JABbering Stooge

Bill,

We need to talk. Either that, or you need to seek professional help.

I want to take you back to the 2004 Iowa primary. Howard Dean went into the primary the presumptive front-runner. He finished a dismal third place.

But the primary result wasn’t the story. It’s what happened afterwards — the infamous “Dean Scream.” The former Vermont governor’s exuberant speech to disappointed supporters, intended to boost flagging morale, got twisted into the ranting of a raving lunatic. And then the scream got more airtime than Jerry Falwell’s “America is to blame for 9/11″ remarks. The 24-hour cable news channels played it over and over on an endless loop, because it perfectly fit the narrative that they were already spinning that Howard Dean was a deranged nutjob.

Never mind that the crowd was so loud that Dean had to yell to be heard. Never mind that Dean was using a unidirectional mic, meaning that only his words would be picked up. It fit the tall tale the “liberal” media was selling, so they ran with it. And it proved to be the final nail in the proverbial coffin of Dean’s presidential bid.

And now Obama is having his “Dean Scream” moment in the media. On Friday, the media picked up on several video clips of the Illinois senator’s pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, making controversial, if not inflammatory comments on racial issues. And they ran with it, just like they ran with the “Dean Scream.” Just like they ran with the Obama’s a super double-secret Muslim smear. Just like they ran with the Rezko story (never mind that Obama had absolutely no connection to the crimes for which Rezko is being charged). Just like when Tim Russert played “Six Degrees of Louis Farrakhan” with Obama during the Ohio debate a few weeks ago.

While Wright’s comments are indeed unconscionable and mean-spirited, Obama is not the only one with “crazy pastor” skeletons in his closet. Just look at Sen. John McCain’s supporters. McCain actively sought, and received, the endorsement of one Rev. John Hagee, who has called the Catholic Church “The Whore of Babylon.” Hagee is also a big time Rapture cheerleader, and like most conservative Christians, only supports Israel as a means to hasten Armageddon, where Jews will be converted by the Sword of God™. Naturally, Hagee’s comments on Catholicism drew the ire of professional outrage maven Bill Donohue — the only time the “liberal” media mentioned them.

In addition to Hagee, McCain’s “spiritual adviser” is televangelist Rod Parsley. (Insert Simon and Garfunkel joke here.) Parsley has claimed that the sole purpose of the founding of America is not to serve as a beacon of democracy and freedom, but to “destroy Islam.”

Will the comments of McCain supporters get any press coverage in the wake of the Rev. Wright scandal? When pigs fly. After all, the Arizona senator treated the press to barbecue at his ranch, so anything he or his supporters do is a-OK with them.

Bottom line: Nothing Obama can say on the Rev. Wright issue will appease the right wing and their media enablers. They’ve already decided that this effectively makes Obama radioactive. But then again, they’d decided that long ago, hadn’t they?

I managed to get one more editorial published before the end of the semester. My last one should’ve been published, but the opinions editor for the paper I write for came up with this new rule that bloggers can’t post anything they want submitted for publication to their blogs until after publication. Personally, I think it’s a BS rule, but I don’t make editorial decisions, and I have taken more than enough space even mentioning the subject. So without further ado, here is my editorial in its origninal glory (the hacked-to-pieces version is available here - entitled, appropriately enough, "’Tis the season to vilify"):

Freedom for Me, but not for Thee

I must say that I am in shocked awe at the destructive capabilities of the thugs who have hijacked the Republican Party. It has taken them a mere pair of decades to do what no external military force could in all of America’s 229-year history – they have reduced our once firm democratic institutions to rubble and made a mockery of the American ideals of freedom and tolerance for differing opinions. I shall present a small sample of the continuing litany of crimes against democracy being perpetrated in your name below.

Strumming the Guitar While New Orleans Drowns

I miss having a real leader rather than a pretender to the throne as Leader of the Free World. I miss those heady days when the most pressing issues were what to do with the budget surplus and the mainstream media’s running tally of the number of women the president had boinked. But most importantly, I miss having a federal government that actually worked, even in the midst of a natural disaster of epic proportions.

Seeing in a Mirror Dimly: A Preview of the Fall ’05 Political Season

As summer fades into autumn, students’ minds are filled with anticipation of the coming school year. This is entirely natural, as we humans often attempt – sometimes blindly – to prognosticate on the future in the hopes of a better world. With this in mind, I would like to offer a preview of the upcoming political season here in Texas and around the country.

"That was fast. Struck by a divine revelation, were you?"
- Marcus to Lennier, Babylon 5, "Endgame"

Has the Catholic Church finally gone off the deep end? Was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger really the best they could do for a new pope? I’m serious. I don’t see how Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, will do anything other than harm the Catholic Church’s reputation in the world, unless one considers intolerance for dissenters a vital part of one’s reputation.
Click here to see the rest of the story…

Submitted for your perusal is a copy of my next editorial. I figured people might like to see the original, because the version that will appear in the student newspaper I write for will likely be cut in half, with important details omitted as the rest dies a slow, painful death due to hack drag-n-drop treatment of the word order.

For the life of me, I cannot understand what drives conservative pundits and their fans to so brazenly commit the rhetorical sin of hypocrisy in the service of their groupthink-driven narrative of how America is and how it should be. Nevertheless, the fact remains that such hypocrisy exists, and that it should be dealt with in the only way possible: exposing it to the light of day and hoping that you, the reader, are armed with the knowledge needed to survive the coming Uncivil War.
Click here to see the rest of the story…

The “Liberal” Media Doesn’t Get It (Part 2)

[Irving] Janis’ original definition of the term [“groupthink”] was "a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members’ strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action."

