March 2008: Tie A Yellow Ribbon...

Or make that: slap the ribbon on something that opens so that something else can be pumped in?

... When the "something else" might just be a reason for BushCo to invade a country?

[Image: Photoshop recreation of megastore parking lot sighting—
from a day I had no camera on me]

At Editor & Publisher, Greg Mitchell has been doing a "Five Years Ago" series about abysmal media coverage of the war. The whole series is not available, though some elements are online in other places—

— Questions We Wish They'd Asked Five Years Ago
— Five Years Ago 'Embeds' Got Ready for War Duty in Iraq: How Did That Work Out?
— And, on some journalists who got it right, there's this.

The series is based on Mitchell's book, So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits—and the President—Failed on Iraq. Amy Goodman's interview with Mitchell is here.

On the March 19 anniversary, Scott Horton posts: Six Questions for Aram Roston, Author of The Man Who Pushed America to War.

The discussion of Ahmad Chalabi paints the very striking picture of a master con-man out-conning the con-men who run BushCo. The con artist's maneuvers being enabled by his charming the uncritical members of our media into promoting his stories.

But, no surprise there: this bunch was charmed by Commander Guy.

Horton and Roston look at how Chalabi used his understanding of what kind of people inside The System could be worked. As during the Clinton administration, when he befriended right-wing congressional staffers who then helped push policies contrary to the administration's.

And, there's his outfoxing of the CIA—

"In the early 1990s, the CIA invented and paid for the Iraqi National Congress with U.S. taxpayer money, built up Chalabi as its leader and let him spend that money, and then in the mid 1990s, it cut him off. But then he used the credibility and the organization they gave him, and headed to Washington, D.C. to lobby for money overtly, bypassing the CIA completely. In fact, he was basically at war with them. And that animosity proved useful because they had bureaucratic enemies in D.C."

While a fancy foreigner like Chalabi can outmaneuver amateurs like the CIA, BushCo has things well in hand here in HomelandWorld.

On March 10, Scott Horton's reaction to the Elliot Spitzer sting: "It looks like the Bush Justice Department just bagged themselves another Democratic Governor."

On the 22nd, Horton offers evidence of "More Political Taint in the Spitzer Case".

Though I can't find the source, at the time I read a comment to the effect of:

Proof the Spitzer sting was engineered by political operatives in the DOJ—the news broke on a Monday morning instead of a Friday evening...

March 2007: Ladies Against Women

E-mail from Jesus' Best Administrative to Cruella:

I have been invited to speak at a Women's Conference on April 20-21. I need to be sure it will be ok for me to take off 1/2 day on the 20th before I accept.

An event sponsored by these Ladies?

(Image here; backstory here.)

As it comes to an end: Libby Trial Exposes Neocon Shadow Government, reports Sidney Schanberg.

Day by day, witness by witness, exhibit by exhibit, Patrick Fitzgerald, the prosecutor in the trial of Dick Cheney’s man, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, is accomplishing what no one else in Washington has been able to: He has impeached the Presidency of George W. Bush. Of course, it’s an unofficial impeachment, but it will also, through its documentation, be inerasable.

Interested persons can seek out documentation, the existence of which will be filtered from reaching the masses.

Greg Mitchell observes one classic example: Media Reviews Plame's Wardrobe -- But Not White House Coverup.

The verdict is on March 6, and the following day, "Inside the Jury Room...by Denis Collins, Juror #9" appears on Huffington Post (no longer online).

Juror #9 turns out to be a D.C. journo: a former employee of Washington Post—witness Bob Woodward was once his boss—and former neighbor of witness Tim Russert. Judging from the HuffPo piece, Collins' journalism contains a mix of the glib and the shallow that can only have helped his career.

Collins is full of gee-whiz admiration for the big players.
Of former boss, Bob Woodward, he gushes:

I immediately picture a party Woodward hosted at his Georgetown home for the Metro staff about 25 years ago. When I went looking for my girl friend, I found her with some copy aides and reporters in an attic piled high with boxes of files for one of his books.

"Unbelievable," said one of the reporters. "Look at the file labels. This entire box is backup for one interview."

