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Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Atlanta: A city at home with the zeitgeist
Two examples:
A recent headline in the AJC read "World Conquest Calls Thrashers." Just remove the last word for an all-purpose head for our times.
The name of the Arena Football team is the Georgia Force.
Watch what they do, not what they say
Imagine if the folks we generously call journalists began with the above premise, if they ignored every word coming from the administration and instead analyzed what they were doing -- using good old common sense. Why, then you'd have a watchdog press.
But we do have one. It's on the Web in something called blogs. A prime example for me this morning was Bohemian Mama's post Economics 101 (April 29 post):
The reason Republican Administrations LIKE running up huge deficits is that not only does it give them the excuse to cut out much needed programs, but it leaves following administrations, especially if they are Democratic administrations with the deficit ball, and then they too have to cut out programs. BushCo WANTS a big federal government when it comes to "homeland security," ie, spying on and imprisoning its own citizens, but when it comes to necessary things like education, welfare for the poor and unemployed, children's health, elderly people's care, all those kinds of things - well, it's not the federal government's responsibility!
She also points out that, "The name of the game with this Administration has been 'unfunded mandates.' "
That's a great tag for a Democratic opponent to pin on Bush. Now, if we only had 100 Wellstones (or at least one) and a TV network.
Monday, April 28, 2003
Of Bruce, The Dixie Chicks & Corporate Democracy
That's the title of a recent post on Lisa English's RuminateThis. Lisa says corporate personhood is an issue that should serve as the foundation of a coalition platform between Democrats, Greens, Independents and others. I couldn't agree more. Without this change, she says, we're just spinning our wheels.
And she recommends further reading on the issue, the book Unequal Protection by Thom Hartmann.
Another good source is ReclaimDemocracy.org. This being the Internet, the grassroots organization has a page of links to further resources.
Friday, April 25, 2003
A retraction
Well they blew up the chicken man in Philly last night / now they blew up his house too / Down on the boardwalk they're gettin' ready for a fight / gonna see what them racket boys can do
I take it back, Bruce. I've written that I've outgrown your music. What nonsense.
I've written that your live show was getting long in the tooth. But that's just me.
I've written that your latest album, The Rising, was mediocre. I dismissed it as a failure and politically vague. But your heart was in it.
You rock, Bruce. You walk Streets Of Fire. Dylan freed the mind; Springsteen freed the heart, someone said. But I see no reason to split it down the middle like that.
You're an American treasure. I know that. I've always known it, despite my critical hubris. Blogger made me do it, Bruce.
Besides, I had to take down my idol.
The Rising is a good sight shy of your best work, that's true, but we can't be brilliant every time out of the gate.
Yet, I have this feeling that you're gonna kick down the doors again, most likely with your next release. Certainly, the new message on your Web site is an encouraging sign:
The pressure coming from the government and big business to enforce conformity of thought concerning the war and politics goes against everything that this country is about - namely freedom. Right now, we are supposedly fighting to create freedom in Iraq, at the same time that some are trying to intimidate and punish people for using that same freedom here at home.
I don't know what happens next, but I do want to add my voice to those who think that the Dixie Chicks are getting a raw deal, and an un-American one to boot. I send them my support. (more)
Obviously, you too feel the chill wind Tim Robbins was talking about at the National Press Club.
"I don't know what happens next." Yeah, that's it. Take that killer band of yours in the studio and find out.
You said it in 1984, "The times are tough now, just getting tougher. This old world is rough, it's just getting rougher." Lot of good lyrics on the Born in the U.S.A. album. Musically, to these ears it's inert stadium rock/pop, so it's not one of my favorites. But yeah, in today's climate, you can easily "end up like a dog that's been beat too much / Till you spend half your life just covering up."
There were encouraging signs on your last effort. Mary's Place in particular. "I'm pullin' all the faith I can see / From that black hole on the horizon." And you asked, you kept asking, "Tell me how do you get this thing started?"
Drop the needle, Bruce. I'll say the prayer for all the long-gone daddys in the USA.
Everything dies, baby, that's a fact / But maybe everything that dies someday comes back. ~ Bruce Springsteen, Atlantic City
Thursday, April 24, 2003
I love (Oxford) America(n)
Imagine if your good, music-lovin friend burned you a CD, a CD he took great care to create. Imagine if this friend had an extraordinarily deep collection of folk, blues, country, jazz, indy and oddball rock, and other rare and wonderful recordings.
