January 3, 2007 by lonbud
The “B” And The “S”
A couple of stories had various jaws flapping today, neither of which reflects too well on the media, the punditocracy, or the so-called leadership position of the United States in world affairs. In one, certain quarters are up in arms over the cellphone camera recording of Saddam Hussein’s execution to which I linked yesterday. In the other, presumptive 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is learning quickly the calculus of celebrity in the modern age.
Let’s look at these seemingly unrelated stories one at a time.
With a daily death toll averaging more than 75 persons each and every over the past six months, the Iraqi government has a ways to go before it can boast of any ability to maintain order in its society (let alone deliver basic services to its citizens), but it has clearly learned a thing or two from its American enablers when it comes to political fallout.
Shit hits the fan over a poorly managed government enterprise? Call for an investigation!
In its response to the cries of foul over “unofficial” footage of Saddam’s hanging, the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Malaki actually went its BushCo counterpart one better, arresting today a government official accused of making the unauthorized recording of Saddam on the gallows. But like much of the faux due diligence that passes for self-investigation in American government circles, something about this “Executiongate” scandal is rotten at the core.
Saddam Hussein was hanged in a cramped room in front of about 25 or 30 people. Can it truly be possible the “officials” responsible for “security” at the event were somehow unaware of someone in the front row with a cellphone camera? Either the Iraqi government has absolutely no hope of ever taking even the slightest bit of control of its country — in which case we ought to get our young boys and girls the hell outta there as quickly as humanly possible — or the event managers at the hanging simply didn’t care who was taking pictures.
I understand the probative value of anecdotal evidence, but I was picked out of a crowd of thousands in a darkened arena by redneck rent-a-cops in nylon windbreakers, and booted out of a ZZ Top concert in 1988, for just holding a camera. Perhaps Iraqi security forces are being trained by the wrong people.
Which brings us to Barack Hussein Obama, the charismatic junior Senator from Illinois, who has become the It Girl of American politics since the Democratic party’s landslide sweep of November’s mid-term elections.
In the space of nine weeks, amid rampant speculation on all fronts as to Mr. Obama’s intention to run for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008, the mainstream media has:
- called him a “flip flopper” because he said back in 2004 he would not run in 2008, then changed his position to undecided after the November elections;
- intimated that a member of his staff had connections to an accused Illinois racketeer;
- addressed his appeal to white audiences by questioning his credibility as a black man;
- speculated on the significance and meaning of his middle name;
- shown him in split-screen on television news with images of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein;
- published a television news graphic with a photograph of Osama bin Laden and the caption “Where’s Obama?”; and
- finally gotten around to reading his autobiography, published eleven years ago, in which he admitted to using pot and cocaine in high-school, and driven the speculation meter off the charts with an inability to decide whether his candor helps or hurts his chances if he decides to run.
Honestly, the United States of America is sitting on the precipice of absolute self-immolation. And it’s being led there hand-in-hand by the government and the media, the first of which has become so bloated, and so corrupt it may be beyond salvation, while the latter is so pleased with its own magnificence it’s become utterly useless as a source of news and information.
The founding document says “We the People,” and if we, the people, don’t rise out of our collective stupor soon, we’ll enjoy the same kind of freedom and democracy they have over in Iraq. We should start by doing a better job of disposing of our current leader than they did of disposing of their last one.
Meredith Charpantier - January 4, 2007 @ 9:09 am
Here Here all around!
Paris Hilton could teach GW and friends something about consumer technology But she is too busy…filming burger ads.
NEXT:
George Lakoff to the rescue… Please let us NOT fall down the same rabbit hole of linguistic shaming this time around…sticks and stones may break our bones but claims of “flipflopping” will not hurt us. Attack with self assurance. Decision Making is a Process.
Say it loud! I’m a dem and I’m proud… I’m intelligent…honest….transparent… clear and other such under-represented political traits….and I’m proud. James Brown spelled it out (but it didn’t really turn things around for his underrepresented cohort at the time either) …While none of these accusations deserves a moment’s notice… Dems can’t afford to get stranded out there again on that lonely high road…what to do? what to do?
also note: Youthful explorations do not determine the value of a leader. IF THEY DID…what would GW have to say about his long lasting youthful ways… Inhaling is not a sin. Extended addiction is, however, not a good sign.
