Barnicle'd 3-31-03
Ah the things we do to hold out to that nice spread in Lincoln Mass eh Mikey?
Yup you guessed it, my utmost ultimate favorite was on Imus today, the disgraced former columnist for the Boston Globe Mike Barnicle.
Ghod I love this guy, he is my very meat.
This blog couldn't exist without him.
Mike is now a New York Daily News columnist (where I'm sure the absence of a fact-checker was a contractual prerequisite) and a radio talk show tyrant here in Boston.
He has wandered out onto that lonely windswept place where the contrarians abide and endorsed wholeheartedly Mr. Bush's war-much to Don Imus' delight.
True to form Mike was out to score as many cheap pseudo-populist shots as he could from this conflict...his voice was up a full octave over normal as he surrendered to hysterics with gusto.
Frankly Barnicle was hyperventilating all through out his phone-in like a stoolie down to his last tip. You'd a thought he was nervous about something....
Anxious or not, Barnicle came out swinging, he noted with all due bluster and on the basis of no evidence that there were class differences between the war protesters and the U.S. soldiers...and that somehow is a bad thing.
Ever noticed how endlessly hung up on class conflict Mike Barnicle is?
A shot does not ring out anywhere in this world that Mike can't break down the whole conflict in terms of the effete haves versus the virtuous have-nots...and if the have-nots are poor put upon white urbanites much oppressed by poverty pimps and naive state legislators from the burbs' so much the better.
Mike is a kind of poet laureate for what I like to call "Caucasiastan" an entirely mythical urban white enclave in which upstanding sleeveless undershirted white father's beat frowzy white wives who in turn are saintly tyrants over their adorable children. And above them all the Monsignor broods over his simpleminded flock 24-7 even as they play stickball in the streets after catechism.
It doesn't exist of course, except maybe in the old "Dead End Kids" movies but nevertheless it does form the basis of Mike's omnipresent class consciousness.
Which is the predictable spin Mike has on this war...blue collar whites love President Bush, Bush in turn wants this war, therefore Mike Barnicle is for this war out of a sad delusional fear that any other stance might separate him from his beloved Caucasiastani readership.
My thing with Mike is for all his ranting and raving I do think he has either a mind or a heart...I can't quite figure which though. Because the agitated, sweaty and huffy way he barrels through these call-ins with Imus indicates that Barnicle doesn't quite believe his own line of bullshit.
At one point Mike blurted out that he just wanted Saddam dead and he didn't care whether democracy took root in Iraq or another General seized power...he just wanted it over.
Which is a sure sign Mike is panicking, because the news isn't good of late, his hero George Bush may have just stumbled into the U.S.A. own intifadah complete with fanatical suicide bombers.
Barnicle is braying hard that we are there "for the best of purposes" yet he's a peace with notion that we can quit once Saddam is dead and another tyrant substituted in his place.
If Mike was a conservative true believer he'd NEVER abandon the Admin's nonsensical line about exporting democracy with it's PACs and recounts to Iraq....the Severins and Limbaughs of this world are settled on that point.
No, Barnicle has just enough wherewithal left to realize that this war might end badly.
He has already naively asserted that Secretary Rumsfeld should come-clean and admit he let his expectations "got too high"...a hypothetical statement subdued in it's truthfulness but still no comfort to the soldiers in the field.
Poor Mike, he has no safe harbor in this war; he knows we've been lied to all along, he can't line up with the anti-war faction for class based reasons...and so he flails and grunts his way through these Imus appearances sounding more and more like a stroke victim whose meds are inexplicably late.
Ultimately his whole Ambassador-from-Caucasiastan act has got Mike so beaten down that he can't even begin to articulate his own suspicions and worries.
Well...that is what happens to reporters and editorialists who make place sentiment and partisanship above the truth....you end up yapping incoherently like Mike Barnicle.
Frankly when a "journalist" even one as bad as Mike Barnicle can't even tell himself the truth anymore it's time to bail on the newsman's trade and see if the local Dairy Queen is hiring.
Sick
Demented
Typical...
Monday, March 31, 2003
Barnicle'd 3-31-03
Ah the things we do to hold out to that nice spread in Lincoln Mass eh Mikey?
Yup you guessed it, my utmost ultimate favorite was on Imus today, the disgraced former columnist for the Boston Globe Mike Barnicle.
Ghod I love this guy, he is my very meat.
This blog couldn't exist without him.
Mike is now a New York Daily News columnist (where I'm sure the absence of a fact-checker was a contractual prerequisite) and a radio talk show tyrant here in Boston.
He has wandered out onto that lonely windswept place where the contrarians abide and endorsed wholeheartedly Mr. Bush's war-much to Don Imus' delight.
True to form Mike was out to score as many cheap pseudo-populist shots as he could from this conflict...his voice was up a full octave over normal as he surrendered to hysterics with gusto.