Further, this friend has put together compilations for you before, and they’ve always been a classy ride, tracing rootsy strains in music from America’s past to its present. What’s really cool is this friend edits a fine magazine and makes it a habit to include the CD with his annual music issue.
As a friend, he might have just given you the CD, but since he lives in Little Rock, Arkansas, and you don’t, you figure you might as well pay for it and support him professionally while you’re at it.
So when you walk into a bookstore and see the music issue of Oxford American , you snap it up. Perusing the tracklist before you pop it into your car CD player, you know you’re in for another treat.
Tracklist:
1. "Why You Been Gone So Long"
Johnny Darrell
2. "Total Destruction to Your Mind"
Swamp Dogg
3. "1952 Vincent Black Lightning"
The Del McCoury Band
4. "La Chanson d'une Fille de Quinze Ans (Song of a Fifteen Year Old Girl)"
Ann Savoy and Linda Ronstadt
5. "Swan Blues"
King Pleasure
6. "Run on for a Long Time"
The Blind Boys of Alabama
7. "Evelyn Is Not Real"
My Morning Jacket
8. "Lake Charles Boogie"
Nellie Lutcher
9. "Hot Rod"
The Collins Kids
10. "No Headstone on My Grave"
Esther Phillips
11. "El Paso"
The Gourds
12. "Leaving Loachapoka"
Marshall Chapman
13. "Grits Ain't Groceries"
Little Milton
14. "Killer Diller Blues"
Memphis Minnie
15. "Miss Maybelle"
R.L. Burnside
16. "God Moves on the Water" Blind Willie Johnson
17. "Niki Hoeky"
P.J. Proby
18. "See That Coon in a Hickory Tree"
The Delmore Brothers
19. "Leaning on You"
The Yo-Yo's
20. "You and Your Sister"
Chris Bell
21. "Columbus Stockade Blues"
Willie Nelson
22. "A Little Girl from Little Rock"
Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell
23. "Goodnight Moon"
Will Kimbrough
Imagine it. Something good and true and rootsy and American. It’s enough to give one hope.
Disclaimer:I subscribe to Oxford American, so did not actually buy it at the newsstand. Editor Marc Smirnoff is my friend in the same way as the folks on my blogroll. Upon initial listen, I did not first read the tracklist, which helps to guard against preconceived notions. I usually end up wondering halfway through the song, who is this? Then I pick up the CD cover and attempt to read the relatively small print while avoiding an accident.
Wednesday, April 23, 2003
We need 100 Wellstone's and a TV network
Barney Gumble's response (in part) to Bohemian Mama's post (April 21) asking common-sense questions such as:
Where did all the Democrats in Congress go? Why did it take moderate Republican Senators to block the gigantic BushCo tax cut package, and hardly a concise argument against it was made in the press by any Democrat?
Tuesday, April 22, 2003
The man behind the curtain
I feel compelled to make a full disclosure. George Partington is actually some guy I’ve never met who works for a large corporation in marketing. I appropriated his name and created an online persona around it. My name, dear readers, is really Joe12. I’ve appeared on this blog, but only as an alter ego of my fictional construct, George Partington.
The details of Mr. Partington’s life were easily gleaned through the Internet. Whether what I constructed is true or not, I have no idea. My basic premise was: former dreamer becomes corporate cog; some little writing ability; unapologetic rock-n-roll heart; devoted to family; anti-capitalist; drinker. My task was to write a blog about this character, who I saw as an everyman. More than anything, I wanted this blog to have a ring of truth. “Honest” words were bound to be compelling words, I thought.
Now I realize this experiment has failed. The only time anything truly real broke through the construct was when I allowed Joe12, i.e. myself, to speak. Although I appeared to be George’s alter ego, I’m really younger than “George,” work in a bookstore, and live in an old, falling down apartment building, not a suburban split-level. Interestingly, the fact that Joe12 assumed the same life story as George somehow did not preclude the truth of my life from coming out through him every time he appeared.
So, don’t take the advice of the Wizard of Oz. Do pay attention to the man behind the curtain. Especially when he peaks out to trade banter with jackofhearts, who is, if you can believe it, a real person.
