Outrage of the Week

Connect the Dots

Our 3½ year old has accumulated quite a few coloring/activity books over the years. Now that he can count, a once overlooked activity, Connect the Dots, provides some amusement for him. Each dot is assigned a number so that if you follow the chronological order of dots you have a picture. It’s a seemingly rudimentary exercise, but one must wonder: are Americans connecting the dots when they consider the aftermath of this era of war?

We need not be surprised (though we are shocked) at the atrocities witnessed at the Walter Reed Medical Center. We need not be surprised that despite the attempts by some in Congress, the surge continues in Iraq. Under the current administration, ugly truths such as these surface regularly. Soldiers are deprived of their full leave to keep troop levels high; this is a military strategy, and as a civilian, I certainly will not be the one to question it. When I connect the dots, however, I do become concerned.

Connecting the dots makes me worry about the soldier that is finally done with his or her tour, the soldier that earns a few weeks of leave, the soldier with some coveted “down time.” What are we doing to assist the soldier with post-traumatic stress? Are our services adequate? Are our services specialized enough to deal with unique forms of PTSD? An article featured in the New York Times Magazine last month, “The Women's War” would suggest that, at least in some respects, our government could be doing a much better job caring for the mental well-being of our returning soldiers.

On Saturday evening, NPR's Debbie Elliott interviewed a Vietnam veteran from the Army’s First Cavalry Division. Listening to his story, we learn that a visit with his division in Iraq provided him with some “closure” to his own war experiences. He does not neglect to include some information about the stress that the American soldier in Iraq experiences daily. He even intimates that the experience of the Iraq War soldier is far more stressful than that of the Vietnam War soldier. This belief… coming from a veteran that has lived with PTSD for over 40 years.

The facts may not come to us in chronological order; however, if we do take the time to connect the dots, the picture is crystal clear.

Rage-o-meter: 10

AMERICAN BEAUTY

AMERICAN BEAUTY

It’s been a beautiful week, hasn’t it? The weather has been nice, temperatures are rising, and old man winter seems to have finished his gig. Too bad ol’ Chimpy hasn’t finished his.

If you tried to keep up with all the scandals, the “masking” of real news with fake news, and the rising tensions in Iran, you’d quickly realize that while the weather gets nicer, things in D.C. get uglier by the minute and most Americans are undoubtedly unconscious.

I myself started getting the heebie-jeebies when Secretary of No Education Maggie Spellings told Dana Perino, the deputy White House Press Secretary, who must fill-in for Tony Snow, that she should “Put [her] big-girl panties on." What could Maggie mean? Is she, too, into some sort of kink like other White House folks, in the spirit of Jeff Gannon-Guckert—you know: the gay prostitute who was a part of the White House Press Corps? Or are these Maggie’s sincere words of endearment? Maybe Maggie is beefing up her resumé as a hallmark greeting card writer? Or perhaps this is Maggie’s way of acknowledging that just like American students’ test scores, No Child Left Behind is in the toilet. In any case, Maggie’s brilliance once again had me envisioning the apocalypse.

But what really put me over the edge, though, was Rove the Rapper. WTF? Has the The Big K been reading 1% More Conscious? Was he a fan of “The Hollow Men?” Wishful thinking—I know, I know, I know. But, man, with Maggie Spidiot cheering and The Big K frontin’, I definitely saw the horsemen of the apocalypse comin’. So I did a little diggin’, some readin’, and a whole lot of thinkin’ to find that things are really fubar’d, or at least so they seem.

After listening to Karl Sampson say he couldn’t remember/recollect a thing, including whether or not he took a dump the morning of his testimony, only an idiot wouldn’t recognize that team Bush has grossly and unethically handled the justice department. Saudia Arabia, one of our few friends in the Middle East, has openly criticized our operations in Iraq and in the rest of the Middle East. Gas prices are once again soaring. The Iranians have captured members of the British navy, and the Internets (s intended and dedicated to: Chimpy) is abuzz with the prospect of a bombing campaign in Iran on April 6th known as Operation Bite. And poor Pat Tillman’s mother suspects that he was actually murdered because he became increasingly vocal against Chimpy’s war once he was in Iraq.

Meanwhile, most Americans are oozing out of March Madness, dealing with their taxes, and/or figuring out how to finance their kids’ college education now that most acceptance letters are out. Yet we are being informed about Marie Osmond’s divorce (who gives a shit?) and Courtney Love’s new body (yeah, she’s switched from heroin to other drugs). You’ve got to be kidding me?

So when Maggie talks about big-girl panties and The Big K has two turntables and a microphone, you know where it’s at: like the film American Beauty reveals about our culture, things are much, much uglier than what they seem.

CONSERVATIVE & PROUD

VOTE FOR HILLARY!

I would like to encourage all Democrats to vote for Hillary Clinton in your primaries. As a Republican she isn't a candidate that scares me because I assume that people will soon see through her double speak and recognize that she has no opinions of her own. She is hoping to win the election by spouting out whatever she thinks her audience wants to hear. Take immigration for example. Three years ago she suggested that national id cards might be necessary, and she frequently claims to be adamantly opposed to illegal immigrants and those who hire them, but just this month she claims that the quest to rid our country of illegal immigrants would lead to a police state and that would allow"at least some of the estimated 11 million undocumented workers to earn citizenship." As the Washington Times notes, however, "she shied away from specifics." Clinton does not want to be tied to any position.

In the 21st Century a reasonable place to look for a candidate's position should be his or her website. John Edwards' site might not have the breadth of coverage one would hope for in a future leader, but he spends pages outlining his position and giving bullet point lists of how he will achieve his goals. Sam Brownback is less in-depth within his position statements, but he outlines his positions on 13 different issues. Now look at Hillary's site. If you get past the flash ad seeking campaign contributions, you end up on a home page littered with more money requests. The closest the site gets to articulating her positions is if you scroll to the bottom of the "Newsroom" page; here, as well as scattered throughout the site, are speeches and articles one could read to get a vague notion of Hillary's whims for the week. Why is she afraid of an organized section where viewers can read her views? Could it be that she's afraid that next week the views posted might not be politically advantageous?

So please vote for Hillary Clinton in your primary; there is no way she'll make it to the White House, and Republicans won't mind an easy fight.

Personal Pain Becomes Public Politics

Weekly Presidential Politics - 3/28/07

The recent announcement of Elizabeth Edwards's latest battle with cancer was as an objective of an issue you will ever get in a political campaign. Cancer does not care about Democrats or Republicans. Cancer does not care about ideology or on which side of an isle you sit. Cancer is terrible. Cancer is a tragedy. We all agree on it. The news of Elizabeth's latest battle with cancer is as sorrowful of a development in a campaign you will ever see. It's an issue everyone wishes did not exist.

But it is an issue.

I wish no one would talk about it. I wish we lived in a country where a personal announcement does not have to be made in front of a throng of cameras with flashing bulbs and eager reporters writing down your pain on a notepad. I wish we lived in a country where, even if the announcement had to be made, pundits did not immediately politicize the issue like it had a hundred times the weight of a vote in the Senate or an executive state budget.

But it is an issue.

I am guilty of the aforementioned punditry. Upon hearing the news, I felt terribly for Elizabeth, John, their children, and all those close to the family. Shamefully, my mind eventually turned to the impact this will have on the upcoming race. After all, to write a presidential politics blog while avoiding the biggest development of the race would be impossible. It had to be discussed.

So my buddy Darren and I began an email correspondence, which you can read here, discussing the political impact. For fear of redundancy, I won't use this limited space to repeat too much of what was written. Suffice it to say, my previously supreme confidence of an Edwards nomination has all but disappeared.

So what do I think will happen?

I think it's politically foolish to think these developments won't hinder his campaign, for reasons you can read by clicking on that link. Before the announcement, I was confident the Edwards campaign wouldn't have peaked until the primaries. Now, I fear it peaks this week or the next. The Edwards family will be lauded for courage, determination, and for what they say is putting the country before anything else. In time, however, the decision to push forward in a rigorous campaign with an ailing wife with children aged eight and six will be looked on as a decision very few Americans would have made had they been put in that same situation. Thus, Edwards will not win. The mounting pressure of an uphill battle will be supplemented with the idea that the next year might be wasted in a campaign, when Edwards could be spending time with his wife and family. One night, the decision will seem easy and clear.

