The Unmerciful and The Necessary
The most dangerous place to be right now is behind any Bush administration official. At any moment, Bushies all over town are backpedaling as fast as they can on important issues on which they formerly promised to stand their ground. As the ground crumbles and shifts under their feet, they lurch back, back, searching for that safe, common ground.
Like millions of others, I have waited six excruciating years for the Bushies to get their just deserts in the courts. Given how Bush was "elected" in the first place – ultimately appointed by the worst decision ever from the U.S. Supreme Court, I’m sure they didn’t take the courts very seriously as anything other than a manipulable rubber-stamp. I can still hear Justice O’Connor from the tense, historically live audio during oral arguments: Something like, "Why couldn’t the voters just follow the instructions, for goodness sake?" For goodness sake, indeed.
The Bushies have always had designs on your civil liberties, but they were handed an enormous gift on 9/11/01. After flying around the country in Air Force One while they tried to figure out how to spin the disaster to their advantage, Karl Rove decided that Bush must use the word War, for maximum political leverage. After declaring War when there was none, the Bushies proceeded to demand and grab power for themselves in a way unheard of in American history, even (especially) during real war time.
And why wouldn’t they? It’s not like Congress was going to reign them in, what with the GOP congressional lapdogs in power and their pitiful sycophants on talk radio and cable marching in lockstep. Meanwhile, consultants convinced the Democrats that they ought not be perceived as unhelpful to the military response. You would have thought the Dems would have learned their lesson after Al Gore graciously conceded the presidency that rightfully belonged to him that they get nothing out of playing nice with these bastards. But, there they went, and, as the better, as it always will be.
In the meantime, the usual suspects were rounded up on the "battlefields" of Afghanistan – many innocent cab drivers, merchants and cell phone users – and hauled off, hooded and naked, to the metal cages of Guantanamo, so that America could show the world how humane we are and how we would like our captured fighters to be treated. Not.
The whole bizarre setup at Guantanamo was created fully-formed, as if it was the result of a five-year project at the Heritage Foundation. Because of the ingenious design of the unprecedented program – Gitmo is in a foreign country, but on U.S. land; names of detainees withheld; access to lawyers and the Red Cross next to impossible; "rendering" to foreign torture agents, etc. – it took over four years and lots of creative lawyering to get a case to the Supremes that actually meant something.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, an amazing thing happened. Despite all odds, what’s left of the U.S. Supreme Court – five of them, at least, the last vestige of sanity in a nation of corrupted democracy – stepped up and inserted a badly-needed legal foot into the Bushies’ behind. In fake TV wrestling, they call it a smackdown – that from which one does not get up, much less spin it in terms that preserve your dignity.
Known by the last name of the unfortunate detainee, the Hamdan case is destined to be as legally iconic as Miranda. In the opinion written by the Ford(!)-appointed, moderate-in-any-world-but-this John Paul Stevens, the Court left no question where it stood on the issue of the Bush claims to imperial status and power.
"But in undertaking to try Hamdan and subject him to criminal punishment, the Executive is bound to comply with the Rule of Law that prevails in this jurisdiction." Wow. Read it again: "...the Executive is bound to comply with the Rule of Law..." Thus ends five years of bullshit-and-bluster by the Bushies, everything from warrantless searches of phones and bank records to endless detention without charges. "...bound to comply with the Rule of Law..." And, while you’re at it, John Paul the Good capitalized "Rule of Law". Boo-yah.
So much for the Bushies’ visions of monarchy, or so it would seem. For instance, in its ruling, the Court addressed the broad claims the Bush gang has always made about the infamous Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) that swept through Congress so that we could kick some Taliban in 2001. Not so fast, says the Supreme Court: "...there is nothing in the text or legislative history of the AUMF even hinting that Congress intended to expand or alter..." the regular processes of the courts of military justice.
Let’s just apply that logic to the many now-wild power assertions of the Bushies in so many other areas. What else can it be said that Congress never even "hinted" at an intent to expand or alter? Warrantless wiretaps? Bank and phone records? Forget it. Their goose is cooked like a Cheney quail – caged, helpless and with buckshot all over the faces of the innocent.
The Rove talking-point machine has had a hard time handling a smackdown as dramatic and definitive as this. At the height of their belligerence – say, a year ago – the Bushies would have used this opportunity to announce the suspension of Supreme Court rule, setting up a sub-division of the "Justice" Department to review and dispose of all complaints from annoying Americans and others as an alternative. At first, they called the broad ruling "narrow". They implied that Congress can "fix" or "tweak" the process, but not without enough protections that would result in the outright release of all but a few.
