The Sunshine Empire

I arose early yesterday morning to go to a town hall event for former New York City Mayor Rudolph Guliani, and I have to say that I came away with a bit more respect for him. He is not my candidate, and more than likely has as much of a chance as Mike Gravel of getting my vote, but I wanted to see the game being played. I watched with interest as the men in wrinkled suits swarmed the room all with blackberries close at hand. The audience was also fascinating to watch. I stood to the side of the stage so I could see most of the people in attendance, and the candidate. In his opening remarks he backed away from his recent phenomenon of blaming Bill Clinton for all terrorism today by returning to saying that we should not look back in hind-sight. The stage was packed with local and Statewide dignitaries, yet they did not seem to have screened the questions coming from the audience. Because swarming the audience dressed in ridiculous white shirts and holding up signs where the fair tax cult.

The fair tax cult obeys a mysterious blow hard who infects the minds of our fellow Americans from his compound in Atlanta. The do not take kindly to you not hearing the gospel of abandoning the current tax code in favor of taxing the shit out of toilet paper. Since the questions where not screened, the second person at the microphone was a starry eyed minion of Neil Boortz who asked Guliani to sign the fair tax pledge. She understands that getting a politician to promise something ensures that he gives a flying fuck. To his credit, he said that he was not in favor of this bizarre far right idea. It was at this point the fair tax cult became displeased. Here it was I that was standing quietly and it was the far right shouting down a republican presidential candidate. Guliani was as skilled as a stand-up comic in diffusing the situation, stating, “I could get an easy applause out of you just saying I’m for it, but I’m not.” But the tantrum that these wing nuts staged further proves that the right is going to eat itself alive this presidential season. The episode made it to CNN Headline News this afternoon. Yet another cult, that of Ron Paul was ready outside the speech. They were handing out material as we exited the building into the sizzling sunshine.