The Riot Act

"We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity"

-Ann Coulter-

We've been hearing about the dangers of song lyrics and video games for decades and of course there's some statistical correlation, according to some researchers, between constant exposure and violent behavior. Why is it then that we're not hearing about the effects of the unrelenting barrage of furious denunciations of the various straw men set ablaze by the religious right and the political right? Why aren't we concerned about the effect on Jim Adkisson?

Dubious denunciation has been around since the Biblical prophets, but we've certainly outgrown hand copied parchment scrolls as the medium. We have blogs, we have newspapers, newsletters, e-mail; we have radio broadcasts, we have 24 hour opinion shouting by people like Michelle Malkin, Anne Coulter, Rush Limbaugh and others. Anger, hate and bigotry can be spread faster than Smallpox and we have enough angry opinion to drown out reality. For some men like Adkisson, it's been enough to push him into domestic terrorism.

So when Jim Adkisson, an unemployed truck driver, killed two people and wounded six others with a homemade and illegal sawed off shotgun at a Tennessee church last summer, it was because he hated the "Liberals" he perceived as infesting the Unitarian Church. He still hates them so much that he smiled as he entered a guilty plea yesterday and was sentenced to life without parole.

So when Ann Coulter, for instance, proclaims a "Fathwa" against Liberals and blames everything from 9/11 to the current failure of Republican economic policy on "treasonous" Liberals in her hysterical and incessant way, when she advocates the poisoning of Federal Judges and armed assault on Islamic countries: when the American public sits mesmerized in front of Fox News and their endless fantasies about "terrorist fist bumps" and sneering, condescending and fictitious stories about "Liberals" conspiring against us all, perhaps it's time we remember the Riot Act. Perhaps it's time we saw these wealthy commercial hatemongers in the same light as we see the bearded Bogey men from Afghanistan who incite people to blow up infidels.

At least Jim Adkisson admitted his motives, even if he has no remorse.

A GHOST OF DEPRESSION PAST

(Double click on the image for a larger view)

Fellow creatures above and below the waves: We have managed to retrace the route of the Great Depression and repeat the same mistakes as if we learned nothing from history.

Marriner S. Eccles served as Franklin Roosevelt's Chairman of the Federal Reserve from November 1934 to February 1948. In his memoir, Beckoning Frontiers (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1951), he offered his opinion of what caused the Great Depression:

As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth -- not of existing wealth, but of wealth as it is currently produced -- to provide men with buying power equal to the amount of goods and services offered by the nation's economic machinery.

Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. This served them as capital accumulations. But by taking purchasing power out of the hands of mass consumers, the savers denied to themselves the kind of effective demand for their products that would justify a reinvestment of their capital accumulations in new plants. In consequence, as in a poker game where the chips were concentrated in fewer and fewer hands, the other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.

Sound familiar? In essence, Bush's economic policies created conditions similar to those that triggered the Great Depression. From 2001 through 2007, the American economy grew by 31%, but the increase in wealth was not fairly or evenly distributed throughout the economy. After-tax income for corporate CEOs grew 40 to 400%; whereas average income for middle class wage earners declined 3% during the same period.

Factoring in rising costs of energy, food, education, and health care, which rose faster than the base inflationary rate, what do get? A middle class that can no longer serve as the engine for economic recovery. Thus, the real reason behind our economic crisis is the concentration of wealth in the hands of the few at the expense of the many ... just like it was almost 80 years ago.

Odds and endings

Sometimes I'm overwhelmed with despair. Sometimes I don't believe the United States of America has any future in any way similar to what was envisioned in 1776. Sometimes I think civilization itself has reached the top of its arc and has begun to accelerate downward.

I was scanning around 20 meters yesterday afternoon, hoping to work KC4USV at McMurdo Station in Antarctica who was reported to be at 14.243 -- and as you might expect in this period between sunspot cycle 23 and 24, I couldn't hear a whisper from Ross Island. I did catch one Midwestern ham telling another that he'd heard thatBarak Obama had gone "over there" and told "the Muslims" that he thought it was patriotic for them to fight against infidels. " If any of that is true, this country is doomed" said the man whose call I won't repeat. Tempted as I was to have words with him, I just shut the rig down and found other things to do. Of course, none of that is or was or likely ever will be true. But this is America. Over where? What Muslims? Failure to ask is failure to think. Failure to think and the hunger to believe fills the endless cornucopia of American political dialog.

