Comments on: Patriot Act Proves to Have Totally Unforseen Consequences

by: David

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 02:48:25 +0000

Thanks, Harold. I really like the word. Has a wonderful ring to it.
I’m thinking maybe a broader definition could encompass all truly appalled progressives (TAPS for short, which is what should be played every time the War on Iraq is mentioned).

by: Harold

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 21:29:58 +0000

David, “mudges” are commentors on The Comics Curmudgeon website. At least that’s my term.

by: Jim (OJNTNJ)

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:09:07 +0000

Hedera, what if they were founders? Would the proper usage be “he/she/it foundedeth the Pythian brothers Portland chapter?”

Go easy on Coo…er, Cotton. At least after all these centuries, he’s finally learned to use the letter “s” rather than “f.”

by: David

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 05:21:52 +0000

And getting to hang with Michael Jackson, don’t forget.

by: hedera

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 04:31:37 +0000

Oh, come now. Halliburton moved its headquarters to Dubai for a perfectly obvious reason: no corporate income tax. They should never get another contract from the U.S. government. The new oil laws in Iraq are a side issue.

Whoever is channeling Cotton Mather needs to bone up on the King James Bible. For one thing, the word for Scooter’s nickname is “vain” not “vane”. For another, no one as versed in Elizabethan English as the Mather family was would ever have said “I trusteth” (I trust; he trusteth) or “We foundeth” (we found; I don’t believe anybody ever foundeth). The rest of the comment isn’t bad. The “eth” verb ending was generally used only in the third person singular.

by: David

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 14:13:36 +0000

Recent historical note: back when George HW was president and South Carolina still had a Democratic legislature, the Justice Department vigorously went after corruption in same, with several black South Carolina legislators being taken down. I don’t remember the various charges, and I imagine there was corruption to be investigated, but I thought at the time that it was an effective way to change the makeup of the legislature and at the same play to Reconstruction-era prejudices still alive and all too well in the South. Blacks are aware of those games, which probably helps explain the defiance of Louisiana blacks in re-electing William Jefferson.

Racism has been a lynchpin of the rise of the Republican Party in the South, and I think what HW’s justice department did was just a variation on Nixon’s “southern strategy.” I also think the Republican machine was so taken with their success that use of the justice department for blatant political purposes should come as no surprise. I also suspect that John Ashcroft got canned because he just didn’t have the stomach for what is perfectly appropriate conduct to Alberto “Butt Boy” Gonzalez.

by: M.J. O'Brien

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 04:56:15 +0000

Politics and the legal system are hardly strangers, but the Bush administration seems unable to distinguish the two. With congress investigating, Paul Krugman notes in his NY Times column on Sunday that “Donald Shields and John Cragan, two professors of communication, have compiled a database of investigations and/or indictments of candidates and elected officials by U.S. attorneys since the Bush administration came to power.”

Bottom line concerning this study: Of 375 investigations or indictments of candidates and elected officials, only 17.8% involved Republicans. Either the process is rigged, as Krugman charges, or Republicans are 5.6 times less likely to be corrupt than other politicians. I wonder which it is…

To access the whole Krugman article, you need to be a subscriber to the newspaper or TimesSelect. But the full Shields/Cragan study is online for free at e Pluribus Media.

by: David

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 03:29:56 +0000

OK, Harold, what’s a ‘mudge? Sounds like it ought to be some kind of medieval tourney implement.

by: Harold

Tue, 13 Mar 2007 00:07:10 +0000

I am wondering if the same folks who went apeshit over Dubai Ports World will now have a similar reaction to Halliburton Dubai. Hmm, how long will it take to sever all national security-sensitive ties to this foreign company? And to wipe the memories of all the Halliburton folks who were privy to sensitive information?

siobhan, gillian, glad to know you’re fellow ‘mudges! Someone named Ice Weasel popped up there a while back - it may be our very own!

And if anyone’s been wondering where I’ve been lately, just scan the comments there.

by: The Brushman from Crawford

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 23:35:07 +0000

Gotta watch your Baracks. There was your Ehud on the right, your Obama on the left, and me stuck in a muddle with Saud.