This just in: Moral Majority Strikes again!!

R

rmcrobertson

Guest
Hey, here's a good one, from Molly Invins...whose facts, for those of you lost in denial, are eminently checkable. It's on our beloved House Majority Whip, Tom de Lay, probably the loudest and nastiest born-again Christian (which I mention because he usually does) in Congress--a strong supporter of Christian decency, national moralism, the Pledge of Allegiance, the war in Iraq. You know--good clean Americanism all around?

Oddly enough, Congressman de Lay hails from the great state of Texas...


Values Politics

AUSTIN -- Thomas Frank, author of "What's the Matter With Kansas?" is a subscriber to the theory that so-called "values politics" and lifestyle issues are just sophisticated versions of that old carnival con the shell game, in which the object is to keep the rube's eye off the shell with the pea under it.

"The trick never ages: The illusion never wears off. 'Vote' to stop abortion; 'receive' a rollback in capital gains taxes. 'Vote' to make our country strong again; 'receive' deindustrialization. 'Vote' to screw those politically correct college professors; 'receive' electricity deregulation. ... 'Vote' to stand tall against terrorists; 'receive' Social Security privatization."

As a result of this gussied up and newly sophisticated political con job, Franks sees the country as "a panorama of madness and delusion ... of sturdy blue-collar patriots reciting the Pledge while they strangle their own life chances; of small farmers proudly voting themselves off the land; of devoted family men carefully seeing to it that their children will never be able to afford college or proper health care; of working-class guys ... delivering up a landslide for a candidate whose policies will end their way of life and transform their region into a 'rustbelt,' and strike people like them blows from which they will never recover."

So here we are at the ultimate level of the con game -- if you don't support Bush's misbegotten war or you object to how this administration has fouled up in carrying it out, you're unpatriotic.

I'd like to draw your attention to another example of how you're being suckered that's common as dirt these days, but is in the headlines here in Texas because three top fund-raising lieutenants to Rep. Tom DeLay got indicted on Tuesday, along with eight corporations. They are charged on the unlikely grounds of having broken Texas campaign finance law. Actually, we don't have much in the way of campaign finance law in this state -- anybody can give any amount of any money to anybody, except, of course, for corporations and labor unions. Oops.

This was really a beautiful play, kind of a triple bank shot, according to the indictment. Corporate money was passed through DeLay's national political action committee, Americans for a Republican Majority, back to an affiliate Texans for a Republican Majority, where it was funneled into 17 statehouse races that would give Republicans a majority in the Ledge and allow the election of Tom Craddick as speaker.

Then, Craddick used the new majority to force an unprecedented, out-of-turn redrawing of the Texas congressional districts at the instruction and tutelage of DeLay's aides and DeLay himself. Republicans are predicted to pick up five new seats under the Craddick-DeLay plan, thus helping ensure their party's lock on the U.S. House. Neat, huh?

It's kind of hard to hide all this under one shell, especially since Republicans went around bragging about breaking the law after the 2002 election, but I was interested in the corporate indictments because I found a couple of familiar names there.

Westar Energy of Wichita, Kansas -- imagine that. Two Westar executives are under already under indictment on 40 federal criminal charges NOT including bribery charges stemming from the $60,000 Westar contributed to DeLay and three other players in order, according to company memos, to buy legislation to excuse the company from federal investment regulations.

Rep. Joe Barton of Texas introduced the provision that Westar wanted into the energy bill, and DeLay, the majority leader, and Billy Tauzin, on the energy conference committee, both voted for it. The Westar exemption was dropped from the bill only when papers reported a federal investigation of the company.

Another favorite of mine, also named in the Texas indictment, is the Bacardi USA rum company. The company is actually Bacardi Ltd., headquartered in Bermuda, and has been involved for years in a lawsuit with another rum company over a trademark issue. DeLay first tried to change language in the defense appropriations bill in November 2003 to fix a section of the bill to Bacardi's specifications.

Bacardi has contributed tens of thousands not only to DeLay's political action committees but also to DeLay's "charitable causes." DeLay, a born-again Christian, set up a tax-exempt corporation, Celebrations for Children, to solicit "donor packages" of up to $500,000 to pay for Broadway shows, cruises, golf tournaments and private dinners with DeLay and other members of Congress during the Republican Convention. The rest of the money was to go to homes for foster children in his district. After complaints to the IRS, DeLay cancelled the plans.

For more delicious and amazing stories about how DeLay conducts "bidness as usual" while the Republicans get people all worked up over the menace of gay marriage, get the new book "The Hammer" by Lou Dubose and Jan Reid. I'd recommend it even if they weren't friends of mine, which they are.

© 2004 CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.


Personally, I loved the bit about Born Again De Lay dirty-dancing with Bacardi---hey, what does that company produce...oh yes, RUM...almost as much as I absolutely adored his siphoning a half mil from a kids' charity to pay for fat cat dinner and dancing in New York.

Of course, this stuff is pretty much what I expect from these guys...who daily provide proof that when Jesus enjoined his followers to keep their prayers to themselves, he knew what he was talking about.

Less funny is the dead-on commentary on the extent to which working people and farmers, among many others, have been inveigled into cheerfully selling their own lives down the river, to a corporate-controlled America administered by the likes of George Bush, himself a silver-spoon boy with an Ivy League eduation, who never did an honest day's work in his life.

Give me Reagan or Clinton any day: at least they honestly knew what they were talking about when they talked about beiong poor and working hard.
 

RandomPhantom700

Master of Arts
Joined
May 19, 2004
Messages
1,583
Reaction score
69
Location
Treasure Coast, FL
Interesting. So in each of the situations that the article mentions, some kind of indictment or court case resulting. That, at least, is good to hear.

*reads the last line, then does a double-take* Robertson, did I just read a positive comment about a neocon. politician? I don't mean this rudely, I just figured Reagan would be one of the politicians you usually despise.
 
OP
R

rmcrobertson

Guest
I think Ronald Reagan, for all his extraordinary historical luck (among other things, Mikhail Gorbachev probably was really the guy who saved our asses as the Soviet Union fell), screwed things up that we will be paying for for years. I also think that if we keep putting these glad-handing rightist dorks into positions of authority, sooner or later we are going to get to the bottom of our unique well of historical luck in ways that are going to be spectaculraly unpleasant.

Nonetheless, the guy doesn't seem to've endlessly relied on fantasies about his past--OK, well, there were those times when he had a little trouble distinguishing between his past and his movies...

Any way you slice it, the man was better than what we've got running the country now...and the democratic Congress was fighting back a lot more competently, too...
 

bignick

Senior Master
MTS Alumni
Joined
Jul 30, 2004
Messages
2,892
Reaction score
38
Location
Twin Cities
RandomPhantom700 said:
*reads the last line, then does a double-take* Robertson, did I just read a positive comment about a neocon. politician? I don't mean this rudely, I just figured Reagan would be one of the politicians you usually despise.
everyday has a new suprise...
 

Latest Discussions

Top