TW3 … and trash talk

June 26th, 2008

That Was The Week That Was … discouraging; I especially hated the polar bear story.

As bonus today, we’ll take a look at some examples of verbal explosion — a kind of Tourett Syndrome that has infected some of us. People are saying the damnedest things, lately … they just can’t seem to help themselves. We’re accustomed to Dubby, of course, as the most egregious equal-opportunity offender, causing us to wince; but he isn’t the only one opening mouth and inserting foot these days. Very revealing.

Jude

HARPER’S WEEKLY REVIEW
June 24, 2008

Oil reached a record $139.89 a barrel. Four Western
companies met with Iraq’s Oil Ministry to finalize no-bid
contracts to tap Iraqi oil fields, and the Nigerian
government distributed billions of dollars of windfall to
corrupt state officials. Thirty-five countries and 25 oil
companies met in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, to try to fix
global oil prices, which have caused strikes, riots, and
inflation around the world. Many OPEC countries blamed
speculators for the price increase, as did some
representatives of oil companies and oil-dependent
industries. United States Energy Secretary Sam Bodman
blamed supply and demand, as did lobbyists for Goldman
Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and the International Swaps and
Derivatives Association. Drivers in the Gaza Strip, where
Israel limits fuel supplies and black market gas costs $27
per gallon, used vegetable oil and turpentine as fuel,
producing toxic fumes that result in diarrhea and stomach
pain. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
cancelled four global-warming research expeditions, citing
the cost of fuel. American cowboys could not afford to
drive their horses to rodeos, and those who lived near the
border were filling their tanks in Mexico, where gas is
subsidized. Giant iguanas continued their conquest of
South Florida, surrounding Fish and Wildlife Conservation
Commissioner Bob Kanjian at a golf course in Lake
Worth. “I had 25 to 30 iguanas,” he said, “staring at me
while I was playing.”

Breaking an earlier vow, Senator Barack Obama announced
that he will opt out of the public campaign-finance
system, in order to be able to spend unlimited amounts of
money in the last two months of his presidential campaign,
rather than merely $84 million, the amount to which
Senator John McCain will be limited under public-funding
laws. “It’ll be like George Steinbrenner’s Yankees in the
90s,” Democratic consultant Chris Lehane said of Obama’s
campaign, which could spend as much as $500 million,
“against the 90s Kansas City Royals.” Al Gore endorsed
Obama, as did Donatella Versace, whose spring-summer 2009
men’s line, which includes slim pants with a “slick
techno-fabric sheen,” is dedicated to the
candidate. Ex-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
declined to endorse McCain, who has called him “one of
the worst secretaries of defense in history,” and Air
Force veteran, comedian, and self-described “old fuck”
George Carlin died at 71.

Water gushed down the Mississippi from last week’s floods
in Iowa and Illinois, overflowing at least 20 levees above
Saint Louis, and the Flood Museum in Fort Madison, Iowa,
remained under water. The federal government warned that
climate change will make rainstorms less frequent but more
intense in years to come. A polar bear named Ofeig (”He
Who Should Not Die”), recently arrived in Iceland after
traveling via ice floe from Greenland, was shot and killed
by the police after he panicked and threatened to attack
some journalists. A left human foot wearing a running shoe
was found in the ocean near Vancouver. Police were
checking to see if it was related to any of four right
human feet found in the area since August. “This might
take a long time,” said Sharlene Brooks of the Delta
Police Department. “This is not C.S.I.” A forensic
pathologist and an anthropologist studying what appeared
to be a sixth human foot concluded that it was an animal
paw and some seaweed stuffed into a sock. Kermit Scott, a
former philosophy professor who inspired Jim Henson’s
puppet Kermit the Frog, died. A sweeping revision of
surveillance law, extending the NSA’s domestic wiretapping
program and granting immunity to telecom companies that
have helped them spy on Americans, passed the House and
was expected to pass in the Senate. The bill, explained
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.), “abandons the
Constitution’s protections and insulates lawless behavior
from legal scrutiny.” It was revealed that the Veterans
Affairs Department had tested an anti-smoking drug on
veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder but failed to
warn them that possible side effects included psychotic
behavior and suicide. A bomb in a Kia truck exploded in a
market in Baghdad, killing at least 65 people. “I feel
very tired and sad,” said clothing merchant Salam Hashim,
who lost three friends in the attack. “I just want to
smoke.”

