Elephants, big tents & juggling acts: How special elections bring Bush's circus to YOUR town!

California is facing a special election this fall. The issues on the ballot are petty and unimportant. So why does Arnold Schwarzenegger call for one? So that he can entertain himself watching Democrats, Greens, school teachers, nurses and labor unions run around like clowns just dumped out of a clown car -- desperately scrambling everywhere as they frantically search for money to fight the latest Bush Republican power grab.

And this is not only just happening in California. All across America, Bush Republicans are demanding special elections as vociferously as if they were barkers under the Big Top. So watch your voting booths carefully, all you hayseeds. The Bush Republican circus is in town -- and the shills are working the crowd!

Arnie -- I would call him "Governor Schwarzenegger" if I knew that little old ladies with blue hair had counted the ballots that elected him instead of the ballots being counted by Bush Republican party hacks -- knows the same thing that every Bush-supporting one-trick pony politician in America knows: They all have access to an unlimited "War Chest" that will allow them to put on a really Big Show. Every single Bush Republican party-line-swallower in the country knows that they have enough money to keep this "special election" three-ring circus going -- and going and going and going.

And where does all this money come from? It ain't coming from Barnum and Bailey! Apparently the U.S. treasury is financing this show. Here's how it works: Corporate cronies of the Bush family learned early on that for every dollar they "contribute" to these pseudo-GOP strong men, a Bush Republican-controlled Congress will pass laws giving them at least a 400% return on their money. Watch the circus magicians on Capitol Hill as they magically produce de-regulations, access to resources and pork-barrel contracts for Bush's cronies -- and also watch spellbound as money magically disappears from our wallets as well.

With such a gigantic amount of return on campaign "investment," you can bet that the Bush Republican circus is in your town to stay.

With unlimited resources to erect their Big Tents in our cities and their own people manning the voting machine side-shows and selling the tickets, Bush Republicans can easily defeat Dems, school teachers, Greens, etc. by forcing us gullible little guys who still believe in democracy to spend money and spend money and spend money that we don't have on hundreds of one-ring special elections, leaving us poor naive hayseeds busted, broke and working without a net -- unable to compete with the pseudo-GOP ring masters at all.

So nowadays the Bush Republicans instigate special elections, re-call elections, initiative elections, replacement elections -- you get the idea. Give them ANY excuse for a ballot and they start setting up their show.

And with the Democrats and labor unions and teachers and Greens and working stiffs' limited budgets, when the Big Boys set up their Big Tents, the small-town circuses ALWAYS get shut down. Sorry. No cotton candy and lion tamers for us!

P.T. Barnum said there was a sucker born every minute -- and the suckers here are us. But even though the Bush Republicans have cages and cages full of lion tamers and Fat Cats, you can't fool all the people all of the time. Sooner or later Americans are going to finally notice that the pseudo-GOP performances are always big fakes and rip-offs -- and that we NEVER get our money back after a bad show.

But you gotta give the Bush Republicans credit. They DO have a great high wire act. There's always something going on up in the air to keep our eyes off the shills who are picking our pockets and working the crowd. There's always some sideshow to divert us -- whether it's gays, abortions, feeding tubes, corporation-kissing Supreme Court nominees, the Rove-Plame scandal, fear, weapons of mass destruction, London, Iraq or 9/11.

And what will they do next to "entertain" us and keep our eyes off all the smoke and mirrors? I really don't want to know.

PS: My friend Earle just e-mailed me. "Bush will never leave Iraq," he said. "He and his cronies are making too much money there to ever give it up." And he's right. Why would Bush Republicans ever want to end this bitter and terrible war -- when it is pouring something like a billion dollars a week into their coffers?

Halliburton makes so much money in Iraq that they don't know what to do with it all and Paul Bremmer alone managed to "lose" 8.8 billion dollars. Why would they want THAT to stop? Because they respect honesty? For love of their fellow-man? To save the economy? To save the planet? To save democracy? To save our "non-negotiable" lifestyle that is now fast-disappearing into their pockets? To save Christianity? To save their immortal souls? Or just to keep innocent women and children from being nuked and napalmed and American cities safe?
Bush Republicans are NOT INTERESTED in that kind of stuff. The Iraq war is their cash cow. Period. End of story. The Circus of Greed is in town.

PPS: And exactly what is the product that the pseudo-GOP circus is selling us? Is it entertainment? No no no. It is FEAR. And this product is selling like hot-cakes! Why should they stop selling it just because it might be hazardous to our heath? It is making them money hand over fist! Why stop selling a good thing? These people are being rewarded BIG-TIME for turning America into a nation of cowards -- terrified out of their minds by a bunch of avaricious clowns.

Let's stop buying the Bush Republicans' product and stuff them and their bare lying tigers into the next circus train out of town!