Funk Babblings

Yesterday two political stories drew my attention.

First, Salon tells us about evidence in the case against Tom DeLay (a 318-page PDF) revealing the true Republican strategy to use their conservative "Christian" base as a tool to further their own agenda. DeLay's aide says in one memo,

"The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them."

Second, a Washington Post columnist tells us of President Bush's ill-fated trip to the historically Black Howard University last week for a "youth summit" in the campus dining hall. In this presidency, of course, this meant that only handpicked students got to participate, while the rest were locked out of the dining hall at dinner time. While the column's characterization of the school and its students may be disputed, the end result is, well....

But the visit went from bad to worse. On a day when the U.S. Senate passed a resolution paying tribute to civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who died last week, campus security guards were telling students that if they wanted to eat they'd have to come back when the president and first lady were gone, then go to a service door at the rear of the dining hall and ask for a chicken plate to go.