– Sam Stark
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/06/WeeklyReview2008-06-24

Nader: Obama Trying To “Talk White” And “Appeal To White Guilt”
Huffington Post
June 25, 2008

In an interview with the Rocky Mountain News, independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader says he’s disappointed with Barack Obama:

“There’s only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He’s half African-American. Whether that will make any difference, I don’t know. I haven’t heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What’s keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white? He doesn’t want to appear like Jesse Jackson? We’ll see all that play out in the next few months and if he gets elected afterwards.

Nader says he’s on to Obama strategy:

“He wants to show that he is not a threatening . . . another politically threatening African-American politician. He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as black is beautiful, black is powerful. Basically he’s coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it’s corporate or whether it’s simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up.”

Nader plans to go to Denver during the Democratic National Convention to highlight his own agenda. ++

Today in Incongruity: Nader Accuses Obama of “Talking White”
Black and white confuse former Green.
Jesse Taylor, Pandagon via Alternet
June 25, 2008

Noted black man Ralph Nader accuses Obama of “talking white”.

Much of this is, of course, attributable to John Edwards, but I remember Obama - and Clinton - spending a lot more time talking about poverty and urban issues than any other campaign in recent memory. He even has specifically targeted poverty policies, while John McCain has, er…nothing.

“He wants to show that he is not a threatening … another politically threatening African-American politician. He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as black is beautiful, black is powerful. Basically he’s coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it’s corporate or whether it’s simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up.”

You know what’s really nonthreatening to white people? Being a black dude running for president and writing two separate books about how you’re black.

Other things that are nonthreatening to white people: puppies. ++

James Dobson accuses Obama of `distorting’ Bible
ERIC GORSKI, AP Religion Writer
Jun 24

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - As Barack Obama broadens his outreach to evangelical voters, one of the movement’s biggest names, James Dobson, accuses the likely Democratic presidential nominee of distorting the Bible and pushing a “fruitcake interpretation” of the Constitution.

The criticism, to be aired Tuesday on Dobson’s Focus on the Family radio program, comes shortly after an Obama aide suggested a meeting at the organization’s headquarters here, said Tom Minnery, senior vice president for government and public policy at Focus on the Family.

The conservative Christian group provided The Associated Press with an advance copy of the pre-taped radio segment, which runs 18 minutes and highlights excerpts of a speech Obama gave in June 2006 to the liberal Christian group Call to Renewal. Obama mentions Dobson in the speech.

“Even if we did have only Christians in our midst, if we expelled every non-Christian from the United States of America, whose Christianity would we teach in the schools?” Obama said. “Would we go with James Dobson’s or Al Sharpton’s?” referring to the civil rights leader.

Dobson took aim at examples Obama cited in asking which Biblical passages should guide public policy — chapters like Leviticus, which Obama said suggests slavery is OK and eating shellfish is an abomination, or Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, “a passage that is so radical that it’s doubtful that our own Defense Department would survive its application.”

“Folks haven’t been reading their Bibles,” Obama said.

Dobson and Minnery accused Obama of wrongly equating Old Testament texts and dietary codes that no longer apply to Jesus’ teachings in the New Testament.

“I think he’s deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview, his own confused theology,” Dobson said.

“… He is dragging biblical understanding through the gutter.”

Joshua DuBois, director of religious affairs for Obama’s campaign, said in a statement that a full reading of Obama’s speech shows he is committed to reaching out to people of faith and standing up for families.

“Obama is proud to have the support of millions of Americans of faith and looks forward to working across religious lines to bring our country together,” DuBois said.

