Hypocracy, the Media, and You

I've read the CL headlines.  Since Charleston, it's been non-stop.

I'm agnostic on the flag; I've told you all this.  Don't care either way because it really won't affect my life (or yours-and you know it's true in your heart of hearts, CL editorial board) in any discernible way.

("But SYMBOLISM!" cried Former Democrat Operative Sam Hall.  Symbolism being the thing that puts bread on your table, after all.  How's that article damning Steve Holland and Jamie Franks going, by the way?)

But I'm really flummoxed at some of the headlines.

The first that drew my attention was the three days that the CL hyped the "Mississippi Celebrities for Changing the Flag" ad/article/whatever.  If my memory serves, it was the same week that the Center for Medical Progress released their Planned Parenthood videos, which the media seemed to have discovered this week.  Thanks, Carly!

My thoughts went to the Planned Parenthood videos immediately.  How many of these Celebrities would put their name to a letter to defund PP?  Archie Manning, Hugh Freeze...maybe Dan Mullen?  After all, if a flag hurts your feelings, what does a person describing how they cut through a live baby's face to get to the brain FOR MONEY do to you?

(Please save me the "EDITED VIDEO" sermon.  There's nothing out of context about it, and you know it.)

The second was Steve Earle.

You may remember Steve.  Back in the 80s he was a really good, edgy, country artist.  Since about 1990, however, he's slipped into paranoia, activism, and his music has been noted more for being more political than...you know...good.  Johnny Cash warned you about this, Steve.  He even did a song about it.

For those of you under 30, he's probably more well known for CMT documentaries (do they even do those any more, or is it all reality shows? Haven't watched CMT since I discovered YouTube).  Plus a little song he did in 2002 from the perspective John Walker Lindh.  Name ring a bell?

JWL was the original American Islamist.  He'd be at home at the preschool with the non-competitive musical chairs.  Sometime around 2000, he became a member of the Taliban.

So Steve Earle has sympathy for Johnny Taliban.  You, the average American who didn't learn guitar under Townes Van Zandt and make millions from "Copperhead Road?"  No, he doesn't have sympathy for you.  Cause you think the wrong way.

I'd love some justification from the Clarion Ledger as to why anyone who disagrees with Earle is worse than the Taliban, who blew up monuments because they didn't agree with the beliefs of those who disagreed with them.  But that would require them to make a connection I'm certain they don't want to make.

The Horror!

Did you hear? An ambitious, celebrity-craving couple talked their way into the White House!

I mean, the next thing you know, these goofballs will want to be on Oprah, have a weekly TV show, be on every magazine cover, and film a Thanksgiving commercial with Drew Brees. Their faces will be everywhere.

Oh, wait...

Scenes From The White House

The door opens. Its Axelrod. The President is kicked back in his office. Its a balmy 80 degrees inside. His shoes are off, and he's playing Madden on the XBox.

"Mr. President," Axelrod says. He waits. Nothing.

"Mr. President," Axelrod says again. Still nothing. He pulls a tape recorder from his pocket, and presses the PLAY button.

"BARRY!!!!!" comes the shrill voice from the recorder. This snaps the president awake from his daze.

"You gotta stop doing that, bro," the President says to Axelrod. "Man, I thought she was really here. That tech is sweet huh? We need to get some of that to the CIA."

"Yes, sir, I'll see to it. Um, sir, about those Treasury appointments..." Axelrod trails off.

"What is it this time, man? I've got the Bears in the playoffs here. I'm a freaking savant at this!"

"Sir, there seems to be a problem with a couple of them."

"What? Is it taxes again? Sheesh, do we need to nationalize Turbotax while I'm here?"

Axelrod looks frumpled. "Sir, it's not taxes. Its..." he trails off for a moment. "Sir, Mike Tirico, Tony Romo, Stan Van Gundy, and Skip Bayless. Really, sir. You can't be serious."

"What? They all have made serious bank. And that's what we need in these uncertain times, bro. We have to give Geity all the help he can get. I mean, come on! Skip Bayless has got to know something about making money. He's always talking about the NBA and stuff on ESPN. That's where you go for your money news, right, Ax Man?"

"Sir, if you could turn the game off for a minute..."

"Not a chance, man. Those sweet offseason moves I made are paying off now. McNabb and Owens together again, baby! All it cost was my entire draft the next two years! Huh! What about that, huh? Freaking awesome is what it is! Anything you got to say to me, you can say in front of Al and John."

"Sir, I must protest this. First of all, they aren't qualified, second, they haven't even been told they're being nominated."

"What? Can't they just do one of those 'I'm honored just to be nominated' things? Isn't that what people do when they get up for one of these awards?"

"Sir, these are not awards..."

"Sure they are. I'm awarding them for making a lot of loot. They're gonna help us all make loot. Now scram, Ax Man. I gotta e-mail Scarlett Johansen. You know she's up for a part in Iron Man 2? That's gonna be sweet. Then I gotta upload some pics on Facebook. Busy day, man, busy day. Hey, on your way out, could you turn up the heat a little bit? I'm from Hawaii, you know. These DC springs, man, they are something."

"Sir, what about the visit by the Japanese Emperor?"

