Saturday, September 19, 2009

End Times

Red alert to the Christian right: a group of American Muslims are planning a prayer service on Capitol Hill next week.

Oh boy, I smell a protest! Get your racist posters, AK-47s, and Hitler images cocked and ready to rock. We're stormin' the Hill, Glenn Beck-lovin' brothers and sisters in Christ!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Past is Prologue

Perused this week’s Time cover story (by David Von Drehle) featuring Glenn Beck this morning, and frankly found very little in it that was enlightening other than the following closing passage:

Starting after the election and continuing into spring, pollster Frank Luntz conducted a survey of some 6,400 Americans, and the first question was whether they agreed with this statement: "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore."

Nearly 3 out of 4 — 72% — said yes.

Movie buffs might appreciate this, because when Beck gets rolling on a particularly emotional riff, when the tears glisten and the shoulders shudder, Paddy Chayefsky, the great leftist playwright, looks like a prophet. He's the man who coined the phrase that, according to Luntz, is the rare thing Americans can agree on. He gave the line to Howard Beale, the mad anchorman at the center of the dark satire “Network.”

Chayefsky imagines cynical television executives who create a ratings sensation out of the nightly rants and ravings of Beale. The host energizes the nation with his cry, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" It's hard to find a film that better captures the rotten vibe of the early 1970s, when America found itself suffering through one downer after another: failing companies, tense foreign relations, high unemployment, rampant incivility, spiraling deficits, corruption in high places, a seemingly endless war.

Sound familiar?

Indeed…

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

True Colors

Andrew Sullivan comments today about three of the GOP’s best-known asshats, and their misadventure in race-baiting yesterday beginning (as usual) with Drudge before quickly being passed on by Limbaugh and Malkin; never mind that their sole source for a shared claim of “Obama’s America” ushering in a brave new era of black-on-white racial violence (an Illinois police captain) retracted his initial statement that a videotaped fight which broke out on a school bus in his jurisdiction was racially motivated.

Being a member of the right-wing media clearly means never having to issue a retraction or acknowledge inconvenient facts. For that matter, Drudge, Limbaugh, and Malkin are all racist slime.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Non-Partisan Pups

As most people know, I don’t share many similarities with conservatives, but at least a few are smart enough to love their dogs.

Dick Cheney's America

When advertisers like these and their wares are linked off Michelle Malkin’s blog, it should be obvious that neo-cons have learned absolutely nothing from the past eight years of history.