it’s all hard to believe. here’s Morford, frothing at the mouth, and though I cringe a bit at the overheated prose I do know how he feels, I do…

This is about the time your head spins all the way around and you shudder in disbelief and you stifle a giggle and hold your sides and restrain yourself from gagging, think happy thoughts about sex and love and trees because otherwise you just smash your head with a brick and throw puppies into paper shredders to numb the pain and quiet the screams.
Because if you’ve been paying any attention at all, this is when you remember that it was at Bush/Cheney’s own order that the CIA intelligence reports be intentionally skewed and rewritten, that they doctor their reports to say what BushCo wanted them to say to justify their vicious and unwinnable little war that is quickly shaping up to be one of the most economically debilitating, socially humiliating, deadly quagmires since Vietnam[…]
Does it bear repeating? Are we too far gone? Do we even care that the WMD search has been quietly, meekly, officially called off in Iraq after two full years of ardent searching and after 1,200 of BushCo’s own highly trained scientists and investigators — not the U.N., not Democrats, not icky foreigners, not crazy liberals, not gay-marriage advocates — but Bush’s own people, preprogrammed to dig up the absolute tiniest shred of evidence of Saddam’s gnarly intentions and hold it up and scream in giddy delight, and who found, well, absolutely nothing at all?

there’s more. maybe it’s cathartic. maybe it’s just self-indulgent. I don’t know any more. the political life of the US has gone way beyond anything I can describe in measured, dispassionate terms. Morford does seem to hit a nerve when he describes the fearful, hunkered-down mood of much of the US public (those who aren’t cheering the Ultimate Reality Show and Roman Games in Iraq that is): And now, all outrage has become muted and lethargic. All protests, in the wake of BushCo’s nauseating fear-based win last November, have become pale and moot and limp. We are numb and resigned to the steady stream of lies and abuse…
and now, the ultimate slap in the face: the Coronation, the conscious and calculated flaunting of obscene wealth as the economy staggers, the treasury is looted to the last dime, and the bandits party at our expense, laughing amongst themselves I am sure at the endless gullibility of the Masses, much as the Enron trader-boys chuckled and giggled over the people they were defrauding, much as the Shrub chuckled when he imitated a death-row inmate pleading for her life. God Help America, is what the stickers ought to read right about now.

Posted by: DeAnander | Jan 19 2005 22:17 utc | 4

What annoys me is that Billmon shut down two or three months before the election, and now he is back. Is he just as misinformation blogger, that gets us all excited but achieves sweet FA?
Billmon should post here, b and Jerome have taken over Whiskey Bar.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jan 19 2005 23:05 utc | 6

Jerome, now you have two outstanding issues.
The Ukraine post you said was crap.
Now, why did Billmon stop posting when the Bar was crowded, overflowing and talking?
OK, on the second point, there could have been blog burnout issues, but he could have still posted without the comments being open, such was the quality of what he wrote.

Posted by: Cloned Poster | Jan 19 2005 23:35 utc | 8

my thoughts on this Billmon stuff-
it’s really a non-issue, isn’t it? I really, really enjoyed Billmon’s posts. His writing style, his knowledge of various sources, the fuck-all bitterness that too many idealists grow into eventually… it would be nice if he could find the time and will to post longer pieces on his site.
I think Billmon was a victim of his own success, in a way, because we all enjoyed his bar so much we didn’t let the barkeep have a moment of peace, and occasionally one or more of us puked on the floor and I think he got tired of cleaning up after us.
Moon of Alabama was aptly named because it did spin off of Billmon, but it has its own path now…one that still reflects its source, but is not dependent upon it.
The voice of this site, and the voices on this site (led by Bernhard and Jerome) are interesting too, because MoA seems to have become a place where people from various countries feel free to discuss and argue and sometimes insult on those bad days…but then come back to some basic courtesy, hopefully, when the bad time passes.
I know I have much less to contribute than many others here, but, for good or bad, I feel free to join in.
Okie and Siun and Jerome and others have also created a different format at Le Speakeasy for longer-term discussions that meshes well with the immediacy of what goes on here.
So, why continue to fret over Billmon?
I wish him well, hope he finds the desire to write often and long, but I also look forward to what people here have to say. I have no idea, but I assume he doesn’t read this site, and I don’t think it matters to either his site or this one if he does or not.

