Freddie Thompson: Not Very Smart But Friendly

"Up yours, America!"

At least, friendly to Tricky Dick, that is. Isn't the Bush Administration already sufficiently riddled with amoral Nixon-Era retreads? Do we really need more?

Speaking Ill of the Dead

Unsurprisingly, the RW Noise Machine is turning against Gerald Ford for his posthumously-published criticism of the Iraq War, and support for gay marriage. I tend to be somewhat less sympathetic to Ford as a war critic; this is, after all, the same guy who was ready to intervene militarily in Angola and go to war with Cambodia over the Mayaguez Incident (which I inititally kept confusing with North Korea and the Pueblo Incident). Nevertheless, its interesting to see how quickly the RW turns against any who dare to criticize this Administration, especially fellow Republicans. One thing I had not known about Ford until the coverage of his death was that he was a progressive internationalist pro-United Nations Republican specifically recruited by Senator Arthur Vandeberg to run against an old isolationist GOP Congressman. In that light, and especially considering the RW's pathological need to portray that bucolic old fascist Nixon as some sort of beloved elder statesman, it's not hard to see why they are turning on Ford now.

Some Free Advice

I have been arguing for some time now that if the Democrats do manage to take one or both House of Congress, they should resist the urge to pay the GOP back for what happened after 1994--a legislative, investigative full-scale attack on the presidency, culminating in the impeachment debacle. I argued this for purely practical reasons: it doesn't work. Bill Clinton used his political judo against Congress and ended up more popular on the day he was impeached than George W. Bush has been in over a year. Now, via the Carpetbagger Report, Paul Krugman has a different perspective. Krugman's thesis, in a nutshell, is that Republicans are inherently, intrinsicly evil and no matter how bi-partisan Democrats try to be, the GOP will stab them in the back at the first opportunity. Given the Republic Party's fixation with racism and other despicable campaign tactics, and dangerous militarist fantasies, I have a hard time disagreeing with the basic premise. On the other hand, the GOP has at least two things the Democrats don't, namely total dominance of the media and huge piles of special interest money. Even if a subpoena war was in the best interest of the nation, I'm not sure we could win it. Yes, there should be investigations, definately; Bush and Cheney have turned the White House into a political chamber of horrors. And, of course, this revamped, retread Nixonian version of the Imperial Presidency will reject any effort by Congress to dare infringe on its apparently god-like powers. In fact, it may well be that, whether or not Democrats want a war, Bush will force one by continuing to systematically ignore the checks and balances of the Constitution.

The Rich Get Richer

Yes, yes, all terribly shocking news, of course. But you can't blame just the Republicans. Only Nixon could go to China; only Clinton could've passed NAFTA. NAFTA (and the entire cult of "Free" Trade) are systematically destroying the US economy. I have said it before, and I will say it again: you canNOT be a global economic superpower if you don't make anything. You canNOT be a global economic superpower if the only available jobs in your country are delivering pizza and repairing consumer electronics made in other countries. You canNOT be a global economic superpower if all you do is sell resources to other countries to make things to sell in your country. In fact, that makes you the Belgian Congo.