Tuesday, March 04, 2003
Will GWB listen?
Yeah, I know it’s really early in the voting (as I write, the program has only just hit the CNN airwaves), but the first results of today’s Wolf Blitzer poll continue to demonstrate that the Bushies are completely out of touch with not only the non-US world, but the residents of this country as well. Wolf’s poll question for today:
Who’s the number one threat facing the United States:
Saddam Hussein
Kim Jong Il
Osama bin Laden
As I write this, just over 2000 votes have been recorded, and the respondents have made one thing perfectly clear ... it ain’t Saddam. At this point, Kim seems to have pulled out into a small lead over bin Laden, with Dubya’s favorite candidate far, far in arrears. A link to the poll results is here.
So why does Dubya insist on ignoring North Korea, mentioning al-Qaeda only when lying about its (non)connection to Saddam, and buildingbuildingbuilding his military forces aimed at Iraq? Is it revenge for the alleged assassination attempt against Poppy? Is it black-ops intelligence about WMD that we-the-people don’t know about? Is it all about commercial interests and the Iraqi oilfields? Is it really anticipated to be the first stage of the influx of Western-style democracy that will transform the Middle East from top to bottom? Is it the word of God passed through the strong right arm of America’s president, smiting evil and fulfilling prophecy on the way to an apocalyptic endtime?
Monday, March 03, 2003
It's not the end of the world...
...but you can see it from there. And if I hadn’t seen it with my own two eyes, I wouldn’t believe it.
Imagine, if you will, a television commercial for the Victoria’s Secret “Angels Collection”, with surreal post-modern young women lounging about in underwear and feathery wings as out-of-focus images of Venice swirl across the screen. Imagine the soundtrack for such a commercial:
I’m walking through streets that are dead
...
My feet are so tired, my brain is so wired
And the clouds are weeping
Recognize the words? That’s three of the four lines of the opening verse of Bob Dylan’s Love Sick, from his 1997 release, Time Out of Mind. Yes, that’s right ... Dylan has sold his song for use in a commercial. A Victoria’s Secret commercial, fercryinoutloud. Not only that, if it isn’t Bob himself croaking out the lyrics, then it’s a spot-on mimic.
Bob Dylan singing a lingerie ad… This must be a nightmare… When I wake up from it, who knows what else will prove to have been just a flight of (very scary) fancy?
Friday, February 28, 2003
Fundamentalism in a $1500 suit
Words fail me in trying to describe how wrongwrongwrong and dangerousdangerousdangerous is the man installed at the head of George W. Bush’s Justice Department. John Ashcroft’s misunderstanding of American values and American ideals isn’t merely monumental ... given the position of power he holds, he has already wrought immense damage to the United States and to its Constitution, and every day he remains in that position he is likely to continue to wreak such damage.
Example number whoknowshowmany:
In response to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision not to take up the Pledge of Allegiance “under God” question, Ashcroft promises to appeal the case to the Supreme Court. His statement, as quoted in Adam Liptak’s story in the NYTimes:
"The Justice Department will spare no effort to preserve the rights of all our citizens to pledge allegiance to the American flag. We will defend the ability of Americans to declare their patriotism through the time-honored tradition of voluntarily reciting the Pledge."
Has he no understanding of the facts of the case? Does he not know that the two words in dispute were added to the Pledge in June 1954, nearly 62 years after its origin? Is he not aware that the Pledge of Allegiance that he recited when he was eight years old didn’t contain the words “under God"?
The case has absolutely nothing to do with patriotism, allegiance, or the flag. It’s about the First Amendment, about the separation of church and state, about imposition of religion under public auspices. In his fevered fundamentalist brain, John Ashcroft does not understand that the United States of America is not a Christian nation.
White powder and desperation
As the rush of news picks up ever greater velocity, and the tide appears to be turning in directions that the Bushies can’t possibly be happy with, out of left field comes an oldie but a goodie. This time, the powder was sent to Republicans—House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and three freshman Senators (Norm Coleman, Saxby Chambliss, and Lamar Alexander). Preliminary testing has produced negative results.
According to the CNN report, the four envelopes were all postmarked here in Seattle. But for some reason, I keep thinking that a more likely site of origination might be, oh, say, Crawford, Texas. Not that I’m suggesting that Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are flailing about in search of a “crisis” to somehow elicit flag-waving support for their faltering program. No one would suggest that such cynical manipulation could be carried out by this administration, would they?
Thursday, February 27, 2003
Science, schmience (part 2)
Leave it to the US House of Representatives to demonstrate the nation’s commitment to being at the forefront of scientific research in the 21st century. By a roll call vote of 241-155, the House passed H.R. 534, a total ban on all human cloning. That includes research into basic mechanisms of disease, opportunities for understanding and resolving genetically-related diseases, and much more. The Senate has not yet considered this bill, so this isn’t yet the law of the land.
I’m sure it’s just an ironic coincidence that this bill was passed by Dennis Hastert and Tom DeLay’s House of Representatives 50 years to the day after Francis Crick let it be known that he and James Watson had solved the structure of DNA.
