Politicking Time Bomb
"Let freedom reign" in Iraq, sayeth our leader, Jethro Mussolini.
The use of "reign" promotes an underlying power and force to keep the order. Whereas the use of "let freedom ring" would've promoted the elevation of a natural state of being. In Bushland, power and force trumps all, so "freedom" will reign, or else.
George W. Bush's political fortunes have been on a downward trajectory for more than a year, but I remain afraid that when all is said and done, the most profound quote of Election '04 will be Bush assuredly telling Tim Russert: "I don't intend to lose."
I think part of the reason John Kerry has not yet been able to take command of the presidential race is that many swing voters are confused right now. They were so sure that Reagan/Bush Republicans were better at fighting wars than Democrats, and now they're not sure what to think.
After two rah-rah CNN videogame wars in three years, augmented by reminders of who supposedly won the Cold War, plenty of people still need to see something dramatically reassuring from Kerry on National Defense, something beyond his Vietnam valor and "I'm not Bush" status.
Perhaps all it will take is simple repetition of slick advertising and message, but maybe it will take more -- like getting a former Supreme Allied Commander (Wesley Clark) involved, either as VP or as a designated Cabinet member.
I'd be fine with Clark or John Edwards as Kerry's VP choice, and every other possibility makes me nervous. John McCain's too conservative, although a lot of swing voters want him close to the top. Vilsack and Richardson and Biden (and Rendell & Graham & Cleland) are wild cards, who might or might not resonate on the stump. Gephardt or Bayh would be bitchslaps at the Dean wing of the party, and Bush/Cheney will really have an opening to rebound on the National Security issue if either of those two get the nod.
I slightly favor Clark over the courtly and charismatic Edwards, because I think his military presence may well provide insurance if a new "October surprise" threatens to put Bush ahead. But if Edwards keeps connecting with swing voters as he did during the primaries, perhaps that will suffice if Bush continues to stumble.
This "personally uncomfortable" business I've heard that Kerry has with Edwards, if true and if JK allows it to dictate his Veep choice, doesn't bode well for how effective a Kerry Administration would be. If Kerry thinks the needed transformation of the government is All About Him and his wonkish Beltway wisdom, he's got a rude awakening coming. He's going to need some populist mojo and plenty of it, long past next November, to have any chance of making a real difference as president. Kicking the odious Bush out only wins half the battle.
And then there's Ralph.
The hopeless arrogance, the sour sarcasm, the tone-deaf rhetoric...why, Ralph Nader is positively Bush-like!
Even if you agree with a good portion of the man's ideas, and even if you agree that there's more similiarity between Democrats and Republicans than you'd like, it's crystal clear to me that he's not the one to take a progressive cause to a higher level.
As a matter of fact, there's ample evidence that he's running for president this year more to punish Democrats for not adopting more of his policies, than to help kick the incompetent, corrupt, plutocratic and warmongering GOP from power. Against the advice of supporters like Michael Moore in 2000, he campaigned in swing states (including the decisive state of Florida) just before the election; in this Village Voice article, a close aide to Nader is quoted as saying they would not campaign in "safe states" only, because "we want to punish the Democrats, we want to hurt them, wound them."
A person who'll vote for Nader in November must have such levels of willful ignorance and/or arrogant denial as to need their head examined. One can make a reasoned argument that the difference between the parties has significantly increased since Bush took office, and Molly Ivins' fine book Bushwhacked is one place that points out evidence of this. But even small differences in policy -- on healthcare, the environment, reproductive rights or dozens of other areas -- can still directly effect many thousands or even millions of people. Focusing too much on the macro in politics (not enough difference between parties) can cause one to lose sight of the micro (the actual differences), and I don't think a truly aware and compassionate person would abandon the people affected by said differences, just because both major parties don't meet his or her personal standards.
I admit it, I voted for Nader in 1996 as a protest against Bill Clinton's drift to the right, but that seems a long time ago now. I'm not proud that my vote helped give the guy a reason to run again and play a key role in delivering the 2000 election to Bush.
These days, the general Naderite mindset is a poisonous combo of insular comfort and petty resentment. Maybe it always was.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Sunday, June 13, 2004
Linky McLinkerson
While I wait for the overdue High Hat #4 to unleash my latest article, I'll take care of bidness here by showcasing the latest additions to this blog's "Links" section:
*Salon's Table Talk forum, which I recently returned to after a 2-1/2 year absence. The monthly price for the pay-only service has gotten down to a level where even I can afford it.
