GOP Out of Control

Aside from the neck-deep corruption, the hacktastic appointments, the bloated deficit, and the rest of their idiocy, and despite plummeting support for their maniacal agenda, they continue to stumble forth with one bad idea after the next.

Bush, who by the day looks ever more determined to fashion himself the dictator of a martial state, has suggested that the military should be used to contain a possible epidemic of avian flu.

He said the military, perhaps the National Guard, might be needed to enforce quarantines if the feared H5N1 bird flu virus changes enough to cause widespread human infection.

"If we had an outbreak somewhere in the United States, do we not then quarantine that part of the country? And how do you, then, enforce a quarantine?" Bush asked at a news conference.

"It's one thing to shut down airplanes. It's another thing to prevent people from coming in to get exposed to the avian flu. And who best to be able to effect a quarantine?" Bush added.

Too much Outbreak. Go get some fresh air.

Meanwhile, House Republicans are attempting to ram through a bill that seeks to ensure college students hear "dissenting viewpoints" in class.

The measure's chief promoter, Marxist-turned-conservative activist David Horowitz, says an academic bill of rights will protect students from possible political "hectoring" and discrimination by their professors. "We have enough institutions in America that are political. Let's keep [universities] above that fray," he adds.

But professors say Mr. Horowitz really is trying to silence liberal faculty members. "It's an invitation for the government to get involved in the internal affairs of the university," says William Scheuerman, a political scientist at the State University of New York at Oswego, and president of the state's faculty union. "We don't want Big Brother here."

[…]

Roger Bowen, general secretary of the American Association of University Professors, the faculty union, dismisses Mr. Horowitz's assertion that he is only acting to protect colleges. He sees a bill of rights as an attempt by conservative politicians to "rectify what they believe is an ideological imbalance" on the campuses. Because it "comes at a time when power in Washington is heavily tilted in one direction, that concerns me," he adds.

This is absurd. All one hears from conservatives when liberals have the audacity to criticize any of the GOP policies or nominations is Don’t complain—you didn’t have the votes; we have a mandate. Well, the president waved bye-bye to that (dubious) mandate awhile ago now, and, contrary to the popular belief among his base, that doesn’t give him and the GOP-controlled Congress license to militarize whenever they want, or strong-arm universities into teaching what they want, or any of the other ridiculous compulsory adherence to conservative philosophy they may collectively try to legislate. I’ve got no problem with Bush wanting to nominate conservative judges—I mean, it stinks to high heaven from my political perspective, but that’s why winning elections is important. When you lose, you don’t get to choose. But I have a big problem with his nominating hacks, and messing around with education curricula, which ought to be decided by experts in the associated fields, and ignoring the majority on major issues like stem cell research and reproductive choice. Satisfying his waning base at the expense of the rest of the American people is unacceptable, both when he does it and when Congress does it. End of story.