April 2008: Business As Usual

Business being: the ongoing
debasement of our political
process and news media, with
Republicans in control of both.



www.deceptiondollar.com - full view
More dollar themes here

Glenn Greenwald's new book on the subject is released. The focus is on

...the deceitful electoral tactics and manipulative personality-based myths the Right has perfected and continuously deploys to win elections, and the ways in which our slothful, vapid and complicit establishment press propagates those myths.

Which has been the key to the radical Republican power grab, since there is no real public support for their policies.

As always, Greenwald uses his blog to cover daily examples, such as, "The harmony between the Right and the media", describing the April 16 Obama-Clinton "debate" of "substance-free 'issues'"—which boils down to idiotic sound-bites like who does or does not wear a flag pin.

Driftglass does a brilliant post on the subject, updating William Jennings Bryant for an era when Flag Pin has become the currency of our politics:

You shall not crucify us upon a Cross of Bling.

With his ongoing takedowns of media pundits, driftgass in in fine form this month. On William Kristol's use of "hatespeech-as-genre":

Kristol’s writing fails in its first duty because he shows us nothing.

He risks nothing.

He illuminates nothing.

Instead he has built himself a toasty little sniper's nest on the roof of the New York Times and merrily pot-shots anything to the left of Mussolini.

Except now that his Conservative Movement has been shown to be the blood-drunk fascist whorehouse that the Dirty Fucking Hippies have been warning us all about, the word "Liberal" has lost its pejorative currency.

So, late to the party as usual, Kristol now does what the rest of the Pig People Peerage have been doing for five years: switching from screaming "Liberal!" at 100 decibels to screaming "Commie!" at 150.

John Stosell—

...unlike a thousand other shrieking pinheads calling into talk radio or falling off of skinhead tavern barstools across this great land of ours, Stossel collects a very juicy paycheck spreading his depraved world view over our airwaves.

He is a man who carves himself out a fine, fat living heroically and ferociously defending the predations of billion-dollar corporations against unarmed citizens, so I really can’t bring myself to feel too bad in making my small contribution in the direction of moving him towards a more hair-net-and-fry-vat-based career.

As to Thomas "Suck on this" Friedman, driftglass writes of Friedman's speaking appearance at Brown, where a pie is thrown by environmental activists—

And what we have learned these last seven years...was that the Miserably Incompetent Punditocracy bubble is a fundamental threat to our open society because there is no teevee network sane enough, no newspaper honorable enough, no bullshit scrubber efficient enough, to protect an open society from the Miserably Incompetent Punditocracy.

And what we needed to do was to go over to that part of the media, I'm afraid, and burst that bubble.

We needed to go over here basically and take out a very big pie right in the heart of that feculent fiefdom and burst that bubble.

And there was only one way to do it. Because part of that bubble said: "We've got you. We control the fucking media and you will open wide and swallow out adolescent, Beltway-centric, Right-slanted drivel because you have no other choice. Quit whining about the truth. Nobody gives a shit about the truth at the Big Boy Table. Fuck the truth; all we care about are our seven-figure salaries, power-whoring and our sweet speaking-and-book deals."

...Well. Suck. On. This.

OK? That was what this pieing was about.

April 2007 (II): Being "vs. the !&#*!@"- vs.- Being "the !&#*!@"

It's an April 11 good-bye to Kurt Vonnegut.
Edie Vonnegut/AP

Two months before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, In These Times interviewed Vonnegut—"Kurt Vonnegut vs. the !&#*!..."— done :

I myself feel that our country, for whose Constitution I fought in a just war, might as well have been invaded by Martians and body snatchers. Sometimes I wish it had been. What has happened, though, is that it has been taken over by means of the sleaziest, low-comedy, Keystone Cops-style coup d'etat imaginable. And those now in charge of the federal government are upper-crust C-students who know no history or geography, plus not-so-closeted white supremacists, aka "Christians," and plus, most frighteningly, psychopathic personalities, or "PPs."

