The Great Rodney King Beating of 2008

Just so nobody feels that I am unduly pessimisstic about what will be Rodney King Beating 2008 - otherwise known as the 2008 Presidential Election - here are but a few of the latest examples of how this works, and where the blows will come from.

Example one comes from the Clinton campaign, which has thrown its lot in with the GOP machine months ago....hell, some of us cynics have always put the Clintons into that camp. But we're cranks. Ignore us. Don't pay attention to the fact that Hillary Clinton is doing the Republicans' dirty tricks for them, and is even stooping to providing the slime themselves.

Hmm...I have to wonder. When she gets dressed in the morning, and she's washing her face and brushing her teeth, does Hillary have to hammer those horns back into her head? Bam-Bam-Bam-Bam! Get back down there! I'm just wondering. I wonder if the same thing happened when she was denied Prom Queen back in high school. Did she try to break the legs of her rival then as well? The problem, of course, is that we're the ones taking the blows as well.

Example two deals with the other major accomplice, our corporate news media. Call it propaganda, call it bullshit, call it whatever. Their job is to keep you dumb proles dulled and stupid and unaware of how bad you're really being screwed. John McCain is their boy, their Best Friends Forever with hearts over the i's.

Here's where the media one-two punch comes in and knocks you silly. The first punch involves ignoring or pretending to ignore anything McCain says that is, well, unpleasant. Pointing out his confusions over Shia and Sunni, for example, or his campaign's desire to peg any and all terrorism as "Al Qaeda," thus aiming to scare you stupid with visions of airplanes crashing into buildings.

In this example, the McCain campaign complains loudly that Barack Obama has distorted and lied about something McCain spoke about the economy during the Bush years. The only problem is that it's all completely true. Standard politics, we expect, and thank goodness for the internet for making it easier to spot the bullshit.

But don't expect most Americans to ever know any of that. ABC faithfully parroted the McCain version without a hitch. The same ABC that cracked the baton over Obama's head this week. Small world, that.

Example three. This is really the worst of the lot, the piling on of the bullshit. It's like watching the charging of the bulls in Spain, only there's no escape. This is where my fury at mumu-tailored stupid voters kicks in.

This will be the major smear against Obama, the point where most of the batons and sticks will come crashing down. Yesterday it was old pastors. After that it was flag pins. Somewhere back it was secret Islam belief, and schooling at a Muslim madrassa. Today it's Hamas.

By November, half the electorate will be convinced Barack Obama is an actual terrorist. Either he will be morphed into Hewey Newton, or Usama bin Laden, or Saddam Hussein (as was Max Cleland in 2002). Or maybe it's Hamas or some other group. No matter. Month after month, the Great Rodney King Beating of 2008 will exact its toll on Obama. The stupid dumbfucks that show up to vote won't hear anything more, and won't bother to look around. Because, you know, that involves things like, you know....reading. Reading is bad. Smart is bad.

Ooh! American Idol's on! And Tomcat's breaking up! What will happen to the baby? And Brittney's drunk again! Another white woman has disappeared! What's that? Lost your job? The economy is sliding into a Depression? Arctic ice melting? Uhh...I dunno. What's that? Ohh...I hear Obama's a ter'ist...or sum'thn.

Wake up, stupids. Get your acts together. It's your children who are going to pay dearly for this. Your grandchildren will stomp on your graves....before they go extinct. Wake up.

How the War Pigs Pull Your Strings

An excellent, must-read piece from the New York Times, on the tentacles of the Military-Industrial Complex and the War Pigs. Read and share, folks. Read and share.

I don't think most folks really appreciate the degree that all these various elements that mean us harm - corporate conglomerates, the war industry, Christian fundamentalism, and the Republican Party - are intertwined. To a great extent, these are multiple tentacles from the same creature.

You are being sold to and lied to, America. You have always been lied to. It is the nature of Big Brother and the party of the War Pigs. Better start waking up.

We're Screwed This Election, Aren't We?

I'd like to be optimistic about the election, and, yes, by all rights this should be a collosal blowout. But then again, I've thought the same about the last two elections.

The sad reality is that McCain is even or slightly ahead in the national polls. Americans can be unhappy all they want. They're still unbelievably stupid and far too easily distracted.

Remember the woman who infamously asked the flag question? Well, it seems she was a subject in a NT Times piece some days ago. The funny part? The part that just makes me laugh out loud? This woman recently lost her job.

Hah. HAH! That...is...damn...funny!

You've lost your job, the economy is in the tank, you're living in fear of losing your home, FOUR TRILLION dollars have just disappeared, and we're mired in a Permanent War that will outlive us all.

But Obama isn't wearing a flag pin. Stupid fucker. I'm gonna find where this woman lives and throw eggs at her house. If she catches me, I'll just blame it on Al-Qaeda. She'll buy into it, the dumbass.

Should I bother to point out that....ah, skip it. Would it make any difference? This is how every US Presidential election is decided. By repeating and repeating stupid, pointless bullshit, with no connection to the real world whatsoever. Mindless drivel which will propel our national media coverage, consuming all the airtime and sucking all oxygen out of the room.

We can hope that this time, this time, the Americans will bother to wake up enough to drag their fat asses off the couch, put down the Doritos, and pay attention long enough to realize they're being screwed into the ground. We've been hoping this for decades. But it never seems to happen. And election after election slips out of the hands of the Democrats.

I listened to that ABC debate this week on public radio, and caught the highlight reels on TPM. It was an embarrassment. Barack Obama was beaten down. Beaten down just like Rodney King all those years ago. Beaten down by the corporate media and their right-wing fluffers. Beaten down by Hillary Clinton, who has finally decided to switch sides and stick it to us all because we wouldn't coronate her Prom Queen. But most of all, Obama was beaten down by stupid fuckers like that woman, yet another in the sea of American Idiocracy, who blindly buys into mindless bullshit like flag pins and who loves America more.

Obama just sat there and took it. He clearly looked angry and frustrated. But he also appeared confused by this assault. Why should he? My only surprise is that the beatings didn't begin sooner. But now it's open season, and this is the level of our political discourse until November.
And, just in case you haven't noticed, John McCain is even or slightly ahead in the polls. The Republican Party has broken this nation, stripped the treasury bare, and left its citizens in a pile of garbage and rubble.

For all that endless abuse, Americans will reward the Republicn Party with another term in the White House. Let that sorry fact sink in.

If the Democratic leadership doesn't get its game together, it's headed for yet another sorry defeat in November. At this rate, I'd say it's all but inevitable. It's not that I'm a pessimist about this....alright, maybe I am. I just don't have any faith in the American Mind. I don't believe the American Mind even exists.

In past elections, it was Dukakis in a tank. Then it was Al Gore sighing loudly. Then it was John Kerry windsurfing and ordering swiss cheese. Now it's Barack Obama's turn through the spin cycle. By November, at least a third of the electorate will be convinced that he was the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. This is why the Republicans let Usama bin Laden out the door, you see. They held the door open for him, smiling and shaking hands. If you're not aware of this....well, Americans are unaware of a great many things. It's probably late in the day to start picking old sores. You'll probably notice that my jacket doesn't have a flag pin; and then I'd tell you the jacket was a gift from a Muslim friend, and all hell will break loose.

Don't kid yourself. Odds are very good that John McCain will be our next President.