Enablers

Republican 'leadership' is lost in a thicket of their own making. It's hard for them to see this, because the media they have long derided as 'liberal' is, in fact, rightwing. Republicans dominate the talk shows, have their own propaganda network, and a supporting cast at the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post.

So they will continue to drift, never really challenged in their breezy assertions of how things oughta be. And the dead-tree newspaper industry will continue to wonder what they could possibly do to support their 'news model'. After all, doesn't everybody want to read more Bill Kristol?

The Cheap Stuff

In Belfair we have two grocery stores. The QFC was here first and then a Safeway opened. The Safeway appeared to be much larger than the QFC, until the QFC completely remodeled last year. The difference couldn't be more striking.

The QFC is now the most opulent of grocery stores, an object lesson for grocers who want to upgrade, and attracts the more prosperous element of shoppers. The poor people flock to the Safeway, in spite of the fact that the prices are often higher in the Safeway. The Safeway is now starting an expansion and upgrade, but they will always labor under the need to appear cheaper than the QFC.

And that's the trap the Republican Party is in today. They built a brand in which the ugliness of bigotry lay hidden in the fact that their voters could trust them to do the wrong thing. Those are their core voters, the 20% of us keeping the Repubs on life support, and they won't accept anything more. A move by a Republican towards rationality, compassion, or fairness, is a deal breaker for their remaining voters.

They are, in short, hoist on their own petard.

Sacrificial Anode

That's fancy talk for the zinc you attach to the bottom of a boat. The zinc, being more attractive to electricity, absorbs the ionic currents that would otherwise eat your propellor.

And that's what Iraq has been for the past six years- the sacrificial anode that spared the rest of the world from the insanity of George Bush. Without Iraq, the American Death Star would have shown on a half-dozen other countries.

When you remove the zinc, it looks the same. That cannot be said for Iraq. The destruction will always remain, as a monument of sorts to the diseased brains of Bush and Cheney. But the Iraqis defended freedom and dignity around the globe when nobody else could do it. They've earned their place in history.