...What has allowed so many PPs to rise so high in corporations, and now in government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next... Do this! Do that! Mobilize the reserves! Privatize the public schools! Attack Iraq! Cut health care! Tap everybody's telephone! Cut taxes on the rich! Build a trillion-dollar missile shield! Fuck habeas corpus and the Sierra Club and In These Times, and kiss my ass!

Scott Horton revisits Vonnegut's 1972 Republican convention coverage for Harper's. He was prescient in reporting its transformation to a theocratic party promoting presidential authority as a substitute for the Constitution. Horton: "Vonnegut's portrait was derided as goofy, lacking in sobriety and earnestness. But it was actually more lasting and penetrating than that of the professional political commentators spouting the conventional wisdom from their newsroom armchairs."

Fox broadcasts a piece on the death of the "despondent leftist" and "failed suicide."

Among the sane, there are truer memories of someone whose voice will be greatly missed. One good obit is here.

This month, Charlie Savage receives a Pulitzer, for his series of reports that began last April—first here, then here—on Bush's use of signing statements to circumvent laws.

Glenn Greenwald writes on Savage's role as "one of the very few journalists in the country who understood, investigated and reported on the radical theories of executive power embraced by this President. And once he began reporting on those abuses, he was relentless in his efforts to draw public attention to the administration's conduct."

Four years after the events, the House holds hearings into the military's lies about Jessica Lynch's phony rescue, as well as into the earlier death of Pat Tillman. Glenn discusses the hearings, in light of what they reveal about the media's role in spreading these frauds.

And how could a month go by without a lurid story about a fundamentalist Bush appointee like Randall Tobias—as Digby says, the "abstinence makes the heart grow fonder" AIDS czar—who resigns after being found out:

...Tobias told ABC News he had several times called the "Pamela Martin and Associates" escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage." Tobias, who is married, said there had been "no sex," and that recently he had been using another service "with Central Americans" to provide massages.

In its shameful April 18 abortion ruling, the Supeme Court bans a procedure in all states for all women. The majority opinion—with its grave implications for women's health—is written by the eminent physician, Anthony Kennedy.

A Brigham Young U magazine falls into my hands, and its article on this month's commencement is subtitled, "Amid cheers and protests..." And the caption says more—

That even a BYU writer feels moved to note the "captive audience" says something. Though the institution gives their commencement speaker an honorary doctorate.

Chaneling Cheney's thoughts on the matter is watertiger:

"At last, I found an educational institution that grants special honorary degrees in Death and Destruction."

April 2007 (I): May I Dust Your Dust?—and—"From Dust To"... Plastic?

Renovation of the executive suite begins, and the occupants move to an adjoining space for the duration.

The next morning we arrive to find the temporary digs coated in plaster dust from the work next-door.

Ghengis stomps off to intimidate the work crew.

Moments later Dr. G. Zuss walks in, and Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant goes into action: "I've already dusted my office. Would you like me to do yours?"

There's no reply. I can never read Dr. G. Zuss on whether even he is sometimes gob-smacked by the degree of self-abasement that Jesus' BAA achieves.

At she does at times like early this very month, when her husband was hospitalized. The day of his release, she's getting ready to leave—at her quitting time—when Dr. G. Zuss steps out of his office and directs a lost, helpless look in her direction. Jesus' BAA immediate reaction: "Oh! I'm supposed to take my husband home—is it OK if I leave?"

This time, too, Dr. G. Zuss does not reply. I don't know if even he gets a bit uncomfortable with his assistant's slavish nature. Or, if he's simply taken aback when an underling speaks in his presence.

The others are in temporary offices while I'm in an adjoining space—sitting in a hallway, in fact. The space is partly partitioned off from foot traffic, but open to the Ghengis' inspection, which happens whenever he walks in or out of his office two rooms away.