And then there are the dark ruminations of the sub-surrogates, the places that Rove sends the most outrageous messages, to soften up the underbelly with the poison of the obscene. There, the Mark Levine and Mark Savage’s of the world – pliant local and national wingnuts – talk about the ultimate constitutional crisis, the declaration of executive branch supremacy that puts to death comity and checks-and-balances once and for all.
But even Dick Cheney knows he couldn’t pull that one off. Even Cheney knows it’s over for their sorry regime and they can choose to slink off in shame or drop the Bomb and hasten the Rapture. For even thinking about this, the Bushies will burn in a Special Hell built for those who falsely claim the Kingdom.
So, the Bushies this week did the only thing they could do. They capitulated. A memo went out saying that, oops, Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions did apply to the Gitmo unfortunates, as the Supreme Court said. Now, we hear that even those in CIA custody (no difference, really) are so protected.
At times like these, you want to be a fly on the wall when the lawyers came in to tell Cheney the jig is up. For all of his evil intentions and accomplishments (now unraveling), Cheney always inherited, as the driven straw-that-serves-the-drink, the legacy of Richard Nixon. Nixon got drunk in the White House at night and railed at all the elites that victimized him and his poor father and mother. He talked to the portraits on the walls and thought they talked back. He forced Kissinger on his knees to pray for a god only he saw, and only after three or four stiff bourbons.
For his part, Cheney has none of the pitiful charm of the overwhelmed, lonely psychopath that Nixon was. Unlike Nixon, Cheney is surrounded by yes-men and other enablers, much more loyal and dangerous than those amateur pipsqueaks Haldeman and Erlichman. He also has a ridiculous Amen chorus in the wingnut media, willing to make excuses for any failure. Unlike Nixon, Cheney will not die in lonely isolation – both he and Junior will be very well taken care of, thank you.
But, for at least one day last week, Cheney had to swallow what the Supreme Court handed out. You know these bastards thought long and hard about creating a constitutional crisis by blowing the Court off – boy, did they ever think about it. But, in the end, they had no political capital to expend. So they caved. They are not, in any way imperial or all-powerful just because they have declared that a War is going on.
And the Rule of Law applies. To them.
Boo.
Yah.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Monday, July 03, 2006
FACE DOWN (DEAD LIKE ELVIS)
The day after the Supreme Court decided that, not only does the Emperor have no clothes – he is not even Emperor, Junior Bush took his tired, empty suit to Graceland. There, in the Hall of Ghosts for a real King, Bush got smaller and smaller, eventually disappearing altogether in the shadow of Presley’s greatness and his own shocking inadequacies.
The event was staged for the benefit of Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi, a true leader and rock-and-roller, who took full advantage of the opportunity to revel in the dusty antiques of the Jungle Room. Touching (gasp!) artifacts and dancing on the sacred shag rug of Elvis, circa 1977, Koizumi looked like he could have led his own band and perhaps held his own in the market of the time, in the record bins somewhere between Kansas and Loggins & Messina. Alphabetically, anyway.
Unfortunately, Bush stayed in the shot and was not, er, excused by the Matrons of Graceland, Priscilla and Lisa Marie. I guess in the House of E, everyone must be received (although I don’t think Bush paid the regular admission price for the tour). While Koizumi reveled in the moment and spun his arms in late-Elvis windmill fashion, Bush and Laura watched uncomfortably, waiting, as they always do, to be led off the grounds to the safely of Air Force One and the next fundraiser. Bush had his "when is this over with?" look on his dorky face.
For his part, Koizumi may still be there, for all we know, playing billiards in the pool room, flipping through over-the-air channels with the clicky remotes in the yellow RCA TV room and, perhaps, spending some quality time with Lisa Marie. Hey, she’s done worse.
Watching our classless, clueless president, I couldn’t help but think how wrong it is for him to be the first president to visit Graceland. Imagine if our first and only true rock-and-roll president, Bill Clinton, had visited his soulmate Elvis’ shrine-and-grave while in office (and, now that I think about it, why didn’t he?).
First of all, he would have fired anyone on his staff who wore Halloween Elvis getups and did not treat the visit with the respect it deserved. "Campy" is for when you go see the original Batmobile at an auto show; not for paying respect to an all-American original who magically blended R&B, country, blues and his own broken heart into rock-and-roll as we (should) know it.