John Edwards will withdraw from the Democratic Primary before a single primary vote is cast.

OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK

SELF REALIZATION

Another word we are not allowed to say in our house is “idiot” (refer to A Dolt’s House for our own little family etymology on the word “stupid”). At any rate, not saying idiot can be a challenging thing these days; one of my favorite expressions (shared with my better half) is: “These people are idiots.” Still, when we leave for work, our 3½ year old politely reminds us not to say stupid, or hate, or idiot. Consequently, when he is awake and listening to us, we must be a bit creative with our language and have since adopted the sophisticated phrase “These people are animals” instead. This we coined as our own after hearing Ana Lucia (from ABC’s Lost) use it in reference to the Others.

This week’s outrage comes from one of my more recent encounters of the idiot kind in my field, education. The particular case of idiocy is multi-layered; that is, it is internal and external. The external, which I will explain, is an almost boring and common occurrence in education. The internal… well, that is a bit more complicated. The external idiocy can most easily be witnessed in blatant rewards for mediocrity. This, I am most certain, happens in just about every field. A person may lack a particular (and one would think, essential) bit of knowledge or expertise in his or her field. Yet, this person is constantly honored or recognized for being so outstanding. The teachers in the trenches have students like this; some of us may even have colleagues like this. In some musings, I think George W. was this type of student in high school, frustrating his peers because perhaps he always seemed to finish first even if his smarts were not exactly up to par.

When I witness such obvious rewards for mediocrity or blatant disregard to recognize true excellence, I often think: “These people are idiots.” I’ve been working in schools for over 10 years and, regardless of the microcosm within the larger community, these rewards keep coming to people that just aren’t that great. They aren’t bad people or mean people or even sickeningly unqualified. It’s just that there are others out there that really are top notch and get no real recognition… ever. Maybe at their retirement dinner or graduation party a friend or relative will make a suitable comment to acknowledge their genuine excellence. Maybe… but that just isn’t enough for me.

Here is the worst part, the internal idiocy. That’s right. The outrage this week is not directed at the establishment. No, it is directed at me. I am the biggest idiot (I can just hear my son yelling at me for using this word so many times) because I am always shocked and chagrined (like Seinfeld’s Jackie Chiles) when these very common occurrences happen. Sign me up for slowlearningcurve.com… because none of this is new information.

Rage-o-meter: 10 ++

THE HOLLOW MEN

THE HOLLOW MEN

If you heard one Republican apologist this week, you heard them all. It’s been like listening to a bad record skip all over the media with these stuffed men paying homage to their party rather than their country.

There were so many talking heads justifying, analyzing, talking about, explaining, parsing, explicating, comparing and contrasting why this administration does the things it does (pull down options):

A. Screw up.
B. Create a scandal.
C. Mismanage government, a war, and foreign policy.
D. Respond to a natural catastrophe.
E. All of the Above

Hell, let’s go with all of the above. It almost seemed like Karl Rove was re-mixing material for an RNC rendition of rapper’s delight. Can I get a beat for grandmaster spin, flavor munster Tony Snow? Hip-hop-hooray…ho…hey!...T-o-n-y…Snow…yea!

This all started with the latest scandal plaguing the administration: the politically-motivated firing of completely competent, Republican (yes, Republican) US attorneys who were apparently not aggressive enough in pursuing the political enemies of Chimpy Company: any and all Democrats. The first problem for these attorneys was that they were competent; only the incompetent & Republican survive in Chimpy’s world. The second problem was they wouldn’t do what several other stuffed people do: put party over country.

But let’s get our beat back: Enter Fab Five Fredo Gonzales, who’s really B-A-D with memorizing his rap because it’s become abundantly apparent he’s lied. So now that Fredo Gonzales might be getting whacked, as Franck Rich has beautifully noted in his column today, every RNC idol worshipper has booked appearances on every show imaginable to doublespeak this mess. Let’s take a look at the most and least tolerable performances to see which rap makes sense.

Andrew Sullivan on Olberman this past week gave Sullivan the RNC most tolerable performance, as Andy went where few RNC storm troopers go: Countdown. Seriously, it was a good interview—he got his dig in on Hillary. But rather than blister with the Republican colic, a disorder that paralyzes the likes of Michael Savage, David Horowitz and others, Andy admitted what most level-headed people know, including true conservatives: the conservative movement is almost dead thanks to Chimpy and Company, Ronald Reagan is rolling and crying in his grave, and Mann Coulter needs to stop calling people fags because there are many respectable gay republicans, like Sullivan himself. Like it or not, Sullivan made sense.

While Sullivan showed that some RNC troopers can be faithful to their country over their party, David Frum busted out from the American Enterprise Institute, the gansta’ spot of neoconservativism, to deliver the least tolerable, Vanilla Ice rap of the week. Ice-icing crap with his rap, Frum tried to spin his shit by fronting on Real Time with Maher. This was beautiful political theater, as Davey Fly Frum just stuck to the RNC rapper’s delight script: lie, lie, baby. The war isn’t as bad as we think, there’s nothing wrong with firing these attorneys and then lying about the firing of these attorneys, and Chimpy has every right to be a Darth Imperial leader in a democracy. Needless to say, Frum made no sense other than proving John Dean’s thesis in Conservatives without a Conscience: sometimes the blind just follow the blind.

Frum was perhaps the least tolerable performance among a group of hollow men—and many women—who don’t quite realize that we have to stop idolizing Mistah Bush who would rather end things with a bang, not a whimper.

CONSERVATIVE & PROUD

A Degree of Doubt
Recently it seems like anyone who questions whether humans are the main cause of global warming is equivalent to a Puritan who doubts the existence of God. Instead of burning people at the stake (a fad that I’m grateful has fallen out of favor), scientists have lost their jobs and there are calls to have the American Meteorological Society revoke the endorsement of any meteorologist who dares to doubt.

I’m not a scientist, so I’m not going to claim to be an authority on the causes of global warming, but I hesitate to fully accept the blame for the one degree change during the past ten years. Here are some quick facts that cause me to pause.

• Mars ice caps are melting.
• Jupiter is getting a second red spot, which is believed to be the cause of a global temperature increase
• The frozen nitrogen surface on Triton, Neptune’s moon, has begun to melt
• Pluto has warmer up three degrees in recent years
• The sun has been generating more heat over the past century

We are more likely to understand global warming if we encourage debate, rather than shut it down. I guess, however, when you have a man who is “not” running for President centering his campaign and free press around global warming, we can’t start suggesting he might be wrong.

Save the Suspense: Democratic Primary Results Determined (Conclusion)

Weekly Presidential Politics - 3/21/07

Crucial to knowing my thought processes, deductions, assumptions, derivations, speculations, inferences, predictions, conclusions, and whatever else I'm talking about - excluding this sentence - familiarize yourself with Parts 1 and 2.

Save the Suspense: Democratic Primary Results Determined (Conclusion)


The DNC seems to like a new dish. Primary schedule - scrambled.

First, the decision to move the Nevada Caucus in front of the New Hampshire Primary changes the dynamic of the early primaries. One fortnight ago, I said that this adjustment, in regards to the Democratic Primary, was the single most significant development of the last year. Due to the added importance of Nevada, John Edwards will win the Democratic nomination. I'm still waiting for the talking heads to stop treating this like Hillary vs. Obama and catch up to me, but alas, we will wait.

The Nevada facelift is not the only difference in the primary schedule. Many other states, wanting to increase the political weight of their primaries, are making amendments, motions, and decisions to move up their primary date. Unfortunately for these ambitious states, Democratic Party rules prohibit moving up in front of February 5th, so they cannot move ahead of the four states mentioned last week. The remaining competitions are allowed to be held on or after that date.

