SUNDAY 01.04.04 / 10:21 AM / LINK

On mussing George Will's hair

Did you ever have the urge to muss George Will's hair? Everytime I see the guy's head talking I want get in there and wreak havoc on his coiffure. It's unnatural for a man never to look mussed up. But then, he's a little mussed up here.

Ethical considerations aside ...please... George, the Clinton-deprecating conservative columnist, sees no problem with receiving $25,000 for a one-day speaking stint from an outfit he cites affectionately while in journalistic mode... without clueing us in on the pay-off, that is.

As reported at CommonDreams.org by Norman Solomon, "In early March, Will wrote a syndicated piece that blasted critics of President Bush's plans to launch an all-out war on Iraq. Several paragraphs of the column featured quotations from a speech by Black. The laudatory treatment began high in the column as Will referred to some criticisms of Bush policies and then wrote: " 'Into this welter of foolishness has waded Conrad Black.' "

(What Will might have said to keep his situation up on the table was, "Into this welter of foolishness has waded Conrad Black who sometimes pays me $25,000 to shoot my mind off.")

"But the column did not contain the slightest hint that this wonderful foe of 'foolishness' had provided checks to fatten the columnist's assets," says Solomon --and with a name like that, he should know.

Yet, Will's opinion of his ethical standards appear to remain as unruffled as his perfectly-parted mane.

TOP




01.04.04 / 7:54 AM / LINK

Hideous black thought-plague

For those ideologues who put down government regulation as an instrument of the devil I recommend a large prime rib from a mad cow smothered in Mexican green onions seasoned with hepatitis bacteria.

A simple difference between a conservative and a liberal in the U.S.A. is that conservatives believe it's best to trust the private sector to look out for the public good, while liberals think that's the province of government. Independents don't trust either.

To disabuse conservatives on this point we have Enron and all subsequent private sector rip-off scandals such as the mutual fund thing. To disabuse liberals we have the neoconservative government of George Bush --though liberals might object that this is unfair because there's no discernible boundary between Bush government and corporate business.

In an article by John Stauber (12/30/03), he cites a book by Sheldon Rampton a written in 1997: Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here? He notes that the book "...received favorable reviews from some interesting publications such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, New Scientist, and Chemical & Engineering News. Yet although the book was released just before the infamous Texas trial of Oprah Winfrey and her guest Howard Lyman, for the alleged crime of "food disparagement," the book was ignored by the mainstream media, and even most left and alternative publications failed to review it." Apparently they should have.

An ideologue is an otherwise normal human with a mind like a have-a-heart trap. Any idea that crawls in there, even a vermin-infested critter carrying the hideous Black Thought-Plague can't get out.

When ideologues rule, the landscape festers with Black Thought --in our present case, neoconservative black thought. In such plagues once-healthy minds, having succumed to rampant media-borne pestulence, are piled high in gas-guzzing SUVs and hauled off to to be incinerated at a book-burning. It's a real mideaval European de ja vu, but with a Republican spin.

TOP

01.04.04 / 7:25 AM / LINK

Not keeping their eyes on the prize

In their efforts to derail Howard Dean, the Democratic establishment is signing on to the reelection campaign of George Bush.

As quoted in this article on Alternet, Robert Greenwald, producer and director of the acclaimed documentary Uncovered; The Whole Truth About the Iraq War, put it so, "I do worry that the Democrats are not thinking about the big picture and November in their aggressive efforts to really nail Dean." Some worry that the oft-repeated charges among Democrats that Dean is too liberal, too impulsive, or otherwise hard to elect will create a defeatist, self-fulfilling prophecy. Democratic candidates seem to have joined a number of pundits in working to establish a caricatured image of Dean that might be hard to overcome in November."

The leading new Republicans in this endeavor are Joe Lieberman and John Kerry. Now, there are things about Dean not to like, but jeez, will they stop writing campaign ads for George Bush.

Here's a bit Kerry penned for Republican ads to show that Dean is not fit to be president:

Borrowing from the Robert Frost poem, "The Road Not Taken," arguing that "two roads are diverging" for Democrats in the presidential race – "a road of confusion and contradiction" marked by "simple answers and the slip of the tongue," pursued by Dean, and "the road of strength and principle."

The road Kerry's taking is the one to be followed by Bush's inaugural parade. The long-jawed senator and others on the Demo-Dean crew will be featured on a float reserved for Democrat quislings who helped retain George Bush to implement more flawed policy. It's the road Bush will be taking back to the oval office.

What these Dean attackers are failing to do is to keep their eyes on the prize: getting rid of George Bush.

TOP



01.04.04 / 6:42 AM / LINK

Why do bad years happen to good people?

Did 2003 get you down? Don't despair, some good things happened. Here's a convenient review of 10 of them posted on Alternet.

TOP

SATURDAY 01.03.04 / 5:13 PM / LINK

Where is Bush hiding the little twerp perp, under the bed in the Lincoln bedroom?

Bill Clinton receives special favors from a White House intern who had a knack for generating moist winds and the press salivates buckets, slathering a path toward impeachment. George Bush harbors a likely criminal in the White House whose blowing was way more damaging --you know, that CIA-operative, cover-blowing-perp who outed Valerie Plame-- and the press disappears into the woodwork like a hoard of roaches fleeing light. Where's the justice? Where are all those drooling voyeurs ...those "investigative reporters" who chased Clinton for eight years wielding their porn scoops?

It's disgusting.

Read some observations on the White House clam-up by Josh Marshall here.

TOP

01.03.04 / 8:10 AM / LINK

Fine Tribute to Johnny Cash

Among all the celebrity trash you find out there everywhere you turn, there is occasionally a precious nugget.

Nugget.

Not All Bushwackers are Named Bush

Democratic presidential candidates, anyone of which will be running against the Republican slander machine if they win the the nomination, don't need each other's bushwacking to help them lose. But bushwackers are not all named Bush. And they're not just Republicans. Some of them are named Lieberman and Kerry.

In yesterday's commentary, Paul Krugman advised Lieberman and Kerry to shut up about about Howard Dean because what they're actually doing is writing copy for George Bush's re-election campaign ads.

As Krugman puts it, "...the Democratic Party has its own internal spoilers: candidates lagging far behind in the race for the nomination who seem more interested in tearing down Howard Dean than in defeating George Bush."

Put a sock in it, people.

TOP