Dobson reserved some of his harshest criticism for Obama’s argument that the religiously motivated must frame debates over issues like abortion not just in their own religion’s terms but in arguments accessible to all people.

He said Obama, who supports abortion rights, is trying to govern by the “lowest common denominator of morality,” labeling it “a fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.”

“Am I required in a democracy to conform my efforts in the political arena to his bloody notion of what is right with regard to the lives of tiny babies?” Dobson said.

“What he’s trying to say here is unless everybody agrees, we have no right to fight for what we believe.”

The program was paid for by a Focus on the Family affiliate whose donations are taxed, Dobson said, so it’s legal for that group to get more involved in politics.

Last week, DuBois, a former Assemblies of God associate minister, called Minnery for what Minnery described as a cordial discussion. He would not go into detail, but said Dubois offered to visit the ministry in August when the Democratic National Convention is in Denver.

A possible Obama visit was not discussed, but Focus is open to one, Minnery said.

McCain also has not met with Dobson. A McCain campaign staffer offered Dobson a meeting with McCain recently in Denver, Minnery said. Dobson declined because he prefers that candidates visit the Focus on the Family campus to learn more about the organization, Minnery said.

Dobson has not backed off his statement that he could not in good conscience vote for McCain because of concerns over the Arizona senator’s conservative credentials. Dobson has said he will vote in November but has suggested he might not vote for president.

Obama recently met in Chicago with religious leaders, including conservative evangelicals. His campaign also plans thousands of “American Values House Parties,” where participants discuss Obama and religion, as well as a presence on Christian radio and blogs. ++

Focus On Fruitcake: Dr. Dobson’s Half-Baked Recipe For Theocracy
Rob Boston, AmericansUnited
June 24, 2008

Our Founding Fathers must have been fruitcakes because they believed in secular government.

Focus on the Family founder James C. Dobson is at it again. Dobson grabbed newspaper headlines this morning with an attack on U.S. Sen. Barack Obama.

According to Dobson, Obama holds a “fruitcake interpretation of the Constitution.”
Dobson’s salvo on Obama is based on a 2006 speech the Illinois senator gave to a group of moderate evangelicals. During the speech, Obama pointed out that in the United States, laws must have a secular basis. People can oppose abortion, he noted, but they should not expect the government to ban the procedure just because some people say the Bible calls for that.

Obama did not say religious people have no right to oppose abortion. He merely said that they need an argument that goes beyond the words in the Bible or a papal decree. To Dobson, this is a “fruitcake” interpretation of the Constitution. If so, our Founding Fathers must have been fruitcakes as well because they believed in secular government. After all, they gave us a Constitution that separates church and state.

Pundits will spend the next few days parsing Dobson’s remarks and their likely political impact. I think it’s pretty obvious he’s worried about Obama’s outreach to evangelicals and wants to block it. It’s the same old partisan politics from the would-be ayatollah of Colorado Springs.

Dobson’s broadcast makes one thing clear: He remains a “my-way-or-the-highway” guy. Dobson is as dogmatic as they come. On this morning’s broadcast, he comes dangerously close to saying that the views of Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus and other non-Christians can be safely discarded because they are in the minority.

Interestingly, some new data about religion in the United States shows that Dobson’s rigid approach to theology is less and less appealing to Americans. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life yesterday issued an in-depth poll of religion in America. Its findings will probably give Dobson a scare.

Americans remain an overwhelmingly religious people – but increasingly they say that no one faith has an absolute lock on truth. Seventy percent said they believe many religions can lead to eternal life. Sixty-eight percent also backed the idea that their own religion can be interpreted in different ways.

These beliefs were found even in surprising places. “More than 60 percent of those who said they were Southern Baptists said many religions can be right about how to get to the hereafter,” reported the Dallas Morning News. “And about eight in 10 Catholics said there was more than one true interpretation of their faith.”

