Capitalists vs. the Christians

Well, well, well. Isn't this going to be fascinating to watch? As U.S. business is getting bitch slapped because of the nutwad image our nation getting courtesy of the religio-fascists, I wonder what sort of wedge this might drive between the more libertarian/pragmatist greed faction of the Republican Party and the snake-handling, Bush-as-Messiah, burn-the-nonbeliever Dobson wing, which has become so frothy around the piehole about gay marriage and Terri Schiavo that they ought to be put out of their misery for the mad curs that they are. Rabid seems too tame a label for the true believers. I don't know why they just don't spontaneously combust into holy smoke, so evil has our world become. What a relief to them, and particularly to us, that would be.

Anyway, the Financial Times had the following:

The US is losing billions of dollars as international tourists are deterred from visiting the US because of a tarnished image overseas and more bureaucratic visa policies, travel industry leaders have warned.

Granted, the tourism industry, while big, is not a tail by which to swing the dog, but it is symptomatic of our larger problem with having the sort of image the Bushits have created for us. Of course, the business community has largely remained blissfully and purposefully ignorant of any of the details so long as there are profits to be made from war or a tax-cut-injected spurt in the economy (remember, it's all red ink ultimately, so it will have to be paid sometime).

But the best way to get a profiteer's attention is to spank him in the wallet, so it will be amusing to watch the nutwads and the greedheads square off against one another. The nutwads have conveniently overlooked the porno, tobacco, and alcohol money that helps their political pals, but they have to draw the line somewhere when our business boys try to create an Amsterdam-like center of sex and reefer somewhere in the US to attract more tourists.

“The idea has gotten out that we've pulled in the welcome mat,” said Rick Webster, the association's director of government affairs.

Yeah, seeing Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, who would ever get such an idea?