My New York Bureau chief informs me that Alabama, in the name of protecting academic freedom and science itself, has passed legislation allowing teachers to teach religious mythology or apparently, any idiotic fairy tale they damn well please about the origin of species. The Bible is now called science in Alabama. And we fought a bloody war to keep them part of our country: and we dare to talk about optimism. How can we even say the word hope.

The end of the world makes strange bedfellows though. I stumbled into Coulterwatch this morning after reading that the shrieking harpy herself has become the subject of a formal probe by Connecticut’s Elections Enforcement Commission; moving her closer to being charged with felony fraud. Can she slither out of this one as she did in Palm Beach by having one of her familiars intimidate a Commissioner into dropping the charges? Probably, but the existence of bloggers calling themselves Conservative and yet actually dedicated to bringing about justice for Ann Coulter is heartwarming.

Coulterwatch.com blogger Dan Borchers has filed a formal complaint in Connecticut.

“For over 10 years, Ann Coulter has gotten away with illegal, immoral and unethical behavior, ranging from plagiarism to defamation, perjury to voter fraud,”

says Borcher. No, it's not a glimmer of hope. He and I may disagree on most things, but at least it's comforting to think we might all hold hands for a brief moment as the ship sinks into the abyss.

Moving On From Stimuless?

My mind has been unfortunately consumed with thoughts of the economic stimulus for what feels like at least a decade. I don’t even really know what to think anymore - maybe I never did. The President didn’t do an effective enough job selling his plan to the American people early on. He should have been hitting us over the head with talk of how badly we need this package - about how it may be imperfect, but for God’s sake at least it’s something. For the second half of this week, he succeeded at doing this - often with a bit of flare the usually cool leader shies away from. And he tried for the first half of the week, but his cabinet appointments seem to have a bad habit of not paying their taxes. Since the media can’t focus on more than one thing at a time, discussion of ethics and poor accounting practices consumed the airwaves. Nonetheless, Obama tried. Plus, while the President and his party could have executed better, blame for the recovery catastrophe lies almost entirely with the Grand Old Patronizers.

The Republicans systematically undercut everything logical about this economic discussion simply because everything logical about this economic discussion came from the Democrats. They offered no ideas, save the tired ones about cutting taxes for rich people. John McCain reverted to campaign mode, complaining, “This is not a stimulus bill; it is a spending bill.” Thanks John. McCain’s concession speech after the election seemed very heartfelt. I even inquired as to whether the old McCain, the one unencumbered by political theater, would return to - wait for it - getting things done. I guess I was wrong.

I’ve championed bipartisanship, and I still believe it can work. But it is certainly more difficult than seems reasonable. Paul Krugman says there’s no room for compromise with a party that is as “irresponsible" as the GOP. I don’t want to be corrupted, I want to believe in Obama’s call for unity, but Krugman makes a good point. If the Republicans continue to obstruct to this degree in the future, and the Democrats are again outmaneuvered, then I certainly hope the Democrats are at least able to mobilize enough support to push these yahoos out of office. I firmly believe the GOP is going to remake itself as a party of moderates - if they don’t, they will die off - but in the mean time, we have a lot of serious stuff that we need to deal with. And yet the Republicans seem set on standing in the way.

Luckily, a deal on the Senate version of the recovery package seems to have been reached. It cuts a substantial amount of spending - about $100 billion - from a bill that probably didn’t have enough spending to begin with, but it's a step in the right direction. Maybe Democrats ceded too much, maybe they did the right thing. We'll have to wait to see how effective the plan ends up being. But Republicans! Seriously! You guys have got to get your act together. The economy is collapsing on all sides and the only thing you can think about is scoring political points. We cannot afford to have the battle over reconciling the two versions of the stimulus bill take this long. So GOPers...play nice. And Democrats...don't let Republicans dominant the argument - your ideas are right, you are on the right side of history. Act like it.

(I'm afraid to imagine what passing universal healthcare is going to be like.)

Death and Foxes

There's often some good to be found in our increasingly entropic economy -- like a pearl in a tainted oyster. I take comfort in the cosmic joke that is our mortal life; knowing that Rush Limbaugh and Dick Cheney and everyone at Fox News will go the way of Pol Pot, Nicolae Chaucescu and Madman Muntz in due time. But even before all the chips are cashed, it's good to know that News Corp, Rupert Murdoch's media empire and the parent company of Fox, is down by the bow and taking on water; nearly six and a half billion dollars worth of water, that is.

