The beautifully succinct and oft-referenced Woody Allen bon mots "tragedy plus time equals comedy" no longer fits the state of affairs where the current administration is concerned. The idiocies and insipid statements made do not get the proper period of fermentation necessary to make them funny or develop to full ironic splendor. It is with that realization that we step back for a moment and ask our fair readers for some feedback. What makes you all Howard Beale over the current state of affairs? What makes you want to move to Canada or hurl a flaming Stoli bottle full of gasoline over the White House fence?
In a hastily planned press conference this morning, Bush said the Congress had no business telling him how to run a war. I'm sorry Mr. President, but as impotent as they may seem, they are still the people's representatives. Not to put too fine a point on it, they are quite empowered by Article 1 - Section 8 of the United States Constitution to indeed exert great influence on the executive branch where war is concerned; all at the behest of their constituencies . But then again, one waxes presumptuous and ideological when one assumes you Mr. President and your sycophants respect the intricacies of the Constitution or that two-thirds of this particular Congress has the stones to engage you in a constitutional cagefight.
With that said, today's press conference made us apoplectic and also made us think: what pisses you, the Cerebral Itch Scratch Pad reader off? Perhaps it is one or more of the following:
- A delusional, failed and cancerous president
- Chertoff's prognosticative gut
- Alberto Gonzales just being alive
- The reprehensible treatment of our dutiful servicemen and their families
- Cheney's Belligerence
- Pelosi's timidity in the face of fascism
- Giuliani's charade
- Hillary's laser-guided trajectory to the nomination
- Or your own personal favorite
Tell us.
Leave a comment on this blog, anonymous or otherwise. We are going to turn off the lights for a few days so this post stays at the top, so whomever finds this posting can easily read it and chime in as they please. We encourage interaction. And while Veejay's (see previous post) exploits may be quite humorous, it's getting harder to laugh each passing day.
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We'll be back on Tuesday
4 comments:
There are so many things that make me screaming, fighting mad, but here are a couple.
One, I hate the names that this administration has given to legislation. They choose names like “No Child Left Behind.” I know why. It's because “We Secretly Want to Destroy Public Education Through Punishments and Vouchers” doesn't sell in the Heartland. Still, it bothers me, because I'm busy every day trying to teach kids (all kids) math, and I don't need my government accusing me of leaving kids behind, while at the same time failing to fund special education and other federal mandates. Similarly, “Healthy Forest Initiative” sounds much more appealing than “The Plan to Build Roads Through Formerly Untouched Wilderness and Sell the Wood to Lumber Companies.” “Operation Iraqi Freedom” is much easier to support than that “Preemptive War Resulting in a Long Drawn-Out American Operation of Iraq”. And really how do you come out against something called the “Patriot Act” without sounding like you hate America?
Second, I hate that these idiotic one-sided names work. I hate that Democrats never figured out how to fight the propaganda successfully. I also hate that even now Democrats running for president talk about reforming “No Child Left Behind” instead of dismantling it and offering a real system in its place. I hate that when we talk about this enormous act to curtail basic American freedoms, we have to call it the “Patriot Act” because there's no other word for it. And every time we use their Orwellian language, we all absorb it just a little bit more.
Finally, I hate that we're all working so hard (those of us in the middle) that we don't have time or energy to fight the good fight and get our country back. I hate that people who get sick wind up bankrupt unless they have solid gold insurance. I hate that the price for not knowing how to or being too poor to avoid credit card debt is so steep that people see no hope of emerging from it, and so they work with a hopeless determination and no energy left to participate in their democracy. This morning I read a quote from Penny Preszler, whose son is in Iraq. She said that she heard a “robotic sense of despair” in her son's voice when he spoke of his mission there. These days more and more, I feel surrounded by that “robotic sense of despair.” We have to shake it off in order to get back our power as citizens. We have to lose the despair in order to fight for the language we need in order to be free again.
I'll take "shitty treatment of servicemen" for 100, Alex.