Frankly Barnicle was hyperventilating all through out his phone-in like a stoolie down to his last tip. You'd a thought he was nervous about something....
Anxious or not, Barnicle came out swinging, he noted with all due bluster and on the basis of no evidence that there were class differences between the war protesters and the U.S. soldiers...and that somehow is a bad thing.
Ever noticed how endlessly hung up on class conflict Mike Barnicle is?
A shot does not ring out anywhere in this world that Mike can't break down the whole conflict in terms of the effete haves versus the virtuous have-nots...and if the have-nots are poor put upon white urbanites much oppressed by poverty pimps and naive state legislators from the burbs' so much the better.
Mike is a kind of poet laureate for what I like to call "Caucasiastan" an entirely mythical urban white enclave in which upstanding sleeveless undershirted white father's beat frowzy white wives who in turn are saintly tyrants over their adorable children. And above them all the Monsignor broods over his simpleminded flock 24-7 even as they play stickball in the streets after catechism.
It doesn't exist of course, except maybe in the old "Dead End Kids" movies but nevertheless it does form the basis of Mike's omnipresent class consciousness.
Which is the predictable spin Mike has on this war...blue collar whites love President Bush, Bush in turn wants this war, therefore Mike Barnicle is for this war out of a sad delusional fear that any other stance might separate him from his beloved Caucasiastani readership.
My thing with Mike is for all his ranting and raving I do think he has either a mind or a heart...I can't quite figure which though. Because the agitated, sweaty and huffy way he barrels through these call-ins with Imus indicates that Barnicle doesn't quite believe his own line of bullshit.
At one point Mike blurted out that he just wanted Saddam dead and he didn't care whether democracy took root in Iraq or another General seized power...he just wanted it over.
Which is a sure sign Mike is panicking, because the news isn't good of late, his hero George Bush may have just stumbled into the U.S.A. own intifadah complete with fanatical suicide bombers.
Barnicle is braying hard that we are there "for the best of purposes" yet he's a peace with notion that we can quit once Saddam is dead and another tyrant substituted in his place.
If Mike was a conservative true believer he'd NEVER abandon the Admin's nonsensical line about exporting democracy with it's PACs and recounts to Iraq....the Severins and Limbaughs of this world are settled on that point.
No, Barnicle has just enough wherewithal left to realize that this war might end badly.
He has already naively asserted that Secretary Rumsfeld should come-clean and admit he let his expectations "got too high"...a hypothetical statement subdued in it's truthfulness but still no comfort to the soldiers in the field.
Poor Mike, he has no safe harbor in this war; he knows we've been lied to all along, he can't line up with the anti-war faction for class based reasons...and so he flails and grunts his way through these Imus appearances sounding more and more like a stroke victim whose meds are inexplicably late.
Ultimately his whole Ambassador-from-Caucasiastan act has got Mike so beaten down that he can't even begin to articulate his own suspicions and worries.
Well...that is what happens to reporters and editorialists who make place sentiment and partisanship above the truth....you end up yapping incoherently like Mike Barnicle.
Frankly when a "journalist" even one as bad as Mike Barnicle can't even tell himself the truth anymore it's time to bail on the newsman's trade and see if the local Dairy Queen is hiring.
Sick
Demented
Typical...
Ah the things we do to hold out to that nice spread in Lincoln Mass eh Mikey?
Yup you guessed it, my utmost ultimate favorite was on Imus today, the disgraced former columnist for the Boston Globe Mike Barnicle.
Ghod I love this guy, he is my very meat.
This blog couldn't exist without him.
Mike is now a New York Daily News columnist (where I'm sure the absence of a fact-checker was a contractual prerequisite) and a radio talk show tyrant here in Boston.
He has wandered out onto that lonely windswept place where the contrarians abide and endorsed wholeheartedly Mr. Bush's war-much to Don Imus' delight.
True to form Mike was out to score as many cheap pseudo-populist shots as he could from this conflict...his voice was up a full octave over normal as he surrendered to hysterics with gusto.
Frankly Barnicle was hyperventilating all through out his phone-in like a stoolie down to his last tip. You'd a thought he was nervous about something....
Anxious or not, Barnicle came out swinging, he noted with all due bluster and on the basis of no evidence that there were class differences between the war protesters and the U.S. soldiers...and that somehow is a bad thing.
Ever noticed how endlessly hung up on class conflict Mike Barnicle is?
A shot does not ring out anywhere in this world that Mike can't break down the whole conflict in terms of the effete haves versus the virtuous have-nots...and if the have-nots are poor put upon white urbanites much oppressed by poverty pimps and naive state legislators from the burbs' so much the better.
Mike is a kind of poet laureate for what I like to call "Caucasiastan" an entirely mythical urban white enclave in which upstanding sleeveless undershirted white father's beat frowzy white wives who in turn are saintly tyrants over their adorable children. And above them all the Monsignor broods over his simpleminded flock 24-7 even as they play stickball in the streets after catechism.
