The mourning after

Dear Puppets.

I know you all must be giddy today. Your mission to turn the United States of America into USA, Inc., appears to be well on track.

First off, the Puppetmaster emerged victorious in Round 1 of the War on Democracy. The State Board of Elections has agreed that it's perfectly fine to sell North Carolina elections to white old rich men who lie under oath (to the best of my knowledge) and who can pay enough lawyers to obfuscate, delay, and misdirect honest discovery. Until Round 1 is overturned on appeal, "For Sale - Cheap" will be the order of the day when it comes to North Carolina electoral politics.

The next bit of excitement is a new "report" about the wonders of road building. With a name only a comedian could appreciate, the Reason Foundation of California has been looking into North Carolina's traffic woes and determined that $12 billion in new spending will solve all our problems. Imagine that! I'm sure Fred Smith, Honorary Puppet and Paving Mogul will be thrilled that your neocon think tank wants to line his pockets with even more public money.

Drivers in all metro areas could benefit from additional lane-miles of road, Hartgen said. “This investment would save an estimated 68 million hours per year that are now lost sitting in Tar Heel traffic, at a cost of $7.23 per delay-hour saved,” he said. “This does not account for additional benefits including lower fuel use, reduced accident rates, and lower vehicle operating costs.”

Of course, the so-called "Reason" Foundation doesn't bother to factor in air quality, water quality, stormwater risks, peak oil or any other long range issue. Their planning horizon of 2030 is as idiotic as the JLF approach to planning. Because unless you're anticipating the end-times in the next 24 years, it might be wise to think ahead to 2040 and 2050. What will the solution be then? Build even more lanes? And what about 2060? Even more lanes? The complicated work of land acquisition and strategic planning for transit to accommodate inevitable population growth has to start sometime, so why now now? Would you rather wait until land and rights-of-way are so expensive as to be prohibitive? Of course you would! That's the free-market-wacko way. Screw the citizens. Let the rich guys get richer and all will be well.

Finally, you must be especially thrilled to see that AWOL George, the worst president in the history of the republic, has renominated one of the neocon darlings to the federal bench.

Bush's picks for the federal bench have stirred contentious debate in the Senate. Reid has said his party would filibuster Boyle's nomination if it came to the floor. In July, Boyle acknowledged missing the appearance of a conflict of interest in four cases in which he is accused of issuing rulings involving litigants in whose companies his family held stock. Boyle said then that his aides, who do routine screening of cases for conflicts of interest, missed the appearance in these instances.

"These situations were an oversight, an inadvertent mistake," Boyle wrote in a letter responding to questions from Frist, R-Tenn., and Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

"Accordingly, I unknowingly and unintentionally participated in these cases while I held a minimal number of shares in one of the parties," Boyle added. "Whatever minor financial interest I may have had in the case in no way affected my decision-making or the outcome of the case."

It doesn't get any better than this, does it? Boyle is cut from the same piece of crap block of wood as the Puppetmaster! They both think saying "to my knowledge" is the appropriate phrase for accompanying lies, half-truths and convenient lapses of memory. I can see why Republicans would just looooove a free market creep like Boyle on the bench. Not only could you buy and sell elections, you could buy and sell court cases too!

Enjoy your temporary victories. Because in the long-run, you will lose. You are driven by greed. Your boss is an extremist who thrives on polarization. And your enemies are many and growing.

P.S. I had to laugh yesterday when the Puppetmaster said he was deeply involved in the affairs of the John Locke Foundation. That's not how Stagemanager Hood described it here at BlueNC a few months ago. To my knowledge Mr. Hood claimed wide latitude in calling the shots at JLF. I wonder who could be telling the truth?

To my knowledge, it's not a bald-faced lie as long as you preface whatever you're saying with "to my knowledge."