Democracy for Vancouver

Senator Clinton keeps hammering away at Barack Obama’s lack of “experience” (what part of 27 years of organizing and legislating isn’t “experience”?), most recently with her repeated snogging of John McCain, as if Obama is some kind of kid brother who can’t be trusted at the adults’ table:

“I’ve got a lifetime of experience. Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience,” Clinton, 60, said in an interview on CNN. “Senator Obama’s whole campaign is about one speech he made in 2002.”

If you want to take credit for hanging out in the West Wing and hobnobbing with world leaders, go for it, Senator Clinton. Just remember that you have to take whatever comes along with it - particularly if you made no challenge to the issues at the time, or if you haven’t given voice to your misgivings since.

So, Sen. Clinton, here are a few things to stuff in your Big Bag o’ Presidenting Experience - hope it doesn’t get too heavy for you:

• Anti-terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act: Gave Chimpy a nice head-start on shredding Habeas Corpus and limiting judicial review of capitol cases.

• 1996 Communications Decency Act: Censorship and abrogation of 4th Amendment Rights with a soupçon of privacy invasion: mmm mmm good.

• 1994 Crime Bill: Helped get the ball rolling for our wonderful private prison-industrial complex, and gave us 50 new federal death penalty crimes. Woohoo!

• Defense of Marriage Act: Because the gays made Bill do it.

• Digital Millenium Copyright Act: Fair use? What’s that?

• Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: Don’t give us a specious and unconstitutional reason to court-martial you.

• North American Free Trade Agreement: That NAFTAriffic $38 billion annual trade deficit with Mexico is a bit big to hide under a sombrero.

• Taxpayer Relief Act: Made it nice and easy for BushCo to push through even deeper capital gains tax cuts and fatter inheritance exemptions when they got the chance.

• 1996 Telecom Act: Didn’t Bill say it was going to expand competition and diversify media voices? Hahahahahahahahahaha - that’s a good one.

• Welfare Reform: Get a job, and spend all that hard-earned minimum wage paying for childcare!