The McCain/Palin/Rantibus Interview

Rantibus: Good evening Senator, Governor.

McCain: Good evening. Ummm … what’s this thing?

Rantibus: That’s a microphone, Senator.

McCain: I knew that…..

Rantibus: So, let’s get right into it, shall we? First, you are described as a maverick, yet you’ve voted the Bush party line over 90% of the time and have repudiated most of your former stances on almost every subject. In what way are you different from President Bush?

McCain: Well, first off, I’m a former POW. I’m also much older. And I wasn’t born into wealth and privilege - I got where I am the hard way; I married an heiress. And since that freed me from having to earn a living I have dedicated myself to being a selfless servant of the American lobbyist … uh … I mean people. I’m also a former POW.

Rantibus: So I’ve heard… You not only intend to make the disastrous Bush tax cuts permanent, but also extend them, almost entirely to the rich and incorporate. How is that a responsible plan considering that America will soon have a $10 trillion dollar national debt?

McCain: Look - you can’t tax your way out of a recession - which we’re NOT IN. If you made the rich pay their share, it’d result in economic disaster.

Rantibus: How?

McCain: Well … we’d be less rich. You know what’d happen if, oh… say Bill Gates had to pay taxes like the middle class?

Rantibus: His personal fortune would drop to a mere $30 billion?

McCain: Exactly! Personally, I’d probably be down to only three or four houses. Our maids, cooks and gardeners’d have to go back to Mexico and Guatemala, there’d be layoffs in the golf course sector, Cartier and the rest of the high-end jewlry industry would be devestated, we’d have to fire our private jet pilots… Oh, and corporations like oil companies couldn’t invest in research to get our nation less dependent on foreign oil.

Rantibus: But of the $40 billion the oil companies made in above-the-line profit last year, less than $5 billion was actually invested in R&D. The rest went straight into the bank. And while we’re on the subject of oil, you do understand that the amount of economically recoverable oil from off-shore and in the ANWR would only really keep the US running for approximately six months at our current rate of consumption and that you wouldn’t get the first drops out of the ground for eight to ten years…

McCain: Did I mention that I’m a former POW?

Rantibus: I think it was noted in passing… Can you tell us why you went with the choice of Governor Sarah Palin for your running mate?

McCain: That’s ’soul mate,” Mr. Robitussin. Anyway, I wanted someone who would appeal to the disaffected Hillary vote and also distance myself from the religious Right.

Rantibus: So you chose an evangelical whose former pastor, Ed Kalnins, believed that Jesus operated from a position of “war mode,” and that people who criticized President Bush would burn in hell, a running mate that is against a woman’s right to choose, anti-birth control and advocates creationism? Is your campaign so cynical or disconnected as to believe that women are going to vote for someone who is essentially the very antihisis of Ms. Clinton simply because of her sex?

McCain: I got a lotta medals, you know…

Rantibus: Governor Palin.

Palin: Yup?

Rantibus: Do you believe yourself to be qualified for the job of Vice President?

Palin: Yup, yup.

Rantibus: And yet, you have virtually no federal government experience, no foreign policy experience, no military experience, and you have yet to serve even two years as governor of a state with a population of under 670,000 people.

Palin: First offly, I’m the commander-in-chief of the Alaskan National Guard. I have come to know Chuck and Ed very well and they’re a credit to their uniform which they share on alternate days. I also live right beside Russia.

McCain: She does too. My wife told me so. And you know, the next time I’m in Iraq, I’m gonna stand on the Iraq-Russia border and you know what I’m gonna say?

Rantibus: That you’re a POW?

McCain: I’m gonna shake my fist and yell, “Mr. Khrushchev, tear down this wall!”

Palin: And I can see a hospital from my house too, so that makes me qualified to be a doctor.

Rantibus: (after long pause,) Governor.You are also an evangelical Christian who’s opposed to sex education in schools and touts “traditional” family values and yet you have an unmarried 17 year-old daughter who is pregnant. Do you see any dichotemy in these two issues?

Palin: Frankly, I’m offended that you’d point that out. My family’s personal life should not be made a campaign issue.

Rantibus: You are entirely correct. My apologies.

Palin: But Senator Obama’s should. He’s a muscle-man, you know…

Rantibus: I believe you mean ‘Muslim,” and no, he’s not. Senator Obama is a Christian.

