First Impression Surgical Strike on the Dem Debates of April 26th.
In Alphabetical Order:
Joe Biden
How'd He Do? Better than expected, but that's like saying that leaky tire with the nail stuck in it held on for one more day. He got the biggest laugh of the night for replying to a question from Big Brain Williams asking if he would refrain from his usual gaffe-prone verbosity as president with the one word answer "Yes," but there's another question that hangs over his head like a perpetual thought balloon: "Why Am I Running?" Yep, maybe it's just sheer vanity and his last chance -- the man loves the spotlight -- and maybe he's positioning himself as an attractive Veep pick for, say, a woman or black man who might want to 'balance' the ticket with a graying white male turd, but there are plenty of those around from states with more Electoral College heft, so it isn't going to be Delaware's own Sen. Biden.
His Biggest Problem: He has a few good ideas that he picked up from liberal bloggers four years ago, but he has no constituency. Ask around for yourself: Find any Biden lovers out there? Neither anti-war nor moderate Dem primary voters think he's anything more than an affable DC gas bag, and there was a comic C-SPAN turn in Iowa recently when Non-Smoking Joe was stumbling around a restaurant pestering the lunchtime crowd with his happy-ass dithering and attempts at groping; it was plain that most of the people were thinking "Who the fuck is this idiot?" as Biden debased himself for fleeting handshakes, while diners stared at him as if he had an open fly with a "BANG!" flag hanging out of it. In the Q&A session, there was a long minute of embarrassing silence as no one had a thing to ask Mr. Nobody Who's Not Getting Elected to Anything until Othar the Blind started asking himself questions. Staring into my Kriswell Kristal Kube, I predict he will be the first one to quit the race, sometime this summer.
Hillary Clinton
How'd She Do? She didn't do herself any harm; she didn't do herself any good. One point: She's still using the wrong end of the thermometer on the health care issue; this time around she's not going to make the same mistakes she made 14 years ago, but then she went on to say she was -- she's going to negotiate with Big Pharma and Big Healtho so that they get their cut of the deal. Hillary didn't learn from the first time that you can't invite the fox (or Fox, if you prefer) in to make rules for the hens. Until she realizes that, all of her health care plans are a sick joke that won't solve the problem.
Her Biggest Problem: Forget the Clintonian calculation or triangulation slaps -- that bloat is common to all politicians -- what's really jarring about Hillary, and something she can't cure, is her disgruntled Midwestern school marm mien. She's Donna Reed if George Bailey had never been born. There's just a dripping sourness in her voice, combined with the dull edge of a disappointed razor blade, poised in mid-air above an unslit wrist -- "God! Bill had all the fun!" -- and the frowny "you got another D this report card, buster" downturned mouth. Subconsciously, I think most voters are put off by this, slightly afraid of her calling their parents if they get out of line. And this is not a gender-based estimation: John Anderson, who ran for president in 1980, had the same pinched mug of a disillusioned academic who had just finished explaining in detail the science supporting the theory of evolution to a class at Messiah College. Another frustrated pol with an itchy trigger finger for that snub-nose nestled in the bottom desk drawer at home. One bullet in the temple and all these bleating morons go away forever. Not that she's actually suicidal, but that's the downbeat persona Hillary brings to the table and why she's losing ground. Americans want their War President's optimistic and cheery when they order the bombing of innocent foreigners, not someone who looks like she's attending the funeral before she's been elected. She has the bankroll to stick it out to the bitter end, and she will, but the bloom is off this former member of the Rose Law firm and the petals are withering.
Christopher Dodd
How'd He Do? He -- ahem -- 'Doddered.' The Senator is a caterpillar-eyebrowed New Englander one home sale away from a Century 21 blazer, or maybe playing the Gorton's fisherman -- "Avast! These fish sticks are mighty tasty! Yarrr!" -- apparently only in politics because it's the family business. He doesn't disagree with Ms. Hillary or the Big O in any substantial way, so one can only assume his candidacy is a set-up for a Veep nod. It's not that he's bad, he's just forgettable as hell. If you went to a movie with Chris, don't go out for popcorn because you'll never find him again. Chances for the No. 2 slot? Hey, Connecticut's already a Blue State.
His Biggest Problem: Like Biden, he has no constituency. His positions are all safe, solid, well-reasoned and...oh, I'm sorry, did I nod off? Sorry, Chris, back to the whale boat -- the presidential yacht is not for you, not even the Veep's dinghy. Out by next fall, following hard on Biden's retreating footsteps.
John Edwards
How'd He Do? Worse than expected. For a 'Trial Lawyer' who's had a few years to prepare, you'd think he'd have some ready answers, yet he hesitated at times, and not in the studious way that might impress an audience that he's seriously considering the question. Nope, it seemed Johnny saw the headlights and froze. When asked about a moral leader who had inspired him, Kerry's Veep Sacrifice swallowed hard and the clock ticked until he came up with "Well, the Lord, who I pray to every day..." Pray for some poise and a new speechwriter, knucklehead.
His Biggest Problem: Handsome? Check. Personable? Check. Good with crowds? Check. On the right side of the issues? Check. Good bio? Check. Articulate? Usually. So why can't he get more signatures on the bottom line? Here's why: too much 'Southern Honey.' That Dixie Charm can be a mighty potent force in politics -- as we've seen with Clinton and even fake Texan Bush -- but it works against Edwards, probably because of his clean-cut Hollywood features. John F. Kennedy had this problem early on in his bid for the presidency; Nixon-friendly stooges tried to cast him as an empty-headed 'pretty boy' too vain and vacuous to be the Chief Executive. JFK struck back with his PT-109 war-hero record and won the day. JE has no combat medals to dull the Breck Girl shine, and he's stuck in a third-place rut. Ironically, in a race that contains a flaxen-haired woman, he's been designated the 'Dumb Blonde.' While Hillary may be blonde, she's no dummy, and neither is Edwards. But the Mighty Rightie Wurlitzer of Sleaze is tuning up to key the former senator as a wishy-washy lightweight without the 'right stuff' to be CinC. [The Jay Leno jokes have already commenced.] If Johnny doesn't grow some metaphorical chest hair soon and start landing some punches, the neoconnery are going to succeed in, as the phrase goes, 'emasculating' him. Wouldn't hurt to loosen up and show a sense of humor, either, Mr. E.
Incidental Note: You're paying $400 for that haircut? Hint: save your money; you can get the same thing at BoRics for twenty-five bucks with tip.
Mike Gravel
How'd He Do? Much better than expected. Although his words sometimes needed a little interpretation -- "Who are we afraid of?!?" -- you couldn't beat the old coot for speaking straight and clear. A shame it couldn't be arranged for Biden, Edwards, Dodd, and Richardson to get stuck in an elevator for an hour at the next debate and free Alaska Pike Mike and Denny the K to toss roundhouse rights at Hillary and Obama. Now THAT would be a debate worth watching!
His Biggest Problem: He's Cranky Grandpa at every family function, half crocked on Jim Beam, telling the kiddies, "Don't listen to your Dad -- he never knows what the hell he's talking about!" and then asking pre-teen Bud to pour him fresh one. "Dad," Mom's pained voice rings out from the kitchen, "For God's sake, don't make the kids get you a drink!" "Har, har, it'll make a man of him -- or a good bartender, the little shit! Har, har, har!" Yes, Gravel is that guy, right down to his baggy suspicious-of-all-the-crap eyes and the thumb on his nose waving at all the humbuggery and tomfoolery. Mike's about one hip surgery away from the I Don't Give A Fuck Anymore nursing home and he doesn't have any illusions regarding his chances of getting elected. He's in it for some fun and to go out in a blaze of crusty rhetorical glory as the overloaded handbasket nears the eternal depths, "I told them all at that goddamned debate what needed to be done but did they listen? NO! The hell with them! When's lunch at this goddamned joint?" God bless him; keep sluggin', Mike.
Dennis Kucinich
How'd He Do? You have to love a man who carries a bound pocket copy of the Constitution on him and can quote from it. Between him and Gravel, these are the only two candidates who deserve to be in this race. He isn't just echoing Hillary or pulling on Barack's sleeve. Kucinich actually has some bold new ideas -- like universal single-payer health coverage that cuts out the HMO-Big Pharma Corpocracy, impeaching Cheney and withdrawing from Iraq -- that diverge from the two Dem front-runners. Maybe he can't win, but I hope he stays in it all the way, if nothing else than to keep the Big Guns honest and give the public a glance at a real progressive.