Monday, April 21, 2003
A dangerous blindness
From sanfordmay.com:
In an
essay for American Prospect, Berman writes about Islamic fundamentalists, "They are antiliberal insurgencies. They have identified a people of the good, who are the Arabs or Muslims. They believe that their own societies have been infested with a hideous inner corruption, which must be rooted out. They observe that the inner infestation is supported by powerful external forces. And they gird their swords. Their thinking is apocalyptic. They imagine that at the end they, too, will succeed in establishing a blocklike, unchanging society, freed of the inner corruption--a purified society: the victory of good. They are the heirs of the twentieth-century totalitarians." Substitute "Americans" for "Arabs or Muslims" and you'll have no less valid a thesis.
Ah, the clash of fundamentalisms, theirs and ours. Here's some more from Berman, who thinks he's only writing about Islamic fundamentalism and its similiarity with anti-liberal movements such as Italian Fascists, German Nazis, and the Spanish crusade to re-establish the Reign of Christ the King.
Read it and feel the chill:
The shared ideas were these: There exists a people of good who in a just world ought to enjoy a sound and healthy society. But society's health has been undermined by a hideous infestation from within, something diabolical, which is aided by external agents from elsewhere in the world. The diabolical infestation must be rooted out. Rooting it out will require bloody internal struggles, capped by gigantic massacres. It will require an all-out war against the foreign allies of the inner infestation--an apocalyptic war, perhaps even Apocalyptic with a capital A. (The Book of the Apocalypse, as André Glucksmann has pointed out, does seem to have played a remote inspirational role in generating these twentieth-century doctrines.) But when the inner infestation has at last been rooted out and the external foe has been defeated, the people of good shall enjoy a new society purged of alien elements--a healthy society no longer subject to the vibrations of change and evolution, a society with a single, blocklike structure, solid and eternal.
What's that quote? Oh yeah, "The best lack all convictions, while the worst are full of passionate intensity." From The Second Coming -- W. B. Yeats.
Bush's popularity defined
Capitalism has destroyed our belief in any effective power but that of self interest backed by force. -- George Bernard Shaw
Friday, April 18, 2003
The cartoonish spectacle of it all
I’ve been mostly furious lately. During the run-up to the war, my disgust and outrage grew daily, as the media jumped on the bandwagon, egged Bush on, trumpeted falsehood after falsehood. Iraq developing nuclear weapons. Terrorism alert high. Bush seeks peaceful resolution. Al Qaeda hiding in Iraq.
Now we have the nauseating “we’re so good and just to liberate Iraq” orgy in the media. Idiotic reveling in propaganda is hard to watch. The more sober and reasonable (read: too far gone to give a shit) taking a “let’s give the government the benefit of the doubt,” or worse, “this is good” attitude is depressing. The crowing from some, well, you just want to slap them.
Is there a hole I can get sick in?
It’s hard to write when you’re furious. It overwhelms and leaves one inert. But an editorial cartoon in my newspaper yesterday crystallized it for me. It had two children asking their daddy what he did during the war. They are holding a newspaper with the headline “Iraq Liberated.” Their daddy is cringing and hiding anti-war signs behind his back.
To suggest that children would support war, to suggest that promoters of peace have anything to answer for, is about as low as you can get. No IMHO here. No opinion. This is truth.
What, we are supposed to revel in the lie we’re teaching the young, the bullshit we’ll pour into their impressionable heads through media and, no doubt, history books? Are we supposed to be proud of monsters we would create, ones that would self-righteously support state-sanctioned murder and maiming of thousands of women and children?
But look at what Saddam did, the reports scream. You wanted to let him continue. Bullshit, but hell yeah, let’s talk about Saddam’s crimes, and while we’re at it, let’s look at our own. That’s all activists were asking for. Honest debate, honest accounting on all sides.
Iraq, the country of 24 million, was reduced to one evil villain, Saddam Hussein, who was supposed to be threatening us. Remember? It was a pre-emptive war. Rings pretty hollow now, but that’s how it was sold. The people were an afterthought, a marketing bait and switch ploy. Scare them into supporting the action, then once it’s underway, sell it as you would any other product. Iraqi Freedom. Liberation. Brings peace and light to even the most destitute Iraqi.
Who wouldn’t support freedom and liberation? No one, except, according some in the media, and to their utter shame, peace activists.