It doesn't exist of course, except maybe in the old "Dead End Kids" movies but nevertheless it does form the basis of Mike's omnipresent class consciousness.
Which is the predictable spin Mike has on this war...blue collar whites love President Bush, Bush in turn wants this war, therefore Mike Barnicle is for this war out of a sad delusional fear that any other stance might separate him from his beloved Caucasiastani readership.
My thing with Mike is for all his ranting and raving I do think he has either a mind or a heart...I can't quite figure which though. Because the agitated, sweaty and huffy way he barrels through these call-ins with Imus indicates that Barnicle doesn't quite believe his own line of bullshit.
At one point Mike blurted out that he just wanted Saddam dead and he didn't care whether democracy took root in Iraq or another General seized power...he just wanted it over.
Which is a sure sign Mike is panicking, because the news isn't good of late, his hero George Bush may have just stumbled into the U.S.A. own intifadah complete with fanatical suicide bombers.
Barnicle is braying hard that we are there "for the best of purposes" yet he's a peace with notion that we can quit once Saddam is dead and another tyrant substituted in his place.
If Mike was a conservative true believer he'd NEVER abandon the Admin's nonsensical line about exporting democracy with it's PACs and recounts to Iraq....the Severins and Limbaughs of this world are settled on that point.
No, Barnicle has just enough wherewithal left to realize that this war might end badly.
He has already naively asserted that Secretary Rumsfeld should come-clean and admit he let his expectations "got too high"...a hypothetical statement subdued in it's truthfulness but still no comfort to the soldiers in the field.
Poor Mike, he has no safe harbor in this war; he knows we've been lied to all along, he can't line up with the anti-war faction for class based reasons...and so he flails and grunts his way through these Imus appearances sounding more and more like a stroke victim whose meds are inexplicably late.
Ultimately his whole Ambassador-from-Caucasiastan act has got Mike so beaten down that he can't even begin to articulate his own suspicions and worries.
Well...that is what happens to reporters and editorialists who make place sentiment and partisanship above the truth....you end up yapping incoherently like Mike Barnicle.
Frankly when a "journalist" even one as bad as Mike Barnicle can't even tell himself the truth anymore it's time to bail on the newsman's trade and see if the local Dairy Queen is hiring.
Sick
Demented
Typical...
Friday, March 28, 2003
Short timing with Thomas Friedman...
Modern conservatism could not exist without "liberals" like New York Times columnist Tom Friedman.
Lauded as a foreign policy whiz by both left and right, Tom still has this weird religious veneration for the holy free market's power to work positive transformation. This makes him palatable to the rightical chic media elite who do most of the opinion formation in the U.S. Tom is "okay" because no matter what his foreign policy views are he's ready willing and able to keep them in lock step with the conservative cult of free enterprise.
Now, mind you, he's not one of these libertarian whackjobs, rather Tom truly believes with the bliss of the faithful that free markets somehow safeguard liberalism. Taken by itself you can see where this becomes sheer religious dogma wherein people are somehow empowered consumers before they are democratic citizens. As I've said before our opinion elites worship embarrassingly tattered and smelly little fetishes these days with the fervor of 19th century zulus. Some of those idols include peace, guns, Jesus the GOP's in house savior, and in Tom's case the free market, holy protector of women's rights and the environment.
And it's this selfsame divine "market" that will somehow transform Iraq into a secular democratic paradise.
Someone once said that democracies prefer markets but markets don't necessarily prefer democracies.
You'd think a smart fellow like Tom Friedman would get that...
Nonetheless, thwe New York Times' columnist was on Imus this morning, most of his discussion with the aging and repulsive I-man was preempted by a military press conference in the Middle East. The gist of Tom's line was, he was fine with the war in Iraq and hoped something good would come of it when Saddam was deposed. He was hopeful that destroying Saddam and his regime would create a kind of "truth zone" in the region one that'll be the basis for "opportunities" for young people and a chance to set free the private sector based energies of the plain people.
Yup...I'll bet he just can't wait to read Rumsfeld's draft of the new Iraqi constitution, surely that will be a document for the ages. Tom can no doubt see the Iraqi intelligentsia sprawled around the Tikrit Starbucks reading all about it in new Farsi language edition of the New Republic.
Tom is gonna look awfully stupid when Iraq ends up being run by an American General with some sorry assed flunkie from the Iraqi Opposition as his frontman. Tom is gonna look pretty dumb if we end up parlaying with some bloodthirsty tyrannical general who has deposed Saddam in a coup...
No matter what Tom is riding for a fall here, chiefly because like the fervent worshippers of other threadbare secular phenomena he's got it in his head that his revered thingie is the universal answer to all life's problems.
Who can blame him though? Millions of dollars are spent every year to flood the mediaverse with paens of praise to the free market...who am I to blame Tom Friedman if he honestly believes such rubbish?
It's not like anyone has ever gone to any lengths to bombard the culture with any counter arguments.