His Biggest Problem: He has a tendency to go a little too 'folksy.' In last night's debate he went on about buying a house for $22.5 thou years ago to prove he was a member of the middle-class, and it overshadowed the important point he was making. Also, he should stop singing during speeches. He may not be 'electable' in 2008, but fifteen years from now all of the solutions Denny the K is talking about -- the things that are casually dismissed by the cynical know-it-all punditry -- will be the law of the land or else we'll be a dictatorship with a gutted third-world economy.
By the by, call me sexist but -- Mine Gott what a gorgeous wife he has! Talk about statuesque! She's enough to tempt any elfish monk to quit the monastery and devote himself to a life of idle lust. Unfortunately, she married Dennis, who's married to politics. Still, I hope he doesn't give himself a heart attack trying to service both loves in his life. Big applause for one of the few members of Congress who shows up to do his job.
Barack Obama
How'd He Do? The Black Knight of Progressivism put on a serviceable, solid performance, no loss, no gain. He exhibited the calm gravitas of a leader, and the grown-up ability, which we've almost forgotten from six years of the Immature Mental Midget of Midland, to think in 'nuance' and consider different aspects of a problem before arriving at a decision. Idiot Republicans consider this a sign of weakness and vacillation but, then, look at the shape we're in from their 'Decider's' quick gut solutions. It's too bad Keith Olbermann didn't have a sock handy to stuff into post-debate coverage colleague Chris Matthews' mouth when he repeated for the sixth time that Obama was 'sophisticated.' (Somebody buy the Screamer a thesaurus, for cripes sake.) Analysis by Big Brain Williams, Andrea "Mrs. Greenspan" Mitchell and Tucker "Rhymes With..." Carlson were all good excuses to visit the bathroom or cop a snack. Actually -- and I'm going to hate myself for saying this -- Joe Scarborough made the most sense of all of them except Keith.
His Biggest Problem: The hubris of the front-runner, although he has yet to officially achieve that status. In less than six months this political ICBM has closed a thirty point-plus gap with Hillary and is now within striking distance of taking the lead. He's also on par in money with Sen. Clinton and everything's going his way while she's fading. This is where smart campaign managers tend to tighten their sphincters and advise their candidates to play it safe and coast. That's also the end of the line for many candidates as people get tired of hearing strained-through-focus-groups opinions and the same retread speeches, especially in this volatile election year. Obama can nail it all, if he can maintain his integrity and his wits that have attracted voters of every color and ethnicity to his bandwagon, against the odds. We need a new FDR and Obama could evolve into that, but not by treading water in the shallow end of the pool. The GOP is on the run; if he stays strong and keeps on the hunt, Obama will bring about a landslide in November of 2008 and a turn to populist progressivism that hasn't been seen since 1944's Economic Bill of Rights. The country's ripe for it and Obama could be its standard-bearer.
Bill Richardson
How'd He Do? He looked like he was drunk. (Listen, this isn't to condemn the man: even The Tattlesnake needs a few pops sometimes before appearing in front of large crowds.) Still and all, it's probably not a good idea to show up at a presidential debate with a pint of Who-Hit-John in your raincoat and your back teeth floating. Bill made a few good points, but I was waiting for him to start projectile vomiting any second. ("Sorry, Brian, I guess it was something I -- hey, look, a kitty!") In the post-debate interview on MSNBC, he seemed to be having trouble getting his mouth to move in synch with his fuzzy tongue as a jazz band wailed in the background.
His Biggest Problem: Governor, as one tippler to another, I salute you, but I don't think Norman Rockwell's America is ready for Egbert Souse as president yet. (A tragedy.) Although having a president who could drink Harding under the table is an attractive idea, especially after six years of an alleged Born Again Teetotaler, the media would pounce all over you the first time you passed out drunk on the White House lawn, the Self-Righteous Bluenosed Yuppies. Seriously, there's nothing wrong with Richardson, except he labors in Dodd's shadow. And, Bill, don't go thinking anyone's going to dangle that Veep keychain before your bloodshot eyes either. Nada for you. Kriswell says...out by fall.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Thursday, April 19, 2007
The Virginia Tech Killer: Who Does It Sound Like? Edition
"It would be a gross deception to admit power intoxication only for the individual psyche. The mass also is guided by this goal and the effect of this is the more devastating as in the mass psyche the feeling of personal responsibility is essentially reduced."
-- Alfred Adler, "The Psychology of Power," 1928.
"The close relationship between politics and power has always been recognized. In the world of politics, Lassalles' expression still has currency: 'Constitutional struggles are struggles for power.' ..... Masaryk's expression, 'There will be no peace in the world as long as individual ethics do not also apply to the state,' is as much a criticism of the present as a challenge for the future."
-- Alexander Mueller, "The Principles of Individual Psychology."
April 19, 2007 -- On MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night, the subject, as it has been on most of the cable news shows recently, was once again the Virginia Tech killer, Cho Seung-Hui.
Keith's been better at plowing this gutted field for new information than most of the news media, but what caught my attention were the words and phrases uttered by his guest experts.
Former FBI profiler Gregg McCrary described Cho Seung-Hui as full of "paranoid delusions," addicted to his own "grandiosity,"and someone who wanted to gain "power through violence."
Later in the show Keith welcomed Dr. Susan Lipkins, a psychologist, who gave her professional perspective on the crazed murderer, depicting him as "operating outside of reality" and exhibiting "extreme behavior" as a result. She added that, typically, psychotic killers "think that they are god" at which time they should be "removed from society" when they are "found to be incompetent."
This morning Melissa Segrest had an article up at MSN, "Getting Inside the Mind of a Killer." She also consulted experts who rendered their opinions on the Virginia Tech maniac.
Dr. James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Boston's Northeastern University who has spent 25 years studying mass murderers, said, "Typically you have someone who has a long history of frustration and failure..." and "They have a diminished capacity to cope with disappointment." He added, "they are people who blame others for those failures, they externalize blame, they never see themselves as responsible, ... and they're angry, they're full of blame and resentment."
Dr. Robert R. Butterworth, a Los Angeles psychologist who works with violent criminals and heads International Trauma Associates, told Segrest, "A lot of times these people are somewhat aloof from people. They're very sensitive to slights," and summed up, "They're not friendly, they're usually socially inept, they have problems a lot of times with females and sometimes they have a fascination with guns."
Dr. Stanton Samenow, a clinical psychologist who has been has been studying killers since 1970 and wrote the book "Inside the Criminal Mind," added, "These men interpret any affront or adversity very personally. It threatens their very sense of who they are. They think in extremes... They are constantly angry at a world that, from their perspective, does not give them what they are due."
Samenow also said, "These are people who know right from wrong. They also know the potential consequences to themselves if they are caught .... When they commit the crime, they are certain about their course of action. They are deliberate and purposeful. They may have planned the crime well in advance. At the time they commit the crime, they are calm -- having shut off all fear."
Dr. Butterworth put in, "We're developing a narcissistic, angry culture that, when crossed, are prone to attack."
And Dr. Fox concluded, "We've become much more of a competitive society. We admire the winners and we pity the losers. We have no tolerance for them. We ridicule them and vote them off the island." Later, he said, "The more people they kill, the greater the level of satisfaction they feel and derive from the crime."
Read through these quotes and what picture emerges -- who does it sound like?
"[P]aranoid delusions," "grandiosity" gaining "power through violence."
"operating outside of reality" "extreme behavior" "think that they are god."
Just look at the history of the Bush Administration; paranoid delusions about the power of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations; obvious grandiosity and god-like thinking in Bush believing he was installed as president by the Creator of the Universe; gaining power through violence is in progress in the Middle East, if not in this country; some might consider invading another country on false pretenses and killing innocent civilians was extreme behavior; and operating outside of reality is the modus operandi of the Bushies and their neocon supporters.
"[They have] a long history of frustration and failure...They have a diminished capacity to cope with disappointment. [T]hey are people who blame others for those failures, they externalize blame, they never see themselves as responsible, ... and they're angry, they're full of blame and resentment."
The Bush neocon 'experiment' has been one long trail of frustration and failure, and the Bush neocons pathologically evade responsibility and blame others for their failures. The media neocons -- O'Reilly, Hannity, Boortz, et al -- are hair-triggers seething with anger, blame and resentment and appeal to an audience similarly ill-disposed.
"These men interpret any affront or adversity very personally. It threatens their very sense of who they are. They think in extremes ... They are constantly angry at a world that, from their perspective, does not give them what they are due."
Both the neocons and the Bushies are prime examples of this: political disagreements are always personal, and they can't deal with adversity maturely. Every slight or failure is a challenge to their manhood. Thinking in extremes and angry at the world? Read Ann Coulter, Anti-Idiotarian Rottweilers, Little Green Footballs, Charles Krauthammer or listen to Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz or Rush Limbaugh.