But think back for a minute. Did we even have a debate on whether the Iraqis deserve to live under Saddam Hussein? Did they deserve it during all the years we supported him? Did they deserve sanctions that amounted to a war against the populace, i.e. terrorism through genocide? Hyperbole, you say? Let’s ask Dennis Halliday, former head of the U.N.'s humanitarian program in Iraq:
[Sanctions] built on the destruction of the war -- the use of depleted uranium, the bombing of civilian targets, the destruction of water systems and electric power. It was "horrific" back in 1991, says Halliday, "and, I think, we have very deliberately been genocidal in our endeavors since then until today."
Yeah, like we were going to have that discussion, the one the peace activists were trying – through demonstrations – to bring to the table. We could all ponder the implications of Maddeline Albright's comment that the death of half a million children from sanctions was "worth it." But over and above an examination of American duplicity, the discussion could have led to loss of control of Iraq. And that was the only goal. Sure, Bush made references to Saddam’s atrocities, but only to scare us. But wasn’t the only alternative to allow a monster to remain in power? There’s a long list of monsters in power with the full support of the U.S., but putting that aside, let’s ask someone with intimate knowledge of the situation, Halliday again:
Does fighting for the end of sanctions and the sovereignty of Iraq carry with it the necessary consequence of propping up Hussein's regime?
"That's a decision for the people of Iraq," says Halliday. "I don't believe in regime change, or assassination. I believe if the Iraqis had their economy, had their lives back and had their way of life restored, they would take care of the form of governance that they want, that they believe is suitable for their country." Pointing to the model of Indonesia, where a "largely bloodless" revolt started by students managed to oust a "genuine dictator" like Suharto, Halliday argues that Iraqis "are certainly capable of doing the same thing. We've got to give them the opportunity."
I can hear the jeers from all those right-wingers quaking behind their keyboards, scared of the threat that Saddam might have become were the Iraqi economy to flourish. Yeah, and somebody absorbing your lessons of hate and violence might mow me down at the mall too. So get this through your head: There are better ways than mass murder to lessen the threat of mass murder. There are better ways than tortuous mutilation to lessen the incidence of torture.
No, the activists were not anti-American and for Saddam. The ugly, twisted, simplistic lies that abound in the media discourse is disheartening, to put it mildly. You read about Saddam’s atrocities and you agree, Saddam was horrible, twisted and depraved. But we supported him. We’ve supported – and continue to support -- others of his ilk. They may wear brand America, but they sure ain’t “good.”
Now Iraq will wear brand America. Maybe the elite can start wearing Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren while sipping coke at the Hilton’s Tigris and Euphrates lounge. But first the country must be completely destroyed, as Robert Fisk has heartbreakingly detailed:
Only a few weeks ago, Jabir Khalil Ibrahim, the director of Iraq's State Board of Antiquities, referred to the museum's contents as "the heritage of the nation". They were, he said, "not just things to see and enjoy we get strength from them to look to the future. They represent the glory of Iraq".
And
But for Iraq, this is Year Zero; with the destruction of the antiquities in the Museum of Archaeology on Saturday and the burning of the National Archives and then the Koranic library, the cultural identity of Iraq is being erased. Why? Who set these fires? For what insane purpose is this heritage being destroyed?
One has to wonder about the convenience and efficacy of Iraq losing its cultural heritage for those hell-bent on remaking the society in the image of rapacious capitalism and thoughtless consumerism. Of course, that’s yet another discussion that is light-years beyond our media’s capabilities.
Ironically, given the cartoon that pissed me off so, you can sometimes find penetrating insights in editorial cartoons or even daily strips, especially Aaron McGruder’s The Boondocks.
So here’s my cartoon:
Teenager holding progressive magazine with headline “Chaos all part of the plan”: Dad, how could you have supported an action that is so fucked up?
Dad, head in hands: I didn’t know. I didn’t know.
Thursday, April 17, 2003
"It's gonna be fun producing this blight on our culture"
Truth in Corporate America.
Funny stuff.
What a scam
Found at Bohemian Mama:
Overheard in the Firm's lunchroom just now (really):
Mailroom Clerk 1: Did you hear that news about how the company Dick Cheney used to head got this big contract in Iraq for millions of dollars and no one else was allowed to bid for it?
Mailroom Clerk 2: Wow. That's wild.
Mailroom Clerk 1: Yeah, they didn't even have to compete, and it's for millions of dollars. What a scam.
Mailroom Clerk 2: Are they hiring?
Tuesday, April 15, 2003
A new power takes over, widespread looting ensues
Iraq, April, 2003
United States, January, 2001.
Different countries, same result.
