The Authoritarians

If you’re like me, you have a hard time ingesting current news, especially on the political front. The polarization of America is, front and center, the most perplexing aspect of current political discourse. Take for instance this fixation on defeating Obama, making him a “one term President” as Mitch McConnell promised early in his administration, during a time of economic crisis when millions of people were losing their homes, their jobs, and their way of life, and Congress should have been working WITH the President, not against him.

Book Review: It’s Even Worse Than It Looks

I wrote a quick review of this book and posted it on my Goodreads account. I’ve expanded it a bit for this post:

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It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the Politics of Extremism by Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars (4.5, actually, but the Goodreads rating system only works with whole numbers)

… It’s nice to find a well researched and articulate book that gives voice to the confusion and bewilderment I have experienced watching political discourse and activity over the past couple of years in this country, especially since Obama was elected. I have had so many WTF moments, incredulous that what was happening in the regular course of government was actually happening. The faux debt crisis, for me, was the straw that broke the camel’s back, the one where I seriously thought Republicans were committing treason. Their actions and positions last summer were so obviously motivated by party-wide self advancement, rather than the good of the country they were elected and paid to serve, that I felt they should have been taken out back and summarily shot.

You Didn’t Get Mad When…

You didn’t get mad when the Supreme Court stopped a legal recount and appointed a President.

You didn’t get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy, or when his previous employer received huge no-bid contracts.

Religion, Republicans And Hypocrisy Rant

<rant> We all know that Religion and Hypocrisy go hand in hand. Religion has no choice. It is impossible to be religious and consistent at the same time, because any religious claim is usually self-contradictory, requiring a pull in two directions. Against abortion? Sure, every life is sacred (except those on death row, service men fighting in war, innocent civilians in Iran and Afghanistan, etc. etc. etc.). Voila’! Instant Hypocrisy.

Less Than Six Months To Go…

According to the clock ticking down over at Evolutionary Middleman, it’s actually 152 days as I write this. One of my favorite sig lines, and bumper stickers, is “1-20-09 – the End of an Error“. Of course, by now you all realize what I’m talking about – the final days of the Bush Ascendancy.  My, how time flies when you’re having…what? Certainly not fun. It seems like only yesterday that I was watching the returns of the 2000 election on NBC, and jumped up and cheered when Tom Brokaw called Florida for Gore, only to have my excitement and giddiness hopelessly dashed on the rocks of Politics-as-Usual by the subsequent turn of events. I think that’s when I started drinking in earnest.

Incredible. Simply Incredible.

George W. Bush stole the election of 2000, with the help of the US Supreme Court.

Nothing new you say? You already knew that? I suspect you did, but, like me, never bothered to dig down into the minutiae of the legal proceedings to fully understand the rationale of the Supreme Court when they stopped the vote counting and handed the presidency to Bush. However, Vincent Bugliosi’s recent book on the Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, which I reviewed here, directed me to a previous book he published back in early 2001, entitled The Betrayal of America: How the Supreme Court Undermined the Constitution and Chose Our President.