I really don’t know why the “liberal” media would keep covering for an administration that hates them because said administration thinks the media aren’t flattering them 24/7. When the media isn’t distracting Americans from Bush’s appointment of partisan hacks to the U.N. and the World Bank with lurid tales of Michael Jackson’s peccadilloes, they’re cheerleading him as he helps the American Inquisition insert government into a family’s private medical turmoil.

And yet, this is not enough to satisfy the GOP. It’s not enough that they control the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government and the vast majority of the media. Like a bizarre mutation of George Orwell’s 1984, they want everyone parroting the Republican talking points (or is it “shout-down-a-liberal” points?) constantly, and anyone who does otherwise is guilty of a thoughtcrime worthy of execution on sight – just ask former Green Beret Bo Gritz, who apparently wants to play James Kopp to Michael Schiavo and Judge Greer’s Dr. Barnett Slepian.

Consider also the following examples of the Grand Thuggery Party’s desire to control all thought, by hook or by crook:

• In his first four years in office, President Bush spent a total of $250 million on public relations efforts (by comparison Bill Clinton spent $128 million at the height of the Lewinsky "scandal"). Although congress has final authority on White House PR spending, it is interesting to note what Bush used the money on. The $250 million includes the lavish extravagances that lead to the payola scandal - $240,000 to Armstrong Williams to promote No Child Left Behind, $21,500 to Maggie Gallagher and $10,000 to Michael McManus for their marriage promotion efforts. It is also believed that part of the money funded Bush’s propaganda pieces disguised as news reports.
• Bush kept the meetings of his Energy Task Force hidden from public purview, even going so far as to use the same legal stalling tactics that conservatives chastised former president Clinton for. Transparent government advocacy groups like Judicial Watch had to fight tooth and nail to win FOIA access to the Task Force documents.
• In both the run-up to Election 2004 and in pitching his Social Security privatization Ponzi scheme, President Bush spoke to hand-picked crowds consisting solely of supporters. Methods to keep people who disagreed with him in the slightest ranged from ordinary Secret Service casing of each speaking location to coercing attendees into signing “loyalty oaths” that said the signer support everything Bush says or does 10000%. (Do you think Britney Spears signed one of those?)
• And then there are the scandals surrounding Tom Delay, most of which stem from his involvement in the 2002 midterm elections and subsequent redistricting debacle. After three of his corporate associates were indicted last year for their role in the dirty deeds, the House made several efforts to change the rules so that Delay might escape scrutiny or accountability.

From the above examples, it becomes abundantly clear that the GOP considers “groupthink” not as a sociological phenomenon with unfortunate consequences, but standard operating procedure, and any attendant slide towards fascism merely the cost of doing business.

(See original post on the old blog here - originally posted Mar. 21, 2005 6:30 PM)

Note: This is the first part of a two part editorial series on the whole Jeff Gannon/James Guckert scandal. I plan to submit it in as many places as I can.

The “Liberal” Media Doesn’t Get It (Part 1)

If there was ever a story that ought to put to rest the lie that the media has a liberal bias, it ought to be the ever-evolving story about Jeff Gannon. A male prostitute with fake journalism credentials and tax evasion problems is allowed to get within knife-throwing distance of a sitting president and ask softball questions that have nothing to do with honest journalism and everything to do with naked partisanship. Under any other circumstances, given the media environment of “news as entertainment,” this has all the makings of a juicy story worthy of at least a modicum of coverage – a sex scandal, a national security element ripe for fear mongering, and indications of illegal activity by the executive branch.

Instead, what we get is more in line with “did those evil liberal bloggers violate Jeff Gannon/James Guckert’s privacy?” as the story is quickly buried on page Z 269. That at least was the message when Gannon/Guckert appeared on the February 10 edition of Wolf Blitzer Reports – Blitzer acted more like a guidance councilor comforting Gannon from “those mean, nasty liberals” than a journalist seeking the truth.

Question: Where was Wolf Blitzer’s comfort for the Chuy’s manager who carded Jenna and Barbara Bush when members of FreeRepublic.com posted her contact information for harassment purposes?

Howard Kurtz, ever eager to cover up blatant examples of pro-Republican bias in the media, declared that it is very easy to get a daily press pass – you just have to show that you are a credentialed member of a valid media outlet that regularly publishes news items. I’d love to hear Kurtz explain how Gannon was able to get a press pass a month before “Talon News,” which Gannon supposedly wrote for, even existed, especially given that Helen Thomas has been ostracized for asking tough questions and Sara McClendon was denied access for three months in 2001, also for asking hard questions.

Most recently, Democrats in Congress in a rare show of backbone, introduced a Resolution of Inquiry regarding Gannongate, yet not a peep is heard about it on NBC, CBS or anywhere. Apparently, the media has decided that you’d rather hear about what a sick, twisted pervert Michael Jackson is.

And l’affair Gannon isn’t the only place where the media has done everything in its power to protect President Bush. Gannon apparently had access to a secret CIA memo involving Valerie Plame – the same Valerie Plame who Robert Novak illegally outed as a CIA agent. Yet the “liberal” media is silent on the issue – Dan Rather’s sloppily researched story on Bush’s National Guard service received far more attention than the Plame outing.

Imagine if you will all of the above happening under a Democratic president – a fake journalist is given unprecedented and potentially felonious access to the White House, asking softball questions that ridicule the opposition and leaking secret memos to friendly pundits. The “liberal” media would jump on the story like a pack of dogs on a three-legged cat, and the Democrat’s presidency would collapse like a house of cards.

When you connect these dots, its clear that the media is actively manipulating what you see and hear in order to promote the idea that Republicans are infallible – its those evil Democrats who need watching. And the worst thing is, they’re getting played for suckers, as I will detail in my next editorial.

(See original post on the old blog here - originally posted Mar. 4, 2005 5:05 PM)