Billmon has remarks on a certain mass behaviour.
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January 22, 2005
Billmon: Hate Rally
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I must admit, I actually hiss, snarl and gag whenever I see an image of W. A reflexive response that cannot be controlled, and sometimes slightly embarassing in social situations.
Posted by: Vicki | Jan 22 2005 9:38 utc | 1
Vicki, same here. Must have something to do with the message “I’m good and you’re not” that Bush manages to radiate by means of self-complacent smiles, swaggering body language, and self-complacent, beaming ignorance (“I don’t know much, and that’s ok”), spiced with obvious doses of sadism and painfully cheap sentimentality. NOT to mention his speeches.
George W. Goldstein has become the scapegoat for all our repressed aggression. Poor dear.
Posted by: teuton | Jan 22 2005 11:50 utc | 2
Some in black tie. Others in body bags.
As the families of bomb-flattened Fallujah huddle in make-shift refugee camps, drinking from sewage-filled streams, Iraqi policy mastermind Paul Wolfowitz fastens the last stud into his starched collar.
Posted by: fauxreal | Jan 22 2005 13:19 utc | 3
I must admit, I get really pissed off everytime I hear Bushie the liar speak. These are the biggest tellers of untruth in US history. They live by the lie.
Bushie reminds of a weasel drooling and snarling in the chicken coup. I am not a religous man but I do pray for our country because the next four years will suck.
We must work hard for a democartic takeover of the senate or house to block Bush and his megalimaniac groupies.
I have called our senators and our rep about Bushies bullshit.
On Democracy Now they talked about the tactics police used during Bushies coronation and it was like Nazis keeping the sheeple in line.
Posted by: jdp | Jan 22 2005 14:52 utc | 4
Over at Talking Points Memo there is a link to the Club for Growth web site. I just posted there. I have some typos but I won’t apologize on that f—— site.
Please go post in the SS thread. Link from the section talking about Arlen Spector.
Posted by: jdp | Jan 22 2005 15:48 utc | 5
jdp- haha! me too!
Slightly more on-topic, I was listening to Jimmy Carter talk last night about his beliefs, and teaching Bible studies when he was a governor (I think), and how his beliefs have guided him. It struck me that, although I am an atheist, when I hear him talk about his faith, I am actually inspired. On the other hand, the hair on the back of my neck stands up whenever I hear Bush talk about religion. There is a beautiful sincerity and humanity that comes through from Jimmy Carter. He really was the best human being we’ve ever had as president.
Posted by: Anonymous | Jan 22 2005 18:02 utc | 6
I admit to no longer responding to The President as if he were a fellow human being with something to say. Can’t say my hair stands up on the back of my neck but I am distracted by everything else in the delivery: the camera angle, the background, the phrasing, the repeats, the occasional stammer, the effort to follow the script, the hand gestures, the beady eyes… It is not a natural response.
Posted by: calmo | Jan 22 2005 18:41 utc | 8
Bush’s face, his expression, particularly his eyes, have always frightened me even more than those of most professional politicians. even before I knew more about his childhood behaviours, his record as Gov TX etc, his face seemed kinda mean to me, a dangerous face, the face of one who would be much cleverer in cruelty than in kindness; if I saw it in a bar I’d stay well away from it after it had had a few drinks. I never thought much of Clinton’s appearance either, lest anyone think I’m some kind of Dem partisan: he seemed to me in danger (despite his brains) of being an egotistical buffoon, like a genial but embarrassing drunken uncle — and so indeed I read his silly sexual escapades and his mishandling of the witch-hunt that they enabled…
200 years later…
America’s second biggest bank, JP Morgan Chase, has made a rare apology for its subsidiaries’ involvement in the slave trade 200 years ago, admitting that it accepted slaves as loan collateral and ended up owning several hundred.
at this rate, we only have to wait for about 130 years for them to admit they were also involved in a fascist coup that plotted the assassination of FDR with the hope of installing Gen. Smedley Butler as their figurehead.
…nearly halfway there…
btw, one way to identify the forces of fascism in the U.S. would seem to be their preference for a false face, or figurehead…as in the case of Reagan and now Bush Jr.
Dorian Gray for president!
Posted by: fauxreal | Jan 22 2005 19:32 utc | 10
Talking about apologies.
More than 4000 Icelanders donated towards an advertisement in the New York Times to apologise for their country’s involvement in the US led invasion and occupation of Iraq.
“We apologies to the Iraqi people for the Icelandic ministers’ support for the invasion of Iraq,” the ad said.
Four out of five Icelanders want their country off the list, according to a Gallup opinion poll published earlier this month.
