Warmongers

Maybe you’ve seen the fuss over a comment made by liberal talk radio host Ed Schultz last Friday, April fourth. He was speaking at an Obama fund-raiser in North Dakota and happened to call John McCain a warmonger.

Zounds! How dare those far-left (read liberal) agents of smear and character assassination attempt to slime the good name of Johnny (Bomb Bomb Iran) McCain! Remember that catchy little tune the senator sang for us?

The right wing bloggers quickly puffed up into their favorite posture of self-righteous indignation.

North Dakota's Democrats selected far-left radio talk show host Ed Schultz to warm up the crowd before Barack Obama's speech; he did so by calling John McCain "a warmonger." Obama did nothing to distance himself from Schultz's smear. - poligazette

What’s most interesting about this entire affair, though, is that it shows us how the Democrats will campaign against the GOP. Republicans are “warmongers” and “hatemongers.” The far-left will, undoubtedly, start attacking McCain incredibly aggressively ASAP. – powerlineblog

Robert M. Duncan, the chairman of the Republican National Committee chimed in with his outrage, “Enough is enough. Senator Obama has an obligation to speak out and publicly reject and denounce — not applaud — the shameful and contemptible remarks made by his surrogates.”

There go those liberals for you, shameful and contemptible. Contrast that remark with the diplomatic and respectful comment Johnny Bomb Bomb made about Hillary at a GOP Presidential debate.

He said, “If Senator Clinton has her way, al-Qaeda will trumpet to the world that they have beaten the United States.”

See? Now there’s the way to talk about a senator and peer. Never mind that “liberal” senator refuses to admit that her support for the invasion of Iraq was a lapse in judgment. Why, she was so liberal that she co-sponsored the failed Flag Protection Act of 2005 with Republican Senator Robert Bennett. No wonder al-Qaeda loves her. They don’t like our Constitution either.

They probably love McCain even more for fervently supporting the Iraq War. After all, that war was, and is, al-Qaeda’s biggest propaganda victory.

McCain told reporters, “Mr. Schultz is entitled to his views. I would hope that in keeping with his commitment that Senator Obama would condemn such language, since it was part of his campaign.'’

Ever the politically correct liberals they are, the Obama people quickly stepped in to cringe from the Right’s howling rage. Traveling press secretary Jen Psaki said in a written statement: “John McCain is not a warmonger and should not be described as such. He’s a supporter of a war that Senator Obama believes should have never been authorized and never been waged.”

Uh, huh.

It’s a good thing Ed Schultz has the spine to stand behind his words.

"He voted for this war," Schultz told the Associated Press on Saturday. "He's a perpetrator of the war. He's an advocate of the war. In my personal definition, that's a warmonger."

Ed is correct, of course. My American Heritage Dictionary defines warmonger as, “One who advocates or attempts to stir up war.”

As we remember, it was not just Bush, Cheney, and the neocons doing all the saber rattling back in 2002.

That would include Hillary Clinton, as well as many Democrats, and nearly every Republican politician. A country does not start an unprovoked war without a warmongering dominant party in its government.

The definition also fits the entire American corporate media, not that they would ever admit to their near total failure of investigative reporting. They were much too busy being “fair and balanced”. You know, like having at least twice as many pro-war as pro-peace opinions in print and on air.

Real men and women admit their mistakes and accept the facts. So don’t look for any acknowledgment of reality from our budding fascist politicians. They would love for us to forget the past and just move on, nothing to see here.

In the meantime, I’m still waiting for a Democrat to find the sense to respond to those truth-sensitive Republicans and offer them the truce Adlai E. Stevenson once suggested.

“I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them.”

Liberals

I had to pass on a couple quotes from the book, Why We're Liberals: A Political Handbook for Post-Bush America, from Media Matters' own Eric Alterman. It's time for progressives to re-define what the Right has mutilated. Here's a good start.

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal"? If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then ... we are not that kind of "Liberal."

But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal." - John Kennedy, September 1960
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Now here's another view, this one from Michael Savage, né "Weiner":

"Liberalism is a mental disorder, and it is also a cover," he says. "All this do-gooderness is a cover for very, very, very evil deeds."

He continues: "You say, 'Are you generalizing?' The answer is no. I have long tried to comprehend the madness of the American left. I have long tried to figure out what motivates them to hate the family, the church, the police, the military. In fact, why they hate the male, the patriarch. The answer is because they know they're no good, they're know they're dirty and are afraid of being found out. They're afraid Daddy will punish them for what they're doing."

Liberals and progressives, he says, are "degenerates" who are "on an express train to Hell."
"I am warning you that many of your progressive friends -- the permissive ones, the ones who laugh at conservatives, the ACLU types, the antiwar types? If they have children, I am warning you to watch your children when they go over to their houses."

