Tuesday, January 20, 2004

Big doings on the domestic front, folks. The Iowa "shake-up" has produced a situation which practically no one predicted: John Kerry takes the win, with John Edwards (!) finishing second. What does this mean? First of all, it means that there is going to be a round of Kerry-bashing in both the right wing and mainstream press. The media was so taken with Dean-bashing and Clark-bashing that they plum forgot about the Massachusetts Senator and the guy from North Carolina. Expect that to change in the coming days, especially if Kerry does well in New Hampshire. The media so far has covered the Democrats by sticking close to a script, which in most cases originates with the Republican Party. Take Howard Dean: the former Vermont governor has surprised a lot of people with his prodigious fund-raising and Internet support, and the media has worked hard to knock him down a peg. Lately, the meme on Dean is that he is "angry," if not "unstable": Today's Drudge Report features the headline "Dean Goes Nuts," while National Review crows about Iowa by writing, "The Loonies Loose" (this is from a web site that occasionally features the work of a sportswriter who believes the United States should launch nuclear weapons at each Islamic country in the world). This line gets picked up by the mainstream media (Yesterday's Lowell Sun: "Dean's Temper Worries Some Dems"; Sunday's Chattanoogan: "Dean Loses His Grip"; CBS yesterday called him "stern, if not angry") and then, in turn, by voters (today's Boston Globe reports the reaction of a woman in Iowa explaining why she didn't vote for Dean: "He just came out angry"). The new meme will be riffing on his concession speech, which has already been ridiculed as "red-faced," "angry" (natch), "nuts," and "over-enthusiastic" (by the Village Voice!). That short-lived meme will be replaced by his "faltering" campaign and whether it can continue after such a huge setback (until about 10 days ago, no one cared about Iowa because they all thought Gephardt would win it). So that's Dean. Wesley Clark, the official candidate of Consider Arms, has similar meme-related problems from the press/GOP axis. Wesley Clark, you see, is a liar: I know, because Rush Limbaugh told me so ("If you Democrats are looking for somebody genuinely crazy, not an actor like Howard Dean, then go ahead and shift your alliances to Wesley Clark, the liar," said Limbaugh on his show yesterday, presumably between fistfulls of pills). The mainstream media has picked up on this meme (although fortunately, they haven't picked up on the other Clark-related meme emanating from the fascist press, which constantly compares the retired general to various characters from "Dr. Strangelove") by going after Clark for statements he made years ago which seemed to suggest support for the Iraq war. The Guardian calls Clark "the flip-flop candidate" for his "evasions, contradictions, and misstatements" (thank God no other politician has any of those!), while the New Haven Register is spoonfed a story about Clark's "7 different positions on the war" by the Lieberman campaign. And, of course, let's not forget that Clark is a "stalking horse" for the most sinister and evil people in U.S. history, Bill and Hillary Clinton. The fascist press is totally obsessed with Bill and Hillary Clinton; it's not too much to say they play the same role in the imaginations of American fascists that Walter Rathenau did for German freikorps types after World War I. And of course, because Clark is from Arkansas, the fascists have convinced themselves that he is preparing the field for a "late entry" candidate, namely Hillary. Although this is totally insane, the mainstream press has started to pick it up: The Village Voice and Seattle Times both have stories this week alleging that Clark is the Clintons' man. So, what will be the meme used to slime Kerry? I'm betting that it will be something along the lines of a "problem with telling the truth," similar to the meme that tripped up Al Gore in 2000. A year ago, when Kerry seemed like the leader of the Democratic pack, the GOP and their allies in the press trotted this out with incredibly important hard news stories about whether Kerry was really Irish or whether he was, in fact, "really" Jewish, as the Boston Globe alleged in a series that was unmatched in its audacious slime and outright anti-Semitism. There will also be a lot of attention devoted to Kerry's wife, the wealthy heiress Teresa Heinz. The Lieberman campaign, in its apparent bid to be the most loathsome in the field, has already made subtle attacks on Heinz's inherited wealth a feature of their campaign, while others (notably Matt Drudge) have insinuated that Heinz is a "power behind the throne," a meme now picked up by the mainstream press (NBC reports that "Women Exert Subtle Influence on Campaign" while the Fort Wayne News Sentinel considers her a candidate in her own right, dubbing her the "First Lady Contender"). As for Edwards, I'm not sure. I'm guessing that most of the stories about him for now will be about his "miraculous, come-from-behind" showing in Iowa, and that he will only get slimed if he manages to do well in New Hampshire, which seems unlikely. With Gephardt out of the race, the unions are free to pick a new horse, and I'm guessing it's going to be Kerry. New Hampshire will probably be a contest between Clark, Kerry, and Dean (although, keep in mind that nobody two weeks ago thought that Dean would lose Iowa to Kerry and Edwards), so I don't see a thorough Edwards-sliming meme emerging from the fascist swamp of the rightist press just yet. Keep your hands inside the ride, though. This is going to get worse before it gets better. -Consider Arms, possibly overusing the term "fascist" 9:53:35 AM    comment []