But a foreign ministry official ruled out any policy change.
“No, Saddam Hussein has been overthrown and we are steadfast in our support for stability and democracy in Iraq,” Foreign Minister David Oddsson’s political adviser Illugi Gunnarsson told Reuters.
Iceland’s backing has had little impact on the coalition’s fortunes since the war began in March 2003. The North Atlantic archipelago of 295,000 people and no military has contributed nothing but its government’s verbal support.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jan 22 2005 19:44 utc | 11
The Lord has spoken to Pat Robertson.
Regarding Bush, The Lord told Pat Robertson.
“Well, the Lord has some very encouraging news for George Bush … What I heard is that Bush is now positioned to have victory after victory and that his second term is going to be one of triumph, which is pretty strong stuff. … He’ll have Social Security reform passed. He’ll have tax reform passed. He’ll have conservative judges on the courts. And that basically he is positioned for a series of dramatic victories which I hope will hearten him and his advisers. They don’t have to be timid in this matter because the wind is blowing at his back, and he can move forward boldly and get results.”
Regard the Muslim faith, the Lord said to Pat Robertson.
“In America, again if I’m hearing God right, we will see a tremendous incident of miracles in the year 2005. … God’s spirit is going to be moving in dramatic power around the world. And his spirit is going to be touching the hearts of many in the Muslim world and they will be turning to the gospel, to Jesus Christ. I think many of them already are, but this is going to be an acceleration that will really amaze the world. … ‘Revival will break out throughout the Muslim world, my [God’s] truth will penetrate their hearts. The hold of that falsehood that has gripped them will be broken.’
Sounds a bit like the inauguration speech eh?
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jan 22 2005 20:29 utc | 12
Bill Clinton told a lot of lies, more smoothly than Bush perhaps.
Billy boy bombed and bombed, and murdered and murdered. (In cahoots with Muslim fundamentalists, amongst others; Yugoslavia, now down the memory hole…)
Clinton spoke about Jesus more often than Bush.
Kerry would have attacked Iran – said so quite plainly.
Would have set up a civil service that amounted to a hidden draft.
B. Obama has been agitating for attacking Iran.
Jimmy Carter’s speeches resound like tinny echoes from another time.
Posted by: Blackie | Jan 22 2005 20:55 utc | 13
@blackie
Yes, yes and yes.
That’s why I hate going to Atrios et al and just hear, in the main (in addition to that stupid cat blogging on Fridays), criticism that is against the GOP……….. nothing, apart from exceptions, but slagging off Bush, I wonder how many of the brave souls that protested in DC on Thursday are Democrats?
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jan 22 2005 21:10 utc | 14
There hasn’t been a drop of water in the faucets for six days. six days. Even at the beginning of the occupation, when the water would disappear in the summer, there was always a trickle that would come from one of the pipes in the garden. Now, even that is gone.
…
Water is like peace- you never really know just how valuable it is until someone takes it away. It’s maddening to walk up to the sink, turn one of the faucets and hear the pipes groan with nothing. The toilets don’t function… the dishes sit piled up until two of us can manage to do them- one scrubbing and rinsing and the other pouring the water.
…
I’m sure people outside of the country are shaking their heads at the words ‘collective punishment’. “No, Riverbend,” they are saying, “That’s impossible.” But anything is possible these days. People in many areas are being told that if they don’t vote- Sunnis and Shia alike- the food and supply rations we are supposed to get monthly will be cut off. We’ve been getting these rations since the beginning of the nineties and for many families, it’s their main source of sustenance. What sort of democracy is it when you FORCE people to go vote for someone or another they don’t want?
…
It’s amazing how as things get worse, you begin to require less and less. We have a saying for that in Iraq, “Ili yishoof il mawt, yirdha bil iskhooneh.” Which means, “If you see death, you settle for a fever.” We’ve given up on democracy, security and even electricity. Just bring back the water.
I’m an admirer of Jimmy Carter too, and I know that given his inner sanctum status he is not without flaws… but I watch him put himself and his money where his mouth is… Not something you see with today’s cabal.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jan 22 2005 21:52 utc | 16
An interesting fight about who owns newspeak partly described in the WaPo piece War on Words Shapes Debate –
Semantics Is Key To Social Security
Billmon exposed relevance of the hate the Bush crowd has against Kerry but what I read here is the relevance of the hate against Bush (which I somehow feel too when I see him on TV).
A undervalued item the fascist movement achieved in Germany in the early 1930s was to make the opposition play by their worldview, their framing of worlds, their rules.
When you talk of “hating Bush” don´t you start just playing by his rules?
