Okay, he lied...
We've known he lied for months now.
According to Howard Fineman per the Imus program this morning, the only real question is, "President Bush, dupe or knave"?
Now why do I think that the whole dupe-knave dichotomy plays to Bush's intangible strengths?
Maybe I'm getting worn down by this gruesome little ideologue but it seems to me, that if the President was duped into including the Niger forgeries into the State of the Union, well then he's already lowered expectations on his brainpower to an acceptable level. Bush will fire a few people and move on with a shrug.
On the over hand if he's proven a knave, well Bush has already made the case that lying is a necessary part of Presidential leadership.
Granted much of this is occurring in a vacuum. The press refuses to pursue the issue with Monica-esque intensity, there are no extra-governmental institutions harassing the Admin, and no-one is challenging their credibility in the courts, so the President has an unusual freedom of movement when it comes to this issue.
In my view it's not dupe or knave, it's right or wrong...no well constituted court would take "I'm stupid" as a mitigating circumstance. And as for "I'm a knave" well....it's a risky defense strategy to be sure.
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
Savage Elation II
Sooooo....I read that MSNBC has fired talk show tyrant Michael Savage as he wished a caller would "get AIDS and die".
Like Captain Renault in "Casablanca", MSNBC seems shocked-shocked-shocked to discover their paid conservative provocateur has a harsh hate filled side.
I guess no one thought to play the audio tape demo from his San Francisco radio show eh?
But Savage's dismissal does raise certain issues...operationally speaking...where IS the line in radio/television?
Oh sure we all know about George Carlin's seven deadly words you can't say on TV....but other than that what are the rules?
My thesis is, there are not rules, it's Hobbes' war of all against all out there.
I mean think for a moment, Savage loses his plush TV gig for calling down death on a caller, but Howard Stern marches on despite numerous gruesome on air provocations.
Of course, Savage did have various gay rights organizations gunning for him, that helps to keep the pot boiling...by contrast people seem to have given up on toppling Stern.
So maybe it's a pure power situation...the R.C.C. came down like the proverbial million pound sh*thammer on Opie and Anthony...they had em' dead to rights and had the muscle to make it stick.
Which is fine by me, Opie and Anthony aren't worth the powder necessary to blow them both to hell....
However is anyone else disquieted by the notion that there really aren't any objective standards in play here?
That it is all a loose normative calculus of how much outrage from within and without a network will put up with before dumping a controversial act?
So that what it comes down to on radio and TV, no prior standards and practices just the rule of force?
Sooooo....I read that MSNBC has fired talk show tyrant Michael Savage as he wished a caller would "get AIDS and die".
Like Captain Renault in "Casablanca", MSNBC seems shocked-shocked-shocked to discover their paid conservative provocateur has a harsh hate filled side.
I guess no one thought to play the audio tape demo from his San Francisco radio show eh?
But Savage's dismissal does raise certain issues...operationally speaking...where IS the line in radio/television?
Oh sure we all know about George Carlin's seven deadly words you can't say on TV....but other than that what are the rules?
My thesis is, there are not rules, it's Hobbes' war of all against all out there.
I mean think for a moment, Savage loses his plush TV gig for calling down death on a caller, but Howard Stern marches on despite numerous gruesome on air provocations.
Of course, Savage did have various gay rights organizations gunning for him, that helps to keep the pot boiling...by contrast people seem to have given up on toppling Stern.
So maybe it's a pure power situation...the R.C.C. came down like the proverbial million pound sh*thammer on Opie and Anthony...they had em' dead to rights and had the muscle to make it stick.
Which is fine by me, Opie and Anthony aren't worth the powder necessary to blow them both to hell....
However is anyone else disquieted by the notion that there really aren't any objective standards in play here?
That it is all a loose normative calculus of how much outrage from within and without a network will put up with before dumping a controversial act?
So that what it comes down to on radio and TV, no prior standards and practices just the rule of force?
Mitt and SuperMitt
Does Brian McGrory actually defecate himself at the mere mention of Mitt Romney's Serene and Inviolate Name?
If so, how does the poor Boston Globe Intern who has to clean up after the metro columnist feel about all this?
Northeastern University work study is hell my friends, never forget that
****
Along with the death of American Conservatism another of my favorite hobbyhorses is the epidemic of raw sycophancy among the punditariat.
We were once a journalist nation of individualists and contrarians, now to get ahead one must grovel and grovel in a particularly loud and obnoxious fashion before the Accepted Orthodoxy.
So in today's column Brian recounts in breathless toadying detail Mitt Romney's alleged jet ski rescue this weekend of a family whose boat abruptly sank on Lake Winnepausakee.