As many as twenty states are looking to move up to February 5th, that earliest allowed date. Instead of the traditional Super Tuesday, a primary day in early March when at most ten states are up for grabs, 2008 will be the birth of Hyper Tuesday, when a majority of delegates will be up for grabs. Again, the motive of the states is to increase the importance of their primary.

Methinks their plan will backfire.

When 15-20 states have their primary on the same day, this will devalue each one of those states. First, candidates cannot spend time in all of these states. Second, and most important, remember that horse race coverage, and voters' subconscious or conscious desire to vote for a winner, will mean whoever is in the lead after the first four states will probably win the most states on February 5th, effectively cinching the nomination. At least that's what the historical pattern indicates.

And who will be leading on February fourth? As explained the last couple weeks: John Edwards, who has broad support across the socioeconomic and geographic spectrum. Unlike Senators Clinton and Obama, few people will dislike Edwards or predict he cannot win a general. Once he is leading after the first four states - and he will be - all parts of Democrat America can talk themselves into voting for him on Hyper Tuesday. And the rest, as they say, is academic.

Sorry to ruin the suspense.

Outrage of the Week

A Corporate Sacrifice?

Those of you that live in the southeastern CT area probably share this week’s outrage. It was reported last week that the Pfizer CEO earned a 3.3 million dollar bonus last year. A nice accompaniment to his 10 mil salary (this includes that base pay and stock options, of course). While lots of us see friends and family members scrambling for new employment during Pfizer’s latest corporate shuffle, it’s nice to see that the CEO is sacrificing along with the rest of them.

This one is so obvious and so close to home that our blog host and I actually bickered over who had the rights to this news tidbit. In a funny and insightful draft of the Dolt’s House, sptmck raged on about this one. Hopefully, he’ll share his humorous outrage in a comment for us. (And yes, I am referring to the “pull down menu”).

Rage-o-Meter: 8.5

Additionally, I encourage you to read the entry from our former student AR- it certainly qualifies as a 10 on the Rage-o-Meter.

FROM THE FRONTLINE: A conscientious student's reflection

NOTE: This entry was sent to me from one of my former students--AR--who currently attends UCONN and who was at the Peace Rally in Hartford on Saturday. A huge thanks to AR for being more than 1% more conscious and for making some of his former teachers very proud; may the force be with him.

By AR

I participated in the Peace Rally in Hartford on March 17th. The emotions were high as some notable speakers such as Rosa DeLauro, John Larson, Susan Bysiewicz, and others spoke out against Bush and his war, demanding its end. It was a very powerful demonstration until the end when everyone quietly left. I was amazed to see that it was us students who decided to take action without major support from the adults. In moments we were organizing a march among different student organizations from across the state. This was what was needed, a true peaceful demonstration around the city to spread our word of Peace. Despite such peaceful intentions, police arrested one of our fellow protestors for beginning to lead the march. Soon after the arrest, the number of student protesters dropped tremendously. I cannot blame them completely, for I am sure none of them have ever faced jail before. However, several other students and I were outraged by this unconstitutional act and decided to march from the Old State Building to Police Headquarters where he was being held. There were 8 marchers and 15 more students drove to meet us there where we protested until our friend was released. During this period I could not help but feeling angry, scared, amazed, and sad. I was angry that our friend was arrested. I was scared that even I might be arrested. I was amazed that the police would go as far as they did. But mostly I was sad. I felt sorrow for our friend, but I felt more sorrow for our country. Our Bill of Rights is under attack. We are slowly becoming like the very enemy our forefathers fought. What has America come to if innocent students and others cannot express their first amendment right to peacefully protest the government? What is American when we need permission to use our rights? How can democracy survive if we cannot exercise the rights that make our democracy and the rights that made this country great? This country is turning into hypocrisy and slowly it is turning away from democracy. Our right to protest the government is what gave the people power. The government of the people, by the people, and for the people is what makes our democracy like no other. Without our right to protest, we have no power, and if the people have no power, we have no democracy. These are sad times for our country. I hope people realize these injustices and act before it is too late.

A DOLT'S HOUSE

A DOLT’S HOUSE

Our son doesn’t like us to use the word “stupid.” He tells us—because we’ve repeatedly told him—that he “doesn’t like that word.” So since we’ve been banned from using the word “stupid” in our house, I’m dedicating this entry to the stupidity in America, and, folks, there’s plenty of it.

Just take a look at our national politicians this week. Both sides of the aisle have boldly displayed stupidity like no dolt before. Ladies first: Hillary Clinton. Hillary “don’t ask, don’t tell” Clinton had the audacity at first to sidestep on whether or not homosexuality was “immoral.” But after quickly realizing how stupid a move she had made and after being apparently scolded for her stupidity by a triangulating consultant or two, Hillary issued a statement clarifying her initial stupidity that homosexuality was not immoral.

Gentlemen second: Barack did some maneuvering as well, but he was NOT nearly as stupid as Hillary. Instead of sidestepping, Barack electric-slided on the homosexuality/immorality question and had to issue his own statement clarifying his stupidity. Yes, Barack doesn’t think that homosexuality is immoral.

The gentleman who was actually stupider than Hillary & Barack put together was none other than John McCain. Still embraced in the tango of death with the “agent of intolerance,” religious right, straight-talker John McCain in his “Bill Frist” moment actually claimed that he was unsure whether or not a condom could prevent the spread of HIV. Kind of reminds us of when ol’ Princeton, Harvard educated Frist said he was unsure of whether or not spit could transmit HIV. Stupid, really, really stupid.

But the American politician who gets “the most stupid” award this week is none other than George W. Bush, a dolt whose White House is literally coming apart. With the Iraq invasion coming upon a four-year anniversary with more tragedy each day, a Veterans Affairs department that resembles apocalypse now playing at most VA hospitals, including at Walter Reed, a justice department doing some very unjust things, Valerie Plame Wilson testifying under oath that she was “covert,” troll right-wing hack Victoria Toensing testifying while on some bad acid that Wilson was not, Chimpy continues to move from one act of stupidity to the next.

At least the natives in Central America were smart enough to cleanse their land of Chimpy, whom they considered inherently evil, once he had left. Too bad we Americans are simply too stupid to do the same.

CONSERVATIVE & PROUD

Note: Kindel, my beloved conservative colleague, friend, and world-class baker, has agreed to post on Thursdays. If you had her chocolate-dipped shortbreads, you'd be tempted to go to her side of the aisle; I'm not kidding. I'm calling her Thursday contribution "Conservative & Proud." Kindel had a little help this week from one of my former, conservative students; you know: that kid who attends school Pennsylvania and LOVES Maureen Dowd

It Takes A Parent To Raise A Child

In the past week The Day has run two articles discussing teen crime, one focused on New London and one on East Lyme. In both cases there was a call for more youth programs to give teens something positive to do with their time. One East Lyme resident claimed that “the town needed to offer more engaging and free activities to keep teenagers out of trouble.” Another said that when he was a kid there were open spaces for “impromptu games” but that development has destroyed these areas. Kids are already overscheduled and the community isn’t responsible for giving kids alternatives to trashing houses and getting into trouble. When are parents going to take responsibility for their kids; better yet, when are kids going to start taking responsibility for themselves? What’s with the coddling?

As a teacher I’m always amazed by the e-mails I get from parents. I have parents of 17 year old honor students who contact me weekly asking for a list of assignments and grades. I have others who ask me for advice when their kids are sullen or rebellious. I am 26 years old; I have no children. Ask me about Shakespeare and I’m fine, that’s my field; ask me about how long your child should be grounded for skipping curfew…not my problem. It seems like society wants to put the blame and responsibility for kids’ poor behavior on anyone but the kids and their families.

AND NOW FOR THE CONSERVATIVE STUDENT'S PERPSECTIVE

As a peer of these “sullen delinquents,” it makes me sick to see teachers submit to these grade-grubbing students and the parents who entitle them. I grew up in Waterford, too, but my parents never called a teacher or wrote an email, yet they were certainly involved with my schooling. They put the onus on me and now I am a better college student for it, not crying to mommy and daddy every time a professor give me anything less than an A. Inflating grades, however, is a whole other issue…perhaps another entry.

