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Baron Dave Romm
The Exact Opposite Part II
By Baron Dave Romm
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Lies, damn lies, and faith-based reality
Last week in Part I, I covered some Republican claims that weren't simply wrong, but where the exact opposite was true. Here are a few more issues you won't see discussed under oath. Gullible conservatives only believe in the world that they were told is G_d's promise, but you should look at the world G_d has made.
Tony Snow's flip flop on Executive Privilege
Sometimes, it's too easy. As Jon Stewart says, "don't these people know we have videotape?" This from a salon.com commentary by Glenn Greenwald. Requires subscription, so I'll try to untangle the story from other sources and quote relevant parts of the Greenwald piece.
Consistently, Snow and the White House have insisted that Bush nor his aides have to testify under oath because of Executive Privilege. This is the exact opposite of the conservative news media's stance during the Clinton administration.
Bill Clinton, it's hard to recall with all the
noise, was completely exonerated on all the
charges that dealt with his duties as president:
The Travel Office firings, Whitewater, etc etc.
But they finally found that he had consensual sex
and didn't want everyone to know about his
private life! For this, Tony Snow, then a
reporter with Fox "News", said:
The complete flip-flops -- and outright lies -- spewn by the right wingers are amazing. Don't they know we have videotape?
"Greeted as liberators"
When the Haditha stories broke, the right-wing blogosphere was up in virtual arms. The press was vilified, Mallard Fillmore devoted comic strips to the deniers.
They had forgotten about previous convictions of US soldiers for similar crimes against Iraqi civilians. Vice President Cheney said we would be "greeted as liberators" and the exact opposite is true: We are an occupying force on an unwilling populace. War is Hell and our brave soldiers are in a dire circumstance, but that's no excuse. With power comes responsibility, and if we're The Good Guys we're better than this: Killings, Civilians, Murder and Atrocities.
Meanwhile, quietly, the exact opposite of right wing predictions came to pass: US Marines face Iraq murder trial and more recently, new details of the killings have come to light. Indictments aren't conviction (no matter what the wingnuts say) and this hasn't played out fully, but conservatives were wrong to waive the story away while smearing those who wanted to look for the truth.
Supporting the troops
Bush, Cheney and their minions have beaten the "patriotism" drum to death. They claim that anyone who says anything critical of them are traitors who are undermining our troops and empowering the enemy. And yet, the exact opposite is true. Religious fanatics (Islamic or Christian home-grown) hate the US because we're a free Democracy. The ability to disagree with elected officials our views is a strength. They hate us because our leaders are accountable to the people and not to some archaic set of laws subject to interpretation solely by religious figures. Further, Cheney and company send wounded soldiers to battle with insufficient armor and bring them home to urine-soaked hospitals. Conservative Republicans talk a big game, but they but their actions demonstrate hate for our brave soldiers. Liberal Democrats are the soldiers best friends. It's that simple.
Faith-Based Initiatives, No Child Left Behind underfunded
Bush claims to be born-again Christian who prays for guidance, and taps into the well of faith to garner votes. At first, this sounded sincere, a down-home "aw shucks 'twern't nothin'" hard-won simple wisdom to overcome years of drug abuse and alcoholism. But as he mangles the words when talking, his actions don't match his professed faith.
A Nine-Commandment Christian (at best) who desperately tries to find loopholes in "Thou Shall Not Kill" or "Though Shall Not Bear False Witness", his deeds are the exact opposite of his words.
Faith Based initiatives were launched almost immediately in 2001 to great media fanfare, but underfunded. David Kuo, Deputy Director of the White House Office on Faith-Based and Community Initiatives wrote a book detailing the cynicism and politics behind the initiatives, asserting "that the White House both heavily politicized and woefully underfunded the faith-based push". Rove and Bush claimed $8 billion in new money available to religious groups, but that was a lie. According to Kuo, those groups got "a few million" more than before while the White House was spending time and money to woo voters.
