Tom DeLay, former GOP House Majority Leader, is headed to the slammer. How quickly we forget. DeLay was spawned by the pesticide business in Texas. I learned everything I needed to know about politicians fueled by the pesticide industry back in the Florida Keys in the 1990's, where the county commission was controlled by an arrogant pesticide service entrepreneur turned county commissioner, Doug Jones.
In Jones' world view, the only thing standing in the way from making money from killing bugs was government. Bugs were big business in the Keys, where getting rid of mosquitoes also included suppressing environmentalists. All you need to know about the origins of today's virulent strain of anti-government politics today is that it ties back to pesticides, like the ones that gave Tom DeLay and Doug Jones their credibility with the really big polluters. Like oil producers or sugar growers in the Everglades Agricultural Area.
Jones was embraced by the Florida Keys Chamber of Commerce as exactly the sort of politician who could stir public passions against all manner of government regulations, but especially environmental ones. He led the county commission known at the time as the Concrete Coalition in the Keys, in favor of all development and against any land use regulations with the same antagonism that is spurring the Florida Legislature and Governor Rick Scott, now, to decapitate the Florida Department of Community Affairs. DeLay liked to call the U.S. EPA, "Gestapo".
For Tom DeLay, whose influence at the time was on the order of John Boehner in Congress today, the crimes of big government were encapsulated by protections for the environment. It is what Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin rail against. It is the pot of hatred that Rush Limbaugh loves to stir. The bitter animosities that the conservative right have sprayed, like a big can of Raid, come from a pantheon of leaders that still prominently feature Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, Tom DeLay, Jeb Bush, Mitch McConnell, et al. From that can of political Raid, and from Tom DeLay's antagonism toward anything that would hinder his right to kill regulations that hindered his business from killing bugs, one can draw a straight line to last week's political assassination in Arizona.
Protecting the environment, in DeLay's pesticide frozen brain, impinged on the constitutional right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". If you want to know the enterprises funding conservative foundations giving wings to the Tea Party and radical extremists in the GOP, you don't have to look much further than polluters whose main goal is not Obamacare or taxes, even though this is what makes nightly TV news. What they care about is finishing off what DeLay set out to do: knee-capping the U.S. EPA. It is not why Tom DeLay is going to jail. His prison sentence ties to pedestrian corruption related to political fundraising and redistricting; all necessary to control Texas, Congress, and advance the agenda to kill the noxious insects of government.
11 comments:
Shame on you! Politicizing the act of a lone nut in Tucson, Arizona is to disrespect the memories of all who were killed and wounded there, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a federal judge, and a poor nine year old girl and her heartbroken parents.
Although these events unfolded on our television, this isn't a NPR or Fox News political debate; this is real life, in the full bloom of its sometimes horrible reality. To treat it as a political lever is despicable.
Is there no issue, or time to come together as Americans and denounce senseless violence for what it is without using it for political advantage within hours of its occurrence?
Metaphors do not kill. Metaphors do not drive to Safeway parking lots. Metaphors do not methodically and systematically shoot everything in site, including nine year old girls. Crazy people with guns do. No matter the motivation, sane persons to not act on their internal vitriole. They find other ways to relieve the stress that their daily lives bring, including those generated by their political beliefs.
Rob Emmanuel has been quoted as saying "No tragedy should go unexploited". This cynical and callous approach to life denigrates, demeans, and cheapens the respect for human life and the attendant compassion we should all be feeling and extending in the best way we can.
Partisan politics have no place when it comes to events like this. Our bond as fellow Americans does.
Draw a straight line from Tucson to your soul and see what you find.
Palin/Bush 2012!
Partisan politics certainly does have a place in this issue. Guns - Guns - Guns...who wants the guns? When your platform is all about guns you have to take responsibility when someone gets a hold of one and mows down innocent people.
Don't annoy me with racist comments.
To David Two; You can't turn a pickle back into a cucumber. There are over 300 million guns in this country owned LEGALLY. The genie is not going back into the bottle. How many ILLEGAL guns do you think are out there? The problem with this no guns thought process is it's all about churning dirt over a reality we have no ability to impact or change. Let's put our resources somewhere they'll do some good.
Legislation outlawing, or making it more difficult to get a gun only harms those who wish to obtain one legally for hunting, self-defense, etc., a right guaranteed by the second amendment to that endlessly boring and less than relevant document called the US Constitution.
Criminals are CRIMINALS. Gun laws mean less to them than a parking ticket does to you and me. All the legislation in the world is just ink on paper to a criminal, and will not stop even one of them from getting their hands on a gun if they want one.
Guns are a fact of life and we all need to just get over it. Does anyone believe that this poor, sick kid (who purchased the gun he used legally) would not have obtained one illegally if he couldn't get one any other way?
Please.
Yes I believe I would be more happy if he had to obtain the gun illegally. The constitution did not know about assault weapons to come. If you need a semi automatic gun you are part of the problem. Genie is not out of the bottle completely. When everyone smoked cigarettes it was seen as a fact of life. With education and intelligence the American people can be turned around to sanity.
"We need to stop gettin angry and pickin' up a gun, and get angry and open our minds" - Tupac Amaru Shakur
Joyce Kaufman: The Ballot Box or The Cartridge Box.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB7g3y597fs
That's the problem...it would have made YOU FEEL BETTER, but it doesn't impact the issue one iota. This isn't about feelings. It's about facts. Feelings aren't facts, and they aren't reality...they're just feelings.
In our society, people have a problem disconnecting them from their actions...just because I feel a certain way doesn't mean I have to DO anything!!
Just maybe...as a law abiding citizen...I want a semi-automatic weapon to defend my home against someone who isn't. Just maybe, we should start holding people who display unacceptable behaviors accountable instead of looking for excuses and placing blame on others.
A properly and legally used gun can actually save lives. It's people that are the problem...not the weapon. If not a gun, he would have used something else, like a bomb.
Would you advocate for law enforcement to carry billy clubs and pepper spray?
Then why handicap law abiding citizens? Criminals will always have guns. The threat of actually being shot by someone defending themselves with like firepower is a powerful deterrent...unless the criminal doesn't care if they live or die. Then there's really nothing anyone can do.
David you are misguided at the very least.
I don't think I'm misguided. I just have a differing opinion from you. I don't label you and respect your opinion even if I don't agree with it. Label me if it makes you FEEL better.
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