*Moonshine Mountain, the blog of the smartly funny (or funnily smart) author and film critic Scott Von Doviak.
*One of the best writers posting in cyberspace, in my humble opinion, finally has his own blog: film critic Tom Block's Tom Blog.
*Vitamin B Glandular Show, another serving of the all-important hybrid of humor and smarts, courtesy of Elston, my primary MST3K tape supplier.
While I wait for the overdue High Hat #4 to unleash my latest article, I'll take care of bidness here by showcasing the latest additions to this blog's "Links" section:
*Salon's Table Talk forum, which I recently returned to after a 2-1/2 year absence. The monthly price for the pay-only service has gotten down to a level where even I can afford it.
*Moonshine Mountain, the blog of the smartly funny (or funnily smart) author and film critic Scott Von Doviak.
*One of the best writers posting in cyberspace, in my humble opinion, finally has his own blog: film critic Tom Block's Tom Blog.
*Vitamin B Glandular Show, another serving of the all-important hybrid of humor and smarts, courtesy of Elston, my primary MST3K tape supplier.
Clown Cojones
Don't let the name 'rodeo clown' fool you
by Greg Thomas Hough
Part 1 of 2. Originally published June 1999 in the Molalla (OR) Pioneer newspaper.
Molalla Buckeroo spectators see a rodeo arena filled with many stories, many dimensions.
Many of the paying customers are enthusiastic and knowledgeable rodeo fans who keep coming back each year for the town's big party.
In the ring are the competitors, tough-as-nails journeymen fighting for prestige and money. In the air are the tones of the rodeo announcer, skillfully explaining the competition to novice and expert alike.
And then there are the clowns and bullfighters, as essential to the rodeo experience as any competitor or fan. For it is they, with their skill in handling huge and sometimes unwieldly animals in the ring, who bear perhaps the biggest responsibility of keeping it all safe for family entertainment. Without them, it could get mighty ugly.
The Buckeroo again this year is fortunate to have a bullfighting crew featuring some of the best in the business. Returning this year are bullfighters Mike Gotham and Dan Newman, along with rodeo clown Donnie Landis.
The term "rodeo clown" can be misleading to the novice. For as Landis will tell you, a clown is simply "a bullfighter who's also funny."
And the 38-year old Landis, who's been riding bulls for 26 years, has a long history of entertaining rodeo crowds.
"I've worked several rodeos with Donnie," said Gotham. "He's a real joker, in and out of the arena. He's always cracking a joke."
Landis says he's the only working rodeo clown he knows of who wears "a big sponge nose," and he can trace the origins of that nose to a past Buckeroo rodeo.
"There was a clown who worked the Buckeroo bleachers named 'Gordo,'" Landis recalled. "He had a red nose, like a circus clown.
"One year, after a bullfighting session, Gordo came out into the ring and said something like, 'Hey Donnie, hey Bob...how you guys doing?' But he didn't realize that they still had bulls in the chute to spill, and one of the bulls ran out and hit him.
"We could tell he wasn't really hurt by it -- and when he got up, his 'nose' was in his mouth. We just couldn't help but start laughing. So I started wearing the red nose after that."
Landis, a Californian who works more than 30 rodeos a year, says he works the crowd with "spontaneous stuff, off-the-cuff. You see something happens, you make a joke about it. Above all, you keep them wanting more."
But Landis' job, with its quips and cue cards and baggy blue jeans, remains serious business within the ring. Often working within a barrel, and in close communication with the other bullfighters in the ring, the clown and his cohorts distract a bull, irritating and distracting the animal so that a fallen cowboy has a precious few seconds to retreat from danger.
"There's time during the ride when we have to let each other know where we are," Landis said. "You're worrying about not running into 1800 pounds of hamburger; you don't want to trip over another 150 pounds as well."
Sometimes things don't always come off safely, and both Landis and Gotham have had their fair share of injuries in the ring.
"I've broken everything from my toe to my neck," Landis said. "I've broke ribs, ankles -- but it never kept me out of action. It's the school of hard knocks: you don't work, you don't get the money."
Part 2: "Then you've got to step between the cowboy and the bull, and it's a controlled chaos."