Clinton would have strode into the Jungle Room like he belonged there, sniffing the air, touching the tapestries and the leather of the couches. Maybe he’d bring his sax and blow a little "Love Me Tender" into the rarified air, hearing the notes bounce off the walls like a late-night jam session with El and Scottie (Moore, Elvis’ guitar player). Clinton would have brought knowledge and respect to the visit that Bush couldn’t manage even if he cared.
Of course, the media would have quickly trivialized any such visit. Clinton in the Jungle Room? What, are you kidding? The jokes write themselves, do they not?
One thing that Bush and Presley did have in common, though, was/is disastrously bad management. But, where Elvis’ enormous talent was soured, wasted and ultimately destroyed by Sam Perkins, Bush has a different management issue. Junior Bush has proved throughout his life that he has no talent, for anything. He knowingly and willingly offered to serve as the vessel for all the bad ideas of his handlers – Reagan without the natural aw-shucks star quality.
Where Sam Perkins’ mismanagement robbed us of a few great records and, perhaps, a decent career that would have continued to this day (Elvis deserved his elderly Vegas years at least as much as Paul Anka); Karl Rove and company robbed us of our national soul and our international respect.
If anyone deserves to reach the end of his career face down on the bathroom floor, it’s George W. Bush.
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Flagging the Debate
When I talk to fellow travelers about the dangers of the plague of wing-nut Talk Radio, I am met with knowing, dismissive yawns. The wing-nuts are just talking to each other, they say. Let the guys in the tank tops and crew cuts sip their High Life and confirm their Angry-White-Maleness with Limbaugh everyday. It's harmless and keeps them off the highways. Who needs more NRA bumper-stickers and road rage?
But, actually, it is Talk Radio that built up Junior Bush and tore down Clinton and Gore -- relentlessly, 24 hours a day. It is Talk Radio that ridiculed and promoted the Swift Boat lies about John Kerry, easily making the difference with a divided electorate that did not want to re-elect Bush, but, for some reason, wasn't comfortable with the alternative.
But those are only the Big Picture results. Where Talk Radio really does its damage is in inflicting the small cuts that cause every off-message opponent of the regime to bleed just enough to lose their credibility, no matter how solid their arguments. Wing-nuts don't argue; they damage and destroy. More importantly, their poisonous inquisitions leak into the MSM, where the guilt-ridden Big Feet throw bones to the wing-nuts by treating their "issues" as legitimate.
For instance, I was in my car for all of two minutes tonight (getting it off the street, the preference of the City Fathers here) and still managed to here one of our minor local wingnuts "discussing" the display of Mexican flags during the very impressive rallys held about the country this week (including 30,000 here in Milwaukee). There was, of course, the usual uncreative blather about them Mexicans coming here to get our welfare and get their kids in our schools (everything but calling them "wetbacks", which local repulsive wing-nut Mark Belling did about a year ago -- and he's still on the air). Now that's playing to the base.
But there were also a couple of themes developed by Karl Rove, no doubt, that I heard on both national and local shows. One was that the protests were promoted sneakily on Spanish radio and TV. I don't know what that has to do with anything -- the people still had to show up on their own; I don't think they were flown there by Telemundo traffic helicopters -- but the implication that those foriegners using those funny words are always talking about Us is meant to delegitimize the success of the rallies.
But the other non-issue was the display of the Mexican flag during the rallies. Whole industries -- well, kiosks in the malls, anyway -- are built on the desire of people throughout our supposed Melting Pot to display the flags of their national heritage, from St. Patrick's day to Milwaukee's famous German restaurants, etc. But, no, if these people want to object to an oppressive anti-immigrant policy, only U.S. flags shall be displayed. To what nation are they loyal, anyway?
Notice what both of these talking points do: They cast aspirtions on the advocates of a point of view, without ever getting into the real substance of the issues involved. This is what the wing-nuts do. Distract and destroy.
But the real success of this particular smear campaign won't be clear until the MSM takes these non-issues and discusses them on thier editorial and op-ed pages. "Some question display of Mexican flags at rallies", the headline will say, and there we go. People will know more about the flag displays than they will about the details of the proposed law, including the 700-mile fence at the border. Chalk up another one for the bad guys.
Next: What we can do about it (maybe).
