HAIL DUBYUS!

An Illustrated Guide to Mendacity and Folly in the Imperium Americanum

Well, You Didn’t Expect Me To NOT Switch Letters, Did You?

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No new articles on this, it’s just that I think this is a REALLY important issue. We have a strange outlook on things in the US. We HATE poor losers. But we LOVE POOR WINNERS. What’s a poor winner? Someone with no class, who does the brag dance, who thinks he has the right to perform the action of the REAL name of the town in the cartoon on his opponent. It’s just as bad sportsmanship as poor losing, but because we worship winners and demand winning SO much, we not only forgive the winner’s bad sportsmanship without batting an eye, we revel in it ourselves as if we had personally won the contest.

Now this behavior has been integrated into our conduct of elections. The winners of an election NOW have the right to rearrange their state’s districts to ensure not only that the winning party keeps its seats, but will gain MORE seats at the next election. True, it’s bipartisan…it means the same for a state held by one party or the other. But, where is the majority right now? The party that led us into war? That screwed the budget to favor the rich? That is turning its back on the environment because it will mean lower profits? Will it be this party that is our defacto ruling party from now on, with no hope of turning the rascals out, because they can rearrange the districting to protect themselves? This is how democracy ends…with a round of applause.

Oh, I decided to try for a TV cartoon effect in today’s cartoon…hope it worked out.

To The Victor, The Spoils…Now With The Force Of Law

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(WashPost)Tolerating Texas Rules

Once again, the new court has taken steps contrary to the spirit of democracy. By supporting the blatantly partisan redistricting plan, they have enshrined the principle of letting the victor make off with the spoils. The 2006 election may be the most important in American history…unless balance is re-established in the legislature, one party rule will become the NEW American way…

Even the Seven Dwarves Are Upset About This One–They Thought Whistling While You Worked Was Cool ;-)

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(AP WashPost) Quotes on Whistleblower Case

(WashPost)High Court’s Free-Speech Ruling Favors Government

Garcetti et al v. Ceballos (Opinion)

“It will enable management to be more honest and candid in its personnel actions,” said Employment attorney Dan Westman…yup, now they can say, we’re screwing you because you have a big mouth…and won’t have to come up with false job reviews about how someone who’s gotten outstanding ratings for the last five years suddenly merits unsatisfactory performance ratings…I GUESS that’s a plus–if you’re a manager involved in shady shenanigans…or a president…vice president…secretary of defense…This is only to be expected of an administration that favors “corporate loyalty” above adherence to the law. If this is true for the government, what effect will it have in the private sector? Will this become a precedent that will allow any employer to fire an employee for revealing illegal or unethical practices by their company?

There is a quote (mistakenly ascribed to Mussolini) floating around the net that says that fascism should really be called corporatism in that fascism is really the identification of government with corporate interests. A misleading statement–there are other characteristics of fascism that go beyond a mere corporatist viewpoint–but it does identify an essential plutarchic slant of repressive rightwing regimes: that the government is dominated by moneyed individuals and companies, whose loyalities are not to the people, but to their own pocketbooks and power. Do we not have here the natural extension of that identification? If the government can eliminate employees who are “disloyal” to an administration, will that not poison the “corporate waters” for any future administration whose interests run counter to the plutarchs by creating a workforce whose loyalties lie with the administration that favored them?

This is a very dangerous judgment and exposes the ideology of the Bush appointees. Might makes right.

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