AND THE VICE-PRESIDENT DESCENDED ON OUR PART OF THE GLOBE...

Cheney Bo-Reiney, Banana-nana-bo-beiney, fee-fi-fo-feiney... Cheney! visited our region yesterday spreading war cheer to the KVI faithful and, if the news was to be believed, elicited cheers and whoops from the soldiers at McChord as he raised the roof with morale-boosting exhortations such as "Defense isn't enough. We need to go on offense, and that's where you come in!" and the killer "We tremendously appreciate what you're doing!" adding that military personnel are "... putting your necks on the line."

Here, I hasten to point out to Cheney that it is he and this administration putting the necks of American soldiers on the line. I do not think, that as a gathering of individuals, American soldiers would one day elect to put their necks on the line and invade a fractious, cobbled-together nation full of hostiles. Maybe a few would, who knows. Anyway...



Following the war rally, Cheney, with the Missus in tow, hopped into their little jet and headed up Boeing Field way where they were shuttled to a Bellevue fundraiser for Republican Senatorial candidate, George Nethercutt, he of the Great 2000 Election Term Limits Campaign Pledge Fiasco and the Great 2003 "The story of what we've done in the post-war period is remarkable! It is a better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day" Fiasco. It is an understatement to note how gratifying it is to see so many tax dollars spent to bankroll fundraising shuttling.

Naturally, nobody would like to see incompetento-extremo Patty Murray expunged from her Senate seat than me. The socialist Snore Whine from Shoreline has been party to all kinds of bad legislation, at home and in the Senate. George Nethercutt is a paltry alternative, a big government conservative the likes of which typify the Washington state Republican. I don't even know who the Libertarian candidate is and besides... it's probably a patchoulitarian whose platform issue is drug legalization and little else anyway.

While Nethercutt and Cheney were whooping it up inside the Bellevue Hyatt Regency on someone else's dime, the protestors and the counter-protestors huddled in the foggy streets outside and, remarkably, both sides were civil. I say "remarkably" because this is, after all, WTO Town. Every protest I have ever been to here has been a whacked out affair.

What gets me is that people will come up with, drive to, and participate in a rally for the gross misspending of their tax dollars. It's not lost on me that the Republican electorate is staunchly in the less government camp, even if shakily so, so why get all a-tizzy at official hypocrisy in action as if it's a good thing? Cheney should be doing his "job" as the Senate tie-breaker, not out campaigning for underlings while someone else foots the bill and in a sane world this would be recognized.