The Assault on Reason, p. 221, bottom of page, Bu$h is a criminal

[tbyg52]

I know we all know that, I know Mr. Gore knows that, but there it is in black and white.

"President Bush has repeatedly violated the law for six years."

(I've seen several "my favorite _The Assault on Reason_ quote" posts, but I searched for this one and did not find it.)

Some of my other favorites, as long as I'm posting...

p. 9: "Clearly, at least to some degree, the 'consent of the governed' was becoming a commodity to be purchased by the highest bidder."

p. 63: "In case after case, the president has pursued policies chosen in advance of the facts--policies designed to benefit friends and supporters. These supporters have, in turn, benefitted the president with enormous contributions and political muscle. This self-reinforcing cycle of mutual back-scratching has pushed government policy further and further away from the public interest."

I was trying to find a vaguely-remembered Heinlein quote about a positive feedback loop being a very bad idea to go with the above, but I've put all the time in I'm going to on my dialup connection.....

p. 66: "...all the special interests agree: Government is very bad and should be done away with as much as possible--except the parts of it that redirect money through big contracts to industries that have won their way into the inner circle."

It's them against us, people. So far, "they," is winning....

p. 67: "Of course, the Schiavo affair revealed something lagrer about the Bush coalition's zeal. It proved that they are willing to shoot themselves in the foot to defend the purity of their seer's dogma."

Hmmmm.... Something exploitable there....? ;)

p. 79: "And all of the abuses have one thing in common: The perpetrators have clearly assumed that they have little to fear from public outrage and that very few people will learn about their misdeeds."

No miscalculation there. At least so far.....

Well. Either I just arbitrarily pick a place to stop, or I'll be here all afternoon. So I guess I'll stop.

One more book to recommend, if you want a science-fiction view of where we're heading, Pohl and Kornbluth's _The Space Merchants_:
http://www.amazon.com/Space-Merchants-Sf-Masterworks/dp/0575075287/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-0829015-3131355?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187291204&sr=8-1
Or a more cheerful Pohl (apparently much lesser-known, judging by the lack of reviews and copies on Amazon), with some interesting ideas about government,
http://www.amazon.com/YEARS-CITY-Pohl/dp/0671876392/ref=sr_1_3/102-0829015-3131355?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187292118&sr=1-3