But, actually, it is Talk Radio that built up Junior Bush and tore down Clinton and Gore -- relentlessly, 24 hours a day. It is Talk Radio that ridiculed and promoted the Swift Boat lies about John Kerry, easily making the difference with a divided electorate that did not want to re-elect Bush, but, for some reason, wasn't comfortable with the alternative.
But those are only the Big Picture results. Where Talk Radio really does its damage is in inflicting the small cuts that cause every off-message opponent of the regime to bleed just enough to lose their credibility, no matter how solid their arguments. Wing-nuts don't argue; they damage and destroy. More importantly, their poisonous inquisitions leak into the MSM, where the guilt-ridden Big Feet throw bones to the wing-nuts by treating their "issues" as legitimate.
For instance, I was in my car for all of two minutes tonight (getting it off the street, the preference of the City Fathers here) and still managed to here one of our minor local wingnuts "discussing" the display of Mexican flags during the very impressive rallys held about the country this week (including 30,000 here in Milwaukee). There was, of course, the usual uncreative blather about them Mexicans coming here to get our welfare and get their kids in our schools (everything but calling them "wetbacks", which local repulsive wing-nut Mark Belling did about a year ago -- and he's still on the air). Now that's playing to the base.
But there were also a couple of themes developed by Karl Rove, no doubt, that I heard on both national and local shows. One was that the protests were promoted sneakily on Spanish radio and TV. I don't know what that has to do with anything -- the people still had to show up on their own; I don't think they were flown there by Telemundo traffic helicopters -- but the implication that those foriegners using those funny words are always talking about Us is meant to delegitimize the success of the rallies.
But the other non-issue was the display of the Mexican flag during the rallies. Whole industries -- well, kiosks in the malls, anyway -- are built on the desire of people throughout our supposed Melting Pot to display the flags of their national heritage, from St. Patrick's day to Milwaukee's famous German restaurants, etc. But, no, if these people want to object to an oppressive anti-immigrant policy, only U.S. flags shall be displayed. To what nation are they loyal, anyway?
Notice what both of these talking points do: They cast aspirtions on the advocates of a point of view, without ever getting into the real substance of the issues involved. This is what the wing-nuts do. Distract and destroy.
But the real success of this particular smear campaign won't be clear until the MSM takes these non-issues and discusses them on thier editorial and op-ed pages. "Some question display of Mexican flags at rallies", the headline will say, and there we go. People will know more about the flag displays than they will about the details of the proposed law, including the 700-mile fence at the border. Chalk up another one for the bad guys.
Next: What we can do about it (maybe).
57 Channels
Really, can you believe Joe put "Our House" on his hot playlist just because he heard it on some lame paint commercial? Hell, why not "In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida", fer cryin' out loud. Makes me want to just rip those damn earpods out of his head. No, but, really, the "Kitty's Back" ringtone is to die for and...
Did you ever notice that the more freedom and media outlets we have available, the less we do with it? There are now, what, 500 cable/sattilite channels available and what the hell is on but a bunch of recycled junk, bad Hollywood product from the past 20 years and niche programing for the over-served (golf, cooking, funny animals). For every gem like the Daily Show/Colbert Report hour, there are thousands of hours, channels and bandwidth wasted on brainless programming designed to keep (or make) you stupid. As Springsteen sang 12 (!) years ago, "57 Channels and Nothing On". Try 500, and counting.
Now multiply that by millions on the internet. Instant publishing and distribution hasn't exactly led to open doors for new ideas. The only truly reliable sites for news are run by the major news organizations, with sites like Salon and Slate adding slightly to the national conversation, but mostly through the regular prism of the Washington Press Corps.
Blogs are given great credit for moving something somewhere, but only when they get noticed by the Mainstream Media (now known as MSM). Blogs on the right are a well-financed sub-section the Bush Surrogate program, cited by radio wing-nuts for affirmation of this or that and introducing the outrageous in order to probe the soft underbelly of the electorate for brain neuron stimulation ("Damn illegal immigrants! Why can't they speak English?").
Blogs on the left are more diverse, by nature, and tend to offer small snippits of wisdom and observation and tons of links to other places that show how right we are. Some are mentioned on the MSM -- some of the dippier bloggers even get face time on cable news -- but only for their novelty status ("Yeah, I'm a blogger...tee hee") and seldom for the substance of their writing (such as it is) or their ideas. I'm sure there are some wonders out there that I just haven't found yet (just like there are bands playing and CDs proving that rock-and-roll is not Dead), but the impact on the national discussion is: not much.