Most players are introduced in a character sketch meant to sound tersely "hard-boiled." Robert Novak:

Robert Novak - Chicago Sun times. Television's "Capital Gang." After all the Ivy Leaguers, here comes a guy who looks like he was spawned in the era of sawdust and cigarette butts on newsroom floors. Might still write with a stubby pencil...

David Addington:

Today we started with David Addington. Attorney. Promoted to VP's Chief of Staff after Libby's resignation. We were impressed by his memory, gravitas, and deliberate way of speaking...

To be fair, Collins also gushes about his fellow jurors, whom he portrays as a fascinating cross-section of Washington middle-class professionals:

...our foreperson Susan, an accounting manager at one of DC's biggest law firms and, more impressive to us, a marathon runner, yoga diva and all around sweetheart...

Kate is 43, the mother aof a 14-month old daughter. She books conventions for hotels, knows a scary amount of pop culture and cracks me up at least three times a day...

The latter are the likely audience for a potboiler courtroom drama, full of lame attempts at hard-boiled prose. It's the normal stuff of magazines and best-sellers, but not so worthwhile as a supposedly authoritative view of this trial. And it's the normal stuff of how information is put through the trivialization filter, before feeding to the masses.

Despite how much the jurors liked that nice regular guy, Scooter, and—if Collins is any indication—how much they were bedazzled by the important people on display, the jury ultimately found Libby guilty on 4 of 5 counts.

Official and media reaction don't differ much from parody: "President's Statement on the Sad, Yet Insignificant Felony Conviction of Low-Level Functionary Scooter Libby."

Sentencing will be in June. In July, Bush will commute the sentence. As a pardon would have removed Libby's Fifth Amendment right to remain silent,
commutation will be the more effective way to make sure Libby stays quiet.

Regarding other regime assaults against justice—and media complicity in explaining them away—Glenn Greenwald posts "The most revealing three-minute YouTube clip ever."

...the video clip of the jovial and dismissive discussion of the U.S. attorneys scandal on yesterday's Chris Matthews Show...is completely typical of how our national media thinks and talks about political matters. But there just is something about this particular discussion and the giggling, vapid participants that is extra vivid and instructive on a visceral level.

...Presumably, even those incapable of ingesting the danger of having U.S. attorneys fired due to their refusal to launch partisan-motivated prosecutions (or stifle prosecutions for partisan reasons) at least understand that it is highly disturbing and simply intolerable for the Attorney General of the U.S. -- the head of our Justice Department -- to lie repeatedly about what happened, including to Congress, and to have done so with the obvious assent and (at the very least) implicit cooperation of the White House. Even the most vapid media stars should be able to understand that.

And yet so many of them do not. They continue to defend the administration by insisting that even if the accusations are correct, there was no real wrongdoing here...

Just as was true for their virtually unanimous insistence that there was no wrongdoing worth investigating in the Plame case -- including the serial lying and obstruction of justice from the Vice President's top aide, one of the most powerful people in the White House -- they also see nothing wrong whatsoever with serial lying and corruption by the Attorney General in this case.

Think about this: there are only two instances in the last six years where real investigations occurred in any of the Bush scandals -- this U.S. attorneys scandal (because Democrats now have subpoena power) and the Plame case (due to the fluke of two Republican DOJ officials with integrity, James Comey and Patrick Fitzgerald). And in both cases, it was revealed conclusively that top Bush officials -- at the highest levels of the government -- repeatedly and deliberately lied about what they did. Isn't that pattern obviously extremely disturbing? And imagine what would be revealed had there been real investigations -- journalistic or Congressional -- of all the other scandals that ended up dying an inconsequential death due to neglect and suppression.

Beltway media stars really aren't bothered by any of this in the slightest. It's how their world works. Initially, they even refused to talk about the story at all, insisting that there was nothing worth seeing here, and were all but forced into writing about it as a result of the tenacious coverage in the blogosphere, led by TPM's Josh Marshall. Their instinct is to lash out at anyone who suggests real wrongdoing on the part of the Republican political machinery that has ruled their town for so long.

