edgecity

If you had any doubt left about the lack of integrity of the Bush Administration, there’s a good late night read…

Let’s sell Iraq to US Sheep Citizens using high profile Madison Avenue marketing practices! You know. Think of a laundry detergent. Tide. Think of a soda. Coke.

Now. Think of a war. Iraq. Feels good don’t it? If President Bush has his way, you’ll hear it roll off your lips and it will feeeeell gooood! 

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2007/RAND_MG607.pdf

By the way, this study cost us sheep $400K. How does that feel?

I read this today and laughed;

Democrats think the glass is half full, Republicans think the glass is theirs.

This old philosophical exercise is actually quite helpful in today’s political climate. 

I wish democrats and republicans alike would recognize the whole truth.

The glass is both half full and half empty. Oh.

Optimists and pessimists each have only half the story. The democrats(left) and republicans(right) can’t have the whole truth if they tenaciously hold to their monolithic, limited prespectives.

Nauseatingly obvious, isn’t it?

As an illustration of how far mainstream media (if one dares call FoxNews mainstream, I can’t call it anything but the “Propaganda Channel” without vomiting) has gone astray from real news reporting, FoxNews has released a telephone opinion poll. This poll, obviously a presidential election poll, also included 2 questions which refer to Paris Hilton! Now maybe FoxNews is just trying to save a dime by including their Paris queries along with the political queries. I’m guessing Rupert wants to know if they are hurting themselves by reporting so much Paris Hilton ”news”.

But Omigod! Gag me with a pitchfork. Somehow I find placing presidential politics in the same space as Paris Hilton disgusting. BTW, another creepy question FoxNews asked was “Which one of the following candidates would you most want to watch on television for four years?”. They might have also asked “Who has the best haircut?” or “Which candidate is your dream date?”.

Now here’s some disturbing data from that poll:

1. Rudy Guiliani is the leading Republican contender. Scary-read about what a liar this guy is. But also pathetic.
2. Most people still get their news from the TV set. Eeeuuuww!
3. Nobody seems to know who Ron Paul is. (Too bad, he’s the ONLY GOP candidate with a liberal doses of integrity and vision.)
4. Al Gore has a huge negative opinion base along with his positive one. I take this as a lack of acceptance about the REALITY of global warming, not his un-candidacy.
5. And finally what I already know, but am still so disappointed to see: “Do you think a qualified third party independent candidate has a reasonable chance of winning a presidential election or not?” — The answer is still NO. Too fucking bad for America. The only hope for our country’s politics lies beyond hopelessly lost Democratic and Republican parties…

I’m not going to link to the poll. The thought of giving FoxNews a link is too repugnant to me.

Don’t despair, as any brilliant demographer will tell you, the edgecity gets closer to downtown every day.

BP, the oil exploration driller, is undertaking a campaign to trademark the use of the color green. Pantone 348C green to be exact. As the world gets weirder by the day, corporations get bolder and more arrogant.

When I was a kid I never would have imagined paying a dollar for bottled water. Remember, at first, it was Arrowhead and smaller regional companies offering the stuff. Now Dasani and it’s ilk comprise the bottled water fare and these are owned by the likes of Coca-Cola and Pepsi.

So if green can be trademarked and water sold, when will air be controlled? Isn’t AIR the last survival necessity that isn’t FREE? Can Coke find a way to do it? The new jingle: It’s the real thing, air is, that’s the way it should be, Aiaiairah!

Don’t turn blue, buy some air today!

Dear CNN,

When will so-called news stories about Paris Hilton go where they belong– on the OFFBEAT section of cnn.com?

When will you start reporting real news again? When will you begin investigating matters important to the world’s citizens again?

When?

 Oh where, oh where can it be?

Dear CNN,

CNN continues to dissapoint me with its coverage of tripe instead of real news. Case in point:

National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive

Don’t you think a directive that redirects control of the United States to the executive branch during a catastrophic event is newsworthy?

See:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/05/20070509-12.html

Instead I get a Donald Trump melodrama on the home page. Heck, never mind the home page: a search for this story within CNN returns zero.

CNN continues to fall deeper into irrelevancy while our country falls nearly unchecked toward a country dominated by its executive branch, an executive branch dangerously out of touch with the interdependent nature of the world today.

Where’s the coutrageous CNN that stood its ground in Iraq the first time around? Gone, I think. Maybe on vacation with Paris and Britney.

Here’s a letter I wrote to CNN yesterday through a feedback form…

I am astonished you have chosen NOT to continue daily coverage of the testimony of Comey regarding Attorney General Gonzales’ hospital visit to former Attorney General Ashcroft. This is a Watergate level story, why aren’t you investigating it and reporting on it EVERY day?

Instead I get home page links to VITAL stories like:
“What if Lincoln had survived the assassination? ” and
“Stars ‘having a blast’ at Cannes Film Festival”

Part of the press’ responsibilty in a free society is the uncovering of truth, especially when our leaders resist accountability and transparency.

Get to work!

I’ve been reading about the main stream press whining about bloggers effect on the media. Don’t you get it?  Some of us want intelligent analysis of events that shape our society, and more importantly, we want a press that can recognize what a story is!

Britney, Paris, and unexamined pablum dispersed by the Whitehouse does not constitute a news story. Do I really have to get my real news from Comedy Central? Apparently.

The form I’m filling out right now to submit my comments asks:

Do you have a comment on something you’ve seen on CNN.com?

My answer is, well, no. I have a comment about something I haven’t seen on CNN. It’s called news.

I don’t know the Way
I am the Way
But I don’t know it

–Mark Schultz, February 4, 2007

How many members of the Bush administration does it take to change a light bulb?

1. One to deny that a light bulb needs to be changed;

2. One to attack the patriotism of anyone who says the light bulb needs to be changed;

3. One to blame Clinton for burning out the light bulb;

4. One to arrange the invasion of a country rumored to have a secret stockpile of light bulbs;

5. One to give a billion dollar no-bid contract to Halliburton for the new light bulb;

6. One to arrange a photograph of Bush, dressed as a janitor, standing on a step ladder under the banner: Light Bulb Change Accomplished;

7. One administration insider to resign and write a book documenting in detail how Bush was literally in the dark;

8. One to viciously smear #7;

9. One surrogate to campaign on TV and at rallies on how George Bush has had a strong light-bulb-changing policy all along;

10. And finally one to confuse Americans about the difference between screwing a light bulb and screwing the country.

Somebody called Helena Keeffe asked people to write a speech for a $50 winning prize. The idea was to write a speech that President Bush would have written if he had experienced a change of heart and became more open, vulnerable and honest.

It seems that some elementary children in San Francisco took on the assignemnt. The results were hilarious.

www.helenakeeffe.com/archives/000029.html

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