Friday, April 11, 2003
The Lie Of Liberation
Yay! The gorilla has crushed the mouse. The bazooka has blown apart the BB gun. The dinosaur has stomped the fly. Yay!
Rejoice in the streets! The bright shiny righteous angry Christian god has obliterated the angry sullen foreign god. Or something.
Except, of course, it hasn't, not by a long shot. But, hey, we've more or less taken Baghdad, right? Headlines are screaming, it looks like victory, it smells like victory ... it must be victory! We've won! Sort of! But not quite! Savor it like bloodied candy, we will! ~ Mark Morford (more)
Digby
Would a real Democratic leader please hire this man as a campaign director?
Every political party has its fringe, he says, but "the fact is that the only "extremists" who are sought out and regularly lambasted in the media are from the left. And, it is part of a long standing, organized and concerted effort to portray the entire democratic party as being out of the mainstream. If the "extremists" of the left didn't exist, Rush would just make some up."
Read the whole thing. Another excellent Hullabaloo post.
Where can I get some of that Iraqi Freedom?
In a videotape produced this week for Iraqi consumption, Bush told the people: "In the new era that is coming to Iraq, your country will no longer be held captive to the will of a cruel dictator."
How about a new era here in America, Mr. Bush?
“The nightmare that Saddam Hussein has brought to your nation will soon be over. You are a good and gifted people -- the heirs of a great civilization that contributes to all humanity. You deserve better than tyranny and corruption and torture chambers. You deserve to live as free people. And I assure every citizen of Iraq: your nation will soon be free.”
Doesn’t America deserve that too?
“We will help you build a peaceful and representative government that protects the rights of all citizens.”
Who will help America build such a government?
(Only her people, of course. The powerful don’t give away something that can be used against them. Building such a government takes much more than demonstrations. On that point, I definitely agree.)
Media bias
When you topple the Statue, save the pedestal. ~ Russian proverb [via Wealth Bondage]
On television this week, Iraqi demonstrations have been a big story. Attended, according to reports, by hundreds, they are held up as representative of the joy of the entire country.
Newspapers run large photos of several dozen pulling down a statue before a crowd of a thousand or so, an Iraqi with a U.S. flag, soldiers and citizens smiling.
However, when more than one million demonstrated in the U.S. for peace, and more than 10 million around the world, news reports treated the phenomenon much differently. The demonstrators were ignorant. The demonstrators were not representative of public sentiment. The demonstrators were pawns for cynical foreign governments.
I don't deny that Iraqis are glad Saddam is gone, but could there be an agenda here?
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Bull Durham thrown a curve ball
Ugh. One of my favorite movies becomes a political football for a right-wing ideologue.
The many modes and moods of self-expression
I've been bothered by a recent discussion in the blogosphere about the stupidity and futility of peace demonstrations. I'd go into why I think it's an important mode of self expression (demonstrations, that is. Well, blogging too, for that matter), one that can lead to other actions and changes, and shouldn't be discouraged, but Frank Paynter already did, so now I can go to lunch.
And, since we could all use a laugh, and Sweatman is apparently satired out, well, here ya go:
After the war started, Jon Stewart on The Daily Show had the following conversations with Colbert, who was wearing his "senior media analyst" hat:
Stewart: What should the media's role be in covering the war?
Colbert: Very simply, the media's role should be the accurate and objective description of the hellacious ass-whomping we're handing the Iraqis.
Stewart: Hellacious ass-whomping? Now to me, that sounds pretty subjective.
Colbert: Are you saying it's not an ass-whomping, Jon? I suppose you could call it an ass-kicking or an ass-handing-to. Unless, of course, you love Hitler.
Stewart [stammering]: I don't love Hitler.
Colbert: Spoken like a true Hitler-lover.
Stewart: Look, even some American generals have said that the Iraqis have put up more resistance than they were expected to.
Colbert: First rule of journalism, Jon, is to know your sources. Sounds like these "generals" of yours may be a little light in the combat boots, if you know what I'm saying.
Stewart: I don't think I know what you're saying.
Colbert: I'm saying they're queers, Jon. They're Hitler-loving queers.
Stewart: I'm perplexed. Is your position that there's no place for negative words or even thoughts in the media?