There's much more, and it's worth reading.

Glenn's observations are echoed by parody, which is the closest to truth we can get: President Expresses Support for Alberto Gonzales in Super-Boring "Attorneygate" Scandal That Nobody Understands or Cares About Anyway

March 2006: Idolatry

For the other inhabitants of my workplace, the new season for obsessive "American Idol" watching has begun.

Somehow, it is not heretical for Christian fundies to devote themselves to an Idol.

Cruella and Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant do extensive analysis after each episode. Jesus' BAA ventures an opinion—"I like Lisa"—and is instantly put in her place by Cruella: "She's not special enough!" Jesus' BAA persists, trying to assert her value in both office hierarchy and as a wise judge of Idol material: "Give her a couple of years to grow up: she's just 16, she could be really special in a couple of years..."

The awesome (Cruella's word for the ones she likes) talent on display is something I avoid subjecting myself to. But I can't avoid week after week of hearing Cruella and Jesus' BAA do their commentaries and comparative ranking of "Paris"-"Kevin"-"Bucky"- et. al...

"If it's Country, that's good for Bucky and Kelly...Taylor did exactly what he said he would do..."

And there's the absorption in voting: yes, plenty of others have observed that more 'Murkans vote for an Idol than for political offices. Regrettably, Cruella and Jesus' BAA also vote in those other elections—for the biggest crooks and bullies the Republicans dredge up each cycle.

This month, the always classy Nino "Fascism with Flair" Scalia delivers a Fuck You to critics – in a Boston cathedral, no less. This is reported by the Archdiocese photographer who snapped Scalia's Sicilian gesture and heard the comment.

The photographer is promptly fired. [And by now, the Boston Herald has pulled most of the story from free access, but there's this.]

Of course, the Bush regime sends FUs to us all, every day.

Then there's the occasional event that would be big news—if only we had news.

Yet there are still those who persist in doing journalism. Charlie Savage reports on Bush's just-signed "Patriot Act" re-authorization. Signed with an addendum that "he did not feel obliged to obey requirements [to] inform congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers."

Throughout the years of this regime, there are frequent odd events around the country that show what happens when local authorities get drunk on Homeland Security cash; when the regime is quietly launching a trial balloon; or some combination of the two. These stories usually stay local, with few, if any, observers to connect them to larger events. But occasionally they're striking enough to be picked up by larger outlets.

An Alaska fishing village spends over $200,000 in Homelandization funds to install 80 surveillance cameras monitoring the 2400 residents. Some residents petition local government to remove the privacy-invading devices. The project is the brainchild of the town's mayor, who outlines for the LA Times reporter a scenario in which a Russian nuclear device is dropped at the harbor by 'maybe Mafiosi,' who ship it to Seattle, then: "'Phoooom,' he says, his hands blooming like a flower."

And the Washington Post reports Fairfax County is participating in "a White House pilot program to analyze wastewater from communities throughout the Potomac River Basin for the urinary byproducts of cocaine."

Eyewitness Muse suggests that area residents "Stand up for Liberty: Piss in Your Yard". And he concludes

...with ballooning deficits and growing poverty in America our priorities have gone straight to the shitter. Actually, this may be a good thing. Because that is the one place we might locate what Bush has done with our Bill of Rights.

Taylor—every woman's dream man, according to Cruella—becomes Idol. He is voted Idol, that is. But what comes after that? Is he crowned? Apotheosized? I have no understanding of how this metamorphosis of ordinary into Idol works.

One day at a supermarket checkout, I see this. The reason for the middle aged right-wing ladies' overstimulation is finally clear: they have found their answer to George Clooney!

Attraction to celebrity has a very long history, but I have to assume that higher standards of the past—those of an Oscar Wilde, say—could only rate the current mass-produced idols vapid and untalented.

Ah well, Oscar: some of us are trying to keep an eye on what's happening in the gutter, while also trying to look at the stars.

The rest gaze at the awesome stars of Idol.

March 2005: Families, Valued (Or Not)

This appears in the women's room at work... Can the arrival of $1 store Spring décor be far behind?