Weekly Presidential Politics - 3/14/07

Last week, on Presidential Politics...

Click on the above link to get yourself caught up. In sum, I stated that three factors, more than any others, play a role in winning a presidential primary: Money, geography, and the media. One candidate has two of them, which will eventually lead to his nomination. Read on to find out how...

Save the Suspense: Democratic Primary Results Determined (Part 2 of 3)

First, refresh yourself on the Democratic Primary Schedule. Second, sit back and enjoy the show. Here is a step by step process of how the next Democratic nominee for President will be John Edwards.

A) Iowa (1/14/08) - With former Iowa Governor Vilsack dropping out, it will be a three candidate race in Iowa between Clinton, Obama, and Edwards. Here is a look at eight polls taken in the last three months by a handful of different sources. Two of those candidates rise and fall with the moods of Iowans. Only one person is in the top two of everyone of those polls, and leads five of the eight, and that's John Edwards.

Edwards, unlike Clinton, Obama, and Richardson, has had a network in Iowa since 2004, when he came in second to John Kerry in the Democratic Iowa caucus. Edwards' folksy charm and uncanny ability to reach out to a small crowd surpasses the strength and preference of Obama to speak to big crowds. Iowans like the Edwards approach much more, as they are the first to vote for the candidates and want to speak with them in close, intimate settings. Ultimately, however, Edwards doesn't even have to win Iowa, though he currently has a good as shot as any of the Big Three. If Clinton or Obama dump a load of money into the state, they could pass him. It's the next couple weeks where Edwards will pull away.

B) Nevada (1/19/08) - And here's where geography will play its biggest role. For the first time, Nevada has been moved up in front of New Hampshire. On this Saturday, John Edwards wins Nevada. Slap a guarantee on this one. The one who carries the labor unions carries Nevada, and labor loves John Edwards. Edwards takes his top 3 Iowa showing and Nevada victory into the Sunday morning political shows as well as the Sunday morning papers. The media takes a hold of the Edwards campaign, and whispers of either Obama or Hillary (the one that didn't win Iowa) becoming desperate begin to hit the news cycles. Edwards, meanwhile, looks confident on all news segments, with a growing fandom. Subsequent voters look forward to voting for a winner. The money starts rolling in to the Edwards campaign, while Clinton and Obama are hemorrhaging it to try to keep pace.

C) New Hampshire (1/22/08) - Hillary Clinton will win New Hampshire. The Clintons are incredibly popular in the state. Edwards rides his Nevada victory into a strong second place showing, despite never being in the top two until that Nevada primary (ah, the power of horserace coverage). At this point, Obama is throwing the bank at the early primaries while Edwards is already campaigning for "Super Tuesday." At this point, Edwards might have two victories and a second place showing.

D) South Carolina (1/29/08) - Make that three victories. When the primaries head south, John Edwards will strengthen his lead. Worst case after South Carolina, he has two victories (Nevada and South Carolina) and two strong showings (Iowa, New Hampshire). In other words, this is your leader heading into "Super Tuesday."


I've got a word limit. Trust me, there's more. I'll conclude the Primary results in seven days. Next week's topic:

SUPER HYPER TUESDAY

Outrage of the Week

No Child Left Behind?
by ATM

I know that the immigration debate can be a very polarizing issue. Quite a few discussions at my own kitchen table could get very heated should I choose to “go there” with a few friends of mine. The information that compels this blog is not new, uncharted territory; it’s just a recent, unfortunate chapter in how legislation can really screw the American family. And yes, I say American family fully acknowledging that the varied sum of its diverse parts might be comprised of illegal American immigrants with American-born children.


There was a raid in New Bedford, Mass. last week at a factory that, get this, manufactures gear for our military. Of the over 350 workers that were seized in the raid, more than half of these workers were shipped to be detained in Texas and New Mexico. Same raid, different day and different city, right? Probably. What originally outraged me was the number of children left behind by their parents- leaving siblings, relatives, friends, social workers, and city officials scrambling to meet the child care needs of these kids. I was even more incensed to read that an infant was hospitalized for dehydration because her nursing mother was being detained.


This goes on all across the country leaving hundreds of children without their parents. A few years back, a student in my community college class shared a similar experience; members of my class were indeed in disagreement as they represented one of our country's many divisions of thought- as both “sides of the aisle” have not come into consensus on the so-called “immigration issue.” As it currently stands, federal law does not allow for the consideration of such families in matters of deportation. Hopefully, our Congressional leadership won’t waste too much time waxing poetics on this one; idealistically, you would think that someone powerful is out there advocating for these kids and their parents. As a compassionate citizenry, we have to do better than this.

Rage-o-meter: 10

PARDONERS' TALES

PARDONERS’ TALES

Our 3½ year old is just beginning to internalize what it means to be sorry. Still deep in the egocentrism stage, he’s slowly but surely inching his way towards perspective thinking. Thanks to the help of his nursery school teachers—patron saints indeed, the cheeky and oftentimes penitent Thomas the Tank Engine, Shane’s Kindergarten Countdown, and my better-half and me, N. is learning not to throw sand, not to demolish his classmates’ building blocks projects; and not to push O. whose father is a good colleague of mine, twice my size, and could easily send me into the ICU just by sitting on me. In short, N. is not just saying “he’s sorry,” he means it.

Pardon me: we Americans have a strange understanding of what it means to be sorry, what it means to forgive, and whom should be forgiven and/or pardoned and why. Perhaps we need to revisit the learning lessons of toddlers, past history, and/or great works of literature—something. Because more so than the much-ado-‘bout-nothing “morals and values” narrative assigned to the right in the wake of the 2004 election, this past week’s news showed a different story. While the MSM has indulged the hard right with their pontificating about all the ills and vices of Americans, the hard right has shown America that hypocrisy is no different today than when Chaucer wrote “The Pardoner’s Tale” in the 14th century.

Just take the I. Scooter Libby trial this week; check out David Corn’s analysis for The Nation. No sooner had the jury rendered its verdict then the right came “out” for Libby’s pardon in grand National Review fashion; never mind that the verdict was more about the illegal prosecution of the Iraq war than the Fitzgerald prosecution of Libby. Interestingly, some of these “pardoner” folks were the same people who raised holy hell against Bill Clinton when Monica’s genetically stained dress came out of its closet. Interestingly, these are the same people who’ve come out again and again sometimes on TV, sometimes in speeches, and sometimes in sermons about morals, values, and how to lead a “right” life amidst the sinners in the hands of angry mainstream America.

Most interestingly, what did “come out” this week from the hermetically sealed, right- wing closet was pretty amazing. In a mea culpa moment, Newt Gingrich did confess that he was having an extra-marital affair while he and his cohorts tattooed Bill Clinton with a scarlet letter M. Hey, give the guy a break: it’s Lent and some Republican candidates are tanking. And Mann Coulter, who in a speech called John Edwards a “faggot” and whose last book Godless criticized the religion of liberals among other things, was actually seen with a “closeted” gay Republican male—there’s a shocker—whose alter ego is better known as gay porn star Rod Majors. Now if only Rod were to check out if Mann had a “rod” then we (and my favorite radio personality Randi Rhodes) would all have clarity—once and for all—on why Mann makes fun of gay people on a regular basis. For more on Mann’s hypocrisy and the media’s enabling of it, be sure to check out Savoir Faire Scribneoir’s meditations in WTF!

Pardon me: in these desperate times, what will it take to move our culture away from egocentrism towards perspective thinking? Do we all need a dose now and again of Thomas the Tank Engine and the lessons we learn in nursery school? Can we ever pardon the sins of the past and the present to forge some kind of better tomorrow?

Weekly Presidential Politics - 3/7/07

Wednesday's guest blogger is IC, a colleague of mine, a fighting liberal, and a fellow blogger. Check out IC's blog, Presidential Politics for America, for more about the contenders for 2008. For those of you interested in sports, be sure to visit his sports blog, Around the blog.