"These are people who know right from wrong. They also know the potential consequences to themselves if they are caught.... When they commit the crime, they are certain about their course of action. They are deliberate and purposeful. They may have planned the crime well in advance."
Isn't this a pretty good description of the Bush Administration? From using false intelligence to invade Iraq, to leaking Valerie Plame's name, to Alberto Gonzales' blatant lies, to the current fiasco over Rove's emails, ad nauseum, they knew what they were doing was wrong, but were deliberate and purposeful in their planning to accomplish their treacherous and illegal goals.
"They're very sensitive to slights,...They're not friendly, they're usually socially inept, they have problems a lot of times with females and sometimes they have a fascination with guns."
Check out who advertises on neocon websites, and the fascination with guns, general unfriendliness, problems with females and social ineptitude should be clear. Sensitivity to slights -- have you ever known anyone as thin-skinned as a neocon?
"We're developing a narcissistic, angry culture that, when crossed, are prone to attack."
Read the neocon blogs -- it doesn't get more angry, narcissistic and prone to attack than that.
"We've become much more of a competitive society. We admire the winners and we pity the losers. We have no tolerance for them. We ridicule them and vote them off the island. ... The more people they kill, the greater the level of satisfaction they feel and derive from the crime."
The entire greedy, demented consumer culture, the one advertised and promoted every day by the six big US media conglomerates and global corporations, and wallowed in by the Bush neocons, has no tolerance or pity for losers. "The good calls are for winners." Losers -- usually defined as minorities, Democrats, women and liberals -- are mercilessly derided by right-wing sites, who, steeped in their fervid delusions and contrary to harsh reality, think they are winners with all the answers. They don't realize the only winners are the corporations and their political and media shills making a buck off them and conning them for votes. At some point, they will have a rude awakening as they are 'voted off the island' by those they idolized when they lose their job, their pension or their house. (It's happening every day.) Then, they might be enlightened by reality but, more likely, they'll just crawl further back in the cave, alternately bellowing and whimpering. And, yes, they do seem to derive great satisfaction from the deaths of those they've deemed the enemy -- Iraqi insurgents, Afghanis, Muslims in general, Spanish-speaking immigrants, poor blacks and, of course, the Devil's minions who are the fount of all the world's problems, liberals and Democrats.
They should be "removed from society [when they are] "found to be incompetent."
I don't think this government's monumental incompetence is even an issue for reasonable debate any longer. In the case of the Bushies, impeachment is the obvious answer to remove them from doing further harm. In the case of the neocons, they have, and should have, freedom of speech, so they can say or write whatever they want, but I'd keep them away from the Glock 9mm's just in case.
Most of them are only courageous when hiding behind a screen name or a microphone -- hence the paltry number of neocon frothers who've signed up to fight in Bush's Global War on Terror -- but you never know when one of them might take some Viagra and go off half-cocked.
"To prevail through violence appears to many as an obvious thought. And we admit: the simplest way to attain everything that is good and promises happiness, or even only what is in the line of a continuous evolution seems to be by means of power. But where in the life of men or in the history of mankind has such an attempt ever succeeded? As far as we can see, even the use of mild violence awakens opposition everywhere, even where the welfare of the subjugated is obviously intended."
-- Alfred Adler, "The Psychology of Power," 1928.
-- Alfred Adler, "The Psychology of Power," 1928.
"The close relationship between politics and power has always been recognized. In the world of politics, Lassalles' expression still has currency: 'Constitutional struggles are struggles for power.' ..... Masaryk's expression, 'There will be no peace in the world as long as individual ethics do not also apply to the state,' is as much a criticism of the present as a challenge for the future."
-- Alexander Mueller, "The Principles of Individual Psychology."
April 19, 2007 -- On MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night, the subject, as it has been on most of the cable news shows recently, was once again the Virginia Tech killer, Cho Seung-Hui.
Keith's been better at plowing this gutted field for new information than most of the news media, but what caught my attention were the words and phrases uttered by his guest experts.
Former FBI profiler Gregg McCrary described Cho Seung-Hui as full of "paranoid delusions," addicted to his own "grandiosity,"and someone who wanted to gain "power through violence."
Later in the show Keith welcomed Dr. Susan Lipkins, a psychologist, who gave her professional perspective on the crazed murderer, depicting him as "operating outside of reality" and exhibiting "extreme behavior" as a result. She added that, typically, psychotic killers "think that they are god" at which time they should be "removed from society" when they are "found to be incompetent."
This morning Melissa Segrest had an article up at MSN, "Getting Inside the Mind of a Killer." She also consulted experts who rendered their opinions on the Virginia Tech maniac.
Dr. James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Boston's Northeastern University who has spent 25 years studying mass murderers, said, "Typically you have someone who has a long history of frustration and failure..." and "They have a diminished capacity to cope with disappointment." He added, "they are people who blame others for those failures, they externalize blame, they never see themselves as responsible, ... and they're angry, they're full of blame and resentment."
Dr. Robert R. Butterworth, a Los Angeles psychologist who works with violent criminals and heads International Trauma Associates, told Segrest, "A lot of times these people are somewhat aloof from people. They're very sensitive to slights," and summed up, "They're not friendly, they're usually socially inept, they have problems a lot of times with females and sometimes they have a fascination with guns."
Dr. Stanton Samenow, a clinical psychologist who has been has been studying killers since 1970 and wrote the book "Inside the Criminal Mind," added, "These men interpret any affront or adversity very personally. It threatens their very sense of who they are. They think in extremes... They are constantly angry at a world that, from their perspective, does not give them what they are due."
Samenow also said, "These are people who know right from wrong. They also know the potential consequences to themselves if they are caught .... When they commit the crime, they are certain about their course of action. They are deliberate and purposeful. They may have planned the crime well in advance. At the time they commit the crime, they are calm -- having shut off all fear."
Dr. Butterworth put in, "We're developing a narcissistic, angry culture that, when crossed, are prone to attack."
And Dr. Fox concluded, "We've become much more of a competitive society. We admire the winners and we pity the losers. We have no tolerance for them. We ridicule them and vote them off the island." Later, he said, "The more people they kill, the greater the level of satisfaction they feel and derive from the crime."
Read through these quotes and what picture emerges -- who does it sound like?
"[P]aranoid delusions," "grandiosity" gaining "power through violence."
"operating outside of reality" "extreme behavior" "think that they are god."
Just look at the history of the Bush Administration; paranoid delusions about the power of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations; obvious grandiosity and god-like thinking in Bush believing he was installed as president by the Creator of the Universe; gaining power through violence is in progress in the Middle East, if not in this country; some might consider invading another country on false pretenses and killing innocent civilians was extreme behavior; and operating outside of reality is the modus operandi of the Bushies and their neocon supporters.
"[They have] a long history of frustration and failure...They have a diminished capacity to cope with disappointment. [T]hey are people who blame others for those failures, they externalize blame, they never see themselves as responsible, ... and they're angry, they're full of blame and resentment."
The Bush neocon 'experiment' has been one long trail of frustration and failure, and the Bush neocons pathologically evade responsibility and blame others for their failures. The media neocons -- O'Reilly, Hannity, Boortz, et al -- are hair-triggers seething with anger, blame and resentment and appeal to an audience similarly ill-disposed.
"These men interpret any affront or adversity very personally. It threatens their very sense of who they are. They think in extremes ... They are constantly angry at a world that, from their perspective, does not give them what they are due."
Both the neocons and the Bushies are prime examples of this: political disagreements are always personal, and they can't deal with adversity maturely. Every slight or failure is a challenge to their manhood. Thinking in extremes and angry at the world? Read Ann Coulter, Anti-Idiotarian Rottweilers, Little Green Footballs, Charles Krauthammer or listen to Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz or Rush Limbaugh.
"These are people who know right from wrong. They also know the potential consequences to themselves if they are caught.... When they commit the crime, they are certain about their course of action. They are deliberate and purposeful. They may have planned the crime well in advance."
Isn't this a pretty good description of the Bush Administration? From using false intelligence to invade Iraq, to leaking Valerie Plame's name, to Alberto Gonzales' blatant lies, to the current fiasco over Rove's emails, ad nauseum, they knew what they were doing was wrong, but were deliberate and purposeful in their planning to accomplish their treacherous and illegal goals.
"They're very sensitive to slights,...They're not friendly, they're usually socially inept, they have problems a lot of times with females and sometimes they have a fascination with guns."
Check out who advertises on neocon websites, and the fascination with guns, general unfriendliness, problems with females and social ineptitude should be clear. Sensitivity to slights -- have you ever known anyone as thin-skinned as a neocon?
"We're developing a narcissistic, angry culture that, when crossed, are prone to attack."
Read the neocon blogs -- it doesn't get more angry, narcissistic and prone to attack than that.
