The Kool Aid Chicks … not ready to make nice

October 29th, 2006

Laura, Lynne and Karen … a little country [love it or leave it] group — and this is something of a Chick post.

The Dixie Chicks aren’t classic country and their audience was never entirely Red … now it’s totally Blue; their music is unique and they’re in a class by themselves … and classy. I watched them on VH1 last night and they were stunning. At the bottom, read the snip on the Weenies at NBC who won’t run the trailer for their documentary, “Shut Up & Sing,” because it’s “disrespectful” to the Dubby. The title comes from a message Natalie Manes received from a “fan” after her Bush statement a few years back — “Shut up and sing … or die.”

I might have entitled this post Meow, as a sign of disrespect to the three women who are in the news — their “values” are repugnant to me and I don’t see that they’ve respected mine. You have to try to move into their minds, I’d suppose … and I’d guess that in the Red World, these women are pretty high up on their pedestal, with the perimeters of the box they live in giving them plenty of latitude to … ummm … defend their mates — in Karen’s case, her beloved Dubya and her Mary Kay diplomacy. These women are in an “occupied” state. I wonder what they would do with actual “liberation.”

The whole of Blitzer’s recent interview with Mrs. Cheney was just rerun on CNN a moment ago; the better half of Old Uncle 666 is a piece of work. We knew that. CNN has run a couple of excellent pieces on the Broken Government topic in the last few days and she had her dukes up, questioning his patriotism and proclaiming the entire interview all about “Sex, lies and distortion” and … partisan and … unfair. She said that CNN’s running of a clip of an insurgent sniper was “shocking terrorist propaganda.” Wolf, to his credit, said sometimes the news isn’t pretty but it’s the truth.

Within the faux-happy uber-patriotic walls Lynne inhabits, truth is not welcomed. Karen has always been a joke. And Laura? It’s just hard to imagine what’s behind those rigid mental walls — unless she, like Dubby, is a WYSIWYG … what you see is what you get … and then we’d have two pea brains in the White House living quarters. I’ve always thought that her marriage to Dub was a kind of self-imposed punishment for unresolved guilt in running down her ex-boyfriend as a teen; what if she turned out to be as big an air head as he is? Oh my.

Interesting collection, below. And today — a reason to celebrate my Blue connections and my choice not to live in that red box.

Jude

Laura Bush: My husband never misled about Iraq
Ed Henry, CNN Washington Bureau
October 26, 2006

WASHINGTON (CNN) — In her first public comments about Bob Woodward’s explosive book “State of Denial,” first lady Laura Bush sharply denied claims in the book that her husband has misled the public about the level of violence in Iraq.

“Absolutely I think that is wrong,” Bush said in an exclusive interview with CNN Wednesday.

“Of course, the president has been frank from the very very first speech he gave to the country after the September 11 attacks, talking about this is a long war, this is a very difficult war.

“It’s a different war than our country has ever faced. The enemy can make a big show on television like they did for the bloody last month we had in Iraq by blowing themselves up a lot of times along with other people. But our success is not so easy to see. But the fact is that we are succeeding.”

The first lady also bristled when asked about Woodward’s suggestion that she privately supported an effort by then-White House Chief of Staff Andy Card to push out Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

“Andy Card also went onto television and said that’s not true,” she said. “And let me just say the one thing about that book. Those ‘quotes’ of mine are in quotes and the author didn’t call me and fact check, and it just didn’t happen.”

Pressed again on whether she supported the effort to remove Rumsfeld, she told an interviewer, “Are you just trying to continue to give the quotes that I said I didn’t say?” Bush added that suggestions she wanted Rumsfeld to be fired are “absolutely not true.”

Bush made her comments in an interview between campaign stops in Minnesota and Indiana.

With her favorability rating at 68 percent in the latest CNN poll — a full 22 points ahead of the president’s rating — the first lady has become one of the Republican Party’s most potent weapons in swing states during the final two weeks of the critical midterm elections.

