I Liked Him Better When He Was Fat and On Drugs...

Rush Limbaugh used to be funny, once.

Oh, I disagreed with about two-thirds of everything he said, but at least he could say it in such a way as to make me laugh with him rather than at him.

I caught some of his show today on the trip to San Antonio and back for WLP's copies of Bootleg #13.

I wouldn't say Rush is a Republican puppet, but I would wonder just how far George W. Bush's hand is up Rush's ass.

One of his talking points is that liberals- a lot of liberals- have been saying that Iraqis could not handle democracy, that today's election is a defeat for the Democrats and proof that our army can indeed bring democracy to other nations.

Wrong, Rush. Votes do not equal democracy. Saddam was an "elected" president. What's-his-name, the new President of Iran, was popularly elected (after anyone who didn't think pretty much as he does was banned from the ballot by the mullahs and ayatollahs). Hugo Chavez, who attempted to overthrow the Venezuelan government by force before his popular election in 1998, may not- in my view, probably won't- allow any election to remove him from power.

Votes alone don't define democracy. Democracy is a system of government where the minority abide by the rule of the majority. The principle characteristic of a true democracy is this: power changes hands from one ruler to another, one political faction to another, peacefully and voluntarily, not through force of arms.

A large number of candidates ran on fundamentalist Islamic platforms, including the introduction of Sharia law and the repeals of rights protected by the new Iraqi constitution.

A significant number of people oppose any elected government whatever, as witness several terrorist attacks on the polling places.

None of the main three ethnic groups in Iraq trust one another. Their political goals, for the most part, completely contradict one another. Several factions, some secular and some religious, are maintaining armed militias to intimidate voters into obedience... and to prepare for the civil war which threatens to destroy Iraq whenever we leave, no matter how long we take to depart.

The votes in Iraq thus far do not equal democracy for Iraq, Rush. They're only part of democracy.

The jury's still out on whether Iraq can manage the rest of the formula, or even hold on to the trappings of democracy they currently have.

Let's wait and see who got elected, and how the factions react to the results, and what kind of government forms, before we declare "democracy" and "victory," okay, fat boy?

I Liked Him Better When He Was Fat and On Drugs...

Rush Limbaugh used to be funny, once.

Oh, I disagreed with about two-thirds of everything he said, but at least he could say it in such a way as to make me laugh with him rather than at him.

I caught some of his show today on the trip to San Antonio and back for WLP's copies of Bootleg #13.

I wouldn't say Rush is a Republican puppet, but I would wonder just how far George W. Bush's hand is up Rush's ass.

One of his talking points is that liberals- a lot of liberals- have been saying that Iraqis could not handle democracy, that today's election is a defeat for the Democrats and proof that our army can indeed bring democracy to other nations.

Wrong, Rush. Votes do not equal democracy. Saddam was an "elected" president. What's-his-name, the new President of Iran, was popularly elected (after anyone who didn't think pretty much as he does was banned from the ballot by the mullahs and ayatollahs). Hugo Chavez, who attempted to overthrow the Venezuelan government by force before his popular election in 1998, may not- in my view, probably won't- allow any election to remove him from power.

Votes alone don't define democracy. Democracy is a system of government where the minority abide by the rule of the majority. The principle characteristic of a true democracy is this: power changes hands from one ruler to another, one political faction to another, peacefully and voluntarily, not through force of arms.

A large number of candidates ran on fundamentalist Islamic platforms, including the introduction of Sharia law and the repeals of rights protected by the new Iraqi constitution.

A significant number of people oppose any elected government whatever, as witness several terrorist attacks on the polling places.

None of the main three ethnic groups in Iraq trust one another. Their political goals, for the most part, completely contradict one another. Several factions, some secular and some religious, are maintaining armed militias to intimidate voters into obedience... and to prepare for the civil war which threatens to destroy Iraq whenever we leave, no matter how long we take to depart.

The votes in Iraq thus far do not equal democracy for Iraq, Rush. They're only part of democracy.

The jury's still out on whether Iraq can manage the rest of the formula, or even hold on to the trappings of democracy they currently have.

Let's wait and see who got elected, and how the factions react to the results, and what kind of government forms, before we declare "democracy" and "victory," okay, fat boy?