Alas now more than ever we need that debate...because modern conservatism is dying in this country.
Yup you read that right, what was once a simpleminded collection of small-gummint-big-profits-no-taxes type nostrums has degenerated over the past twenty years into a bloated power worshipping cult. The so called conservative movement long ago stopped believing in small government and freedom for the individual and a host of other once hallowed precepts. Nowadays the wreck of the movement is largely dedicated to punishing the vanishing American liberal and otherwise keeping it's options open. It is kept afloat mostly through the day to day ministrations of a weird native class of editorialists and partisan hacks who define "debate" as demonizing the liberalism and who de-legitimize any real discussion of public affairs with anyone. After a full twenty years of "conservative backlash" in power and out the main accomplishment of these vengeful buffoons has been to make shrill ideological warfare an all weather year round sport.
This is the new and all conquering overclass, and they can self perpetuate with the best of them.
They claim to be contrarians but this is hype and nonsense based on the scope of their power.
But it's all coming to an end my friends be assured of that.
Not only that, but the "democratic spirit" is fast expiring in this nation as well. It is a quaint and much sneered at thing that asserts that a free people can govern themselves well enough without descending into anarchy or dictatorship.
A sensible opinion can no longer be found in "the wild" and must now be considered an endangered species.
Reason is being hunted to extinction in this one proud republic....
At best, the modern punditariat might preach that a free people must have the constant guidance of a new strata of thinkers and explainers ergo partisan hacks, brutes, and intellectual bandits.
But the democratic spirit? Nope it takes second place to military affairs, profit opportunities, whining about taxes, and the punishment of liberals.
These are the values that insinuate themselves into every public debate, is it any wonder a poor naive fool like Tom Friedman is overwhelmed?
Sick
Demented Typical...
Modern conservatism could not exist without "liberals" like New York Times columnist Tom Friedman.
Lauded as a foreign policy whiz by both left and right, Tom still has this weird religious veneration for the holy free market's power to work positive transformation. This makes him palatable to the rightical chic media elite who do most of the opinion formation in the U.S. Tom is "okay" because no matter what his foreign policy views are he's ready willing and able to keep them in lock step with the conservative cult of free enterprise.
Now, mind you, he's not one of these libertarian whackjobs, rather Tom truly believes with the bliss of the faithful that free markets somehow safeguard liberalism. Taken by itself you can see where this becomes sheer religious dogma wherein people are somehow empowered consumers before they are democratic citizens. As I've said before our opinion elites worship embarrassingly tattered and smelly little fetishes these days with the fervor of 19th century zulus. Some of those idols include peace, guns, Jesus the GOP's in house savior, and in Tom's case the free market, holy protector of women's rights and the environment.
And it's this selfsame divine "market" that will somehow transform Iraq into a secular democratic paradise.
Someone once said that democracies prefer markets but markets don't necessarily prefer democracies.
You'd think a smart fellow like Tom Friedman would get that...
Nonetheless, thwe New York Times' columnist was on Imus this morning, most of his discussion with the aging and repulsive I-man was preempted by a military press conference in the Middle East. The gist of Tom's line was, he was fine with the war in Iraq and hoped something good would come of it when Saddam was deposed. He was hopeful that destroying Saddam and his regime would create a kind of "truth zone" in the region one that'll be the basis for "opportunities" for young people and a chance to set free the private sector based energies of the plain people.
Yup...I'll bet he just can't wait to read Rumsfeld's draft of the new Iraqi constitution, surely that will be a document for the ages. Tom can no doubt see the Iraqi intelligentsia sprawled around the Tikrit Starbucks reading all about it in new Farsi language edition of the New Republic.
Tom is gonna look awfully stupid when Iraq ends up being run by an American General with some sorry assed flunkie from the Iraqi Opposition as his frontman. Tom is gonna look pretty dumb if we end up parlaying with some bloodthirsty tyrannical general who has deposed Saddam in a coup...
No matter what Tom is riding for a fall here, chiefly because like the fervent worshippers of other threadbare secular phenomena he's got it in his head that his revered thingie is the universal answer to all life's problems.
Who can blame him though? Millions of dollars are spent every year to flood the mediaverse with paens of praise to the free market...who am I to blame Tom Friedman if he honestly believes such rubbish?
It's not like anyone has ever gone to any lengths to bombard the culture with any counter arguments.
Alas now more than ever we need that debate...because modern conservatism is dying in this country.
Yup you read that right, what was once a simpleminded collection of small-gummint-big-profits-no-taxes type nostrums has degenerated over the past twenty years into a bloated power worshipping cult. The so called conservative movement long ago stopped believing in small government and freedom for the individual and a host of other once hallowed precepts. Nowadays the wreck of the movement is largely dedicated to punishing the vanishing American liberal and otherwise keeping it's options open. It is kept afloat mostly through the day to day ministrations of a weird native class of editorialists and partisan hacks who define "debate" as demonizing the liberalism and who de-legitimize any real discussion of public affairs with anyone. After a full twenty years of "conservative backlash" in power and out the main accomplishment of these vengeful buffoons has been to make shrill ideological warfare an all weather year round sport.
