New Addition to Classic Commentary

Decided my Empty Wallet Economics was getting kind of lonely, so decided to add my Parable of the Ten Guys Who Went to Dinner.

More to come I hope--it's in text format, for complication of use.

The Strength of the Republicans

The great strength of Conservative Republicans is that they hold the White House, they hold the Senate, and they hold the House of Representatives. They have greater power to get their message out than ever before, including Fox News, the Washington Times, Rush Limbaugh and so on and so forth. They talk happily about this being the twilight of American Liberalism and some portray the 2004 election as the end of the Democratic Party.

And yet, they still manage to with a straight face, describe themselves as a persecuted Minority. I'll bet there are any number of racial minorities who wish we would persecute them the way that we persecute Conservatives.

Words to Consider

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Happy 4th of July.

Your Weekly Rush : More Anger Ahead

Conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh was going off on the redefinition of patriotism by Liberals. You see, according to Rush, some Liberals are upset at being called unpatriotic. Said liberals have decided to redefine liberalism as attacking the President and tearing down the Country.

Well, I'm going to stop pretending not to understand what this is all about. It's true; Rush and other Republicans have attacked the patriotism of Liberals on a regular basis, and if you don't believe me, just look at the story right below this one.

What's new is this bizarre idea that Conservatives have that seems to indicate that attacking the President is the same as attacking the country. You'll notice them not ascribing to this theory during the Clinton Presidency. During that time, they apparently felt that attacking the President was fine. It's attacking a Conservative president that is attacking the country, according to Rush.

Just another example of Republicans stacking the deck against Democrats.

I'm Angry

Ann Coulter has written a new book entitled Treason with a long subtitle that I'm not all the interested in looking up. Basically her point is that Liberals are guilty of being commie lovers and of hating America, and then when people call them Commie-lovers and America-haters they smear them.

In her article today, she continues along the same vein, saying, "The left's shameful refusal to admit collaboration with one of the great totalitarian regimes of the last century – like their defense of Bill Clinton – quickly transformed into a vicious slander campaign against those who bore witness against them."

Heres a simple logic preposition that Ms. Coulter seems to want us all to accept.

Statement 1: Some Liberals were also Communists and/or Spys.
Statement 2: Some Liberals denied being Communists.
Statement 3: All Liberals are guilty of a shameful refusal to admit collaboration with the Soviet Union.

Wisely she chooses not to focus on their culpability of liberals, but instead on how innocent J. Edgar Hoover and others are maligned by the left. By making it about individuals she can avoid talking about Hoover and Joseph McCarthy's effect on America.

She pulls out the old argument about how FDR shuffled Japanese Americans into camps while being praised as a genius. Make no mistake, it was a disgraceful moment in American history and in FDR's generally noble life.

But of couse she makes no mention of his declining health, or the fact that he privately didn't like doing it. He was pressured into doing it by the Governors of California, Oregon and Washington. She also ignores that many liberals of the time criticized. Indeed her analysis seems to be FDR did it, he's a liberal, Liberals are guilty. I'm sorry, Ms Coulter but perhaps a more indepth analysis might be required.

President Bush Speaks

Speaking on the current situation in Iraq. "There are some who feel like that conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is 'bring them on'. We have the force necessary to deal with the situation."

Nice to know that President Bush is willing to stand up to Iraqi terrorists from the safety of the White House. His bravado, I mean bravery, is an inspiration to us all.

Helpful Advice from David Limbaugh

Yes, David Limbaugh, related to a famous radio personality whose name escapes me at the moment, has some helpful advice for the Democratic base. We need to take prozac. You see we are too angry and are therefore making up charges about President Bush. Like that silly charge that he claimed we would find Weapons of Mass distruction in Iraq, and now we haven't found them. We should remember that ". . . People know Bush is not a liar and has been an exemplary commander-in-chief." If we calm down we can reject a liberal candidate in favor of a more viable centrist candidate.

And on the upside, if we elect a centrist candidate, that candidate will be much less likely to challenge President Bush in debates or on the campaign trail. The candidate can run on a sort of "Hooray for President Bush (but vote for me for President)" slogan. And then even if our Democratic candidate wins, he'll be a centrist. Of course Republicans will paint him as a little more liberal than Stalin, but they won't mind all that much. So everybody wins (except for those few cursed souls who fail to take their prozac and hold out for actual liberal ideas.

Now If you'll excuse me . . . darn, can't get this stupid lid off . . . Stupid prozac . . .

Your Weekly Rush

Was listening to Rush as I drove around town today and heard him say something interesting. He said, "If I had a million dollars, no if I had a dollar for everybody who's said words to the effect that if you told me we'd have a Republican Senate, a Republican House of Representatives, a Republican White House and a Republican Supreme Court and we'd be seeing the kind of legislation and actions that we are seeing . . . " Rush went on to confirm that these were in some cases big donars to the Republican cause.

