President Obama gave a brilliant speech yesterday, reminding us and the rest of the world of who he is, and of what America can and should be. Earlier in the day the Palin puppet masters attempted to steal the president's thunder by releasing Palin's video response to the Giffords shooting, or more precisely, the criticism she has received in its wake.
The juxtaposition of these couldn't be more telling. President Obama came with a message of unity. He honored the dead, he held out hope for the survivors, and he encouraged Americans to pull together, respect one another, and face the nation's challenges as one. People were moved, they wept, there was catharsis, and maybe even some healing.
The Sarah Palin machine took a very different approach with a very different objective. Although it was slightly disguised as a response to the shootings it was nothing of the sort. To be generous you could say it was just a ham-handed attempt to deflect the criticism she's received. To position herself once again as the victim of the lamestream media and liberal propaganda. However, for me the deliberate use of the phrase "blood libel" indicates that the actual objective was even more pernicious.
Does anyone believe that Sarah Palin even knew what blood libel meant prior to being handed her script? Do you think she even understood its significance as she read the words from the teleprompter? This is a woman who has demonstrated time and again that she has a limited education and no particular interest in improving upon it. The woman doesn't know the difference between North and South Korea. But her puppet masters do, and they also knew what impact using blood libel in her response would have. They knew it would draw a strong response, further inflame the situation, and provide additional fodder - page views, large audiences, and the accompanying ad dollars - for her employer. They also knew the negative reaction to the phrase would reinforce the feeling among Palin supporters, many of whom are also very unlikely to understand the term’s significance, that liberals and the lamestream media are just out to get her. This of course fires up her followers who can then be leveraged to get behind whatever issue or candidate she is being used to shill next.
The tactic is indeed pernicious but not atypical. What I find interesting, and rather sad in Palin’s case, is that she isn't in on the joke. She sits in front of the camera gazing at herself in the monitor and thinking she’s being groomed by her handlers to be President of the United States. When in reality they have nothing of the sort in mind. I can only hope that Palin's vapidity was as clear to others as it was to me. If so, perhaps this could be her Bobby Jindal moment.
So Sarah, you have inspired Braata’s Song of the Day – Pretty Vacant – The Sex Pistols. I had to dig deep for it but couldn’t think of any other tune that was more appropriate
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Giffords Shooting and the Hate Speech Apologists
The apologists have been out in force hoping to sugarcoat the hate speech and excuse the likes of Palin, Beck, Angle and Bachmann. They try to paint critics of hate speech as being politically correct and speculative. The apologists are either dimwitted or being disingenuous and its pretty easy to spot who falls into each category.
I watched yesterday as they tried to push the political correctness meme with the hashtag #newtone. It was more embarrassing than anything else really. I see they are continuing this morning, scouring the ends of the earth for samples of violent images or statements made democrats in an attempt to support their argument. If their argument had any validity they wouldn't need an army of pawns trying so hard to prove it.
@StopBeck captured the true essence of the reality the apologists are attempting to obscure with this sublime screenshot from glennbeck.com. One might assume it's brilliant parody, but it's the real thing.
Hat Tip to @StopBeck - twitpic.com/3ovsm9
And Arizona, WTF?!?!
Was anyone else struck by the irony of watching the horror of the shooting unfold on the local TV affiliate with the call letters KGUN? What, was KILL already taken? Did the station owners, producers and news crew even register the irony of broadcasting to the world a perfect demonstration of failed gun control policy on a TV station with the call letters KGUN? Unbelievable, Vonnegut couldn't have written this shit.
Jared Loughner
Look at this guy. This is the kind of guy you steer clear of when walking down Main street, the guy you don't make eye contact with on the subway. But someone sold this man a gun. This man walked into Wal-Mart and loaded up on ammunition. This man had the right to carry that gun, concealed and loaded with that ammunition, so he could sneak up on a group of Americans exercising their right to freedom of assembly, and slaughter them. Any sensible person knows this is ridiculous.
The apologists will push their meme with full force and a lot of dimwitted fools will surely buy into it. And this is a very dangerous thing. If people are unable to admit when they are wrong and learn from a tragedy like this, it is sure to happen again.
I watched yesterday as they tried to push the political correctness meme with the hashtag #newtone. It was more embarrassing than anything else really. I see they are continuing this morning, scouring the ends of the earth for samples of violent images or statements made democrats in an attempt to support their argument. If their argument had any validity they wouldn't need an army of pawns trying so hard to prove it.
@StopBeck captured the true essence of the reality the apologists are attempting to obscure with this sublime screenshot from glennbeck.com. One might assume it's brilliant parody, but it's the real thing.
Hat Tip to @StopBeck - twitpic.com/3ovsm9
And Arizona, WTF?!?!
Was anyone else struck by the irony of watching the horror of the shooting unfold on the local TV affiliate with the call letters KGUN? What, was KILL already taken? Did the station owners, producers and news crew even register the irony of broadcasting to the world a perfect demonstration of failed gun control policy on a TV station with the call letters KGUN? Unbelievable, Vonnegut couldn't have written this shit.