Posted by: fauxreal | Jan 19 2005 23:53 utc | 10

i’m with fauxreal on billmon – i was grateful for his well considered work & i was also grateful to be able to meet the posters who were represented there but who have come here & lespeakeasy is such a beautiful construction i’m in awe of its conception & its realisation
the work by the people on both sites honours communication & slothrop & deanander have spoken well of the inherent & contingent qualities of what we are doing without ever indulging in selfsatisfaction
i hope in the end that billmon has the humanity & the humility to see we are honouring his work here with our efforts
in this time of murder & madness you bring light & in the world of murdochfoxbbccnn – you bring & work to gatther information that is necessary if we are to ever move forward through the filth of our times
in the midst of life we have found ourselves with each other in a dialogue i would have never imagined

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Jan 20 2005 1:08 utc | 12

I don’t care what Billmon does. I think this forum is great with Bernhard and Jerome running things.
As far as the presidential inaugural, boo, hiss, boo, hiss, I turn my back to him.

Posted by: jdp | Jan 20 2005 2:44 utc | 14

I will be wearing all black tomorrow…not exactly a big stretch…I couldn’t find a mourning veil, unfortunately, to make the statement obvious.
I will not buy anything tomorrow, not that it will make a big difference, but people I don’t even know have commented to me (in the physical world) that they are also sitting out tomorrow, so maybe someone will notice.
I’m not attending an alternative inaugural. I’m tempted to see if any media covers the planned TYBOB protest.

Posted by: fauxreal | Jan 20 2005 3:51 utc | 16

De, just an aside… you mentioned Morford and “overheated prose”, which to me means you haven’t read much Morford. He has this run-on over-the-top style, that is very much just his. There is a certain rhythm to it that pleases my mind most days, but most criticisms of him are because of that particular signature. If you wanna… LOL… read him again, and get try to get with the flow. Mark is pretty damn astute. But then I might be preaching to the choir. You’re a Left Coast guy, yes? Maybe he’s just not your cuppa tea.

Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jan 20 2005 5:46 utc | 18

@kate nah the cat’s just a mutt 🙂 a sweetheart though, lovingest cat I ever had. I prefer Bageant’s flights of rhetoric to Morford’s for whatever reason… de gustibus and all that.

Posted by: DeAnander | Jan 20 2005 6:52 utc | 20

EXCERPTS FROM THE PRESIDENT’S INAUGURAL ADDRESS
Thu Jan 20 2005 01:07:17 ET
“We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands.”
Oh boy.
The survival of liberty in our land does not depend in any way, shape, or form on the success of liberty in other lands. My constitutional sanction of freedom does not depend upon the existence of that sanction elsewhere, but upon the willingness and determination to uphold it here.
If some soldiers are confused about what, in the larger scheme of things, they are tasked to achieve, I have money to bet that few to none among them believes that their own liberty in any way depends upon the success of their efforts abroad. No one yet can threaten our liberty but those who are sworn to uphold it and who choose instead to chip away at it.
I would be delighted by the emergence of a free and democratic Iraq. But let us not suggest – please, please let us not, because it is so very wrong – that any American dies there to defend his own, or his fellow countrymans’, freedom.

Posted by: Pat | Jan 20 2005 7:25 utc | 22

If I could go to Nawlins (New Orleans) for the Jazz Funeral for Democracy, Fran, I’d be on the next plane. I’ve linked to it on other blogs. We have made a good other place for ourselves here. I agree.

Posted by: Kate_Storm | Jan 20 2005 8:11 utc | 24

I perceive a mixture of contempt for and mistrust of Bush almost everywhere here in Germany. And I don’t think that’s projection on my part (see the statistics). Bush has become the posterboy of everything one may have convinced oneself one doesn’t like about the US. I am not blind to the smugness of that position, but that’s the way at least my peer group and many others tick at the moment. And what do Bushco do to make us see the error of our ways?

Posted by: teuton | Jan 20 2005 9:31 utc | 26

Bush says he’s eager to pursue ‘great goals’

He also offered a preview of today’s inaugural address.
“I will speak about freedom,” Bush said. “This is the cause that unites our country and gives hope to the world and will lead us to a future of peace. We have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom, and America will always be faithful to that cause.”

Posted by: b | Jan 20 2005 13:09 utc | 28

Bernhard: Hmmm, so is Bush a left-behind wacko from Heaven’s Gate cult? Still expecting to catch the next alien spaceship when the next big comet comes around? Or did he really reveal himself as a worshiper of Nyarlathotep and Azatoth?
Swedish: Well, makes sense. At the end of the day, Stalin’s theory was a massive failure and it’s pretty obvious Lenin was right: communism can’t survive in the long run if capitalism exists as a more powerful bloc. Then I’ve always wondered if at the beginning it wasn’t just a sorry excuse to justify the (temporary?) abandoning of seeking revolutions in other industrial countries, after the failures in Germany and the beating USSR took against Poland.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Jan 20 2005 14:22 utc | 30

I was mostly refering to the trostkist background of the neocons, but perhaps I didn´t find good enough links to make it obvious. Pats citation of Shrubs speak felt really reminescent of trotskism.

Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Jan 20 2005 15:57 utc | 32

i miss billmon, i can’t help it. it has nothing to do with loving it here at moon. i try to imagine why billmon quit posting and i think it must have been preceeded by mass emotion. he has a huge talent. a more captivating writer i know not where. i am an artist, actually a very good one. i have a natural talent that would be hard to duplicate, and i know what it is to not work. to take a break. i don’t think it will be possible for him to quit altogether. and i don’t judge him for stopping. we just all forget that some people pass thru things in ways that push away. i am really grateful we are all here. you are a shelter in the storm for me. today, even thou i don’t feel like it and would like to be inside and warm, i will be joining the not in our name rally in downtown seattle and marching to the federal building. i feel like someone has put soma in the water here and even thou i am outraged more americans are not marching in the streets i know what its like to just hang my head and cry. and maybe billmon is doing a bit of that. he is in my heart, as are so many of you. it is hard to have faith in the goodness of humanity when we have this monster leading our world into doom. onward w/ solidarity.

Posted by: annie | Jan 20 2005 17:51 utc | 34

@ annie: Razom nas bahato nas ne podolaty. What we need is a song…

Posted by: beq | Jan 20 2005 18:20 utc | 36

A calling from beyond the stars…
What, is he a Urantian now?
Based on some readings suggested by some MoA folks, the scholarship-view seems to be that Americans/British are culpable for the nondemocratic ME states. The saudis, King Fahd in particular, were used by U.S. to check Nassar-inspired panarab power and arab socialism, as well to defend Israel. U.S. played instrumental role in the spread of wahhabiyyah Islam by the Saudi clergy. “Blowback” is what we now experience and no fantasy of Buchanan/antiwar.com can solve these problems. Thus, Bush is correct to say our freedoms depend on ME stability.

Posted by: slothrop | Jan 20 2005 19:07 utc | 38

3:11 Bush motorcade passes massive grouping of protestors on parade route; “Fuck Bush!” can be heard live on CNN as protestors out-shout Bush supporters

Posted by: b real | Jan 20 2005 22:04 utc | 40

cheney’s limo got pelted w/ at least one snowball. homeland security scrambling to build snow fort. national weather service fearing purge as second term commences.

Posted by: b real | Jan 20 2005 22:33 utc | 42

Am told by those who watched live video that the Preznut’s limo travelled in two modes. When in Red (friendly) territory the flanking SUVs drew up fore and aft of the limo, and the vehicles slowed to gracious parade speed; by the bleachers where the wealthy had paid Big Bux for their seats, Cmdr Codpiece even got out of the limo and waved to his fans. But as they passed through Badland (protesters), the big black security SUVs drew up each side of the limo, blocking the Preznut’s view of the public, and the cortege sped up so that the hapless SS agents on foot had to run hard to keep up. So King George was spared the sight of angry faces or turned backs and selectively exposed, as he prefers, to good news only.
I do soooo want that spoilt child to encounter some reality. Preferably soon.

Posted by: DeAnander | Jan 20 2005 23:54 utc | 44

de- you can see a limo passing in front of the protestors. whoever was in that one could not help but see the “worst president ever” signs.
(sorry about not closing my italics after that headline… )
you can also see protestors getting pepper sprayed. if you follow the indymedia reports in the link from b real, it gives you another perspective.

Posted by: fauxreal | Jan 21 2005 0:44 utc | 46

In some places in the protest area, the crowd was about six rows deep.
“the protest area”… that phrase just gives me the creeps. the very concept of a Designated Protest Area, it kind of sums up the farce that America has become, the meekness of the electorate, the arrogance of the ruling class, the hollow imitation of a (brief) period of something closer to real liberty.
I’m not the biggest fan of Perlstein or the VV for that matter, but I think he makes some solid points in this essay, particularly
Forcing a guy who knows he’s dirty but knows his bosses are dirtier to sweat out a congressional hearing is a perfect way to test his loyalty. It’s also a great way to test Congress’s mettle – to probe just how atrophied the opposition party’s willingness to oppose has become. What’s more, once you’ve got them through the ordeal, you’ve stockpiled one more scapegoat to toss into the fire in case Congress ever gets hot on the trail of the higher-ups who issued the orders. And it establishes a record for a future defense: Once Congress has confirmed a Gonzales or a Chertoff, how can it then turn around and call the things done by a Gonzales or a Chertoff unlawful?
Help, I’m stuck in an endless art-house revival of The Godfather…

Posted by: DeAnander | Jan 21 2005 0:56 utc | 48

Will Pitt blogged the protests.

Posted by: fauxreal | Jan 21 2005 1:46 utc | 50

Fox screws up, invites wrong guest. Scroll down to Fair and Balanced

Posted by: lonesomeG | Jan 21 2005 13:27 utc | 52