[lbo-talk] Ivins: Saving Room for the Rotten Pie

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Thu Nov 25 21:07:45 PST 2004


http://www.alternet.org/story/20584/

November 23, 2004

Saving Room for the Rotten Pie By Molly Ivins

Dan Green of New York City says of the election results, "You can't be

depressed now, the worst is yet to come." Following that good advice,

I intended to keep my indignation dry and save the outrage for when it

is really needed, kind of like saving room for the pumpkin pie after

Thanksgiving dinner. If we're going to get through the next four

years, we have to pace ourselves, I concluded.

But here it is, not even three weeks into the new Bush regime, and

already I'm jaw-dropped, you've-got-to-be-kidding mad. Here's the

record so far:

* Republicans somehow managed to squirrel an obscure little provision

into the appropriations bill that gives congressmen or their "agents"

the right to look at your IRS return and make what use of it they

will. This perverse item was apparently the brainchild of Rep. Ernie

Istook of Oklahoma, who is such a hopeless chucklehead it's often hard

to take him seriously as a menace. He's chair of the transportation

subcommittee of the appropriations committee, and in that position

clearly needs to see your tax return. He also voted for funding for

light rail in Salt Lake City (he's Mormon), but against light rail

funding for Oklahoma City.

What is it with Oklahoma? Even Istook is likely to be out-dumbed by

Oklahoma's new senator, Tom Coburn, who believes "lesbianism is so

rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only

let one girl go the bathroom" at a time. No evidence could be found

for this peculiar claim. He also described state legislators as "a

bunch of crapheads." While I do not agree, I am sympathetic to the

perspective.

* Sen. Ted Stevens, who as usual has larded the appropriations bill

with an outsize package of goodies for Alaska, assured the Senate that

Istook's amendment would be deleted before the bill was sent to the

president. He begged, he pleaded. "Do I have to get on my knees?" he

asked.

Quick, someone check just how much more in federal spending the

250,000 citizens of Alaska are getting than the rest of us.

* Also stashed away inside the appropriations bill was a provision

imposing a domestic gag rule on abortion: no federal money to agencies

that require doctors, hospitals or insurers to provide abortions,

cover them OR give referrals to abortion providers. Sailed right

through the House. Hey, why not put a new abortion restriction in the

appropriations bill, along with the kitchen sink?

* Republican House leaders rejected the 9-11 Commission's bill on

intelligence reform. Eighty percent of Americans want the intelligence

reforms, and our safety is directly at stake. But hey, we're just

chopped liver: The reforms would take power away from the Pentagon.

And as we all know, we just can't have that.

* The Senate voted 65 to 30 to set funds aside for a special category

of "priorities," including a new presidential yacht.

* It's really fascinating to watch the Republican slime machine at

work on Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. Earle is one of

the longest-serving district attorneys in the entire country. His

constituents have been re-electing him since 1976. He was one of the

first prosecutors in Texas to create a victim assistance program and

helped start the Austin Children's Advocacy Center to help abused

kids.

He's pretty much a local hero around here, and no D.A. gets that way

by being "soft on crime." Earle is death penalty advocate. He is also

noted for going after corrupt Democratic politicians in this state,

even though he's a Democrat himself. He was willing not only to take

on the slam-dunk cases, but also some tough ones just to remind

everybody that the law is to be obeyed.

Earle is such a careful craftsman of prosecution that Time magazine

selected him as their main example for a major 2003 article to explain

how DAs like Earle might bring some resolution to the death penalty

debate. Earle has experienced both the good and bad of the death

penalty - consequently, he has a special review procedure for cases on

which his office seeks capital punishment.

He is widely admired among his peers, and his innovations are often

copied. This is the guy the Republicans are blithely dismissing as a

"crackpot." Since Earle has been in office almost 30 years and has a

fine national reputation, it's ludicrous to dismiss him as a "runaway

district attorney." Does anyone at Fox News ever do any research?

* As though things on the legislative side weren't bad enough, Bush

and Cheney are moving to make the executive branch all-powerful. You

can already see several of the unfortunate characteristics of the

first term being intensified in the second. The emphasis on secrecy is

already more pronounced, as is the selection of people for loyalty

rather than competence.

But we have to save some room for when it gets worse, so I'd like wish

absolutely everybody, including the Bush administration, a swell

Thanksgiving.

© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.



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