Y'know what? fine, yay for Mitt he and his oafish sons were the only sober people at the lake this weekend and they did a good deed. However the fact that the famously telephilic Romney declined a CNN interview tells me there might be less to the story than meets the eye.
But ah for Brian McGrory the incident echoes Superman flying off to divert an errant nuclear missile aimed at Hackensack New Jersey. Like all media whores Brian can't resist fantasizing and reminding us that somehow Mitt's predecessors could never be counted upon to effect a similar rescue.
Of course they couldn't Brian, they don't own jetskis, batmobiles and they can't fly through the f*ckin' air!
Brian reserves particular contempt for former Governor Michael Dukakis who is described in morbid detail as being too engrossed in Walter Isaacson's new biography of Ben Franklin to save anyone in peril on the waters.
See how they do it...?
Romney's generous act is somehow proof positive that the last democratic Governor of Massachusetts is a negligent bastard fit only for the stockade.
This is media whoring at it's most basic, sycophantic, and repulsive. Brian's lavish praiseful tone is enough to make me doubt on the basis of no evidence that Romney truly did anything heroic at all.
Hell we'll never know not with Brian McGrory on the job writhing on the ground, yelping, and crawling before the all powerful SuperMitt.
Sick
Demented
Typical...
Does Brian McGrory actually defecate himself at the mere mention of Mitt Romney's Serene and Inviolate Name?
If so, how does the poor Boston Globe Intern who has to clean up after the metro columnist feel about all this?
Northeastern University work study is hell my friends, never forget that
****
Along with the death of American Conservatism another of my favorite hobbyhorses is the epidemic of raw sycophancy among the punditariat.
We were once a journalist nation of individualists and contrarians, now to get ahead one must grovel and grovel in a particularly loud and obnoxious fashion before the Accepted Orthodoxy.
So in today's column Brian recounts in breathless toadying detail Mitt Romney's alleged jet ski rescue this weekend of a family whose boat abruptly sank on Lake Winnepausakee.
Y'know what? fine, yay for Mitt he and his oafish sons were the only sober people at the lake this weekend and they did a good deed. However the fact that the famously telephilic Romney declined a CNN interview tells me there might be less to the story than meets the eye.
But ah for Brian McGrory the incident echoes Superman flying off to divert an errant nuclear missile aimed at Hackensack New Jersey. Like all media whores Brian can't resist fantasizing and reminding us that somehow Mitt's predecessors could never be counted upon to effect a similar rescue.
Of course they couldn't Brian, they don't own jetskis, batmobiles and they can't fly through the f*ckin' air!
Brian reserves particular contempt for former Governor Michael Dukakis who is described in morbid detail as being too engrossed in Walter Isaacson's new biography of Ben Franklin to save anyone in peril on the waters.
See how they do it...?
Romney's generous act is somehow proof positive that the last democratic Governor of Massachusetts is a negligent bastard fit only for the stockade.
This is media whoring at it's most basic, sycophantic, and repulsive. Brian's lavish praiseful tone is enough to make me doubt on the basis of no evidence that Romney truly did anything heroic at all.
Hell we'll never know not with Brian McGrory on the job writhing on the ground, yelping, and crawling before the all powerful SuperMitt.
Sick
Demented
Typical...
Monday, July 07, 2003
Notes to a Grand July Forth or MTC go home!
Why in the name of Odin the Thunderer has CBS television horned in on the
annual July Fourth Esplanade concert and fireworks display??!!!
The whole hatch shell mishaugas survives because it's a nice unpretentious
local event. So of course CBS had to come blundering in with it's vagisil ads
and SUV commercials to tart the whole thing up like it's payday Coaltown.
We were also faced with that pie faced hammerhead Harry Smith acting as
"M.C." and slowing everything down to a frustrating crawl.
Oh and lets not forget the loud obnoxious commercial breaks, a nice set of
which cut a solid five minutes out of the pyrotechnic display. Good thing the
local park down the street nicely overlooks Cambridge we at least could see the
fireworks sans interruption.
Frankly anyone watching it on TV from coast to coast got screwed IMHO.
Speaking of interruptions, who the hell invited that joyless tramp
LeAnn Rimes to the show???
LeAnn must have some serious props with Bain Capital Gruppe or whoever set
up the Esplanade concert this year because her two songs were little more than
free advertisement for her current tour.
Ah but that is the Brave New Commonwealth, "welfare" is a form of gratis
publicity given to post pubescent C&W moppets and none other.
