Foxes guarding the henhouse

Folks, let's get serious here.

Ever since Ronald Reagan uttered the famous quote that the 9 most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government and I'm here to help", true conservatism's ideal of slow change and limited government, began to be replaced by a new form of radical conservatism.....NO GOVERNMENT! For almost 30 years, the Republican party has been slowly but successfully taken over by individuals like Grover Norquist, Tom Delay, Karl Rove, et. al. with only 2 items on the agenda...destroy the federal government (ala Norquist's wish to shrink the size of the federal government in order to drown it in the tub) and to do whatever it takes to keep Republican rule permanent. While Bill Clinton was a thorn in their side, Clinton still managed to govern economically more to the RIGHT then to the LEFT (NAFTA, GATT, WTO, welfare reform, don't ask don't tell). And the right still impeached him for lying about a blow job!

The 1994 "republican revolution" and the contract on America, was a sea change in the move forward to the 2 agenda items. They controlled the house and senate along with a very divided supreme court. Add to this the infamous "K" Street project that placed Rick Santorum and Tom Delay in charge of telling corporate lobbying firms who they could hire as lobbyists....yes, only hire those who are favorable to the republican positions or don't' expect any access to Congress. Finally in 2000 they found their "cheerleader" in chief, George W. Bush. With Rove's help along with the supreme court, Bush was appointed to the presidency. Now the right had control of all 3 branches of government.

9/11 was the next event that rocketed the new (neo)right wing agenda forward. Dick Cheney took control of all things secretive, Don Rumsfeld set about screwing up the military, John Ashcroft started to cover up bare breasts on statues, and Ari Fleischer told the press that Americans have to be careful of what they say. And, by the way, the corporate media donned lapel flag pins, while being told by the administration that their access to information would be restricted should they dare to ask tough questions....which led to the elimination of any investigative journalism of the government, and a sharp increase in stories about celebrities and blonds who go missing on exotic island vacations.

Now throughout all this, Bush and the right spent taxpayer money like a drunken sailor. Both on 2 wars and an explosion of ear marked appropriations. Things got so surreal that Tom Delay, when asked about Bush not vetoing a single republican spending bill told the Wash Times in September of '05 "...there was no fat left to cut".........and the press moved on!

So for almost 30 years of "Reaganomics" we have a federal government and the republican party taken over by people who "claim" they want to reform government, and some outright espouse wanting the demise of it (Norquist).

Now John McCain has picked a VP who gave a rousing speech to the Alaskan Independence Party convention in support of a group who wants nothing less than to secede from the USA to become their own nation. WE CANNOT GIVE THE KEYS TO OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THIS GROUP OF PEOPLE!

Let's kick the foxes out of our hen house this November.