{"id":25,"date":"2005-09-19T14:13:08","date_gmt":"2005-09-19T20:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/?p=25"},"modified":"2005-09-19T14:16:40","modified_gmt":"2005-09-19T20:16:40","slug":"flat-earth-anyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/nada\/dump-duhbya\/flat-earth-anyone\/","title":{"rendered":"Flat Earth, Anyone?"},"content":{"rendered":"

During Bush’s early clumsy fumbles after Katrina, some said “The Bush Era is over.” Just remember <\/p>\n

the Republican Juggernaut is as relentless as a terminator — nothing will make them give up their mission to bankrupt the Federal <\/p>\n

government and discredit all forms of government. So, once the new TV season is in full swing, expect them to resume as if nothing has <\/p>\n

changed. Because nothing has, other than a few more people seeing Bush for what he is — and they hardly need him anymore. mjh<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Bush Repackaged<\/a> By Eleanor Clift, Newsweek<\/p>\n

To hear Bush talk, <\/p>\n

we\u2019re about to witness a Republican utopia in the hurricane zon<\/strong>e. Children will go to school with vouchers. Wages will <\/p>\n

be lowered and regulations waived to accommodate the big contractors. The entire area will become a free-enterprise zone. And the GOP, <\/p>\n

under the guise of economic revival, will impose one of its favorite ideas, the flat tax. It\u2019s reminiscent of the Jim Carrey movie \u201cThe <\/p>\n

Truman Show,\u201d where Carrey lives in a picture-perfect town–except it turns out all the residents are actors. In Bush\u2019s version, <\/p>\n

everybody\u2019s a Republican. …<\/p>\n

Democrats are up against a coordinated, energetic effort on the right to implement policies <\/p>\n

conservative theorists have been hoping to put into place for a long time.<\/strong> The rebuilding effort is ideologically motivated and <\/p>\n

influenced by the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank that fueled the Reagan presidency. The proposals in a report titled <\/p>\n

\u201cTragedy to Triumph\u201d are premised on the belief that corporations freed from labor unions, environmental restrictions and onerous taxes <\/p>\n

will reap huge profits and those profits will grow the pie for everybody–and at least create some crumbs for the masses. <\/p>\n

This is a pivotal moment in politics<\/strong> with a president severely compromised and the country poised to embrace a <\/p>\n

contrary view of government that rejects the Darwinian capitalism of the Reagan-Bush era. …<\/p>\n

The White House, in order to repair <\/p>\n

Bush\u2019s image, is doing what Republicans used to accuse Democrats of doing–throwing money at the problem. … Majority leader Tom DeLay <\/p>\n

had the gall to boast of an \u201congoing victory\u201d under 11 years of Republican control, but he may have to eat those words next November. The <\/p>\n

\u201906 election will be a referendum on Republican governance, and in the wake of the Katrina debacle, the GOP has lost its aura of <\/p>\n

competence. If they can\u2019t get hurricane relief right, how can they keep us safe from terrorists? …<\/p>\n

There is already a lot of <\/p>\n

money flowing to the gulf region, and people with close ties to the White House could be among those who benefit. The gold rush is on. <\/p>\n

Progressives better make a case for reinvigorating government before Bush and his pals dismantle what\u2019s left of the New Deal.<\/p>\n

Bush’s <\/p>\n

vision for New Orleans: a profiteer’s paradise<\/a><\/p>\n

Corporate profiteering from the disaster is only the tip of the <\/p>\n

iceberg. Bush\u2019s allies in the Republican-controlled Congress are urging that reconstruction be accompanied by measures limiting victims\u2019 <\/p>\n

right to sue, establishing school vouchers, lifting restrictions on federal funds for religious groups, suspending environmental <\/p>\n

regulations on new oil refineries, waiving the estate tax, and enacting a flat tax. \u201cThe desire to bring conservative, free-market ideas <\/p>\n

to the Gulf Coast is white hot,\u201d said Representative Mike Pence of Indiana. …<\/strong><\/p>\n

This rejection of \u201cbig government\u201d <\/p>\n

applies, however, only to those federal functions left over from the past that have to do with protecting the physical and economic <\/p>\n

security of working people. When it comes to maintaining law and order and protecting the property of the wealthy, however, Bush is <\/p>\n

emphatically in favor of federal power and the use of military force. …<\/p>\n

Bush concluded: \u201cIt is now clear that a challenge on <\/p>\n

this scale requires greater federal authority and a broader role for the armed forces\u2014the institution of our government most capable of <\/p>\n

massive logistical operations on a moment\u2019s notice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus the failure of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the <\/p>\n

Homeland Security Department in Hurricane Katrina is used as the justification for making the military takeover of New Orleans a <\/p>\n

precedent for future and broader exercises in martial law. The posse comitatus law, Bush implied, which bars the military from domestic <\/p>\n

policing, must be weakened or repealed outright.<\/p>\n

Bush’s reputation hinging on <\/p>\n

Gulf Coast’s recovery :: The Daily Herald, Provo Utah<\/a><\/p>\n

The president’s call for a “Gulf Opportunity Zone” is intriguing, but <\/p>\n

he needs to make sure storm relief doesn’t become a Trojan horse for every conservative ideologue’s favorite pet project. Flat tax, <\/p>\n

anyone?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During Bush’s early clumsy fumbles after Katrina, some said “The Bush Era is over.” Just remember the Republican Juggernaut is as relentless as a terminator — nothing will make them give up their mission to bankrupt the Federal government and discredit all forms of government. So, once the new TV season is in full swing, … Continue reading Flat Earth, Anyone?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dump-duhbya"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}