MEET DEPRESSED

I can't watch Meet The Press anymore. I like Russert okay, he does ask tough questions (for a mainstream guy, anyway), but the interview subjects get away with lame non-answers. Not because I think he necessarily wants to let the subjects get away with non-answers. But the show is only allotted an hour.

And maybe that's the problem. Maybe there should be a political show like Meet The Press that doesn't stop. I mean, in a sense, the political show never stops. You can hop from Hardball to Charlie Rose to Hannity to Scarborough and then all over again and see the same interview subjects in the same clothes on all these shows. It's really kinda like one long show...like a pundit tag team...

But when I say it doesn't stop, I mean that the show can go long if necessary. Then maybe Chomsky would start appearing on some mainstream shows because he won't have to be shushed. At least, that's what I heard were his objections to being on mainsream shows. I mean, if you think about it, on these pundit shows, half the time is taken up with one of three things: 1) talking over each other, 2) interrupting each other (or getting indignant about being interrupted), or 3) reminders of how little time is left in a segment--"in ten seconds, Ann, tell me why you think John Kerry
will destroy America..."

So anyway, I didn't watch Meet The Press this past Sunday with Colin Powell, but my friend and colleague Mik Davis did and emailed me these pithy comments:

Uh..Powell on Meet The Press. Offering the 'good
soldier' line of reasoning. Countering the European
criticism that our presence in Iraq has fueled
terrorism and destabilized the Middle East with the
whole 'Well, we removed Saddam and his regime' line..
forcing it down our throats again..it's like they
killed a housefly with a flamethrower. Sure there's
no fly bothering us anymore..no house either.

Anyway, one startling revelation that you may/may not
know about..we are not only paying for this unjust war
(latest poll figures are now 49/49 just/unjust) with
taxpayer money. Now, while gasoline prices soar to
nearly 2 dollars a gallon..weare also paying for the
subsidies that allow Iraqis in their unstable economy
to pay only 5 cents per gallon for gasoline there.
Another place where US taxpayers are paying more than
90% of the cost for a new democracy.

The good soldier routine is getting tiring. Maybe Powell should try the valiant, courageous soldier routine. Or maybe he forgot it...

But seriously folks, isn't that fucked up? Isn't that one fact reason enough to throw Bush out? I mean, we were told that oil revenues would pay for the reconstruction! By "liberating" Iraq, we're enslaving ourselves and our children to debt! Who thought this was a good idea? Morrissey was right on the money!

In fact, I'm going to take a cue from Lou Dobbs, the hellhound on outsourcing's trail. I need to have a mantra, a hook, a haiku of a reason to get Bush out and print it with every entry I make to this blog that no one will ever read. Something like, "a vote for Bush is a vote against yourself." That'll do for now--I'll refine it, I'm sure. But this whole pointing-out-how-Bush-is-fucking-up-America-and-the-world situation has got to be boiled down so it's concise, memorable, and catchy!!!

Every day, people should see "A VOTE FOR BUSH IS A VOTE AGAINST YOURSELF." Even if they don't believe it, it will stick in the backs of their minds. Because if there's one thing the Rush Hannities and the Republiban party has taught these rightwingers, it's that you gotta look out for yourself above all else. But the fucked up part of it is that they say tax cuts and social spending cuts are the way for people to do that, when in reality, those things are what the superrich want so they can continue to fuck over people like you and me.

Nighty night...