"We've become much more of a competitive society. We admire the winners and we pity the losers. We have no tolerance for them. We ridicule them and vote them off the island. ... The more people they kill, the greater the level of satisfaction they feel and derive from the crime."
The entire greedy, demented consumer culture, the one advertised and promoted every day by the six big US media conglomerates and global corporations, and wallowed in by the Bush neocons, has no tolerance or pity for losers. "The good calls are for winners." Losers -- usually defined as minorities, Democrats, women and liberals -- are mercilessly derided by right-wing sites, who, steeped in their fervid delusions and contrary to harsh reality, think they are winners with all the answers. They don't realize the only winners are the corporations and their political and media shills making a buck off them and conning them for votes. At some point, they will have a rude awakening as they are 'voted off the island' by those they idolized when they lose their job, their pension or their house. (It's happening every day.) Then, they might be enlightened by reality but, more likely, they'll just crawl further back in the cave, alternately bellowing and whimpering. And, yes, they do seem to derive great satisfaction from the deaths of those they've deemed the enemy -- Iraqi insurgents, Afghanis, Muslims in general, Spanish-speaking immigrants, poor blacks and, of course, the Devil's minions who are the fount of all the world's problems, liberals and Democrats.
They should be "removed from society [when they are] "found to be incompetent."
I don't think this government's monumental incompetence is even an issue for reasonable debate any longer. In the case of the Bushies, impeachment is the obvious answer to remove them from doing further harm. In the case of the neocons, they have, and should have, freedom of speech, so they can say or write whatever they want, but I'd keep them away from the Glock 9mm's just in case.
Most of them are only courageous when hiding behind a screen name or a microphone -- hence the paltry number of neocon frothers who've signed up to fight in Bush's Global War on Terror -- but you never know when one of them might take some Viagra and go off half-cocked.
"To prevail through violence appears to many as an obvious thought. And we admit: the simplest way to attain everything that is good and promises happiness, or even only what is in the line of a continuous evolution seems to be by means of power. But where in the life of men or in the history of mankind has such an attempt ever succeeded? As far as we can see, even the use of mild violence awakens opposition everywhere, even where the welfare of the subjugated is obviously intended."
-- Alfred Adler, "The Psychology of Power," 1928.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
The America We Used to Know
Great work by John Sherffius. Presented without further comment.
The America We Used to Know
The America that was a model of justice in the world, not tyranny.
The America that championed human rights, not violated them.
The America that opposed torture, not the one that practices it.
The America that didn't engage in preemptive warfare.
The America that didn't spy on its own citizens.
The America that respected the Geneva Conventions.
The America that respected its own Constitution.
The America whose leaders didn't prey on fear.
It has been 5 years since September 11th -- has anyone seen that America?
We miss you so much.
-- From a cartoon by John Sherffius of the Boulder Daily Camera. Posted by Colleen, April 16, 2007 at Common Dreams.org.
Friday, April 13, 2007
CBS Firing Imus Signals the End of the Neocon Shock Radio Era
"CBS fires Don Imus from radio show"
-- AP headline, April 12, 2007.
"You ain't no racist, Mister Imus, nah suh. No, thank you, I don't want no watermelon!"
-- Bernard McGuirk, Don Imus' producer, using an 'Amos 'n' Andy' voice to a laughing Imus on his radio show, as quoted by Newsweek.
"An entertainer like Imus can trace his lineage to Bruce, with one crucial distinction: Lenny made fun of the powerful and their orthodoxies. You won't find Imus mocking WASPs on a regular basis. Instead, this rude dude focuses on groups whose status is still contested, such as blacks, immigrants, and gays."
-- Richard Goldstein, "Celebrity Bigots," The Village Voice, July 18, 2000.
"There are 100 people in this country right now that can solve hate television. They are the CEO of Procter & Gamble, the CEO of General Motors. These people control all the advertising dollars and they spoke... These CEOs can spend the money in places that don't promote hate."
-- Donnie Deutsch, the host of CNBC's "The Big Idea," quoted by Mike Celizic at TODAYshow.com, April 12, 2007.
Things Change
April 13, 2007 -- Rush Limbaugh senses it coming, telling his listeners yesterday that he's next, and the other Rush wannabe radio bile spillers of the right may be dimly aware of it, but Don Imus' firing by CBS Radio, removing him from the air nationwide, augurs the end of their run of nasty spittle-flecked bigotry disguised as 'humor'; a vicious humor designed to appeal to their core audience of Angry White Men who blame minorities and women because they're losers, ignorant boys cowering in adult bodies, whispering racists, snickering water-cooler-wit a-holes, and mutant teenagers who thought the Garbage Pail Kids were brilliant comedy.
It won't happen overnight, as major societal changes rarely do, but gradually advertisers will begin pulling ads from Limbaugh and his clones, realizing that the country has shifted away from the mean-spirited neocon tripe they've successfully peddled for over two decades and is heading in a new direction.
Most media analysts will credit Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson with bringing Imus down; they'll focus on the "nappy-headed ho's" remark as the centerpiece of his downfall; all of it was certainly a factor but, if Imus were as popular as he was even a decade ago, his critics would have been ridiculed into silence or ignored. What I see happening now was expressed by Newsweek's Howard Fineman on the Imus show April 9th. He told the 'I-man': "[T]hings have changed. And the kind of -- some of the kind of humor that you used to do you can't do anymore. And that's just the way it is."
Here's 'the way it is' these days: The country is becoming aware that "nappy-headed ho's" are not the problem; the problem is the smooth-haired caucasian variety who infest the halls of power in Washington and the broadcast booths in New York.
While Imus may claim he's not a racist, a long trail of reprehensible remarks argues that he wears a white sheet in private. He or his 'crew' -- especially his execrable producer Bernard McGuirk -- have habitually referred to black people as "bugaloos," "brilloheads," "dark meat," "dingos," and "mandingos." He's called Sammy Davis Jr. a "a one-eyed lawn jockey," and regularly referred to Aretha Franklin and other black women as "ho's." Terms for other minorities like "raghead," "camel jockey," "gook," "zipperhead," "banana picker," and "our urine-colored brothers" have been uttered with sneering gusto on the Imus airwaves, as well as his bashing of gays with such tried-and-true nuggets as "homo," "fag," "faggot," "fag-queen," "queer," and "load-swallower." All in good fun, of course, Imus assures us -- as long as you're not black, Hispanic, Asian, Muslim, Arab, gay or female.
Several years ago, Imus even promised columnist Clarence Page, who is black, that he would stop using racial slurs. Obviously, he didn't.
Notoriously he said in 1995 of black New York Times correspondent Gwen Ifill, "Isn't The Times wonderful? It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House." He even admitted to 60 Minutes back in 2000 that he uses the 'N-word' in private, but never in public. (Uh, the ghost of Dr. King thanks you, Don.) On that same show, he said, "I don't apologize for offending people ... I know it's not politically correct, and I don't care."
Well, times have changed -- Imus was forced to care, and apologize, but it was much too little, too late. Imus is not by any means the worst of the bigoted shock jocks, however, just the proverbial canary in the coal mine.
The ludicrous age of victimized White Man Ranting is breathing its last as the promise that the Republicans would 'fix everything' has turned into a bitter joke under Bush. More and more Americans every day realize that it isn't blacks or women or some minority that's keeping them down, that is ruining our economy and our standing in the world; it's soft, rich, pampered ofay jerks like Limbaugh and his ilk that are pulling the strings putting them out of work and getting them killed in wrong-headed wars.
Ironically -- since the neocons so worship 'free markets' -- as the worm turns and the 'invisible hand' of economic reality asserts itself, advertisers will flee from the right side of the dial, anxious not to offend minorities or the many whites who are becoming cognizant of the fact that the neocon Republicans have been steadily destroying this country for the past six years, methodically dismantling a government designed to respond to the wishes and needs of the people and replacing it with an over-easy plutocracy that serves the privileged few at the expense of the majority.
The results of the last election and every poll since has shown that the majority of Americans are heading in a new direction, a direction that doesn't include the vitriol and spite of vain 'funnymen' like Imus and Rush.
Ratings for right-wing radio and TV shows have been steadily falling for three years running; even Bill O'Reilly has lost over a million viewers since 2004, and they won't be coming back. Most purchasers of the neocon ideology promoted by Bill and Rush and Fox News have realized it's a modern-day Edsel, one with four flat tires and an engine that doesn't run.
Rush, do you hear that growling at the door?
It's for you.
"What all you folks need, who still treat fellow human beings as 'black', 'white', 'yellow', or 'red', is to watch a Documentary entitled 'The Angry Eye' by Jane Elliott which is described as follows: Documentary which features Jane Elliott's blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise in discrimination involving college students forced to experience racist treatment minorities have received for years. Jane Elliott was an elementary school teacher in Iowa in the 1960s when she developed her exercise on the effects of racism in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr."