The first lady is treated like a rock star on the campaign trail — with local Republicans lining up for photographs and autographs — as she criss-crosses the country to help candidates. She will be visiting Florida this Friday, followed by stops in New York, Connecticut and Pennsylvania on Saturday. ++

WOLF BLITZER CONFRONTS LYNNE CHENEY ABOUT LESBIAN AFFAIRS, BROTHELS, ATTEMPTED RAPES IN HER NOVEL….
CNN
October 27, 2006
[open link for clip]

Below is a portion from the entire interview transcript:

BLITZER: I want you to — this was in the news today and your name has come up, so that’s why we’re talking about it, but listen to this.
(AUDIO CLIP PLAYED)

CHENEY: Jim Webb is full of baloney. I have never written anything sexually explicit. His novels are full of sexual explicit references to incest, sexually explicit references — well, you know, I just don’t want my grandchildren to turn on the television set. This morning, Imus was reading from the novels, and it — it’s triple-X rated.

BLITZER: Here’s what the Democratic Party put out today, the
Democratic Congressional — Senatorial Campaign Committee: “Lynne Cheney’s book featured brothels and attempted rape. In 1981, Vice President Dick Cheney’s wife, Lynne, wrote a book called “Sisters”, which featured a lesbian love affair, brothels and attempted rapes.”

CHENEY: No.

BLITZER: “In 1988, Lynne Cheney wrote about a Republican vice
president who dies of a heart attack while having sex with his
mistress.” Is that true?

CHENEY: Nothing explicit. And actually, that was full of lies.
It’s not — it’s just — it’s absolutely not a…

BLITZER: Did you write a book entitled “Sisters”?

CHENEY: I did write a book entitled “Sisters”.

BLITZER: It did have lesbian characters.

CHENEY: This — no, not necessarily. This description is a lie.
I’ll stand on that.

BLITZER: There’s nothing in there about rape and brothels?

CHENEY: Well, Wolf, could we talk about a children’s book for a minute?

BLITZER: We can talk about the children’s book. I just wanted to…

CHENEY: I think my segment is, like, 15 minutes long and we’ve had about 10 minutes of…

BLITZER: I just wanted to — I just wanted to clarify what’s in the news today, given — this is…

CHENEY: That’s lies and distortion. That’s what it is.

BLITZER: This is an opportunity for you to explain on these
sensitive issues.

CHENEY: Wolf, I have nothing to explain. Jim Webb has a lot to
explain.

BLITZER: Well, he says he’s only — as a serious writer, novelist,
a fiction writer, he was doing basically what you were doing.

CHENEY: Jim Webb is full of baloney.

BLITZER: We’ll leave it at that. Let’s talk a little bit about
your book, “Our 50 States: A Family Adventure Across America”. ++

Lynne Cheney’s Anger Management Problem
Marty Kaplan
10.27.2006

Move over, Naomi. Step aside, Hillary. The new queen of mean is Lynne Cheney.

Today, in a face-off with Wolf Blitzer worthy of inclusion in the Gender Stereotypes Hall of Fame, the nation’s second lady used exactly the kind of rhetoric that led Republicans to cast Senator Clinton as (in Maureen Dowd’s summary) “an angry woman, a she-monster melding images of Medea, the Furies, harpies, and a knife-wielding Glenn Close in ‘Fatal Attraction.’”

Mrs. Veep was bitter about John King’s “Broken Government” special on CNN. “A terrible distortion!” she lectured. She was petulant when Wolf cited VPOTUS’s recent kind words for waterboarding. “A complete distortion!” she fumed. She was pissed when Wolf cited sapphic soft porn from her novel, Sisters. Lesbians? Rape? Brothels? “Lies, baloney” she seethed through clenched teeth. If there’d been a gun handy, Wolf might be spending the weekend picking buckshot out of his face.

I can’t wait for the right to defend Lynne Cheney’s appearance on CNN. Every quality that Republicans demonized in Hillary will be lionized in Lynne. Witchy? Bitchy? Don’t be ridiculous — she’s displaying righteous indignation. Rage? Hysteria? Oh, no, that’s standing your ground. And hey, she was set up: the booker said she’d be talking about her children’s book.

