Is there any more glaring public display of folly possible than the "No Blood For Oil" bumper sticker I recently spotted on the back of an SUV? The closest thing to that level of irony was a "Buy American" bumper sticker I saw years ago on a VW Beetle -- a German car manufactured in Mexico. The humor was intentional in that case, however. (Thanks, Dr. G, wherever you are.) Frankly, unless you live in a hand-built log cabin eating only what you grow and wearing clothes you weave yourself out of the hemp you don't smoke, you're as sticky with oil as though you dove headfirst into a tanker's hold. If you drive a car or ride a bus, you use oil. Heat your house? You use oil. Wear clothes? Buy groceries? Reading this on a computer screen? You're using oil. And if you're driving something that uses more gas than almost any other car you could possibly be driving, and you're accusing the US government of invading other countries to steal their oil for your consumption... well, it's a shame that stupidity isn't painful. If you look around, though, you can find plenty of examples of self-parody in action.
In some circles, public displays of folly are fast becoming a way of life. Take some Democrat reactions to the re-election of President Bush, for instance. When the election results were certified, Democrats both inside and outside of Congress protested. Some, like Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Ca), merely cried. Others, like Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-OH), voiced pointless objections to the election results based on... well, nothing in particular. Reverend Jesse Jackson marched with a group of orange-clad demonstrators right outside of Congress. They wore orange in imitation of the thousands of brave souls who protested REAL election fraud in Ukraine, which included beatings, destruction of ballots with acid, disappearing ink, disappearing voters and the Dioxin poisoning of the opposing candidate, Viktor Yushchenko. If I were Ukrainian, I'd be incensed at the presumption of Jackson and his group. There has been no actual evidence of partisan election fraud in Ohio, where the Democrats are concentrating their ineffectual protests merely due to Ohio's large number of electoral votes. (Problems? Yes. Deliberate fraud? No.) It's all about discrediting President Bush at any cost, even damage to the Democratic Party's credibility. Oddly enough, the Democrats are not clamoring to have voter fraud examined in instances where it might have favored their candidate, like the 46,000 Democrats registered in both Florida and New York.
It's obvious to anyone who pays attention that the drive to "have every vote counted" is strictly one-sided. The day before the election was certified, Kerry's web site, johnkerry.com, sent out an email (signed simply, "John Kerry") to all subscribers. The email complained of "reports of irregularities, questionable practices by some election officials and instances of lawful voters being denied the right to vote," but admitted that, "our legal teams on the ground have found no evidence that would change the outcome of the election." Nevertheless, Kerry assured his readers, "I want every vote counted," even though if (by some miracle) every vote yet uncounted was cast for Kerry, he still couldn't come close to a win. It's almost as though Kerry, unhappy at his loss, is determined to waste as many taxpayer dollars as possible in retaliation. Kerry, or whoever wrote the email in his name, also stated that, "our citizens should never be forced to vote on old, unaccountable and non transparent voting machines from companies controlled by partisan activists." It seems strange that the results from the same machines weren't challenged in 1992 or 1996, when they logged more votes for Bill Clinton than any of his opponents. It's only when Republicans get more votes that Democrats complain about faulty machines and the owners of the companies that made them.
Meanwhile, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), the poster boy for public folly, still hasn't figured out why the Democrats have lost yet another election. In a speech to the National Press Club, Kennedy complained about losing the 2004 election, and called for the Democrats to move even further Left than they already have. He seems to believe that Democrats can connect with a majority of Americans by digging in on issues like abortion on demand and gay "marriage," and insisted that cradle-to-grave health care and a college degree are the responsibility of the government to provide. Kennedy demanded that his party oppose free trade and social security reform. He also took the opportunity to call Iraq (can you guess?) a "quagmire" and "George Bush's Vietnam," with less than three weeks to go before an historic and unprecedented democratic election in that country. (The Left call themselves "progressive," yet refuse to see real progress in action.) In the same sentence, he decried "non-scientific, pseudo-scientific, and anti-scientific nonsense" and demanded "immediate action to reduce global warming," which is the penultimate in pseudo-scientific nonsense. Kennedy seems immune to the embarrassment he brings upon himself and, while they keep treating him as their spokesman, his party.
Kennedy called his speech, "A Democratic Blueprint for America's Future." As long as left-wing lunatics like him continue to speak for that party, dragging them even further out of touch with mainstream Americans, the Democrats have no future.
