Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Georgie (with apologies to Burt Bacharach) What's it all about, Georgie? Is it for the WMD we fight? What's it all about when you sort it out, Georgie? Are we meant to take more oil than we have or are we meant to conserve? And if only fools conserve, Georgie, then I guess it's wise to burn fuel. And if life belongs only to the strong, Georgie, what will you lend on an old golden rule? As sure as I believe there's a Tenet above, Georgie, I know there's something much more, intelligence non-believers can believe in, etc etc. Woody 9:08:59 PM    comment []

It Takes a Whole Media Cabal...  Since Hillary Clinton is coming out with a new book this week, I though I might share this excerpt from The Culture of Fear by Barry Glassner (1999), giving a sample of the treatment the First Lady got:   Throughout the 1980s and 1990s Americans welcomed every permissible excuse to avoid facing up to our collective lack of responsibility toward our nation's children. When Hillary Rodham Clinton's book It Takes a Village came out in 1996, she toured the country to urge better health care, day care, and nutrition for America's youth. What did media interviewers and audiences concentrate on? A dubious real-estate investment she was involved in years earlier, whether she fired members of the White House travel office, and if her feminism made her a lousy First Lady. In an interview with Clinton on ABC's "20/20" Barbara Walters began with a statement and question: "Instead of your new book being the issue, you have become the issue. How did you get yourself into this mess, where your whole credibility is being questioned?"   Why don't you answer this one yourself, O Self-Righteous One. How did the media that you represent (as a highly paid face-person), change the discourse in this country in a period of time, coincidentally enough concurrent to your own television career, so that the public airwaves have become 24-hour conduits of the Republican shit-slinging machine? "How did you get yourself into this mess?"?! How arrogant and hypocritcial can you be, even for network "news"? And this is the way it was before the institutionalization of the offical state religion of Bush Worship, not to mention the massive FCC deregulations, the most recent of which went down this week, which allow the conservative ownership even more freedom to piss on us little people, and have us ask for more. And sell us to advertisers in the process. Also on this week's agenda, Martha Stewart. I have no particular love for this person. I've never read her books or seen her TV show. I've heard stories to the effect that she's bad-tempered and haughty. And she's probably guilty of the things the SEC, and the media, say she is. So she should get the just penalty. But come on. The media Reichsmarshalls must assume we must have no collective self-respect to assume that throwing her to us as a sacrifical goat will make us forget about Enron, Halliburton, and the mindfuckingly enormous living Godzilla of Corruption that is the Bush Administration. Thank you very much.  For some clue as to why Stewart is the chosen one, check this out: http://www.bartcop.com/060703killian.htm Mike 5:51:48 PM    comment []

Note from "The Other Guy": After some wrangling over the decision, I've decided that I'm going to use the name Mike for my postings as a Homeless Leftist (few such as they have been so far, which is something else I hope to change). The name Mike evokes a quality of integrity and toughness, but in sensitive and intelligent way. I also just like the name. Mike 4:14:58 PM    comment []

Only in California would there be a drive to recall a governor over a budget crisis not of his own making, with his potential rivals including an Austrian action film (and erstwhile gay porn) star. I have to agree with the various GOP wonks that this recall drive is not a brilliant move. For one thing, one of the primary arguments marshalled against Davis (not mentioned in the article) is that he let California get ripped off by Enron. While this is certainly a strike against him, is it not a bigger strike against the party of Enron? Are Californians really going to forget that Bush stood by the sidelines, despite having an appropriate regulatory apparatus to intervene, and let his pal "Kenny Boy" Lay screw them? I find it somewhat amazing, actually, how gleeful the GOP has been about what Enron did to California. It is as if a frat boy was accused of date rape, managed to avoid an investigation, and spent the next two years telling everybody what a "dumb slut" his accuser is. Now, to stretch the analogy a bit, he is trying to get the "slut" kicked out of school. Even if the "slut" (Davis) had a marginal academic record, her tormentor is not really the person to point it out. I've got to give these guys credit, they do not suffer from crippling self-doubt.   Woody 7:43:04 AM    comment []

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