Friday, March 19, 2004
Why is Bush hiring paramilitaries, and what color are their shirts?
Read Kos (via Atrios).
Now, I posted this awhile back:
Guess I was wrong that parties in the US don't have paramilitary wings... Another proof that no matter how cynical I get about Bush—and I try very, very hard to be cynical enough—with these guys it's never enough.
I always thought that Tom Ridge's main and perhaps only qualification for being DHS secretary was the excellent job he did infiltrating, intimidating, and illegally arresting protestors during the 2000 RNC in Philly; and that the major responsibility in his job description would be handling the RNC in 2004, since, for the Republicans "Homeland Security" and "Job Security for Bush" are (hilariously) one and the same thing.
And it looks like this time the Republicans think their situation is far less under control, and they're buying Ridge the tools to do the job the way they know he can....
So, here's the question to the Bush campaign: What possible legitimate use do you have for a firm that specializes in high-tech surveillance, personal investigations, and paramilitary protection?
Now, I posted this awhile back:
If you want a quick picture of the difference between Germany in the '30s and the United States of today, imagine that both Republicans and Democrats had paramilitary wings; overt ones, with uniforms and offices, and that they battled in the streets on a daily basis (This is one reason why the "bourgeois riot" while the votes were being counted in Florida 2000 had an unpleasant resonance for some.)
Guess I was wrong that parties in the US don't have paramilitary wings... Another proof that no matter how cynical I get about Bush—and I try very, very hard to be cynical enough—with these guys it's never enough.
I always thought that Tom Ridge's main and perhaps only qualification for being DHS secretary was the excellent job he did infiltrating, intimidating, and illegally arresting protestors during the 2000 RNC in Philly; and that the major responsibility in his job description would be handling the RNC in 2004, since, for the Republicans "Homeland Security" and "Job Security for Bush" are (hilariously) one and the same thing.
And it looks like this time the Republicans think their situation is far less under control, and they're buying Ridge the tools to do the job the way they know he can....