-- Comment by JPBreeze at Common Dreams, April 10, 2007.
Sources for this piece include:
-- Mike Celizic, "Is Imus firing a turning point?" TODAYshow.com, April 12, 2007.
-- Isaiah J. Poole, "Imus and Beyond," Tom Paine, April 11, 2007.
-- Richard Goldstein, "Celebrity Bigots," The Village Voice, July 18, 2000.
-- Philip Nobile, "A Catalogue of Slurs," Tom Paine.com, May 16, 2000.
-- Marcus Mabry, "The Ugly Truth About Imus, Power and the Press," Newsweek, April 11, 2007.
-- Media Matters, "Imus Cancellation: Statement from Media Matters," April 11, 2007.
-- Gwen Ifill, "Trash Talk Radio," The New York Times, April 10, 2007.
-- Media Matters, "Imus Has Long Record of Incendiary Remarks," April 9, 2007.
-- Adam Howard, "No More Imus," The Nation, April 9, 2007.
-- AP headline, April 12, 2007.
"You ain't no racist, Mister Imus, nah suh. No, thank you, I don't want no watermelon!"
-- Bernard McGuirk, Don Imus' producer, using an 'Amos 'n' Andy' voice to a laughing Imus on his radio show, as quoted by Newsweek.
"An entertainer like Imus can trace his lineage to Bruce, with one crucial distinction: Lenny made fun of the powerful and their orthodoxies. You won't find Imus mocking WASPs on a regular basis. Instead, this rude dude focuses on groups whose status is still contested, such as blacks, immigrants, and gays."
-- Richard Goldstein, "Celebrity Bigots," The Village Voice, July 18, 2000.
"There are 100 people in this country right now that can solve hate television. They are the CEO of Procter & Gamble, the CEO of General Motors. These people control all the advertising dollars and they spoke... These CEOs can spend the money in places that don't promote hate."
-- Donnie Deutsch, the host of CNBC's "The Big Idea," quoted by Mike Celizic at TODAYshow.com, April 12, 2007.
Things Change
April 13, 2007 -- Rush Limbaugh senses it coming, telling his listeners yesterday that he's next, and the other Rush wannabe radio bile spillers of the right may be dimly aware of it, but Don Imus' firing by CBS Radio, removing him from the air nationwide, augurs the end of their run of nasty spittle-flecked bigotry disguised as 'humor'; a vicious humor designed to appeal to their core audience of Angry White Men who blame minorities and women because they're losers, ignorant boys cowering in adult bodies, whispering racists, snickering water-cooler-wit a-holes, and mutant teenagers who thought the Garbage Pail Kids were brilliant comedy.
It won't happen overnight, as major societal changes rarely do, but gradually advertisers will begin pulling ads from Limbaugh and his clones, realizing that the country has shifted away from the mean-spirited neocon tripe they've successfully peddled for over two decades and is heading in a new direction.
Most media analysts will credit Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson with bringing Imus down; they'll focus on the "nappy-headed ho's" remark as the centerpiece of his downfall; all of it was certainly a factor but, if Imus were as popular as he was even a decade ago, his critics would have been ridiculed into silence or ignored. What I see happening now was expressed by Newsweek's Howard Fineman on the Imus show April 9th. He told the 'I-man': "[T]hings have changed. And the kind of -- some of the kind of humor that you used to do you can't do anymore. And that's just the way it is."
Here's 'the way it is' these days: The country is becoming aware that "nappy-headed ho's" are not the problem; the problem is the smooth-haired caucasian variety who infest the halls of power in Washington and the broadcast booths in New York.
While Imus may claim he's not a racist, a long trail of reprehensible remarks argues that he wears a white sheet in private. He or his 'crew' -- especially his execrable producer Bernard McGuirk -- have habitually referred to black people as "bugaloos," "brilloheads," "dark meat," "dingos," and "mandingos." He's called Sammy Davis Jr. a "a one-eyed lawn jockey," and regularly referred to Aretha Franklin and other black women as "ho's." Terms for other minorities like "raghead," "camel jockey," "gook," "zipperhead," "banana picker," and "our urine-colored brothers" have been uttered with sneering gusto on the Imus airwaves, as well as his bashing of gays with such tried-and-true nuggets as "homo," "fag," "faggot," "fag-queen," "queer," and "load-swallower." All in good fun, of course, Imus assures us -- as long as you're not black, Hispanic, Asian, Muslim, Arab, gay or female.
Several years ago, Imus even promised columnist Clarence Page, who is black, that he would stop using racial slurs. Obviously, he didn't.
Notoriously he said in 1995 of black New York Times correspondent Gwen Ifill, "Isn't The Times wonderful? It lets the cleaning lady cover the White House." He even admitted to 60 Minutes back in 2000 that he uses the 'N-word' in private, but never in public. (Uh, the ghost of Dr. King thanks you, Don.) On that same show, he said, "I don't apologize for offending people ... I know it's not politically correct, and I don't care."
Well, times have changed -- Imus was forced to care, and apologize, but it was much too little, too late. Imus is not by any means the worst of the bigoted shock jocks, however, just the proverbial canary in the coal mine.
The ludicrous age of victimized White Man Ranting is breathing its last as the promise that the Republicans would 'fix everything' has turned into a bitter joke under Bush. More and more Americans every day realize that it isn't blacks or women or some minority that's keeping them down, that is ruining our economy and our standing in the world; it's soft, rich, pampered ofay jerks like Limbaugh and his ilk that are pulling the strings putting them out of work and getting them killed in wrong-headed wars.
Ironically -- since the neocons so worship 'free markets' -- as the worm turns and the 'invisible hand' of economic reality asserts itself, advertisers will flee from the right side of the dial, anxious not to offend minorities or the many whites who are becoming cognizant of the fact that the neocon Republicans have been steadily destroying this country for the past six years, methodically dismantling a government designed to respond to the wishes and needs of the people and replacing it with an over-easy plutocracy that serves the privileged few at the expense of the majority.
The results of the last election and every poll since has shown that the majority of Americans are heading in a new direction, a direction that doesn't include the vitriol and spite of vain 'funnymen' like Imus and Rush.
Ratings for right-wing radio and TV shows have been steadily falling for three years running; even Bill O'Reilly has lost over a million viewers since 2004, and they won't be coming back. Most purchasers of the neocon ideology promoted by Bill and Rush and Fox News have realized it's a modern-day Edsel, one with four flat tires and an engine that doesn't run.
Rush, do you hear that growling at the door?
It's for you.
"What all you folks need, who still treat fellow human beings as 'black', 'white', 'yellow', or 'red', is to watch a Documentary entitled 'The Angry Eye' by Jane Elliott which is described as follows: Documentary which features Jane Elliott's blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise in discrimination involving college students forced to experience racist treatment minorities have received for years. Jane Elliott was an elementary school teacher in Iowa in the 1960s when she developed her exercise on the effects of racism in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr."
-- Comment by JPBreeze at Common Dreams, April 10, 2007.
Sources for this piece include:
-- Mike Celizic, "Is Imus firing a turning point?" TODAYshow.com, April 12, 2007.
-- Isaiah J. Poole, "Imus and Beyond," Tom Paine, April 11, 2007.
-- Richard Goldstein, "Celebrity Bigots," The Village Voice, July 18, 2000.
-- Philip Nobile, "A Catalogue of Slurs," Tom Paine.com, May 16, 2000.
-- Marcus Mabry, "The Ugly Truth About Imus, Power and the Press," Newsweek, April 11, 2007.
-- Media Matters, "Imus Cancellation: Statement from Media Matters," April 11, 2007.
-- Gwen Ifill, "Trash Talk Radio," The New York Times, April 10, 2007.
-- Media Matters, "Imus Has Long Record of Incendiary Remarks," April 9, 2007.