I'm anti war (especially this one) but pro soldier, and something that has long disgusted me is the disparity between the quality of hospitals that cater to active vs retired servicemen. I've had personal experience with one and work in the other and it never fails to astound me that people will still sign up for the service seeing how they discard anyone no longer useful to them.
I'm pissed off anew by the recent reports of "pre-existing personality disorder" that is so rampant in soldiers that are injured or otherwise deemed unfit for duty. It's amazing how this disorder is only cropping up in those soldiers who come home for some reason; noone that's able and active and willing to die is being diagnosed. It's stunning that anyone can say this shit with a straight face, but that's so run of the mill these days it's disheartening.
I can't wait to see who the scapegoat turns out to be. I'm also curious if they're going to pep up their pre service screening at all, since if this many people are getting through with such serious disorders, there's clearly something amiss.
Good post Cerebral Itch guy.
I think we can thank GWB a little despite our dislike (or hatred) of him. People from both sides of the fence are starting to wake up from their apathetic slumber. They are realizing that there’s little difference between Democrat and Republican so hopefully we can all make a real change for the better.
I think the real shame and travesty is that our own media and left wing establishment hide a lot of good that our military is doing over in Iraq. I work with Marines everyday and know many people that have been over there. There have been alleged atrocities by the Marines in Haditha where the media portrays them as criminals. They don’t take in consideration the stresses of combat and knowing that a child or a woman could really be trying to kill you. They blew up the Abu Ghraib Prison story as if it was one of the worst atrocities of man-kind so the whole Arab world thinks we are bad. They constantly paint Guantanamo as a gulag. The communist lawyers who hate America try to provide constitutional rights to people who are not Americans and have been arrested for trying to hurt our Military or worse our country’s citizens. They exposed apparent secret CIA prisons in Europe without remorse. All this does is make us look bad and assist the terrorists in their propaganda. Despite Bush’s idiotic policies, how can we win in Iraq or anywhere else when you have a media that hates America and does everything it can to undermine our will to help the world? Why is it that they never tirelessly report and expose the atrocities of terrorists sawing off peoples’ heads alive? Why doesn’t the anti-war crowd protest the intolerant and brutal atrocities committed by Al Qaeda as hard as they protest against our military, Bush, and our government?
I live in Japan and work with side by side Marines. The entire military in this region provides humanitarian aid or just community volunteering to countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Pakistan, and other countries that I can’t remember. This happens not only for natural disasters, but on a monthly basis. Has anyone ever heard of this outside of the tsunami relief or other high profile events? Notice that some of these countries are primarily Muslim. In fact, when US Personnel went to help with earthquake survivors in Pakistan in 2006, they were told by Muslim extremists not to take shots from Western medical professionals because it would kill them.
Bottom line is that despite our imperfections, and there are many, we do a lot of good things in the world and the media continues to portray us as imperialistic and war mongers. I mean when we are wrong, let’s expose it believe me, but keep things in perspective. People forget about 9/11 and despite our reason for going into Iraq, we’re there and we can’t go back to March 2003 and “un-invade” Iraq.
So much can be said to the way some of our wounded veterans have been treated. It’s nothing less than disgusting. If we could only gut out the entire capitol of crooked rich politicians and put in normal, competent citizens, what a better country we’d have.
I can’t believe there’s so much time on Gonzales removing a bunch of Attorneys when it’s been done by past administrations with no problem. We’ve got a war going on, high taxes, and a society that is becoming more dependent on government to help them.
Pelosi’s timidity in the face of fascism? Please, are you comparing this government to Germany or Italy in the 30s and 40s? Stop the rhetoric! Bush is shady, but so is the rest of the bunch in Washington. There are senators and congressman that want a fairness doctrine for radio, but fail to mention the overwhelmingly left wing advantage on our mainstream TV networks. You have left wing organizations (Moveon.org) trying to force advertisers from Fox News because some on that channel have challenged the idea of global warming or other foggy left wing topics. What fascism are we talking about here?
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