Tuesday, January 21, 2014

As a Republican, You Know You've Gone Too Far When . . .

One of your fellow candidates for the Florida State House of Representatives thinks you're an embarrassment.

Gentle Readers, allow me to introduce you to a fellow named Joshua Black, a resident of the thriving burg of Pinellas Park.  Mr. Black moved there from St. Louis (where he was a street evangelist) in 2007, and took up a job driving a taxi.

There's nothing wrong in all of that.  Anyone can run for elected office, and Mr. Black is a resident.

Running on the Republican ticket, he stated that "Republicans have a serious communication problem . . . Everything we say sounds like spears."

Ahem.

I hate to use the pejorative term he just handed me, so I won't.

Because Mr. Black stepped a bit over the line. In a Twitter post he stated that President Obama should be hanged for authorizing a drone strike that killed an American citizen.  I'm going to assume he's referring to Anwar al-Awlaki, who was blown into a cloud of pink meat last year.

Responding to the screams of outrage and howls of "WTF?" from his fellow Republicans, Black upped the ante and proved that he's an idiot with a woeful knowledge of US history.  First, he stood by his tweet, saying that the President's not above the law (which is true), and added that Benedict Arnold was executed for treason.

Ahem.

Arnold lived to an old age and died in bed - in England.  He didn't get executed.

Addressing the first point he made, the 'unitary executive' powers granted to the President by a panic-stricken Congress during the reign of Bush the Dumber allowed Obama to authorize a drone strike.  I don't agree with it, but I'm not going to advocate either impeachment or what Mr. Black suggested.  President Obama's justification is the simplest form of argument from authority - because he can.

Mr. Black has resigned his seat on the Pinellas County GOP's executive committee, but is still running for the state legislature.  He says that he's already had a chat with the Secret Service, too.  

And the worst thing about this whole affair?  There are people in Pinellas Park and in the district that will enthusiastically vote for him.


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