Whoa, Michael. You're demonstrating the classic psychological defense mechanism called projection. All that hate you're screaming about is originating from what you see in the mirror.

Who ya gonna listen to, America? You had enough childish name calling and misdirected rage, yet? It wasn't those liberals that screwed things up so royally for the last (thirty) seven years. Now, go pay attention. As George Clinton says, "Think! It ain't illegal yet."

Free Speech And Freedom Music

I was honored to be a guest on the fund raiser edition of the WCBN-FM Ann Arbor radio program called "Here and Now". The show's hosts generously offered me the time to have a little of my music played along with the commentary.

Now thanks to my tech-oriented friend Chris, we can offer you all a chance to listen to the show.

Since it was a fund raising show, there were pitches made for donations to the station. Please feel free to call in a donation if you like it. Although the "Here and Now" program is political commentary, Musically, it is one of the most exceptionally diverse and eclectic stations in the country. You can hear music ranging from Sun Ra to Son Seals, Bill Monroe to Iggy Pop. I encourage you all to listen on line to WCBN.

I invite you to sit back and have a listen to some truly American free speech. For those curious listeners with resilient ears, I have listed some of my original freedom music as well.

Here And Now
February 8, 2008
WCBN-FM Ann Arbor

01 - Media Smear.mp3 (6:48)
02 - Original Struggle.mp3 (4:01)
03 - Aiding a Surrender.mp3 (9:49)
04 - Brilliant Business Scheme.mp3 (10:36)
05 - Introductory Segment.mp3 (2:14)
06 - Pleading the Fourth.mp3 (5:14)
07 - Speaking of Scoundrels.mp3 (6:54)


Music By Dave Dubya

01 Liars.mp3 (1:38)
02 G.W.B..mp3 (2:36)
MisUnderEstimatedProphet.mp3 (2:44)
SCAM.mp3 Stupid Corporate American Media (6:09)
BiggestBrother.mp3 (4:00)
06 - Pleading the Fourth.mp3 (5:14)

Fun With Bush X 3

Our good man Robert over at Left of Centrist has requested some assistance with a project.

Hey everyone, I need your help. Stop by Left of Centrist and get the ball rolling on a new game I've started called Bush X 3. The idea is to come up with as many three word descriptions of GWB as possible. My goal is to hit 100. With your help, I think we can make it easily and far beyond.
Thanks,
Robert

I am only too happy to pitch in. So let's have some fun and send our contributions to Left of Centrist

While there may not have been WMD's over in Iraq, here are a few WMD's I have found in GWB.

War Mongering Dictator

Wayward Moral Deviant

Witless Malicious Decider

Wantonly Murderous Dunce

Willfully Mean Divider

Wicked Mass Destroyer

Warlike Mad Despot

Warped Malignant Deceiver

Wartime Military Deserter

Wrathful Maligning Dimwit

Wrongheaded Monstrous Defiler

Mass Media, Mass Madness

Here we are again. We arrive at yet another anniversary of Bush’s glorious war. Why are millions of innocent people suffering for so long? His reasons for the calamitous blunder and debacle were far from the stated purposes. He cared nothing for the Iraqi people and had no proof for his WMD and al-Qaeda claims. He wanted war for power, profit, oil, and last, but not least, his insurance as “war president” to win his 2004 re-election.

How long have we been at war in Iraq? Has it been a lifetime yet? Or have we only just begun?

If you are a child about to leave kindergarten and looking forward to first grade, it has been a lifetime. If you’re John McCain, your 100 year war is just beginning to get rolling. That kindergartener will need a job in 12 or 13 years and can look forward to joining in Operation Iraqi Freedom. I’m sure we will still need him to fight the terrorists over there so we won’t have to fight them over here. And while our young American is busy staying the course, I can also imagine how grateful the surviving Iraqi children will be when they greet our young soldier as a liberator, not as an occupier.

What kind of insanity has infected our country to the point where we even consider permanent war? If someone told you ten years ago that we’d be in such a quagmire of self-deluded stupidity today, you would have suggested immediate rehab for the poor wretch.

Instead of the poor wretch in need of detox, we now have an entire nation that desperately needs rehabilitation. Something has gone drastically wrong with our common sense and collective wisdom. We are the victims of our own mass madness.

Most of us individually know what happened. We were deceived into an unprovoked war of aggression. The tyranny of a lockstep, neocon Kool-Aid drinking Republican Party, supported by quivering spineless Democrats was the formula for disaster.

