Verging on Farce

At times, the political ups and downs around here verge on farce, but in the most terrifying ways. Or just in weird ways.

An Indiana state assistant attorney general, Jeffrey Cox, was fired for suggesting that the police should use live ammunition to fire on protestors in Wisconsin. Story at CNN.

It's frightening, isn't it.


There's talk here about boycotting companies who've supported the governor's plan or given money to his campaign. Some of the companies are pretty obvious. My local car place, alas, is on the list. I like them, but I'm going to look for another car place. There are also some food companies on the list, and I'll avoid them. (Most of the companies on the list aren't general retail, but make stuff they sell to other companies or builders and such.)

One of my friends said she saw a Tea Party reaction to the boycott idea that suggested that boycotting was "unAmerican." Seriously? Wasn't the original tea party about refusing to allow tea to be landed in American colonial ports where there would be tariffs due?

Here's a shocking idea: those tea party folks not only boycotted, but they destroyed the property of capitalists! And now they're heroes to the modern Tea Party folks, but those very same modern Tea Party folks would react very differently to any suggestion that anyone destroy the property of the companies we're talking about boycotting. Just to be clear, no one I've heard from in any way has suggested destroying property.

(I don't think boycotting is likely to do much good unless it's widespread and consistent. But I don't want to do business with people who don't recognize that I, too, am a taxpaying, voting citizen, and that the money I've spent on their goods and services comes from my paycheck, a paycheck provided by state tax dollars. And if I'm taking a 10% cut, I'm going to cut back further on stuff that's not absolute necessity.)


And then there's our governor, taking a phonecall from someone who pretended to be a big money backer, David Koch, and then got recorded talking about strategies to break the union. The sound recording is all over the internet now, courtesy of the Buffalo Beast.

And now the governor's office is supposedly saying that the call demonstrates how open he is to talking with his consituents.

Do you think I could get through with a call? I actually AM a constituent, after all.

Some of the local folks here had an appointment last week in the capitol with a local lawmaker. But the local lawmaker stood them up, having gone to an out of town thingy instead. That's access to one's lawmakers, for sure, eh? At least it's access if you have a boatload of money.