Deborah Lipp

The Founding Fathers knew. The Founding Fathers hated government, because they knew that power breeds the love of power. They’d have started another revolution over “Unitary Executive Powers,” over “signing statements,” over warrantless spying.

It’s not that power corrupts. I mean, power does corrupt, but that’s another story. It’s that power loves to keep power, just as wealth loves to keep wealth, just as bureaucracy loves to perpetuate bureaucracy.

Life seeks self-preservation. Not just individual life, but all things about which we might say ‘they take on a life of their own’: Communities, nations, causes, institutions. That which has a life seeks to preserve its own life. That’s the nature of things. Not wrong. Just is.

Institutions are founded for reasons, but soon their raison de etre is the preservation of the institution. This may or may not breed corruption, but the mission is lost. Part of why we stay in bad relationships, or dead-end jobs, or hold on to outmoded notions, is simply the self-sustaining urge we apply to each of these things.

So to be in power is to seek to preserve your own power. And the more power you have, the better able you are to do that, until at last you create tyranny. The Founding Fathers created checks and balances, gave primary power to Congress, designed a government that would kick the President in the ass if he went too far, because they foresaw this. They foresaw that to be powerful is to seek to steal power from others. In a word, they foresaw George W. Bush. That’s why they gave Congress the power to stop him (or at least slow him way down). All Congress has to do is act.

Day before yesterday I was listening to Randi Rhodes and a caller made what I thought was an extremely astute observation. He was from Pearl River, NY which is right local to me, so I was paying particular attention.

‘If there really was good news from Iraq’, said the caller, ‘Fox News would be broadcasting it 24/7. They wouldn’t be reaching for spin on the bad news. It’d be all good news all the time.’

Per Shakes, fewer people are opposed to gay marriage.

Here’s my thinking: I actually think that what’s happening is, as the issue comes to the fore (thanks to the homobigots) more and more gay couples are just speaking plainly about why they’d like to marry.

It is always much easier to be bigoted against an abstract than against a person. The “wedge issue” has created a condition in which conservatives are, for the first time, being exposed to Teh Gay as persons.

Thing is, the homobigots are dinosaurs and they know it. I’ve seen studies that suggest close to 80% of people under the age of 25 are in favor of legal gay marriage. The bigots are going to die out, and they are in the anger and denial stages. They are thrashing around destroying the foliage like dinosaurs in their final throes.

Say goodbye to the bigots, Timmy.

Per Shakespeare’s Sister, the news that Rudy Giuliani is considered a front-runner for the Republican 2008 Presidential nomination.

Rudy is a great man when he has great things to do. But it’s like he has ADD. The minute Great Things™ aren’t attracting his attention, he goes after whatever’s nearest.

Probably the best thing he ever did was “Don’t Block the Box” (but then, the best thing Ed Koch ever did was “Don’t Even Think About Parking Here!” — New Yorkers take our traffic problems seriously). Rudy cleaned up New York in a big way, but then when the big work was done, he started going after street vendors (whom We the NY People love) and street artists, and people who parody him, and Mark Green. Why? Just ’cause. He didn’t have anything better to do.

And when he’d alienated everyone who ever looked cross-eyed at him he didn’t just cheat on his wife, he did so publically, humiliating her to the nth degree by finally declaring his engagement to his mistress in a press conference, which is how his wife found out.

Then 9/11 happened and while America longed for a hero that failed to emerge from Washington, Giuliani behaved in a truly heroic fashion, compassionate, kind, brave, and tireless. He was everywhere with everyone. And although this is not well known, he very nearly died; he was in #7 just minutes before it collapsed.

He declined to run for mayor again in order to run for Senate (where he’d have surely beaten Hillary), then withdrew from that race because of his prostate cancer.

He could have left his mayoralty with dignity. Instead he tried to get the law in New York changed retroactively, for no other reason than to take a petty swipe at longtime enemy Mark Green. He left a bad taste in our mouths with that one, and proved that though he is capable of greatness when the moment demands it, in repose he is petty, vindictive, and dishonest.

I heard this on the radio this morning while I was getting dressed (registration required for link).

John Dunleavy, the parade chairman, touched off a new controversy by comparing Irish gay activists to neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. In an interview yesterday in The Irish Times, Mr. Dunleavy was quoted as saying, “If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow neo-Nazis into their parade? If African-Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?”

To understand how mad this made me, understand that I heard it, then got dressed, made coffee, drove to work, drank more coffee, and then was still mad enough to look it up to post it.

Because obviously, Irish gays and lesbians in an Irish parade are just like the KKK in an African-American parade. They have the same murderous intent, the same hatred, the same violent criminal history.

/sarcasm

Well, despite what I said about not bitching about the Dems, Molly Ivins nails ’em good; too good not to quote it:

Every Democrat I talk to is appalled at the sheer gutlessness and spinelessness of the Democratic performance. The party is still cringing at the thought of being called, ooh-ooh, “unpatriotic?? by a bunch of rightwingers.

Take “unpatriotic?? and shove it. How dare they do this to our country? “Unpatriotic??? These people have ruined the American military! Not to mention the economy, the middle class, and our reputation in the world. Everything they touch turns to dirt, including Medicare prescription drugs and hurricane relief.

(Hat tip to Pandagon.)

Buncha frickin wimps.

Honestly, I don’t like to participate in the griping about Dems that many liberals and progressives enjoy. Doesn’t suit my basic optimistic nature. But come on! How low does Bush’s approval rating have to go? How huge a percentage of Americans have to hate this dreadful war? How much of a majority do we need who disapprove of warrantless spying?

Nothing but wimpy. Feingold for President.

Senator Russ Feingold is calling for President Bush to be censured for violating the law by spying on Americans without warrants.

I’ve called my Senators. Neither Schumer nor Clinton has a stated position on this yet. That means they’re waiting to find out which way the wind is blowing. Tell them. Call your senators and tell them to support this.