(no subject)
Wednesday I managed to tear muscles in the same location on both arms (just above the elbows). It's unpleasant in the daytime, shooting a jolt of pain up my arm if I lift anything too heavy or either fully extend my arm or bend it more than 45 degrees. But the real pain begins at night when I try to sleep. No matter how I position myself, one or both of them bothers me, and the left one in particular is a constant source of discomfort.
On the upside, the Bush White House seems to be set on free falling into the abyss. It's actually difficult to keep track of all the current investigations into this administration's wrong-doing. I'm not sure if we're in the final act, or if this could actually get even uglier than it is now. The open, public displays of genuine hatred this president provokes is unlike anything I've ever seen. Certainly, the hardcore scene was rife with anti-Reaganisms, but hardcore was pretty marginal, so completely ignored by the mainstream I have quite a few age peers oblivious to its' very existence.
The degree of public statements of serious hostility to this president is different, for more broad than a few Winston Smith album inserts. It's getting pretty intense, with even the generally apolitical A.P. including in their story of his press conference yesterday how he had made such a big thing earlier about how upset he was over the leaks, yet has now chosen to cover them up as much as possible. Move on, motherfuckers.
Having seen it over and over now, I can confidently say the Bush/GOP avoidance of blame has the same three steps, used every time their incompetence or corruption is revealed. It works thusly:
1. Let's wait until all the facts are in before we start playing the blame-game. This one most famously served the White House during Katrina- but they've used it elsewhere just as effectively. It was an only slightly modified variant of this that successfully silenced the few meek voices of dissent that were raised in the weeks leading up to the invasion of Iraq. It was, of course, also Bush's initial response to the discovery that someone in his administration had outed a CIA operative in a cheap and petty move to discredit a critic of the war.
2. Quit dwelling on the past, get over it and let's move on. This, of course, is what they begin chanting the moment the previous deflector no longer applies. Suspicious voting in Florida? No WMDs? Concerns about how the administration had so much 'proof' of WMDs? The White House using Nixon-like tactics against anyone in their way? It's all in the distant past...let's look forward rather than backward.
This sounds like a joke, but seriously, watch a few of those screaming head shows on cable. This is the set response of every neo-con when confronted with either the gross lies that brought us into this war or the gross bumbling that has occurred since it began. This, in deed, was what the president said yesterday, that the Plame leak happened in the past, so let's put it behind us and move on.
3. September 11th/ Bill Clinton. The first term of the administration invoked 9/11 so often, and in so many improbable ways, that it reached the point of outright self-parody. One could only watch one of these bizarre speeches, where every single answer somehow managed to work in yet another reference to 9/11- regardless of off topic the response is- and regret not being a college student during this new millennium. For a few brief, magical years, the president bestowed on America's youth the ultimate binge-friendly drinking game.
More recently, though, the president and his minions have chosen the not exactly fresh topic of his predecessor's misdeeds. There's something genuinely discomforting about listening to our sixty year old president snivel and whine that "Clinton did it too". Aside from how much it makes him look like a pouting child, it also seriously undermines any Bush gibberish about "restoring the integrity to the presidency"; scrubbing away the various unseemly stains Clinton left on the office was something Bush made a big deal about when he was running in 2000. Listening to him now rationalize his own misdeeds by invoking the villainy of the preceding administration not only reveals just how completely bankrupt of character George W. Bush is, but also serves as an unfortunate reminder that the only Americans whose lives have improved as a result of this president are manufacturers with fat defense contracts and right-wing new commentators.
On the upside, the Bush White House seems to be set on free falling into the abyss. It's actually difficult to keep track of all the current investigations into this administration's wrong-doing. I'm not sure if we're in the final act, or if this could actually get even uglier than it is now. The open, public displays of genuine hatred this president provokes is unlike anything I've ever seen. Certainly, the hardcore scene was rife with anti-Reaganisms, but hardcore was pretty marginal, so completely ignored by the mainstream I have quite a few age peers oblivious to its' very existence.
The degree of public statements of serious hostility to this president is different, for more broad than a few Winston Smith album inserts. It's getting pretty intense, with even the generally apolitical A.P. including in their story of his press conference yesterday how he had made such a big thing earlier about how upset he was over the leaks, yet has now chosen to cover them up as much as possible. Move on, motherfuckers.
Having seen it over and over now, I can confidently say the Bush/GOP avoidance of blame has the same three steps, used every time their incompetence or corruption is revealed. It works thusly:
1. Let's wait until all the facts are in before we start playing the blame-game. This one most famously served the White House during Katrina- but they've used it elsewhere just as effectively. It was an only slightly modified variant of this that successfully silenced the few meek voices of dissent that were raised in the weeks leading up to the invasion of Iraq. It was, of course, also Bush's initial response to the discovery that someone in his administration had outed a CIA operative in a cheap and petty move to discredit a critic of the war.
2. Quit dwelling on the past, get over it and let's move on. This, of course, is what they begin chanting the moment the previous deflector no longer applies. Suspicious voting in Florida? No WMDs? Concerns about how the administration had so much 'proof' of WMDs? The White House using Nixon-like tactics against anyone in their way? It's all in the distant past...let's look forward rather than backward.
This sounds like a joke, but seriously, watch a few of those screaming head shows on cable. This is the set response of every neo-con when confronted with either the gross lies that brought us into this war or the gross bumbling that has occurred since it began. This, in deed, was what the president said yesterday, that the Plame leak happened in the past, so let's put it behind us and move on.
3. September 11th/ Bill Clinton. The first term of the administration invoked 9/11 so often, and in so many improbable ways, that it reached the point of outright self-parody. One could only watch one of these bizarre speeches, where every single answer somehow managed to work in yet another reference to 9/11- regardless of off topic the response is- and regret not being a college student during this new millennium. For a few brief, magical years, the president bestowed on America's youth the ultimate binge-friendly drinking game.
More recently, though, the president and his minions have chosen the not exactly fresh topic of his predecessor's misdeeds. There's something genuinely discomforting about listening to our sixty year old president snivel and whine that "Clinton did it too". Aside from how much it makes him look like a pouting child, it also seriously undermines any Bush gibberish about "restoring the integrity to the presidency"; scrubbing away the various unseemly stains Clinton left on the office was something Bush made a big deal about when he was running in 2000. Listening to him now rationalize his own misdeeds by invoking the villainy of the preceding administration not only reveals just how completely bankrupt of character George W. Bush is, but also serves as an unfortunate reminder that the only Americans whose lives have improved as a result of this president are manufacturers with fat defense contracts and right-wing new commentators.