Colbert: Not at all, Jon. Doubts can happen to everyone, including me, but as a responsible journalist, I've taken my doubts, fears, moral compass, conscience and all-pervading skepticism about the very nature of this war and simply placed them in this empty Altoids box. [Produces box.] That's where they'll stay, safe and sound, until Iraq is liberated.
Stewart: Isn't it the media's responsibility in wartime ...
Colbert: That's my point, Jon! The media has no responsibility in wartime. The government's on top of it. The media can sit this one out.
Stewart: And do what?
Colbert: Everything it's always wanted to do but had no time for: travel, see the world, write that novel. I know the media has always wanted to try yoga. This is a great time to take it up. It's very stressful out there -- huge war going on. Jon, hear me out, it was Thomas Jefferson who said, "Everyone imposes his own system as far as his army can reach."
Stewart: Stephen, Stalin said that. That was Stalin. Jefferson said he'd rather have a free press and no government than a government and no free press.
Colbert: Well, what do you expect from a slave-banging, Hitler-loving queer?
You can read it all and more over at Hullabaloo, which is where I stole it from.
More laughs: McPsyops and Pax McDonaldas. It's a meme or something.
Clinical detachment
The doctors tried to maintain their clinical detachment, reeling off the kinds of injuries they were seeing - burnt faces, disembowelled torsos, fractured limbs and skulls, bodies coated with an all-over glaze of blood. They spoke about the technical difficulties of operating with fitful generators, and with their limited stocks of surgical and other supplies. They attempted to put a figure on the daily death toll - four or five, they said.
The war is going well.
But there had been perhaps 15 bodies packed together in just one of the refrigerated containers at the back of the hospital, and a constant ebb and flow of orderlies wheeling the dead to the morgue and families collecting them for the speedy burial dictated by Muslim custom. As with the flow of casualties, too fast and too many to accurately count, it became too much for the doctors. They were overwhelmed.
America’s future is bright.
"This is severely traumatic," said Osama Salah, the director of medical services.
Michael Jackson’s headaches continue, news at 11.
"It is very difficult to a see a child lying in front of you and I have seen three children.
Look at those troops. They’re magnificent.
"I keep seeing the faces of my own children in these children. It could be my kid. It could be my cousin, and still the Americans continue, and they don't stop."
Stocks rebounded on expectation of victory.
~ from a Guardian story, via tendentious.
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
Deep Kimchee
America has become the stupidest country on earth. Iranians, Iraqis, Palestinians, South Americans, Europeans, the list could go on and on, know much more about the world than we do. We are myopic. We are enamored of our own propaganda, also known as entertainment. We are the richest, laziest country in the world. As a country we are not unlike the shallow, ignorant rich kid who has no concern other than what further diversions he can invent for himself – all is merely something for him to play with.
Here’s an indication of the bold premise stated at the top: Americans had printed up some official collateral for the Bush/Blair meeting in Belfast with, “Belfast, Ireland.” We get an “F” on that one. But it doesn’t matter, we are rich and powerful, and we can buy and bully our way through, kinda analogous to Bush and Yale.
But then again, we are smart. Smart enough to realize that nuance such as recognizing the situation of others isn’t going to get us anywhere. We eventually would have to turn introspective, recognize our own problems, and then we couldn’t keep the show moving forward. Gotta keep moving, or the profits might fall. We let the house of cards fall in, we’re in deep kimchee.
So we keep moving, even if we have to blow away others to do it. “I’m sorry, but the chick was in the way,” is how one American soldier apologized for a civilian murder in Iraq. After September 11, America declared open season. We’re the victims now.
We have leaders who are playing to our strengths – money and brutality, also known as gangsterism. And backing it all up, we have the media. We are smart about that too, probably smarter about it than anyone. It’s been said that the administration is not the least bit self-reflective, that they have an agenda and they stick to it no matter how much flak it causes. They simply move on to the next thing, hit their targets the best they can, pick up the pieces of the failures and put them back together later for another try. In this way, they are perfectly suited to television. Television gives us a world of the moment. Everything flashes into existence and is instantly replaced, with nothing bearing any significant relation with anything else.
So PNAC can be mentioned on Nightline, yet never again noted, certainly not during war coverage presented with the depth of context of a Sly Stalone movie. A report on lack of adequate CAFE fuel standards can be followed by a report on an environmental summit, followed by a car commercial, followed by news of tightening school budgets. One could draw connections between them all, but there’s no time in TV land. Your mind keeps moving with the subjects as they arise, get their two-minute gloss, and fade as the new subject is spun to a high sheen. We all know how mesmerizing this is; it’s hard to turn the TV off once you start grazing. But how many people are going to watch a program about commercial interests trumping quality of life issues? How many advertisers are going to pay money for a slot on such a program?