I return with an inter-office envelope; slip the jar inside while hoping no one opens the door; bring the concealed object back to my desk; scan it when the others have left for the day.

More of the label:

Angelic™
Raspberry Cordial
Creme Pour Le Corps
Angelic™ presents a heavenly hand and body moisturizer, especially formulated…for the feel and touch of silky elegance... [followed by a list of not so heavenly chemical-laden ingredients]
Mostly Memories™ Ozark, MO
An Angel will whisper the right way in your ear

A product that promises to make you hear voices? Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant needs no additional help with that...

And this will keep doctors away? We have quite a few "doctors" here—is this wish not subversive?

The arrival of March each year since 2003 means yet another anniversary of the horror that is the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Marking 3/19 last year was Bush's "no WMD under here" performance.

Early this month, U.S. military open fire on the car of released hostage, Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena.The circumstances are highly questionable, like everything about the occupation.

First published in Year One of the "war," Harper's posts Sam Smith's "The revision thing: A history of the Iraq war, told entirely in lies"—compiled from quotes by Administration officials and assorted henchman.

And not to forget the earlier "war on terror" front, there is this 3/19 account of random disappearance, torture, and death of civilians in Afghanistan, 'One huge US jail'.

In Shock and Awe measures for the home front, Republicans—along with enough hopeless Dems—are about to pass the bankruptcy bill. It's another win in the class war of the rich against the rest of us, and another step toward what Paul Krugman calls "The Debt-Peonage Society".

Then, there's the Schaivo exploitation circus. Juan Cole looks at the Republicans' "disturbing tendency to make private, intimate decisions matters of public interest and then to bring the courts and the legislature to bear on them." It's the "Islamization of the Republican Party," says Cole, and it brings us "closer to theocracy on the Muslim Brotherhood model."

As Bush interrupts his vacation to sign grandstanding legislation, a breathing tube is removed from the infant son of a non-white Texas mother —against her will. The treatment of that particular mother is the result of legislation signed in 1999 by life-lovin' Governor George W. Bush—a law that allows hospitals to remove life support from patients, against the wishes of their guardians.

And in a bizarre piece of timing: the moment Schaivo becomes the big media story, Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant is in the midst of family dicussions about an elderly aunt just placed on life support.

The medical verdict is that the situation is hopeless, and the uncle consents to ending support. Jesus' BAA complacently wears her "All Is For The Best And Is In Heaven's Plan" look.

Then, there's some business about a resident talking—Bible in hand?—to the uncle... Most of the family—including Jesus' BAA —are upset at the resident's interference, but the uncle decides to continue life support.

About ten days later, I see Jesus' BAA with her most Rapture™ ready expression: she says tells me she is on her way to buy a get-well card for her aunt, who has come out of the coma.

The unexpected development is wonderful, of course. What is not so wonderful is the smugness of Jesus' BAA's new position: All Is For The Best And This Was Heaven's Plan All Along. Also not wonderful is the inevitable next step: she now considers herself an expert on a situation like Schaivo's.

One encouraging thing about the larger issue: the Republicans' gambit backfires, as normal people find they resent the political intrusion into such a difficult private matter.

Interestingly, Cruella tries talking sense to Jesus' BAA about Schaivo. Which she does by laying on some fundie-speak very unlike her usual manner: "Just look at your Bible! It says the wife follows the husband!"

Funny in itself, but the real howler is the idea of Cruella's not being the boss in that marriage!

The pitch goes nowhere with Jesus' BAA.

But at a later date, she lets the holiness slip long enough to reveal a little of the ol' Sin Of Jealousy. While Cruella is away for a week in Vegas, Jesus' BAA bursts out to the student helper: "I don't know how she has a disabled husband and can afford to go, and my husband works and I can't afford a trip!"

Clever Sister reacts:

ha ha! why can't she use her tax cut to go on a trip?
or go into debt & help the economy!

Cruella's trip is a Family Values get-together with her mother and her daughter [the good daughter— not the other, overly independent one].

Not only do the three generations get to commune with each other, but they do it in a truly magical setting—where "liberal" is a good thing, seeing as it precedes "slots."