Fireside Shit

I was listening to a g bushy speech from a few weeks back on line. I suddenly had this bizarre, not to say utterly insane, notion that internet service should be nationalized. My computer has become my radio. I am finding that I listen to most live and prerecorded programming that I care about online rather than on my radio. Then I thought: SOMEONE KEEPS FINDING A WAY TO MAKE ME PAY FOR EVERYTHING THAT PEOPLE IN THE OLD TIMEY TIMES NEVER HAD TO PAY FOR!

The government would let me pay less, wouldn’t they?

I thought of my grandparents sitting by their radio (which probably resembled the rear of their Desoto), listening to FDR. First of all – they got FDR I got this guy. That’s a HUGE slam at g bushy by the way because I am of the opinion (and have some history to back it up) that FDR gave even less of a shit about the Constitution I love than Howdy Doody does. If my mom’s folks heard me talk this way about FDR they’d slap the shit out of me. I also thought about the fact that I pay $100 a month for tv and internet and if my grandparents were alive they would never stop slapping the shit out of me.

So here I am listening to a digital recording of a shadow of an ambitious extra-constitutional wannabe, while they listened to a real usurper of American presidential tradition, and someone who accomplished great things in the face of greater obstacles. I wonder if the fireside chats were ever recorded? They’d have some big ass acetate and all of a sudden -

FDR recording: “We have noth…we have noth…we have noth…”

Old school radio techs: “Sweet sassy molassy man! The president is skipping!”

FDR staffer: “This is terrible. The American people will think it’s the polio!”

That brings me to presidential, extra-constitutional activities past and present. Our peerless leader is trying to join a rather exclusive group of presidents famous for signing acts and engaging in actions outside the purview of the Constitution. Here is the Mt. Rushmore of suspending or playing fast and loose with the rights of Americans:

1. John Adams – namely the Alien & sedition acts – aside from Sigourney Weaver (who thought that ugly bitch deserved it) – Americans hung that on the legacy of Adams for years…until he had the good sense to die on the 4th of July. Then everything was cool again.

2. Abraham Lincoln’s suspension of the writ of habeas corpus led to the arrest of some 18,000 Confederate “sympathizers” without trial. Hey the guy looked like shit and probably felt worse. Let the poor nerdy bastard suspend the writ of habeas corpus. For once in his miserable life, he probably felt like he was in control of something. Then the sweet bullet came and never again did he have to hear that fat, stupid slut (not Matt Leinart’s wife) tell him to comb his fucking beard.

3. The aforementioned Franklin Delano ‘We Have Nothing to Fear But Having our Businesses Taken from Us and Being Moved From San Francisco to Utah Because We or Someone Related to Us Comes From the Land of the Rising Sun’ Roosevelt…I think his nickname hints at what he did. Shame shame. If you want to see something truly awful, try to find the newsreel that describes the Japanese on their way to the camps as pioneers bringing life to the Utah wilderness. Translation: Let’s see if these bastards can make anything grow in dust ‘n alkali (not a Styx song). Would the president who put Americans in concentration camps and wanted to hold power until it was pryed from his cold dead hand please stand up? Ooops.

4. And the current boob in question has thrown his hat (I never saw him wear a hat) in the ring.

Here is the difference between the good, democratic citizen responses of Boing Boing and our very own ChrisB and me on the president’s support of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. The aforementioned blogs recoiled with horror WHAT HAVE WE BECOME? HAVE WE CROSSED A LINE FROM WHICH THERE IS NO RETURN? WE HAVE BECOME WHAT WE HAVE SWORN TO DEFEAT? OUR REAL VALUES HAVE BEEN BETRAYED!

This is the response of the decent to the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

My response?

This is nothing new. It’s not even as bad as shit that’s happened in the past. It does not seem to affect too many subjects of the Constitution directly and it brings to light something we all knew the CIA was doing anyway…capturing those who may be threats to their client country and extracting info or taking them out of the field of play.

My interest in the president’s support of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 is Why. The ‘Why now?’ question is painfully obvious with the midterm elections closing in. But the next question becomes: What are those who support the Military Commissions Act of 2006 trying to accomplish?

Again, painfully obvious – many R’s need the D’s to get worked up about this questionable legislation so they can say: “See these bastards won’t keep you safe. They are a bunch of terrorist-huggin’ panty wastes! ”

If I was advising D’s I’d tell them to either say nothing about the Act or talk about the circumstances that surround it’s adoption…a ‘who do you trust with the power to defend the regime’ bullshit argument, as if either party could possibly be the right answer to that question.

As far as the substance of the Act, I may return to that. Part of this is a result (as I understand it) of the Supreme Court’s urging for the president to include or be involved in some sort of official codification of these activities (horrific or otherwise). In other words, let there be laws and we can go from there.

To my friends on either side of the aisle – now is not the time to attack g bushy for pretending to tyranny. It doesn’t suit him or the circumstances and it is an insult to tyrants everywhere. These blue ties, especially those who swirl around the CEO don’t have the stomach for real tyranny…they just want to keep their jobs. We should attack g bushy for incompetence in domestic affairs/security as well as the global war on terror. Re: the R Congress, I don’t think we ought to link them to the plots of g bushy as some propagandists for the D’s would like us to. The R’s on the Hill have been in the dark on a lot of this shit.

The saddest thing about the midterms?

The way the election is shaking out (through ads and fundraisers) as a referendum on the current administration and the reputation of one William Jefferson George Clinton.

I wish we had a Parliament.

No I don’t.

We talk about the people's rights to live in a free society…but if we need a campaign run on this shit…make sure we have a big investigation of the Congress…stick Clinton’s face out there as much as possible…portraying the D’s as handjobbing the terrorists (ewww, why did I have to go there?) having g bushy’s face in as many Democratic adds as possible and on the other side having R’s trying to separate themselves from the Poor Man’s Prince Charles (who isn’t the rich man’s anything)…

I'd just like to see one candidate's face in their own ad! What're they thinking? Ooooops.

If that’s the tone and substance of this oh so important election then maybe we ought to just accept the part of ‘peasants’ and let our betters get on with the business of doing whatever it is they think they are doing.


Is that justice?

Is that proper?

I got a lot to lose.