* the articles on the extreme secrecy of Dick Cheney's vice-presidential office reminded me a bit of the "inner party" in George Orwell's 1984. The GOP is the main party, but the control center, the vanguard of the vanguard, is Cheney's apparatus. I'd bet that the Cheney people act as "political commissars," enforcing ideological homogeneity among the troops.
(The political commissar was a position created due to the extreme problem of maintaining loyalty and discipline during the Russian Civil War (1917-1922). The position was also used for similar purposes by Stalin's people and the Spanish CP during the Spanish Civil War (1936-30). In some book I read on the latter, they were called "comic stars.") * while driving to work today, I noticed that at a certain angle & in a certain light, the poster for the Robin Williams film "License to Wed" looks like a uterus. -- Jim Devine / "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."
