The Foley Follies
 
Amid the calls for Dennis Hastert to resign as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (See June 17 open letter) it makes sense to evaluate whether the tirades are proportional to his error. The tendency of Washington D.C. politicians to hyperbolize outrage balances the propensity for colossal error. This calls for a careful review by bloggers. Under Hastert’s leadership, the House spent the first year and three-quarters of the current session carbing up for a flurry of activity in the last week and a return to campaigning. The final week of the session more than justified all the cinnamon buns and freedom fries by defending our nations borders with seven hundred miles of bob wire and declaring surrender in the cold war by accepting America’s role leading a global communist revolution. The detainee bill which the house sent to the Senate on Friday was the final mutation in the transition of the Republican Party from the party of values, liberty and the strict construction of the constitution into the Maoist People’s Party. This bill, now passed and awaiting a likely signature, subjects the law which used to be made by congress to the interpretation, which under our constitution is the role of the judiciary, of the Executive who until recently was subject to the will of the people through the legislature and the discipline of the courts. The writ of Habeas Corpus, enshrined in our constitution is now conditional. Treaties once signed are now flexible according to the judgement of the President. The fourth amendment to the constitution has been re-repealed and the fifth may have been repealed as well. This bill should and will likely be gutted by the Supreme Court, but both parties have activist judges in important seats and prima facie cases don’t always come out right. With the surrender of the Senate to the House and the House to the Executive Branch it must now be admitted that a vote for a Republican in November will be a vote against constitutional government and for the wide distribution of Soma at noncompetitive prices. Dennis Hastert should lose his job for the congressional listlessness in the war on terror, symbology over policy on immigration, negligence on domestic matters and surrender to enemies long defeated and no longer able to show up in body to accept the sword. What does all this have to do with Mark Foley, the gay Republican congressman who resigned in disgrace after lurid and solicitous messages to underage pages came to light? Nothing. And neither does anything else. The Prattler Wordbook HETEROGENOUS, adj. Human. HETEROSEXUAL, n. A saved lecher. HET UP, adj. Inspired by venality and under observation. HEW, v.t. To build by the removal of substance, as a knife handle from a tree or the law. HEWN, adj. Built to last. HEX, v.t. To elect. HEYDAY, n. Yesterday. HIATUS, n. The interruption of a sabbatical. HICCUP, n. A unit of honesty. HIDE, v.i. To conceal, as on a t.v. talk show. HIDDEN, adj. Ugly. HIDEBOUND, adj. Stubborn and transient. AE9CC883-C36A-41C7-BBD4-3267B055573B.htmlhttp://www.huxley.net/shapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1
Saturday, October 7, 2006
From the collection of Richard Samuel West / Periodyssey.http://www.periodyssey.com/private/press.htmshapeimage_5_link_0