-- Adam Howard, "No More Imus," The Nation, April 9, 2007.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Headlines of the Future: Don Imus Edition
April 11, 2007: Imus Fired From MSNBC
April 13, 2007: NBC President Claims He Never Heard of Imus Before Firing Him, Anywhere, Ever
April 16, 2007: CBS Cancels 'I-Man' After He Calls News Anchor Couric a "Snappy-Haired Snore"
April 17, 2007: Rutgers Team Meets with Imus; Recommends Castration, Lethal Injection for Beleaguered TV-Radio Host
April 18, 2007: Stetson Nixes Imus Spots After "Crappy-Hatted Bores" Slap at Texans
April 20, 2007: Imus Loses Every Sponsor Except Denny's Restaurants
April 27, 2007: Imus Off Air In US Radio, TV Markets
May 3, 2007: Former Radio Giant Don Imus Hired as Graveyard Jock at 5K WHUP-AM in Stumblefluck, Alabama
May 30, 2007: Imus Dropped From WHUP-AM Line Up; "Don Just Didn't Notch the Ratings We Expected," Says Station's Program Director
June 4, 2007: Former Imus Guest Bo Dietl Hospitalized for 'Continuous Cognitive Dissonance' and 'Gross Public Imbecility'; "Case is Incurable," Claims Doctor
July 6, 2007: Imus Starts College Lecture Tour at Bob Jones University
August 12, 2007: Don Imus Publishes Memoirs; "I Loves De Ho's" in Bookstores Friday
September 21, 2007: Imus Inks Endorsement Contract with Ho-Ho's
September 22, 2007: Imus Ho-Ho's Contract Dead After Interstate Bakeries Corp. President Reads Ex-Shock Jock's Memoirs; "I Thought He Was Writing About Snack Cakes," Explains Ho-Ho's Chief
November 7, 2007: TV's Celebrity Boxing Features Don Imus vs. Armstrong Williams Match
December 22, 2007: Controversial Media Figure Don Imus Retires from Show Business at Age 65
June 2, 2009: Where Are They Now? Imus Still Feisty in Retirement
October 12, 2012: Former Radio Star Don Imus Killed in Bar Fight with African-American Prostitute
April 13, 2007: NBC President Claims He Never Heard of Imus Before Firing Him, Anywhere, Ever
April 16, 2007: CBS Cancels 'I-Man' After He Calls News Anchor Couric a "Snappy-Haired Snore"
April 17, 2007: Rutgers Team Meets with Imus; Recommends Castration, Lethal Injection for Beleaguered TV-Radio Host
April 18, 2007: Stetson Nixes Imus Spots After "Crappy-Hatted Bores" Slap at Texans
April 20, 2007: Imus Loses Every Sponsor Except Denny's Restaurants
April 27, 2007: Imus Off Air In US Radio, TV Markets
May 3, 2007: Former Radio Giant Don Imus Hired as Graveyard Jock at 5K WHUP-AM in Stumblefluck, Alabama
May 30, 2007: Imus Dropped From WHUP-AM Line Up; "Don Just Didn't Notch the Ratings We Expected," Says Station's Program Director
June 4, 2007: Former Imus Guest Bo Dietl Hospitalized for 'Continuous Cognitive Dissonance' and 'Gross Public Imbecility'; "Case is Incurable," Claims Doctor
July 6, 2007: Imus Starts College Lecture Tour at Bob Jones University
August 12, 2007: Don Imus Publishes Memoirs; "I Loves De Ho's" in Bookstores Friday
September 21, 2007: Imus Inks Endorsement Contract with Ho-Ho's
September 22, 2007: Imus Ho-Ho's Contract Dead After Interstate Bakeries Corp. President Reads Ex-Shock Jock's Memoirs; "I Thought He Was Writing About Snack Cakes," Explains Ho-Ho's Chief
November 7, 2007: TV's Celebrity Boxing Features Don Imus vs. Armstrong Williams Match
December 22, 2007: Controversial Media Figure Don Imus Retires from Show Business at Age 65
June 2, 2009: Where Are They Now? Imus Still Feisty in Retirement
October 12, 2012: Former Radio Star Don Imus Killed in Bar Fight with African-American Prostitute
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Unlikely Candidate Throws Hat in GOP Ring
Breaking News
The Assimilated Press
April 10, 2007 4:18 PM EST
by S.R. Senaj
NASSAU, BAHAMAS -- Larry Birkhead, announcing this afternoon the decision by a Bahamas court that he is, according to DNA tests, the father of Anna Nicole Smith's youngest child Dannielynn, took the opportunity to also outline his plans for his future.
"I've decided to take advantage of all this publicity," Birkhead told the media and onlookers, "And announce that I am a candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States."
When asked why he was running, the former edible underwear salesman said, "I can't think of a better way to make some easy money and assure my and little Dannielynn's financial future. Those political candidates are raking in literally millions!"
A Fox News/Ipsos Factos Mall Insta-Poll taken immediately after Birkhead's announcement showed that, if the election were held today, Birkhead would best current GOP front-runner Rudy Giuliani 48 to 35 percent among likely Republican voters.
In Washington, a veteran Republican campaign operative, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that he wasn't surprised at Birkhead's strong appeal to GOP voters, "Larry's the embodiment of everything Republicans love in a candidate: he has family values, an eye for money, and he's not too bright, so naturally he appeals to our base."
Also in Washington, the makers of "W" ketchup have announced the release this month of a new snack product called "Surgers," described by the company as pretzels coated in applesauce and pork fat.
In an unveiling ceremony in the White House Rose Garden April 13, the company plans to present President Bush with a complimentary two-year supply of the new snack.
The Assimilated Press
April 10, 2007 4:18 PM EST
by S.R. Senaj
NASSAU, BAHAMAS -- Larry Birkhead, announcing this afternoon the decision by a Bahamas court that he is, according to DNA tests, the father of Anna Nicole Smith's youngest child Dannielynn, took the opportunity to also outline his plans for his future.
"I've decided to take advantage of all this publicity," Birkhead told the media and onlookers, "And announce that I am a candidate for the Republican nomination for president of the United States."
When asked why he was running, the former edible underwear salesman said, "I can't think of a better way to make some easy money and assure my and little Dannielynn's financial future. Those political candidates are raking in literally millions!"
A Fox News/Ipsos Factos Mall Insta-Poll taken immediately after Birkhead's announcement showed that, if the election were held today, Birkhead would best current GOP front-runner Rudy Giuliani 48 to 35 percent among likely Republican voters.
In Washington, a veteran Republican campaign operative, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the AP that he wasn't surprised at Birkhead's strong appeal to GOP voters, "Larry's the embodiment of everything Republicans love in a candidate: he has family values, an eye for money, and he's not too bright, so naturally he appeals to our base."
Also in Washington, the makers of "W" ketchup have announced the release this month of a new snack product called "Surgers," described by the company as pretzels coated in applesauce and pork fat.
In an unveiling ceremony in the White House Rose Garden April 13, the company plans to present President Bush with a complimentary two-year supply of the new snack.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
The Money Pit and the Vipers, GOP Edition
Campaign Money: The Amounts, Where It Came From and What It Means.
"O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?"
-- Jesus in Matthew 12:34, KJV.
Top Fundraisers, 2008 Republican Candidates for President:
1. Mitt Romney raised $20.6 million. (He kicked in over $2 million of his own money to bring the total to $23 million.)
Mitt the Affable Boob is collecting his money from the same sources that George W. Bush tapped in his campaigns -- Big Oil, lobbyists, filthy rich corporatists, Saudi royals by way of US cut-outs, other assorted Bush cronies -- along with a substantial amount from Mormons in Utah. When Dubya leaves office, the Bushes want to maintain lucrative connections to the top spot and they think Romney has the best chance to win in 2008. They've apparently perceived Mitt as someone who is authoritarian 'Daddy' enough for the GOP base, but unthreatening and reassuring to the gen-pop as well. Watch for him to be marketed as Ward Cleaver in a Craftsman tools ad; calm, smiling, always ready with a quick focus-group-popular answer to every complicated problem. A steady hand on the wheel with a truckload of safe soundbites. Meanwhile, rumors fly that, while Rove trainees infest the McCain train wreck, the Man Himself, the one whom Bush media courtier Mike Allen of The Politico respectfully calls 'Mr. Rove,' is set to take the reins backstage in the Romney campaign. Said to be joining him will be GOP propaganda hustler Frank Luntz. The strategy will be simple, and similar to the one Rove concocted for Bush: Romney stays cool and on-message, a statesman above the fray, while Rove operatives play every underhanded Swift Boat trick in Karl's playbook to decimate the opposition, making his candidate, however reprehensible, look less reprehensible than the competition. Ann Coulter has already endorsed Romney, and she holds sway with the fanged and venomous GOP collegiates. Party insider James Dobson has also bubbled over Mitt, and he appeals to the rubber room Christians. Soon, Fox Newsers and other rightie mouthpieces will be extolling his virtues and rewriting his pro-choice social liberal past. Will it work? Not this time around methinks; while Mitt may nail the nomination, 'Republican' 'incompetence' and 'failure' are closely connected in the public mind, and he's so much of a glad-handing empty suit, he'll turn off a good portion of his own party, so he's unlikely to get elected. It's not 'morning in America' anymore and it's all the GOP's fault. Still, the Repubs have to field someone and, unless Fred Thompson makes a run, he's their best shot. Maybe lightning will strike and videos of Hillary skinny-dipping with Snoop Dogg, Obama at a Klan rally, or Edwards beating up homeless orphans will surface. (Maybe Rove will photo-shop them for The Internets.)
