March Madness? With even Bush Sr. now calling out his son’s unilateralism (Bully for him, via Looka), Pat Buchanan (and, to be fair, Dem Congressman Jim Moran) decrying his fellow conservatives as being dupes for an Israeli conspiracy, and the Republicans renaming the french fries as “freedom fries” in the House cafeteria, it appears the Grand Old Party has been reduced to mass hysteria by the looming war in Iraq. Add these bizarre episodes to the assault on civil liberties mentioned below and the nation’s growing economic woes (which the Bushies are now responding to by hiding information), and I’m now starting to think the 2004 election might just be the Dems to lose.
Tag: Fear-Mongering
Ducttapegate.
Follow the money…as it turns out, a six-figure GOP donor stood quite a bit to gain from Tom Ridge’s recent hawking of duct tape. (Via Medley.) Of course, if this type of thing had happened during Clinton’s watch, Dan Burton would have already opened a House investigation by now.
Twenty-First Century Scopes.
A Texas Tech biology professor gets in hot war for refusing to recommend creationists for medical school. And as you might expect, the Ashcroft Justice Department stepped in. Pretty pathetic, really…I can’t believe this case will go anywhere. However you feel about creationism, we’re not talking about grades here – we’re talking about recs. A professor is well within his or her rights to refuse a recommendation to anyone he or she so desires. If Prof. Dini here thinks creationism and faith healing make lousy prerequisites for med school, then so be it…get a rec from the bible-thumping biology professor down the hall. And, as for the Justice Dept…well, if another student was denied a rec because she believed in the efficacy of bloodletting, would the Justice Department be getting involved? I doubt it. But somehow Ashcroft still finds time enough outside of spreading panic and buying duct tape futures to prosecute his theocratic agenda. Sad, sad, sad.
Agents Orange.
Speaking of Orwell (is it Eurasia or Eastasia today, Saddam or Osama?), the Dubya administration capitalizes on terror panic to drum up war fever (and good media coverage.) It’s amazing to me how worried many people here in town seemed about the recent orange alert (status update via Looka.) One friend told me that his out-of-town guests cancelled their flight into the city because of a possible attack, and a handful of other folks I know wouldn’t use the subway. I dunno…I just can’t get too stressed about something that’s so completely out of my hands. Besides, it’s probably true that living in New York City increases the chances that I’ll die as a result of terrorism, but it also vastly decreases the chances that I’ll die in a car wreck, which is still the leading cause of death in America for people under 33. So, it’s basically a wash. Not that I’m ambivalent about perishing in a gas attack or something worse, mind you, but I just don’t see the utility in freaking out every time the US intelligence community decides to cover its ass by issuing warnings based on non-specific “specific information.”