This is the new and all conquering overclass, and they can self perpetuate with the best of them.
They claim to be contrarians but this is hype and nonsense based on the scope of their power.
But it's all coming to an end my friends be assured of that.
Not only that, but the "democratic spirit" is fast expiring in this nation as well. It is a quaint and much sneered at thing that asserts that a free people can govern themselves well enough without descending into anarchy or dictatorship.
A sensible opinion can no longer be found in "the wild" and must now be considered an endangered species.
Reason is being hunted to extinction in this one proud republic....
At best, the modern punditariat might preach that a free people must have the constant guidance of a new strata of thinkers and explainers ergo partisan hacks, brutes, and intellectual bandits.
But the democratic spirit? Nope it takes second place to military affairs, profit opportunities, whining about taxes, and the punishment of liberals.
These are the values that insinuate themselves into every public debate, is it any wonder a poor naive fool like Tom Friedman is overwhelmed?
Sick
Demented Typical...
Thursday, March 27, 2003
Howard Fineman on Imus-in-the-Morning 3-27-03
Ah Howard Fineman, Newsweek's most dependable solon...the man is my very meat I tell you.
And today he sounded dispirited...why he could barely summon up the energy to shill for President Bush.
It's a hard life indeed for those pundits who selflessly consign themselves to the rear with the gear so that the whole war can be properly explained and supported preferably via $20,000.00 personal appearances.
The war in some ways is not going well according to Fineman, we were supposed to be greeted by smiling Iraqi faces and instead the Fedayeen guerillas are gunning for us.
Howard puts on a helpless "how could we have known" tone but then hasn't Saddam be promising traditional guerilla warfare for years now? Indeed threatening all out guerilla warfare has been a staple of every regional tyrant's rhetoric for over fifty years now going back to the salad days of Gamal Nasser. Given the low operational readiness of his war machine arming his flunkies and calling them freedom fighters about all Hussein can do...you would think someone at Newsweek would keep Fineman up to date on this things.
Fineman also claims no one in the Pentagon took into account the possibility of guerilla warfare, this is sheer nonsense. What Howars means is, in the rush to make this war look easy-peasy nobody in the DC punditariat opted to explore the notion in any detail.
No Fineman sighed shifted and admitted we've "lost the propaganda war" and also misplaced "the moral high ground" during this conflict. Now on the surface these are damning admissions, but notice how the Newsweek columnist does not and indeed cannot link our diplomatic isolation to the President and his decisions?
Nope Howard merely mutters about "over confidence at the Pentagon" without mentioning any names and leaves it at that.
This is a line taken by more and more serious conservative apologists in the media as the war looks less and less like cakewalk. Jeff Greenfield and Howard Fineman will outline the political problems in detail and then notably refuse to link any of these pathologies to President Bush, his ideology, decisions, or leadership style.
Buried deep in this approach is a basic refusal to question the President's sincerity...until someone gets over this, it is a malign dichotomy we will have to live with.
No if we are having problems then it's the fault of 24 hour cable news coverage, the same networks that pay hard cash for the services of these selfsame pundits.
Howard then roused himself a bit to dump on the perfidious Turks for refusing to allow our troops free transit to the Northern Front. Again left unsaid is Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's harsh and heavy handed treatment of the Turkish Government in the run up to this war. Hell, I don't know much but if we don't have the Turks on our side, we've GOT to be doing something wrong....they are even more pro-American than the Shreveport Louisiana Rotary Club.
Fineman's solution to the current diplomatic feud with Ankara is to cut Turkey out of the current foreign aid package being debated in congress...geez these DC hammerheads sure do get spiteful when the going gets a little tough don't they?
Which is when Fineman wrapped himself in the flag like a funeral shroud and abruptly announced "Saddam thinks democracy is a weakness, but democracy is in fact our strength"...
Just as long as we make sure democracy is properly guided by a nice reliable man like you Howard....
And yet despite Presidential prevarication, overconfidence, diplomatic isolation, stupidity and arrogance...all of which goes unreported every day Howard can still blurt out ; "I'm proud of the American media!"
Frankly nothing more need be said that sums this was his ultimate peroration and possibly our epitaph.
Sick
Demented
Typical...
Ah Howard Fineman, Newsweek's most dependable solon...the man is my very meat I tell you.
And today he sounded dispirited...why he could barely summon up the energy to shill for President Bush.
It's a hard life indeed for those pundits who selflessly consign themselves to the rear with the gear so that the whole war can be properly explained and supported preferably via $20,000.00 personal appearances.
The war in some ways is not going well according to Fineman, we were supposed to be greeted by smiling Iraqi faces and instead the Fedayeen guerillas are gunning for us.
