There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus

Of course, Augustus could only spend what was raised. There’s a difference from today, but I’ll leave tax matters for later.

Think too what some Roman emperors — say, Nero or Caligula — could do if they had today’s technology. You won’t have to tretch your imaginations much. There’s a story about White House dossiers. Could it be false or inflated? Sure. But given the hubris of the current Administration there’s not a lot I wouldn’t believe. Makes one almost sentimental for the Nixon administration — itself not opposed to an enemies list — and we have more than three more years of this.

White House keeps dossiers on more than 10,000 ‘political enemies’ (Doug Thompson, Capitol Hill Blue)

Link via Jordon Cooper.

5 Replies to “There went out a decree from Caesar Augustus”

  1. This is silly. Any saavy politician uses databases to keep track of what opponents say. This is the whole war-room thing and it just gets bigger with bloggers.

    You want to find out about lists, just donate five bucks to a politician. Uses a special middle initial so you can make your name unique. Watch how many lists and mailings you get.

  2. I let your comment go through Bill for the record. Don’t think this is a problem? This isn’t about mailng lists or games membership and development directors play. Your comment makes you look like an idiot.

  3. I always stand my my record Scott, idiot or not…. this notion that Bush is bringing a police state upon us is just false in my opinion.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.