Irony-Free or Hypocrisy-Unconscious Zone?

Thank God, or the deity of your choice, or just the cosmic balance of the universe for Jon Stewart and The Daily Show. Last night was masterful in two respects. The first was in coverage of El Presidente Bushie's energy speech, in which he mentioned our need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, juxtaposed with a story in which Chimpie was shown walking hand-in-hand with Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Strike one.

The next was Bush's declaration that our energy independence would be brought about through reliance on technology. At that moment, on CNN, the signal carrying the story flaked out, leaving a captioned black screen with no audio feed. The reporter at the CNN anchor desk, without missing a beat after the glitch, repeated Bush's statement in such a way that it was clear the anchor had essentially no understanding of the meaning of the text. Of course, in Britain they call them "news readers," which explains the intellectual vacuity and total lack of self-awareness that these powdered and blow-dried mannekins possess. Stewart, after showing this segment, shook his head and said, "What is this? Is CNN an irony-free zone?" And strike two for Bushie's energy plan.

Then there was Chimpie's proclamation that we should turn more to nuclear energy to supply our growing power needs, noting that no new plants had been built since the 1970s. Stewart's next bit had him asking why that might be, while a graphic of Three Mile Island was shown above him. He looked at it and then deadpanned, "Oh, yes. The accident." That's three strikes.

To be fair, nuclear power has come a long way with smaller plants--France is the technical leader there--and deserves at least a hearing, but you can bet that Bush's desire for "nukular" has more to do with ideology and monetary ties to the industry than to any real understanding of the issues involved. Shit, a man who can't even pronounce the word properly can hardly be expected to understand little things like meltdowns and disposal of spent nuclear fuel.

And then Stewart and crew turned to the issue of church and state, highlighting last Sunday's meeting of theofascist traitors (to be charitable) in Louisville, Kentucky, whose allegiance to invisible cloud beings trumps any notions of democracy, balance of power, or the separation of church and state in the U.S. Just go watch it here. My commentary will add nothing. This program is simply comic and news genius.

The tragedy, of course, is that it takes a half-hour show on Comedy Central to make up for all the failings of the corporate media in America. That's not so funny.

Lie Down with a Cockroach and You Get Filthy

El Presidente Bushie is wrapping his arms around Tom "Giant Flying Cockroach" DeLay and smothering him with kisses for being such a good go-to guy in pushing forward his theofascist agenda of one party, one god, and one pocket for all the money. According to the WaPo:

With DeLay facing intense scrutiny of his travel, fundraising practices and relationship with controversial lobbyists, Bush yesterday offered the Texas Republican a timely show of support by inviting him to a public event and aboard Air Force One for a trip back to Washington from Texas. Scott McClellan, speaking to reporters before the flight, said the president supports DeLay "as strongly as he ever has."

Bush is doing for the Cockroach precisely what he didn't do for Trent Lott, whose mistake was a verbal utterance, however offensive, rather than alleged graft, corruption, money laundering, threatening federal judges, and trying to destroy the courts through defunding. Why is Georgie working so hard to embrace a creepy bug?

I don't think the answer lies too far from anyone's grasp. DeLay is to Texas politics what the giant flying cockroach is to the urban sewers of Phoenix, Arizona: comfortable, effective, knowledgeable, entirely ruthless and feared for that ruthlessness. While certainly no match pound for pound with the Bush family evil empire, what DeLay knows about the darker side of Bushit life and politics is a hell of a lot more potentially damaging than anything some blowdried, shitkicking Senator from Mississippi could ever reveal. Hence, DeLay is Bush's butt buddy while Lott was tossed out by his pants without so much as a handshake or a Lieberman kiss on the lips.

The WaPo continues:

If the DeLay controversy explodes into a bigger scandal, some said, it could taint the White House, especially with Bush going out of his way to align himself with DeLay.

Of course, the Post tries to obfuscate the larger possible explanation for Bush's behavior by saying this:

"He does not think DeLay has done anything wrong," said Charlie Black, a GOP lobbyist with close ties to the White House. "It's Bush's natural instinct to stand with him. There could be a risk, but it's the kind of risk [Bush] takes all the time."

Bush might also feel boxed in and left with little choice but to help DeLay, who has won the devotion of social conservatives, several Republicans said.