I'm going to try to get some ideas out there and try to get a serious discussion going before the 2006 election cycle gets into full gear. The bottom line is that the oppressive regime of Talk Radio will get worse and we have to find a way to counter it. More to follow.
Did you ever notice that the more freedom and media outlets we have available, the less we do with it? There are now, what, 500 cable/sattilite channels available and what the hell is on but a bunch of recycled junk, bad Hollywood product from the past 20 years and niche programing for the over-served (golf, cooking, funny animals). For every gem like the Daily Show/Colbert Report hour, there are thousands of hours, channels and bandwidth wasted on brainless programming designed to keep (or make) you stupid. As Springsteen sang 12 (!) years ago, "57 Channels and Nothing On". Try 500, and counting.
Now multiply that by millions on the internet. Instant publishing and distribution hasn't exactly led to open doors for new ideas. The only truly reliable sites for news are run by the major news organizations, with sites like Salon and Slate adding slightly to the national conversation, but mostly through the regular prism of the Washington Press Corps.
Blogs are given great credit for moving something somewhere, but only when they get noticed by the Mainstream Media (now known as MSM). Blogs on the right are a well-financed sub-section the Bush Surrogate program, cited by radio wing-nuts for affirmation of this or that and introducing the outrageous in order to probe the soft underbelly of the electorate for brain neuron stimulation ("Damn illegal immigrants! Why can't they speak English?").
Blogs on the left are more diverse, by nature, and tend to offer small snippits of wisdom and observation and tons of links to other places that show how right we are. Some are mentioned on the MSM -- some of the dippier bloggers even get face time on cable news -- but only for their novelty status ("Yeah, I'm a blogger...tee hee") and seldom for the substance of their writing (such as it is) or their ideas. I'm sure there are some wonders out there that I just haven't found yet (just like there are bands playing and CDs proving that rock-and-roll is not Dead), but the impact on the national discussion is: not much.
I'm going to try to get some ideas out there and try to get a serious discussion going before the 2006 election cycle gets into full gear. The bottom line is that the oppressive regime of Talk Radio will get worse and we have to find a way to counter it. More to follow.
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
French Freedom Fries
My son is working on a project this month about his heritage. I was able to give him lots of information about the Plaisted liniage -- all the way back to Normandy in 1100 (then to England; across the ocean to Maine in 1650, etc.). He decided to concentrate on France as one of his countries of origin.
After school yesterday -- before heading out to Lake Park to play catch on a sunny day -- I had him sit down to watch some live video of the authorities trying to clear demonstrators from a square in Paris. The smart-ass 20-ish students and workers dared the jandarmes to hit them with the robot water cannons, and so they did. It is always interesting to watch the supposedly powerless toy with the determination of the supposedly powerful when they try to move them. I'm sure most of the crowd would have moved on hours ago, were it not for the ridiculous show of force. It was too much fun for the young people to play with the tin soldiers.
There has been much tut-tutting about the French protests, objecting to a change in the French law that would eliminate job security for young workers -- apparently they get the first two years for free, or something like that. This has been charactorized as downright un-American by the suck-it-up crowd, most of whom have agent-driven contracts and golden parachutes.
But, really, what is so wrong with government-sponsored job security? Not that it will ever happen here, but does everywhere in the world have to convert to our survival-of-the-luckiest version of trickle-down capitalism? I always admired the fact that everyone in France and other parts of Europe take August off as a paid holiday (not to mention their nationalized health insurance).
We need to lighten up and not be so damn virtuous about working our asses off for less pay and no security. We need to get a real life. The French already have one.
After school yesterday -- before heading out to Lake Park to play catch on a sunny day -- I had him sit down to watch some live video of the authorities trying to clear demonstrators from a square in Paris. The smart-ass 20-ish students and workers dared the jandarmes to hit them with the robot water cannons, and so they did. It is always interesting to watch the supposedly powerless toy with the determination of the supposedly powerful when they try to move them. I'm sure most of the crowd would have moved on hours ago, were it not for the ridiculous show of force. It was too much fun for the young people to play with the tin soldiers.
There has been much tut-tutting about the French protests, objecting to a change in the French law that would eliminate job security for young workers -- apparently they get the first two years for free, or something like that. This has been charactorized as downright un-American by the suck-it-up crowd, most of whom have agent-driven contracts and golden parachutes.
