RNC Voyeurism, Divesting Israeli Arms Maker, The Democracy-Builder Who Loved Me

Paul Krugman
Clarence Page
Michael Hastings

A few days ago I wrote about some of the strange perversions that conservatives use to become sexually aroused, things I could never make up if I was drunk, stoned, and tied to a bed on a Saturday night. Today there are financial reports from the Republican National Committee on the excesses of Chairman Michael Steele. Although he is claiming that it really is some other staffer who enjoys watching lesbian bondage an awful lot, it appears that the new must-have gear that one needs to hike along the Appalachian Trail are a pair of fur-lined handcuffs... From the Daily Beast: "More information please: Under chairman Michael Steele, the RNC spent $1,946.25 at Voyeur West Hollywood, “a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex,” says The Daily Caller. The RNC denies that Steele himself visited the club, saying that it was "a reimbursement made to a non-committee staffer." The RNC is also investigating the claim. It’s just one of several lavish expenses that the RNC has incurred under Steele. Others include a $43,828 trip to Hawaii, $17,514 on private jets in February alone, and stays at other hotels like the W, the Venetian, and the Four Seasons." If you could fly in private jets and stay in expensive hotels on someone else's dime, wouldn't you also take advantage? After all, affluent appearances must be kept up...

I remember back in the '60's when we were encouraged not to buy Gallo wine because of their position regarding the farmworker's union of Cesar Chavez. To this day I haven't bought another bottle, even though they since have improved their image and the quality of their wine. Then, students tried to get their universities not to invest in companies that did business with aparteid South Africa. Lately, we are trying to install sanctions on businesses that support Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Now, it looks like Norway and Sweden are boycotting an Israeli arms maker that also makes drones: "The biggest Swedish pension fund said Monday it had barred Israeli arms maker Elbit Systems from its investment portfolios on ethical grounds. Following the lead of Norway's state pension fund, Foersta AP-Fonden said it had banned investment in Elbit because it had built and was operating a surveillance system for a controversial barrier between Israel and the West Bank. Israel says the barrier -- a network of walls, fences and closed military roads -- is designed to prevent attacks. The Palestinians view it as an "apartheid wall" that carves off key parts of their future state." Drones are used to patrol along the barrier, I don't know if they have armaments installed or just use cameras. Yahoo is among the American companies that has expressed their concern to Elbit. I guess we will have to wait awhile until Microsoft gains a conscience or Google does something dramatic...

There was this article in the NY Times about if there is a future investing in Cuba, that had a really cool picture of a man driving a 1952 Cadillac along the malecon: "Although Cuba remains closed to American investment, dreamers in both countries are actively considering the money-making possibilities that the island might offer once the half-century-old travel and trade embargoes imposed by the United States become policies of the past."

The article touts that companies like McDonald's or Coca Cola would have no trouble setting up shop, but Americans would have to have an attitude adjustment: "... banish certain words from their minds — Bay of Pigs, dissidents, Elián González, hijackers and socialism, for instance — and to focus on the fact that the Cuban government had already joined more than 200 joint ventures with foreign corporations, none of them American." But currently, US officials cannot overlook the case of: "jailing an American government contractor, Alan P. Gross, whom the Cubans accuse of espionage but the State Department says was engaged in democracy-building."


Oh, this poor, innocent man, snapped up by the Cuban police for the crime of "democracy-building." So that's what we are calling it these days. He wasn't spying, no, he wasn't engaged in espionage, because that has such a negative connotation, and must be politically incorrect. I wonder if that is one of the progressive changes that Leon Panetta has instituted at the CIA, along with hiring more mercenary groups. Soon we will eradicate the word from our dictionaries, replaced by this more modern phrase that has less negative impact on our foreign neighbors. Perhaps there will be The Democracy Building Awards on MTV, or a rash of new campus groups The Young Democracy Builders. Sadly, we may have to go back and change the titles of some best-loved books and movies, for example, Ian Fleming's The Democracy-Builder Who Loved Me. or Anais Nin's A Democracy Builder in the House of Love... happy reading, oh politically correct ones...