Conflict, action, high emotion work best on TV. In Bowling for Columbine, Michael Moore asked the producer of one of those cop reality shows why he wouldn’t do a show on cops tracking down and persecuting corporate criminals. The producer said it wouldn’t make good TV. He said he would be glad to do it, that it would be good TV if he could get them to jump into a van and flee and maybe exchange gun fire with the police.
Joe12: ha ha. That’s funny.
Jackofhearts: Yeah. Life is so absurd.
Hey, what are you guys doing. I’m trying to be serious here.
Joe12: we thought we’d remind you that you’ve been way too serious lately.
Jackofhearts: yeah, lighten up. Let’s go sit on a deck somewhere and drink a few.
Joe12: Businessmen are serious. Movie producers are serious. Everybody is serious but me. That’s Ginsberg. You put it on your blog once.
Yeah. It was a serious poem, however.
Joe12: He’s hopeless.
Jackofhearts: Maybe we should let him finish. Get it out of his system.
Joe12: Yeah. It’s all about him, idinit?
Ahem. I have been using the royal “we” haven’t I?
Joe12: Yeah. It’s rather pompous. But if you must…
We have many personalities. Many sides. But everything has been reduced. We are smart in one way, the way of TV propaganda, a self-perpetuating machine ready to destroy and remake whatever doesn’t fit the paradigm.
Life is being narrowed, all because it serves powerful interests. Ironically, in an era of increasing global consciousness, we are being manipulated by extreme nationalism. And, still ironically, the manipulators have no real national loyalties. They are globalists, treating the world as the servant of global capitalism. War games pave the way. The operators escape. Humanity pays the price.
Tuesday, April 08, 2003
Advice from Doug
I "am still striving to find a balance between informed concern and pointless obsession. The key to achieving this balance is spending one's concerned time engaged in activism of some kind, rather than powerless pining. In other words, either educate yourself, educate others, and do something, or not. And when you're in "not" mode, really go there and nourish yourself." ~ Douglas Rushkoff
And in the fascinating comments to the linked post, a Happy Tutor-like tidbit:
Truth is all that is. Answers are just the part people will pay to hear. That's why you can make a living as a priest or a politician, but not a philosopher.
Friday, April 04, 2003
Bogeymen real and imagined
I like this Kurt Nimmo guy. Excellent writer, very well informed, an inspiring truth and justice seeker, all in all, imho of course. IMHO and his ho, al-Qaeda is "nothing more than a terrifying and mostly imaginary monster used to frighten the people into acquiescence."
Here's the context:
I'm not rushing out to the store. I'm not buying into Bush's propaganda war. I don't think al-Qaeda is capable of launching a chemical or biological assault of any measurable significance against America. In fact, I don't think al-Qaeda is anywhere near as organized and ominous as Bush and Ridge and the corporate media keep telling us it is. It's nothing more than a terrifying and mostly imaginary monster used to frighten the people into acquiescence.
Are there pissed off Muslims who'd kill Americans if given half the chance?
You bet.
There's also pissed of Israelis who'd kill Palestinians, pissed off Hindus who'd kill Muslims, and pissed off drivers who'd run you down for making a lane change. I'm more worried about this last category than I am about anything Osama bin Laden may or (more likely) may not do. I'm more worried about some nut with a gun freaking out while I'm shopping for my plastic sheeting and duct tape than I am about becoming a "soft" target for al-Qaeda. I'm more worried about Tom Ridge and the Ministry of Homeland Security, John Ashcroft and the Justice Department, and what FEMA may have in mind for me and others who not only think these so-called terrorists alerts are pure and unadulterated bullshit, but who also think Bush is an illegitimate poseur and the invasion of Iraq will be an immense crime perpetuated against humanity.
Now don't get me wrong. I think there's a good chance there will be some kind of "terrorist" attack in the near future.
Bush needs a terrorist attack, so there will be one. (more)
Thursday, April 03, 2003
And now for an alternative viewpoint
The War is Going Well. The sun is shining. America's future (and indeed the world's future) is bright. (more)
Industrial disease
Regardless of what the propaganda machine tells us, these tin-pot dictators are not the greatest threat to the world. The real and pressing danger, the greatest threat of all is the locomotive force that drives the political and economic engine of the US government, currently piloted by George Bush. Bush-bashing is fun, because he makes such an easy, sumptuous target. It's true that he is a dangerous, almost suicidal pilot, but the machine he handles is far more dangerous than the man himself.
