Office of the Independent Blogger

Vladimir Putin and Dick Cheney are having a tit-for-tat, Congress is a tad upset with John Negroponte, my body is rolling its intestines because of the Chicago Tribune and France is doing what it does best: the wrong thing. Let’s take this in reverse, shall we?

A young, upstart airline in France is suing the government because they give so much state aid to one airline that it’s killing other airlines. This type of government intervention is partly why Socialism doesn’t work and illustrates what’s wrong with France. Let’s see the small company as Southwest airlines facing United. The government in this country let’s them go and Southwest has every chance to succeed — as it did in real life — because of it, and it leads to better services everywhere for everyone. In France, you drown competition and call it good policy. This is why I live on this side of the Atlantic, and why I always will.

In France, the citizenry expect everything from the government, everything including a job-for-life at the age of eighteen. The only thing that the French don’t expect from their government is the ability to defend them from Germany.

Meanwhile, the Chicago Tribune expects everything from black politicians because they are black. The Trib. ran an editorial today predicting that Kenneth Blackwell will run for President against Barack Obama in 2012. Despite what he cites as his reasons for salivating at this prospect, race is the primary motive. There’s nothing — not one damn thing — to suggest that Kenneth Blackwell should ever be President. This fantasy match up of Page’s is the equivelant of an editorial in 2001 declaring “Hillary Clinton will face Katherine Harris for the Presidency in 2008!” in that, while one candidate clearly belongs on the list of potentials, the other doesn’t. And the reason for Harris to ever be mentioned is because she’s a she. Blackwell is Katherine Harris without the makeup.

Congress is as upset with John Negroponte as I am with the Tribune. Similarly, they are upset with the Director of National Intelligence for helping eliminate one hack, Porter Goss (a good thing) and for replacing him with another hack, General Hayden (a Bush thing). Whether it’s Clarence Page suggesting that Kenneth Blackwell should be nominated for President or George Bush appointing people clearly unqualified for certain areas of work, I can’t understand what makes people understand that qualifications don’t matter.

Vladimir Putin might be George Bush’s favorite leader, but he isn’t Dick Cheney’s, and as they have a word of words you get the feeling that it’s mutual. I’m grateful that someone high-up in the Administration is willing to confront the Russians about their erratic, irresponsible and violent behavior, but I can’t tell you that the irony is lost on me: it isn’t. Vladimir Putin and Dick Cheney are lecturing one another about sound governments and hypocrisy.

Now now ladies, you’re both monsters. Let’s stop the fussing and the feuding and get to the War Profiteering, shall we? It should be readily apparent that that’s their heart’s dearest wish. I think I know the real reason that their feud is going public: in the 1990s, Cheney lobbied against sanctions on Iran when Clinton was putting them in place. Now it’s Russia doing the same, and Cheney must feel that Putin’s moving in on his girl.

At least this time these two are fighting for Iran’s love and nothing more — take it or leave it, folks. It’s as noble as they’re going to get!

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 11th, 2006 at 9:36 pm and is filed under Outside Retort (Current Affairs).