Con Blog 4-17-06

April 17th, 2006 at 01:13pm Michael Conniff 2

Prez, First Lady Going Gay

For those of you who have completely and utterly given up on the Bush White House, allow me to point out that they did allow gay and lesbian couples to bring all of God’s children to the annual Easter egg hunt. Some 100 gay and lesbian couples made it to the seat of American power amidst an Administration that wishes they would just go away. Said couples wore rainbow (coalition) leis just in case the Bushables missed the point. The President and the First Lady their ownselves got the spoon-fed eggs rolling.

Read what you want into the egg incident, but here’s what I see: the objections to embracing non-traditional parents and their children are absurd on the face of it, because as I live and breathe they exist—and they’re not going anywhere.

Oil You Need To Know Is Price

The amazing thing to me about this story—oil is now $70 a barrel—is that whenever anyone makes any reference to the soaring price of oil in the months and years since what the poobahs-that-be call Operation Iraqi Freedom, we are always told emphatically that the price of oil is very complicated and has very little to do with the invasion. If that’s so, then it would have to be one of the great global petro-jelly coincidences (and consequences) of all time.

In fact, according to the former Nixon adviser and conservative anti-Bush pundit Kevin, the Republican pursuit of the oil vote and oil money goes back decades. I plan to do some digging here.

For Hamas, Money For Nothing Not Guaranteed

The Middle Eastern nation of Qatar is giving $50 million to the terrorist organization Hamas to get on its feet and Iran says it’s going to kick in an unspecified sum. The United States and its allies more or less refuse to have anything to do with the democratically elected Hamas, because it professes the destruction of the state of Israel. The problem for the new leadership is the Palestinians have no economy to speak of, and they will rely on sympathetic handouts for the foreseeable future. For now, at least, Hamas will make do without any help from the coalition of the willing.

GOP Glop Until They Drop

I’m trying as hard as I can to generate some sympathy for the Grand Old Party, but it’s just not coming. My bad. I wish I could support a Republican party that supported the blockhead Iraqi war, but I can’t. And I can’t generate any enthusiasm for the wiretapping and torture and death that’s gone along with it. The bans on gay marriage and flag-burning also make me dyspeptic. If every a party deserved to lose the midterm elections, then this is it. Rewards for failure, ineptitude, and corruption should be banishment to the Siberia of the think tanks that spawned the spear-carriers of flawed ideas.