It's still coat weather, and there happens to be a hook attached to my workspace partition. One day I decide—just for the hell of it—to hang my coat there. As expected, it hangs only until Ghengis' next trip past—he stops cold, bursts into the space, and—at least his clenched teeth moderated the volume of his screaming—"It looks bad! Hang your coat in the closet!"

I'm sitting in a shabby hall of a shabby building, newly hung with plastic tarps so dust will never again threaten the executives' spaces. What this really is about is the attitude that employees are meant to seen only when needed—a hanging coat intrudes on management's need to believe that staff are invisible until summoned. And as Dr. G. Zuss can see me from the side opposite where Ghengis does his inspections, those executive eyes need shielding from the fact that an employee owns a coat.

Simultaneously with this move, the lunch room is being redone and the coffee maker has moved to the floor below. So that Dr. G. Zuss will not be inconvenienced, Jesus' BAA brings her coffee maker from home, setting it up in a vacant cubicle outside Dr. G. Zuss' office.

She also brings a daily haul of Sam's Club industrial-sized packs of cookies and cake. These grow stale, sitting as they do in a space that only Dr. G. Zuss may enter. I presume that in her fevered mind, Jesus' BAA believes the master has a bottomless and godlike capacity for caffeine and sugar, which she must supply in suitable quantities.

This whole procedure leads her to send me annoying e-mails—

Subject: Coffee pot

Before you leave, can you be sure the coffee pot is turned off, left-over coffee is dumped and the grounds are taken out?

This suggests she actually plans to leave on time (a half-hour before I can escape), so must intervene to prevent Dr. G. Zuss' being deprived of coffee from 4:30-5:00.

A piece of news in our town: a "Body World" show is coming to the area. It's one of the knockoffs, where all the formerly living people have very Chinese features.

Though I refer to her here as "Clever Sister," she is just as much Serious, Thoughtful Sister. For a year or two she's forwarded articles about these shows, and how profoundly disturbing they are—given uncertainties about how bodies are obtained, and the questionable poses used in exhibiting them.

Some British coverage of the exhibit, and its creator, Gunther von Hagens, is here, here, and here.

And this reports Van Hagens' plan to open a "plastination factory" on land he's purchased in Poland. His father travels there to represent the business... before skipping out, following accusations of his involvement in World War II war crimes against Poles.

Articles, including some graphic description of exhibits, are here and here.

This British writer also places the "redefinition of the human body within consumer culture" in the context of medical service cuts joined to the current thinking on individual responsibility of "health care consumers"—

The foundation of the National Health Service in 1948 institutionalized the idea that health was a matter of state responsibility towards the public. Within this context, patients tended to defer to medical experts, in whose hands they placed their bodies. In recent years, however, these patients have become consumers of health care with contractual relationships to service providers. In the new order consumers’ rights over their bodies and the bodies of their relatives are paramount. Furthermore, as state paternalism has diminished, health-care systems place increasing responsibility on individuals for maintaining their own health. Health, in other words, is less a matter of social welfare and more a matter of individual choice, self-awareness and responsibility

I bring up the topic to someone at work who previously worked in nursing (and who seems to be one of the more OK people in this setting). She's gone with relatives' kids to a show in another state—and found it "very educational, and tastefully done." She also sounds offended at my bringing up questions about the appropriateness—I don't know if that's just my read, or if she imagines being annoyed by picketers outside her tasteful exhibit.

This all relates to what seems most disturbing (if predictable): these shows become just one more entertainment opportunity to be consumed by the masses. And they're being justified as "educational," instead of "mindless entertainment."

A local weekly publishes a story about the exhibit that's arrived, as well as the other shows and controversies around them. And the article reveals that our very own university does "plastination" of cadavers, for use by the medical school.

This has no connection with the commercial shows—and there is no question about how those cadavers are obtained. Nevertheless, the whole enterprise sounds creepy, and the article includes a photo of the two Chinese pathologists who prepare the cadavers. The family and I immediately dub the shorter, more stooped, large-eared of the two—"Igor"—as he totally, unnervingly looks the part! (The other, somewhat less frightening in appearance guy becomes, "Not Igor.")