Get it straight.
Michael Herdegen - January 4, 2007 @ 2:15 pm
[I] was picked out of a crowd of thousands in a darkened arena by redneck rent-a-cops in nylon windbreakers, and booted out of a ZZ Top concert…
Rednecks at a ZZ Top concert ?!?!
Who’da thunk ?
…amid rampant speculation on all fronts as to [Barack Hussein Obama’s] intention to run for the Democratic nomination for President in 2008…
Charismatic he may be, but if he does run, he likely won’t win the nomination, and he can’t win the general. He has no money, and no experience in national, eighteen-month-long campaigns.
Ask Gore how tough it is; he ran for President three times, and has yet to accomplish it, although he came close twice.
And while we’re asking formerly-prominent people about their experiences, we ought to ask Dean how quickly one can go from “It Girl” to yesterday’s news. The public is fickle.
Still, if Obama does harbor hopes of someday being POTUS, then he really ought to run for the ’08 nomination; the contacts and experience will serve him well in the future.
lonbud - January 4, 2007 @ 6:07 pm
Well, with respect to the nature of the security force, I’d say the venue is more determinative than the act on the bill. I happened to be in Memphis at that ZZ Top show, but the same redneck goons would have hauled me out for holding a camera there at a Barry Manilow concert, though perhaps with a little more gusto — but that’s a whole ‘nother story.
Your musings on Obama’s chances in’08 serve to highlight well the complete ridiculousness to which the process of campaigning for and being elected to office (or not) has devolved in this country, Michael. To say nothing of the media’s largely intrusive and unhelpful participation in it.
If Al Gore had a fraction of Obama’s charisma, he’d have had to campaign for President only once and would have served two terms in office as clearly the most thoughtful, and probably the second-most intelligent chief executive of the past century.
And indeed, Dean had very much of an “It Girl” quality. My estimation is that he’d have faded even without the media’s feeding frenzy over “the scream.”
I’m not sure Obama ought to run in ’08 just to gain the experience and the connections necessary to win somewhere down the road, but I am sure he needs to run for the purpose of elevating the conversation to matters of substance, despite the media’s insistence on keeping it about questions of style.
Meredith Charpantier - January 4, 2007 @ 10:43 pm
The thing that impressed me about Obama way back when he was just coming into the spot light, is that he insists he is in the political biz to do good and he might just as well do it from outside the political arena if he loses an election or gets backed into any integrity compromising situations. Could honesty actually be made into policy? Al Gore could have had charisma a lot sooner if he could have imagined life off the hill while he was on it. He is currently a lot happier, funnier, and more powerful than anyone ever imagined. Himself included.
I hope Obama reads the same moral to this story. But I hope America gets the happy ending this time. And that we can all remember the issues, and not just the laugh lines. By the way, he has Oprah’s money doesn’t he? That ought to ’bout do it.
Leland Nichols - January 5, 2007 @ 11:38 am
Obama — the Man from Illinois, has about the same experience with governing Abraham Lincoln had. Is it not fitting that Obama would be our first Black president? Lincoln reunited the nation; with our help this Man from Illinois can unite us once again.
Michael Herdegen - January 6, 2007 @ 5:20 pm
Your musings on Obama’s chances in ’08 serve to highlight well the [devolution of] the process of campaigning for and being elected to office … in this country…
Please enlighten me – when exactly was it that being elected POTUS didn’t hinge on collecting and spending money, and gaining the support of influential people ?
Compared to the acrimony and outlandishness of the campaigns of the 19th century, our current process is milquetoast.
Since WWII, elections for the highest office in the land have turned on such trivial stuff as whether or not the candidates wore makeup on television, accusations that a candidate was a nutcase who longed to start a nuclear war, and of course Willie Horton & the National Guard tank ride.
If Al Gore had a fraction of Obama’s charisma, he’d have … served two terms in office as clearly the most thoughtful, and probably the second-most intelligent chief executive of the past century.
Gore’s raw IQ is lower than was those of Wilson, Coolidge, FDR, JFK, Carter, and Clinton, at the very least. There may be others whose raw intellect was more powerful.
