I did something this year that I did four years ago with great success: I did not watch either the Democrat or Republican Conventions on TV. Instead, I relied on independent observers’ accounts: blogs, newspapers, websites, and my favorite, word-of-mouth. Having attended both parties’ conventions in 1992, I have experienced the phony, Hollywood-style atmosphere first-hand. But this year, I think the creepiness has totally permeated the events to the point where they are utterly unpalatable even from a cumulative distance of several thousand miles.
Having not seen the GOP picnic, I’ll let someone else sum it up in the way that most corresponds to my observations, Tom Shales, media critic of the Washington Post. Bottom line: George Bush was in charge but someone else sneaked into Washington back in 2001 and f**ked everything up. The Republicans certainly had nothing to do with any of it. And guess who’s the right party to fix everything that got mysteriously screwed up over the past seven years? That’s right- the people who screwed everything up over the past seven years.
Apparently, the Republican Party thinks the American people are grotesquely stupid and suffering from severe memory loss. Reading some of the remarks of people attending the shindig, maybe they’re right.
Talk is supposedly cheap but the nonsense and lies oozing from the Republican Convention are costly. Here’s the party that foolishly spent us into recession, blamed the American people and their impotent political opposition for their arrogance, incompetence and deception, now telling us all the great things they’re going to do for us THIS TIME. In other words, they want us to re-elect them to correct all the things they screwed up.
Here’s the adage that really applies here: FOOL US ONCE, SHAME ON YOU. FOOL US TWICE, SHAME ON US.
And the phrase that should apply comes from The Who: WE WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN.
The Republican convention continues to degenerate into a farce, fraud and classic example of why these people shouldn’t be allowed to destroy our country anymore. Arresting a reporter- the highest-profile left-wing reporter in the world- doesn’t do anything to gain voters and it certainly doesn’t project the image of a party or ideology that is either inclusive or unifying. Not that the GOP had anything to do with her arrest directly. But they helped created the climate both in Minneapolis and America that led to the type of Beijing-style throttling the Republicans exercised at their past convention in New York and in their enforcement of the Patriot Act.
Sadly, it’s typical. Forget about “Trailer Park Pinup” Sarah Palin. Her and McCain’s hypocrisy on and abuse of federal earmarks- a far bigger issue than her pregnant teenager- is a way of life in our two-party system regardless of whose side you’re on. If there was any reason left to vote for McCain or any Republican, it was that they sort-of represented hope of restored freedom that was ravaged by the Bush-Cheney Regime. But as with everything Bush and Republican, it’s all talk. And it’s becoming clearer every minute that McCain=Bush. Maybe not by design but more because that’s just the way Republicans roll.
As for Obama, he’s probably just sitting watching, enjoying the whole debacle. The needless arrest of Amy Goodman, McCain’s unraveling credibility and his unflagging Mr. Nice Guy campaign make him look better every day. And that’s a lot for me to say. Thanks, Amy for going above and beyond a journalist’s duty. You may just have put us over the top.
Thanks to the incompetence, arrogance and lack of caring by the Bush Regime and then Republican-led Congress, Gustav rides into New Orleans looking more like John Wayne then the black-hatted villain. I’m sure the Republicans don’t feel that way. They thought all along THEY were the good guys. Now that Bush, Cheney and other top right-wing knuckleheads have conceded defeat at the hands of Nature, perhaps the inappropriately, self-titled “conservative” element of American society understands better that the environment is an ISSUE and not just something they can kiss off, hand over to the oil, mining and real estate industries and expect everything to turn out okey-dokey.
But given their track record and moral learning curve involved, my guess is they understand- not. Don’t let W’s standby mode in Texas fool you. This is about APPEARANCES NOT ACTUAL ACTION. WAY-HAYYYYYY TO LATE (apologies to Dr. Perry Cox), Bush doesn’t want to appear again like an incompetent, arrogant loser and Cheney- well, Cheney DOESN’T WANT TO APPEAR AT ALL. BTW: anyone see Cheney lately?
The good news is that even if Gustav isn’t as destructive as feared, he’s still done his job on America’s Radical Right. Bush and his ilk may not “get it”- but they’re getting it anyway.
