He's talking about The Ownership Society again. Pass the Spitballs!

If he's not going to answer questions in press conferences, at least the mainstream TV personalities can try to make a point of their own -- something that might actually provoke him.

"Oil is going to disappear within our lifetimes or the lifetimes of our children, so how can you call trying to suck the earth dry as fast as possible an energy policy? How can you totally ignore fuel economy and conservation?"

They're like the wonky kids at the front of every classroom trying to impress the teacher with their respectful questions, concentrating on the command of details rather than any big picture. You know they've always been in the front row and at the top of their classes, telling teachers and bosses what they want to hear.

"If you're adding a means test for benefits and grafting on private accounts, call it Welfare + IRAs, but don't call it Social Security. Oh, sorry, that's not a question. Which part do you expect your Republican Congress to eventually drop, the Welfare for those poor people (read, "freeloaders" and "cheats") or the Private Accounts for themselves and their friends (i.e., "The Ownership Society" MEMBERS ONLY)?"

And, finally, isn't the only question that should be asked about Iraq

"How can you sleep at night?"

I watched the whole news conference with my son last night (even though it is TV Turnoff Week) and I really can't decide whether I'm more upset at the Empire's Chief Cheerleader behind the podium, or the straight A students in their good clothes giving him their respect and attention.

I want disrespect. Unshined shoes. Talking out of turn. Open collars. Spitballs. Note passing. A healthy lack of awe for "the office".

True Blue Liberal

Free Your Captured Eyeballs This Week!

Here we are, into the third day of TV Turnoff Week and I forgot to remind you all.

Here's an interesting quote from an article in The Guardian (April 25 | "Anti-TV guerrillas wield their new zapper"):

"For most people, TV has become a default activity. If you're not doing anything else you tend to watch TV. People become very defensive when you challenge them about it. If you sleep for eight hours and work for eight hours, people give half the rest to TV," said David Burke, the founder of the UK arm of White Dot which is organising the protest on this side [or the other side, as seen from here] of the Atlantic.

The group - named after the light circle that appears on a screen just before it goes blank - has the motto: "Turn off that TV set, go outside and live!"

Mr Burke points to the rise in the last few years of so-called "ambient" forms of television advertising as evidence of a spreading epidemic.

Supermarkets, petrol stations and even hand dryers feature televisions, he says, so you can't ignore them even if you want to.

"Television companies are facing a real problem. You go to these conferences and they're terrified about losing 'eyeballs'. The language is actually of 'capturing eyeballs'. We're offering people the chance of liberation," he says.

Do something - anything - that's not the passive reception of someone else's idea of news or entertainment.
FREE YOUR EYEBALLS from CBS ABC NBC FOX MTV & CNN for at least a week!
And thanks to Urban Fox for reminding me to remind all of you on this side of the pond.
True Blue Liberal

How Sweet ...

From WashingtonPost.com
"Love is in the Air, or
Bush Urges Saudis to Boost Oil Production":

". . . Bush gave Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler a warm embrace and a kiss on both cheeks in welcome. Bush kept a firm, guiding grip on his guest's hand as they walked up the path, past a field of bluebonnets that the president took care to point out . . ."

The pictures of them holding hands reminded me of the Shiny Happy People montage in Fahrenheit 9/11.

How Sweet,
TBL

Dylan, Gaye, Starr, Prine, Mitchell, Newman, Ochs, or Zappa?

There's a virgin poll of the week here and in the sidebar. See if you can get your choice in first!

Have another song from the sixties that you feel trumps all of these? Then suggest it in the Comments.

Which Vietnam-Era Song is the Best Anthem for the BushCheney Era?
	Masters of War - Bob Dylan
	What's Going On - Marvin Gaye
	Political Science - Randy Newman
	Who are the Brain Police? - Frank Zappa
	Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell
	Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore - John Prine
	I Ain't Marching Anymore - Phil Ochs
	War - Edwin Starr
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Last week's poll results as of 2:57 pm on 4/25/05. Readers of True Blue Liberal find that Montgomery Burns is a scarier fictional Republican archetype than Major Frank Burns by 67% to 34%.

Mayors Bill and Jerry?

The mayor of Oakland, in his blog entry from April 20, weighs in on the next New York City mayoral election:

"[Bob] Kerrey's not taking the plunge, but there is always Bill Clinton. He would have a ball as mayor."

I think Jerry Brown's absolutely right. Now that his memoirs are finished and published, I think Bill Clinton would prefer the action and spotlight of (the world's greatest) City Hall to sitting in his Harlem office tower writing the sequel about life as a Senator's spouse, or travelling the world with Bush père. Maybe those of us in the New York area, and elsewhere in the country, should start a petition to encourage him. There would be a certain symmetry to the two main Democratic combatants from the 1992 presidential race -- the ex-Governor of California & the ex-Governor of Arkansas -- sitting in the mayors' chairs on opposite coasts. It would show the GOP, along with the stellar example of President Carter, what real public servants look like.

