Gee, I guess Howard Dean speaks the truth that the Republican Party is a party of white Christian men. Eighty-seven percent of them are white and Christian. Ninety-nine percent of ALL Republican legislators across the entire nation are white, and the vast majority male, even in Texas with a 47 percent minority population. Americablog's John Aravosis has more from the book The Great Divide: Retro vs. Metro America by Dr. John Sperling.
So will this cause Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi to reconsider their traitorous statements distancing themselves from John Dean even as he speaks factually? Don't count on it. Remember, it's not about truth but about power, and the hacks who have lost the White House and the Congress and now the judiciary to the theo-fascist wing of the Republican Party are desperately trying to hang on to their tiny remaining shred of power. If that means betraying the working people they are claim to represent, not to mention decency, truth, and the American way, well, they've been inside the country club. They're not going to shake their sucking mouths off the teat of corporate cash and walk out through those gilded gates and shed their special privileges and to mingle and be responsible to the rabble that is us. Are you kidding? They're clinking glasses with their Repug pals and having a good laugh.
Inside the beltway, there is only one party, and it ain't yours or mine.
Where's Superman when you really need him, anyway?
Friday, June 10, 2005
Lying Liars and the Cowardly Cowards Who Blow Them
Good Lord! Read this excerpt from a press forum with the New York Times' Elizabeth "I Can't Lose My Elite Status!" Bumiller and USA Today's Susan Page. It explains what we mean by "kneepad press."
Here's my favorite part, which sort of sums up Ms. Bumiller's identification with her, and Georgie W's, class of powermongers and servants of fascism:
Liars, cowards and whores! Oh, my!
Here's my favorite part, which sort of sums up Ms. Bumiller's identification with her, and Georgie W's, class of powermongers and servants of fascism:
That’s why it’s very hard to write those, because you can’t say George Bush is wrong here. There’s no way you can say that in the New York Times.Yes, it is taken out of context, so go read the exchange at the link above. But it just kills me that Bumiller gets indignant with the audience for challenging her authority. Of course, she well understands that one does not get to be an elite reporter with the corporate-serving NY Times by challenging authority, even in an alleged democracy with a Constitutional guarantee of freedom of the press. Of course, as I've said before, the right to a free press does not require the press to actually behave as if it is free.
Liars, cowards and whores! Oh, my!
Thursday, June 09, 2005
What Makes the Democrats So Gutless?
George W. Bush is the most vulnerable president in my lifetime (over half a century, if you must know). When he speaks publicly, as with Tony Blair this last week, one gets the impression of a cartoon character who has been shot full of holes who insists that he's fine. Then, when he drinks a glass of water, it comes streaming out of him in all directions. This presidency is like a sieve when it comes to truth or integrity or faithfulness to the American people--it doesn't hold water. The question is, then, why the fuck don't the Democrats make hay and start taking back our government?
We've had to watch Dems like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, who should be leading the assault, backing away from the only Democrat who seems to understand that attacking means being aggressive instead of assuming the kneeling position with hands held up in contrition. It's disgusting. So why are the Dems so weak-kneed?
They're in the club, that's why.
One of the interesting things about colonialism was the fact that after the European powers left Africa, for example, many leaders who emerged in those countries were horribly corrupt and bad news for their people, which seems puzzling, particularly when many of these leaders had come through oppressive colonial experience themselves. But what had happened to too many of them was that by the time they had gained power, they identified more with their elite white European counterparts than with the common people who they claimed to represent. Emperor Bokassa, Idi Amin and Sese Seko Mobutu are a few prime examples of this.
Now the Democratic Party in the United States once may have really been the party of the working class, but that was long ago. Now that someone like Howard Dean has the courage to go after the Republicans for the disaster that they are for this country, for the bigotry that grows from the extreme right-wing theological fanatics who have seized control, and for the corruption, cronyism and lies that this administration have made standard operating procedure, we can see the Democratic Party "leadership" for what it is--just another face of the elite class that runs this country and identifies with the working people only when they can be exploited for money or votes, but who have otherwise been abandoned in favor of the inside-the-beltway daisy chain that constitutes the ruling class in this country. Like the post-colonial leaders who had had too much of the good life under their masters, these folks, while mouthing words to soothe their betrayed constituency, are more frightened of losing the key to the executive washroom that the theo-fascists now control than they are of upholding the traditions and responsibilities of an opposition party.
They're traitors to their class. They disgust me.
We've had to watch Dems like Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, who should be leading the assault, backing away from the only Democrat who seems to understand that attacking means being aggressive instead of assuming the kneeling position with hands held up in contrition. It's disgusting. So why are the Dems so weak-kneed?