Well, it's my first of hopefully many weekly Wednesday short posts here at 1% More Conscious. In order to get off on the right foot, I'd like to ingratiate myself to you readers by doing you a favor. Please enjoy my inaugural post. (Inaugural...so Presidential-like...possibly foreshadowing the subject matter of my contributions?)

Save the Suspense: Democratic Primary Results Determined

That's it. It's over. I've saved people the trouble of voting.

What do I mean? I mean we can stop worrying ourselves over who will be the next Democratic nominee for President of the United States. The Hillary vs. Barack debate, as ATM did a great job outlining on Monday, is starting to become old hat, and we're still nine months away from the Iowa Caucus!

If you are also getting heavy eyelids from the pendulum of weak volleys between Camp Hillary and Camp Obama, let me recommend that you stop taking the time to think about who's winning. Are you tired of the analyzing, examining, synthesizing, figuring and anatomizing? That's why I'm here. And I've figured it out. I know who's going to win, and almost as important, I know why they're going to win. The best part is, every small development that happens now doesn't even matter.

Our good friends over at Wikipedia have recently updated the 2008 Democratic Primary schedule. Remember when Nevada made a splash by getting the DNC's approval to move up in front of New Hampshire? Unbeknownst to most, that was the single most important occurrence of the last year in this race for the Democratic nomination, even more important than that picture of Obama in his bathing suit. (Sorry ladies, no hyperlink for you!)

The scheduling of the primaries plays an enormous role in determining presidential nominees. Enormous. Three things affect the nomination process more than any other: Money, geography, and the media. And if you can spin any two of those in your direction, the third becomes irrelevant. The most a rival could get is the one remaining.

Thanks to scheduling, one Democratic candidate has two of those in his favor. That's right. His favor.

And it's not Barack Obama.

Next week, I'll reveal how the 2008 Democratic Primary will unfold. See you then.

OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK

NOTE: Taking a cue from Connecticut Local Politics, I've enlisted some other bloggers who will contribute on a regular basis. ATM, my better-half and soulmate, will blog on Mondays. Her blog is entitled "Outrage of the Week." As you probably can tell, we were both big fans of the now defunct CNN show The Capitol Gang.

OUTRAGE OF THE WEEK

By ATM

“The Only Thing We Have to Fear is… Dem-Fatigue”

In the space between asleep and awake last night, I had a fleeting thought of dem-fatigue, probably inspired by our Sunday night routine with The Chris Matthews Show. Yet again, Hillary and Barack constituted the main subject of the panel. Frankly, I am sick of questions like “Are we ready for this or that?” Maybe we need to consider if we are ready to move on to talking about the 2008 campaign with greater depth, a new direction, or even really throw the discussion of some of the other players into the mix.

Then, before falling asleep, I checked myself. Is this just outrage for the sake of it? Am I overreacting like the woman in one of those anti-depressant commercials from a few years ago?

Nope. It’s Monday morning and my local paper is talking about the fact that Hil and Obama were not “arm-in-arm” in Selma yesterday. (For those of you that are interested, she was holding her husband’s hand instead). And no, I am not kidding you about the hand holding.

I’ll admit it: In this fear factor era that dismissed the color-coded alert system as quickly as it adopted it, I am afraid. I fear dem-fatigue. Don’t get me wrong; I am all about media exposure, but the relentless superficial focus on Hilary and Barack is annoying me already… and I like politics. I am worried about fatiguing the other part of our populace- those that already hate politics. Will they hate it more as a result of this TV coverage? And, the greater question is, will they direct their disdain at the Dems because of Hil-Barack tidal wave?

Grade on the Outrage Meter: 6.5

ASIDE: As usual, NPR is being pretty balanced with their coverage of major and minor candidates on both sides of the aisle. It’s a nice place to treat those weary with dem-fatigue.

WHAT'S UP WITH MO?

WHAT’S UP WITH MO?

This entry is dedicated to FA, a conservative, former student of mine, faithful reader, and good friend, who has been harassing me via e-mail from Pennsylvania this weekend with his right-wing spin the donkey.

What’s up with Mo lately? That’s Maureen Dowd. Not only has she once again proven her thesis that men are necessary especially if you want to do a Clinton drive-by, she also seems to be living-out her ol’ Catholic Schoolgirl Self. As a former Catholic Schoolboy and as a Dowd fan, I’m kind of concerned that Mo might be overextending her time on the keg funnel of meanness. After all, we Catholic school kids are taught to share, both our alcohol and our criticisms.

As a never-reformed, school-uniform kid who’s indulged in and seen this meaner than mean behavior before, I can’t help but ask: Mo, what’s up with this drama lately? Did your little foray into Poliwood make you jealous? Are you mad that Geffen is gay? Could it be that you, too, are sick of Anna and Britney? Or is it that you’re angry you weren’t cast in Dreamgirls? Maybe a little bling would make you feel better? Or do you need to take comfort in the Catholic kid excuse for everything: the devil made me do it?

Starting cat fights, interviewing presidential contenders simultaneously to praise and slam them, media-whoring better than Mann Coulter, and just salivating over the prospect that Hillary Clinton may, in fact, be a political vampire who’s sucked all Democratic donors dry, constitute grounds for going to Mother Superior’s office. And NO ONE wants to go to that potentially halitosis-infested space.

Come back to us, Mo. Be satirical. Be that woman of mass analysis to stir the apple cart. Point out the follies of our foolish leaders. Be critical, very critical. Recently, though, you’re reminding me of those kids in the cafeteria who just start drama with everyone just because they have nothing better to do.

Remember, Mo, you can always funnel from the keg anytime you like; but just take it easy so you don’t…overindulge. Whether it’s this keg or that, too much time on the funnel is never a good thing. Beware of Mother Superior.

WEEKEND READING ASSIGNMENT

WEEKEND READING ASSIGNMENT:

"The Redirection" by Seymour Hersh

SCHOOL HOUSE NOT

SCHOOL HOUSE NOT

So as America was bedazzled by Hollywood last week, with the departed Anna Nicole Smith in “As I Lay Dying” and NYT dreamgirl Maureen Dowd teaming up with Dreamworks David Geffen for the Clinton/Obama WWF smackdown, real news remained on what seemed to be the editing room floor. Blinded by the glare from Britney’s head, it was nearly impossible to piece together the different strips of reality, whether it was the Walter Reed rat/mold infestation sequence or Seymour Hersh’s latest installment of the coming war or the Taliban, Part II, Revenge of Afghanistan.

The one real-news filmstrip that never left the developing room let alone move to editing revealed yet another stunning reality in America: our high school students’ achievement in reading has gone down, way down, from an 80% reaching “basic” proficiency in 1992 to a staggering 73% reaching “basic” proficiency in 2005. But this is not the only fact that the report, produced by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, projected onto the much manipulated mainstream media news radar screen: more so than ever, high school students are taking the most challenging courses available and, get a load of this, achieving the highest marks in these courses.

Let’s do the math, another academic area in which our students have fallen behind: MORE STUDENTS TAKING “DIFFICULT COURSES” + INFLATED GRADES = DUMBED-DOWN CURRICULUM. In the age of No Child Left Behind and Education through Testing, no wonder the powers that be didn’t want to advertise this fucking horror show of real-news.

And speaking of dumbed-down, Secretary of No Education Maggie Spellings claims that the disappointing report shows “we have our work cut out for us.” And this begs the question: how about you resign, Maggie, and cut your no-qualified self out of the picture? But really, how could Maggie do such a thing since our big picture seems to only resonate with failure? From the failure to locate WMDs to the failures of Iraq and Afghanistan, from the failure of Katrina and the Gulf Coast to the failing grades of the 9/11 Commission Report, from the failure of Habeas Corpus to our failure to alleviate poverty and homelessness, we are learning some difficult and slow lessons in our School House Not.

POLIWOOD

POLIWOOD

As the world turns, Iraq burns, and mold and rats besiege our recuperating veterans at Walter Reed. What does the mainstream media of America do? Smokescreen us all by marrying politics to Hollywood, which yields a narrative union that needs to be annulled quicker than Britney’s first marriage: Poliwood.

