[sociate] A way to tell the voters, "I tried."

In a beautiful Op-Ed piece in the NY Times, author Thomas Frank (
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0805073396/jerrymichalskisr> What's
the Matter with Kansas?) neatly demonstrates how Conservatives took the path
least likely to succeed so they could stage-manage an event that allowed
them to pander to the extreme elements in their base, forced Democrats and
maverick Republicans like McCain to vote "no," and won plenty of earned
media (press coverage you "win" when you do something controversial). I
especially like the way Republicans consistently accuse Liberals of doing
what the Republicans are in fact doing: 


What's more, according to the outraged senators, these liberal judges were
acting according to a plan. Maybe no one used the term "conspiracy," but Mr.
Brownback asserted that the Massachusetts judges who allowed gay marriages
to proceed there were merely mouthing a "predetermined outcome"; Orrin Hatch
of Utah asserted that "these were not a bunch of random, coincidental legal
events"; and Jim Bunning of Kentucky warned how "the liberals, who have no
respect for the law" had "plotted out a state-by-state strategy" that they
were now carrying out, one domino at a time. (Link
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/16/opinion/16FRAN.html>  requiring sub; link
<http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=555588>  to full text in Furl.)

Last I looked, our Constitution is not a place to enshrine any kind of bias.


Want a state-by-state conspiracy? Take a look at
<http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1024-04.htm> redistricting (especially
<http://www.takingontomdelay.com/> Tom DeLay's infamous actions in Texas),
<http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/states/> Super DMCA bills and school books --
particularly how the books that our children read in school are selected
(watch the composition of the
<http://www.tasb.org/about/bios/index_members.shtml> Texas School Board,
whose decisions affect many of the other states' selections). 


posted by Jerry Michalski at 12:08
<http://www.sociate.com/blog/archives/2004_07_01_archive.html#10900068933427
5072> AM

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