Note well, however, that arguably four of those six had failed Presidencies. Being really, really smart isn’t that much of an asset when one is President, other than for personal satisfaction.
Note also that the guys running Enron were famously “the smartest guys in the room” – intelligence and wisdom don’t correlate strongly.
As for Gore’s “thoughtfulness”, perhaps you could provide some examples ?
His book “Earth in the Balance” was more science fiction than anything else, and he’s currently pushing a frankly nutty view of global warming. If he truly believes that humans can’t survive a three degree increase in the Earth’s average temperatures, then he’s irresponsibly ignorant, or else just plain crazy, and if he doesn’t believe in such claptrap, then why is he spouting it, except as a hypocritical ploy to sell books to people with more passion than brains ?
Not that I deny him a right to make a buck by pandering; I’m just pointing out that doing so makes him something less than “thoughtful”.
[Obama] needs to run for the purpose of elevating the conversation to matters of substance, despite the media’s insistence on keeping it about questions of style.
Good luck. Kucinich tried that in ’04, got nowhere.
Tam O’Tellico - January 6, 2007 @ 9:36 pm
Welcome back, Michael, and a happy and prosperous New Year to us all!
lonbud - January 7, 2007 @ 9:30 am
I can understand why folks like Bush and Cheney find it so easy to pooh-pooh science that may not be proved correct for many years, because their personal fortunes benefit thereby.
What’s your excuse, Michael?
Michael Herdegen - January 8, 2007 @ 2:31 pm
Who in their right minds considers an assertion that humans can’t survive global warming to be “science” ?!
It’s just an opinion, based on nothing, and actively contradicted by the known history of humanity.
Michael Herdegen - January 8, 2007 @ 2:56 pm
For instance, the official policy of the EU bureaucracy in Brussels is that global warming will be good for parts of Europe, as reported in the Financial Times:
“Chilly northern Europe could reap big benefits from global warming, […] according to the first comprehensive study of its effects on the continent.
“Fewer in the north would die of cold, crops there would boom and the North Sea coast could become the new Riviera, an analysis to be approved by the European Commission next week shows.”
Plus, I notice that no examples of Gore’s “thoughtfulness” have been posted yet.
lonbud - January 9, 2007 @ 5:24 pm
You sure you didn’t read that in The Onion, Michael?
Plus, I don’t recall anyone here commenting about “the science” of humanity’s ability to survive global warming. The Science says humans are exacerbating what may or may not be greater universal forces that reflect a warming of the earth’s atmosphere.
Most people I know who are concerned about global warming point to the science as a means of getting others to wake up to the deleterious effects of certain human behaviors, while most of those I know who deride such concerns tend to have a financial stake in those behaviors being left unchanged.
Meredith Charpantier - January 9, 2007 @ 11:16 pm
I myself expect to beneift from global warming when my central valley home becomes beach front property… whats all this hullabaloo about human survival about anyway? There will be room for some of us on high land, until someone builds us suitable homes deep inside the bowels of the earth..
lonbud - January 10, 2007 @ 7:11 am
No Meredith, you have it all wrong. Humanity will survive global warming — and please reserve me a cabana on your beach, OK? — but those who survive the long term will find another planet to do it on.
half-mooned - January 10, 2007 @ 8:49 pm
The Moon would be a harsh mistress..
Michael Herdegen - January 14, 2007 @ 9:23 pm
Good on ya, half-mooned; one of my favorite novels ever.
Michael Herdegen - January 15, 2007 @ 7:00 am
Here’s the bottom line on Japan vs. America, economically speaking:
lonbud - January 15, 2007 @ 8:47 am
I see. Curious you would rely on a report produced by the reviled UN to illustrate the “bottom line” of just just about anything, but, whatever.
The coming contraction in the U.S. economy will have effects felt the world over, to be sure. My guess, however, is that Japanese manufacturers of autos and heavy equipment, for example, will be hurt far less than their European or American counterparts, who produce more expensive (the former) and inferior (the latter) products.
I think “the bottom line” on the Japan vs. America question, economically speaking, is that Japan is not likely to quit the race any time soon, and that – relatively speaking – the tiny island nation will likely outperform the global hegemon in the next decade.