We had the Powell Doctrine that would prevent a quagmire from sucking our blood and treasure. Remember the idea of never committing the military without overwhelming numbers of troops and a clear exit strategy? That got blown away when General Shinseki was brushed aside for asserting that doctrine, and when Powell turned puppet for the neocons at his UN charade.

But there was also another essential element needed in order for the foolhardy crusade to be launched. The citizens needed to support it. Dissent needed to be suppressed. An authoritarian driven propaganda campaign needed to be utilized as a tool for the war machine.

Luckily, for the government of, by and for the corporations, they had the corporate media salivating for the chance to patriotically stir up war fever across America. Not only would war be good for the armaments industry and other military industrial complex corporations, it would also prove to be an incredible windfall of profits for the media conglomerates. There’s nothing like a hyped up, sensationalized call to war to get the presses rolling and the TV viewers glued to their living room screens. And once the fighting started the jackpot would grow even bigger.

Once the media climbed aboard the Republicans’ and Democrats’ war wagon the triumvirate of treachery was complete. At first only 30% of the public bought the idea of invading Iraq. Then the scare tactics were applied full force. Saddam has ties to al-Qaeda. He has anthrax. He has biological weapons, poisonous gas, and unmanned aircraft that will bring the mushroom clouds. Remember those scary aluminum tubes?

Soon 70% of the American public would be frightened enough to buy the propaganda. Off to war!

But wait. Wasn’t it the job of journalists in the media to investigate the claims made by the Administration? Weren’t they supposed to research the arguments and tell the public the truth?

How did this vile incestuous relationship happen between the media and the Bush Administration? Weren’t the media supposed to be liberal? Maybe if the media were actually liberal, instead of corporate run, things would have turned out better. Maybe the press once had that obligation, in the land of free speech and democracy. But they sure didn’t investigate anything in Bush’s America.

The first elements of the right wing propaganda machine got its big boost when Reagan’s FCC dismantled the Fairness Doctrine in broadcasting. It was now open season for conservative radio and Fox News to slant the national discourse to the right.

The press had transformed itself into neocon mouthpieces. Journalism was replaced by Fox style propaganda and Judith Miller stenographers. Remember, it was not only Fox that cheered on the Right’s war mongering. “News” programs deliberately hosted twice as many pro-war advocates than guests who questioned going to war. MSNBC fired Phil Donahue because, according to a leaked NBC memo, he "presents a difficult public face for NBC in a time of war.... At the same time our competitors are waving the flag at every opportunity."

The New York Times’s critical faculties were short circuited by the frenzy for a victorious war that would forever displace the Viet Nam Syndrome. Judith Miller dutifully reported White House claims against Iraq as fact.

However, before this lockstep media chorus sang its war song, something interesting happened back in August of 2001.

CNN began actively courting favor with the Republican Party. According to the August 6, 2001 issue of Roll Call magazine, CNN Chairman Walter Isaacson went to Washington D.C. to meet with Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, Chuck Hagel, J.C. Watts and others in order to improve relations between the cable news network and conservative Republicans. I guess that went well.

The Republicans also had right wing talk radio and internet bloggers to “catapult the propaganda”. We can thank Bush for that quaint phrase.

Here’s what former Bush insider Dan Bartlett told Texas Monthly about conservative bloggers. “That’s what I mean by influential. I mean, talk about a direct IV into the vein of your support. It’s a very efficient way to communicate. They regurgitate exactly and put up on their blogs what you said to them. It is something that we’ve cultivated and have really tried to put quite a bit of focus on.”

Regurgitate. Now there’s the operating principle of our pre-war journalism. It’s looking like media regurgitation is a tough habit to kick. We still get it all the time. How about those doctored tapes of the little Iranian speedboats “threatening” the omnipotent U.S. Navy in the Strait of Hormuz? If that had happened a few years ago, we would be at war with Iran for another phony Gulf of Tonkin incident.

Propaganda regurgitation was soon combined with additional merging of government and media. Reports emerged that CIA agents had inserted themselves into news networks. Finally, news reporters were trained to become embedded into military units for the coming invasion.

Now it was onward to victory, with the flag waving, cheerleading media circus in tow.

Let’s take a nostalgic look back at some of the delirious visions and shameless drivel from a few of the nation’s leading media personalities.

Just before the invasion Bill O'Reilly said, "If the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation; I will not trust the Bush administration again, all right?"

All right, Bill. How’s your memory? We’re still waiting.

After the fall of Baghdad, MSNBC's Chris Matthews declared, "We're all neocons now."

Upon the “Mission Accomplished” carrier landing Mathews gushed, “He won the war. He was an effective commander. Everybody recognizes that, I believe, except a few critics.”