Howard puts on a helpless "how could we have known" tone but then hasn't Saddam be promising traditional guerilla warfare for years now? Indeed threatening all out guerilla warfare has been a staple of every regional tyrant's rhetoric for over fifty years now going back to the salad days of Gamal Nasser. Given the low operational readiness of his war machine arming his flunkies and calling them freedom fighters about all Hussein can do...you would think someone at Newsweek would keep Fineman up to date on this things.
Fineman also claims no one in the Pentagon took into account the possibility of guerilla warfare, this is sheer nonsense. What Howars means is, in the rush to make this war look easy-peasy nobody in the DC punditariat opted to explore the notion in any detail.
No Fineman sighed shifted and admitted we've "lost the propaganda war" and also misplaced "the moral high ground" during this conflict. Now on the surface these are damning admissions, but notice how the Newsweek columnist does not and indeed cannot link our diplomatic isolation to the President and his decisions?
Nope Howard merely mutters about "over confidence at the Pentagon" without mentioning any names and leaves it at that.
This is a line taken by more and more serious conservative apologists in the media as the war looks less and less like cakewalk. Jeff Greenfield and Howard Fineman will outline the political problems in detail and then notably refuse to link any of these pathologies to President Bush, his ideology, decisions, or leadership style.
Buried deep in this approach is a basic refusal to question the President's sincerity...until someone gets over this, it is a malign dichotomy we will have to live with.
No if we are having problems then it's the fault of 24 hour cable news coverage, the same networks that pay hard cash for the services of these selfsame pundits.
Howard then roused himself a bit to dump on the perfidious Turks for refusing to allow our troops free transit to the Northern Front. Again left unsaid is Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's harsh and heavy handed treatment of the Turkish Government in the run up to this war. Hell, I don't know much but if we don't have the Turks on our side, we've GOT to be doing something wrong....they are even more pro-American than the Shreveport Louisiana Rotary Club.
Fineman's solution to the current diplomatic feud with Ankara is to cut Turkey out of the current foreign aid package being debated in congress...geez these DC hammerheads sure do get spiteful when the going gets a little tough don't they?
Which is when Fineman wrapped himself in the flag like a funeral shroud and abruptly announced "Saddam thinks democracy is a weakness, but democracy is in fact our strength"...
Just as long as we make sure democracy is properly guided by a nice reliable man like you Howard....
And yet despite Presidential prevarication, overconfidence, diplomatic isolation, stupidity and arrogance...all of which goes unreported every day Howard can still blurt out ; "I'm proud of the American media!"
Frankly nothing more need be said that sums this was his ultimate peroration and possibly our epitaph.
Sick
Demented
Typical...
Memories of Irrational Exuberance or Beware the Savage Shore of 1994
This is an excerpt from my never before published "memoirs" detailing the life of a low level unskilled clerk in a major
software corporation. It is utterly vindictive in every way....
:)
Chapter One
My Christmas bonus climbed Mount Everest
Sotto Voce the Boss let it be known that we would not be getting a Christmas
bonus this year. He cited the fact that the tres-trendy software company we
contract for declined to finance such an extravagance . Never mind the fact
that a few of our familied toilers were depending on that fifty bucks to buy
a reasonable facsimile of GI Joe with the Kung Fu grip for their kids-the
money simply wasn't there. The Company WE work for (reliably known as one of
Boston's most upstanding dealers in human flesh by way of janitorial
services) takes a sweaty ill-at-ease silence on the whole controversial
subject of the Christmas bonus. The entire subcontracting gig depends on
carpet-billing the client for a galaxy of petty boons and services thus
paying the bonus out of pocket is an ghastly example of budgetary incest.
So you can see why no-one wants to talk about it.
It gets better though-our host entity fired off an e-mail the other day,
joyfully announcing to all and sundry that the corporation was co-sponsoring
an expedition up Mount Everest. The apparent goal here is to obtain a world
class orgasm of publicity for their groupware package and to field test a
proposed satellite hook-up. Moreover three lucky employees will be chosen
via lottery to accompany the expedition to Base camp -us poor left behinders
can keep up with the climb's progress through a special in house database.
That is assuming that anyone can tear themselves away from Alt.Sex.Mortuaries
long enough to watch their coworkers wax illiterate about the breath-taking
beauty of the "Himalayan Andes".
We shouldn't complain, if anything can give that groupware a solid field-test
it is the prospect of being frog-marched up a mountain, over the freeze-dried
corpses of other nameless compulsives and on to the summit where the
atmosphere faithfully mimics Mars in the throes of winter.
Frankly, I'm almost glad to see that bonus go...given it's self abusive
proclivities it was clearly way more trouble than its worth. Like the parent of a willful adolescent I'm resigned to allowing the money to seek it's own destiny no matter how dubious the plan may be.
Copyright 1994
It's All True
This is an excerpt from my never before published "memoirs" detailing the life of a low level unskilled clerk in a major
software corporation. It is utterly vindictive in every way....