I have no idea how this will play out in the Virginia Senate race, or in any other campaign. No one does. But you can count on the Republican noise machine to claim that this confrontation will help them. That’s their master narrative: everything, no matter what, helps them. If people understand that Cheney is for torture, that’s a plus: it’s ballsy, it rallies the base and it draws a contrast with the terrorist-lovin’ pussies. If Cheney’s wife takes on CNN, that’s perfect: attacking the liberal media never fails to GOTV.

If Democrats fail to retake both chambers of Congress, no doubt this confrontation will be billed as a moment the tide began to turn, along with the Allen/Drudge attack on Webb’s novels, and a host of retroactively assessed blunders and genius moves. But the truth is that such claims will be baseless, the reweaving of a narrative to fit whatever the end of the story turns out to be. No punditry, no polling, and no social science will ever establish the accurate inner tale of what happened to the American psyche during these fetid final weeks of electioneering. All there will be are claims and counterclaims, and the eventual hardening of a conventional wisdom written mainly by the winners.

Meantime, though, you can’t wish for a nicer sendoff for Mrs. Cheney’s children’s book. When Wolf teased the next hour of The Situation Room by using the word “ferocious,” it’s sweet that the word applied equally well to the raging California wildfire, and to the raging author of Our 50 States: A Family Adventure Across America, for ages 4 to 8. ++

Lou Dobbs On Lynne Cheney Interview:
“Now We Are Watching Power Bridling And Truth Being Spoken To Power”…
CNN
October 28, 2006

A partial transcript from CNN’s The Situation Room:

DOBBS: Well, again with all due respect to Lynne Cheney, to anyone else who wants to argue about the issue of “Broken Government.” This is a broken government that’s been created by both Democratic and Republican congresses and presidents. The fact is, both parties are not working in the interest of the middle class. If she thinks this is a partisan issue, I would urge her to focus on our reporting. Pointing out — point of fact that neither party is serving the interests of the American people right now. And our working people, most importantly, our working people, our middle class, are working men and women and their families. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

BLITZER: One thing about Lou Dobbs, he’s an equal opportunity critic against the Democrats and the Republicans.

DOBBS: Well, I’m probably a little heavier critic right now since the Republicans are in charge. If we see that change, you can bet one thing as you know, Wolf, probably be a little more heavily critical of what the Democrats are doing.

BLITZER: Lou’s book, and it’s a best seller right now, “War on the Middle Class,” here it is right here. How the government, big business and special interest groups are waging war on the American dream and how to fight back. It’s doing very well as it should do.

DOBBS: Terrific interview with Lynne Cheney. And it really, it was very revealing. In terms of the tone and the tact that’s being taken. Now we are watching power bridling and truth being spoken to power. Kudos to you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Lou, thanks very much.

DOBBS: Thank you. ++

LEAKED MEMO: Karen Hughes Thinks Small In Combating Iraq Insurgency
ThinkProgress

Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes heads off to the Middle East this weekend for a round of public diplomacy. Think Progress has obtained this internal memorandum sent from Hughes to National Security Council Principals earlier this month entitled “Thinking ‘bigger.’”

A key section of this memo offers the Bush administration’s strategy for “Public Diplomacy to Counter Insurgency in Iraq.” Far from “thinking bigger,” the recommendations for defeating the insurgency are small-minded, unambitious, and disconnected from reality. Here are Hughes’ three ideas:

– Substantially expand…[the] “Micro scholarship” program…targeted at youth in key disadvantaged areas in Iraq, such as Sadr City or Anbar Governorate.”

– Create a fund to support media projects by Iraqis, such as documentaries, short films, animation, audio-visual productions and other material that would show Iraq’s reality to pan-Arab and pan-Islamic audiences.

– Revive book publishing in Iraq to fill the intellectual vacuum…and support…Iraq’s hard-pressed intellectuals.

See the full memo here.

These are all nice ideas in theory, but the problems affecting Iraqi society go much deeper and are far more serious that the administration wants to admit. Iraq is in a state of endemic chaos, marked by four raging internal conflicts, ethnic cleansing, and few significant advances in Iraq’s economic reconstruction.