2. Rudy Giuliani raised $15 million.
Rudy raised his cake by putting the arm on the usual collection of GOP corporations, lobbyists and well-heeled donors who recognize a born supplicant when they see one, a sweaty, anxious Willy Loman ready to do favors for the elite in return for the trappings of power and a few crumbs from the table. Of course America's Mare didn't fare well with individual contributions, especially from the Christian Coalitionists and other national keyhole peepers, but who cares about them? The scheme was to ride the Hero of 9/11 hobby-horse to victory, but then the Bush family stuck a dagger in Rudy's back and threw in with Romney. Perhaps the Bushies realized that once details of the Giuliani-Kerik Company's fetid business deals float to the surface, the New York City firefighters and cops Rudy has stiffed get their say, added to his pro-choice leanings, ignorance of foreign affairs, multiple acrimonious divorces, and his generally atrocious private personality, Rudy's going to end up about as popular as a pigeon with diarrhea flying over a Central Park jogging path. Already, for the purported GOP front-runner, this $15 mil is nearly an insult -- His Almighty Hero-ness can't collect more money than Hillary or that black kid? Holy crap! Also, the US mainstream media, scrawling Mayor Chrome Dome's name in their high school notebooks with little hearts for punctuation, have missed a salient point about their political beau: He's a terrible public speaker. His buck-toothed lisp reminds one of a wacky wabbit rather than George S. Patton, and his speeches shut eyes as he steps all over his best lines. To see what I mean, look at his shabby performance at the CPAC gathering in March; you could almost taste the ennui of the audience. Chris Matthews may think he's 'tough,' but once Republicans get a gander at this goose in debate, he's cooked. And McCain, as the flames engulf his campaign cockpit, will make a last desperate attempt to shoot Rudy down with nasty smear ads and push-poll calls ala what Bush did to McCain in 2000. Likely, with so much ammunition provided by Hizzoner, this will work and both he and Rudy will crash and burn.
3. John McCain raised $12.5 million.
A report the other day on MSNBC pretty much sums up why McCain is going in the tank: In response to his relatively low money draw, McCain is planning to employ even more ex-Bush operatives to 'restructure' his campaign. (He already has hired many of the benighted crew that put Dubya in office.) The man who has abandoned every principle he claimed to once endorse in order to endear himself to the Republican base has now become the loathed Junior's body double on losing issues like Iraq. He even talks and thinks like Bush these days: When you're tasting shoe leather, keep chewing, and when the fire's out of control, pour on more gas. But the belfry bats of the GOP base don't trust him, and true conservatives have dropped him like a bag of ripe manure, so he has no constituency left except a few Bushies who need jobs and the half-wit Washington media elite. Sure, the DC punditry gush over him, but they've been sniffing the tailpipe of the Straight Talk Express so long they're hallucinating it's still there. It isn't and it's not coming back. Today the hollow-eyed McCain, perhaps sensing his impending doom, travels the Sanjaya Malarkey route; a William Hung out to dry by the Bush apparatus, he's become a pathetic figure, singing along on any tired tune hummed by the White House, his raw white-knuckled ambition a public joke. Johnny will get his behind handed to him in Iowa and New Hampshire, if he lasts that long, and then it's over and out, Top Gun. There is only one thing that might save McCain at this point -- changing his name to Fred D. Thompson.
Next up: The top Democratic fundraisers.
"O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?"
-- Jesus in Matthew 12:34, KJV.
Top Fundraisers, 2008 Republican Candidates for President:
1. Mitt Romney raised $20.6 million. (He kicked in over $2 million of his own money to bring the total to $23 million.)
Mitt the Affable Boob is collecting his money from the same sources that George W. Bush tapped in his campaigns -- Big Oil, lobbyists, filthy rich corporatists, Saudi royals by way of US cut-outs, other assorted Bush cronies -- along with a substantial amount from Mormons in Utah. When Dubya leaves office, the Bushes want to maintain lucrative connections to the top spot and they think Romney has the best chance to win in 2008. They've apparently perceived Mitt as someone who is authoritarian 'Daddy' enough for the GOP base, but unthreatening and reassuring to the gen-pop as well. Watch for him to be marketed as Ward Cleaver in a Craftsman tools ad; calm, smiling, always ready with a quick focus-group-popular answer to every complicated problem. A steady hand on the wheel with a truckload of safe soundbites. Meanwhile, rumors fly that, while Rove trainees infest the McCain train wreck, the Man Himself, the one whom Bush media courtier Mike Allen of The Politico respectfully calls 'Mr. Rove,' is set to take the reins backstage in the Romney campaign. Said to be joining him will be GOP propaganda hustler Frank Luntz. The strategy will be simple, and similar to the one Rove concocted for Bush: Romney stays cool and on-message, a statesman above the fray, while Rove operatives play every underhanded Swift Boat trick in Karl's playbook to decimate the opposition, making his candidate, however reprehensible, look less reprehensible than the competition. Ann Coulter has already endorsed Romney, and she holds sway with the fanged and venomous GOP collegiates. Party insider James Dobson has also bubbled over Mitt, and he appeals to the rubber room Christians. Soon, Fox Newsers and other rightie mouthpieces will be extolling his virtues and rewriting his pro-choice social liberal past. Will it work? Not this time around methinks; while Mitt may nail the nomination, 'Republican' 'incompetence' and 'failure' are closely connected in the public mind, and he's so much of a glad-handing empty suit, he'll turn off a good portion of his own party, so he's unlikely to get elected. It's not 'morning in America' anymore and it's all the GOP's fault. Still, the Repubs have to field someone and, unless Fred Thompson makes a run, he's their best shot. Maybe lightning will strike and videos of Hillary skinny-dipping with Snoop Dogg, Obama at a Klan rally, or Edwards beating up homeless orphans will surface. (Maybe Rove will photo-shop them for The Internets.)
2. Rudy Giuliani raised $15 million.
Rudy raised his cake by putting the arm on the usual collection of GOP corporations, lobbyists and well-heeled donors who recognize a born supplicant when they see one, a sweaty, anxious Willy Loman ready to do favors for the elite in return for the trappings of power and a few crumbs from the table. Of course America's Mare didn't fare well with individual contributions, especially from the Christian Coalitionists and other national keyhole peepers, but who cares about them? The scheme was to ride the Hero of 9/11 hobby-horse to victory, but then the Bush family stuck a dagger in Rudy's back and threw in with Romney. Perhaps the Bushies realized that once details of the Giuliani-Kerik Company's fetid business deals float to the surface, the New York City firefighters and cops Rudy has stiffed get their say, added to his pro-choice leanings, ignorance of foreign affairs, multiple acrimonious divorces, and his generally atrocious private personality, Rudy's going to end up about as popular as a pigeon with diarrhea flying over a Central Park jogging path. Already, for the purported GOP front-runner, this $15 mil is nearly an insult -- His Almighty Hero-ness can't collect more money than Hillary or that black kid? Holy crap! Also, the US mainstream media, scrawling Mayor Chrome Dome's name in their high school notebooks with little hearts for punctuation, have missed a salient point about their political beau: He's a terrible public speaker. His buck-toothed lisp reminds one of a wacky wabbit rather than George S. Patton, and his speeches shut eyes as he steps all over his best lines. To see what I mean, look at his shabby performance at the CPAC gathering in March; you could almost taste the ennui of the audience. Chris Matthews may think he's 'tough,' but once Republicans get a gander at this goose in debate, he's cooked. And McCain, as the flames engulf his campaign cockpit, will make a last desperate attempt to shoot Rudy down with nasty smear ads and push-poll calls ala what Bush did to McCain in 2000. Likely, with so much ammunition provided by Hizzoner, this will work and both he and Rudy will crash and burn.
3. John McCain raised $12.5 million.
A report the other day on MSNBC pretty much sums up why McCain is going in the tank: In response to his relatively low money draw, McCain is planning to employ even more ex-Bush operatives to 'restructure' his campaign. (He already has hired many of the benighted crew that put Dubya in office.) The man who has abandoned every principle he claimed to once endorse in order to endear himself to the Republican base has now become the loathed Junior's body double on losing issues like Iraq. He even talks and thinks like Bush these days: When you're tasting shoe leather, keep chewing, and when the fire's out of control, pour on more gas. But the belfry bats of the GOP base don't trust him, and true conservatives have dropped him like a bag of ripe manure, so he has no constituency left except a few Bushies who need jobs and the half-wit Washington media elite. Sure, the DC punditry gush over him, but they've been sniffing the tailpipe of the Straight Talk Express so long they're hallucinating it's still there. It isn't and it's not coming back. Today the hollow-eyed McCain, perhaps sensing his impending doom, travels the Sanjaya Malarkey route; a William Hung out to dry by the Bush apparatus, he's become a pathetic figure, singing along on any tired tune hummed by the White House, his raw white-knuckled ambition a public joke. Johnny will get his behind handed to him in Iowa and New Hampshire, if he lasts that long, and then it's over and out, Top Gun. There is only one thing that might save McCain at this point -- changing his name to Fred D. Thompson.