After reading the article, I suddenly begin seeing these two get on my bus at the end of the day! I don't know which to suppress first: the urge to bail, or the urge to laugh hysterically.

And I'm also cringing at the thought of them coming near me, though that never happens. Igor, in particular, always makes for a seat in the front. He's quite voluble, getting into animated conversations with whomever he sits next to. Not a good sign, as we know from horror pix...

One day Igor appears to be daydreaming (of what, I would not want to know). He snaps out of it when he sees the bus is leaving his stop, while he's still seated. He gasps, frantically pulls the cord, bolts out of his seat and charges toward the rear door of the bus—where he slams full-force into a strap-hanging passenger unlucky enough to be in his path.

I'm not sure if this is just bus etiquette in Beijing. Or if it's more like narrowly focused specialist behavior—it may be that people just aren't all that noticeable to the guy, until it's time to go to work on their corpses.

It's a male passenger of average height who's been slammed: he's stunned to look down and see a middle-aged man charging him at chest level. Then he observes the demented rush at the exit, and smiles nervously.

Despite Igor's frenzy, the next stop is not far, and it's where I get off. The slamee exits ahead of me and walks in the same direction. I avert my eyes, fighting the urge to "share," as in asking, "Do you have any idea who slammed into you?!"

After this incident, I manage to get through an Igor-less day or two, until a takeout meal offers me this suggestion:

April 2006 (II): Who Let *Them* In?

Baseball season opens, with actual headline:

Cheney booed loudly, throws out first pitch

Even Fox (Sports) covers this (in a story no longer online) – "Cheney booed loudly at Nats' home opener." Another Fox outlet still has a working link for their story–with headline worded to imply it was the pitch that got the reaction:

Cheney's Baseball Bounces, Booed

Bush appears on April 10 at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. A student asks him what laws govern the actions of military contractors in Iraq, since the Code of Military Justice does not.

Which the deadly buffoon-in-chief turns into a joke about how he was gonna ask Rummy the answer. He turns it all into a jokey anecdote about his delegatin' CEO ways, because "That's How I Work." For the strong of stomach, the video is here.

On April 30, The Boston Globe runs Charlie Savage's report on the scope of Bush's signing statements:

President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution.

Among the laws Bush said he can ignore are military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, "whistle-blower" protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research.

And somehow, there will be more than one occasion this month when truth is spoken in the presence of G.W. Bush. It changes nothing, but on those occasions, millions are thrilled by experiencing something that feels like representation.

Early in the month there's this:

Bush Faces Rare Audience Challenge in N.C.

Near the month's end, Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondents' Dinner.
Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

Driftglass:

Holy Christ. Watching the Whores of Pennsylvania Avenue, and their retainers and lackeys in the MSM being fed, nipples first, through the Colbert Woodchipper it felt – for a moment – like a free country again.

Where people walk right up to trolls and monsters, bold as brass, and call them by their True Names.

It was – for that interval – a vision of a world, not without peril or enemies, but without fear.

And from watertiger:

Stephen Colbert displayed more guts in ten minutes of performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner than the entire Bush family has in their collective lifetime. He, along with the ever-feisty Helen Thomas, deftly exposed the "truthiness" to the world (or at least those who were watching) that Bush AND the D.C. press corps are indeed a naked emperor and his gutless courtiers.

Because they Are Not Amused, the courtiers choose to ignore a story that has much of the populace on fire. Which leaves the job to unwashed masses and blogs—for example, thankyoustephencolbert.org still (in 2009) commemorates the event.

The entire video of which is here. A transcript is here.

As to Colbert's real stature, they seem to be onto something here.

April 2006 (I): Doggie C-Sections...And Other Tales Of Family Values

I make a badly timed trip to the lunch room, where Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant is telling a captive audience of secretaries: "My daughter's dog is having puppies...that breed always needs a C-section... "

I first hear this as, "My daughter's having puppies"...