Look at this guy. This is the kind of guy you steer clear of when walking down Main street, the guy you don't make eye contact with on the subway. But someone sold this man a gun. This man walked into Wal-Mart and loaded up on ammunition. This man had the right to carry that gun, concealed and loaded with that ammunition, so he could sneak up on a group of Americans exercising their right to freedom of assembly, and slaughter them. Any sensible person knows this is ridiculous.
The apologists will push their meme with full force and a lot of dimwitted fools will surely buy into it. And this is a very dangerous thing. If people are unable to admit when they are wrong and learn from a tragedy like this, it is sure to happen again.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Jared Loughner - Only a Pawn in Their Game
It popped into my head the moment I first heard of the assassination attempt on Congressman Giffords. The old Bob Dylan song, Pawn in their Game. It's been stuck their ever since. The haunting nasal twang and simple style of his early work is clear and insistent, the story is ugly and painful, real and true.
The song was written nearly 48 year ago after the murder of Medgar Evers. It directly references Mr. Evers’ murder along with the ignorance, racism and hatred so prevalent during the civil rights era. We've made some progress since those days. However, the manipulative strategy Dylan rails against in this song is still being executed today. Conservative politicians and their pundits leverage today's technology to conduct it in a more sophisticated manner and on a grander scale than they ever could have in the dark days when Dylan wrote this song.
Simply replace a few words in the song to bring it up to date. Maybe replace "blacks" and "negro" with "Mexicans" or "immigrant", or maybe not even bother. Replace "south politician" with “conservative politician” or “conservative pundit”. The point is clear.
Some may think this song goes to easy, absolves the perpetrators of hateful acts. But I'm sure that's not what Dylan was saying. Most people like Jared Loughner go to prison, are executed, end up in a psychiatric hospital, or die while perpetrating their heinous acts. But the Palins, Bachmanns, Becks, Angles, Limbaughs and Kochs remain free to orchestrate the game. And the pawns continue to fall.
Only a Pawn in Their Game
By Bob Dylan 1963
A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers' blood
A finger fired the trigger to his name
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man's brain
But he can't be blamed
He's only a pawn in their game.
A South politician preaches to the poor white man
"You got more than blacks, don't complain
You're better than them, you been born with white skin" they explain
And the Negro's name
Is used it is plain
For the politician's gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.
The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool
He's taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
'Bout the shape that he's in
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.
From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks
And the hoof beats pound in his brain
And he's taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clench
To hang and to lynch
To hide 'neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain't got no name
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.
Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught
They lowered him down as a king
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun
He'll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain:
Only a pawn in their game.
Only a Pawn in Their Game – Live recording
The song was written nearly 48 year ago after the murder of Medgar Evers. It directly references Mr. Evers’ murder along with the ignorance, racism and hatred so prevalent during the civil rights era. We've made some progress since those days. However, the manipulative strategy Dylan rails against in this song is still being executed today. Conservative politicians and their pundits leverage today's technology to conduct it in a more sophisticated manner and on a grander scale than they ever could have in the dark days when Dylan wrote this song.
Simply replace a few words in the song to bring it up to date. Maybe replace "blacks" and "negro" with "Mexicans" or "immigrant", or maybe not even bother. Replace "south politician" with “conservative politician” or “conservative pundit”. The point is clear.
Some may think this song goes to easy, absolves the perpetrators of hateful acts. But I'm sure that's not what Dylan was saying. Most people like Jared Loughner go to prison, are executed, end up in a psychiatric hospital, or die while perpetrating their heinous acts. But the Palins, Bachmanns, Becks, Angles, Limbaughs and Kochs remain free to orchestrate the game. And the pawns continue to fall.
Only a Pawn in Their Game
By Bob Dylan 1963
A bullet from the back of a bush took Medgar Evers' blood
A finger fired the trigger to his name
A handle hid out in the dark
A hand set the spark
Two eyes took the aim
Behind a man's brain
But he can't be blamed
He's only a pawn in their game.
A South politician preaches to the poor white man
"You got more than blacks, don't complain
You're better than them, you been born with white skin" they explain
And the Negro's name
Is used it is plain
For the politician's gain
As he rises to fame
And the poor white remains
On the caboose of the train
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.
The deputy sheriffs, the soldiers, the governors get paid
And the marshals and cops get the same
But the poor white man's used in the hands of them all like a tool
He's taught in his school
From the start by the rule
That the laws are with him
To protect his white skin
To keep up his hate
So he never thinks straight
'Bout the shape that he's in
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.
From the poverty shacks, he looks from the cracks to the tracks
And the hoof beats pound in his brain
And he's taught how to walk in a pack
Shoot in the back
With his fist in a clench
To hang and to lynch
To hide 'neath the hood
To kill with no pain
Like a dog on a chain
He ain't got no name
But it ain't him to blame
He's only a pawn in their game.
Today, Medgar Evers was buried from the bullet he caught
They lowered him down as a king
But when the shadowy sun sets on the one
That fired the gun
He'll see by his grave
On the stone that remains
Carved next to his name
His epitaph plain:
Only a pawn in their game.
Only a Pawn in Their Game – Live recording
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