Instead of charity, Faith-Based Initiatives were a naked grab for power among the weak-minded and gullible. The sad part is: It worked. Bush still enjoys popularity among the very evangelicals he betrayed.
Similarly, No child Left Behind was announced to great fanfare yet the exact opposite has happened: Children have been left behind, and the regulations may do more harm than good.
Fox "News"
Fox is to "news" what Soviet-era Pravda was to "truth". Fox is for the weak-minded and gullible, just like any propaganda arm. Just as Fox commentators are getting more hysterical and farther away from the mainstream, the conservative news media is waking up to how badly Fox has tarnished the reputation of journalism. As Mark Mellman of The Hill reported March 20, 2007:
Fox "News" is the exact opposite of "fair and balanced", and should be viewed as a propaganda tool.
Wearing out critics
Normally, I relish diving into the web and other resources to dig out facts and illuminate politics, but the seamy side of the Bush administration is tiring. All these exact opposites have their price in human lives and suffering. It's hard to keep going without feeling some degree of shame for our country. More and more Republicans are feeling buyer's remorse for voting for Bush and right-wing Republicans, but damage has been done.
Perhaps more next week, but wallowing in conservative mud is tiring. Oh, for fair elections to happen soon...
Baron Dave Romm is a conceptual artist and a noble of Ladonia who produces Shockwave Radio Theater, writes in a Live Journal demi-blog, plays with a very weird CD collection and an ever growing list of political links. Dave Romm reviews things at random for obscure web sites. You can read all his music recommendations from Bartcop-E. Podcasts of Shockwave Radio Theater. Permanent archive. More radio programs, interviews and science fiction humor plays can be accessed on the Shockwave Radio audio page.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me music to play on the air.
--////
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
RANDY SERRAGLIO: Hey, kids: Look at all the facts before considering enlistment (tucsonweekly.com)
Consider this an open letter to Tucson high school students, after the fourth anniversary of our invasion of Iraq. Your government is increasingly interested in employing your services in its armed forces. To that end, it has gone to great lengths to maintain access to your personal information, practically to the point of violating your 14th Amendment right to privacy.
CONNIE TUTTLE: It's true: Death isn't so bad, but dying can be nearly unbearable (tucsonweekly.com)
Up until a few weeks ago, death remained an abstraction. If I thought about it at all, it was in some glib, rationalized manner devoid of emotional content. The only deeply personal brush with death was when my grandfather died of a heart attack.
Mark Morford: Let's All Go To Rehab! (sfgate.com)
A national detox might be just the thing. Can someone bring coffee? Like, Amy Winehouse?
Dave White: You may be a fan of Gwen Stefani, but she's not really a fan of you (advocate.com)
Week 11 of Dave White's American Idol recaps reminds you that meeting your idols may not always be such a good idea.
Dara Nai: A Quickie With Joan Jett (afterellen.com)
She loves rock and roll, Cadillacs and her friend Carmen Electra.
Jerry Porras, Stewart Emery, and Mark Thompson: Love It or Lose It
Warren Buffett loved his work long before he had two pennies to rub together. Today, he is one of the richest men on earth. "You know, they say that success is getting what you want and happiness is wanting what you get," he said. "Well, I don't know which one applies in this case. But I do know that I wouldn't be doing anything else. I always worry about people who say, 'You know, I'm going to do this for ten years. I really don't like it very well, but I'll do ten more years of this and...' I mean, that's a little like saving up sex for your old age. Not a very good idea," Buffett laughed.
Snopes.com
Claim: Comedian Andy Kaufman has returned, twenty years after faking his death (snopes.com)
Status: False.
Hubert's Poetry Corner
ESCAPE FROM MAGADAN
WERE SOME AMERICANS AMONG THE COUNTLESS VICTIMS PERISHING LITERALLY ON, AND
IN, THE 'ROAD OF BONES'?