Which doesn't sound all that strange, considering how Jesus' BAA usually describes her canine relationships. But the special obstetric needs are her point: this appears to be a great distinction and source of pride—something like inbred diseases as a mark of royal breeding.

"American Idol" still exerts its thrall over the office, particularly Cruella. Who is called for real-life jury duty this month, then released.

"Lucky for me," she says. (But so much luckier for the defendant, I say.)

Now Cruella can devote her full attention to passing harsh judgements on teevee contestants: "Kelly was horrible! Paris doesn't have her own style!"

Jesus' BAA tries to pipe up: "But she's just a kid: she just turned 17."

Cruella insists, "Paris will go! The girls will be in the bottom and boys in the top 3!"

Though she takes this stuff very, very seriously, Jesus' BAA is also trying to Better Herself, ever since the arrival of Dr. G. Zuss and spouse. She is feeling especially full of Rapture™, because a campus orchestra (employee amateur players) is about to give a free concert. A Tchaikovsky overture/Broadway show tunes kind of program, over which Jesus' BAA exclaims, "I love classical music!"

Instant comeback from Cruella: "You'd have to kill me to make me listen to that kind of music! Now 50s music: that was the best there ever was!"

"I never heard it," says Jesus' BAA.

Presumably, because she spent her childhood locked in a closet, per instructions from the voices in her parents' heads.

One night this month I dream that Cruella is yelling about
F.D. Roosevelt. Though she can't bring herself to speak his name—she calls him, "that damn WWII Democrat!"

My dream self says to her, "if you hate him so much, why don't you give back your husband's Social Security?"

Cruella may invade my dreams, but at least that's one place where speech is still free. Though when I say so, Clever Sister forwards some "they're working on that, too" items from New Scientist. The articles are no longer free, but from CS's email:

It is possible to read someone's mind by remotely measuring their brain activity, researchers have shown. The technique can even extract information from subjects that they are not aware of themselves.

So far, it has only been used to identify visual patterns a subject can see or has chosen to focus on. But the researchers speculate the approach might be extended to probe a persons awareness, focus of attention, memory and movement intention.

Even without yet having that technology, DHS is busy protecting us from threats like eco terra-ists likely to terra-ize Patriotic American fax machines with terra-ist flyers.

There have also been a couple little bits of news about some of the officials...Such as the arrest of Brian J. Doyle, Deputy Press Secretary for the Office of Public Affairs:

Homeland Security official arrested in child sex sting

And appearing in court after his arrest in 2005:

Frank Figueroa, the former head of the Department of Homeland Security’s program to stop child predators (Operation Predator), today pleaded no contest to charges he exposed himself to a 16-year-old girl. According to the victim,"Figueroa pulled up a leg of his shorts, exposed himself and masturbated for about 10 minutes" in front of her.

TalkingPointsMemo does a rundown of the new DHS arrest, as well as scandals involving other administration officials. And, speculating that DHS must really stand for "Degenerate He-Men's Society," watertiger suggests

We're gonna need a bigger Post Office wall for the mug shots of this Administration.

It just happens that the day of Doyle's arrest, a faculty visitor refers to Fawn Hall (in some context I don't catch).

After the speaker leaves, the others scratch their heads, until Jesus' BAA suggests: "it sounds familiar...didn't she have an affair?"

Cruella: "Then, that must have been the Bill Clinton era!

Huzzah for no more scandals, not with Godly Republicans in power!

April 2005 (II): The Month In Family/Amurkan Values

Clever Sister sends some product links [no longer working]. They're a 2005 example of "what those loonies wanted to do in Florida with Schaivo"—to turn her into a "living miracle" product-pushing business opportunity, à la comatose Little Audrey Santo.

Tacky, but only the smallest of small-time opportunism, compared to the theocratic right's wealth and power-enhancing intrusions into politics.