Bush hardly takes such risks all the time--he's a consummate coward, someone who never has to clean up after himself, who hides behind James Baker or others of his father's circle and who uses third parties to smear and degrade opponents so he can claim piety and ignorance in the face of any accusations. But he has to take this risk, because there is a greater risk in spades if he does not. DeLay is not a nice fellow, and he has loyalty only in direct proportion to its benefit to him personally. If he goes down, I think he will not hesitate to drag everyone he can down with him. And I think that what will follow will make the Monica Lewinsky circus of 1998 look like a warmup act for the greatest crash of a presidency in American history.

I can't wait!

Another Reason for Blogville

Good grief, this is so fucking hysterically funny I wet myself.

Why Blogging Matters

This article by Juan Cole is a must read, both for its explanation of why bloggers are vital to a free democracy as well as its indictment of the corporate media. Excerpt:

If we were mainstream media we would be wholly owned subsidiaries of General Electric, the Disney Corporation, Time Warner, Rupert Murdoch, Viacom and so on and so forth. Ninety percent of cable channels are owned by the same companies that own the big television networks . . . If we were the mainstream media, we would be accountable to CEOs and editors and advertisers, all of whom have motives for suppressing some pieces of news and highlighting others. You might think to yourself that this is a diverse enough group that the story would still get through. But with media consolidation, fewer and fewer persons make the decisions.

And I'm with Mr. Cole on another important distinction. Let's quit saying "mainstream media" and call it what it is: corporate media.

Totalitarianism doesn't necessarily have a political party as its controlling force. Sometimes it can be called "General Electric" or "Wal-Mart."

Mutually Assured Destruction

So Senator Bill "Cat Killer" Frist sent a videotape to the "Justice Sunday: Stop the Filibuster Against People of Faith" meeting in Lexington, Kentucky, yesterday. This provided a nice symmetry to his videotape diagnosis of Terri Schiavo some weeks ago. Frist may be attempting to become the first totally virtual political figure in his detachment in space and time from those things that he desperately needs for his future presidential run, but which he also understands are somewhat radioactive should the public zeitgeist turn against him. He did get burned on the Schiavo business. What competent physician would dare to diagnose the condition of any patient on the basis not of just a video, but video that was two or three years old? That didn't stop Frist, of course, because he recognized that to be sure the extreme religio-fascist wing of the Republican Party was firmly in his pocket, holding to medical ethics or just plain sense was unnecessary; in fact, he dumped his medical ethics faster than Newt Gingrich dumped his second wife to wed his intern.

But frankly, I'm puzzled that Frist and so many other Republicans are anxious to invoke this so-called "nuclear option" to deny the filibuster on judicial appointments. Methinks that they are feeling a little too cocky for their own good. Imagine that they jam this thing through. Then imagine that in the 2006 election a giant backlash against the looming theocratic juggernaut that Frist, DeLay, et al. are threatening causes the Repubs to lose their majority in the Senate and the House. Thanks to their castration of the ethics committee in the House and the nuclear option in the Senate, won't they find themselves even more disempowered than all their current whining would have us believe? Yes, even in the face of all this blustering by DeLay and the Christian right in a baldfaced grab for power, they cry about persecution at the hands of all of us meanie secularists who actually believe in the First Amendment. Hence the corruption of language in "Stop the Filibuster Against People of Faith." As usual, they conflate faith and religion, specifically right-wing ideological religion, so that people of faith who are not right-wing ideologues are by default on their side as fellow targets of people like me. The way the religious rightwingers whine, you'd think we were forcing them to have sodomy parties with SpongeBob and Tinky Winky, paint themselves with the blood of virgins, and bite the heads off of Christian babies.

Atheists are the people who deserve to be complaining about unfair treatment. Mike Whitney over at the Smirking Chimp makes the case for atheism to be included in the mainstream debate. Atheism isn't even afforded the courtesy of mention in any discussion of church and state in America. I think that's pretty damned bigoted.

But getting back to the cluster-fucky in Kentucky. So what if they want to jam a few cartoon-crazy judges onto the federal bench? I'm beginning to think that maybe it's time to do a little Rope-a-Dope and let them be as extreme as they want to be. Let's get a real demonstration of what a Taliban Christian nation will be like with the James Dobsons and Tony Perkinses calling the shots. I'd love to see the real teeth and talons of these fanatical totalitarian absolutists who claim the completely delusional notion of talking to and for God and for all people of faith. People this mentally ill should be treated, not allowed to run tax-exempt organizations and influence crafty and amoral politicians like Frist and DeLay.

If Dobson and Perkins want to talk to their invisible friends and rant and rave about the coming apocalypse, let them do it where it belongs--in subway tunnels and under bridges, not with duly elected representatives of a secular democracy.