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
Talked to dear old Dad - he was pretty bummed. His local weathercasters are predicting snow for Easter.
Wins 1st Bellow Prize
Philip Roth
Literary awards are old news for Philip Roth, but his latest honor is truly special: The first ever PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, a $40,000 prize named for the late Nobel laureate and one of Roth's closest friends and literary heroes.
The 74-year-old Roth, known for such novels as "Portnoy's Complaint" and "American Pastoral," has won the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle prize. He recently became the first three-time winner of the PEN/Faulkner prize, chosen for "Everyman," a novel about illness and mortality inspired in part by the death of Bellow, in April 2005.
Bellow's widow, Janis Bellow, was one of this year's judges and said in a statement issued by PEN: "My husband would have been greatly pleased to learn that Philip Roth is the recipient of the first Saul Bellow Award. I am, of course, delighted that PEN has seen fit to honor my husband by establishing this prize."
Philip Roth
Landmark Silent Film Restored
'The Curse of Quon Gwon'
A silent film made by a Chinese immigrant family in the United States in the early 1900s is believed to be the first Asian-American movie ever made, historians say.
The 35-minute-long film "The Curse of Quon Gwon" was shot in 1916 by American-born Chinese woman Marion Wong and was recently screened at the San Francisco International Asian-American Film Festival.
For years two reels of film had languished in a dusty wardrobe, a small slice of celluloid history in permanent danger of deteriorating beyond repair and being lost forever.
Made in Oakland, California, the film tells the story of a family placed under the curse of an ancient Chinese god. Director and producer Wong stars as a villainess while her sister, Violet Wong, is the heroine.
'The Curse of Quon Gwon'
Stubbed Cigarette Out On Hefner's Matisse
John Lennon
John Lennon damaged a valuable Henri Matisse painting by using it as an ash tray during a wild party at the Playboy mansion in 1974, Hugh Hefner claims.
The French artist's works have sold for up to GBP8 million at auction, but amazingly Hefner forgave the former Beatle for stubbing out his cigarette on the priceless painting - because Lennon was one of his heroes.
The 80-year-old says, "He was separated briefly from his wife Yoko Ono and was in a very bad mood.
"He was under tremendous pressure, and Lennon was one of my heroes."
John Lennon
April Fools' Prank
Google
Presiding over a company with a market value of $143 billion apparently gives Silicon Valley's most famous billionaires a good sense of humor - and a case of corporate potty mouth.
Senior executives at Google Inc. launched their annual April Fools' Day prank Sunday, posting a link on the company's home page to a site offering consumers free high-speed wireless Internet through their home plumbing systems.
Code-named "Dark Porcelain," Google said its "Toilet Internet Service Provider" (TiSP) works with Microsoft Corp.'s new Windows Vista operating system. But sorry - septic tanks are incompatible with the system's requirements.
Google
Pits Superman Against A Winkie
Hollywood Auction
Profiles in History auction house on April 5 is holding one of its widely followed sales of movie and television items that could fetch an estimated $2 million to $3 million.
Heading the list is a "Winkie" costume from the 1939 movie "The Wizard of Oz" that is expected to fetch between $100,000 and $120,000. That figure is roughly double the $50,000 to $70,000 estimated sales price for deceased actor Christopher Reeve's costume from his first "Superman" film.
For those who don't remember the Winkies, they were guards who protected the Wicked Witch of the West, and the costume up for sale is one the few that remain intact.
Hollywood Auction
Tickets Sold Out
Glastonbury
Tickets for this year's Glastonbury Festival sold out in a record-breaking time of just 90 minutes.
By 10.45am a record 137,500 tickets had been snapped up for the festival, which returns after a year's absence to its Worthy Farm home, in Pilton, Somerset.
An extra 27,500 revellers were able to get their hands on the sought-after tickets this year after organisers won approval to boost the capacity to 177,000.