McCain: And I was a POW…

Rantibus: Let’s take our first caller…hello - you’re on the air….

Caller: Issinnrvu… (sounds of moist mastication)…adsgraghhhsss…nazissslumphgrumpphasss… (more liquid noises) ….schrabluphsssss… (call is terminated)

Rantibus: OK…I’ve been informed that Mr. Limbaugh was to have addressed the issue of … well, who knows, but was apparently attempting to eat six doughnuts at the same time. So, back to you, Governor Palin. While being interviewed by ABC “news” anchor Charlie Gibson, you expressed the opinion that the US might have to go to war with Russia, a major nuclear power, due to the fact that Georgia was a member of NATO and , if I may quote you directly, ” the agreement when you’re a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon, and help.” Are these your very words, Ms. Palin?

Palin: Yup.

Rantibus: But surely, Governor, you understand that Georgia is not a member of NATO?

Palin: Have I mentioned that Senator McCain is a former POW?

Rantibus: Senator McCain. A short while ago, you expressed the opinion that the health care system should be run along the same lines as the financial industry, so that it could, and I quote you, “provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.” Now, surely you must realize that it was the lack of regulation and oversight which was brought about entirely by your former financial advisor, Senator Phil Gramm, that set the stage for the immense Wall Street melt-down that the taxpayer is now being expected to bail out to the tune of $700 billion? Are you seriously proposing that the financial industry is a viable model for providing health care?

McCain: Yessiree.

Rantibus: Are you insane?

McCain: No … I’m a former POW.

Ranitbus: Just recently you cancelled an appearance on the David Letterman show to get to the airport, ostensibly to fly back to Washington to vote for Socialism for the rich, only to end up doing an interview with Katie Couric. Apart from the fact that you yourself admitted that you hadn’t read the three-page memo concerning the bailout proposal days after it was issued, and seeing you don’t sit on any finance committee, what was the sudden hurry to get back for this particular vote, especially considering that, to date, you have missed more Senate votes than any living Senator. Was it just a ploy to avoid the next day’s debate with Senator Obama?

McCain: No, Mr. Bellarus, I just didn’t see any point in wasting the Senator’s time. After all, my campaign had already put out an ad on the Web stating that I’d won the debate.

Rantibus: (pause) Right… We have our next caller… hello. You’re on the air.

Caller: It’s about (expletive deleted) time! You can’t ignore me, you know! The whole Democratic National Convention was just a Liberal plot to distract attention from the fact that everything is about ME! Did you know that Senator Obama is actually Idi Amin’s love-child? It’s true because I say it is! The Clintons… (call is terminated)

Rantibus: Thank you, Ms. Coulter…. So you still contend that you’re qualified to be Vice President, Governor.

Palin: Yup. Whatever the job actually turns out to be. I mean, look who’s been President for the last eight years… And besides, I’ve got plenty of other qualifications. I’m good with guns so I won’t be shooting anyone in the face unless I mean to, I can read off a teleprompter and pause for laugh lines, I’ve got a rubber uterus, I’m a former beauty queen,

Rantibus: Yes…quite…

Palin: For the talent show I skinned a squirrel…

Rantibus: What about the issues you should be conversant with: the Bush Doctrine?

Palin: I didn’t know he was a doctor.

Rantibus: Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack?

Palin: I love their dresses and accessories.

Rantibus: (pause) Caller? You’re on the air.

Caller: …AND THERE SHALL BE HAIL AS BIG AS AN ELEPHANT’S BALLS… UMBRELLAS WILL BE USELESS! AND HE SHALL SMITE THE UNBELIEVERS WITH HIS … UHH… GREAT SMITEY THING, AND…

Rantibus: Sir… the Democratic National Convention is over and it had perfect weather. It was the Republican convention that got rained out on its first day.

Caller: What? Well, fu…(call is terminated)

Rantibus: That was Mr. James Dobson from FOCUS ON THE DEMOCRAT FAMILIES, NOT OURS. So, to wrap up, how do you plan to save the US economy, restore accountability to the White House and improve America’s tattered image abroad? Senator McCain?

McCain: You know what I like? Barbeques. And naps… nice long naps … uh … and…

Palin: I stand for family values and anything else I’m told to.