It’s hard to determine when this all began, but I’m going with the Girls Gone Wild media bonanza from a few weeks ago. And they haven’t stopped going wild—the media, that is.

Let’s start with poor Britney Scissorhands, the media’s heroine gone vile. Not only did Britney give a bad impression of Sinéad O’Connor in the early days, Britney’s now blurring fact with fiction—hey, she’s on drugs, becoming the protagonist of one of her more famous ditties, “Oops!....I did it Again.” Brit’s been going in and out of rehab quicker than the revolving door at the entryway.

But the REAL culprit of “Oops!....I did it Again” is none other than a five-deferment Sith who loves to merge fiction with fiction, but I don’t “think” he’s on drugs. In the true spirit of Oscar season, this actor has assumed the highest role in a made-for-Poliwood soap opera: the GRAND Sith . Yes, that would be our beloved Vice President, whose antics the media has conveniently downplayed.

As the Coalition of the Dwindling shrinks ever so more, the Grand Sith, get this, tried to spin the British pull-out as a good thing; doesn’t he know that this particular kind of pull-out is NOT a good thing?

The “good thing” came after, though, the Grand Sith bitch-slapped Speaker Pelosi, who actually lost her brother this week, with his tried and true: “if you disagree with me, then you are unpatriotic.” And then the Grand Diva went on to bitch slap Senator McCain, who recently bitch-slapped Don Rumsfeld. With all this D.C. bitch-slapping going-on, who the hell wants to watch prime-time, Hollywood programming, let alone reading the newspaper to learn about, oh, I don’t know: Iraq, Iran, or the Taliban?

But because Americans cannot stop for death, the media had us once again gear our attention to the unburied corpse of none other than Anna Nicole Smith with a courtroom drama that seemed like a dismaying collage of Judge Judy meets the Beverly Hillbilies. Yes, the media persuaded many Americans to shift their eyes off the court case that really matters: the Scooter Libby trial, which had made-for-Hollywood drama, as Libby’s lawyer, Theodore Wells, was almost brought to tears in his closing argument. Let’s face it: The Anna Nicole, as-I-lay-dying, Hollywood story is much more entertaining than the Scooter Libby, as I kept lying and lying, Poliwood story.

The Bonnie and Clyde redux, though, better known as the Dowd and Geffen Clinton drive-by, took the Poliwood best picture award, hands down. The story goes like this: as Hollywood greeted its newest star, Barack Obama, for a tinsel-town fund raiser that media mogul Geffen hosted, Geffen teamed-up with Dowd, to cast Hillary as the fading star, Norma Desmond in Sunset, I Don’t Like You and Your Husband Anymore. But in true empire-strikes-back fashion, team Hillary struck back and bitch-slapped team Obama, and, in turn, team Obama bitch-slapped team Hillary. And I can’t recall who got the last bitch-slap in.

So as everybody tunes into the theatrics of Poliwood, leaving the real news behind, one can’t help but wonder: haven’t we been down this yellow caked road before? Oops!...we did it again.

A GOOD JOE IS HARD TO FIND

A GOOD JOE IS HARD TO FIND

As other CT bloggers have noted today, Senator Russ Feingold is looking to contribute to progressive candidates who will most likely face a strong re-election challenge in '08.

We all know that Congressman Courtney won by the narrowest of margins this past November. And for those of us who live in the Stonington/Mystic area and are at least 1% more conscious, we all know that Team Simmons has yet to remove their campaign signs from their office windows. So get yourselves over to the Progressive Patriots Fund--Feingold's site--to vote for Congressman Courtney; the candidate with the most votes will receive a $5000 contribution. Go now!!!

WEEKEND READING ASSIGNMENT: "From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq"

WEEKEND READING ASSIGNMENT: "From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq"

Get yourselves over to Vanity Fair to read "From the Wonderful Folks Who Brought You Iraq" by Craig Unger. As my good friend Femme Fatale says, "stunning."

GIMME SHELTER

GIMME SHELTER

For the high school teacher, especially for those of us who teach English, a winter storm emphasizes the other storm we must endure: the realization that we have about half a year to go, with endless piles of papers, or, in some cases, piles of shit; whiny students, who don’t want to do much of anything; their parents—even worse, who often en/(dis)able their students not to do anything; and some of our crazy colleagues who get a little cagey in the cold Ethan Frome of winter. A snow day can thus be a beautiful thing, for it provides us teachers with a shelter to brave all those slings and arrows of the mid-school year maelstrom that’s underway.

Rather than rejoice in my “snow-day” shelter, though, I braved the outside world with gusto; I tortured myself with President Bush’s late morning press conference. It really was like a trip back and forth to the future. Hey, I had just finished watching an episode of Little Einsteins with my three-year old, so I was feeling a little adventurous. And I couldn’t get the Little Einstein ditty out of my head: “we’re going on a trip in our favorite rocket ship, zooming through the skies, little Einsteins.”

All aboard and ready to explore just like little Einsteins, I couldn’t help but notice that Chimpy was indignant and as arrogant as ever. In fact, he was doing what he does best: not telling the truth while possibly laying the groundwork for a coming war.

In a revealing exchange with the ever ballsy David Gregory of MSNBC, Chimpy conflated yet another accusation: whether or not the Iranian government was supplying Shiite fighters with explosives targeting American soldiers. Sort of sounds like whether or not there was a connection between Saddam and Osama, doesn’t it? Hence, my little Einstein journey back and forth to the future.

As Editor & Publisher has noted, ever since these claims about the Iranians, which began last weekend, skepticism has quickly grown, even from the likes of General Peter Pace.

But if we really have a countdown to our truth mission in the spirit of those Little Einsteins—5,4,3,2,1: we find the real news involving the Shiite fighters and their use of explosive devices on our soldiers and their vehicles. It appears that yet again, our brave troops and their humvees have NOT been equipped with the necessary FRAG Kit 5 armor to sustain a new powerful roadside bomb, which may or may not involve supplies from the Iranian government. And while the U.S. military plans to armor all unarmored vehicles as quickly as possible, that mission won’t be accomplished until sometime this summer.

Hoping that the Little Einsteins would make my listening to the Bush conference more of a magic carpet ride than a dance on the deathstar of neocon foreign policy, I eerily thought of “Gimme Shelter”: War, children, it's just a shot away.

NATION GONE WILD

NATION GONE WILD

This is the dawning of the age of transparent, alternate realities—the hell with Aquarius, no pun intended. Just take a look at the headlines this week to see why we must rescue ourselves from the “girls gone wild” narrative to focus on what really matters—the Iraq war and how we got ourselves into this mess and how we must get out.

Like a monster from which we can’t liberate ourselves, Iraq slouches into even more chaos, with American soldiers dying, helicopters dropping, and more news about manipulated intelligence de-emphasized. 1, 2, 3: Can we say Downing Street Memo everyone? But in the collective un-consciousness, this real news pales in comparison to the alternate news—girls gone wild.

Shifting our focus away from reality was the story about the grand diva of them all, Mommy Dearest Pelosi who, according to our beloved media, went wild. How dare she demand what her male predecessors routinely requested: a government plane and a non-stop flight home. Whom does she think SHE is? Third in charge? In a desperate attempt of distraction, the mainstream media jumped onto this story quicker than Krystle Carrington jumped onto Alexis in one of their many girl fights. I can almost here the Dynasty theme song ringing in my ears along with the media’s new moniker for Pelosi: bitch.

Pushing us further away from the truth into what the government calls “perception management” was that pathetic feature in Newsweek magazine this week—lo and behold, a feature about girls gone wild. Paris and Britney (dis)graced the cover; meanwhile, in terms of our relations with Iran, all sorts of things may go wild—but that doesn’t REALLY matter. Does it?

