Circling the drain: faster, please!

Lately we’ve been getting quite a bit of mail for folks that haven’t lived here in several years. One – from People for the American Way - is worthy of note. It’s a solicitation for contributions to their Supreme Court Defense Fund. (Pay no attention to the fact that only the 100 members of the U. S. Senate properly vote on the nomination (other than as one of many issues in presidential and senatorial elections), broad public participation in this hoopla must be the American Way!)

Time for a mini-fisk of pertinent excerpts.

• . . . the right to speak out against your government’s policies without fear of harm.
. . . the right to live free of unreasonable government searches and seizures.
. . . and the right to worship as you choose . . . even if your choice is different than the president’s.

These and other principles lie at the heart of our democracy – and they have never been more at risk than they are today as politically powerful extremist groups seek to impose their own narrow moral views on the rest of us.

There has never been a greater risk to freedom than there is today, eh? Forget about the Sedition Act, Suspension of Habeas Corpus by Lincoln and the near-dictatorship of Woodrow Wilson. Those are nothing. Forget about the days lynchings were commonplace. Look at al the harm that’s come to Cindy Sheehan, Andrew Sullivan, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Joshua Micah Marshall, Markos Moulitsas al-Zuniga, Bill Maher, Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, John Kerry* and so many others for their opposition to the administration.

But even those horrors pale in comparison with those countless mandatory Methodist Bible studies, exercises and doctrinal interrogations we’ve all experienced. /sark But seriously folks, think this through: Only those who have lived in the Saudi occupied territories or Iran may accuse anyone in a hitherto secular state of advocating theocracy.

• Far right extremist groups want government sponsored prayer in our schools, censors in our libraries and discrimination in our Constitution.

As a living, breathing far right extremist, I take issue with the veracity of that statement. I wouldn’t want government sponsored prayer in this country, because the demands of PC would render it idolatrous. Anyone who’s serious about their own religion would answer the same way. Having a censor in each library would be wasteful – general policies of how public funds should be spent is more reasonable. And who would cry the loudest about things like this, this or even this being in a public library? What sort of discrimination is meant? Is it wrong to discriminate against convicted violent felons by not allowing them the same access to firearms that law-enforcement officers have? Well, I’d have to support that one. But as far as discrimination based on ethnicity or religion, there’s lots more of that coming from the extreme left than from anywhere else on this continent.

• We were among the first to expose the troubling record of Judge John Roberts and we must be prepared to act just as quickly with any additional nominees.

The same Judge John Roberts who is now coasting through to confirmation as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? And the “troubling” part was . . . . Wouldn’t have anything at all to do with, say, his holding religious beliefs that vary from those of PFAW? Didn’t think so. /sark

• With your help, we’ll get our message out through paid and unpaid media.

At least they own up to their biggest assets. And the big finish (in faux handwriting):

• If you’re tired of watching the Radial [sic] Right turn back the clock on our rights and freedoms, please join us today!

Was the pun of “tired” and “Radial Right” intentional? How about the bias [ply] of the extreme left?

The letter was received on 9/20, but was directed more toward Roberts as a candidate for the O’Connor seat than for the Rehnquist seat. They really have the ability to mobilize rapidly in sending dead letters to dead people, don’t they? Must be a consequence of the vitality of their ideals.

*The subject of Unfit for Command.