After the Republican leadership's loud bleating that their Schaivo maneuvers were all about the sanctity of life—never (gasp!) political—a memo from the Senate Office of Mel Martinez Senate becomes public. Which outlines the party's talking points for exploiting Schaivo to the max.

Now their media operatives go into gear, promoting the "what's the big deal, and—look over there!—it's the Democrats' fault anyway" line—here, for example.

And in this transcript, much effort is made by Darryl Kagan [for the moment, Mrs. R. Limbaugh] to steer her fellow talking-head in the direction of saying, "but isn't this just icky, nasty politics, and aren't the Democrats worse..." Followed by her changing the subject to the previous night's Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner—addressed by jovial Dick Cheney—a "fun night" enjoyed by all.

While it's not exactly news that opportunism makes strange allies, Max Blumenthal 's portrait of the assorted theocrats, racists, Catholics and anti-Catholics joining forces to rouse the rabble on "Justice Sunday" is here.

The event's only black speaker is a Protestant bishop active in promoting "wedge issues" like gay marriage, to divert blacks from voting Democratic. His stature on the white right has grown, and he's been among black clergy invited to a private White House meeting. But he's frustrated that these issues aren't working because—as he admits in his speech—"Black churches are too concerned with justice."

The immediate goal of the event is to weaken Congressional opposition to Bush judiciary appointments. As part of the long-range goal of destroying judiciary independence.

Digby points out the hypocrisy of the Catholic church's top-level involvement in "Justice Sunday," after previously ruling that priests could not involve themselves in politics—at least, not liberal priests.

And Digby's post goes on to cite Fritz Stern, including this:

Twenty years ago, I wrote about "National Socialism as Temptation," about what it was that induced so many Germans to embrace the terrifying specter. There were many reasons, but at the top ranks Hitler himself, a brilliant populist manipulator who insisted and probably believed that Providence had chosen him as Germany’s savior, that he was the instrument of Providence, a leader who was charged with executing a divine mission. God had been drafted into national politics before, but Hitler’s success in fusing racial dogma with a Germanic Christianity was an immensely powerful element in his electoral campaigns. Some people recognized the moral perils of mixing religion and politics, but many more were seduced by it. It was the pseudo-religious transfiguration of politics that largely ensured his success, notably in Protestant areas.

"Justice Sunday" was a stunt staged for public visibility—satellite broadcast to 400 churches, as well as via radio and internet. But earlier in the month, movement leaders held a more private meeting: a "Confronting the Judicial War on Faith" conference—also attended by Max Blumenthal, who reports:

For two days, on April 7 and 8, conservative activists and top GOP staffers summoned the raw rage of the Christian right following the Terri Schiavo affair, and likened judges to communists, terrorists and murderers. The remedies they suggested for what they termed "judicial tyranny" ranged from the mass impeachment of judges to their physical elimination.

While the brains of this movement aim for "plausible deniability" by indulging only in violent rhetoric, there are also the foot soldiers. As of April 14:

Abortion clinics around the US are "bracing for attacks" after convicted murderer and Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph issued a "manifesto" justifying attacks against such clinics and their workers.

Rudolph is able simultaneously to plead guilty; issue his call-to-arms; and prevent the public spectacle of a trial that would shed light on right-wing terrorism.

A Berkshire Eagle editorial [registration required], "An American terrorist," suggests:

...questions will go unanswered that a trial might have resolved. Did Mr. Rudolph think up the idea of becoming a "pro-life" killer all by himself, or did others influence his thinking? He said in his statement he had no ties to the fascist Christian Identiy movement. Is that really the case? Did he build, plant and detonate his bombs all by himself, or did he have assistance and support? It's comforting to think Mr. Rudolph was a lone zealot, unless he wasn't. Without a trial, we'll never know.

