Yesterday, I spent some time in Michigan’s Capitol Building, you can read about it here (warning: wonky budget negotiation details ahead). But one thing really struck me- how open and well, free it was. No charges, no pat downs, no burly men in suits with guns posted at every door. I even spoke with a Senator, just walked right up to her and started chatting it up. Something a lowly DFH
blogger-cum-cub reporter could never, ever do in DC. This is really the heart of the problem about which so many are constantly complaining. There is no contact between real people and their leaders elected officials, not at the national level at least. For Democratic reps, the most important thing is what is said on TV, and the only America they know is one on constant Orange Alert, peopled with “protective” thugs and brownshirts on every corner.
I didn’t really enjoy it, but like everyone else who wants to move on the Hill in DC, I got used to all the security measures that honestly, are making the town ugly. Barricades, police vehicles on every corner, all manner of checks and tags and providing your “papers” to people. It’s like an armed camp. Really- compared to my day yesterday, I can’t stress that enough. No wonder Pelosi and Reid honestly believe the rest of America is as askeerd as they- toss in a little domestic wiretapping and ratfucking, and it must be very spooky for them.
There is an important lesson here. It seems that all one has to do to sustain a coup in a once-democratic nation is to imprison the former “leaders” in a invisible prison of fear. Make them feel fear, and they won’t be able to think and fight and otherwise act logically to preserve the Constitution. Huh. I suppose that’s the progress of technology, or something. Back in the day, you had to fool a whole nation (and certainly immediately after 9/11 that was the case). Today, it’s only important you control the environment where government representatives live and work. Although, there’s really no excuse at this point for any Democrat to believe what they see on TV. That part I can only explain by stupidity.
…like how I slipped that lil Putin bit in there? You’d think the SCLM would consider that an important story, more so than today’s missing white woman. But they don’t.
Front page
So Bush did look into Putin's soul, and he liked what he saw
Looks like Putin’s got that “continuity of government” thing under total control:
Indeed. I like “prepares.” That’s excellent.
And I think this is a brilliant and perceptive post. This is what I was trying to reason my way toward with the idea that the anthrax attack might have changed the small group dynamics on The Hill to the great detriment of the Democrats, but you back it up with evidence. (This is why, for exmaple, the state legislatures are rebelling against crap like Real ID.)
The unfortunate thing is what it will take to burst the bubble. I fear it won’t be pretty. Or exhibit a lot of Civility
.
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
lb, i believe the word is "awesome."
putin’s consolidation of control over the russian
Courtgovernment: Awesome!but being serious, that Dood is starting to scare me. and i really don’t see anyone, in either party, with the brains and guts to outmaneuver him.
in the Olde Days, the King Brothers were very, very smart people, whatever else they may have been. putin’s young, but old enough to have come up when it really was more of a brain game than it is today. my foily imagination has a lot of well, not exactly “fun” playing with various scenarios about putin’s ultimate goals.
and let me shock you some more with contrast:
not only did i not see stormtroopers everywhere, but i met and had a nice conversation with an openly gay man in a suit, with just a little shiny-shin to indicate that he was one of the building police. a nice, friendly guy who offered to get me an extension cord so i could liveblog the hearing.
again, huge contrast with most DC cops. some of them were friendly enough, but between the stormtrooper uniforms and the constant surveillance (of them as well as of us), the atmosphere was always only “fake friendly” at best. as Rev. Yearwood learned yesterday, it doesn’t take much “attitude” to set them off.
i totally agree with you about the anthrax thing. what kills me- it was so blatantly a rovian ploy. i mean, only addressed to dem leaders? whatever. hillary should’ve called an emergency closed door session for all the dems, and ’splained to them about the lengths to which the VRWC
will go. instead, cowardice and foolishness prevailed. so again i’m back to those two characteristics which seem to best describe “our” party, over and over again.