Glastonbury
'That Announcer Guy'
Don LaFontaine
There was a moment at one of those Hollywood awards shows recently that seemed finally to cement Don LaFontaine's place in television and film history, sort of like a star on the Walk of Fame, only, not. (What's that? Don't recognize the name Don LaFontaine? Hold on ... It's coming ... )
He walked over to introduce himself to Ian McShane, star of the HBO drama "Deadwood." But before LaFontaine could open his mouth, McShane smiled, dropped his voice to a timbre that seemed a cross between Darth Vader and Dirty Harry, and intoned: "IN A WORLD ..."
This is big, reaaally big - not because it showed that LaFontaine's trademark movie-trailer catchphrase, as in "In a world where ... violence rules" or "In a world where ... men are slaves and women are the conquerors," is so universally known.
Don LaFontaine
Kids Choice Awards
Nickelodeon
Shots were fired at a party attended mostly by teenagers early Sunday following the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards, wounding three people, and police said they suspected gang members were involved.
The party in the western part of the city was thrown by someone who had attended the awards, but it was not an official Nickelodeon function and had no celebrity guests, police Lt. Roger Deranian said.
At least one person opened fire with an automatic weapon on the crowd after a group of five was denied entry, Deranian said.
Nickelodeon
Cliches Dispelled At Amsterdam Exhibit
Iran
Aiming to challenge a widely-held cliched vision of Iran, the Amsterdam Hermitage museum this weekend displays a stunning range of Persian art and relics that highlight how the country's culture was shaped through the ages by confrontations with the West.
"Today's confrontation with Iran is anything but new ... The entire history of Greek and Western civilisation was marked by a permanent battle against Greater Persia," said Mikhail Piotrovski, the director of Saint Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum, which has lent its Persian collection to its satellite institution in Amsterdam.
The show, titled "Persia, 30 centuries of art" and set to run from March 31 to September 15, comes as negative stereotypes about Iran flourish amid international outrage over its nuclear programme and its seizure last week of a group of 15 British sailors.
Iran
Artist Gets Many Offers
Chocolate Jesus
ChocolateJesus An anatomically correct chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ infuriated Catholics and even led to threats, but the artist says offers to buy or exhibit the piece have been pouring in.
Artist Cosimo Cavallaro said Saturday that because of "some people who are fanatics" and the threats he received, he had stored the sculpture in a refrigerated truck in an undisclosed location.
Cavallaro said the controversy spurred "thousands" of e-mail messages from people offering help, donations and exhibition space.
"It's quite amazing," he said.
Chocolate Jesus
Officials Bar Rabbi
Matzo Bus
A rabbi's school bus retrofitted into an oven to bake matzos for Passover may be out of business.
Deputy building inspector Manny Carmona sent a letter Friday forbidding Rabbi Aaron Winternitz from using his contraption, which is located behind his house.
The old, red and white bus had been converted into a supersized oven for Passover matzos - complete with a smokestack, exhaust fans and working fire.
Carmona ordered the rabbi earlier this week to move the bus at least 10 feet from the house, disconnect the unauthorized gas line fueling the oven, and prove that a licensed engineer had overseen the project. But in the end, he decided any changes that had been made were insufficient.
Matzo Bus
Stickers Plaster Town
Crayola
Visitors to the Crayola Factory have been using their admission stickers to paint the town purple ... and yellow and blue and orange and green. After leaving the city's most popular tourist attraction, many tourists plaster the colorful stickers on lampposts, city-owned garbage cans, parking meters, traffic signs and other city property around Centre Square in Easton, PA.
City leaders are fed up, demanding that Crayola do something about the litter.
Public Services Director David Hopkins told City Council this week that Crayola has agreed to place 5-foot-by-4-foot "sticker boards" by each exit, encouraging visitors to stick their stickers before leaving the building. Hopkins said Crayola committed to having the signs in place by May 1.
Crayola
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