The current discussion on Social Security in the US (the very best financed pension scheme in the world!) does reveal this behaviour too.
People fall to his language of crises and they rename it to “challenge” as the Dems try now.
It is of course not nearly a challenge compared to a hundred other things on the same table, but the Dems fall over themselfs to redefine “crises” to “challenge” instead of denying the need of discussion as it would be prudent giving the numbers.
This is an adoption and embrasement of the Bush world frame – not an opposition party position.
BTW: Can anyone explain to me why only two Senators at all seem to oppose a Rice nomination to SecState?
It is of course Democratic acquiescance to the war that both prolongs it and simultaniously prohibits any ascendency of their (dems) power. The Joe Biden position of authorising the war, complaining about the incompetence of it’s implementation, and then insisting that we can’t afford to loose, while seemingly critical — is essentially complicit to the project of the war specifically, and Bushes ME initiative generally. While complaining about technique, the backseat driver is along for the ride, minus any diagreement about the destination.
I suppose there is this fear among Democratic leadership of being wrong, of being tentative and thus weak when confronted with a supposed threat.So instead of establishing any moral parameters in relation to the percieved threat, and, givin agreement to the threat and the action prescribed — it would not have been unreasonable to make it contingent on a clearly defined and agreed upon agenda for the post war reconstruction — but the Dems made no such demand, and in fact have remained silent and apparently clueless about all the various machinations, fraud, abuse, and deception that have characterized the occupation. Only through the various alternative journalists, do we have even a vauge notion of what has and is happening on the ground in Iraq.
So the Dems have failed from the beginning, to establish a moral bench mark position, that then could subsequently anchor the occupation within known and understood parameters of reconstruction on the civil / economic / and political level. They have failed to demand this for their vote (authorizing) the invasion, failed to even get a clear explanation from the administration on what they are doing in this regard, and failed to bring what facts are known to the public debate.
And after the recent conformation hearings, the Democratic position is clear — weak on morals, weak on opposition, weak on information, and weak on democracy.
Posted by: anna missed | Jan 23 2005 0:39 utc | 19
b- no, I cannot explain to you why only two Senators opposed Rice, considering she is on the record (and recorded on tv news talk) lying about issues of national security, and considering that Bush is still reviled, and has not “brought the nation together” and has shown from the day of the last election that he intends to continue the same policies that half the nation despises.
A dvd version of The Great Dictator has a documentary about Chaplin and Hitler. One group of German soldiers, stationed in Yugoslavia, got to see the Chaplin picture while they were at war. A guy who was part of a resistance movement called the Blue Ribbon found a copy of the film and showed it to a theater full of Nazi soldiers.
The guy said their resistence was never about guns. None of them had guns. Instead, their resistence revolved around humor in the face of fascism.
Anyway, after a bit, the soldiers glommed to what they were seeing and an SS officer stood up and shot the screen.
I wish I could get to the point where Coulter just makes me laugh. She is completely ridiculous, but she still makes me want to toss things at the tv (which is why I no longer watch tv news). Someone I know knows her. He said she’s just in it for the money. She says outrageous things because it gets her on tv.
I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I tend not to believe his assessment, because the same guy also thought Bush Sr. (whom he’d also met) was president simply out of a desire to serve his country.
after he said that and I picked my self up off the floor where I’d fallen from laughing so hard, I had to think that being able to laugh the power of a nightmare out of existence must be better and stronger medicine for the soul than hatred.
as far as social security…for all the blathering on tv, everyone I know who ever mentions a word about social security simply says” there is no crisis. it’s a looting opportunity for Bush. when has he ever been able to pass up the opportunity to scam anyone?
Posted by: fauxreal | Jan 23 2005 0:42 utc | 20
b,
from what I see, the dems still have to defend the establishments investments, so this may require dems to use war. They can only passively call into question warring for oil and taking other countrys assets because they still nedd money to get elected. The only real answer to war and economic war on the lower classes is shorter campaigns and financing campaigns through state and federal dollars, no private money.
On SS, the whole thing from what I see is not about a “crisis” or “personal accounts.” It is about defaulting on one and one half trillions dollars owed to the SS fund. I see the biggest ripoff in history being planned by elites. And Bushie and the gang are at the forefront. There is no shortage of funds because of the money owed to SS from the general fund. But, in order for that money to be paid back, taxes on the income tax side needs to go up. Wall Street won’t like that. So in Bushies world you do the reverse of what needs done. You privatize and send the money to Wall Street. Instead of taking from the rich to cover the poor, you take from all to enrich Wall Street.
I must say, what a scam.