Even the mainstream media are reporting and lamenting what appears to be the senseless but calculated demise of federal support for renewable energy. The renewable industry admits the final attack on American independence launched by the Bush White House with Cheney’s Big Oil task force behind them is going to be Katrina-esque in scope. We can only hope that President Obama and an enlightened Congress can resurrect renewable energy tax credits before Bush and Company destroy more jobs, environment and hopes that the United States can ever be anything more than a fading empire again.
It’s tragically but tantalizingly ironic that the once-mighty Republican Party is cowering in the shadows of an approaching storm, not terrorists, oil companies or even the Chinese. Bush and Cheney have canceled their last chance to say something good about their horrendous nightmare of an administration. The GOPhers are talking about cutting the convention short: more worried about being seen partying during a national disaster (isn’t that what they’ve been doing the last seven years?) than actually doing anything to help.
What the Republicans fear most is America watching John McCain give his acceptance speech in split screen with live video of bodies floating in the streets of New Orleans. Especially after Obama’s triumphant Denver address that was more like the Jacksons’ Victory tour. But that’s the Republicans’ karma. They created the PR nightmare that is approaching our southern coast, not Nature. And hopefully, many of them are thinking what Robert Preston’s character Big Ed Bookman, faced with divine retribution for his corruption, confessed so eloquently in “Semi-Tough”: “Lord, I’m a sinner and now you’re gonna f**k me.”
Keeping up appearances is a 24/7 gig when all you’ve got is the APPEARANCE OF CARING OR ACCOMPLISHMENT, not any kind of record of it. But after seven years of monumental gaffes and dismal failures- 9/11, Iraq, energy prices, the federal deficit, Social Security, the housing crisis, one ill-fated debacle after another- it is Hurricane Gustav and Nature that frighten our pillars of strength and integrity more than Osama bin Laden, Barack Obama, protesters- even Janet Jackson. You think the GOP considered curtailing its little bash in the face of threats of violence, $4/gallon gasoline, and crippling recession?
Bush, Cheney and the Republicans have led an all-out assault on Nature during their reign of error. Now, their endless, senseless campaigns of destruction make any hurricane, wildfire, even a bear attack or other act of Nature seem like justifiable revenge against an evil overlord. I feel for the people of New Orleans and hope Gustav and his younger sister Hanna who’s yet to come are not as bad as everyone fears. But I also hope that Bush and his partying party finally get the message:
YOU MESS WITH NATURE- NATURE MESSES WITH YOU. Party on, fellas. Don’t bother cleaning up when you leave. We’ll pick up. Just go.
I was in O’Hare Airport waiting for a flight to Grand Rapids, Michigan when Barack Obama was scheduled to speak to the Democratic Convention in Denver. He was the drawing card for the whole thing. Not that Hillary and Bill, Gore, Michelle and the gang were not interesting but, let’s face it, they’re not THE MAN. I didn’t watch it anyway because I was in the air but I heard it was good.
On the other hand, the only reason to watch the Republican convention is gone. Bush and Cheney have bowed out citing Hurricane Gustav. I understand why Bush wouldn’t show. First, he’s got nothing good to say about the last seven, awful years. Second, he’s a terrible speaker but therefore extremely entertainging. Third, he screwed up so badly by ignoring Hurricane Katrina for political appearances that even he won’t make that mistake again.
I really was looking forward to watching W’s swan song. What was he going to talk about? How could he possibly inspire his fellow right-wingers with that record of failure? Yeah, I guess I can see it his way. But I don’t know why Cheney should not appear. Isn’t that his job- to handle stuff the president can’t? Oh yeah, I forgot. Cheney’s not like a normal vice-president. He not only does what he wants but he doesn’t have to do what his boss tells him.
I can relate to Cheney though. I haven’t done anything that Bush has told me to do either. As for other possible, alternative attractions at the GOP gathering, instead of John McCain and his new running mate- you know, the beauty pageant winner, ex-sportscaster and outdoors store owner (White House qualifications for sure)- I suggest goat sacrifices, free beer, and a special appearance of Ronald Reagan in casket.
It’s hard to explain why one human and his underlings are so pathological, ruthless, ignorant and destructive. There are many theories and books on why our not-soon-enough departing emperor is so violent, jealous, stupid and out-of-touch. He had problems with his father, did poorly in school, and screwed up everything he did his entire life. Yes, before the White House this poor, little rich kid ruined several oil companies and a baseball team but it’s hard to tell if he ruined Texas. Then there were the drinking, drugs, bad driving and general floundering that molded him into the dangerous loser who’s left our country in the same shape he left his other tragic ”endeavors.”