They're in the club, that's why.
One of the interesting things about colonialism was the fact that after the European powers left Africa, for example, many leaders who emerged in those countries were horribly corrupt and bad news for their people, which seems puzzling, particularly when many of these leaders had come through oppressive colonial experience themselves. But what had happened to too many of them was that by the time they had gained power, they identified more with their elite white European counterparts than with the common people who they claimed to represent. Emperor Bokassa, Idi Amin and Sese Seko Mobutu are a few prime examples of this.
Now the Democratic Party in the United States once may have really been the party of the working class, but that was long ago. Now that someone like Howard Dean has the courage to go after the Republicans for the disaster that they are for this country, for the bigotry that grows from the extreme right-wing theological fanatics who have seized control, and for the corruption, cronyism and lies that this administration have made standard operating procedure, we can see the Democratic Party "leadership" for what it is--just another face of the elite class that runs this country and identifies with the working people only when they can be exploited for money or votes, but who have otherwise been abandoned in favor of the inside-the-beltway daisy chain that constitutes the ruling class in this country. Like the post-colonial leaders who had had too much of the good life under their masters, these folks, while mouthing words to soothe their betrayed constituency, are more frightened of losing the key to the executive washroom that the theo-fascists now control than they are of upholding the traditions and responsibilities of an opposition party.
They're traitors to their class. They disgust me.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
The Welcome We Got
Arriving at Berlin Tegel airport for our European vacation, we were required to fill out no forms, make no declarations, and were issued no warnings about anything we might do or the official reaction thereto. When we crossed the border from Germany to the Czech Republic, a pair of officials representing each nation passed through the train for passport checks, but again, no forms, no warnings. So imagine my amusement at returning to my home country.
We were scarcely out of British airspace (after transfer from Prague at Heathrow) when the forms and regulations for entry in to the United States were introduced. In the seatback pouch before each passenger was a color-coded card explaining which immigration form non-citizens, non-greencard-holders and a few other categories needn't fill out, but those in the other categories had better have a grasp of boolean logic to figure all the "ands" and "ors" that directed them to either the white or the green form. But hell, what do I care? I just had to fill out a customs declaration. Easy. Just remember everything spent on goods coming back into the country, their itemized costs, etc. Fine.
But then there was this interesting bit of text written as the welcoming words to returnees and visitors alike, long before we had even set foot on the soil of the United States of America:
Welcome to America, where you can't even drink a beer on the sidewalk in front of your own house (open container laws) and where you still take off your shoes before boarding (not required in Prague or London, interestingly enough, since Richard "Shoebomber" Reid flew from Europe). I shouldn't bitch about the shoe thing though, because the "see through your clothing" X-ray glasses will soon eliminate that need.
I know I may seem petty for pointing this out, but the small things like this are manifestations of a fundamental view of the world, and I am sad to say that the "Land of the Free" seems far more obsessed with correct behavior and a continuous awareness of the presence of law and law enforcement than other places I have visited and lived. The tragedy is that it doesn't have to be this way.
We were scarcely out of British airspace (after transfer from Prague at Heathrow) when the forms and regulations for entry in to the United States were introduced. In the seatback pouch before each passenger was a color-coded card explaining which immigration form non-citizens, non-greencard-holders and a few other categories needn't fill out, but those in the other categories had better have a grasp of boolean logic to figure all the "ands" and "ors" that directed them to either the white or the green form. But hell, what do I care? I just had to fill out a customs declaration. Easy. Just remember everything spent on goods coming back into the country, their itemized costs, etc. Fine.
But then there was this interesting bit of text written as the welcoming words to returnees and visitors alike, long before we had even set foot on the soil of the United States of America:
Please ensure you are in possession of the right form and have completed it correctly before arrival, failure (sic) to do so could result in a fine and cause you substantial delay on arrival in the USA.Isn't that great? Aside from the comma-spliced sentence (which only embarrasses me in my role as an English teacher), I love the fact that folks start getting official threats of fine and detention before they even enter the country!
Welcome to America, where you can't even drink a beer on the sidewalk in front of your own house (open container laws) and where you still take off your shoes before boarding (not required in Prague or London, interestingly enough, since Richard "Shoebomber" Reid flew from Europe). I shouldn't bitch about the shoe thing though, because the "see through your clothing" X-ray glasses will soon eliminate that need.
