(copied and pasted from weekendnazi's YouTube channel)
I was listening, last week, to John Stewart, interviewed by Terry Gross, at the 92nd St. Y, in NYC. He spoke of a game the Daily Show staff play, along the lines of, "How will the Democrats fuck it up?" In the current election, with the gifts of weirdness that are Christine O'Donnell, and Carl Paladino, obviously the Democrats will fuck it up by focusing far too long on witchcraft and bestiality jokes, and not nearly enough on delineating how they intend to address people's concerns about the economy; or on how the Republican candidates, Tea Party or not, are campaigning on behalf of the selfish interests of the very richest Americans. Of course, I imagine, it's hard for a Democrat to point that out, when the Democrats, themselves, are running, by and large, on behalf of the same selfish interests.
There's a good investigative report out today, built around the "jailhouse confessions" of the dude who, in July, got in a shootout with CHiPs, on his way to kill the leaders of liberal organizations in San Francisco, organizations alleged by Glenn Beck to be fomenting a Marxist takeover of America. I'm coming to terms with the received wisdom that "ya gotta laugh, to keep from crying".
(downloaded and reposted from YouTube, in anticipation of possible DMCA takedown. See more at http://www.rebelliouspixels.com/)
Swiftian times demand Swiftian solutions! The best satire, I suppose, uses the target's own words. Beck sums it up well, noting that, "it's all fair use," and, "the truth will set you free!"
(also reposted from YouTube, for reasons listed above)
Of course, the answer to all this ridiculous fearmongering (if it isn't to ridicule said ridiculous fearmongering), is to monger some fear about vast right wing conspiracies, like how the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is coalescing into the face of multi-national corporate political power in Washington. Read Robert Reich, on the Secret Big Money Takeover currently under way, or Charles Ferguson's look into Larry Summers' "subversion of economics". Visit the website for Ferguson's new movie, Inside Job, and find a ton of educational links about how our economic morass continues to serve to consolidate wealth at the top. Follow Krugman's metaphor for America's economic outlook, that the inability of politicians to advocate any spending for the social good, is akin to steering the nation into a dead end tunnel, and adopt a stance of radical pessimism...
I may be there, already, but I'm hoping having a laugh about it won't completely negate my political effectiveness (such as it is).
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Rage Within the Machine - Progressivism | ||||
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The most depressing thing right now, is that I'm not able to adjust my upcoming family visit, back east, to a month earlier, so I can take in the Rally to Restore Sanity...