Vote fraud on the moon base. Note to Daryl Worley: We Have Forgotten Both "President" Bush and Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert are opposed to granting the special commission investigating September 11 an extension, forcing them to finish their report by May 27 even though there are hundreds of witnesses left to interview. Neither the White House nor Hastert has given a reason for nixing the extension, but you'd have to be an idiot if you think campaign politics aren't a part of this. I mean, the White House certainly wouldn't want an unpleasantly critical report coming out in, say, October, now would they? They probably shouldn't worry, though, since the commission is conducting business with all the propriety and integrity of a Waterbury alderman in charge of a construction project. For example: Two members of the commission itself have been interviewed as witnesses, including one who served in the Bush administration during 2001. This is pretty much like a grand jury soliciting testimony from itself; in other words, a sham. The Sky Is Black With Chickens Coming Home to Roost A story we've been following here at the MLWL is getting more and more attention: the struggle of Iraqi Shi'ites to force Operation Iraqi Freedom to deliver on its promise of an elected government. More than 100,000 marchers in Baghdad marched today chanting, "Yes, yes to elections! No, no to occupation!", as Paul Bremer (an American) and Kofi Annan (an African) met to decide the fate of Iraq. Somehow, I imagine that things aren't going quite as Paul Wolfowitz imagined they would. Belgians Join French in Exciting "Race to Intolerance" Not to be outdone by their Muslim-hating buddies in France, two Belgian senators have introduced legislation that would ban anyone from wearing Muslim headscarves in public buildings. Apparently, such a ban is already law in 7 out of 16 German states, as well as Tunisia and Turkey. Supporters of the ban point to the latter two countries as showing that such a prohibition isn't indicative of anti-Muslim bias, but do you really want Tunisia and Turkey as your models of rational jurisprudence? Say whatever you want, but the phrase "Tunisian Supreme Court" doesn't exactly conjure up a picture of legal fiat that any Western country would want to emulate. I Don't Know Art, But I Know What I'm Willing to Vandalize In an event which many redefine the term "art terrorism" for all times, the Israeli ambassador to Sweden has caused an uproar by vandalizing a "work of art" that he took as a glorification of a Palestinian suicide bomber. After reading the description of the art work (a picture of the suicide bomber sailing around a pool of "blood"), I think there's at least some ambiguity about it, but I still give props to the ambassador for trashing a pretentious piece of modern art crap. Now if we can only get someone to vandalize the photo exhibit at Real Art Ways in Hartford... We Are Not Amused, Tony The Queen of England, who first won us over in the 1980s by openly detesting Margaret Thatcher, has once again shown her good taste by publicly falling out with Tony Blair. Well, "publicly" in the sense that a British monarch can do anything political in public; if you read the story, it's clear that you need a Kremlinology-style understanding of the British constitution to figure out that the Queen is, in fact, pissed off with Tony. However, the root of the disagreement seems to be the Iraq war. Her Majesty has been pressing Tony the Poodle to bring British troops home as soon as possible. Man. When you're made to look like an idiot by a hereditary monarch who's the product of centuries of in-breeding and has never had to work a minute in her life, that's pretty low. - Consider Arms 9:41:36 AM    comment []

MLK, Civil Rights Crusader, Saddam-Loving Appeasement Monkey While many Americans enjoy the day off today and give a passing thought to a Martin Luther King who has been reduced to a vague and fuzzy notion of you know, black people and white people hanging out together and being cool about stuff, it's important to remember that MLK was strongly anti-war and sharply criticized the foreign policy of the US. King once called America "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today" and "on the wrong side of a world revolution." This short piece by TomPaine.com poses the interesting question of how King would react to the current "war on terror" if, you know, he wasn't killed by the government or anything. Bush To UN: "We're Not Fat! We're Big-Boned!" The Bush administration is challenging a report by the World Health Organization that outlines steps to reduce the number of people in the world who are obese (300 million) and overweight (750 million including 22 million children under 5 years old). The WHO report called for limiting food advertisements that target children, and limiting fats, salt, and sugary sodas. The objections of the Bush administration to the report included the claim that "all foods can be part of a healthy and balanced diet" and that "calories are calories, whether they come from fat or carbohydrates." (Of course, 200 calories from a bowl of salad is exactly the same as 200 calories from eating a Ding-Dong.) Why would the administration rally against such sound advice from the WHO? It might have something to do with the half-million dollars raised for the president's campaign by the food industry; in fact, concerns about the WHO report were brought to the Bush administration by the Grocery Manufacturers of America, a trade group representing health nuts like Pepsi and Hershey. HOLY FUCKING SHIT! Dick Cheney Admits To Being An Evil Genius Who Lives In a Hole Vice President Dick Cheney recently told reporters that "the jury's still out" on whether Iraq had the WMDs that were used by Bush and company to justify the preemptive war that has already killed 500 Americans and thousands of Iraqis. He told USA Today and the LA Times that even though no evidence of WMDs have been found 9 months after the capture of Baghdad, "I am a long way at this stage from concluding that somehow there was some fundamental flaw in our intelligence." He also told the reporters, "Am I the evil genius in the corner that nobody ever sees come out of his hole? It's a nice way to operate, actually." It's Official, Now We Really Have Alienated The World The EU's top military official, Finnish general Gustav Hagglund, told a defense conference that it was time Europe defended itself. Hagglund called for the American and European pillars of NATO to be "responsible for their respective territorial defenses within the next decade." Not even the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union broke up NATO. Apparently our defiance of international protocol and opinion gave the Europeans second thoughts about us. That or the horrible "chocolate makers" and "old Europe" comments. Kinda Gives New Meaning To The Whole "Army Of One" Slogan Loyal MLWL readers will remember the hilarious details about the make-up of our "international coalition of the willing" in Iraq, including obscure Pacific island nations sending several dozen troops. Not to be outdone, the international peacekeeping effort in Afghanistan is being joined by a new Chinese contingent consisting of a single man. - The Sikh Geek 9:33:19 AM    comment []

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