Next up: The top Democratic fundraisers.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Baghdad Johnny Defines 'Safe' Edition
McCain's Terminal Foot-in-Mouth Disease
"There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today. The U.S. is beginning to succeed in Iraq."
-- Sen. John McCain on Bill Bennett's Morning in America radio show, supporting Bush's 'surge,' March 26, 2007.
"To suggest that there's any neighborhood in this city [Baghdad] where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I'd love Sen. McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll."
-- Michael Ware, CNN correspondent in Baghdad, to Wolf Blitzer on CNN's The Situation Room, March 27, 2007.
"Honestly, Wolf, you'll barely last twenty minutes out there. I dont know what part of 'Neverland' Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad."
-- Michael Ware, as quoted by Crooks and Liars.
"That's where you ought to catch up on things, Wolf. General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee."
-- John McCain to Wolf Blitzer on CNN's The Situation Room, March 27, 2007.
"And to think that Gen. David Petraeus travels this city in an unarmed humvee? I mean, in the hour since Sen. McCain's said this, I've spoken to military sources and there was laughter down the line. I mean, certainly the general travels in a humvee. There's multiple humvees around it, heavily armed. There's attack helicopters, predator drones, sniper teams, all sorts of layers of protection. So, no, Sen. McCain is way off base on this one."
-- Michael Ware, ibid.
"I checked with General Petraeus's people overnight and they said he never goes out in anything less than an up-armored humvee."
-- John Roberts to John McCain, CNN, March 28, 2007.
"UPDATE: Now McCain is denying he ever said any of this, even though he said it on camera only yesterday AND in his denial today he repeats the claim that there are several 'safe neighborhoods' in Baghdad, though he qualifies his statement by saying that they are very dangerous safe neighborhoods (I'm not kidding)."
-- John Aravosis, "Demand that John McCain name that 'safe' neighborhood in Baghdad," AmericaBlog, March 28, 2007.
"After a heavily guarded trip to a Baghdad market, Sen. John McCain insisted Sunday that a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in the capital was working and said Americans lacked a 'full picture' of the progress being made."
-- Kim Gamel. "McCain visits Baghdad market, proclaims U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown is working," AP, April 1, 2007.
April 3, 2007 -- Declining GOP presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain [R-Dupe], accompanied by Gen. David Petraeus, toured a 'safe' market in Iraq on, appropriately, April Fool's Day for the benefit of US media cameras. CNN news floozie Kyra Phillips, embedded for the ride, reported that he was surrounded by inner, outer and perimeter rings of security, including snipers on roof tops; over 100 soldiers in all. Oh, and he was wearing fashionable body armor too, as well as the rest of the Republican Congressional delegation. The trip to the market was considered so safe that McCain and Co. were ferried from the Green Zone to the market place by Blackhawk helicopters guarded by Apache gunships. Little wonder with that kind of firepower that many of the Iraqi merchants were trying to give their wares away to McCain's party.
Gee, if we could only get the taxpayers to cough up the (borrowed) money to provide every Iraqi with this level of heavily-armed protection and assault helicopters, then these neighborhoods really would be safe.
Just think -- if Bush's 'surge' weren't working so well, Big Mac might have needed five or six rings of security to keep him safe from harm.
Of course, that market's safety was short-lived as insurgents returned to the neighborhood 24 hours after McCain's departure, something Big John doesn't want to dwell on in his embrace of dewy-eyed optimism that the escalation is working. Well, facts are stupid things, as Reagan once famously said, and I'm sure the senator agrees -- if only he could get the media to stop reporting what's going on over there, we could win -- in the November 2008 US presidential election, I mean, not in Iraq. Iraq, as everyone with a functioning brain knows, is a hopeless case.
Incidentally, the AP article noted that over 600 Iraqis have been killed in 'sectarian violence' since McCain burbled his March 26th idiocy.
McCain apparently has a different definition of safety for Iraqis compared to safety in his home state of Arizona, where the DOJ's Bureau of Justice Statistics reported 445 deaths statewide due to murder or non-negligent manslaughter for the year 2005.
600 Iraqis in a week versus 445 Arizonans in a year? Something, or someone, is a little unbalanced here.
"There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods, today. The U.S. is beginning to succeed in Iraq."
-- Sen. John McCain on Bill Bennett's Morning in America radio show, supporting Bush's 'surge,' March 26, 2007.
"To suggest that there's any neighborhood in this city [Baghdad] where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I'd love Sen. McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll."
-- Michael Ware, CNN correspondent in Baghdad, to Wolf Blitzer on CNN's The Situation Room, March 27, 2007.
"Honestly, Wolf, you'll barely last twenty minutes out there. I dont know what part of 'Neverland' Senator McCain is talking about when he says we can go strolling in Baghdad."
-- Michael Ware, as quoted by Crooks and Liars.
"That's where you ought to catch up on things, Wolf. General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed humvee."
-- John McCain to Wolf Blitzer on CNN's The Situation Room, March 27, 2007.
"And to think that Gen. David Petraeus travels this city in an unarmed humvee? I mean, in the hour since Sen. McCain's said this, I've spoken to military sources and there was laughter down the line. I mean, certainly the general travels in a humvee. There's multiple humvees around it, heavily armed. There's attack helicopters, predator drones, sniper teams, all sorts of layers of protection. So, no, Sen. McCain is way off base on this one."
-- Michael Ware, ibid.
"I checked with General Petraeus's people overnight and they said he never goes out in anything less than an up-armored humvee."
-- John Roberts to John McCain, CNN, March 28, 2007.
"UPDATE: Now McCain is denying he ever said any of this, even though he said it on camera only yesterday AND in his denial today he repeats the claim that there are several 'safe neighborhoods' in Baghdad, though he qualifies his statement by saying that they are very dangerous safe neighborhoods (I'm not kidding)."
-- John Aravosis, "Demand that John McCain name that 'safe' neighborhood in Baghdad," AmericaBlog, March 28, 2007.
"After a heavily guarded trip to a Baghdad market, Sen. John McCain insisted Sunday that a U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in the capital was working and said Americans lacked a 'full picture' of the progress being made."
-- Kim Gamel. "McCain visits Baghdad market, proclaims U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown is working," AP, April 1, 2007.
April 3, 2007 -- Declining GOP presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain [R-Dupe], accompanied by Gen. David Petraeus, toured a 'safe' market in Iraq on, appropriately, April Fool's Day for the benefit of US media cameras. CNN news floozie Kyra Phillips, embedded for the ride, reported that he was surrounded by inner, outer and perimeter rings of security, including snipers on roof tops; over 100 soldiers in all. Oh, and he was wearing fashionable body armor too, as well as the rest of the Republican Congressional delegation. The trip to the market was considered so safe that McCain and Co. were ferried from the Green Zone to the market place by Blackhawk helicopters guarded by Apache gunships. Little wonder with that kind of firepower that many of the Iraqi merchants were trying to give their wares away to McCain's party.
Gee, if we could only get the taxpayers to cough up the (borrowed) money to provide every Iraqi with this level of heavily-armed protection and assault helicopters, then these neighborhoods really would be safe.
Just think -- if Bush's 'surge' weren't working so well, Big Mac might have needed five or six rings of security to keep him safe from harm.
Of course, that market's safety was short-lived as insurgents returned to the neighborhood 24 hours after McCain's departure, something Big John doesn't want to dwell on in his embrace of dewy-eyed optimism that the escalation is working. Well, facts are stupid things, as Reagan once famously said, and I'm sure the senator agrees -- if only he could get the media to stop reporting what's going on over there, we could win -- in the November 2008 US presidential election, I mean, not in Iraq. Iraq, as everyone with a functioning brain knows, is a hopeless case.
Incidentally, the AP article noted that over 600 Iraqis have been killed in 'sectarian violence' since McCain burbled his March 26th idiocy.
McCain apparently has a different definition of safety for Iraqis compared to safety in his home state of Arizona, where the DOJ's Bureau of Justice Statistics reported 445 deaths statewide due to murder or non-negligent manslaughter for the year 2005.
600 Iraqis in a week versus 445 Arizonans in a year? Something, or someone, is a little unbalanced here.
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