The survey also showed a drop in acceptance of scriptural literalism. Most Americans – 63 percent – believe that various sacred texts are the word of God, but only 33 percent say these books must be interpreted literally.

Dobson and the Religious Right leaders who believe like him are, of course, free to insist that their interpretation of the Bible is the only correct one and that everyone who disagrees even in the slightest way is destined to spend eternity in a lake of fire. They do not, however, have the right to insist that their narrow interpretation of faith become the basis for laws that all must follow.

Dobson has the right to believe what he wants about his faith. But if current trends continue, it may be the fewer and fewer Americans are interested in buying the dogmatic product he’s been peddling for so many years. If we’re lucky, they will loudly reject his divisive politics as well. ++

Bush To Filipino President: “I Am Reminded Of The Great Talent Of The — Of Our Philippine-Americans When I Eat Dinner At The White House”
Huffington Post
June 24, 2008

President Bush met with Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo today at the White House. Arroyo was in Washington while her country tries to recover from a typhoon that devastated coastal areas and flipped a ferry carrying over 800 passengers last week. Before discussing aide for the Philippines, Bush couldn’t resist beginning the sober meeting with a quip about a Filipino member of his kitchen staff. Read part of the transcript from the meeting and click here to read more about one of the “Philippine-Americans” Bush is referring to. See the excerpt below:

PRESIDENT BUSH: Madam President, it is a pleasure to welcome you back to the Oval Office. We have just had a very constructive dialogue. First, I want to tell you how proud I am to be the President of a nation that — in which there’s a lot of Philippine-Americans. They love America and they love their heritage. And I reminded the President that I am reminded of the great talent of the — of our Philippine-Americans when I eat dinner at the White House. (Laughter.)

PRESIDENT ARROYO: Yes.

PRESIDENT BUSH: And the chef is a great person and a really good cook, by the way, Madam President.

PRESIDENT ARROYO: Thank you. ++

President Bush Opens His Mouth, Predictable Thing Happens
CubbyChaser, Indecision2008, ComedyCentral
June 25th

In our latest issue of Why is President Bush Allowed to Talk?…

While meeting with Filipino President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the White House yesterday, he made the following comments…

[... see previous article - J]

Look, President Bush might be telling the God’s honest truth. The guy might be the best chef on the face of the Earth. He might cook dishes that made your mouth drop dead. Fine.

But, you see, that’s why we’ve invented this thing called “diplomacy,” in which we don’t just open our mouths and say the first clump of syllables that fall out.

Because sometimes the truth is an asshole thing to say. ++

[Note: the White House Chef, Cristeta "Cris" Comerford, is a woman, appointed to the position in 2005 - J]

Not with a bang, but with a chimp
Ed Naha, SmirkingChimp
June 24, 2008

When a third rate Carney chimp fancies himself a razorback gorilla destined for King Kong status, there’s bound to be trouble. In America’s case, seven and a half years’ worth.

Which brings me to the hurricane of verbal gas George W. Bush has unleashed in the last week or so. “It’s in our national interest that we defeat hopelessness,” he sanctimoniously stated to a British reporter, apparently unaware that a new Harris poll found that 80% of Americans think this country is going down the crapper and only 24% think Bush is doing a good job. (Apparently, 24% of Americans enjoy wearing gorilla suits, too.)

On a whirlwind gasbag tour of both Europe and the states, Bush has redefined, yet again, the word “delusional.” And, as usual, no one has called him on it.

In an interview with Sky News Political editor Adam Boulton, Bush exuded the kind of cockiness known only to victorious warriors and guys who take off their pants, use their underwear for headgear and wave “bye-bye” to passing cars from the end of their driveways. And, as we all know, a warrior Bush ain’t.

When Boulton noted that Afghanistan is turning out notso hotso, stating that “no one really expected to be where we are now with a high rate of casualties amongst British and American forces,” Bush calmly replied, “I think a lot of people didn’t expect there to be a democratically elected government, either, with a parliament and a President.”