Posted by: jdp | Jan 23 2005 1:28 utc | 21
OK, despite my admittedly dark heart (hat tip rgiap and kate) I am moved to inject a note of levity.
WONKETTE reports the following from the Inauguration:
Republican guy in black overcoat: 4 More Years!
Anarchist: Fuck You!
R: What’s that asshole?
A: [sticks up middle finger]
R: Do that again [takes out camera]
A: [also takes out camera]
[They then take pictures of each other and walk away.]
for some reason this amuses me… it’s so very American, or so it feels to me. would this happen in the UK, Germany, France?
De: Paul Simon talked about something similar when he sang:
“The way the camera follows us in slo-mo,
The way we look to us all.
The way we look to a distant constellation
That is dying in the corner of the sky.
These are the days of miracle and wonder,
And don’t cry baby, don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.”
Most people I think misunderstand these lyrics… it’s about the US obsession with looking at ourselves, not only looking at ourselves, but looking at ourselves as others see us. “The way we look to a distant constellation”…
Paul was brilliant when he wrote it, and I think few people know how brilliant he was at the moment of inspiration.
Maladaptive narcissism on a culture-wide scale. Not only how we look to us, but how we look to everybody else.
As much as I love the blogiverse (immensely), I think it has a tendency with it’s voice in an echo chamber to reinforce all of that.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jan 23 2005 3:35 utc | 23
Kate,
Yes yes yes … Paul Simon was there way before us in that song … total futuroma in slo-mo.
The other things this reminds me of is Counting Crows and Mr. Jones:
Mr. Jones and me staring at the video
When I look at the television, I want to see me staring right back at me
We all want to be big stars, but we don’t know why and we don’t know how
The American individual’s narcissitic need to be at the center of the universe.
There is no room for The Other. The American individualist sucks up all the oxygen in the known universe. It’s a suffocating conflagration, if that makes any sense.
Posted by: SusanG | Jan 23 2005 4:00 utc | 24
We starve, look at one another,
short of breath, walking proudly
in our winter coats,
wearing smells from laboratories…
Facing a dying nation
Of moving paper fantasies.
Listening to the new told lies
With supreme visions of lonely tunes.
Somewhere, from deep inside
There is a rush of
Greatness that stand in front of
My future
I fashion on films in space
And silence tells me secretly
Everything…Everything
Hair…
What a long strange trip …
The more things change, the more they stay the same…
Posted by: SME in Seattle | Jan 23 2005 4:51 utc | 25
Oh, my gosh SME… excellent choice! We all could come up with one hell of a soundtrack.
“Whoa, oh, what I want to know is,
where does the time go?”
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jan 23 2005 10:22 utc | 27
And Susan, yes… the future is now. It’s deja vu all over again.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jan 23 2005 11:24 utc | 28
“I don’t care what you want to be
I go back so far, I’m in front of me
It doesn’t matter what they say
They’re giving the game away
I can see the world tonight
Look into the future
See it in a different light
I can see the world tonight”
The World Tonight, Paul McCartney
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jan 23 2005 11:30 utc | 29
On the topic of Hate Ralley, my friend Phil, who lives in D.C. sent me a link to this article at CommonDreams.org writen by he and his wife’s friend Jamila Larson.
Inauguration Day 2005. I feel nauseous. Sick to my stomach. Ill.
For years I have tried to convince myself and others that Republicans are not evil; they just have a different philosophy. But today, I have seen a face of America that I didn’t want to believe exists, and I am surprised, disgusted and depressed.
…
Judging from the hostility of the crowd, we decided to hide our signs about the war until they warmed up to the concept of poor American children. One little boy from Kentucky caught a glimpse of the boyfriend sign and sneered, “Did your boyfriend sign up for the army? Then he asked to be there…” we smiled and waved and hid the sign better, knowing we were asking for trouble. This crowd would stop at nothing, not even cruel personal attacks against my brave friend who prefers to talk about the poor people she cares so much about rather than the personal cost George Bush’s presidency is having on her life.
We thought it was common knowledge that DC taxpayers were being asked to foot the $12 million security bill for the first time in inauguration history. We thought our sign referencing this fact was the most benign sign in the bunch but oddly enough, it attracted the most virility from the crowd. Dozens of people shouted, “you are not paying for our party!” and I rattled off the stats, encouraging them to read the paper. “Oh yeah, everything you read in the newspapers is true you know,” one woman snickered to her smiling husband. “Check out yesterday’s editorial in the Washington Post…” I recommended helpfully as they shook their heads and walked away. “Where do they get their news? From Paul Revere riding through the streets on his horse?” Gina mused. Even those who believed our sign said that “your stinking city” deserves to foot the bill!
