My way, or the highway

I can find stories like this all day long. Can somebody explain to me why this Republican administration will not even listen to different points of view? I'm really curious about that.

Doesn't it strike anyone as odd that you have to sign a "loyalty oath" to attend a Bush townhall or rally? Isn't it weird that tradition is cast aside time and again in order to suppress any dissenting voices? Is that the new way of politics in America?

It seems to me that if Clinton were President for any of the episodes I've written about in the last 4 months, there would be a media frenzy and talk of impeachment.

So, how does the Bush administration get away with it? Simple - lower the bar. If virtually all of your policies are bad, one particularly bad one will not stand out. Overwhelm the media and public with disastrous decisions and none will gain traction. After a while, it's just a din of malfeasance instead of one really good screw up, ala Monica-Gate.

When I throw out the word "fascist" I don't do it lightly.

At least four of the two dozen or so U.S. delegates selected for the meeting, sources tell TIME, have been bumped by the White House because they supported John Kerry's 2004 campaign. The State Department has traditionally put together a list of industry representatives for these meetings, and anyone in the U.S. telecom industry who had the requisite expertise and wanted to go was generally given a slot, say past participants, TIME reports.

Only since the start of Bush's second term did a political litmus test emerge, industry sources say. The White House admits as much: "We wanted people who would represent the Administration positively, and--call us nutty--it seemed like those who wanted to kick this Administration out of town last November would have some difficulty doing that," says White House spokesman Trent Duffy. Those barred from the trip include employees of Qualcomm and Nokia, two of the largest telecom firms operating in the U.S., as well as Ibiquity, a digital-radio-technology company in Columbia, MD, TIME reports.

** update **

Krugman explains why the Republican's, particularly Bush, think everything is going so well. In a nutshell, it's because they only talk to people who agree with them 100%. Good reading.