Yep--you Republicans really aren't getting a lot of bang for your buck are you? You should all stop giving your money to President Bush and start giving it to me. I won't advance your agenda either, but at least I'm not pretending to.

An Interesting Point

Joe Conason, who I became aware of as a Clinton apoligist, has been writing a daily blog for Salon. It's quite good, truth to tell, although he doesn't use fancy colors like I do. At any rate, today he comments on Grover Norquist who is finding himself in the news more and more, and must find the sensation unpleasent. Grover Norquist, you will remember, is the one who is planning for decades of conservative dominence, based on the Republican ability to Gerrymander.

Well, what does this mean for Democrats? Well Conason has a radical solution: "Differences among the Democratic factions can scarcely be minimized in the aftermath of the divisive (and ongoing) debate over the war in Iraq. But if lockstep unity is possible in the Republican Party -- whose factions encompass anarcho-libertarians like Norquist and religious fundamentalists like his comrade Ralph Reed -- then the various kinds of Democrats might at least consider learning to talk to each other."

Talking to each other. Hmmmm. Respecting each other despite our differences? That's so crazy it just might work.

Who Cares?

In light of the Iraq war, I think it's important to remember that President Bush and his cronies, I mean advisors are wonderful perfect people that we are lucky to have living among us. They are not mean spirited insane trolls that some on the left would portray them as.

For example, see this editorial from Army Times, the periodical dedicated to the Army. The writer states, " . . . the White House griped that various pay-and-benefits incentives added to the 2004 defense budget by Congress are wasteful and unnecessary — including a modest proposal to double the $6,000 gratuity paid to families of troops who die on active duty. This comes at a time when Americans continue to die in Iraq at a rate of about one a day.

Similarly, the administration announced that on Oct. 1 it wants to roll back recent modest increases in monthly imminent-danger pay (from $225 to $150) and family-separation allowance (from $250 to $100) for troops getting shot at in combat zones."

Some of the more emotional among you might be tempted to agree with the editorialist's assessment that the Bush Administration is more interested in supporting the troops with words than with deeds, but I urge you to ignore that assessment. Remember the Bush Administration led us to victory in the war in Iraq, and they are the military's best friend. They've said so, themselves.

Edited to add--I was tipped off to this by Bill Harris over at "This Modern World." So can't say I came up with it all on my own.

Good News

Well, the Supreme Court declined to hear NIKE in their quest to make it OK for corporations to lie. For those unfamiliar with the case, NIKE arranged to have several films produced emphasizing the good conditions their workers over seas enjoyed. Unfortunately for NIKE, the films were not entirely truthful. They were sued, by Marc Kasky under California Truth in advertising laws.

NIKE chose, for whatever reason, not to contest the substance of his complaint, but to challenge the very right of Mr. Kasky to complain at all. They stated that to expect NIKE to speak truthfully about their product would have a chilling effect on their speech, and they pointed to the political aspects of their films. This argument was rejected by the court, and the Supreme Courts decision not to hear the case means that it is largely a done deal.

Jeff Milchen and Jeffrey Kaplan comment, saying, "Corporations need not be held to perfect accuracy, but allowing corporations to deliberately deceive is a recipe for disaster. The Supreme Court justices need to reverse the decades-long trend of granting greater legal powers to corporations and make clear that the Bill of Rights was written to protect human liberty, not to shield business from accountability."

New Quote

Moving from Woody Allen to the gold old days when stories with animals were all the rage, we have a quote by my close personal friend Aesop.

Many of you may not be aware of this, but Aesop is actually a Psuedonym. Aesop's real name is Neil Tennet, and he is one of the Pet Shop Boys. Due to the an accident, scheduled to happen in about six months, involving Mr. Tennet and a protypical time machine being developed by Fritolay, Mr. Tennet wrote "Aesop's" fables.

Here at Make Me a Commentator we strive to entertain as well as educate.

Annoying the Boycotters

Not quite as catchy as watching the detectives but still interesting. Anyway for those who like to boycott stuff produced by people who criticized President Bush, here's something fun.

Pearl Jam, who wrote a song entitled "Bush Leaguer" to point out some of the defects in our current President, and who have repeatedly attacked our president at their concerts, have decided once again to put out bootlegs of every concert in their current tour.

While we are on that subject, this is an idea that perhaps other bands could consider? If you don't want to be as aggressive as Pearl Jam, why not put out two or three great shows from each tour?

But getting back to Annoying the Boycotters, they are annoying, wouldn't purchasing a Bootleg from a show they did at Paris (or Lyon or Marseilles, etc.) be, if not the ultimate annoyance, at least very very annoying indeed to those who enjoy boycotting? But it is not possible--currently they apparently aren't going to Europe. So you might have to settle for a Canadian show.