“Now that I, too, am a professional whore, I can see that the sharp distinction I used to draw between the working press and the shoe scrapings of the PR industry was simply a vanity of vanities — a product of my youthful arrogance …. And whatever real distinction there may have once been between journalism and flackery has long since been swept away by the howling, gibbering tsunami of the cable news channels, leaving only a few dazed refugees clinging to the treetops in the print press. And pretty soon they’ll be gone, too.” — Billmon
Monthly Archives: March 2005
2 QOTD
The closest parallel I can think of to current American politics is Israel. There was a time, not that long ago, when moderate Israelis downplayed the rise of religious extremists. But no more: extremists have already killed one prime minister, and everyone realizes that Ariel Sharon is at risk.
America isn’t yet a place where liberal politicians, and even conservatives who aren’t sufficiently hard-line, fear assassination. But unless moderates take a stand against the growing power of domestic extremists, it can happen here. — Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: What’s Going On?” href=”http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/29/opinion/29krugman.html?”>The New York Times > Opinion >PAUL KRUGMAN
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Bush “enjoys the stubborn conviction of the unreflective mind.” — Michael Kinsley
Wheres the Fire?
by Jeff Parker, Florida Today
Bush’s overall approval rating is just 43 percent, with 48 percent disapproval
Public Opinion Watch – Mar. 30, 2005 – Center for American Progress
Public Opinion Watch by Ruy Teixeira
Bush’s overall approval rating is just 43 percent, with 48 percent disapproval. In addition, his rating on Iraq is now only 39 percent approval/53 percent disapproval, and his rating on the economy is a stunningly bad 36/53, further evidence of growing public disenchantment with the economy.
Let us not forget Congress. In the wake of its handling of the Schiavo case, Congress’s approval rating has plunged to 34 percent against 49 percent disapproving.
Consumer Comfort Index Hits New 2005 Low (washingtonpost.com) By Claudia Deane, Washington Post Staff Writer
Consumer confidence has reached a new low for the year in the wake of soaring gasoline prices across the nation, with the latest Washington Post-ABC News Consumer Comfort Index standing at -13, down four points from last week and three points below its 19-year average.
The index of consumer sentiment was last in this territory in the summer of 2004, following a late winter and spring surge in gas prices that sent consumer confidence reeling until late June.
Arizona GOP legislators just can’t let well enough alone
Monkey business
GOP legislators just can’t let well enough alone
Now that conservative Republicans have an edge at the Legislature, they can’t resist trying to gum up projects and agencies that are humming along just fine, thanks.
This does nothing to move Arizona into the future. …
Hey, team! You’re running toward the wrong goal line. …
Every legislative session sees its share of misguided proposals. But this year they have gone so far that you have to wonder, what’s next?
Synchronicity
On this day in 1973, the last American combat troops left Vietnam, ending the direct involvement of the United States in the Vietnam War. Several thousand civilian Defense Department employees stayed on in Vietnam after the withdrawal of troops. The last of these Americans were airlifted out of the country when Saigon fell to the Communists on April 30, 1975.
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This day in 1865 marked the beginning of the Appomattox Campaign, the final campaign of the Civil War.
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As we look back to the end of US military involvement in Vietnam, remember that our “defeat” (our failure to finish destroying Vietnam) has been a powerful motivator for the Radical Right for over 30 years. To this day, they and their children and their grandchildren despise the dirty hippies and peaceniks they blame — all those disloyal Liberals who see more value in peace than perpetual war.
I wonder how many of those same people still curse the Union almost 140 years after the Civil War. Hatred has 9 lives. mjh
QOTD
What I finally had to confront was the fact that truth alone is impotent in the face of modern propaganda techniques ? as developed, field tested, refined and deployed by Madison Avenue, the Pentagon, the think tanks, the marketing departments of major corporations, the communications departments of major research universities, etc. …
And in a world where the airwaves are overloaded 24/7 with the mindless babbling of complete idiots, it isn?t very hard to make inconvenient facts disappear, or create new pseudofacts that reinforce whatever bias or cultural affinity you want to cultivate ? particularly if the audience is already disposed to prefer your reassuring lies to discomforting truths told by strangers.