:)
Chapter One
My Christmas bonus climbed Mount Everest
Sotto Voce the Boss let it be known that we would not be getting a Christmas
bonus this year. He cited the fact that the tres-trendy software company we
contract for declined to finance such an extravagance . Never mind the fact
that a few of our familied toilers were depending on that fifty bucks to buy
a reasonable facsimile of GI Joe with the Kung Fu grip for their kids-the
money simply wasn't there. The Company WE work for (reliably known as one of
Boston's most upstanding dealers in human flesh by way of janitorial
services) takes a sweaty ill-at-ease silence on the whole controversial
subject of the Christmas bonus. The entire subcontracting gig depends on
carpet-billing the client for a galaxy of petty boons and services thus
paying the bonus out of pocket is an ghastly example of budgetary incest.
So you can see why no-one wants to talk about it.
It gets better though-our host entity fired off an e-mail the other day,
joyfully announcing to all and sundry that the corporation was co-sponsoring
an expedition up Mount Everest. The apparent goal here is to obtain a world
class orgasm of publicity for their groupware package and to field test a
proposed satellite hook-up. Moreover three lucky employees will be chosen
via lottery to accompany the expedition to Base camp -us poor left behinders
can keep up with the climb's progress through a special in house database.
That is assuming that anyone can tear themselves away from Alt.Sex.Mortuaries
long enough to watch their coworkers wax illiterate about the breath-taking
beauty of the "Himalayan Andes".
We shouldn't complain, if anything can give that groupware a solid field-test
it is the prospect of being frog-marched up a mountain, over the freeze-dried
corpses of other nameless compulsives and on to the summit where the
atmosphere faithfully mimics Mars in the throes of winter.
Frankly, I'm almost glad to see that bonus go...given it's self abusive
proclivities it was clearly way more trouble than its worth. Like the parent of a willful adolescent I'm resigned to allowing the money to seek it's own destiny no matter how dubious the plan may be.
Copyright 1994
It's All True
The S.L.A. ate my Homework...
Virginia Holman, author of the new book "Rescuing Patty Hearst" did a reading at Newtonville Books last night. Despite the sensational title, the book has nothing to do with Patty Hearst and is rather an account of Holman's mother and her battle with schizophrenia.
It was an excellent reading and all decent citizens are duly urged to rush out and buy this book with the utmost dispatch.
As for myself well....when I was eleven years old, Patty Hearst was my first true love.
I must've searched all over Arlington Massachusetts for poor Patty....it was those veiled California co-ed eyes of hers- -drove me nuts!
Ah but in the fullness of time the Federales caught her and I was muscled out of the rescuing-Patty-Hearst spotlight for good.
Just as well, by then I was becoming more realistic in my heterosexual proclivities....someone with dignity...someone like...Barbara Eden.
Years later I told this story in passing to a college girlfriend who had a well concealed streak of benign dementia.
The next weekend I found an audio tape on my doorstep with a list of "demands" she had recorded. All I remember is that demand #3 was "be more open with your emotions."
As if being queer for kidnapped newspaper heiresses wasn't perestroika for the ages!
I suppose I got lucky looking back, she could've done herself up as Genie or something. On the surface that sounds trashy and fun, but take it from Humble John, those scenes all end in total defeat and disarray.
Ah but it was all a long time ago and besides,
the wench is a matron of some sort in New Jersey.
JohnIAT@aol.com
Virginia Holman, author of the new book "Rescuing Patty Hearst" did a reading at Newtonville Books last night. Despite the sensational title, the book has nothing to do with Patty Hearst and is rather an account of Holman's mother and her battle with schizophrenia.
It was an excellent reading and all decent citizens are duly urged to rush out and buy this book with the utmost dispatch.
As for myself well....when I was eleven years old, Patty Hearst was my first true love.
I must've searched all over Arlington Massachusetts for poor Patty....it was those veiled California co-ed eyes of hers- -drove me nuts!
Ah but in the fullness of time the Federales caught her and I was muscled out of the rescuing-Patty-Hearst spotlight for good.
Just as well, by then I was becoming more realistic in my heterosexual proclivities....someone with dignity...someone like...Barbara Eden.
Years later I told this story in passing to a college girlfriend who had a well concealed streak of benign dementia.
The next weekend I found an audio tape on my doorstep with a list of "demands" she had recorded. All I remember is that demand #3 was "be more open with your emotions."
As if being queer for kidnapped newspaper heiresses wasn't perestroika for the ages!
I suppose I got lucky looking back, she could've done herself up as Genie or something. On the surface that sounds trashy and fun, but take it from Humble John, those scenes all end in total defeat and disarray.
Ah but it was all a long time ago and besides,
the wench is a matron of some sort in New Jersey.
JohnIAT@aol.com
Wednesday, March 26, 2003
Slack and Jaw
The HELL these jackasses in the White House weren't hoping for a short war!