...
Bush's tactless imprudence and his brazen belief that he can run the world with his riot squad...has achieved what writers, activists and scholars have striven to achieve for decades. He has exposed the ducts. He has placed on full public view the working parts, the nuts and bolts of the apocalyptic apparatus of the American empire. ~ Arundhati Roy (more)
Kurt Nimmo: Don't Go There
Bush is apparently not human, maybe he's a robot. Sometimes he looks like a robot. Only robots feel nothing when they issue orders to kill thousands of innocent humans. (more)
Wednesday, April 02, 2003
This…is CNN
Hey Aaron Brown, what a scintillating interview with the Instapundit last night. Blogging, yet another subject for you to turn your bemused persona on:
“Wow, this is some world, huh? War in Iraq, blogging, just so much going on. I sure can’t make sense of most of it, but tonight on CNN we’ll give you many snippets of information suitable for polite conversations around the water cooler at work tomorrow. But first, Sandra Bullock in Kuwait City tells us the people in Iraq would rather die trying to repel our friendly invasion than let us roll in and take over. Wow.
Meanwhile, have we told you the story of Rachel Corrie? No. But we’re going to be all over the story of Jessica Lynch. A 19-year-old kid who was just looking for a way to afford college so she could become a teacher, put in harm’s way callously and needlessly by the Bush administration (aided and abetted by me and this network). A 19 year old girl. Her life meant nothing to us. Nothing. And it still means nothing. For us, her life is a prop, easily fit into a phony hollywood script, worth a good number of eyeballs that we can turn into dollars. Another way to glorify the horror of war. If we really cared, we’d be playing up a real story that would have meaning to her life – the failure of the Bush administration (and others before it) to provide adequate care for war veterans, or to even acknowledge their mysterious illnesses. But I digress.
Later tonight, U.S. Army General Wesley Clark is going to provide a charismatic face to war, further obscuring our mercenary mission to kill thousands of Iraqis so we can start enjoying cheap Iraqi oil. Wesley, what’s the latest?
Aaron, it looks like the military is going to have to reassess its battle plans. Word has gone out that the majority of the public won’t fault them for civilian deaths. As Dick Morris said recently, quote, the public gets it. Go in there. Bomb civilians. It’s ok. The public understands. Unquote. So we can expect a step up in operations, heavier firepower and good clean American warfighting. It should be exciting, Aaron.
Yes, Wesley. And this just in, HUGE explosions in Baghdad this morning. The capital is literally rocking, and smoke hangs in the air. Here’s a shot….mmm. A clear, cloudless sky over Baghdad this morning, smoke drifting lazily in the still air. Very nice photography. Let’s take a look at Iraq now, with this simple map devoid of humans. Wesley?
Our brave boys and girls marched in this way, went that way and now they are here. They need to get here, then move here, secure this, and get Saddam.
Wow. War is really something. It’s complex, isn’t it? Yet you break it down for us in simple terms that we can understand. You have no idea how grateful we feel to have you sharing your expertise with the American people. I think you are the smartest person I know, but I’m not sure. I’ll ask my producer after the show.
And now a word from the war’s sponsors. But first scenes from the gulf, including a few of poetic shots of the suffering of war. Wow.
Kurt Nimmo's Another Day in the Empire
The above is a highly recommended site for what's really going on in Iraq. For extra credit, compare and contrast to the braindead media cheerleaders or the clueless warbloggers.
Thanks to Golby for the pointer. Read him too. (Although he may be taking a break; he certainly deserves one.)
Other links:
The battle between Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon, by Seymour Hersh.
Spot on satire, by Ray Sweatman.
a moveable beast in general; this post in particular.
Digby, a hard-working American journalist (or, "blogger") on the Web.
That's enough.
Tuesday, April 01, 2003
A blogging politico
Gary Hart has a blog. Two things I liked about his recent post, Gary Hart: From The Road: He wants the USA out of Iraq, and he says the Democratic party *could* be the party of hope, but won't be "as long as its leaders think only about raising money." Which to me says he is aware that we're screwed without meaningful campaign finance reform.
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