October 2006: To Hell In A Basket

[Telltale school colors
have been removed]
We're in the thick of the annual fund-raising season at work. There are multiple bake sales, raffles, auctions, contests—all pushed non-stop, until December.

The annual sale of indulgences begins—with labels saying, "I AM WEARING JEANS BECAUSE I HAVE DONATED $1 TO OUR CHARITY" now available. The secretaries slap these on their blouses so they can violate the dress code on Fridays.

It's true that anonymous contributions to the Suggestion Box have asked, "why do we have to observe a dress code in the first place, if it can be tossed out when people cough up $1?" Publicly, everyone is very, very enthusiastic, as management is very, very big on all this.

In December, the final take is divided among families of indigent patients at the University's hospital.

I would prefer to live in a civilized culture where people have health care and living wages.

But bake sales for the poor gets the seal of approval of our trailer park Republicans. Who like to believe, "we take care of our own: don't need no gubmint"—except for funding their jobs at a public institution...

One of the most beloved events of the season is the basket raffle. Work units come up with some theme and assemble a gift basket. The results are photographed and posted for employees to choose which baskets to buy chances for.

This time around, we have the creation above, with the donors' description—

"Homeland Security basket, Be Ready for ANY Emergency"
Camp Lantern & batteries, Faraday flashlight, candles, waterproof matches, portable camp shower (wash off chemicals from a chemical attack), first aid kit, Swiss army knife (to open the bottle of wine in an emergency), canned goods, can opener, water, Twinkies, chocolate bars, clothing bag (change your clothing in case of chemical attack), hand & toe warmers, photo album (keep pictures of your loved ones in case of emergency), playing cards, waterproof UNO cards, bottle of wine, “personal protection” (* and *, of course, [*school colors], and Glow in the Dark for power outages), and a fleece [Department logo] blanket.

Clever Sister asks,

"personal protection"? Condoms?

Robert Parry, on the Military Commissions Act: History should record October 17, 2006, as the reverse of July 4, 1776.

Marjorie Cohn brings up some past campaigns against dissent and perceived threats, from the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 to McCarthyism. And—

In 1944, the Supreme Court upheld the legality of the internment of Japanese and Japanese-American citizens in Korematsu v. United States. Justice Robert Jackson warned in his dissent that the ruling would "lie about like a loaded weapon ready for the hand of any authority that can bring forward a plausible claim of an urgent need."

That day has come with the Military Commissions Act of 2006. It provides the basis for the President to round-up both aliens and U.S. citizens he determines have given material support to terrorists. Kellogg Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Cheney's Halliburton, is constructing a huge facility at an undisclosed location to hold tens of thousands of undesirables.

The closeness of Halloween to Election Day may lead to some obvious metaphors, but they're unavoidable in the last few years.

Clever Sister sends an article published in the UK, Republicans say top Democrats support 'group of gay paedophiles'. Andrew Gumbel reports that in races around the country—

Republicans aren't going after their Democratic challengers much on Iraq, or the war on terror, or nuclear proliferation. Instead, members of President Bush's party are accusing their adversaries of being apologists for gay sex between adults and children.

This latest tactic is to try connecting Dems to NAMBLA. One of Gumbel's examples—

In California, a struggling Republican congressman called John Doolittle has argued that since his opponent, Charlie Brown, is a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, and since the ACLU has in the past defended Nambla's free-speech rights, he is tainted by association. "It is astounding," Mr Doolittle said in a recent press release, "that anyone could defend a group dedicated to aiding and abetting paedophiles." (Mr Doolittle failed to mention that he once acted as a character witness for a friend convicted of sexually assaulting six of his patients.)

Michael Winship's take on this and other slimy tactics—Election '06: I Know Pornography When I See It. From Limbaugh's attack on Michael J. Fox's courageous ads in support of pro-stem cell research candidates, to the NAMBLA charges, to absurdities like

...the...ad accusing New York State Democratic congressional candidate Michael Arcuri of spending tax dollars by calling a fantasy chat line from a New York City hotel. Apparently, an aide -- not even Arcuri himself -- was calling the state Division of Criminal Justice and misdialed the prefix code. The billing records are pretty clear. Cost to the state: $1.25. Humor value: priceless.

Winship concludes—

You want to know what real pornography is? It's the vice president's disingenuous comments about waterboarding and other forms of torture. It's American servicemen and women placed in harm's way by tragic miscalculation. It's an Iraq so deadly people are afraid to leave their homes for fear of abduction or murder...

It's kickbacks and bribes and naysaying scientific research on stem cells and global warming. It's attacking the lame, the halt and the needy and making the lie as American as apple pie.

watertiger creates a hideous jack o'lantern. And notes of another Republican–

Well, he's certainly hellbent on damaging the psyche of the next generation.