Gruesome musicality seemed to be the theme of the evening thanks to Mitt
Romney's best pals the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
A greater collection of musical blunderbusses can't be found for the money,
the MTC does to the classics what your friendly neighborhood vivisectionist
does to stray dogs.
The Commonwealth is sodden with chorales and choirs but yet we must beg some
musical auslanders to groan over the Boston Pops on July Fourth.
All of a sudden we are like Palookaville or something.
It is the hour of patriotic kitsch down on the banks of the Charles,
forcibly grafting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir onto the proceedings is proof
positive that civilization has entered a bathetic decline here in the Bay State.
What John Adams would've made of this legion of blue polyester jacketed
androids from out the deserts of Utah can only be imagined.
With any luck he'd a bounced his trusty ale tankard off one of their gleaning
chromium heads.
Revolutions have started over less my friends.
But at least the fireworks still looked nice.
However I give fair warning to the powers that be, if next year the Mormon
Tabernacle Choir returns to overawe the Esplanade Concert with their toneless
yalping, we march!!!
Music for the people
By the people
And of the people
Shall not perish from this Commonwealth!
Why in the name of Odin the Thunderer has CBS television horned in on the
annual July Fourth Esplanade concert and fireworks display??!!!
The whole hatch shell mishaugas survives because it's a nice unpretentious
local event. So of course CBS had to come blundering in with it's vagisil ads
and SUV commercials to tart the whole thing up like it's payday Coaltown.
We were also faced with that pie faced hammerhead Harry Smith acting as
"M.C." and slowing everything down to a frustrating crawl.
Oh and lets not forget the loud obnoxious commercial breaks, a nice set of
which cut a solid five minutes out of the pyrotechnic display. Good thing the
local park down the street nicely overlooks Cambridge we at least could see the
fireworks sans interruption.
Frankly anyone watching it on TV from coast to coast got screwed IMHO.
Speaking of interruptions, who the hell invited that joyless tramp
LeAnn Rimes to the show???
LeAnn must have some serious props with Bain Capital Gruppe or whoever set
up the Esplanade concert this year because her two songs were little more than
free advertisement for her current tour.
Ah but that is the Brave New Commonwealth, "welfare" is a form of gratis
publicity given to post pubescent C&W moppets and none other.
Gruesome musicality seemed to be the theme of the evening thanks to Mitt
Romney's best pals the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
A greater collection of musical blunderbusses can't be found for the money,
the MTC does to the classics what your friendly neighborhood vivisectionist
does to stray dogs.
The Commonwealth is sodden with chorales and choirs but yet we must beg some
musical auslanders to groan over the Boston Pops on July Fourth.
All of a sudden we are like Palookaville or something.
It is the hour of patriotic kitsch down on the banks of the Charles,
forcibly grafting the Mormon Tabernacle Choir onto the proceedings is proof
positive that civilization has entered a bathetic decline here in the Bay State.
What John Adams would've made of this legion of blue polyester jacketed
androids from out the deserts of Utah can only be imagined.
With any luck he'd a bounced his trusty ale tankard off one of their gleaning
chromium heads.
Revolutions have started over less my friends.
But at least the fireworks still looked nice.
However I give fair warning to the powers that be, if next year the Mormon
Tabernacle Choir returns to overawe the Esplanade Concert with their toneless
yalping, we march!!!
Music for the people
By the people
And of the people
Shall not perish from this Commonwealth!
Thursday, July 03, 2003
A Granite State of Mind....
The "Old Man of the Mountain" succumbed to time and circumstance and came tumbling down on or about May 30th 2003.
Immediately, the State of New Hampshire swung into action empaneling a committee to investigate the pernicious "law of gravitation" and to find just which state legislators backed such a destructive statist socialist proposal.
Meanwhile Joe McQuaid cheerful vulgarian and publisher of the Manchester Union Leader (think of it as a print version of Fox News sans the wit and sophistication) mused on NPR yesterday that "the Old Man of the Mountain Revitalization Fund HASN'T contacted Disney's animatronic people yet...but they will".
A grotesque proposal that must be contemplated in mute silence.
If Joe McQuaid hurries perhaps he can still get Charlton Heston to lay down vocal tracks singing the Declaration of Independence to the tune of "The Theme to Davy Crockett"?
Or perhaps the all animatronic "New Old Man of the Mountain" could be coin operated? Lotsa tourist dollars there and thanks to its network of maddening toll booths N.H. has experience in nickel and diming unwary visitors.
The funds used to defray the extortionate property taxes the local yeoman peasantry cling to like tribal fetishes in a volcanic upheaval.
The Granite State never changes, it is still the same bitter, angry, reactionary wasteland that I found when I got off the bus in Center Barnstead in the summer of 1979.