McCain: You tell ‘em, my little bran muffin. I’m a former POW, you know…

Rantibus: And that’s it for me. Good night, and God save America.

Note to Governor Palin regarding her disdain for Obama’s service as a community organizer:
Jesus was a community organizer.
Pontius Pilate was a Governor…

McCain’s Evil Twin, Skippy… The Real Mark of McCain

Watching McCain stump on the campaign trail is similar to watching a ventriloquist who’s dummy looks exactly like him. It’s somewhat disconcerting since the whole purpose of ventriloquism is to convince the audience that the dummy is real. Cheny’s been doing that with Bush for almost eight years, but the McCain act is more disturbing by far, epecially since McCain’s entire campaign appears predicated on convincing the electorate that the dummy is not only real, but him.
First, let’s take a look at his military record. After all, both he and his supporters have used “Viet Nam - POW” as their holy mantra since the beginning of the campaign.
So here’s Hero McCain’s record. First, this crack pilot has lost five aircraft. The first was back in 1958 when he augured into Corpus Christi Bay while practicing landings.Two years later, while flying over the Iberian Penninsula in the Mediterranean, he took out some power lines and splashed another expensive toy. Then, in 1965 he was returning to Philadelphia for an Army-Navy game after soloing in a Navy trainer when he experience a “flame-out.” He ejected at 1000 feet while the plane crashed and burned. Then, on July 29th, 1967 he lost his fourth aircraft while it was still sitting on the deck of the carrier USS Forrestal. In all honesty, this one was not McCain’s fault. While waiting in the flight line for take-off, an underwing missle from the ship behind him prematurely fired, striking his A-4. McCain was able to escape with his life, but the resulting explosions killed 134 sailors, destroyed at least 20 aircraft on the flight deck and threatened the ship. Finally, on October 26th, 1967, McCain lost his fifth plane when he was shot down on his 23rd bombing mission, crashing into Truc Bach Bay near Hanoi. His last target was a lightbulb factory.
I’ve never been in the US navy or trained with its air arm, although I do know a couple of people who have. And personally, I find it difficult to imagine that the navy would be anxious to qualify anyone as a fighter-bomber pilot who’d lost three aircraft in training, especially when that person had graduated fifth from the bottom at Annapolis. Oh, but wait. I forgot. McCain’s grandfather, Admiral John S. McCain Sr. had commanded US naval aviation at the Battle of Okinawa and his father, Admiral John S. McCain, Jr, was commander of US Forces, Europe and later commander of US Forces, VIet Nam. (while little Mickey was a “guest” of the Hanoi Hilton). In point of fact, after being slapped around and denied medical treatment for four days, McCain finally agreed to give his captors military information in exchange for medical attention. At this time, it was learned by his interrogators that his father was soon to be appointed C in C of US Forces, Pacific, and McCain was hastily transported to Gai Lam military hospital which was normally unavailable to US POWs.
McCain Really Junior also received a chest-full of decorations: the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with “V” device for valor, the Distinguished Flying Cross, three Bronze Stars, two Commendations Medals and two (some say three) Purple Hearts, plus the South Vietnamese Legion of Honour.
This is quite extraordinary. Especially when you consider that McCain flew a total of 23 air missions, each averaging a half-hour or so. All in all, McCain spent maybe 20 hours in the air, averaging about a medal an hour. Pretty good for a third-string aviator.
And, yes, let’s not beat around the bush here. McCain flew an A4-E Skyhawk, a slick little fighter-bomber, but not really what the guys with the Right Stuff were jockeying around enemy airspace. The Big Dogs were flying F4-D Phantom IIs and Crusaders.
What do fellow vets have to say about McCain’s rather phenomenal record? Bill Bell, a vet and former chief of the US Office for POW-MIA Affairs and the first offical US representative in Viet Nam after the fall of Saigon in 1973 has the following comment:

“McCain has roughly twenty hours in combat. Since McCain got 28 medals, that equals about a medal and a half for each hour he spent in combat. There were infantry guys - grunts on the ground - who had more than 7000 hours in combat, and I can tell you that there were times and situations where a prison cell would have looked pretty good to them by comparison. The question really is how many guys got that number of medals for not being shot down?”

