Postcards from the Political Laity
by Art Layman

June 28, 2002 (APJP) -- So let's recap the kool-aid that we, the Political Laity, those of us living our lives on the political sidelines, have been forced to swallow over the last couple of months. Honestly, we've had better springs.

Ohio State University invited "President" Bush to be its commencement speaker.

OK, understandable. As distasteful as he may be, it's still a coup (oops, no pun intended) when a university can get the President of the United States to speak at commencement. They couldn't get Gore, though, so they went with the "President" of the United States. And in the spirit of the freedom we are fighting terrorism to keep, University officials announced that ANY method of protest, including simply standing and turning your back on the "President", would be punished by arrest and denial of diplomas. Completely unenforceable, of course, but it had the intended consequence of scaring most potential protesters from even going that far. Some of the few that did go through with it were, in fact, removed from the ceremony and threatened with arrest unless they left immediately. Given the current "Administration's" penchant for disappearing people they arrest that they don't like, the protesters understandably took the offer. One would hope that support at the end of a bayonet would be a self-defeating strategy, but since its use in Florida got the "President" elected, who knows anymore?

Although it's stunning that it was even open to discussion, and even more surprising that this passed by an obviously conservative Supreme Court, the Court ruled that execution of the mentally retarded is wrong, and struck it down this month.

The only interesting part of the procedure was the dissent by Antonin Scalia, the man the "President" claims is his "favorite Supreme Court Justice". It turns out that Scalia is all for executing those with mental retardation. In fact, in his dissent Scalia wrote "Surely culpability, and deservedness of the most severe retribution, depends not merely (if at all) upon the mental capacity of the criminal ... but also upon the depravity of the crime", and professed worry that everyone on death row would suddenly become mentally retarded, thus allowing the retarded to get away with merely life imprisonment in a maximum security prison. Obviously Scalia worries that this would send the wrong message to the mentally retarded criminal community, removing the deterrent of death and allowing those wily retarded people to run amok, only having to face a life sentence. "Seldom has an opinion of this court rested so obviously upon nothing but the personal views of its members," wrote Scalia, and "The arrogance of this assumption of power takes one's breath away", a breathtaking example of selective amnesia after the 2000 "election". He professed his belief that the decision runs counter to the will of the American people, in spite of the recent Gallup poll showing 82% of Americans against execution of the mentally retarded. Scalia stands firmly with the 13% in favor of executing the retarded, and is an excellent example of the type of Justice that "President" Bush has said he would use as a model in appointing judges.

And then there's the "President" on TV, taking big business to task for excesses and unscrupulous practices, claiming "We will fully investigate and hold all people accountable for misleading not only shareholders but employees as well."

No word yet on when officials plan to storm the offices of Wendy Gramm and George H. W. Bush. I'm sure we'll hear in coming days about the $8,000 his mother-in-law lost on WorldCom stock over the last few year. Sure hope she doesn't have to resort to eating cat food.

Republicans have passed a bill ostensibly designed to help senior citizens with prescription drug costs.

Sure, it provides much less coverage than the average senior citizen needs. Sure, it has a very low cut off point for the vast majority, meaning they get no help when costs begin to actually require them to get help. Sure, it was written in coordination with HMOs and drug companies. But it proves that political donations are not as corrupt as we thought, because Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert claims that although the drug companies are substantial financial supporters of the GOP, the Democratic version of the bill would actually send more money the HMO's and drug companies' ways. Thanks God the system is working.

And speaking of God, don't worry about that stupid old Separation of Church and State stuff being bandied about recently: the 9th Circuit Court's decision to remove the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance, which were added in 1954 as part of the McCarthy era's virulent anti-communism campaigns, has been suspended.

With the Supreme Court decision to allow school vouchers, sending much-needed money to the wealthy to send their children to religious institutions that routinely practice conservative politics, God is alive and well in the government. Maybe not in the actions of His followers, many of whom have sent death threats to the family of the man who brought the Pledge suit, but I guess he can't be everywhere.

Yes, apparently we stand on the brink of eternal war - why, there are so many things we can fight, it's positively electrifying. Things like "terror", and "extremism", things that are what we say they are, fights that have no boundaries and no discernible goals. We can start talking about taking down Iraq, and North Korea, and anywhere else we think people might be thinking about some day causing us trouble. We can't go after Saudi Arabia, of course, because they're our "friends", although they sure seem to be hanging around with the wrong sort of people these days. But that's never stopped us before - surely our friendship with them will bring them around, just like it did with the Taliban, and Nicaragua, and oh so many other places.

It's heartening to know that our "President" isn't screwing around anymore, that he's ready to sacrifice each and every one of us to protect us.

He can't get much more committed than that!

Copyright © 2002, Art Layman.
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ISSN No. 1523-1690