Cut and Run Politics

a simple bit of vernacular . . .

"Dude, WTF?"

How is it that the recently, narrowly, un-indicted Karl Rove, sompadre of besmeared-in-monetary-feces lobbyist Jack Abramoff could possibly hold any credible sway over the American public on the issue of the war in Iraq, particularly when more than fifty percent of Americans do not support the war?

It's all about cutting through the noice, creating a catchy phrase like "cut and run".

Is it possible that Americans will see past the sloganeering, the focus-group tested verbage, and realize that honest-to-goodness American soldiers are dead, dying and severely wounded, that thousands of Iraqi innocents are counted among the "collateral damage" of a war based on faulty intelligence, manipulations, greed, and outright lies?

one can only hope . . .

What now, Ann?

When I started this blog, I envisioned one where the discussion might be spirited, but the tone always civil. Despite the subject of this post, Ann Coulter, I pledge to maintain the civility.

Lately, Miss Ann seems to have lost that editing mechanism that resides somewhere between the brain stem, the conscience and the tongue in most non-sociopathic humans. I suppose our first clue should have been the time she gleefully suggested killing Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens with rat poison. I think most of us simply dismissed this as an aberration, one time Miss Coulter just went a little too far. Since Justice Stevens has continued to occupy his place on the bench, many of us have overlooked it. I think many of us exercised the logic of "never look a crazy person in the eye," and we simply went about our business.

But now it seems that Miss Coulter is trading on death threats to sell copies of her new book. Close on the heels of her Today Show appearance, in which she defended her suggestion that the 9/11 widows were "enjoying their husbands' deaths," Miss Coulter has now suggested that Congressman Jack Murtha is a suitable target for "fragging."

"Fragging" is a term coined during the Vietnam War. It refers to the practice of soldiers "accidentally" killing a superior officer.

With this careless bit of insanity, Miss Coulter may have effectively established a pattern of threatening the lives of officials in the federal government. I'm deeply concerned, not for the safety of justice Stevens or Congressman Murtha, but for Miss Coulter herself. She obviously has a list as long as the one Nixon kept, and she obviously can't keep this to herself. Ann Coulter could find herself in some serious legal jeopardy, if not now, then quite possibly when she finally suggests lacing Former President Clinton's Super sized chocolate shake with drain cleaner . . . .



. . . okay . . . I have to break the conceit here. I was going to do a Swiftian "modest proposal" of things Ann Coulter could do to stem the tide of hate speech that constantly streams from her pen and her mouth. I was going to suggest things like trading in her little black dress for some permanent pine coveralls. I was kind of thinking it would be a way to establish some goose/gander equality. I had written most of it already, but I can't do it.

Truth is, as you probably surmised, I am far from concerned about Ann Coulter's well being. In fact, if she kicked her ugly addiction to oxygen tomorrow, I would be among the most vocal celebrants. What concerns me most is that she has achieved the status of a national car wreck. She's so bloody awful that we can't just look away. Would that she were Jayne Mansfield.

So, I'm reneging on my pledge of civility, but it seems that Miss Coulter neither desires nor deserves it. My only wish is that, one way or another, Americans could see her for what she is--nothing.

Al Franken and Joe Conason have labeled Coulter "political pornography." How apropos. I feel so guilty, so dirty for having even written about her. If even one copy of her new book sold because someone read this post, I could never forgive myself.

Oscar Wilde said that the only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about. I wish to God that we all could consign Ann Coulter to that seventh level of silent hell.

While Rome Burns . . .

In the days following Hurricane Katrina, a photo of President Bush playing guitar surfaced in the blogosphere with the frequent caption "Nero Fiddling while Rome Drowns" or words to that effect.

The analogy is more appropriate than ever these days. The empire is falling into disarray.

The president has spent our government into a crippling deficit. Financially, our country is now at a point where we are forced to haggle over the particulars in rebuilding the Gulf Coast. We are bickering over funding the preventative measures necessary to prevent another such disaster.

This is not to mention the under-funding of things like education and homeland security.

In the meantime, the burgeoning sex and money scandals involving Republicans at the highest levels of governement is all too reminiscnet of the "great" Caligula.

And today? Today, the President nominated a man to head the CIA, a man who actually believes that there is nothing in the 4th Amendment that refers to "probable cause."

It's simple folks. Either we take our government back or we're screwed. Totally screwed.