Two For The Price Of One

It's Friday, the sun's out, what's not to like? Today's brew: Melitta's Hawaiian Estate, Lawa'i Estate. Really tasty.

So, for the Fool of the Week I have two candidates to offer for your opinion. First up, Mark Rosenzweig. Who? Rosenzweig is the ALA councilor-at-large recently ranting on a blog about the scheduling of Laura Bush to be a speaker at the American Library Association's annual conference in New Orleans next week. Her panel has a non-controversial topic : "School Libraries Work: Rebuilding for Learning" in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Her mere presence has the rabid left seething and the hissy fit has begun. As you read the title of her panel's subject you clearly distinguish it is not of a political nature. The problem arises with the fact that in today's academic chambers, the American Library Association has morphed into a far-left organization. Odd, I know, but seems to be so.

I am typing out the text of the rant so that the full effect may be read: Rosenzweig says: "I must, with the weariness and frustration that accompanies the anticipated yet still painful, hereby protest that his event turns our conference into a grand political photo-op for the administration of President George W. Bush, whose administration bears such a heavy responsiblitiy for, among other things of which I will remind you, the debacle of the response to Hurricane Katrina and for its ongoing aftermath. Mrs. Bush is anachronistically called the 'first lady', with the fake gentility which is the hallmark of our provincial cult of the presidency, but what she is, in political fact, regardless of her surfeit of - to me - rather cloying charm and her much publicized attachment to libraries as the no-political-downside way of demonstrating Bush administration largesse, is the First Supporter of President Bush and one his most valuable public-relations assets. ... She supports virtually every policy of her husband's administration - tax cuts for the rich, the destruction of Social Security and Medicare, the privatization of public lands, the hand-outs to corporations, the support for the plundering by Big Oil, the covering for the abuses of the blockade of Cuba and the threats to Latin America, the nuclear saber-rattling, the USA Patriot Act, covert domestic surveillance, the attacks on the Bill of Rights and the entire Constitution, the flaunting of international law, and, let's not forget, 'Gitmo' and Abu Ghraib and Haditha. When you see her smiling demurely on the platform that we have provided for her and basking in the standing ovation Americans love to give to celebrities, know too that the smirking faces of Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld are up there too, and that every clap of the hands and whistle and whoop are taken by them - and by the media who will witness this - as endorsement of their policies and their administration."

WOW! Dude, take a breath. Laura Bush is the First Lady of the United States. She is not a regular celebrity. She supports her husband which I don't think makes her a menace to society. Last I heard, Laura Bush doesn't sit in on cabinet meetings as, say, Rosalyn Carter and Hillary Clinton were known to do, as they truly thought they were "co-Presidents".

Let's talk about personal political agendas : Rosenzweig was an archivist for the "Reference Center for Marxist Studies" in New York. He is an apologist for Fidel Castro and claims Cuba is not a dictatorship, but a republic. He recycles disproved propoganda lies about the Patriot Act, and is a vocal opponent of the War on Terror. The ALA, through their policy-making council has passed resolutions calling for the U.S. to cut and run from Iraq and expresses hostility to the Boy Scouts of America's policies.

Popular speakers at previous ALA conferences? Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Gloria Steinem, Richard Clarke, and E.L. Doctorow. They also featured benefit screenings of "Fahrenheit 9/11". Dissenters are mocked on ALA mailing lists and conference events. The 21st century librarian.

Laura Bush is a former teacher in poor, urban schools in Houston, Austin and Dallas. She holds a Master's degree in Library Science. The ALA is too foolish to be ashamed of what they have become.

And for this week's second mention: our buddy Al Gore. This week Al Gore refused to endorse his former running mate, Joe Leiberman in Leiberman's re-election bid for Senate. He told Bloomberg News that he doesn't get involved in primary races. This, however, wasn't so when he endorsed Howard Dean in the Democrat primary for the 2004 presidental race. Leiberman was also running for president when Gore endorsed Dean. Gore described Lieberman as a "good friend" to Bloomberg News. With friends like old Al, who needs enemies?