While Bush was singing, “I do think it’s getting better,” headlines were screaming: “Is the Taliban Making a Comeback?” “Afghan official: 870 inmates escape from prison,” and “May combat deaths in Afghanistan outpace Iraq: Violence signals widening of war to Pakistan, Taliban, al-Qaeda havens.”

Boulton pointed out that the British Empire failed in Afghanistan and the Soviet empire failed in Afghanistan and, just maybe, the locals are simply waiting out the American “empire.”

Bush offered: “Could be. Except this isn’t the American empire, the British Empire or coalition empire. This is freedom’s march.”

Before Bush could accuse Boulton of stealing his strawberries, the reporter was smacked down for saying that Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and the U.S.’s idea of interrogation represented “the complete opposite of freedom.”

“Of course if you want to slander America, you can look at it one way,” Bush shot back. “But you go down — what you need to do — I think I suggested you do this at a press conference — if you go down to Guantanamo and take a look at how these prisoners are treated — and they’re working it through our court systems. We are a land of law.”

This brought about the following exchange, which rivals Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s On First?” routine for sheer hilarity.

BOULTON: “But the Supreme Court have just said that — you know, ruled against what you’ve been doing down there.”

THE PRESIDENT: “But the district court didn’t. And the appellate court didn’t.”

BOULTON: “The Supreme Court is supreme, isn’t it?”

THE PRESIDENT: “It is, and I accept their verdict. I don’t agree with their verdict. And it’s not what I was doing down there. This was a law passed by our United States Congress that I worked with the Congress to get passed and sign into law.”

BOULTON: “But it looked like an attempt to bypass the Constitution, to a certain extent.”

THE PRESIDENT: “This was a law passed, Adam. We passed a law. Bypassing the Constitution means that we did something outside the bounds of the Constitution. We went to the Congress and got a piece of legislation passed.”

BOULTON: “Which is now being struck down, I think.”

THE PRESIDENT: “It is, and I accept what the Supreme Court did, and I necessarily don’t have to agree with it.”

In an interview with Ned Temko of “The Observer,” Bush was in full Mad Hatter form, as well, offering what political observers call “creative interpretations” of recent history but normal folks call “lies.”

TEMKO: “Weapons of mass destruction in Iraq obviously is …”

THE PRESIDENT:” Still looking for them.”

TEMKO: “Still looking for them, exactly.” (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: “That was a huge disappointment.”

TEMKO: “And the obvious question your critics ask, particularly in Britain, is if we’d known at the time there weren’t any WMD, would there have been this war?”

THE PRESIDENT: “Well, you know, that’s one of those great hypotheticals that we didn’t know. Now having said that, I still strongly defend the decision. The world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power. But Presidents don’t get to do ‘re-dos,’ they don’t get to do ‘look backs,’ ‘ifs.’ All I can tell you is, is that we thought for certain there was weapons of mass destruction, as did the nations that voted for 1441.”

When Temko attempted to talk about the wholesale killing of Iraqi civilians, Bush attempted to out-do Sammy Davis Jr. in terms of tap dancing.

TEMKO: “One of the questions, of course, they ask, is, do you feel a sense of personal pain…”

THE PRESIDENT: “Course I do.”

TEMKO: “- over the Iraqi civilians who have …”

THE PRESIDENT: “I feel a sense of pain for those who were tortured by Saddam Hussein, by the parents who watched their daughters raped by Saddam Hussein, by those innocent civilians who have been killed by inadvertent allied action, by those who have been bombed by suicide bombers. I feel a sense of pain for death. I feel a sense of pain for the families of our troops. I read about it every night. Or I used to read about it every night; the violence has changed.”

(NOTE: To fully comprehend the above answer, it is necessary to don a tin foil hat while placing one’s tongue in a live outlet.)

He also blamed the press for the Iraq war being loathed by everyone not posing in a gorilla suit. “This is a volunteer army, and these kids are in this fight because they want to be in the fight and they believe in it. And yet these poor parents are looking at — oftentimes looking at negativity, just people quick to report the ugly and the negative. But it’s hard to report on the schools that are opening or the clinics that are opening or the playgrounds that are filling up, the society is coming back.”

