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Sunday, July 13. 2008
Ice Cream Social
“What is da poipus a da bayonet?”“To kill! To kill!” So we killed him!
Never forget that little bit of dialogue from the classic comedy album of the 60’s. Wish I could remember the comedian’s name. Maybe a reader can fill in that detail. It seems so appropriate to revisit at this time — except that we no longer have the draft.
Anyway …
Don’t offer Senator Obama ice cream. His daughters told us he doesn’t like any sweets, including that drippy, creamy, summer treat. Wow. Won’t eat Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia? Not sure I could vote for a guy like that.
Our American campaign strategy is so moronic that a campaign could turn on whether or not a candidate likes certain foods? I remember back in 1988-89 when we learned Bush 41 didn’t like broccoli. My thought was, “Really? We’re going to grade a president on whether or not he likes all his vegetables?”
Back then, Bush 41, George Herbert Walker Bush, was continuing the disastrous policies of his predecessor Ronald Reagan, clear hypocrisy from his own views when he ran for president in 1980 and called “Reaganomics” “voodoo economics.” Reagan’s economic policies had created the largest national debt in history, both in real and adjusted dollars, and Bush 41 was going to continue that trend and cost him a second term.But the big news was that he didn’t like broccoli. You gotta be kidding me!
Bush 41 whitewashed our involvement with Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, going back over 20 years to score political points by “bringing a thug drug dealer” to justice. Bush, as CIA director in the mid 1970’s, put Noriega on the CIA payroll for $110,000 a year as a counterweight to Castro’s Cuba we presume, even though the DEA had targeted Noriega as a drug dealer for more than five years before Bush put him on the payroll.
Noriega will be getting out of prison in two months!
To all petty dictator allies of the Bush-led United States (that would be you Pervez Musharraf) this is how we treat “friends” like you!None of that really made it into the mainstream press, not in any substantial way, because the press was focused on the “serious” repercussions coming from Bush’s pronouncement that he didn’t like broccoli. Yeah, some strong-minded TV reporters made mention of the trips Bush made to see Noriega as CIA director and vice president, but the full breadth of our 41st president’s complicity in Noriega’s drug dealing was never revealed at the public level in the larger media.
To read about it, one had to have a subscription to The Nation or RollingStone or have an erstwhile alternative newsweekly in your area. All of which could be accused, accurately so, of having political agendas.
But it’s the publications with clear political and social leanings that do the best investigative journalism. Whether it be on the left or right. How would anyone know of Clinton’s philandering ways if someone with a political agenda didn’t seek to make it public? Of course, that was covered by the major news organizations because it involved sex!
Sex sells, which is one reason I like putting photos of my favorite Playboy models in this blog.
The other reason is I’m a shameless horndog.
Instead, we were given the full breadth and detail of the president’s dislike for broccoli (I like broccoli BTW), that it was banned from all presidential menus, how the broccoli growers of America would suffer serious hurt because the nation would stop buying broccoli, blah-blah-blah-blah-blah.
So now the news cycle is about whether or not Obama should have let his wife and daughters be interviewed by Access Hollywood reporter Maria Menounos and the revelation that Senator Obama doesn’t like sweets, including Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia (and other ice cream).Please. I could give a damn what Obama wants on his prospective presidential menus. Who cares? Unfortunately, a large number of my fellow citizens care about that crap, which is why the news cycle has been dominated by the Access Hollywood interview — which could make Maria Menounos a household name — and Obama’s contrition over letting his daughters get that kind of spotlight attention.
Sadly, in America two cute little daughters in the spotlight trumps one grown up daughter in the spotlight: Chelsea Clinton. Chelsea actively campaigned for Mom and she was looking good!
Why the Obama campaign felt the candidate had to make the rounds to all the major television news outlets to “get out in front” of the story is beyond me. Had I been tasked with the job of doing the interview with Obama when he wanted to talk about the mistake of letting his children be interviewed, my questioning would have tacked to his vote to authorize Bush’s Fourth Amendment-crushing rewrite of the FISA law.
It allows the various telecommunications companies to assist the government in wiretapping all of our communications without any legal consequences. Oh yes. In the digital age, all of our communications can be saved to electronic files and now they will be, all in the name of fighting terrorism. The fear is, of course, these files will be used for a lot more than just national security and counter-terrorism.
People have been and will continue to be scrutinized simply for speaking out against the policies of the current administration. Bush has so centralized power into the Executive Branch — into the Oval Office — our nation is slowly becoming yet one more petty dictatorship. And like Hitler before him (in 1932), Bush didn’t do this alone; he had the sometimes-enthusiastic support and assistance from Congress, the very Branch charged with the duty of over-seeing the Executive Branch.
It’s like one of my friends saying, “I need you to help me lift this box and the best way for you to help is to cut off your arm.”
Like many of his fellow Democrats in the Senate, Obama caved on the issue, mindful of the Republican Spin Machine’s use of patriotism, or perceived lack thereof, as a bully club to win elections.Senator McCain may win the White House anyway. The Iraqi government, such as it is, is nearly demanding a timetable for withdrawing American forces and the Pentagon has announced it will increase the pace of troop withdrawals from Iraq in September. Gee … when the two political conventions are over and the general election campaigns are in full tilt boogie. What a coincidence. How convenient.
Same as it ever was. Obama was out in front of McCain on so many issues, but now that he has the Democratic nomination tied up, Obama is pulling to the middle, win over those Clinton Democrats and Independents who think Obama is far too liberal. I’ve never considered Obama far too liberal (obviously) and in fact never considered him liberal at all. Somewhat progressive? Yes, on some issues, but in the broad view, no.
Still, Obama has my vote, but it isn’t with any serious enthusiasm — yet.
So, now that this is done I can go play at this year’s Over-The-Line Tournament. I don’t actually play the sport, which is a derivation of baseball and cricket, I just like the bacchanalian atmosphere that, well, appeals to my prurient nature.
I may be going to Hell in a bucket babe, but at least I’m enjoying the ride.
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