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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Jim H
Published Letters: 473 Editor's Choice: 39
I noticed it immediately. Some very savvy political people said to me, "Why would they do that? It makes no sense." Well, it makes a lot of sense to their clientele. In a way, it was the crucial part of the Bill Clinton unmanning: his wife is a shrew, and he cheats on her -- what could she want from him?
That served a dual purpose: He's weak and talks to the public like a cheating husband. She, on the other hand, is a control freak. She really wants to be a man, blah, blah, blah.
So a lot of hip people try to slice and dice the meaning of the basic smear, "How can he criticize the war made by big, manly men? His WIFE got him his job, haw, haw, haw." It's as dumb and obvious as that, but a lot of bigfoot journalists didn't realize what was going on, because they don't take that kind of smear seriously. They can't see its effect.
"'The other seeks to roll back the democratic progress of the past two decades, by playing to fear, pitting neighbor against neighbor and blaming others for their own failures to provide for their people,' Bush said."
(MSNBC, Nov. 6, 2005)
Finally, Bush is beginning to face the problems of his regime! Maybe there's hope for him at last! Maybe, if he can honestly look at his policies--
Oh, wait a minute. He was talking about Hugo Chavez, elected and then re-elected, despite John Negroponte's best efforts to arrange a military coup -- or a California-style recall -- against him.
Never mind.
Sadly, this excellent album is one of those afflicted with Sony's Rootkit for Windows! If you've played it on the computer, check for a rootkit with Rootkit Revealer or similar program. If you leave this invisible file on your computer, you will be prone to infestation by hackers and script kiddies, who can do anything they want with your zombie computer once they've installed an invisible file on your root volume that can execute any code it wants.
And be careful about taking it off, as some attempts at removal will turn your CD player into a brick. Thanks, Sony: does this mean you're "The One and Only"? I'm afraid not, as the new Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats both have very restrictive copy protection as well.
Pretty ironic: buy the Album online, or pirate it. That's the only way you can get this excellent CD without the pollution from a deluded Sony executive.
Now, with Sony's recall of their dangerously encrypted -- how dumb can you get? -- CDs, I'd go buy this one and get Sony to exchange it for a normal CD. It really is pretty special. And now that it won't break your computer, steal your ID, operate a porn server or do a DOS flood of the CIA, you can buy it with a clear conscience.
The fact that somebody told him about Plame before Libby's first on the record leak, and he decided to protect his source, you can defend that. Certainly, I wouldn't want a tattle-tale press corps, volunteering information about its sources to every comer.
If he had continued to shut up about the whole thing, then he could be defended.
But then, hiring himself out like the di Genovas, as a debunker, that's where the conflict of interest begins. When he says, "There's nothing to it," or "The CIA completed their investigation, and there's no damage," why on earth should we believe him? The only reason is because of his reputation and his record. Both of those things are up for grabs now.
I didn't realize the ancestry of this assault on the First Amendment. The John Birch Society, and Ford's "The International Jew"? Whew.
It's also interesting to read, on the History Channel's website, that when we were undoubtedly a more "Christian" nation, you could celebrate the "traditional" English Christmas in Virginia, but if you had a yule log, figgy pudding and a wassail in pre-revolutionary Boston, it would cost you a five-shilling fine. So, in fact, the only assault on Christmas has come from other religions.
What these Babbits don't seem to realize is, the Christmas at Wal-Mart and the other frantic shopping malls are not a traditional Christmas, but one that has been hijacked by the proponents of commericalism. Before the Victorian era, Christmas was either a strictly religious day, or a time of drunkenness, kissing under mistletoe, and all kinds of hijinks. The letter from Wal-Mart, which got its author fired, is in fact true.
It was "off the record," and Al Franken went to it. (Interesting that this paper did not feel bound by that embargo.) Al stayed away from what Scalia said at the dinner, except that he talked to Scalia after his speech-- presumably on the record-- and asked him, if he's such a strict contructionist, and an originalist, then why is he against abortion, since it wasn't against the law when the Constitution was passed. "You're wrong," said Scalia. Except he wasn't. Abortion wasn't illegal until about 1850, apparently. So, Al said, he was delighted that the originalist was obviously going to change his stand! (Heavy Irony)
I used to think the Scalias of this world were honest, and had a logical case to make. I no longer believe so. They want what they want, for religious or ideological reasons, much of it pickling in hatred inside them, and they'll say anything -- anything -- to get their way.
Great idea. I love it. However, you should talk to Media Matters about how to get the video up and streaming quickly. I don't know if it's a question of bandwidth or compression, but the speed here is pretty sucky. To use the tech term.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
