Imagine

IMAGINE

Geeze, what’s with all the temper tantrums lately? I mean, I kind of expect it from ol’ Chimpy; his facial expressions as of late look like a lolli-poopy fell out of his diaper or something. But now his entire posse seems to be reverting to their toddler years, holding their breaths, refusing to talk, mimicking—nah, nah, nana nah the free press, turning blue in the face, or kicking and screaming on the floor just to piss everybody off.

Chimpy, whom I’m convinced has yet to advance developmentally beyond a six year old, still believes he’s right and the world’s wrong with respect to his Iraq policy. Just listen to his recent speeches, which amount to a Freudian re-enactment of a child stuck in a negative attention-getting narcissism stage. One would think by now Chimpy would break free from his failed vision, but NO, NO, NO!

Of course bomb, bomb McCainy doesn’t help. He took to the senate floor today to rip apart a New York Times editorial. Man, short of pissing on the paper itself, McCain seemed like he was ready to stick his thumbs in his ears, stick out his tongue, and scream “f*ck you” to anyone who’d listen. Dirty Harry Miers had her temper tantrum in absentia. Taking a cue from her playgroup husband, Chimpy, she refused to testify under subpoena in front of the House Judiciary Committee.

And the White House, as a collective, colicky unit, had its tantrum du jour by trying to block—yeah—the bipartisan Iraq Study Group from meeting to find a solution to this war. Imagine that: imagine a group of bi-partisan adults coming together, examining and debating the war in an attempt to try to find a better way to deal with it AND GET OUR TROOPS OUT. Hey, call me dreamer but I know I’m not the only one.

QUIET AMERICANS

QUIET AMERICANS

Today, I found Thomas Friedman to be, well, flat. In his column, which pays part homage to the undergraduate, graduating class of 2007 and part congratulations to his own daughter who is a part of this class, Friedman paints a rosier than rose picture about the graduates, the world of which they are a part, and the future they have the potential to shape. And he seems to be addressing a small minority of graduates: the wealthy and able.

Mr. Friedman dubs the class, rather one-dimensionally as “The Quiet Americans.” He claims that they probably don’t “take to the streets” to protest because, he suspects, they are “protesting on-line.” He lauds, what he has observed, their efforts of community service, of reaching out, of helping those less fortunate. He touts the number of graduates who have enlisted in the Armed Services, despite the nightmare known as Iraq. He frames their geopolitical, generational conflict as one of terrorism and fear versus optimism and opportunity. In short, he believes that this generation has the “determination” to “extend” their experiences into “adulthood” to become lawyers, doctors, consultants and bankers who need to stay “involved” to fix big problems like social security, globalism, and who the hell knows what else.

Certainly, any commencement speaker or scribe must be positive. And it’s completely understandable why Daddy Friedman wants what any parent wants for his child: a safe and potentially secure future in which individuals can thrive. But what I find so troubling about Friedman’s column is that while his observations certainly apply to some graduates, they clearly don’t apply to all.

Most “quiet Americans” are worrisome about the future. Many of them are negotiating ways to pay, in some cases, exorbitant college loans while trying to secure full-time employment. Many of them are weighing the possibility of graduate work and more incredible debt versus quickly entering the workforce to place professional dreams on-hold. A majority of them are trying to secure a “decent” paying job that will provide affordable health care, some funds or credit perhaps to purchase and fuel a car, and some modicum of independence. And quite frankly, many of them don’t fully understand our involvement in Iraq, before our entry, when we invaded, and now during our stay because these students are simply trying to survive and also because the mainstream media has done a terrible job providing American citizens with fair and balanced reporting on the war. Funny, on Memorial Day Weekend, we still don’t see one American casket, one nation-wide celebration to honor the fallen in Iraq, or one member of the Bush administration to lead a service for our fallen and disabled heroes.

Like Friedman, I believe in our students and their possibilities to do great things for the future. Unlike Friedman, I think most Americans are quiet for reasons other than their “can and will do” potential.

Addendum: Bush attended a photo-op today at Arlington and gave some lame speech about sacrifice.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE

Parallel Universe

My wife and I are big fans of Lost. Two of our colleagues, the bloggers—ballsy femme fatale and conservative & proud kindel, got us hooked last fall. And we are addicted. So are countless others—pun intended.

My “magnum” brother-in-law, a quasi-conservative whom I had to practically bang over the head with a drumstick last Thanksgiving—he was trying to defend narcissistic Oedipus Lieberman, shortly before Oedipus morphed into Captain Lieberman—tells us that there’s a “parallel universe” theory circulating the blogsophere, which would partly explain the events and phenomena of Lost; I’ve got nothin’ but “penny” love for you, JT. My “Lost” experts, though, insist that that’s not the case.

The jury might still be out on the parallel universe theory on Lost; however, the jury is in on the parallel universe in America: there are TWO AMERICAS. While some of us yearn to remain grounded in reality, OTHERS are being sucked via a wormhole into a fake-news universe, including most of the GOP Presidential contenders and the Republican Party.

Thursday night’s debate was a freak show and an utter disgrace to the dignity and statesmanship of what President Ronald Reagan represented—appreciate him or not. It’s too bad that these contenders desperately invoked his name countless times, a subliminal admission, a haunting refrain conveying that the Republican Party has LOST its way and much of America. Aside from the good Congressman Ron Paul, who was the only rational one of the bunch and the only Republican on-stage sincerely attempting to evoke the spirits of Reagan and conservative patriarch Senator Barry Goldwater, these contenders insulted—directly or indirectly—most Americans, including fellow Republicans.

From Nosferatu Giuliani’s flip-flopping on everything from abortion to national security, to porn-star named Mitt Romney’s Aldous Huxley segue into science-fiction and cloning, masking his own flip-flopping on issues and his latent contempt for Hillary Clinton’s hair colorist, from McCain’s pathetic, Viagra-induced charge that he would follow Osama-Bin-Gone to the “gates of hell,” to the non-log cabin homophobia and vehement contempt towards science (didn’t they look to see Nancy Reagan and Governor Terminator in the front row?), these candidates—with the exception of Paul—have boldly shown that the GOP has LOST its way.

This is not the party of my maternal grandmother—bless her soul. This is not the party of many conservatives and Republicans whom I know and respect, who believe in fiscal responsibility, limited government, PRIVACY, morals and values, and dignity. This is not the party of Reagan and Goldwater, conservative torchbearers with some sort of conscience and vision.

In this parallel universe of no real news, no conscience, no dignity—that many of them blatantly insulted a living, out-of-office president—President Clinton—was pathetic, no acknowledgment of reality here, there, or any where—in Iraq, in the middle class, or in the 21st Century for that matter, no clear understanding of what it means to be a conservative, Republican, Democrat—yes, we have our pull-down menu of identity problems, liberal, moderate, it’s obvious that as a nation we are certainly LOST. The question is, though: how do we jettison ourselves out of this parallel universe without getting stuck in a…wormhole?

CAPTAIN LIEBERMAN STRIKES AGAIN

CAPTAIN LIEBERMAN STRIKES AGAIN

If you thought Captain Lieberman was getting some sort of reality check about his leviathan Iraq, think again. Apparently, Captain Lieberman is partaking in the Pelosi bitch-hunt because obviously she closely read the report by the Iraq Study Group, which calls for engaging other Middle East countries, and he didn't; there's a shocker. In this clip provided by Crooks & Liars, it's Arlen Specter, a Republican, who defends Pelosi; it's Captain Lieberman who trashes her efforts of diplomacy in yet another transparent plug to promote the Bush doctrine.