A few critics, indeed.

Then Mathews went totally gaga like a teenage girl with a crush. “We're proud of our president. Americans love having a guy as president, a guy who has a little swagger, who's physical, who's not a complicated guy like Clinton or even like Dukakis or Mondale, all those guys, McGovern. They want a guy who's president. Women like a guy who's president. Check it out. The women like this war. I think we like having a hero as our president. It's simple.”

Never mind Bush was a privileged coward who was AWOL from the National Guard and refused to take a physical with a urine test. And never mind that McGovern was a real combat pilot in the Second World War.

Joe Scarborough, also on MSNBC, said, "I'm waiting to hear the words 'I was wrong' from some of the world's most elite journalists, politicians, and Hollywood types."

At least Joe had the insight later to reverse his endorsement of the war, after the insurgency and civil war and all hell broke loose.

I should at least give mention to the one “journalist” who had the courage to speak truth to both the media and the president.

The press and the president got an unexpected and unprecedented dose of mockery at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner in April 2006. Stephen Colbert gave it to them in his own hilarious style of “truthiness”. He likened the president’s Iraq policy to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The glower on Bush’s face was priceless.

Then, addressing the correspondents directly, Colbert said, "Let's review the rules. The president makes decisions; he's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell-check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know—fiction."

Those were the days. The most powerful militarized nation in the world, with a power mad, war mongering president, was intoxicated by mass madness induced by mass media.

********************************************
And for the musical segment of our presentation, we offer Dave Dubya’s “SCAM Stupid Corporate American Media.”

Here are more participants of the March 19 Iraq War Blogswarm.

Report Card

If you ever wanted to check on your senators' and representatives' records on how much or how little they represent the middle class, the good folks at themiddleclass.org have given us a very useful tool. They compiled a report card on all of them. Every senator and every representative now has a performance grade on his record from 2003 to 2007. There is also a percentage ranking of their support of legislation that was intended to benefit the middle class so far this year.

This is an excellent resource to evaluate your representation, or lack thereof, in Babylon on the Potomac. The legislative categories are limited to domestic issues, and apart from trade agreements, don't evaluate their foreign policy positions. We still need to do SOME homework.

So, have a go at it. It's enlightening and interesting. Be a responsible citizen and voter, and check your senators' and representatives' Report Card.

What Recession?

During last week's press conference Bush assured us we're not headed for a recession. We all know what that means. Here's a look at a few articles for a glimpse of the reality Bush denies.

Market Watch — The nation's private-sector employment rolls dropped by 23,000 net jobs in February, according to the ADP employment index. Employment in the service-producing sector rose by a net 47,000 jobs, but employment in the goods-producing sector lost 70,000 jobs, the ADP survey showed. And factory employment fell for the 18th straight month, dropping a further 40,000 jobs. Private-sector sheds 23,000 jobs in February, survey shows

CNN Money — Personal bankruptcy filings climbed last month to their highest level since 2005, when Congress enacted laws aimed at discouraging such filings, and experts predicted more than a million Americans will seek bankruptcy protection this year. Home foreclosures are driving the increase in personal bankruptcy filings, because by the time homeowners face foreclosure they've borrowed all they can, and spent all their savings. money.cnn.com

Market Watch — Housing is in its "deepest, most rapid downswing since the Great Depression," according to the the National Association of Home Builders, and the downward momentum on housing prices appears to be accelerating.marketwatch.com

Market Watch — The buck stops here: This is Bush's recession, his legacy. It could be a chapter in a future edition of Jacob Weisberg's "The Bush Tragedy," with new comparisons to "Henry V" and other great Shakespearean tragedies. In a few sentences, the opening lines could highlight why this is now Bush's recession, and his alone.

Last week Bush told reporters: "I don't think we're headed to recession." But when one tried to puncture the denial, mentioning that America's energy analysts were predicting $4 gas, our oil-man president stopped him: "Wait, what did you just say? You're predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline?" No, Mr. President, experts are. "That's interesting. I hadn't heard that."

Once again, as in a classic tragedy, crucial facts never quite make it to the king's chambers in time, setting the stage for a fateful turn of events, propelling the plot to its tragic climax.

Indeed, the next 12 acts of this tragedy have already been written. And though many folks are in denial, the consequences are painfully clear. Last week we forecast a global recession.
The tragedy of this recession is its bad ending is already penned


Fear not, lest we lose our cheerful optimism, we just need to take comfort with this "good news".

In 2007, the CEOs of America's top 500 companies made a total of $7.5 billion, or $15.7 million apiece. The average compensation of a CEO in 1980 was about 42 times that of the average worker in the company; in 2005, it was about 411 times.