You all know as well as I do that Bush flew off to Camp David this weekend hoping to time his return to DC to coincide with the fall of Baghdad!
Bush no doubt had nasty little fantasies of getting off Marine One, clutching his hands over his head in a victory salute and being buried in cheers. Then it's off to the Oval Office to sign off on a ruinous tax cut and order the Senate Democratic caucus to be beheaded like he was Heliogabalus or something.
Instead he came back to U.S. soldiers getting killed and captured plus ominous anonymous complains that the DoD micro-managed the whole thing providing too little armor for the job.
On the other hand, who do these chickenhawk boneheads at the Pentagon think they are kidding?
If they really thought this was gonna be a "tough fight" they'd a lobbied hard against any new tax cuts for fear of losing revenue needed for the war. I mean, Rummy is a nasty vindictive GOP bureaubot, but even he isn't that dumb.
Or maybe they just can't penetrate the President's sunny sense of self delusion...appointed by Ghod to destroy Saddam or some damn thing.
No these guys from the Prez on down thought or perhaps devoutly wished to the exclusion of all reason that Saddam would've adjourned to a nice new bunker and shot himself on Sunday afternoon.
No wonder they are all walking around now with eyes downcast mumbling about "regime change is our goal not necessarily getting Saddam". Which is a prime tip off the cruise missile cannonade didn't kill the bastard! Not so easy to off a serious tyrant with missiles is it Mister President? Bill Clinton knew as much...
No these guys are all red faced and hunkered down now, it's no doubt embarrassing when your whole policy is exposed as little more that prolonged intellectual masturbation.
The Iraqis do have a serious weapon of mass destruction though, it's called a SANDSTORM!
Well...all I can say is, good luck to our armed forces...
***
Meanwhile Senator Chris Dodd sounded refreshingly candid and sober on the Don Imus show today. He harped on one important policy note that bears repeating, the deficit for 2003 will top out at 400 Billion smackers....under those fiscal constraints it is likely we will stiff Iraq on reconstruction once regime change has been affected due to the sheer expense of the project.
Let me just add we've done much the same thing to post-Taliban Afganistan...why should the pattern be any different?
Dodd also pointed out that the congressional GOP has gone nicely silent over the dire necessity of a balanced budget amendment to the constitution...Messr's Frist, Lott or Grassley have swallowed manfully and bleated "deficits are good!"
:)
Sick
Demented
Typical...
JohnIAT@aol.com
The HELL these jackasses in the White House weren't hoping for a short war!
You all know as well as I do that Bush flew off to Camp David this weekend hoping to time his return to DC to coincide with the fall of Baghdad!
Bush no doubt had nasty little fantasies of getting off Marine One, clutching his hands over his head in a victory salute and being buried in cheers. Then it's off to the Oval Office to sign off on a ruinous tax cut and order the Senate Democratic caucus to be beheaded like he was Heliogabalus or something.
Instead he came back to U.S. soldiers getting killed and captured plus ominous anonymous complains that the DoD micro-managed the whole thing providing too little armor for the job.
On the other hand, who do these chickenhawk boneheads at the Pentagon think they are kidding?
If they really thought this was gonna be a "tough fight" they'd a lobbied hard against any new tax cuts for fear of losing revenue needed for the war. I mean, Rummy is a nasty vindictive GOP bureaubot, but even he isn't that dumb.
Or maybe they just can't penetrate the President's sunny sense of self delusion...appointed by Ghod to destroy Saddam or some damn thing.
No these guys from the Prez on down thought or perhaps devoutly wished to the exclusion of all reason that Saddam would've adjourned to a nice new bunker and shot himself on Sunday afternoon.
No wonder they are all walking around now with eyes downcast mumbling about "regime change is our goal not necessarily getting Saddam". Which is a prime tip off the cruise missile cannonade didn't kill the bastard! Not so easy to off a serious tyrant with missiles is it Mister President? Bill Clinton knew as much...
No these guys are all red faced and hunkered down now, it's no doubt embarrassing when your whole policy is exposed as little more that prolonged intellectual masturbation.
The Iraqis do have a serious weapon of mass destruction though, it's called a SANDSTORM!
Well...all I can say is, good luck to our armed forces...
***
Meanwhile Senator Chris Dodd sounded refreshingly candid and sober on the Don Imus show today. He harped on one important policy note that bears repeating, the deficit for 2003 will top out at 400 Billion smackers....under those fiscal constraints it is likely we will stiff Iraq on reconstruction once regime change has been affected due to the sheer expense of the project.
Let me just add we've done much the same thing to post-Taliban Afganistan...why should the pattern be any different?
Dodd also pointed out that the congressional GOP has gone nicely silent over the dire necessity of a balanced budget amendment to the constitution...Messr's Frist, Lott or Grassley have swallowed manfully and bleated "deficits are good!"
:)
Sick
Demented
Typical...
JohnIAT@aol.com
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