PARTIAL LIST OF INSULTS RECEIVED TODAY
1. Give ‘em a fur coat? Maybe they could use some DIAMONDS!
2. Get a life!
3. Bullshit!
4. We’re enjoying our party!
5. You’re not paying for our party!
6. Thanks for paying for our party!
7. Hippies!
8. They’re all addicts!
9. Why don’t you call Kerry and get his money!
10. Those poor kids in DC should have been aborted!
11. The women in DC need to learn to keep their pants up!
12. Are you guys lesbians?
13. Why don’t you give them YOUR coat!
14. Why don’t you give them your CELL PHONE!
15. Why don’t you give them your leather shoes!
16. Why don’t you go home to your kitchen, COOK dinner and BRING it to ‘em!
17. You guys are pisspots!
18. Lowlife scum!
19. They need to get a job!
20. You need to get a job!
Hmph. I don’t remember ever being called so many names before; I think today surpassed even what my brother could dole out growing up. People also treated us to the finger and one man actually elbowed our signs as he walked past. Another Republican reveler angrily tried to take another protester’s sign. One woman pushed the flash down on my camera, and I’m not even going to get into the million dirty looks and scowls. I expect to show up in a lot of Republican’s nightmares tonight. As they will certainly be in mine!
…
Compassionate conservatism, huh?
Posted by: stoy | Jan 24 2005 6:57 utc | 30
One of U2’s new songs, “Crumbs From Your Table”, nails it:
From the brightest star
Comes the blackest hole
You had so much to offer
Why did you offer your soul?
I was there for you baby
When you needed my help
Would you deny for others
What you demand for yourself?
Cool down mama, cool off
Cool down mama, cool off
You speak of signs and wonders
I need something other
I would believe if I was able
But I’m waiting on the crumbs from your table
You were pretty as a picture
It was all there to see
Then your face caught up with your psychology
With a mouth full of teeth
You ate all your friends
And you broke every heart thinking every heart mends
You speak of signs and wonders
But I need something other
I would believe if I was able
But I’m waiting on the crumbs from your table
Where you live should not decide
Whether you live or whether you die
Three to a bed
Sister Ann, she said
Dignity passes by
And you speak of signs and wonders
But I need something other
I would believe if I was able
I’m waiting on the crumbs from your table
Posted by: stoy | Jan 24 2005 7:04 utc | 31
Compassionate conservatism, huh? who was it said that lots of people are sore losers, but it takes the right wing to be sore winners? something like that anyway.
“For years I have tried to convince myself and others that Republicans are not evil; they just have a different philosophy.”
This is what is totally wrong with the usual left/progressive movement. People should at long last wake the fuck up. When I say the right is mostly made up of evil-minded greedy bastards, it takes some time before people stop thinking I’m nuts and begin to realise I was just more perceptive than they were – or more probably simply less in denial about the state of our beautiful human species.
Too many leftists just have this stupid polyannish vision that people would agree if they were just well informed enough, if things were well explained to them, and that ultimately we could all get along. Well, if everyone was raised since birth into a leftist pollyannish world entirely ruled by these rules, maybe, but right now, it’s just dangerous if not downright wishful thinking. The right is there to get you, period. No more Mr. Nice Guy. And if my opinion is that the right everywhere on this planet should be obliterated and trashed into the dustbin of history, don’t think it’s personal; it’s just a question of survival.
Posted by: CluelessJoe | Jan 24 2005 9:11 utc | 34
@biklett – deaf to Bush – great one!
@DeA – sore winners – sounds about right
@CJ – I agree (yeah, trying to be nice to everyone!).
I have strange political discussions, including here, because I often argue for more right-wing ideas (at least on the economics side), but I could not vote for right wing politicians, because they always seem to turn this into a authorisation to “crusade” and move as far to the right as they can. There is no moderation in the right’s policies, because they already have the money. To get moderation, you have to have balance; the right has the money, the left should have political power, you get either gridlock or small incremental progress (I am of course talking about the non-communist left).
(Not that there are right wing politicans in France…)
Posted by: Jérôme | Jan 24 2005 13:22 utc | 35
To get moderation, you have to have balance; the right has the money, the left should have political power, you get either gridlock or small incremental progress
Jerome, though our politics may seem at times oppositional 🙂 I think you are on to something here. imho business/commerce should be one player in a multilateral game of government. there should be “separation of Business and State” just as there should be separation of Church and State, lest we suffer (as we are currently suffering) a totalitarianism of finance capital. this analogy is not original, btw, but I can’t remember who suggested it. hat tip to Whomever.
not that there are right wing politicians in France… ha ha ha ha…