Maybe the prosecutors thought they couldn't get him and so opted for an easy plea. but here are powerful people for whom the spectacle of an unrepentant murderer for the unborn, a clean-cut movie star handsome Christian terrorist, posed political problems. Better to defend life in the abstract, keep the focus on the enemy at the gates and keep skeletons like Eric Rudolph locked up in the closet.

And April 19 is the 10th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.

I remember well how the first news reports of that day were quickly followed by the judgement of our brilliant pundits: "Islamic Terrorists, striking at The Heartland!"

..."The Heartland"? A region with more than a few heavily armed gubmit haters? A slight awareness of the U.S. sociopolitical environment could have led to the second hypothesis just as quickly as the media jumped to the first.

Driftglass marks the anniverary—and the political course of the subsequent years—

First they came for the File Clerks.
Then they came for the Family Planning Clinics.
Then they came for the "activist" judges.
Happy Anniversary, Moderate Republicans!

In the more mundane attack on what affects "security" for most citizens, the regime's efforts on this front continue:

'Trust fund' is locked in filing cabinet
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY

President Bush's visit Tuesday to a federal agency in West Virginia that holds the Social Security trust fund put the spotlight on a $1.7 trillion promise to the nation's retirees.

...Physically, the trust fund consists of 8-by-11-inch sheets of paper...in a drawer of a four-drawer filing cabinet at the U.S. Bureau of the Public Debt in Parkersburg, W.Va...

The papers in the cabinet are computer-generated replicas of $1.7 trillion in Treasury bonds — the amount the government has promised to repay Social Security for spending payroll taxes that finance the retirement system on other programs such as defense and education...

Bush offered the filing cabinet as proof that "there is no trust fund — just IOUs."

As money, bonds, and such are just ink on paper...just paper...Which could be a silver lining—if driftglass is correct that this is the Bush Secret Chinese Debt Strategy Revealed!

Bush's photo ops staged for the fool-some-of-the-people-all-of-the-time segment of the population are one thing. More stealthy are the continuous assaults in areas like this from PR Watch:

A little noticed proposal in the 2,000 page federal budget "would give the president the power to appoint an eight member panel called the 'Sunset Commission.'" The commission would "review federal programs every ten years and decide whether they should be eliminated. Any programs that are not 'producing results,' in the eyes of the commission, would 'automatically terminate unless the Congress took action.'" Even the Environmental Protection Agency or Food and Drug Administration could be axed, on a "simple vote of five commissioners" not a high bar, since many commissioners would likely be "lobbyists and executives from major corporations." The Sunset Commission is the brainchild of Clay Johnson, who's already "helped place industry champions ... throughout the government." It was first mentioned publicly by the ExxonMobil funded think tank, the Mercatus Center.

Finally, a couple of small items in the perpetual propaganda campaign against the citizenry.

I'm starting to see the new nickels—Jefferson faces right; he's lost the hippy hair; and the "God" of "In God We Trust" has moved from bottom to a more immediately visible position at top (which could be what started Jefferson's head to spinning...) I'm not sure what the extreme close-up and cropping are meant to represent, but they make the face look vaguely threatening, much like Hitchcock's creepy close-ups of Mt Rushmore heads in "North by Northwest."

Or this may be meant to make Jefferson resemble someone else. Clever Sister:

I wonder whose face this really is. I should look at some of the 2008 contenders & see if it's one of them. They have already linked Dim Son to George Washington—that's why Rove came up with the "W" business: "George W..." I've seen ads:

"Learn about the first George W. — George Washington"

For that matter, they've already remade Jefferson into a Republican...

April 2005 (I): Pope-a-palooza

In a "concerned" voice, Jesus' Best Administrative Assistant to Cruella: "You're a Catholic aren't you? What direction do you think the church will go now?"

Meaning: she's seriously worried they'll annoint a librul...

Smoke machine at film location, London
Photo: Andrew Dunn.

I listen to Cruella reassure Jesus' BAA that the pick will of course be a conservative, because "everyone wants to change things to suit their lifestyle, but you can't just have things different from how they've always been...

