Okay, I shouldn't have my knickers in a knot that Jon Stewart is a better historian (and wonk) than Ambassador Bolton. (yesterday's post)
Stewart's and Colbert's audiences have now been established as more knowledgable thatn others about the who's who and what's what of politics and international affairs.
Per the NY Times today: The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press released the results of a survery that found that "respondents who seemed to know the most about what’s going on — who were able to identify major public figures, for example — were likely to be viewers of fake news programs like Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show” and “The Colbert Report”; those who knew the least watched network morning news programs, Fox News or local television news." Here's the poll and the findings: www.people-press.org
But is it that smart people watch fake news or that the fake news is contibuting to real knowledge? I'm going with 50-50.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Bonehead Bolton Beaten by Jon (and Doris)
What is worse -- that a comedian has a better grasp of history than the US ambassador to the UN, or that the ambassador makes history up?
Bonehead John (I-Hate-the UN-And-Think-It-Should-Be-Abolished-And Now-Look-At-Me-I-Am-the-US-Ambassador-To-It!) Bolton made the dopey mistake of making up nonsense about Lincoln on The Daily Show. Defending Bush's penchant, no obsession, with appointing and surrounding himself with ideological Yes People, he denied that Lincoln had done the opposite. Rather than say, who cares what Lincoln did, he rewrote a bit of history in order to place Bush in the same camp as the icon. Yeah, right.
The problem with being a bonehead on TV is that the next day the video is on the web.
The problem with being wrong on TV is that the video of those who get it right can be seamlessly juxtaposed next to the dumb stuff.
Bolton messed up. On the facts and on being so dumb as to think no one would notice. Stewart easily conjured Lincoln biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin the following night to unbesmirch Lincoln. She did and all was right with the world; history happily trumped Bolton's truthiness.
When I first learned about how Lincoln had gone about appointing his cabinet and generals, I thought it was about as cool as cool can be -- not only because it was so vastly at odds with Bush's approach but because it demonstrated an all too rare ability and willingness to break bread and even work with one's presumed enemies.
Lincoln's strategic appointments created a bi-partisan force about him, particularly in the military. Carefully stitched together, the team made a less than happy coalition of contending forces. Even among his Republican appointments, more than one in his cabinet thought they would have been better and more able presidents and treated Lincoln as a rube.
One such appointee, William Seward, had the audacity to suggest -- in writing – that Lincoln was incompetent to run the country. He sent a memo to Lincoln accusing him of having no domestic or foreign policy, and suggested that Lincoln cede control of these matters to him. Worse, he said Lincoln's job, under Seward's proposed division of labor, would be to hand-out patronage jobs, which, it must be said, Lincoln did enjoy (he was from Illinois, after all, which is still very much patronage heaven).
Seward also told him to separate the issue of slavery from union, and advanced something of a wag-the-dog strategy of declaring a foreign war -- to unite the union and confederacy on a single mission. Sound familiar? Seward was Lincoln's Wolfowitz. But Lincoln ignored the memo.
Seward kept his job as Secretary of State, resigned once over a tiff concerning other appointments, took back his resignation and became one of Lincoln's greatest admirers.
Would that Bush had ignored Wolfowitz and his minions. Iraq did not exactly unite the Red and Blue states; the bitter divisions presist, even as some of the Reds are going Purple.
But Wolfowitz was rewarded by being promoted to head the World Bank, where he could ensconce his sweetie in a job by his side.
Oh, if only we had Lincoln today. I just love that guy.
Bonehead John (I-Hate-the UN-And-Think-It-Should-Be-Abolished-And Now-Look-At-Me-I-Am-the-US-Ambassador-To-It!) Bolton made the dopey mistake of making up nonsense about Lincoln on The Daily Show. Defending Bush's penchant, no obsession, with appointing and surrounding himself with ideological Yes People, he denied that Lincoln had done the opposite. Rather than say, who cares what Lincoln did, he rewrote a bit of history in order to place Bush in the same camp as the icon. Yeah, right.
The problem with being a bonehead on TV is that the next day the video is on the web.
The problem with being wrong on TV is that the video of those who get it right can be seamlessly juxtaposed next to the dumb stuff.
Bolton messed up. On the facts and on being so dumb as to think no one would notice. Stewart easily conjured Lincoln biographer Doris Kearns Goodwin the following night to unbesmirch Lincoln. She did and all was right with the world; history happily trumped Bolton's truthiness.
When I first learned about how Lincoln had gone about appointing his cabinet and generals, I thought it was about as cool as cool can be -- not only because it was so vastly at odds with Bush's approach but because it demonstrated an all too rare ability and willingness to break bread and even work with one's presumed enemies.
Lincoln's strategic appointments created a bi-partisan force about him, particularly in the military. Carefully stitched together, the team made a less than happy coalition of contending forces. Even among his Republican appointments, more than one in his cabinet thought they would have been better and more able presidents and treated Lincoln as a rube.
