Other Legislation

You'd maybe think--especially if you lived in Huntsville, Alabama and were most engaged in political discourse while shopping at the local mall--that congress is mostly just considering very important social legislation, like that ban on gay marriage. There are one or two other thingamajigs on the table, however, which amount to more than $100 billion more in spending on Iraq (hey, how about a constitutional ban on arguments that countries we invade will be able to finance their own reconstruction?) and agricultural subsidies (hot, dry weather--totally unrelated to the "climate," whatever scientific fiction that is, threatens to make your corn-sweetened cola and your corn-fattened beef, chicken, and pork--not to mention your corn-based corn--more expensive this year) .

It begins to look, in other words, like the standard story ("Bush Appeals to Base in Effort to Shore Up Ratings" (or whatever version of that you like)), as usual, misses the point, by maybe a lot. Like maybe the story is "Bush Appeals to Base in Effort to Hide the Fact that He's Like Hemophilia and Government Money is Like Blood."