"What about it? Go give him some chopsticks or something. I got things to do. Just let me know when the big goofy 'tard gets here, ok? Speilberg is coming in with the rough cut of Transformers 2 this afternoon. We can't get bogged down with the little stuff, you get me?"

Axelrod sighs. "Yes sir, I get you."

I Have Learned So Much Today

Today, I learned that it's ok to be proud of your country.

How do I know this? ESPN is covering the inauguration. As you know, Constant Readers, I just loooove when the Worldwide Brainwasher gets into the political arena. I love it as much as I love mixing wine with beer. Interviews abound!

But hey, everything is now ok. America is good again! You can wave a flag that's not upside down! Hollywood can once again make movies about how good Americans are! George Clooney can play a government operative who isn't a slimeball! The world loves us again! The president likes sports! HE'S JUST LIKE YOU AND ME!

(On the last one: Rome, you're a dummy. "How nice is it to have a president who is a sports fan in office?" Um, did you forget the years that GWB OWNED the Texas Rangers? How about Bill Clinton's numerous bits on your own network about his love for sports, especially pickup basketball? What about college baseball player George H. W. Bush? Or former college football players Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, and John Kennedy? What about former All-American football player Gerald Ford? High school basketball star Jimmy Carter? How many presidents aren't sports fans? The fellatio has reached a new level of stupidity.)

Worship and adore him.

We Are Not a Cult, Spoiled Athlete Edition

Dallas Maverick Josh Howard gives his opinion of a number of subjects in this cell phone recording:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdyB0IEPAH0

I Note that Matt Damon...

...A guy who once did a movie about being a Siamese Twin...says that Sarah Palin's candidacy is like 'a bad Disney movie.'

Really? 'Cause I never caught the Geena Davis show. Did it suck as bad as people said?

Diddy, the Gift that Keeps on Giving

Diddy wonders if there are black people in Alaska.

Of course there are! Trajan Langdon, for one:

The best part of his video diary (shown on O'Reilly tonight; thank God I wasn't drinking, since he seemed to be rotating. This could have gotten ugly.) was the statement that "if you think you're gonna win this election, you're buggin'."

First of all, who the heck still uses the term buggin'? Really? That was old when I was young, I think. You take the hip out of hip-hop with that kind of slang, sir.

Second, who the heck is we, kemo sabe? The idle rich? Past-their-15-minutes celebrities? People who video blog while on merry-go-rounds?

Because surely you aren't suggesting you will be voting against John McCain because you happen to have different skin tones. Because that would be racism, and racism is wrong.

We Are Not A Cult, Part XMVI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6BLKV7L8OU

By my count, appearing in this video are:

Forest Whittaker
Macy Gray
Jason Alexander
Whoopi Goldberg
Joss Stone
Barry Manilow
Cyndi Lauper
Norah Jones
Pam Anderson (what, no Tommy Lee?)

Wait, did they just say, this is the Church You Can't See? Oh, man, what an apt metaphor for Barry Worship.

Way to put the McCain "Celebrity" ads in their place, Strange Martian Obama Worshippers.

I Love Playing This Game (A Housecleaning Item)

JAMIE FRANKS: “Good afternoon.

Hi. How the hell are ya?

“Our economy is failing.

Really? You do understand that a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth, which hasn't happened yet.

Businesses are closing and people are losing jobs.

Which is always a good argument against socialism.

The price of food is rising.

And ethanol, which you love so much, is one of the main reasons.

And we are paying more than we’ve ever paid for a gallon of gas – prices that have dropped slightly after topping $4 a gallon in recent weeks.

Amazing what an executive order lifting a drilling ban and two-thirds of the public wanting drilling, added to a little conservation can do. Can you call Nancy and tell her to schedule a vote on drilling when she gets done with her book tour?

“This pain at the pump is a major contributor to our economic problems as many people are emptying their wallets to fill their tank.

And yet you can still drive an SUV. Way to lead on that one, Oh Friend of the Workin' Man.

With prices as high as they are, we could see people forced to decide whether to fill their tank or buy groceries.

Wait, I thought prices had dropped a little recently? It's gone down 50 cents since the executive order. Can you get your story straight?

“Now, we have a presidential candidate, Republican John McCain, who has an unclear stand on energy and close ties to Big Oil.

Yet the 'Big Oil' executives have given more to Obamessiah than McCain. Square that, Golden Boy. By the way, how's your buddy Samson's lawsuit against a small oil company in north Mississippi going?

If he wins the presidency, who would he look out for: His buddies in the oil industry or the working men and women of our state and country?

I'd like to think he'd look out for the American people by not treating them like serfs dependent on an overlord to make their decisions. And part of that is not increasing their taxes.

“Consider these facts: McCain has 33 oil and gas industry lobbyists as his campaign advisors. Charlie Black, the most prominent lobbyist in the McCain campaign, lobbied for several oil companies; Mark Buse, McCain’s chief of staff in the U.S. Senate, lobbied for Exxon Mobile

And what did David Axelrod do between campaigns? He was an 'advocate' for CORE and ASK in Illinois. And really, isn't an advocate the same thing as a...lobbyist? I love the Obamessiah meme that he's so pure that he won't touch lobbyists. It's not true, of course. But it makes a nice line in a speech, and that's what's important, isn't it?