He actually said that Iraqis were happy about the U.S. invasion, blathering: “But my view is, is that when you talk to Iraqis, they’re thrilled with the idea of living in a free society. Do they like the fact that violence is still there? No. But every society reaches a level of violence that’s tolerable.

“And has that reached Iraq? I don’t know yet.”

Returning to America, Bush blamed the Democrats for the economy, (”They tried to go on a spending spree.”) the gas shortage, the negative attitude towards Bush’s war-of-the-week club and the whole Charlie Sheen custody battle. (I made that last one up. Could you tell?)

He called for a resumption of off-shore drilling, knowing full well it won’t mean squat to the price of gasoline, praised John McCain as a visionary, accused the Supreme Court of “judicial activism that frustrates the American people” and addressed the flooding disaster in Iowa with the stirring “I know a lot of farmers and cattlemen are hurting right now, along with city people,” (Uh, so that would mean EVERYbody?) before promising “a big chunk of disaster money” to the afflicted. Weee doggies!

While Bush was feeling verbally vomitaceous, his evil Captain Kangaroo doppelganger, John Bolton, declared that the best outcome of an Obama victory would be “more embassy bombings, more bombings of our warships like the Cole, more World Trade Center attacks,” and conservative columnist Bill Kristol wondered aloud if Bush would bomb Iran if he thought Obama was going to win.

Now, the fact that Bush is a duplicitous, arrogant ideologue comes as no surprise to anyone with the I.Q. of a brick or above. (Sorry, 24% of America.) The only reason I highlight our Pretzledent’s recent pee-wee posturing is that some Americans seem ready to vote for Bush’s maniacal “Mini-Me,” John McCain.

McCain, I believe, makes George Bush look like a, er, bush leaguer when it comes to courting chaos. Once you get past McCain’s jovial, Foxy Grandpa delivery, you find a man who will do and say anything to get elected and has the attention span and the geopolitical knowledge of a gnat.

He recently proposed a $300 million prize for whoever can develop a better car battery, knowing full well that auto manufacturers are already working on it. (Phew! Now, McCain’s wife won’t have to fork over that cash!)

He also decried Barack Obama’s opting out of public election financing, saying that Obama had broken his word. Of course, McCain himself has opted out, sort of, kind of, while keeping it all on the Q.T.

As Jamison Foser of “MediaMatters for America” pointed out:

“John McCain said he would take public financing for the Republican primaries. Then he used the promise of that public financing to help secure a loan for his campaign. Then, after he wrapped up the Republican nomination, he abruptly decided he did not want to be bound by the limits on campaign fundraising and spending that accompany public financing, so he announced that he had changed his mind.

“But Federal Election Commission chairman David Mason sent McCain a letter saying that he cannot unilaterally opt out of the public financing system without FEC approval — a letter the McCain campaign ignored. If McCain cannot opt out of the system unilaterally, he has broken the law by raising and spending funds in excess of legal limits, and continues to do so each day. Even if McCain isn’t breaking the law, he has already broken his word and ‘reversed himself’ on the question of whether he would take public funding for the primaries.”

Watching McCain flip-flop on EVERY topic is unnerving. Yet, some voters think of him as a true patriot who will return America to its glory daze. Be forewarned. As the Carney chimp hisself once said: “There’s an old saying in Tennessee - I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can’t get fooled again.”

Last week, assessing his King Midas In Reverse role, Junior declared, “It’s been a fabulous life. Just remember, there’s six months to go and a lot can get done in six months.”

That same week, two wire service stories had rather telling headlines: “Everything seemingly is spinning out of control” and “Sarcasm Seen as Evolutionary Survival Skill.”

Also, Newt Gingrich compared John McCain to Lincoln.

I’m really missing George Carlin already. ++

“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.”
~ Molly Ivins, 1944 - 2007

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Entry Filed under: Political Waves