Nobody Could Have Predicted
Condoleeza Rice, the queen of smug, is in so many ways the overrated quintessence of that go-along-to-get-along Satanic banality which so typifies our benighted age: she lent her vestigial blackness as a fig-leaf to the
Bushies' Jim Crow claim to the throne, and of course also as fig leaf to the ill-concealed fundamental misogyny of the GOP. As figurehead/fig-leaf she was perhaps the most useless National Security Advisor of all time, ignoring all sorts of explicit warnings, blaring klaxons and strobing idiot-lights to make the 9/11 plot the Most Successful Terror Attack Ever, and then somehow retaining her job. Then she was a key mouthpiece selling the wholly phony
causus belli of the Iraq war, after which she signed off on the many war crimes the administration committed in torture chambers around the world.
In a truly
just world
Condescenda Rice would be in prison, on trial for her life, if not already divvied up for her organs. And in the
real world of not too long ago she'd have been shunned by anybody self-respecting. But in the 21st Century, an age without shame or honor, she's still a Princess of the Classical Piano, soon to be trotted out for ratings by those heroes of the Left, Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin, to guest star on
30 Rock.
Part of me wants to say, leave it at: "Fuck you Tina Fey. Fuck you Alec Baldwin. Any time I'm ever tempted to listen to anything you have to say, I'll remember this, and flip the channel."
But perhaps it might be more creative and more positive all round to write some barbed jokes for use on the Condi episode. Maybe Tracy Morgan could man up and zing her like he did Sarah Palin. On maybe his character would have some pointed questions about how she came to join a a Willy-Hortonizing, KKK-Lite political organization that takes its life force from bigotries of all sorts, but most especially American whites' hatred of blacks. On maybe Tina Fey could, in a pop cultural reference, wonder if Condi and Laura were secretly "sister wives"?
Put 'em in the comments or better yet, send them to NBC!
Before and After
So, Barry Bonds has been
convicted of obstruction of justice, and got a mistrial on three perjury charges. At least one commentator makes a
pretty good case that the obstruction charge is kinda bogus, but it's pretty clear that Bonds wasn't really anxious to come clean, in any forum, on the matter of his steroid use. Personally, I don't care much if Bonds used steroids. As an adult he should be allowed to assume the risks of such things. I understand the league has an interest in policing this, and if I were a player I would resent having to take steroids to compete with those who do. It's wrong, given the league's ban, because it's cheating. But, what the hell: they're professionals -- they're in it for the money; there are powerful perverse incentives in that setup. Indeed the whole professional sports industry is rather perverse with its elevation of semiliterate lunks to demi-god status, its obscene rewards for negligible societal contribution. But I don't lose any sleep over it.
What does get me is that the entire Bush administration was and continues to be a spree of perjury and and obstruction, and nobody's on an eight-year witch-hunt to put any of them away for their countless lies, obfuscations and amnesiac episodes. Maybe if they were black.
We Are All Neville Chamberlain Now
It's very simple actually: Republicans believe in the free market exactly as Nazi's believe in the Master Race. They think it's science, not superstition. And from this absurdity their atrocities will follow logically.
People who fail to understand this are morally negligent.
Newt Is a Four-Letter Word
Newt Ginrgrich, is one of the lowest forms of life in the universe, and yet he is regarded with awe by the even lower forms of life, American journalists and Republicans. He thinks that just because he's well documented in all sorts of sworn testimony as a total sleazebag who (let us never forget) served his wife with divorce papers when she was in the hospital with cancer, doesn't think any of this should disqualify him as President. I must admit to being really stuck by his recent "hard working/county lover" defense of his sleazebaggery.
"There's no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate," said Gingrich, who has been married three times and has admitted having extramarital affairs. "And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn't trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them." Gingrich said he "felt compelled to seek God's forgiveness. Not God's understanding, but God's forgiveness."
So much bullshit in one line. The only thing Newt feels passionately about is the pleasures and perks of Newt. Newt hasn't the slightest idea what is good about America, and what is not good -- principally assholes like himself -- and he sure doesn't feel passionately about the salutary abstractions and marginal moral gains that recommend America. And I can't really see Newt working hard at anything. Maybe he endures long hours of having his ass kissed, but apart from that, where is the evidence he's ever worked hard at anything but Narcissism? But what really gets me is "things happened in my life that were not appropriate." He quickly goes on to say 'I wasn't trapped in situational ethics' except that he just explained that in his situation (which turned his virtues into liabilities) "things happened." He didn't do them, you see; they happened. He wants to rationalize, but he also wants credit for refusing to. A complete sociopath, just like all Bush's closest cronies, utterly incapable of moral self awareness.
Every thief, parasite, sadist and miser has as creed a puerile sophistry which makes his predations and self-inlulgences not only logical but laudable.
I gotta hand it to Newt, he even manages to slime
God with his notion of forgiveness, no small achievement. I never have liked the idea that no matter what we do, it's cool with Jesus. That kind of God isn't really a force for good in the universe -- good thing He's only imaginary.