But, really, what is so wrong with government-sponsored job security? Not that it will ever happen here, but does everywhere in the world have to convert to our survival-of-the-luckiest version of trickle-down capitalism? I always admired the fact that everyone in France and other parts of Europe take August off as a paid holiday (not to mention their nationalized health insurance).
We need to lighten up and not be so damn virtuous about working our asses off for less pay and no security. We need to get a real life. The French already have one.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Dead to Me
It's taking a while to get started again.
I last blogged in earnest in 2004, leading up to the re-coronation of Junior Bush, an otherwise insignificant speck of dust who has served as the front for an enormously poisonous regime that has twisted political logic and destroyed any independent media that might otherwise stand in its way.
My last blog on the old site (a Salon mechanism that, for some reason, demanded $39.95 annually) had to do with the death of a counter-culture icon (back when there was a counter-culture), Hunter Thompson, who decided to take things into his own hands 20 years after his greatest achievements, and left it for others to appropriately blow his ashes out of a cannon.
As I write now, the bodies of Casper Weinberger and Lynn Nofziger are lying in some funeral home, getting dressed up for their somber ceremonies and fitful resting places. Screw the bastards.
Weinberger was scheduled to go on trial for lying to Congress and before he was summarily pardoned by Daddy Bush as he was on the way out the door in 1992 ("Where's the Outrage" case number 3492: Imagine if Bill Clinton had done the same thing...). He was a top-grade fixer, when he wasn't drawing big checks from the likes of (insert your favorite defense contractor here).
Nofziger, on the other hand, was a acolite of pioneer poison pig-fucker Lee Atwater, who more appropriately met his demise of self-imposed death-by-karma much earlier. Nofziger used his professorial goatee and bald head to snow the chattering classes into believing (or at least pretending to stomach)the nonsense sold by the Reagan and Bush I administrations. A mere piker compared to Karl Rove, Nofziger seemed capable of chuckling beneath a stein of Irish beer with Buchanan, et. al. at D.C. watering holes while the victims of the contras and other GOP-sponsored criminals bled into shallow graves.
Reagan, Weinberger, Atwater and Nofziger now dance with the other-expired in an undisclosed location. Hell is now hotter and Hunter laughs from above with the Dance of the Just.
I last blogged in earnest in 2004, leading up to the re-coronation of Junior Bush, an otherwise insignificant speck of dust who has served as the front for an enormously poisonous regime that has twisted political logic and destroyed any independent media that might otherwise stand in its way.
My last blog on the old site (a Salon mechanism that, for some reason, demanded $39.95 annually) had to do with the death of a counter-culture icon (back when there was a counter-culture), Hunter Thompson, who decided to take things into his own hands 20 years after his greatest achievements, and left it for others to appropriately blow his ashes out of a cannon.
As I write now, the bodies of Casper Weinberger and Lynn Nofziger are lying in some funeral home, getting dressed up for their somber ceremonies and fitful resting places. Screw the bastards.
Weinberger was scheduled to go on trial for lying to Congress and before he was summarily pardoned by Daddy Bush as he was on the way out the door in 1992 ("Where's the Outrage" case number 3492: Imagine if Bill Clinton had done the same thing...). He was a top-grade fixer, when he wasn't drawing big checks from the likes of (insert your favorite defense contractor here).
Nofziger, on the other hand, was a acolite of pioneer poison pig-fucker Lee Atwater, who more appropriately met his demise of self-imposed death-by-karma much earlier. Nofziger used his professorial goatee and bald head to snow the chattering classes into believing (or at least pretending to stomach)the nonsense sold by the Reagan and Bush I administrations. A mere piker compared to Karl Rove, Nofziger seemed capable of chuckling beneath a stein of Irish beer with Buchanan, et. al. at D.C. watering holes while the victims of the contras and other GOP-sponsored criminals bled into shallow graves.
Reagan, Weinberger, Atwater and Nofziger now dance with the other-expired in an undisclosed location. Hell is now hotter and Hunter laughs from above with the Dance of the Just.
Monday, March 27, 2006
Blaming the Victim
I've been listening to talk radio a lot lately. Maybe I just have too much time on the road, going from here to there. Maybe I can't seem to tear myself away from the poison dripping from the speakers. Maybe I'm amazed.