Don't let the name 'rodeo clown' fool you
by Greg Thomas Hough
Part 1 of 2. Originally published June 1999 in the Molalla (OR) Pioneer newspaper.
Molalla Buckeroo spectators see a rodeo arena filled with many stories, many dimensions.
Many of the paying customers are enthusiastic and knowledgeable rodeo fans who keep coming back each year for the town's big party.
In the ring are the competitors, tough-as-nails journeymen fighting for prestige and money. In the air are the tones of the rodeo announcer, skillfully explaining the competition to novice and expert alike.
And then there are the clowns and bullfighters, as essential to the rodeo experience as any competitor or fan. For it is they, with their skill in handling huge and sometimes unwieldly animals in the ring, who bear perhaps the biggest responsibility of keeping it all safe for family entertainment. Without them, it could get mighty ugly.
The Buckeroo again this year is fortunate to have a bullfighting crew featuring some of the best in the business. Returning this year are bullfighters Mike Gotham and Dan Newman, along with rodeo clown Donnie Landis.
The term "rodeo clown" can be misleading to the novice. For as Landis will tell you, a clown is simply "a bullfighter who's also funny."
And the 38-year old Landis, who's been riding bulls for 26 years, has a long history of entertaining rodeo crowds.
"I've worked several rodeos with Donnie," said Gotham. "He's a real joker, in and out of the arena. He's always cracking a joke."
Landis says he's the only working rodeo clown he knows of who wears "a big sponge nose," and he can trace the origins of that nose to a past Buckeroo rodeo.
"There was a clown who worked the Buckeroo bleachers named 'Gordo,'" Landis recalled. "He had a red nose, like a circus clown.
"One year, after a bullfighting session, Gordo came out into the ring and said something like, 'Hey Donnie, hey Bob...how you guys doing?' But he didn't realize that they still had bulls in the chute to spill, and one of the bulls ran out and hit him.
"We could tell he wasn't really hurt by it -- and when he got up, his 'nose' was in his mouth. We just couldn't help but start laughing. So I started wearing the red nose after that."
Landis, a Californian who works more than 30 rodeos a year, says he works the crowd with "spontaneous stuff, off-the-cuff. You see something happens, you make a joke about it. Above all, you keep them wanting more."
But Landis' job, with its quips and cue cards and baggy blue jeans, remains serious business within the ring. Often working within a barrel, and in close communication with the other bullfighters in the ring, the clown and his cohorts distract a bull, irritating and distracting the animal so that a fallen cowboy has a precious few seconds to retreat from danger.
"There's time during the ride when we have to let each other know where we are," Landis said. "You're worrying about not running into 1800 pounds of hamburger; you don't want to trip over another 150 pounds as well."
Sometimes things don't always come off safely, and both Landis and Gotham have had their fair share of injuries in the ring.
"I've broken everything from my toe to my neck," Landis said. "I've broke ribs, ankles -- but it never kept me out of action. It's the school of hard knocks: you don't work, you don't get the money."
Part 2: "Then you've got to step between the cowboy and the bull, and it's a controlled chaos."
Electric Pornoland
Today's earworm: "The Electric Version" - The New Pornographers
Another prime music pickup recommended by the smart folks posting at PeoplesForum's "I Spit On Your Groove" music forum. Catchy hooks galore, mixed with production influenced by the grooviest tricks of Britpop over the past four decades. Vibrant and sex-ay.
From the 2003 CD Electric Version. Other memorable tracks include "The New Face of Zero and One" and "July Jones."
Today's earworm: "The Electric Version" - The New Pornographers
Another prime music pickup recommended by the smart folks posting at PeoplesForum's "I Spit On Your Groove" music forum. Catchy hooks galore, mixed with production influenced by the grooviest tricks of Britpop over the past four decades. Vibrant and sex-ay.
From the 2003 CD Electric Version. Other memorable tracks include "The New Face of Zero and One" and "July Jones."
Monday, June 07, 2004
Machine Like
There's a war in El Salvador
There's a war in El Salvador
Ronnie Reagan's charging up the hill
And you and the mamas and papas are footin' the bill
Bill
Bill
I love you so I always will
from "Letter To My Congressman"
by Dan Haley & Dennis Kenny, 1983
My brother and I, who spent most of the first decade of our adult lives dealing with the discouraging greed, corruption and banality of the Ronald Reagan presidency, came to recognize Reagan as a dangerous puppet of corporate interests, a charismatic spokesmodel masking the rise of a cruel and plutocratic power paradigm. He was Bob Dobbs' head personified, and Robin Williams was only half-joking when calling him Walt Disney's last and ultimate automotron: "Fuck it, we'll make a president."
