Drive-By Blogging, with Real and Metaphoric Vampires
Murray Waas drives a stake through the heart of “everybody thought . . . ” And the undead corpse of The President had no idea of the controversy within the intelligence community crumbles to dust in the glare, too.
Harry Browne, who left the Libertarian Party in worse shape than he found it after promising great things, is dead. Brian Doherty, who worked on Browne’s campaign book, has a link-filled appreciation; Eric Garris offers the like focused on foreign policy in the post-9/11 era. All it reminds me is that Browne was one of those libs who never had any idea how to talk to, to borrow a skiffy term, “mundanes.” It is interesting that Browne barely outlived Liberty editor Bill Bradford, his former friend turned bete noire for Bradford’s doggedness in pursuing LP scandals touching Browne.
Speaking of undead corpses of plausible denial drying up and blowing away, the President’s Katrina excuses. I don’t know if any federal official did more harm than New Orleans Mayor Nagin, whose hysterical and wrong reports of on-site savagery did so much to bring what rescue efforts there were to a halt, but the White House’s excuse-making rankles nevertheless.
And Oh by the Way, the just-concluded storyline in Marvel’s Black Panther comic featured all of Marvel’s great 1970s African-American superheroes teamed up to fight vampires in immediate post-Katrina New Orleans. Plus, Monica Rambeau of the many aliases, plus former Utah Jazz great Karl Malone in an uncredited appearance. Way lots of tons of fun.
Comment by Doug Muir —
March 3, 2006 @ 1:38 am
”Browne was one of those libs who never had any idea how to talk to, to borrow a skiffy term, mundanes.”
– That is to say, he was entirely representative of his party.
The tribute page over at downsizeDC.org is fascinating, in a watch-the-car-crash sort of way. Dozens of people talking about how charismatic he was, and what a great communicator. (Also lots of stuff like: ”My first introduction to Harry Browne and economics came in How You can Profit from the Coming Monetary Crisis. I was astonished at his clarity of thought.”)
It’s like, I saw this man who had bad hair just like me! But people were clapping!
Gratuitous slam? Perhaps. But I can’t be the only one who’s annoyed at the utter uselessness of the Libertarian Party. In half a dozen states, the LP could be what the Conservatives were in New York until recently, and what the Minnesota Democrats still are in Minnesota: the third party that the main party candidate must appease in order to win.
Instead it’s a bad joke, a party that can’t win 1% of the vote in Montana. Harry Browne hardly bears all of the blame for this. There are deep organizational and philosophical problems with the LP. But when you have a candidate who raises almost $1.5 million and then spends only $9,000 on advertisements and over $900,000 on travel and on lavish salaries, in a campaign that goes on to take less than half of one percent of the popular vote… yeah, I think some of it’s on him.
Doug M.