Category: Politics

Politics

The Dude Prophetizes

One of my favorite movies of all time is The Big Lebowski. It’s a brilliant comedy that’s endlessly quotable and has some of the most memorable characters in recent film history. There is so much going on in this movie, that I could take up your whole browser trying to summarize it, so I’m just going to have to assume at this point that you’ve seen it. If you haven’t, go rent it, watch it and come back to this web page. It ain’t going nowhere.

One of the themes of the movie is unchecked aggression. Some direct parallels are made between Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and The Dude’s harassment by Jackie Treehorn (his goons pee on The Dude’s rug). At one point, The Dude’s stoned brain rattles off a line from something he had overheard on TV: “this aggression will not stand.” It’s a line from George H.W. Bush’s speech about Kuwait that the Dude heard as he bought some half & half from Ralph’s grocery store. The Dude is so broke, incidentally, that he actually has to write a check for $0.69.

Watching The Dude try to piece together all the events of his life is fun to watch. He is such a burnout that his synapses don’t always connect and he stumbles as he tries to solve the mysteries of the storyline. It’s not entirely unlike watching George W Bush try to make his way through a press conference. Which brings me to Iraq again and our recent history with that country.

At this point the reasons for America’s war with Iraq are so obscured by excuses and lies and manipulations that I sometimes feel like The Dude trying to piece it all together. 42% of Americans believe Iraq was DIRECTLY involved with the attacks of 9/11 (Newsweek poll from Sept ’04, found on this page). Almost half the country believes something that has repeatedly been proven to be false. What the hell?

So, what am I talking about? Oh, yeah, the Big Lebowski, Iraq, Kuwait, The Dude, 9/11, etc. Well, imagine my surprise when it was pointed out to me today that there is a prophetic message in the Big Lebowski that ties all of this together (kind of like The Dude’s rug).

Remember earlier when The Dude writes that check for $0.69 at Ralph’s? Well, check out the date on that check:

Photo from The Big Lebowski

September 11, 1991. Exactly ten years before the attacks. Coincidence? Yes. Weird? Definitely. I need to go sit down for a while. Mind if I do a J?

Buy the Big Lebowski on Amazon.com

Vote Receipt

I need someone to explain to me why this is not possible:

Vote Receipt

If we truly live in the greatest democracy in the world, our election system needs to be beyond reproach. Why this is not on the agenda of our congressional leaders is unconscionable. This issue is just as important as campaign finance reform and just as non-partisan. One person, one vote, one record. It is the baseline from which everything else in this country springs from and it needs to be fixed.

Evil Will Prevail

I’ve been singing this song to myself for the past few days. It doesn’t make me feel any better, but I find it strangely comforting. It was written almost 10 years ago by Wayne Coyne.

Evil Will Prevail, by The Flaming Lips

With loving hands
and their arms are stretched so wide
they can’t seem to take a breath
knowing evil will prevail
and a million people seems like a lot
and a million people can’t be wrong…
With loving smiles
and their mouths are stretched so wide
they can’t even take a breath
knowing evil will prevail
and the magic bullet is the
glowing mother ship
and the mother zaps you dead…
with loving hands knowing evil will prevail
knowing evil will prevail
knowing that evil will prevail
knowing evil will prevail
knowing that evil will always win…

A New Day

I’ve never really talked about why I do this site. I don’t consider myself a writer by any stretch of the imagination, I don’t think that I have a “readership” to cultivate, and I’m not looking to change any minds. The only reason I write this stuff on this site is for me to be able to come back in 1, 3 or 15 years and read what I was thinking about or what was going on at that time in my life. I’m writing to my future self. The fact that it’s on a publicly accessible web site is just so I’ll be able to access it from pretty much anywhere in the world. Occasionally I get all worked up and try to appeal to the outside world, but for the most part themuy is just a dumb journal. If you’re reading this, thanks, but I’m not talking to you. I’m talking to me.

So, with that being said, I’ve got something on my mind today. I want to write down exactly how I feel right now so I can look back on it in the future. I may not feel this way in a few hours, days or years. I may feel this way for the rest of my life.

Yesterday, America went to the polls to elect our next president. Today, all indications are that George W. Bush will continue to be our president for four more years. I personally believe this to be a turning point in American history and that we are heading down a road that will lead to the demise of our country, or at the very least will reduce the United States to a shell of its former self.

It’s easy for someone who is interested in politics to demonize the other side. I try to control myself with respect to that. I recognize that everyone is trying to do what they think is best for their country, just like I am. The fact of the matter is that this country is deeply divided. The events of the last two days have only served to further deepen that divide. The differences between the left and the right are crystal clear at the moment. The lines have not been more clearly drawn. It truly is black and white these days.