Well, I don’t know if a prison cell would look look “good” under any circumstances, and I have no doubt that McCain was regularly beaten and his life threatened. Personally, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. It’s very easy to sit in safety thousands of miles away and criticize a person for breaking and quite another to have just received your 100th beating and hear the interrogators dropping hints about the Hot Lead Enema. So what else do we know about the man. In 1970, McCain was interviewed in prison camp by Dr. Fernando Barral, a Spanish psychiatrist living in Cuba. The full interview was published in the Cuban newspaper Granma on January 24, 1970. Here, in his own words, is Dr. Barral’s assessment of McCain.(The interview was also videotaped)

“He (McCain) showed himself to be intellectually alert during the interview. From a morale point of view he is not in traumatic shock. He was able to be sarcastic, and even humourous indicative of psychic equilibrium. From the moral and ideological point of view he showed us he is an insensitive individual without human depth, who does not show the slightest concern, who does not appear to have though about the criminal acts he committed against a population… I beleive that he has bombed densely populated places for sport. I noted that he was hardened, that he spoke of banal things as if he were at a cocktail party.”

Take the above for what you will, but it does conform to the image of McCain years later as one of the most hawkish members of the Senate. During the intervention in Kosovo in 1999, McCain was bellowing for “lights out in Belgrade,” (what is this thing with McCain and light bulbs?…) and almost foaming at the mouth for NATO to “cream” the Serbs and “use any means necessary” to destroy Serbia. McMaverick has also consistently voted the Bush line, starting with authorizing the invasion of a nation that had nothing to do with 9-11 or posed any credible military threat to the United States. Neither he nor Bush have a strategy for getting out of Iraq, only a strategy for occupying it. Recently, he’s been barking bellicose and impotent threats against Russia. This chickenhawking is made even more contemptable when you realize that McCain voted against the Webb G.I Bill, (that Congress subsequently passed) voted against a $360 million procurement bill for armoured tactical wheeled vehicles for the troops in Iraq and Afganistan and several other appropriations bills that would have benefited or helped make the troops safer.

Essentially we have a sort of disconnect going on here, this idea that having been a “war hero” somehow qualifies you to be President. It doesn’t. I’m somewhat suspicious of the plethora of medals McCain received, or that he even got into and through pilot training, but his father and grandfather were both full admirals. In an equitable world that shouldn’t count for anything, but anyone who lives in this one knows damn well that it does. Mind you, he certainly wouldn’t be the first peson to have family ties and influence advance his career - Dubya couldn’t have gotten himself out of Viet Nam or elected dog-catcher without them. But let’s just concede this one; let’s grant that when he was a young man, McCain was brave.

And so what? So was Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a fellow Republican, 8-term congressman and super-hawk. “Duke” won the Navy Cross and two Silver Stars for shooting down five enemy MIGs (including three in one mission) while flying in Viet Nam as a Navy aviator. “Duke” was gallant and skillful, and parlied a military career into a Congressional sinecure. He was also convicted of accepting bribes from defence contractors while sitting on the Defence Appropriations Committee. He was so crooked that if he swallowed a nail, he’d have defecated a corkscrew. He’s now in disgrace, a felon whose ill-gotten gains are forfeit to the state. Being brave in combat when you’re young doesn’t automatically confirm upon you a sense of ethics and morality when you’re older.

But anytime anyone points this out, that McCain doesn’t really know how to “win a war” or that getting his ass shot out of the sky doesn’t make him C in C material, there’s a Right Wing pile-on. Even against a person with the credentials of General Wesley Clark when he expressed his scepticism on Face the Nation. Interviewer Bob Schieffer almost had a coniption fit:

“…you’re taking about someone who was a prisoner of war! (Christ, here we go again…) …he’s been on the Senate Armed Services Committee for many years. (yes… very often screwing over the American serviceman…) How can you say that John McCain is untested and untried?”

Like this, you blithering cretin:

Clark: “Because in the matters of national security policy making, it’s a matter of understanding risk. It’s a matter of gauging your opponents, and it’s a matter of being held accountable. John McCain’s never done any of that in his official positions… He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committe and he has travelled all over the world. But he hasn’t held executive responsibility.”

