Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Last one out turn off the lights...

Wolfowitz A Disgrace

Now it's Wolfowitz' turn to be frog-marched out, with his dingy caught in the wringer. Literally, apparently. As the head of the World Bank, the gang that dispenses help to poverty-racked nations, he first made sure his friends got the good jobs when he arrived, to his most recent abuse of power: jacking up the cost of hiring his girlfriend. Irony used to be funny, now it's frightening.

He only landed at the World Bank after a topspin slam from the pentagon after presiding over the worst disaster ever of a warplan. Just when you think this group can't sink lower, look out here comes another fresh one. Hell, it's like following a herd of cows with diarrhea.

I said once about Nixon, "yeah, but at least he's smart." You sure can't say that about anyone in the Bush Administration.

Monday, April 16, 2007

The State Totters.....

The news is full of the Virginia Tech shootings. Nothing is more horrifying to a parent. Somehow it makes the current state of politics seem less urgent. It's tempting to find a correlation between a corrupt government and an insane person. Thanks to the conservative right-wing we-demand-our-guns culture it's easy to purchase one but I imagine it's far more complicated.

The war rages on, with no one having a solution, Alberto Gonzales is in the death throes of his job, Paul Wolfowitz failed horrifically in designing the war and was then put in charge of world bank whereupon he promoted - along with a huge salary bump - his mistress. Where are the days when miscreants turned in their resignation immediately? Both Gonzales and Wolfowitz should be gone by now. Don Imus, a total jerk to be sure but not killing soldiers, was out in two weeks, because of the public outcry that this time he really had gone too far.

Imus has bosses that answer to the market and advertisers were cancelling in droves. But the government is a different animal. We can't withhold our taxes to protest. We can hold signs, call our reps in Congress, make lots of noise but ultimately we are powerless to change unless those in charge care about our opinions.

The Republicans are not listening, they are fighting back. They took the loss of last November and went on the offensive. A few have said the war is wrong and Gonzales should go but the majority are hanging tight, believing that will salvage what is left of their pathetic reign.

It's a troubled world and what troubles me most is that I think America, who as the lone superpower should be a leader to stand tall and proud, instead has become a bully, preening with might. It's what brought down Greece and Rome and Britain, all who once reigned supreme.

Bush and Rove offend me. They act as if the American people are necesssary but unwanted impediments to their arrogant power-grab. They couldn't win the election on their ideas so they calculated to steal it, by discretionary cleansing of voter rolls, by reworking districts aka gerrymandering, and by placing loyalty above competence. They speak of spreading democracy in the middle east even as they abuse it at home.

Shakespeare in The Tempest had Prospero say, "The state totters." He said it best.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

IMUS = ASS

Make him repeat over and over, I'm an Ass, I'm an Ass....

I won't speak to the racial aspect, others do it better. But how many listeners of Imanas would like their daughters called a "ho", and think it all in fun? Especially a daughter who has managed to get into a good college and play college-level ball. Hey, jerk-off, it ain't easy! Easy is sitting in front of a microphone and spewing idiotic remarks. Any ass can do it.

A few pundits who appear on his show to flog their book or for the money and/or recognition so they can write a book to flog, tried with a straight face to say what a great guy he is and how remorseful. And yet this "remorseful" man managed to call a group of young women who narrowly missed winning a championship "ho's".

That's just mean. Remember what your mother told you? Pick on someone your own size? Well, his size is teeny tiny, and the Rutger team's is huge. They showed more class in one press conference than he has in a lifetime. They will survive, and probably thrive. They are motivated and will put this behind them because after all, who really cares about this buffoon's thoughts?

I applaud the advertisers who are boycotting. I think free speech is important and had he said it about public figures - say, millionaire pro ball players - it might have been a bit tasteless but still his right. But a team of teenage basketball players? Who'd just narrowly missed winning a big championship? Obviously he is missing the decency gene.

That's why to me, the race card is not as important as that target. It's a valid argument that rap music spews the same virtriol. But this was personal, this was directed at an innocent few, and is therefore far different than free speech and racism, which can use a lot of discussion about boundaries.

As a parent, I'm angry. As a human being I'm appalled. This isn't about being a shock jock, testing boundaries, it's about being a dirty old man.