Some things that irk me

I don't really hate Dennis Miller, he's a funny guy and he's obviously very smart but I don't agree with a lot of his views. He's a supporter of the Iraq war but that doesn't bother me, if he thinks Bush is great thats his thing. What did kind of irk me was a little throw away line in his interview on the Daily Show at around the 5:40 mark.



"I don't know if history will bear him out, but I'm gonna take the ride with him, my friend. I'm on America's side right now".

It's shit like this that pisses me off. Look, I really don't care if he thinks he's right or likes Bush or whatever. I don't give a shit if he thinks people who dislike Bush are wrong. That's the whole point of this country. But I don't like his little line at the end there, "I'm on America's side right now".

See, he supports Bush and he's on America's side. So if you don't agree with Bush that you're not on America's side. Because Miller is with Bush and is with America, so if you're not with Bush that means your not with America. And I know it's just a little throwaway line, but I've gotten this shit before and it's insulting.

I had a nice email discussion with Kevin O'Brien of the Plain Dealer and he basically said some of the same things (I'd love to print our entire exchange, but I didn't tell him I wrote online, which I figured would make him less likely to respond to me). O'Brien had another column today and I've learned that to me, he's basically the Roger Brown of the editorial page.

O'Brien writes about Mark Foley, the congressional pedofile, but he takes some shots at Democrats for exploiting this around election season.

And who is to blame? Not the Democrats, who are gleefully making all kinds of hay with the sordid story. Not the media, which are solemnly accommodating them. Not the young pages, who apparently did nothing special to catch Foley's eye.

Foley has only himself to blame. He's the one with the problem, which he says comes in a bottle.

At the same time he says it's Foleys fault, he's ripping the Dems for exploiting it. And you know, he's right, it's totally the Dems fault that this came out now instead of two years ago.

To his credit, O'Brien does take the Repubs to task over their own faults.

The mess he leaves behind for House Republicans is well deserved, too. As is the mess Bob Ney leaves behind. And the mess Randy Cunningham left behind. And the mess Tom DeLay left behind.

It took fewer than 12 years as the House majority for Republicans to lose their grip on long-held principles and develop an unhealthy sense of entitlement to power. Their leaders have only themselves to blame.

The home stretch of an election season is the most difficult time for choosing what's right over what's expedient. That's why the House's GOP leaders - Speaker Dennis Hastert, Majority Leader John Boehner and Majority Whip Roy Blunt - should resign their leadership posts right now.

But then he rips the Dems, for guess what, being weak on national security:

If the Republicans lose the House, people with the best interests of the party at heart will see only a political disaster. Republicans with the good of the country at heart should look beyond that, and see defeat for what it truly would be: an expression of disappointment at their failure to govern by the conservative principles that won them the House in 1994 - strong national defense, limited government, individual responsibility, wise spending, low taxes.

Without a doubt, a Democratic Congress would weaken the nation in the very categories in which it can least afford weakness - defense and anti-terrorism policy. A Congress that hasn't been productive enough in those areas would become a Congress bent on being counterproductive. That would be dangerous.

But as far as wasteful spending, the expansion of government, attention to special interests and the like, the differences would be negligible. After all, the Democrats spent 40 years creating the system the Republicans inherited. They know how to use it.

He makes a good point, the Dems are weak on security because... Kevin O'Brien thinks so. The Repubs are good on security because... well, Iraq? Talking big and ripping on Democrats? I'm not really sure. But if you keep repeating it, it's gotta be true. All I know is this.

But hey, if you're not with 'em, you're not with America. And if you vote Democrat we're all gonna die.