags in our direction...while rifling through the public till with far more skill and dexterity than, say, Dick Cheney's shooting technique. And, unfortunately for us, the examples become glaringly obvious once you, well, get past the glare, the smoke and mirrors, the waving of bloody flags, and so on.

Of course, to do that, you've gotta pay some degree of attention--and, while that's easy enough for me (political science grad, keeping up with public policy matters is, I guess, sort of a hobby), it might not be quite as simple for folks less inclined--especially if, to cite a favorite singer/songwriter, they're "fall[ing] behind just standing still..." And that might even explain the maddening tendency among some of these folks to take the bait, especially when the media's going for it hook, line, sinker, rod and reel, dutifully barking about "our southern border" or, in earlier Shrubian bait/switch, "Iraqi WMD's."

Very real issues facing our country include, but are not limited to, an economy that runs more on reputation than production, an entire region still reeling from the effects of Katrina and Rita--and, interestingly, with all the bloviating about "our southern border," no one seems to give a shit about large numbers of almost certainly illegal immigrants working in or around NOLA (thanks in no small measure to rules promulgated by Team Bush "relaxing" employment standards)--plus we've got Operation Mesopotamian Quagmire, it's little brother in Afghanistan, a real but otherwise ignored threat from Islamic fundamentalists...and an executive branch that's, quite frankly, drunk on power and careening out of control.

Belching and braying about immigration, under these circumstances, is like worrying about your hairstyle after being involved in a five car pileup on I-10. I'm sure we all like to look our best whenever we can...but I'd be checking for broken bones, internal bleeding, and whatnot, rather than preening in a mirror...