Burning DownThe House

The Sunday Pundits were noticably struggling to define just what it was Jack Abramoff had done so wrong. It appears to be a question of over-zealousnous, in other words ,he broke the unspoken rule that one does not work the system TO hard . They could hardly hide the smirks when they attempted to seem outraged that someone would BUY FAVORS! Who are we trying to kid? So Jacks crime is a matter of degrees, of flaunting, of going to far and risking exposing the system of patronage and favors we cynically still call democracy.It is the crassness of that "new money" crowd which most irritates. Shame on him.

I guess my next question is how is Abramoff different from the AIPAC lobby which annually arranges for 3 to 4 BILLION dollars of aid to that starving, third world country of Israel? More aid than all the sub-Saharan countries put together get. They make Jack look like a ghetto pimp.

Next question: When the editors of Foreign Policy Magazine accuse Hugo Chavez of "meddling in the internal politics of his neighbors" ( Jan/ Feb. 2006 "Hugo Boss:How Chavez is Refashioning Dictatorship for a Democratic Age ) do they mean like pre-emptively invading another country and installing a government and economic policies and setting up permanent military bases? That kind of meddling? And this dictatorship thing, is that like where you spy on your own citizens and hustle them off to secret camps to be tortured and get chosen by a court to lead rather than by voters? Isnt a dictatorship where you embed government paid "reporters" in the media and stifle dissent and place yourself above the law and constitution and appoint political supporters to key ministerial posts?

While we are on my favorite subject ( disclosure: I am a big fan of the Bolivarian Revolution and in fact am heading to Venezuela in four weeks ) it seems Venezuela offered cheap fuel through its CITGO distributor to the city of Chicago, which is struggling to maintain its public transportation costs. Rather than accept this Pinko ( and dictator)(see above) tainted cheap fuel the city is going to raise fares , affecting primarily the low income and minority population which depends on this service. Better Dead Than Red.