The notion that New Hampshire may replace an iconic rock formation with a robotic tourist attraction is proof positive that the state can neither preserve what was good and old nor avoid embracing what is new and awful.
New Hampshire could be safely sold to Yugoslavia without doing any cultural or political damage to the Union whatsoever....
To paraphrase General Sheridan; If I owned Hell and New Hampshire, I'd rent out New Hampshire and go to live in Hell.
NOTE TO THE LAITY:
I'm off til monday, but if it all goes to smash and I don't come back...try to remember that I was once an eagle.
:)
The "Old Man of the Mountain" succumbed to time and circumstance and came tumbling down on or about May 30th 2003.
Immediately, the State of New Hampshire swung into action empaneling a committee to investigate the pernicious "law of gravitation" and to find just which state legislators backed such a destructive statist socialist proposal.
Meanwhile Joe McQuaid cheerful vulgarian and publisher of the Manchester Union Leader (think of it as a print version of Fox News sans the wit and sophistication) mused on NPR yesterday that "the Old Man of the Mountain Revitalization Fund HASN'T contacted Disney's animatronic people yet...but they will".
A grotesque proposal that must be contemplated in mute silence.
If Joe McQuaid hurries perhaps he can still get Charlton Heston to lay down vocal tracks singing the Declaration of Independence to the tune of "The Theme to Davy Crockett"?
Or perhaps the all animatronic "New Old Man of the Mountain" could be coin operated? Lotsa tourist dollars there and thanks to its network of maddening toll booths N.H. has experience in nickel and diming unwary visitors.
The funds used to defray the extortionate property taxes the local yeoman peasantry cling to like tribal fetishes in a volcanic upheaval.
The Granite State never changes, it is still the same bitter, angry, reactionary wasteland that I found when I got off the bus in Center Barnstead in the summer of 1979.
The notion that New Hampshire may replace an iconic rock formation with a robotic tourist attraction is proof positive that the state can neither preserve what was good and old nor avoid embracing what is new and awful.
New Hampshire could be safely sold to Yugoslavia without doing any cultural or political damage to the Union whatsoever....
To paraphrase General Sheridan; If I owned Hell and New Hampshire, I'd rent out New Hampshire and go to live in Hell.
NOTE TO THE LAITY:
I'm off til monday, but if it all goes to smash and I don't come back...try to remember that I was once an eagle.
:)
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
Kultur Notes for the Fourth of July Weekend
The Edgemere Drive In on Route 20 in Shrewsbury Ma has finally opened up for the season.
Never a top line drive in contender compared to the mighty Tri Town in Lunenberg or the Mendon Twin DI, the Edgemere grinds away defiantly every summer secure in it's niche as the cheapest of the five remaining drive in's in the Commonwealth.
A few years ago their huge outdoor screen was knocked down in a storm, the replacement ended up being much smaller than the original. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the smaller screen meant a much sharper brighter projected image. Previously the Edgemere was plagued with chronic image issues, their projector was simply inadequate for the size of the screen.
The improvement was such that one could watch grainy muddy horror flicks like "The Blair Witch Project" with perfect equanimity.
The other thing I like about the Edgemere is it's preposterously huge lot, it is simply impossible to get stuck in a bad parking space.
So...listen to Humble John, the movies this summer will be no better than the movies from last summer. Thus if we are gonna have dreck foisted on us we may as well see it in a locally owned independent venue one that keeps alive a grand American cultural tradition.
Besides, if you are wondering where the working class is, this summer, they are at the drive in.
No joke, with today's ticket prices so high the only way a poor family of five can see "Finding Nemo" for the flat $14.00 per carload price at a drive in.
My advice to John Kerry (whom I'm sure reads this blog every day) is to figure out some way campaign at a drive in, either four-wall the joint or just show up to shake some hands before the show...it'll get him into direct contact with the working poor.
And what the hell maybe the movie will be good as well.
The Edgemere Drive In
Route 20 Shrewsbury Ma.
(508) 754 4968
Showing Friday and Saturday July fourth and fifth:
1) Finding Nemo
2) Bruce Almighty
The Edgemere Drive In on Route 20 in Shrewsbury Ma has finally opened up for the season.
Never a top line drive in contender compared to the mighty Tri Town in Lunenberg or the Mendon Twin DI, the Edgemere grinds away defiantly every summer secure in it's niche as the cheapest of the five remaining drive in's in the Commonwealth.