I know I may seem petty for pointing this out, but the small things like this are manifestations of a fundamental view of the world, and I am sad to say that the "Land of the Free" seems far more obsessed with correct behavior and a continuous awareness of the presence of law and law enforcement than other places I have visited and lived. The tragedy is that it doesn't have to be this way.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
A Nation of Atheists and No Devils in Sight
A week in Berlin, then a week in Prague was just about right for calming down. I got to drink decent beer, eat far too much schinken with wonderfully stinky Tilsiter cheese and Danish butter on black bread and reacquaint myself with Central Europe after far too many years. My internal clock is still not synched with local time here at home, and I yearn for more of those stinky sandwiches so I'm not yet anywhere near ready to reengage with the disasters that the Bushits are visiting upon the world, but there was something in Prague that really intrigued me.
You see, according to The Economist's annual fact book, and corroborated by Czech sources, over 85% of Czechs self-identify as atheists. Yet while there, probably much to the surprise and consternation of the American religio-fascists who read this, I witnessed no demons pouring like a pestilence from fissures in the streets, there was no mass bloodletting, and what you might expect to be more like a scene from a Hieronymus Bosch painting was quite the opposite. Women walked alone on late-night streets, children romped in city parks, the mail and phones and Internet worked, neighbor greeted neighbor and stranger alike, people enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather by dining alfresco and with no compulsion to eviscerate or defile the innocent. If the Rapture Index was in the "Heavy Prophetic Activity" range, just three points below "Fasten Your Seatbelts," the Czechs didn't seem concerned. For a country with so much vulnerability, not believing in invisible cloud beings and all, you'd think that Satan would be taking advantage of the absence of righteousness to get a head start on his reign of brutality. It was positively civilized, I tell you.
It's not like they haven't gotten the Word, of course. The Thirty Years' War started in Prague after all, and this part of Europe has had plenty of exposure to Catholic and Protestant fanaticism alike. But the good Czech people have simply opted out, and they aren't scared. What I want to know is why is James Dobson not doing something about this sinkhole of nonbelief, because it seems to completely refute his thesis about the only path to righteous living and being. Doesn't it bother him that there is a whole country that rejects his theology, and in fact all theology as the superstitious remnants of an earlier and far darker time? And these folks are not afraid to clearly and publicly declare this refusal of the Blood of the Lamb, which really must shave the buzz of the saved who await the front row seat for witnessing the unending torments of the rest of us when Christ returns. As Bill Moyers has observed, these loving, gentle people wet their pants at the prospect that come the Rapture, they "will be transported to heaven where, seated at the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents writhe in the misery of plagues—boils, sores, locusts, and frogs—during the several years of tribulation that follow."
But the Czechs just don't give a fuck. It was lovely, simply lovely to be among such people, even if only for a week. And the beer is divine and cheaper than soft drinks. Baby, the Rapture done already come!
You see, according to The Economist's annual fact book, and corroborated by Czech sources, over 85% of Czechs self-identify as atheists. Yet while there, probably much to the surprise and consternation of the American religio-fascists who read this, I witnessed no demons pouring like a pestilence from fissures in the streets, there was no mass bloodletting, and what you might expect to be more like a scene from a Hieronymus Bosch painting was quite the opposite. Women walked alone on late-night streets, children romped in city parks, the mail and phones and Internet worked, neighbor greeted neighbor and stranger alike, people enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather by dining alfresco and with no compulsion to eviscerate or defile the innocent. If the Rapture Index was in the "Heavy Prophetic Activity" range, just three points below "Fasten Your Seatbelts," the Czechs didn't seem concerned. For a country with so much vulnerability, not believing in invisible cloud beings and all, you'd think that Satan would be taking advantage of the absence of righteousness to get a head start on his reign of brutality. It was positively civilized, I tell you.
It's not like they haven't gotten the Word, of course. The Thirty Years' War started in Prague after all, and this part of Europe has had plenty of exposure to Catholic and Protestant fanaticism alike. But the good Czech people have simply opted out, and they aren't scared. What I want to know is why is James Dobson not doing something about this sinkhole of nonbelief, because it seems to completely refute his thesis about the only path to righteous living and being. Doesn't it bother him that there is a whole country that rejects his theology, and in fact all theology as the superstitious remnants of an earlier and far darker time? And these folks are not afraid to clearly and publicly declare this refusal of the Blood of the Lamb, which really must shave the buzz of the saved who await the front row seat for witnessing the unending torments of the rest of us when Christ returns. As Bill Moyers has observed, these loving, gentle people wet their pants at the prospect that come the Rapture, they "will be transported to heaven where, seated at the right hand of God, they will watch their political and religious opponents writhe in the misery of plagues—boils, sores, locusts, and frogs—during the several years of tribulation that follow."
But the Czechs just don't give a fuck. It was lovely, simply lovely to be among such people, even if only for a week. And the beer is divine and cheaper than soft drinks. Baby, the Rapture done already come!
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