A fellow veteran, Lt. General Robert G. Gard, Jr. weighed in on behalf of the attempted pillory of Clark:

“…We must end this glib obeisance to sacrifce and ask deeper questions: is a man who sings ‘bomb, bomb, bomb…bomb, bomb Iran’ a man who understands risks? Is a man who says we must keep our troops in Iraq until we achieve an ill-defined ‘victory’ really know how to gauge America’s opponents? If we want to hold people accountable, then let’s stand behind my friend Wes Clark - and hold John McCain accountable for what he’s said.”

Whatever McCain was in his youth has no bearing on what he’s become in his dotage. Whether or not he was a war hero or the richest barber in Bismark, North Dakota, it is not germane. He is an opportunistic ward-heeler with a border-line psychotic temper who’s so two-faced with regards to his public and private life that he probably has to shave twice every morning. He is the man who Dr. Bob Witzeman (who dealt with McCain over the Mount Graham deal) categorically stated:

“I’m a lifelong environmentalist, but what really scares me about McCain is not his environmental policies, which are horrid, but his violent, irrational temper. I think McCain is so unbalanced that if Vladimir Putin told him something he didn’t like he’d lose it, start beating his chest about having his finger on the nuclear button. Who knows where it would stop. To my mind, McCain’s the most likely senator to start a nuclear war.”

He Knows What It’s Like to Live Without Freedom,
And Soon,You Can Learn Too…
Vote for John McCain for President
Because Bush and Cheney’s work is still not done.

McCain and Attention-to-the-Deficit Disorder

“There’s something scary about stupidity made coherent…” Tom Stoppard, THE REAL THING

It’s becoming almost impossible to adequatly describe what a shameless ward-heeler and reality-impaired dolt McCain is becoming as he lurches around the nation on his Antiques Roadshow. It seems somedays that if you wanted to find out what colour of shoes Bush was wearing you need only look at McCain’s tongue.
Since one of the two main purposes of this blog is to keep reminding you of things you might have forgotten, (but shouldn’t have) let’s just take another look at McCain’s economic policy, such as it is.
One of McCain’s more spectacular flip-flops which would have garnered him at least a 9.5 from the Chinese judge at the Beijing Olympics has been the recanting of his previously held convictions on tax cuts. In June of 2001 McCitizen McCain stated “I cannot in good conscience support a tax cut in which so many of the benefits go to the most fortuante among us at the expense of middle-class Americans who need tax relief.”
Of course, as they say, that was then and this is now… On January 6th of 2008, after having voted for the economically disasteous Bush tax-cuts for the third consecutive time, McCain was being interviewed by Tim Russert who brought up McCain’s contention that they should be made permenant.

McCain: “…unless we cut spending, then we are going to end up in a - the serious situation we’re in today. I will cut spending. And I will continue to support making the tax cuts permanent, which I’ve voted twice already.”

Russert: “But you voted the third time for the tax cuts, but there weren’t spending cuts.”

McCain: “uhmmm … uhmmm … No, … but I thought we ought to keep the tax cuts permanent because if we had increased taxes, which that would have had the effect of, if I had voted in the other way.”

Lord A’Mighty, McSame’s not only starting to sound like Bush contextually, he’s even reproducing Dubya’s fantastic command of syntax.
In any case, McCain’s embracing of the unconscionable Bush tax cuts, which contributed greatly to putting the nation back into deficit spending, is a tacit acceptance not only of a failed economic policy but the concomitant deficts those policies invariably produce. ThinkProgress did an excellent analysis of McCain’s economic plan which I would like to precis for you here.
Firstly, McCain’s plan will cost you the proverbial arm and leg. It will essentially double the Bush tax cuts, costing over $2 trillion amortized over the next decade.
Second, his scheme would deliver a 58% tax cut to the top 1% of the population through the introduction of two separate corporate tax cuts. This is far and above the 31% for the top 1% that President Evil gave away four months before 9-11.
Thirdly, McCain’s plan continues to shift the tax burden from investment income to earned income. In other words, you get to pay Exon-Mobil’s share while they pull down record profits each year from gouging you at the pump.
Fourthly, his plan does actually address the problem of tax shelters. Unfortunately, it increases them.
Finally, none of McCain’s tax cuts can be paid for without massive cuts to programs that help the average American - Social Security, Medicare, education, etc. (You certainly don’t think he’d cut some of the military pork. Remember - we’re going to be in Iraq for 100 years…)
Actually the most frightening thing about the McCain tax proposals are that they have the whole-hearted support of Grover Norquist (he who once stated that his goal was to get the federal government down to a size “where we can drown it in the bathtub.” and who now lauds McCain for adopting “the Americans for Tax Reform’s entire agenda.” This has roughly the same credibility as if the Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan appeared on TV endorsing Senator Obama.
It’s interesting to note that McCain describes himself as a “fiscal conservative.” I suppose we’re intended to take comfort in that until one realizes that President Reagan was a “fiscal conservative” who quadrupled the national debt and left a deficit of over $200 billion. So was George Bush Sr, who left a deficit of over $300 billion and so is his son, Twig who will soon leave a national debt of around $10 trillion (of which over $4.3 trillion was created by himself) and a deficit of at least $482 billion. The only President to eliminate the deficit entirely and leave a 2.7% budget surplus was good old tax-and-spend Democrat, Bill Clinton.

Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose…..

Welcome to I, RANTIBUS.

It is my hope that this blog will fulfill two functions: It will provide analysis of past events that were under-reported or not reported at all, and of issues that shouldn’t be allowed to pass from public memory. It will also feature my satirical faux anthropological study complete with lexicon and taxonomy, AN OBSERVER’S GUIDE TO THE RIGHT WING - A Field Guide to the Fatuous.

Twice weekly, I shall add content in the form of an analytical article or two and an excerpt from The Guide plus two new definitions from the lexicon. (In non-alphabetical order) Plus any other outrages my fevered mind deems appropriate.

Years ago, I began writing political commentary. Eventually, I had to give it up because almost every thing I wrote about prompted me to take the next plane to Washington DC or Ottawa, stand outside the White House, houses of Congress or the Parliament Buildings and scream “F__K YOU, you ethicless, scurrilous swine,” leaping about, shaking my fist and doing a credible impersonation of John Cleese on speed. Needless to say, most of what I wrote was unprintable - not so much for the language, but that it eventually degenerated into a spit-flecked seething cauldron of invective full of sound and fury, signifiying the proverbial nothing. Very much like what Dennis Miller would read like if you stole his thesaurus. Then, I had the opportunity to work on two political campaigns and came to an interesting epiphany. Politicians have long since resigned themselves to the fact that they will be cursed in the streets and excoriated in the public fish wraps and have grown Teflon rhino-hide to insulate themselves. But there is one thing, to lapse into the vernacular, that really grinds their nuts.

They cannot stand being made fun of.

For instance, calling McCain a two-faced, power-hungry war-monger who’d hawk his testicles to any corporate interest for a dollar a ball, apart from probably being libelous, is ultimately an unsatisfying and unprofitable exercise.

But mock the addled old codger, as he flip-flops his way across the country - suggest that his campaign (to paraphrase playwright Tom Stoppard) is like being run over, very slowly, by a traveling freakshow of favorite simpletons; the Midget Intellectual, the Wild Bushshill of Arizona, or suggest that his statements have the same credibility as Britney Spears in the panty aisle - and you will probably be treated to a rare glimpse of the real McCain; the man with the near-psychotic temper who was once described by Dr. Bob Witzeman as “the most likely senator to start a nuclear war.”

When you make fun of someone, it is a tacit admission that you don’t take them seriously, and members of the political Right Wing are very serious people. It’s what they’re serious about that makes them dangerous. But humor derails them, knocks them off their self-erected pedestals. Humor is the great leveler. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney hate political cartoonists with the same degree of impotent frustration as a puritan agonizing over the thought that somewhere, someone might be having fun. And, quite frankly, if you wanted to take a shot at Dubya and be assured that he saw it, drawing it as a comic would probably be your best bet.

So, we’re going to metaphorically moon these scrofulous malefactors, these cheap ward-heelers and shameless prevaricators, to engage in the time-honored tradition of “kicking at the pricks,” and hopefully watch them blow out like a cheap retread.

It’s not my intention to provide as-it-happens commentary on the daily outrages perpetrated upon us by the Potentates of Pork and the Caliphs of Corruption. Rather, I will try to keep certain issues to the fore and perhaps provide some new insights or information of which you have been unaware. Issues that, as I said, are important enough that they shouldn’t be allowed to be shuffled to the bottom of the deck. For it is the curse of the electorate that they forget.

Indeed: As Hunter S. Thompson used to say, let the good times roll…