A few years ago their huge outdoor screen was knocked down in a storm, the replacement ended up being much smaller than the original. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as the smaller screen meant a much sharper brighter projected image. Previously the Edgemere was plagued with chronic image issues, their projector was simply inadequate for the size of the screen.
The improvement was such that one could watch grainy muddy horror flicks like "The Blair Witch Project" with perfect equanimity.
The other thing I like about the Edgemere is it's preposterously huge lot, it is simply impossible to get stuck in a bad parking space.
So...listen to Humble John, the movies this summer will be no better than the movies from last summer. Thus if we are gonna have dreck foisted on us we may as well see it in a locally owned independent venue one that keeps alive a grand American cultural tradition.
Besides, if you are wondering where the working class is, this summer, they are at the drive in.
No joke, with today's ticket prices so high the only way a poor family of five can see "Finding Nemo" for the flat $14.00 per carload price at a drive in.
My advice to John Kerry (whom I'm sure reads this blog every day) is to figure out some way campaign at a drive in, either four-wall the joint or just show up to shake some hands before the show...it'll get him into direct contact with the working poor.
And what the hell maybe the movie will be good as well.
The Edgemere Drive In
Route 20 Shrewsbury Ma.
(508) 754 4968
Showing Friday and Saturday July fourth and fifth:
1) Finding Nemo
2) Bruce Almighty
Tuesday, July 01, 2003
So-oo-o
God talks to George Bush?
Or so Mahmoud Abbas asserts quoting the President to the effect that "God" told him to depose the Taliban and invade Iraq.
And as we all know the Prime Minister of the PA would never lie or exaggerate.
What do you suppose God sounds like in the airy spaces of George Bush Junior's mind?
Perhaps the Almighty affects Candace Bergen's dulcet tones?
Or maybe the Eternal takes on the smooth syrupy chuckle of ....Howard Da Silva?
I'm joking around here because that is really all I can do in this crisis...
I mean, the President (or so the Mahmoud Abbas reports) hears voices which he has self identified as that of the Protestant God of Thunder and Fund-raising.
In any other reasonably well run nation claiming the Almighty speaks to you is bound to raise a few eyebrows, especially if you happen to be the Head of the Government.
Not in America though, we love the Little Lord Jesus with a homespun democratic ardor, ANY Hammerhead can claim to be on intimate terms with the Son of God sans reproach.
Maybe this is for the best.
Because the alternative means casting aside our cherished notions that Bush is lazy, dumb, or a skilled but malevolent politician in favor of simply identifying him as psychotic.
THAT raises issues for us all regardless of ideological persuasion.
Yup you read it here firstest, parsed in the best journalese, The President is allegedly psychotic.
Conservatism is dying in this country (along with a lot of other quaint notions like the once lofty democratic spirit) for a lot of reasons, now we have a new one...the movement has chained itself to the fortunes of one man whose wits might be faltering in a dangerous way.
It all looks like beer and skittles now to Grover Norquist but when the President starts up with the glossolalia on camera with other world leaders it might put a dent in his polling.
Think about that Grover.
God talks to George Bush?
Or so Mahmoud Abbas asserts quoting the President to the effect that "God" told him to depose the Taliban and invade Iraq.
And as we all know the Prime Minister of the PA would never lie or exaggerate.
What do you suppose God sounds like in the airy spaces of George Bush Junior's mind?
Perhaps the Almighty affects Candace Bergen's dulcet tones?
Or maybe the Eternal takes on the smooth syrupy chuckle of ....Howard Da Silva?
I'm joking around here because that is really all I can do in this crisis...
I mean, the President (or so the Mahmoud Abbas reports) hears voices which he has self identified as that of the Protestant God of Thunder and Fund-raising.
In any other reasonably well run nation claiming the Almighty speaks to you is bound to raise a few eyebrows, especially if you happen to be the Head of the Government.
Not in America though, we love the Little Lord Jesus with a homespun democratic ardor, ANY Hammerhead can claim to be on intimate terms with the Son of God sans reproach.
Maybe this is for the best.
Because the alternative means casting aside our cherished notions that Bush is lazy, dumb, or a skilled but malevolent politician in favor of simply identifying him as psychotic.
THAT raises issues for us all regardless of ideological persuasion.
Yup you read it here firstest, parsed in the best journalese, The President is allegedly psychotic.
Conservatism is dying in this country (along with a lot of other quaint notions like the once lofty democratic spirit) for a lot of reasons, now we have a new one...the movement has chained itself to the fortunes of one man whose wits might be faltering in a dangerous way.
It all looks like beer and skittles now to Grover Norquist but when the President starts up with the glossolalia on camera with other world leaders it might put a dent in his polling.
Think about that Grover.
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