The downward path
Back-page buried stories indicate creeping menace
by Molly Ivins

Look, these sentencing guidelines are awful. Everybody knows they're awful, so now anyone who stands up and says so gets subpoenaed? Do you realize how banana-republic this is? Texas Rep. Lamar Smith, one of the many ornaments we have exported to Washington, claims the seven-member Sentencing Commission is "systematically trying to lessen the drug penalties." I should hope bloody so. If showing evidence of elementary common sense is grounds for a subpoena, stick a fork in us, we're done.

The "Watch on the Rhine" quality of our public life these days deserves serious attention. As one who studies the small, buried stories on the back pages of major newspapers, I am becoming increasingly uneasy. This is more than just, "Boy, do their policies suck." There's a creepy advance of something more menacing than bad policies.

I keep thinking of Mussolini's definition of fascism: "Fascism should more properly be called ‘corporatism,' since it is the marriage of government and corporate power." When was the last time we saw this administration do something that involved standing up to some corporate special interest in favor of the great majority of the people?
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  thanks to Magpie