But it’s still difficult to understand why he wants to ruin the environment. His minions’ rush to rewrite America’s environmental laws to destroy more wildlife, Nature and anything in the path of developers, drillers and digging machines appears to be a form of punishment of his opponents rather than sound policy. I suppose like most twisted psychopaths, he hates and fears his opponents and seeks to torture then kill them- in this case, environmentalists. So it’s probably about politics or jealousy or his mental instability. Something other than hating the Earth.
Either way, he’s punishing the American people and the world again- the same folks who elected this idiot TWICE and who’ve been rewarded with economic disaster, terrorist paranoia, endless wars, loss of respect around the world and a nation even more divided in just about every social and economic category. We know Hitler’s problems began when he determined that he wasn’t a terrible artist- it was that everyone else was wrong.
Despite his privileged childhood- perhaps because of it- W (we won’t even start on Cheney) appears to be taking revenge on those who laughed at, pushed around and, in W’s mind, caused him to be a failure. His pathetic cockiness, mockable swagger and and pathological cluelessness all indicate he believes it’s not him- but that everyone else is wrong.
I get a charge out of so-called “conservative” media’s ravings that are about as conservative as Bush’s accountants. But this one hits the trifecta of wacko radical right-wing paranoia, blind-deaf-dumb parroting of the fossil fuel lobby’s boilerplate script, and the dismally poor and irresponsible “reporting” ruining newspapers across the country- not this one, unfortunately. This editorial by the Provo newspaper is a LOL for lovers of irony, a self-delivered black eye to the fossil fool industry, as well as even more proof that defenders of America’s enslavement to oil, coal and the usual suspects will not go quietly.
If it wasn’t for inept Republican leadership, out-of-control OPEC oil barons, colluding with our own corrupt fascist government ideologues, and America’s addiction to oil (Bush’s words, not mine)- ALL THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT AND BUSINESS POLICIES THAT GOT US INTO OUR CURRENT ENERGY CRISIS- maybe the Provo Herald’s editorial board wouldn’t have written such an outdated, anti-public health, anti-American waste of words.
But such is the imagination of a newspaper that clearly doesn’t understand the concepts behind freedom enough to write about them. Then again, REMEMBER WHO THE OPERATORS OF THE PROVO HERALD ARE REALLY SERVING. It’s not you, me, their readers or average citizens of the state of Utah. It’s the already-wealthy corporations licking their chops waiting for the chance to waste billions more of our dollars on squeezing a few drops of oil out of Utah’s irreplaceable public lands. And attacking environmentalists? Come on, guys- you can be more creative than that. Attack the real culprit here- THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF JUSTICE THAT ALLOWS ORDINARY CITIZENS TO CHALLENGE THE SINGLE-MINDED GREED AND INCOMPETENCE OF THE EXPLOITERS OF OUR COUNTRY’S ESSENCE FOR INCREASED PERSONAL ENRICHMENT. Your true masters.
Like the Bush Regime, the Provo Herald’s editorial board loves to see our justice system circumvented on environmental matters- like in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Patriot Act, Guantanamo Bay- to keep the proven inept and self-serving federal and energy industry leaders in power and keep those nasty green goons handcuffed in their treehouses. Conservation? Conservative? Any resemblance here is purely accidental.
War causes more environmental destruction than any one thing. It’s not a story you hear about much in the corporate media because drought is not as visual as bombs exploding and guns firing and, like torture and child prostitution, it’s one of those dirty secrets that take the glamor out of beating your enemy into oblivion. But what’s happening in Iraq now is not only a more serious crisis but the logical and eventual result of wars with no long-term strategies: not just both Bushes’ but Saddam Hussein’s conflicts with Iran, and his own people over several decades.
Fortunately, war-ravaged Afghanistan has determined that their post-war economic and environmental future (if there is one) rests on one major crop: heroin. Nice to see them standing on their own again. We can only hope that Iraq follows their Afghan brethren and produces an obviously marketable commodity- other than oil- that is in also in high demand among more affluent, western societies and will similarly bolster their economy.