What do you think?
True Blue Liberal

there IS a crisis, but not the one the bushies are pushin' (Part II)

The New York Times >
April 22, 2005 >
Paul Krugman: "Passing the Buck"

". . . decades of indoctrination in the virtues of market competition and the evils of big government have left many Americans unable to comprehend the idea that sometimes competition is the problem, not the solution."

As promised, PK delivers the goods again today on the nuts and bolts of the American Health Care Crisis. Read him. Forward him to your friends. There's not much I can add here, except a simple Thank You.

True Blue Liberal

FUH2 | Fuck You And Your H2 (especially on Earth Day)

Here's a happy site to celebrate Earth Day tomorrow:
FUH2 Fuck You And Your H2

After browsing through the photos on the site for inspiration, go out, find one (unfortunately it's not too hard if you're in the USofA), take a picture, send it to fuh2.com, and then pray for $4-a-gallon gas.

Happy Earth Day,
True Blue Liberal

Religion in America not so very long ago

Here's an interesting entry in Ted Rall's Search and Destroy blog from Tuesday:

". . . during the 1970s, one respite from the constant onslaught of capital-C conservatism on the political scene and small-c conservatism in local culture was the church. . . "

It was refreshing to read that (in what turns out to be a lament about the New Pope® entitled, "Sad News for the World's Catholics"). When I see younger bloggers writing about Religion, and The Church, it is almost always as a negative, conservative force, but in my case -- as in Ted Rall's -- this was not the case. I remember the Rightist wingnuts (at that point represented by the John Birch Society, Goldwater, and Governor Reagan) complaining constantly about the liberal National Council of Churches. I remember the Berrigan brothers on trial, Father Drinan in Congress (before the church forced him to quit), Liberation Theology, the Maryknoll Sisters in Latin America, Bob Dylan invoking Jesus against the Masters of War, Quaker & Brethren pacifists . . . I remember thinking that I could use my church as a sanctuary if the Selective Service came to call. The only southern churches I thought about were the churches of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Ralph Abernathy, and those that were the targets of terrorist bombers because of the skin color of their Sunday School students (oh, sorry, I forgot, in New America® good ol' boys can't be terrists, only ferners can be terrists). I didn't think much about fundamentalists except as the fall guys in "Inherit the Wind" until I discovered them on television in the early eighties, and then Jimmy Swaggart and Ernest Aingley were only good for a belly laugh when they screamed HEEEEEEALLLL and asked us all to put our hands on the television screen and money into their pockets.

I guess all I'm trying to say is that The Church as a simplistic overarching conservative entity is a recent, largely fictional, achievement of the conservative government and its media who have used it, as they've used everything else, as an electoral wedge issue to solidify their power.

Fuck 'em all.

Love,
True Blue Liberal

Ratzo Benedikt intervened for Bush in 2004 election campaign

Yahoo! News -
"New pope intervened against Kerry in US 2004 election campaign"

"German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the Vatican theologian who was elected Pope Benedict XVI, intervened in the 2004 US election campaign ordering bishops to deny communion to abortion rights supporters including presidential candidate John Kerry."

This is what T.B.L. still doesn't understand. Why were those Catholics who supported an illegal Iraqi war -- condemned by the heads of the Roman Church and the United Nations as such -- and why are those Americans who support the death penalty, allowed to accept the church's consecrated cookies?

And if this ex-Nazi Youth's aim was to influence our election, isn't there a little matter of the church's tax exemption for some activist judge to reconsider?

just asking,
true blue liberal

Major Frank Burns or Montgomery Burns? Which fictional Republican archetype burns you up more?

So, the question is simple.
Which of the following fictional Republican archetypes do you find the scariest, Montgomery Burns or Major Frank Burns?

For the benefit of those of you who have taken TV Turnoff Week to its logical extreme and made it into a permanent state in your house (for the past 30 years), "Monty" Burns (of The Simpsons) is the 104-year-old owner of Springfield USA's local nuclear power utility. He is greed and the power of unrestricted capitalism personified (think "Dick" Cheney with less pallor and a more "animated" personality). And Major Frank Burns (from M*A*S*H, the movie and the TV series) is a self-righteous holier-than-thou hypocrite (think Senator "Rick" Santorum cheating on his wife with Anne "Hot Lips" Coulter).

Which Burns, the CEO or the religious zealot, is really in control of today's Republican Party, and our nation, and which is capable of doing (or has already done) the most damage? It could also turn into a great parlor game, trying to figure out which prominent Republican matches which archetype (if Dick is Monty, then Dubya, of course, is Waylon Smithers).

I look forward to your comments,
True Blue Liberal

Don't want to comment, but have an opinion??
Poll added on 4/20 at 2:30 est:

Which fictional Republican archetype scares YOU the most?
	Montgomery Burns
	Major Frank Burns
Free polls from Pollhost.com