One such appointee, William Seward, had the audacity to suggest -- in writing – that Lincoln was incompetent to run the country. He sent a memo to Lincoln accusing him of having no domestic or foreign policy, and suggested that Lincoln cede control of these matters to him. Worse, he said Lincoln's job, under Seward's proposed division of labor, would be to hand-out patronage jobs, which, it must be said, Lincoln did enjoy (he was from Illinois, after all, which is still very much patronage heaven).
Seward also told him to separate the issue of slavery from union, and advanced something of a wag-the-dog strategy of declaring a foreign war -- to unite the union and confederacy on a single mission. Sound familiar? Seward was Lincoln's Wolfowitz. But Lincoln ignored the memo.
Seward kept his job as Secretary of State, resigned once over a tiff concerning other appointments, took back his resignation and became one of Lincoln's greatest admirers.
Would that Bush had ignored Wolfowitz and his minions. Iraq did not exactly unite the Red and Blue states; the bitter divisions presist, even as some of the Reds are going Purple.
But Wolfowitz was rewarded by being promoted to head the World Bank, where he could ensconce his sweetie in a job by his side.
Oh, if only we had Lincoln today. I just love that guy.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Coyote Ugly
On the basis of a careful review of what the pols, clergy and talking heads are saying, I have come to the dispassionate conclusion that two forces vie for our allegiance.
In the blue states, stupid, cowardly, slanderous, lying, elitist tax-and-spend liberals, traitors, sodomites, and termites plot with Satan and the trial lawyers. They kill the unborn and hug trees. Some are Oh-Obama-struck; others Hillary-stricken. Apparently, they will all burn in hell.
In the red states, stupid, lying, greedy warmongers, imperialists and globalists walk with Jesus and Halliburton's board. They kill the living and clear-cut trees. They careen in confusion in Bush-despair, Cheney / Rove embarrassment, and soft-side daddy 9/11.0 Giuliani and flak-jacket McCain hope. They, they assume, will go to heaven.
Politics has gotten coyote ugly. Better to cut off your arm and slink off than face it in the light of morning. As a result, more and more Americans have done just that – they’ve cut off their arms, but instead of quietly slinking off, they’re making their disgust and the abandonment of the coyote known. Their refusal to engage on issues, with candidates or their elected pols makes them feel clean and unsullied. Purified even. For many, the ballot itself is toxic – thus the dismal percentage of people voting – half the voting age public.
While the public ducks from the globs of paint and mud being thrown, it’s all just chucked around more promiscuously – with hopes that as it lands it might capture the public’s attention.
The coyote pens op-ed pieces, columns and books devoted to hysterical name-calling. He clamors to appear on or host prime time and Sunday morning babbling punditry shows. Institutes and foundations churn out his relentless words, words, words, giving the coyote’s invective and diatribe an air of respectability. In Congress and statehouses and the back rooms of each, laws are made out of this slop. In the coyote’s White House, governors’ mansions, and city halls, the coyote’s minions turn it into speeches and policy.
But there is another way. Lincoln spoke of having “malice toward none,” King spoke of loving his enemies. And before them, in The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare tutored:
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
And this is what Gandhi said:
My experience has shown me that we win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.
In the blue states, stupid, cowardly, slanderous, lying, elitist tax-and-spend liberals, traitors, sodomites, and termites plot with Satan and the trial lawyers. They kill the unborn and hug trees. Some are Oh-Obama-struck; others Hillary-stricken. Apparently, they will all burn in hell.
In the red states, stupid, lying, greedy warmongers, imperialists and globalists walk with Jesus and Halliburton's board. They kill the living and clear-cut trees. They careen in confusion in Bush-despair, Cheney / Rove embarrassment, and soft-side daddy 9/11.0 Giuliani and flak-jacket McCain hope. They, they assume, will go to heaven.
Politics has gotten coyote ugly. Better to cut off your arm and slink off than face it in the light of morning. As a result, more and more Americans have done just that – they’ve cut off their arms, but instead of quietly slinking off, they’re making their disgust and the abandonment of the coyote known. Their refusal to engage on issues, with candidates or their elected pols makes them feel clean and unsullied. Purified even. For many, the ballot itself is toxic – thus the dismal percentage of people voting – half the voting age public.
While the public ducks from the globs of paint and mud being thrown, it’s all just chucked around more promiscuously – with hopes that as it lands it might capture the public’s attention.
The coyote pens op-ed pieces, columns and books devoted to hysterical name-calling. He clamors to appear on or host prime time and Sunday morning babbling punditry shows. Institutes and foundations churn out his relentless words, words, words, giving the coyote’s invective and diatribe an air of respectability. In Congress and statehouses and the back rooms of each, laws are made out of this slop. In the coyote’s White House, governors’ mansions, and city halls, the coyote’s minions turn it into speeches and policy.
But there is another way. Lincoln spoke of having “malice toward none,” King spoke of loving his enemies. And before them, in The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare tutored:
Though justice be thy plea, consider this,
That in the course of justice none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
And this is what Gandhi said:
My experience has shown me that we win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.
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