He came to power, first in California and later in Washington D.C., at two moments (1966 and 1980) when there was heightened doubt and confusion about the post-New Deal welfare state and security state. Ma and Pa America started to wonder whether government notions of charity and containment remained viable, in a world where enemies foreign (Communists) and domestic (counterculture) were skillfully being demonized by the media. I'd say that this crisis of confidence arose less from inherent flaws in the government system, and more from the trauma-filled trifecta of assassination, war and scandal, but the "anti-government" Reagan and his handlers had the knack of seizing upon our moments of weakness with ruthless political aplomb.
Reagan wasn't as much a Great Communicator as a Great Exploiter, capitalizing on the breakdowns of his era not with sober analysis, but with Disneyfied fantasies about the utter sanctity of America, where God and General Motors share a shining city on the hill. And part of what made him politically successful was that he really believed in those Disneyfied fantasies.
The reality of Reagan's legacy, as this William Rivers Pitt essay makes clear, features plenty of sordid details, but just try breaking through the din of revisionist praise for the man during this week of "mourning in America." Just try challenging the conventional wisdom that he "won the Cold War without firing a shot," when in fact his bellicosity and obstinance made him the weakest link of a tag-team effort undermining Soviet power in the '80s, a team that included Lech Walesa, Pope John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Ronald W. Reagan gave a formidable bloc of shallow and desperate voters some reassuring illusions, like a drug dealer gives a depressed person some Dr. Feelgoods. Nearly a quarter-century after he assumed the highest office in the land, a disturbing amount of people still want them Feelgoods, bad.
And he's shittin' on you
And he's pissin' on me
And he don't give a fuck about democracy
There's a war in El Salvador
There's a war in El Salvador
Ronnie Reagan's charging up the hill
And you and the mamas and papas are footin' the bill
Bill
Bill
I love you so I always will
from "Letter To My Congressman"
by Dan Haley & Dennis Kenny, 1983
My brother and I, who spent most of the first decade of our adult lives dealing with the discouraging greed, corruption and banality of the Ronald Reagan presidency, came to recognize Reagan as a dangerous puppet of corporate interests, a charismatic spokesmodel masking the rise of a cruel and plutocratic power paradigm. He was Bob Dobbs' head personified, and Robin Williams was only half-joking when calling him Walt Disney's last and ultimate automotron: "Fuck it, we'll make a president."
He came to power, first in California and later in Washington D.C., at two moments (1966 and 1980) when there was heightened doubt and confusion about the post-New Deal welfare state and security state. Ma and Pa America started to wonder whether government notions of charity and containment remained viable, in a world where enemies foreign (Communists) and domestic (counterculture) were skillfully being demonized by the media. I'd say that this crisis of confidence arose less from inherent flaws in the government system, and more from the trauma-filled trifecta of assassination, war and scandal, but the "anti-government" Reagan and his handlers had the knack of seizing upon our moments of weakness with ruthless political aplomb.
Reagan wasn't as much a Great Communicator as a Great Exploiter, capitalizing on the breakdowns of his era not with sober analysis, but with Disneyfied fantasies about the utter sanctity of America, where God and General Motors share a shining city on the hill. And part of what made him politically successful was that he really believed in those Disneyfied fantasies.
The reality of Reagan's legacy, as this William Rivers Pitt essay makes clear, features plenty of sordid details, but just try breaking through the din of revisionist praise for the man during this week of "mourning in America." Just try challenging the conventional wisdom that he "won the Cold War without firing a shot," when in fact his bellicosity and obstinance made him the weakest link of a tag-team effort undermining Soviet power in the '80s, a team that included Lech Walesa, Pope John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Ronald W. Reagan gave a formidable bloc of shallow and desperate voters some reassuring illusions, like a drug dealer gives a depressed person some Dr. Feelgoods. Nearly a quarter-century after he assumed the highest office in the land, a disturbing amount of people still want them Feelgoods, bad.
And he's shittin' on you
And he's pissin' on me
And he don't give a fuck about democracy
