Okay, yeah, I really do miss having cable these days.
And I wouldn't be using it to watch Girl- and Boy-Paris, no matter how flippant I try to pretend I am. I'm too busy being obsessed with Katrinagate and trying to figure out whether it really does mean the end of America.
I know that sounds melodramatic, but I mean it seriously. In theory, this is not a Third World country. In theory, in fact, we're the wealthiest nation on earth. And yet, people are still dying in Louisiana and Mississippi for lack of aid from a government that just can't get its shit together. Fishermen and others who've been impressed into service because most of our military is fighting in Iraq to preserve BushCo oil interests / family honor / testosterone levels are discovering the bloated bodies of people who were abandoned to drown in their beds in New Orleans hospitals and Jefferson Parish nursing homes. Children may have been raped and murdered among the filth of a squalid refugee camp. There are reports that, while criminals hampered relief efforts, law enforcement officials taking food and water out of the hands of survivors who'd managed to gather them and refusing help to women who wouldn't offer expose their breasts on demand. New Orleans is a burning lake of fire. Can anybody else out there even recall a situation like this? A situation in which a national government allowed a major city--a major port--to become a vast cauldron of toxic waste in which the citizens (and especially the poorest, sickest, and oldest citizens) were left to the tender mercies of criminals and opportunists because somebody else was supposed to take care of it?
Even though the generally all-too-complacent mainstream media (including even Fox News commentators) is lathered up into a righteous fury, even though it's become appallingly clear that this government not only isn't making the world "a safer place for Americans," but can't save Americans from dying by the thousands in their own neighborhoods because of simple incompetence, we're still hearing that "pointing fingers" is the "wrong" thing to do: that it is not honorable. We're still hearing that "this is not the time for politics" and that nobody should play the "blame game"--unless, of course, we're blaming the victims. Bush told Nancy Pelosi he can't imagine why he'd need to fire FEMA Asshat-in-Chief Mike Brown, because, hey, "what went wrong last week?" And there are at least a few polls out there indicating that the Orwellian fabrications of the neocon Spin Machine are actually working: According to one, 63% of respondents agree with Bush and don't think anyone should lose his job over this.
At this point, if we let these idiotic and frankly callous jackasses of the hook, if we let them chuckle over how much better off the "disadvantaged" are now that "Corinna" has allowed them to move out of "that part of the world" otherwise known as the "city of Louisiana," if we let them boot out the media which were somehow able to get to places government officials apparently couldn't even pinpoint on a map last week, just as it might be possible to get an accurate count of how many people they pushed toward their deaths . . . . Well, folks, honestly, if we let that happen, I'm not sure we even deserve to be called a civilization any longer.
There's a reason why lots of left-leaning politicians and commentators are suddenly using the language of the End Times, and I don't think it's just a crass (or savvy, depending on your viewpoint) attempt to manipulate the reactions of more conservative swing voters. It's because there truly is a very real sense in which we may be looking down the business end of the administration that ushers in the end of America as we know it.
-------------------
Clips I'm watching and gathering in the absence of cable service, thanks to Crooks and Liars:
I know that sounds melodramatic, but I mean it seriously. In theory, this is not a Third World country. In theory, in fact, we're the wealthiest nation on earth. And yet, people are still dying in Louisiana and Mississippi for lack of aid from a government that just can't get its shit together. Fishermen and others who've been impressed into service because most of our military is fighting in Iraq to preserve BushCo oil interests / family honor / testosterone levels are discovering the bloated bodies of people who were abandoned to drown in their beds in New Orleans hospitals and Jefferson Parish nursing homes. Children may have been raped and murdered among the filth of a squalid refugee camp. There are reports that, while criminals hampered relief efforts, law enforcement officials taking food and water out of the hands of survivors who'd managed to gather them and refusing help to women who wouldn't offer expose their breasts on demand. New Orleans is a burning lake of fire. Can anybody else out there even recall a situation like this? A situation in which a national government allowed a major city--a major port--to become a vast cauldron of toxic waste in which the citizens (and especially the poorest, sickest, and oldest citizens) were left to the tender mercies of criminals and opportunists because somebody else was supposed to take care of it?
Even though the generally all-too-complacent mainstream media (including even Fox News commentators) is lathered up into a righteous fury, even though it's become appallingly clear that this government not only isn't making the world "a safer place for Americans," but can't save Americans from dying by the thousands in their own neighborhoods because of simple incompetence, we're still hearing that "pointing fingers" is the "wrong" thing to do: that it is not honorable. We're still hearing that "this is not the time for politics" and that nobody should play the "blame game"--unless, of course, we're blaming the victims. Bush told Nancy Pelosi he can't imagine why he'd need to fire FEMA Asshat-in-Chief Mike Brown, because, hey, "what went wrong last week?" And there are at least a few polls out there indicating that the Orwellian fabrications of the neocon Spin Machine are actually working: According to one, 63% of respondents agree with Bush and don't think anyone should lose his job over this.
At this point, if we let these idiotic and frankly callous jackasses of the hook, if we let them chuckle over how much better off the "disadvantaged" are now that "Corinna" has allowed them to move out of "that part of the world" otherwise known as the "city of Louisiana," if we let them boot out the media which were somehow able to get to places government officials apparently couldn't even pinpoint on a map last week, just as it might be possible to get an accurate count of how many people they pushed toward their deaths . . . . Well, folks, honestly, if we let that happen, I'm not sure we even deserve to be called a civilization any longer.
There's a reason why lots of left-leaning politicians and commentators are suddenly using the language of the End Times, and I don't think it's just a crass (or savvy, depending on your viewpoint) attempt to manipulate the reactions of more conservative swing voters. It's because there truly is a very real sense in which we may be looking down the business end of the administration that ushers in the end of America as we know it.
-------------------
Clips I'm watching and gathering in the absence of cable service, thanks to Crooks and Liars:
- Jon Stewart's "Meet the F**kers"
- Kyra Phillips' bizarre performance during her interview of Nancy Pelosi.
- Dick Cheney being cursed at by a protester during a press interview and apparently trying to use it as an opportunity for taking potshots at John Kerry.
- Conservative commentator Joe Scarborough refusing to "shut up" despite the angry attacks of people in his own political party.
posted by Ancrene Wiseass | 12:32 AM
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