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Looking on the bright side

By Owen Paine on Friday March 30, 2007 11:07 PM

The Nation needs a bitch slap. Here -- hot off the press -- is an editorial on the glory of our long-eared, benchmark-lovin', all too loyal opposition:
The nation has arrived at an important political moment, a turning point in Congressional efforts to confront the President on his failed war.
For unmitigated wind -sackery nothing could top this.
These actions did not come about simply because members of Congress suddenly saw the folly of Bush's war. Rather, they occurred because politicians listened to their constituents: the antiwar activists once dismissed as unpatriotic or worse, the parents whose sons and daughters are being forced to return to Iraq for second and third tours of duty, the ordinary citizens who no longer believe the lies of the Administration about why we invaded Iraq or why we need to stay.
Now that's some ten league boot prose there, pard. But the best is yet to come -- a passage that should live in infamy:
To be sure, the votes were not easy ones, given the bills' uncertain benchmarks and the fact that their main focus was on providing yet more money for the Administration's war effort. Some antiwar members in the House simply could not bring themselves to join the razor-thin 218-212 majority. We respect those, like Congressman John Lewis, who told the House, "I will not and cannot vote for another dollar or another dime to support this war." But we also understand the sentiments of those like Representative Maurice Hinchey, who voted in favor. Had the House not passed the bill, Hinchey said, "Congress would have essentially been forced to hand the President a massive check to continue the occupation of Iraq with no benchmarks for success and no timeline for withdrawal."

My vitriol, concentrated though it may be, is inadequate to the task. I can but hang my shaggy head in shame and despair, and under my breath, mutter unseemly oaths.

Comments (13)

Scruggs:

Exercises in disciplinary optimism are only partly for the congregation. Their leaden, willful stupidity is targeted at the muttering shaggy people too.

I'm trying to think of a person or organization more purposefully useless, more intentionally impotent than MoveOn. It's like something from a Kurt Vonnegut novel, or something Kafka might have made up in one of his more darkly humorous moments.

Unfortunately, my limited education is whole unsuited to the task of conjuring an organization as premeditatedly pointless as MoveOn. Vidkun Quisling was more usefull to the anti-fascist cause than MoveOn is to the antiwar movement.

paine:

ole vidkun a better bet eh ???

howz this

vidkun on . quis ????

we can use the slogan

well...its a start anyway

paine the younger:

scruggs i concur

not the editors of course...it takes a certainsalf loving sincerity to actually
compose rows and rows of manure like that

but the angels the anonymous money men
they must see an editorial lkie that
and chuckle

"boy that oughta
set
those shag head touch holes
to mutterinin' in their own juices "

kill us with reflux

Scruggs:

Alan, when in doubt, look to academia. I nominate the Modern Language Association, which recently featured a mini-pundit as keynote speaker.

op:

that god damned et alia

he's every where

like the scarlet pimpernell
and
hector heathcoat

will no one rid me of this wizard !!!!!!

Scruggs:

Don't worry about him. The reflux will carry you off before too long.

I can't decide if La Nation's latest call to arms is the rotgut whiskey, with Berube's latest (as recapped by IOZ)serving as the slug-beer chaser-- Or is it the other way around ? Berube as shot of rotgut, La Nation as slug beer. I suppose it doesn't matter much, but still...

op:

lady x

nice musing...
something suggests
that rot gut fits ....el bee-rube-abaybay

where the nation

is hms butt fuck's
regulation
ration of rum
b4 bending over the cannon
for a taste of the " cat"

AlanSmithee writes:

I'm trying to think of a person or
organization more purposefully useless,
more intentionally impotent than
MoveOn.


Uhhhmmm...Code Pink? Granted, MoveOn reminds me of somthing out of Mario Vargas Lhosa, but Code Pink has shown a special talent for creative uselessness lately, especally in their steadfast belief that change will come from beseeching a class of known hypocrites, cowards, thieves, liars, sociopaths, fascists, and fascist collaborators, witness their continual exhortations for us to Write/Fax/Email our Congresscritter or Senatron re whatever issue it is that they've already had their minds made up on.

They put on lotsa fun pageantry, but not much in the way of actually taking any direct action vs. the status quo, especially considering their helping the DP lead us over the cliff with Kerry. It's all "call/fax/email your Senator this" or "come with us on Congressional office visits the day after the rally" that. It's bad enough they've co-opted Cindy Sheenan, and the old "pink slip" bit gets pretty goddamn' old after a while -- and Medea Benjamin's falling for the NED-instigated Ukrainian "orange revolution" hype certainly didn't help things any.

I'm especially interested in knowing what they're going to do, now that NOW has endorsed Hillary (duhh), as CP's been doing a lot of office visits and pink-slipping of Hillary (see that smarmy-assed March '03 video in an earlier post of mine). Who's going to clog the background with their crummy ugly mass-printed placards in damn near every speaker's headshot in nearly every Code Pink action I've shot? Or, as I strongly suspect -- based on the '04 Experience -- will they joyfully jump the shark, fall in line with NOW and endorse Hillary?

My money's on the shark-jumping. Heh.

duhhhhh dum
duhhhhh dum
duhh dum duh dum
duhh dum duh dum
duhh dum duh dum

op:

mike:

there be much that is dubious about
Medea Benjamin

Sheehan's a big girl. Her co-opting was her own doing. I don't understand it, but then again I don't understand why anyone still expects anything from the PDA-ers and their ilk but empty promises and hollow gestures. Frankly, even Nader devotes valuable time and column space to panning for bits of gold in the mud that is the modern DP. It's time and space that would be better spent on pretty much anything else.

Sentiment is a harsh mistress, I guess. And habit is a fucking ball and chain.

Scruggs:

For a lot of people who really do know better at times, the apparent incompetence, fecklessness and dithering of the party leads them to think there are fixable flaws. The sheer size of it attracts conservative or pragmatic ameliorators. And they're always bitterly disappointed when they run up against the one thing the party does well: protect its own elite.

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