For a while there I thought that I was on the side of a tide of change that would help re-build this country and move us toward a better future. I was way wrong. The majority of the people in America are not with me. They are not interested in the common good or their common man. They think the only way to happiness is through money and power and Christianity. They believe that homosexuals are second class citizens and should be beaten down. They believe that Iraq attacked the United States on September 11, 2001. They believe that the health insurance and drug companies will protect them instead of their corporate profits. They see no problem with faith-based initiatives while denouncing the Taliban. They believe you can defeat terror cells of a few dozen people with tanks and airplanes and bombs.

I can’t understand how my beliefs can be so far out of whack with the majority of my country. I find it hard to believe people are such sheep. I cannot fathom how people can foster an atmosphere of intolerance and think they are doing “god’s work.”

What do you say about the atmosphere of a country where people believe one of Bush’s best lines in the debates (of which he lost all three) was when he called Kerry the most liberal Senator.

lib·er·al

  • Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
  • Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.

I feel that the tenants of American democracy are being re-written by the conservative majority of this country. They are weakening the separation of church and state. They are working to weaken the rights of the individual. They are embracing intolerance. They are demonizing the word ‘liberal.’

The despair I feel today is overwhelming. As bad as it’s been the last four years, the next four are going to be unbearable. Bush will elect 4 Supreme Court judges. He will help turn this country into an overbearing monster of bigotry and hate. He will abandon the poor and assist the rich. He will lead us into World War III. He will protect corporate interests at the expense of those who elected him. He will turn every other country against us—he practically already has. He will miserably fail the war on terror. He will believe that God is speaking through him. He will view death as a reward. He will lie to the American people repeatedly and audaciously. He will think he can do no wrong and will not have to answer for his mistakes.

I am not hopeful. I am not optimistic about the future of this country. I don’t even feel that this is my country anymore. I am confused and pissed off. And for all my hatred of George Bush and everything that he stands for, I find it very hard to come to terms with the fact that America has picked him to lead their country.

One Week to Go

Finally!

Where the candidates stand on the issues.

“This is an updated version of a document that was prepared for a Congressional Black Caucus Foundation forum held on September 10, 2004. This version incorporates material from a completed questionnaire received from President Bush’s campaign staff on September 7, 2004.”

Ignore everything you hear in the media about this election and just read these reports. Then vote next Tuesday. It’s really not that hard.

Air America in Atlanta

Good news!

I just read in the AJC that Air America Radio will be available in Atlanta this week. Tune in to AM 1690 to listen.

Instead of linking to the article (the AJC forces you to create an account to view any online content), I’m cutting and pasting it here:

Air America radio coming to Atlanta

Air America, the left-leaning national talk radio network, has landed a home on an Atlanta radio station — on the far right end of the AM dial.

The voices of Chuck D., Randi Rhodes, Al Franken and Janeane Garofalo will be heard at AM 1690 sometime next week once technical issues are resolved, said Air America president Jon Sinton, who is based in Atlanta.

The 1690 spot on the dial recently was running classic country music but is now playing nothing as station owner Intermart Broadcasting prepares for the Air America launch. Current call letters are WSWK-AM but Sinton said the owners plan to change that to WWAA-AM.

Air America, which began six months ago as a counterpoint to conservative talk radio, enters a crowded Atlanta market for gab. There are at least eight other talk radio stations in town, from powerhouse 750/WSB-AM to black talk 1380/WAOK-AM to Real Radio 105.3 on the FM side.

But most Atlanta talk stations are populated with conservative talkers such as Rush Limbaugh on 640/WGST-AM and Laura Ingraham on 920/WGKA-AM.

“As far as I know, the last really liberal talk show host on a major Atlanta station was me,” said Mike Malloy, a metro Atlanta-based veteran talker who left WSB-AM in 1997 after two stints. He recently joined Air America with a 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. show. “I think metro Atlanta has a huge potential audience. Air America is proving in market after market the audience is there.”

Eric Seidel, a media consultant and former WGST-AM station manager, disagreed: “It will never be a factor in this market. There isn’t a large enough audience for this type of talk to make it economically viable.”

The modest signal doesn’t help. With 10,000 watts during the day from a tower in Dekalb County near Decatur, Air America will have city-grade strength for about a 20-mile radius, according to www.radio-locator.com. At night, with 1,000 watts, the coverage area is smaller.

This means most anybody outside the Perimeter with a low tolerance for static will have to catch Air America on the Internet or the two subscription-based satellite radio networks, XM and Sirius.

Nationally, Air America has weathered a rocky start which included financial problems and management turnover. It is now in about 30 cities. “We’re 150 days in and we’re already in half the top 20 markets,” Sinton said. “We’ve shown tremendous growth.”