And apparently nobody on your staff lobbied for Spellcheck.

“McCain’s energy plan would cut taxes for oil companies by nearly $4 billion. A study by the Center for American Progress Action Fund found that McCain’s plan would include a $1.2 billion tax cut alone for Exxon Mobile – or perhaps we should call it Exxon McCain.

Oh, man, you're so clever. I bet you've got an ExxonMcCain sticker on your SUV. By the way, the McCain tax plan includes a 10% across-the-board corporate tax cut. The US corporate tax is 35%-one of the highest in the world. It's one of the reasons that businesses are leaving. But I'm sure you knew that, right?

“McCain has accepted more than $2 million in campaign contributions from Big Oil – more than seven times the campaign contributions Democratic nominee Barack Obama received from people connected with the industry.

And Obama gets foreign policy advice from that sage of international politics George Clooney, who is currently planning a fundraiser for Barry-in Switzerland. I hope the symbolism isn't lost on you-but I'm sure it is.

“The skyrocketing price of gasoline has plagued our country and economy for much of this year. Many people spend $50 or more to fill their tank once, and, sometimes twice or more, a week.

Oh, that vaunted connection with the common man. Try twice that if you own a big pickup. But I guess since the Screamer started picking up the tab for you've stopped paying attention to those things.

And Big Oil is enjoying record profits.

And record tax payments. 15 cents in taxes for every 4 cents of profit.

“Less than two weeks ago on July 31, Exxon Mobile reported the largest operating profit in U.S. corporate history – an $11.7 billion profit for the second quarter, caused mostly by rising prices for crude oil. Exxon Mobile’s earnings were up 14 percent from a year ago.

So what you're saying is that companies that make a profit and employ people are bad?

“That same day, Royal Dutch Shell reported its profits rose to $11.56 billion. The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch reported Shell’s profits weren’t much of a shock; the oil and natural gas it produced sold for 76 percent more than it did the same period one year earlier.

Yeah, it's too bad they have to go to all these places with Radical Islamists, tinhorn dictators, and cholera-ridden hellholes to do it, when they could do it in such exotic places as Biloxi, Mobile, Tampa, Charleston and Savannah.

“In November, we have a clear choice: Do we support John McCain, whose ties run deep with Big Oil; who has proposed billions in tax breaks for Exxon Mobile; and who has no clear energy policy?

Yeah, no clear energy policy-except the one that says drill more, and promotes nuclear power for our electrical needs, as well as investments in wind and solar. I think you may have him confused with a big-eared dude with a funny name whose plan is limited to a tire pressure gauge.

“Or do we support Barack Obama, who offers the change voters want; who plans to invest $150 billion over the next 10 years in finding new energy sources; and who wants to give every working family a $1,000 energy rebate paid for by oil company profits?”

So what you're saying is that you're going to tax an essential product that you say is already overpriced? It's official-you did sleep through econ in high school. I guess in the fantasy world you reside in, the oil companies don't pass along costs to the consumer. Of course, in that fantasy world, you didn't get good enough coverage from David Hampton last fall.

Civic Education

Barry Messiah is on TV, talking pretty like he always does. He's touched on Washington, Lincoln, and Truman so far, and has talked about patriotism and the need for civic education. Good talking, and fine subjects.

Okay, let's talk civic education under Barry Messiah.

When talking about it, he's talked about worker's rights, slavery, and the struggles of women. Under Obama, the education system would continue down the track of children knowing more about Madame C. J. Walker-a hair-care entrepreneur-than they do about the men that he just quoted! Under Obama, when we teach American history, we'll get Marxist class struggle and victimization. There's no one immune from victimology. Obama has even implied that our military are a bunch of victims-otherwise, why would he ask for psych evaluations for them before being discharged?

(Very subtle way, naturally, of saying that Senator McCain is nuts.)

He said that he won't question other's patriotism-ain't that nice of him. Meanwhile, his supporters-Jay Rockefeller, Tom Harkin, and just yesterday Wesley Clark-have all questioned Senator McCain's mental health or his military experience. Gore Vidal recently called the Senator a liar for saying that he was a POW. Let's not forget Congressman Delahunt basically telling a fellow American citizen that he hoped Al-qaeda would behead him!

Words mean things, Senator.

The last thing I need, of course, is a rebuke of my civic knowledge from someone who thinks there are 59 states.

Obama or What, Exactly?

Nothing like the endorsement of a semi-washed up rapper on his third rapper name now best known for being Mr. J Lo:

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Barack Obama didn't attend the BET Awards, but that didn't stop attendees from talking about him.

"If we all register and vote, we will have the first black president in the history of America," Sean "Diddy" Combs told the crowd Tuesday at the Shrine Auditorium before chanting "Obama or Die" - a declarative remix of his neutral "Vote or Die" motto from the 2004 presidential election, when he attempted to boost the youth vote.

Yeah, that's going to really win over those bitter clingy people in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania...oh, wait, you don't need them anyway, right?

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080625/D91H2SU00.html