This seems like news from the Onion: the Carlyle Group BUYS the friggin Magna Carta.
But it's not.
A 710-year-old copy of the declaration of human rights known as the Magna Carta — the version that became part of English law — was auctioned Tuesday for $21.3 million, a Sotheby's spokeswoman said.
The document, which had been expected to draw bids of $30 million or higher, was bought by David Rubenstein of The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm, the spokeswoman said.
Not only did they buy it, they got it on the lo-lo!
Is this not surreal?
Yes.... the Carlyle Group just bought the "Birth Certificate of Democracy".
This is a great write up about the document and it's relevance to the all-pout assault on freedom we have seen from Team Bush:
Something akin to this occurred March 28th, 193 AD when the Praetorian guards, literally, sold the Roman empire to the wealthy senator Didius Julianus for the bargain price of 6250 drachmas. Our modern day "Didius" has fared better than Julianus, who didn't live out the year. Unless he is brought to trial for capital and war crimes, our own "Crawford Caligula", looks forward to a peaceful retirement where he can exorcise his aggressive demons with a chainsaw and mesquite trees.
The 1297 copy of the Magna Carta is more than an English royal document; it is considerably more than a mere symbol of freedom. It brought a King "to book" for his abuses and established the principle of habeas corpus. Habeas Corpus, as you may recall, was recently abrogated upon a decree by George W. Bush, likewise owned by the Carlyle Group. He was, until now, their trophy. The sale price for Magna Carta was $21.3 million including commission at Sotheby's in New York. We haven't yet determined what price Bush commanded.
Just a couple more salient excerpts and an admonishment to go read the whole thing. I just wanted to bring this essay to people's attention.
It is impossible to over-emphasize the significance of Magna Carta whose principles appear throughout the histories of democracies since the English Petition of Right, the Mayflower Compact, The Virginia Declaration of Rights, The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the Bill of Rights, The Nuremberg Principles, and every US Supreme Court decision that has upheld the right of persons to be free of arbitrary rule, to be secure in their homes, to be free of unreasonable arrest in the absence of probable cause.
The essay is written with numerous references and is a decent overview of the scope and reach and importance of the Magna Carta, further causing my mouth to hang agape at the thought the Carlyle Group would simply buy it.
Maybe it's nothing.... but who knows?
However, it's not like the Carlyle Group isn't a Who's Who of the Republican Party. Eliminating the entire idea of freedom and democracy has been their Holy Grail.
In closing....
As far as I know, no Democrat has dared call Bush's regime "illegitimate" though it most certainly is. Voters are left no other choice but to support a Democratic nomination. Slim hopes beat none at all, I suppose. Is it too much to ask that our "leaders" at least give lip service to the legitimate concerns of a disaffected people?
Political rhetoric is just more of the same when, in fact, nothing is the same. How could Democrats have missed the sea change that has taken place, the fundamental challenges to Constitutional government? Where is the outrage? Where is courage? What are the implications? Simply, the Bush junta has subverted the US Constitution and some 1,000 years of progress. Are we to expect a nation of some 300 millions to just walk willingly into a tyrannical dark age?
Nothing to add but "Impeachment".
Post Haste, please.