Clever Sister predicts: "they'll appoint one of those fascist Africans."

As on all topics, Cruella continues broadcasting her opinions: she doesn't want an Italian; doesn't think an African will be named; but there's a Venezuelan who's "very well-regarded"—which I take to mean "fascist"— that's her guy.

At some point a faculty member tries prodding Cruella about whether it might be time for some liberalization, and she declares, "As much as we might like that, we can't always have what we would like!"

I enjoy the bland insincerity of those "we"s, particularly about what "we" would "like"!

Ideological bent of this office aside—and that ideology is nothing, if not "bent"—the national media are ecstatic, what with the mix of wealth, power, fame, and pseudo-piety this circus offers.

As she follows the daily coverage, Clever Sister e-mails me tidbits like:

• Inquiring minds want to know:
  Pope was not embalmed, only 'prepared' for public viewing, Vatican says
  [I'd say he was pickled, or he'd rot before the funeral – cs]
• Bush ordered flags at ½ staff and will go to funeral. Did Carter do that when previous one died?
• Criticism in France over lowering of flags as government abuse of power
• People who watched the funeral live heard Bush being booed. There will be no mention of this in our free media.

After the funeral on April 8, Bush declares it "one of the highlights of my presidency." But Mr. Appropiate's excitement was also quite visible during the event—where he was snapped in the midst of supposedly grieving world leaders, smoochin' Laura [photo here, if you dare].

The election of a new pope may not be as exciting as "American Idol" voting, but it seems just as drawn out. The background on Vatican smoke signals is offered by these people, who will rent you a smoke machine suitable for staging your very own papal election!


Among events this month not subject to media frenzy: the death in Iraq of Marla Ruzicka. As much as the death of a young blonde might inspire media circusry, this particular blonde's work and death are not high on the list of what our spinmeisters want to publicize.

But then, as Jane Reitman reports in Rolling Stone, it happens that several days before Ruzicka's death "she had obtained a document that was her holy grail: a detailed report showing that the U.S. military keeps its own civilian-casualty records, something the Pentagon has repeatedly denied."

Despite her unembedded independence, the very visible and sociable young American woman was known and liked by US reporters in Baghdad and Kabul. So, this being the loss of someone in their milieu, there were pieces in Time, the Washington Post, and Newsweek.

As much as war stories need exposure, it's inevitable that the coverage of this particular death is full of the personalization that so predominates what we get as journalism. Now, if only more untold stories had an advocate who could throw a good, boozy party, maybe the press would feel motivated to cover those stories from time to time.

It may not be a blockbuster missing blonde story, but yes, there is some coverage— largely as the sad story of a dead young American. Journalist Jill Carroll—who will later be kidnapped in Iraq—recalls her friend's death:

If she were still here, she'd be most worried now about her driver's family, and who will take care of all the other Iraqi families she was working with. She would point out, this happens to Iraqis every day, and no one notices or even cares. There are no newspaper articles or investigations into what happens to them. For most of them, there was only Marla.

The quote comes from this column, by James Carroll (no relation to Jill). Written while Jill was still in captivity, James connects Marla's life and death with Jill's seriousness about being in Iraq to bring the war home to American readers:

...Jill Carroll published an account of the death of an American aid worker, a report much noted [after Jill's kidnapping] because of similarities to her own situation.

Marla Ruzicka was a Californian, attached to an NGO, attending to the needs of desperate Iraqis. She and her driver were killed when they were caught in a crossfire between a suicidal insurgent and US soldiers. Marla Ruzicka was Jill Carroll's friend, and her story is infused with grief. But the story also takes careful note of Ruzicka's driver...To Jill Carroll, the death of this Iraqi man weighed as much as the death of her American friend. If Jill Carroll were filing the report of her own kidnapping...we would know the name of her murdered driver, and his death, too, would have grave importance to us -- because it surely did to her.