For all of the self-flagellation going on with progressives and/or Democrats these days, no one seems to grasp the real impact of the Echo Chamber on political dialog in this country. Wing-nut talk radio -- and its various cousins on cable TV and the internet (although the internet just gives the stooges an excuse to talk about something as if it has actually been "published") -- have had an enormous impact on the political landscape. Even the nuttiest, graveyard-shift clear-channel AM mystery voices start rumors and introduce ideas that eventually find their way into the mainstream press.
The Democrats can't get a word in edge-wise. And I'll be damned if I can figure out how we possibly could.
Some dismiss the wing-nuts because it is assumed that they are only preaching to the converted. Who cares how the hopelessly-fooled confirm and maintain their delusions? But the impact -- entirely intended -- of the continuous drumbeat of Roveian talking points is that issues and leaders are seen through the distorted prism of an ingenious alternate reality; one where the hopelessly manipulated, wrong and inadequate Junior Bush is a just and pure leader of men and any Democrats who might threaten his reign with new ideas or just plain old common sense are universally savaged and characatured as lame and ineffective.
As I examine the dark caverns of the wing-nut world, I have noticed how all of them devote more time to defining their real or imagined enemies than they ever do discussing any of their "ideas". After all, Bush "won" in '04 not by any confirmation of his own wonderfulness -- voters were done with his sorry ass a full year before that election. But, besides making sure his wealthy contributors fixed the paper-trail-less voting machines in Ohio (OK, maybe, but I wouldn't put it past these bastards), he "won" by making sure people thought the worst of John Kerry. "OK, he's a dick," the Average Voter thought of Bush. "But, Kerry?"
I'm going to explore this for a while. Stay tuned.
For all of the self-flagellation going on with progressives and/or Democrats these days, no one seems to grasp the real impact of the Echo Chamber on political dialog in this country. Wing-nut talk radio -- and its various cousins on cable TV and the internet (although the internet just gives the stooges an excuse to talk about something as if it has actually been "published") -- have had an enormous impact on the political landscape. Even the nuttiest, graveyard-shift clear-channel AM mystery voices start rumors and introduce ideas that eventually find their way into the mainstream press.
The Democrats can't get a word in edge-wise. And I'll be damned if I can figure out how we possibly could.
Some dismiss the wing-nuts because it is assumed that they are only preaching to the converted. Who cares how the hopelessly-fooled confirm and maintain their delusions? But the impact -- entirely intended -- of the continuous drumbeat of Roveian talking points is that issues and leaders are seen through the distorted prism of an ingenious alternate reality; one where the hopelessly manipulated, wrong and inadequate Junior Bush is a just and pure leader of men and any Democrats who might threaten his reign with new ideas or just plain old common sense are universally savaged and characatured as lame and ineffective.
As I examine the dark caverns of the wing-nut world, I have noticed how all of them devote more time to defining their real or imagined enemies than they ever do discussing any of their "ideas". After all, Bush "won" in '04 not by any confirmation of his own wonderfulness -- voters were done with his sorry ass a full year before that election. But, besides making sure his wealthy contributors fixed the paper-trail-less voting machines in Ohio (OK, maybe, but I wouldn't put it past these bastards), he "won" by making sure people thought the worst of John Kerry. "OK, he's a dick," the Average Voter thought of Bush. "But, Kerry?"
I'm going to explore this for a while. Stay tuned.
Monday, January 09, 2006
BACK AT 'CHA
Alright, ya'll. I'm not kidding this time.
Sure, we had a little fun in '03 and '04, didn't we? We yukked it up and worked "hard" and tuned in one Tuesday evening to see it was all for naught. The bastards stole the election again, this time by sliming John Kerry and putting 5 corrupt voting machines in all of democratic Ohio.
Now, the chickens are coming home to roost and the Bushies are in deep stuff. They've been violating the law, and they are proud of it. Not one, not two, but tens of thousands of times. Now what are you going to do about it?
More about this later. Now, pull yourself together.
Sure, we had a little fun in '03 and '04, didn't we? We yukked it up and worked "hard" and tuned in one Tuesday evening to see it was all for naught. The bastards stole the election again, this time by sliming John Kerry and putting 5 corrupt voting machines in all of democratic Ohio.
Now, the chickens are coming home to roost and the Bushies are in deep stuff. They've been violating the law, and they are proud of it. Not one, not two, but tens of thousands of times. Now what are you going to do about it?
More about this later. Now, pull yourself together.
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