In a culture that is so supersaturated with an interest in the female gender, from Desperate Housewives to The Real Housewives of Orange County to Tyra's thoughts on weight, to Hillary’s joke about an evil man, an amazing disparity exists between how much the media fixates on and emphasizes female (mis)behavior compared to how the media turns away from and simply downplays the (mis)behavior of men. Take, for instance, Captain Lieberman’s insane request this week for a war tax. And Captain Lieberman’s indignant behavior on the senate floor to one of the senate’s long-standing patriarchs: Senator John Warner. You thought Joe was just flipping off us Ned Lamont supporters and CT bloggers? You know he’s become the ultimate madman when he tried to tangle with Senator Warner, not only a veteran of a war but also a veteran of Liz Taylor, the penultimate girl gone extremely wild.

But if you think I’ve gone wild with my “girls gone wild” analysis, just take a look at what’s dominated the news cycle these past 48 hours: Anna Nicole Smith, a girl who went too wild and died. Yes, an untimely death is certainly tragic, but when you take a look at the media’s treatment of this event, you’ve realized that we are a nation who’s gone wild, wildly away from what really matters. Ever since the announcement on Thursday of Smith’s death, the mainstream media has treated this event as “breaking news,” giving it “special coverage” status. The sub-narrative about the paternity of Smith’s 5-month old baby girl has only intensified the story even more; now Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband is claiming to be the father? Wild, very wild.

In a week when the pandora’s box about the build-up to the war—the Scooter Libby Trial/Plamegate narrative—has been opened once again and the expected tensions with Iran have escalated to suggest that there may be a coming war, our beloved media has done what? Focused on the girls gone wild. There is one exception, though: the media left a really wild girl alone who made a complete fool of herself, yet again, this time on the Imus show. Who’s THAT girl? Mary “Cruella” Matalin. Why was SHE left alone, you ask? Perhaps because Mary isn’t just a girl; she’s part of a men’s group that has gone absolutely insane. And I’m not talking about the fact that her cake-up resembles a drag queen’s. Imagine if the media were to focus solely on this group of men? Imagine if the focus were on...what really matters? Wild--I know.

A TAXING NIGHTMARE

A TAXING NIGHTMARE: Captain Lieberman

Like a recurring nightmare, Captain Lieberman is back again and scarier than ever. In addition to relying on the tried rhetoric of "if you oppose Bush's plan then you embolden terrorists" (did you get a chance to see his senate floor speech yesterday?), he's now embarking upon a whole new chapter of why so many despise him: a war tax. I kid you not. I feel like we are in the midst of a VERY strange permutation of Cartesian doubt: "I can't believe Captain Lieberman is doing this; he IS doing this."

THE LOVE SONG OF GEORGE W. BUSH

THE LOVE SONG OF GEORGE W. BUSH

The National Intelligence Estimate report that came out yesterday is scary. It confirms that things are rather dreadful in Iraq. But just like American Education, Katrina, our troops and the proper equipment they need, the lead-up to the war, that damning NIE report has been, it seems, left behind. Certainly, Chimpy and his ilk have either not read it or not read it carefully.

But if you don’t do your homework, how would you know anything about this report?
For those interested in learning more, read today’s front page of The New York Times, or better yet, get yourselves over to Drinking Liberally to read a better than Sparknotes overview of things.

This report has been sort of tucked away along with other news; hence, the reason I’m still “channeling” Carol Anne from the other side—check out my "Poltergeist" post below. The media has grown so adept at what to emphasize and what to smokescreen.

This is why we’ve been overexposed to the madwoman-in-the-attic, male fascination with Hillary lately. The New York Post this morning has a picture of Hillary, with fists in the air, and a subtitle reading, “pumping her fists and shouting to the rooftops, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton vowed yesterday to bring an immediate end to the war.” Now I’m not a big Hillary fan, as I’ve criticized her on this blog and others, but can we PULEEZE move beyond the Bertha Mason, hysterical female references? Yes, the media needs them as part of their smokescreen. Even porn-star named Mitt Romney has chimed in with his suggestion yesterday that Hillary is too “timid,” sissy-like in her comments on Iran. Enough is enough, though.

Other non-news to take our eye off the NIE report include the typical stuff about the Super Bowl, which is more than understandable; a headline about why the sea smells; the winners at the professional eating competition, which you’re all dying to know about; and other random kibble and bits, including the latest buzz from the Hollywood set—Kevin Federline, folks, has a Super Bowl commercial.

Meanwhile, for those of us who try to stay wide awake in dreamland, terrible tornadoes ripped through Florida yesterday, and many are dead; at least 95 are dead in a suicide attack in Baghad today, which is more evidence why we shouldn’t send additional troops into what Senator Hagel calls a grinder; and there was serious flooding in Indonesia. In the age of George W. Bush and his “No Child Left Behind,” it seems oddly routine, then, that some news remains in the foreground, and some is, well, left behind.

Lately, I’ve been wondering why W. won’t come to the inevitable conclusion about Iraq: we need a change in course, a complete change, not an adjustment, not an escalation, but an entire new plan. All of his posturing, symbolic gestures like firing Rummy, ignoring all his father’s men—the Iraqi study group, suggest not only a stubbornness to do the obvious but an unwillingness to face what he’s (un)done. In this respect, he’s becoming more and more like Eliot’s J. Alfred Prufrock, who remains almost trapped in front of his mirror with his behind to everyone else, “etherized” while the world crumbles around him, listening to the people come and go—leave and die—talking of “michaelangelo.”

POLTERGEIST

P O L T E R G E I S T

Like Carol Anne Freeling, the adorable blond girl from 1982’s Poltergeist, I have had my hands spread across the television screen lately, trying to make sense of the white noise, trying to endure the voices from the dead and undead, struggling with all the fear, uttering ever so terrifyingly: “they’re b a c k.”

It started last week, during the State of Delusion address. Chimpy couldn’t help himself; can he ever? He dealt the ol’ terrorist line better than a drug dealer at the Haight at the height of ‘68. Half way into his speech, a trip down a rabbit hole, Chimpy kept on repeating the words “terrorist,” “attack,” “enemy” as if he really did have a bad acid trip—if only. Foolish me: I thought that “fear factoring” was something of the past; after all, Fear Factor had been cancelled—thank goodness—in September 2006.

But didn’t Chimpy realize that Keith Olberman delivered a special comment on this very topic? Hadn’t he figured out that we now know the parallel between “terrorist” warnings and, let’s say, the effort to suppress real news? Did he not know that the bad “candy-land” inspired terrorist color chart was now comic relief? No. Because like the poltergeist that reached out from Carol Anne’s family’s television to blast a whole in her parent’s bedroom wall, fear factor has been infectiously resurrected this week: version 2007, with a vengeance.

Back and better than ever is Captain Lieberman—a scary monster indeed. Since we must deal with Joe and his shit for 6 more years, dropping acid seems ever more appealing. On Fox News Sunday, interviewed by Bill-Clinton-bitch-slapped Chris Wallace, Captain Lieberman not only threatened to vote for a Republican in the next election, he went on to fear factor by saying, “…the Islamist terrorists who we are fighting don’t distinguish between Americans based on party affiliation. They hate us. They want to kill us.” That-a-boy, Joe; terrify us with your “embolden” the terrorist scary rhetoric. Too bad you haven’t closely looked at the other side: (multiple choice option--pick one) A. the American casualties, B. the record number of Iraqi casualties, C. the millions wasted in Iraq reconstruction, or D. ALL OF THE ABOVE. When it comes to truth checking ol’ fearful, Captain Joe, go with all of the above. They’re back.

Getting jiggy for 2008—a scary image indeed that would make anyone do acid, Chris Matthews and his “vagina dentata” fear of Hillary also hit critical mass this week. We’ve witnessed Matthews’ interest in a Hillary run quickly develop into an OCD fascination, a psychic collage of male frustration, wishful fantasies of being spanked hard by a dominatrix, and an obvious displaced fear of women smarter than he. On Tuesday’s edition of Fearball, Chris dedicated practically an entire show, get this, to Hillary’s joke about evil men and her “pitchy” rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, which would make Paula Abdul sober. Fear of Hillary? Fear of women in…positions of power? Who knows? But check out the Hillary segment, the Hillary analysis, the Hillary update on the hour, the Hillary minute—courtesy of the very fearful Mr. Matthews. They’re back.

