IN THE NAME OF STIMULATING THE ECONOMY BEING ONE WITH "NATIONAL UNITY AND IDENTITY," leave it to His Fraudulency's Great Within to come up with what may best be described as illogical and misguided ideas.

Especially when you stop and consider that the Great Within may have engaged in some of the worst fiscal mismanagement of any soverign state in world history since the German hyperflation following World War I (with only Zimbabwe becoming a serious rival right now, where Z$60 million buys a tube of toothpaste).

Mismanagement complicated by a misguided War on Terrorism as is all too quickly turning into ur-RAHOWA (though they're probably under lettres de cachet to not acknowledge it openly, For Obvious Reason), equally-misguided "ideological reasons" excusing the tacit endorsement of "new and innovative" mortgage-loan products for those with marginal or non-established credit (especially so welfare "basket cases") and an overzealous belief that keeping taxes as low as possible was necessary for the sake of National Unity and Identity.

The latest example of good concept, but no sense:

Offering advanced tax rebates of as much as $800/person by summer, hoping that the Lower Classes especially as qualify for the same blow the whole on misadventures in predatory consumerism @ the nearest Wally World, having no respect for practicality, utilitarian value or common sense. And quickly, too, they hope, they hope.

Not to mention persisting in their hard-wired belief that making tax cuts from the first term Complete, Final and Binding will actually translate into consistent streams of tax revenue and prompt employers "out of the goodness of their hearts" into hiring more from the Lower Classes especially.

Seems His Fraudulency has some serious maths errors to answer for, especially considering where the National Debt has ballooned to over $9 trillion throughout His Fraudulency's tenure in office and his Zealotry and True Belief in maintaining tax cuts only making matters worse.

No doubt explaining the attraction of some to GOP Presidential wannabe Mike Huckabee's support of the "FairTax" model--as in scrapping income taxes altogether in favour of a consumption-based tax; here again, you have to wonder just how much revenue consumption-based taxes would generate to sufficently supplant income taxes.

@ least until Huckabee makes that one fatal slip which could be the Waterloo for his designs.

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THE SAME SMALL-TOWN/RURAL AMERICAN ARCADIA beloved of certain specimens of conservative Zealotry and True Belief as the one which would save the Great Silent Majority from Themselves, unfortunately, has a Dark Side its supporters would rather you not know about.

As in a latent and inbred tolerance for racism, bigotry and xenophobia by and large.

Case in point: Chosen Valley High School in Chatfield, Minnesota is coming to terms with a Possible Hate Crime in the form of a noose being displayed with a black doll dangling from same after classes resumed following the holiday break; two students as were involved have received discipline, although some parents wonder if it was adequate enough, especially in light of a poster for a white-supremacist group being found in the locker of one of the disciplined.

Olmstead County sheriffs' officers are looking into possible hate crimes charges as a byproduct (never mind where the students' names were not disclosed as they are considered Juvenile Offenders).

Such is the state of affairs in a rather warped vision of Arcadia where support for anti-government movements (especially so "Wise Use" and other pro-business such) is rather notorious and Die Bransoner Muzikschaukultur is looked upon as the Acme and Perfection of American People's Culture, or what passes for it.

Seen, it turns out, through beer goggles rather than the rose-coloured glasses producerist types prefer.

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THE DIGITAL TRANSITION, THOUGH NEARLY A YEAR AWAY, is providing broadcasters on FreeVee channels what could be an unlikely opportunity they don't quite realise exists: Videlicet, selling what amounts to surplus time on their multicast channels to such broadcasters wanting to fill up otherwise wasted digital-TV bandwidth, not unlike such outfits buying air time on talkback radio stations on the weekends when not much else is available.

(Consideration, of course, having to be given to the FCC's public-service mandates of broadcasters, not to mention the Electronic Programme Guide, the V-chip and the TV Ratings Scheme.)

Making such all the more viable (especially for such who would still prefer to receive their TV programmes free-to-air, as opposed to cable or satellite services) would have to be the FCC's rejection of Sinclair Broadcasting Group's "Multicast Must-Carry" petition (which would have obligated cable systems to carry all multicast signals of TV broadcasters so transmitting) a few years back, citing where the multicast programmes were unlikely to carry enough programming to meet public-service obligations.

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AND THERE'S ALSO THE MIRACLES OF WARPED SCIENCE that certain deluded conservatives with nothing but fear, contempt and loathing for the Lower Classes would love to sneak upon same as part of the multicast opportunities made possible by the Digital Transition and plenty of bandwidth which broadcasters fear would otherwise go to waste from time to time:

Videlicet, perfecting an automatic tuner that would trigger nothing better than the finest exercises in sick humour @ the expense of the Great Unwashed in their want of sophistication, morals or decency (or so the conservatives must be thinking all along), otherwise known as switching the signals of certain multicast channels viewed among the Lower Classes (and in such sets so owned) when "inapproriate" programming is about to be broadcast--only to direct them to channels broadcasting, and deliberately, nothing but pornography lacking plot, story or morals, let alone production values.

No wonder conservatives must have this fetish for unleasing sick humour as a way of further loathing the vulnerable and marginalised of society, and excusing the whole all along as "pacification."