These recommendations fail to scratch the surface of the underlying problems and do not address what the recent Iraq NIE described as “a deep resentment of U.S. involvement in the Muslim world.” Hughes’ memo sadly reveals that the administration is not “thinking big” enough about the problems resulting from our current occupation of Iraq. To get things right in Iraq, we need to embrace a complete shift in strategy and adopt a policy of strategic redeployment. ++

NBC refuses ads for Dixie Chicks movie
Dominican Today
October, 27

Washington – In an ironic twist of events, NBC and the CW Television Network refuse to air ads for a documentary focusing on freedom of speech.

NBC Claims that the Network “cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush.”

The CW Television Network that the Network Does “Not have Appropriate Programming in which to Schedule this Spot”

NBC and The CW Television Network have taken a stand against the Dixies Chicks new documentary “Shut Up & Sing” a behind-the-scenes look at the incredible political and media fallout that occurred in 2003 after the Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines said that she was “ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”

“Shut Up & Sing” opens in theaters in NY and Los Angeles on Friday and in theaters nationwide on November 10th.

NBC responded to a clearance report submitted by the Weinstein Company’s media agency saying that the network “cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush.”

The CW Television Network responded that it does “not have appropriate programming in which to schedule this spot.”

Famed litigator David Boies stated, “It is disappointing and troubling that NBC and The CW would refuse to accept an otherwise appropriate ad merely because it is critical of President Bush.”

Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of The Weinstein Company stated, “It’s a sad commentary about the level of fear in our society that a movie about a group of courageous entertainers who were blacklisted for exercising their right of free speech is now itself being blacklisted by corporate America. The idea that anyone should be penalized for criticizing the president is sad and profoundly un-American.”

The Weinstein Company is exploring taking legal action. ++

Shut Up & Sing
The Villiage Voice

Directed by Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck
The Weinstein Company, opens October 27

When a red-blooded, macho, flag-waving, Bush-voting American country music fan looks at a gorgeous blonde who also happens to make his kind of music, one doesn’t normally expect him to pay attention to the substance of her conversation. Dixie Chicks lead singer Natalie Maines didn’t think so either, at first. Far from controversial once upon a time, the Chicks were simply playing to a London crowd on the eve of the Iraq war, and Maines happened to mention that she and the audience were on the same side. Had there been no such thing as the blogosphere, the remarks might have gone unnoticed, but juiced up by the right-wing website Free Republic, Maines’s comments led first to a national stir, then some boycotts, and now a movie, Shut Up & Sing.

In fact, the movie’s not quite the Bush bashfest its publicity might lead you to believe; it’s closer to the Metallica doc Some Kind of Monster than to Fahrenheit 9/11. Like Metallica, the Dixie Chicks begin the film as a multiplatinum band looking to move their sound forward on a new album, only to have external circumstances throw a wrench into the works. The political angle is the film’s hook, but its real goal seems to be to persuade non–country fans who support the band’s politics that, hey, y’know, their music’s pretty good too.

The idea that popular music should never be political is, on the face of it, idiotic. Would you tell Bob Dylan to just shut up and sing? Or System of a Down? John Lennon? Even country as a genre has not been free from impassioned ideals; Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash never shied away from populist issues, and Hank Williams Jr. and Charlie Daniels have been vocal in support of Republicans. The thing with the Dixie Chicks is that they were not a political band and never intended to be; ironically, by going all out in bashing the band for one comment, protesters generated a self-fulfilling prophecy, as Maines became hardened in her defiance, still “Not Ready to Make Nice.”

Those still mad at Maines aren’t going to be won over—the right-wing demonstrators interviewed on camera mostly come off as idiots, and Bill O’Reilly is shown advocating that the Dixie Chicks be slapped around (though he’d no doubt claim that to be amusing hyperbole). But the most hilarious of the detractors is Toby Keith, who defends himself against Maines’s criticism of his songwriting skills by saying, “She said anyone can write ‘Boot in Your Ass,’ but she didn’t!” ++

What’s right and good doesn’t come naturally. You have to stand up and fight for it - as if the cause depends on you, because it does. Allow yourself that conceit - to believe that the flame of Democracy will never go out as long as there’s one candle in your hand.
~ Bill Moyers

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Entry Filed under: Political Waves