The 2007 fear factor resurrection washed ashore other scary matters this week, including spirits from American Foreign policy past: Henry “secret-plan-for-exit” Kissinger. Obviously, he still hasn’t recovered from the acid tabs that Grace Slick snuck into the White House a long time ago. Could it have been that Kissinger’s reemergence from the undead was prompted by the real terrorist threat in Britain and the faux terrorist threat in Boston this week—a single shot of semi-real and fake fear? Or maybe the Kissinger crossover was summoned by what many of us feared most: Joe Biden’s big mouth, which, once again hosted his foot along with a racially insensitive remark? THEY ARE BACK!

While I longed to channel Carol Anne Freeling, spreading my hands across the TV screen to combat this terrifying, recurring poltergeist we Americans must confront, courtesy of the Bush administration and a media without a backbone (except Keith Olberman, of course), I wondered about what was unfolding on the other side of reality this week: our soldiers, their heroic efforts, the ground game in Iraq, what the hell is going on with Iran, the Libby trial, the passing of the great Molly Ivins, and much more. Could the other side be what triggered the redux of the fear-inducing poltergeist? Is the other side the reality we Americans must embrace more? How do we Americans break on through? Let’s take a cue from Carol Anne and run to other side where the light is.

A TALE OF TWO JOES

A TALE OF TWO JOES

While many of us want to throw Captain Lieberman (formerly Oedipus Lieberman [formerly Joe Lieberman]) off the neocon Deathstar of fools--by means of the trash compactor, no doubt, we peeps in CT can take pride and joy in another Joe—Joe Courtney.

As tparty over at My Left Nutmeg notes, D.C. Grandmaster Captain Lieberman has been on more Sundays shows in the past few months that it's as if he were giving Paris Hilton a run for her money. So as the media reveals Hilton’s escapades with Brittany or perhaps the latest home video—pick a vice, Captain Lieberman tries desperately to justify Chimpy’s troop surge/escalation/augmentation—pick a word.

Thank goodness for congressman Joe Courtney. He’s the good Joe that helps us counterbalance the bad Joe; the AP reports today that Captain Lieberman may vote for a Republican in the next presidential election—yet another gargantuan middle finger to CT democratic voters who voted his ass out in the August primary; a double birdie to us bloggers who catch him in more lies than we do Chimpy.

Rather than focus on Captain Joe, though, let’s focus on good Joe. In addition to appearances on local CT television and radio, Courtney was also at Connecticut College this past Thursday evening talking to educators about that dreadful legislation, NCLB, which Chimpy and Maggie “No Qualified” Spellings have been urging congress to re-authorize. My “teacher” sources tell me that Courtney was very articulate and knowledgeable about the issues at the Conn. event. I was not surprised, as not only did my wife and I campaign for Courtney but I also gave a stump speech on education for Joe back in May. Courtney is a good man who understands the trials and tribulations of the classroom teacher—a MAJOR one being the biggest overlooked fact in Washington: the super-duper unqualified Spellings. Yes, Maggie “May” also needs to be jettisoned; she’s barely qualified to be a classroom aide, let alone a substitute teacher. Just take a look at her fucking pathetic performance on Jeopardy not too long ago. Ironic, huh?

Courtney has also been doing the rounds recently at functions hosted by local democratic town committees; last evening, he was in New London for a fund raiser. No doubt, Congressman Courtney in a short time has made it a point to stay in touch with his constituents. Imagine that.

Imagine if that other Joe took a lesson from this Joe? In the meantime, there’s no need to worry about the trash compactor; it looks like the Deathstar is self-destructing from within, and Captain Lieberman still remains tethered to the leviathan Iraq.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

I had great expectations for Tuesday night’s State of Delusion; I really did. Just like a toddler who couldn’t wait to watch his favorite Baby Einstein DVD, I eagerly expected our Commander of a Chimp to do what he does best—to give a good “talk,” to talk about new, non-terrorist, domestic initiatives, the war on terror, terrorists, extreme terrorists, and, of course, the terrorism in the Middle East. And he didn’t disappoint at all.

What has been disappointing is that he STILL doesn’t get it, does he? Slowlearningcuve.com? Perhaps. But just like poor, pathetic Pip from Great Expectations, Chimpy still believes in the unbelievable; he stills believes we can win the un-winnable—the war in Iraq. Or at least that’s what he’s telling us in a sad effort to WIN us over.

But no one can convince him and his Sith Lord, Darth Cheney, not even the most right of the Right Wing, Senator “I want to change the constitution” Brownback. Not even Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican, who in the past week has not only shown he has a HUGE pair but has also revealed in GQ—a pip of a pipster’s magazine—that the Bush Administration originally planned to overtake the entire Middle East. Ignorehistoryandcolonizationlearningcurve.com? Most definitely.

Like a delusional Pip, perhaps Chimpy got wrapped up in one of his State of Confusion honoree’s work—Julie Aigner-Clark, creator of none other than the Baby Einstein line. Yeah, he honored her for her philanthropy/community service efforts along with honoring exceptional immigrants and war heroes. Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Oh, come on! You have to check out Clark’s DVDs, if not her books. The Baby Einstein DVDs and books are both great learning tools that often combine classical music along with mesmerizing visuals, and they expose infants and toddlers to basic knowledge about all kinds of subjects, ranging from art to astronomy to world geography. Even Pip could’ve learned a thing or two from Baby Einstein. Shit, Clark certainly did, as she made a bundle by selling the line to Disney; hence, the reason for pulling the Baby Einstein, Financial Fairy Tale episode. GoodforyouformakingmoneyinAmerica.com? You got it.

But really: My two love the Baby Einstein stories, especially the ones involving the chimp. No, not George, but the one named Jane who also has great expectations to conquer the world. Jane gets in her plane. Jane stops by one land to learn about it. As ambitious as a Pip, Jane goes happily to another land to learn more.

But not our chimp, George. He goes from one land, only to invade another, and then devises great expectations to invade more. If only our Chimp learned from Clark’s chimp, then maybe the recent BBC poll about how the U.S. image in the world has sharply declined wouldn’t be so shocking. Theconsequencesofourpresident.com. Alas, we must journey through one more year with great expectations to reach our final State of Delusion.

Outrage of the Week

NOTE: This contribution was submitted by ATM; better known as my better half. Enjoy.

My Outrage of the Week
(would George Orwell be proud of George Bush?)

I have a vague recollection of the first time I heard it; in fact, it was probably the State of the Union Address 2006. The term “addicted to oil” rolled out of the mouth of George W., and I remember looking at my husband; we were both thinking: did he really just say that? Of course, this term was used in response to the too casual and rapid rise in oil prices impacting most Americans weekly as they drove up to the pump. Even at our “cheapest” gas station in town, we would fill up our tanks exchanging frustrated grimaces of outrage.

Anyway, good ol’ W. simply suggested that the rise in fuel costs was a direct result of our American addiction to oil. (Next time I teach American lit., I’ll have to add this one to my list of essential questions: How can we, as Americans, combat our addiction to oil?) At any rate, the term was thrown out into American homes via television by our esteemed president; personally, I had no faith in its shelf life. I mean, come on, are people really going to be willing to buy into this blame game? Are we suddenly (curiously during the presidential terms of this oil guy) so addicted to oil that our gas prices have skyrocketed and yo-yoed over the past few years?
How transparent! I remember thinking: Nobody will buy into this madness. It’s right out of 1984. The real information (a direct correlation involving the Bush presidency, the former Republican Congress and our out of control oil prices) has been sent down the memory tube, and the “addiction to oil” has been rewritten into our American history books.

I guess I really never thought that the catchy little phrase would be rooted in talk media for the past year. This morning on the Diane Rehm show, her guest amicably discussed the news of the day and the casual phrase assaulted me like a crack addict in a dark alley (oops, wrong addiction blog). “Addicted to Oil” has stretched its legs in the American consciousness, and it’s not going anywhere.

I wonder what new delightful term will be revealed tonight, allowing us to doublespeak our way into another new reality. I hope Winston and Julia will be watching.