Blaming the grim economic situation, the obvious precursors of which the Fox fabricators have been denying for years whilst mocking the "Libs" for their warnings, Murdoch told the International Herald Tribune:

"While we anticipated a weakening, the downturn is more severe and likely longer-lasting than previously thought."

Who could have foreseen that? Well I for one and other, better prognosticators heard only dimly through the angry roar of the Fox filibusterers. Remember when Fox claimed that the robust economy was being "talked down" by "the Liberal Media" and offered statistics showing the "proof" in the fact that there was more bad economic news than good?

"We are implementing rigorous cost-cutting across all operations and reducing head count where appropriate."

said Murdoch, and of course I have a list of candidates for decapitation, but before we get to feeling smug, the bad news in the good news in the bad news, is that amidst the general Murdoch meltdown, Fox News itself reported income of $428 million, which is up $91 million from the previous year. Fox News increased its operating income by 32 percent. Is this also a reflection of a desperate America's increased thirst for lies, damn lies and hysterical hatred? I'm sure that when the statisticians stop chewing on the news, we'll find that alcohol consumption has risen by a similar amount.

In any event, I'm sure that the global meltdown will some day fade into redacted and ill remembered history, but I'm not so sure about the United States of America as we know it. America is failing, Fox News is why.

Et evasi ego solus ut nuntiarem tibi.

RUSSIA UNSEEN: A PHOTO ESSAY

Photo Essay by Aleksey (Alexander) Petrosian

Here is another side of Russia rarely seen in our media - dingy, grim, and neglected.  It reminds us that Russia is still in many ways a poor nation burdened by its Soviet past and struggling to find a future.   Worth a look.   Click here.

Sexist Sex

Oh, for goodness sake.

A short while ago I checked my aol email account & was greeted on aol's home page by the trivial celebrity headline of the day. Apparently some female celebrity (never heard of her) is pregnant and - oh wait! - HERE'S THE JUICY PART! - she's unmarried! Wow!

Good grief, I thought. Who the heck cares? Now - part of my grumbling is due to a free-floating irritation with our celebrity saturated culture. But the other part of my grumbling has to do with the sexist, holier than thou gasping nature of the headline over the fact that she is unmarried.

This is a new concept? Single, unwed motherhood? Public figure unwed single motherhood? Remember the broohaha over the Murphy Brown pregnancy about which Dan Quayle so famously (stupidly) opined? At the time the issue was forced into open discussion as a public debate erupted over the definition of family, over the puritanical shaming of women "caught pregnant" out of wedlock, etc. That was over a decade ago but apparently we have not moved on from our gasping at such news - at least in the media driven, sensation generating headlines of pop culture.

And dare I ask the question? Where is the headline about the father of this soon to be born child? Just once I would like to see a headline gasping out the words - HOLLYWOOD CELEB JOHN SMITH IS GOING TO BE A FATHER BUT HE'S UNMARRIED! or better yet - HOLLYWOOD CELEB JOHN SMITH HAS IMPREGNATED HIS GIRLFRIEND!

If we are going to insist on puritanical, sensational headlines to fuel our pop culture appetite then we can at least stop being so sexist about it. Let's at least strive for an egalitarian approach to our puritanical shaming.

On a final note - I actually don't think that all that many people (the RIGHT excepted) care that much about the fact that this celebrity is unmarried & pregnant. What I do find fascinating, however, is that the media continually tries to play on old puritanical ideas of shaming to generate sensation about the story they are trying to sell. The extent to which we are suckers for this is debatable.

Hello Swash Zone Readers!

(O)CT(O)PUS has graciously extended an invitation to me to join the team here. My name is Brian Krenz, and I come by way of The Political Panorama where I have been blogging for a little over three months. Since beginning to explore the seemingly infinite space of the blogging universe I have stumbled on The Swash Zone several times and come to appreciate the insight the writers here have to offer. I hope I can contribute with the same sort of thought-provoking acumen.

I look forward to hearing from and interacting with all of you in the time ahead.

A quick thanks to The Swash Zone team for offering me this opportunity. It’s good to be aboard.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

About who to blame and who shall pay for the economic crisis, it seems Wall Street is hell-bent on spinning the debate to favor itself. Lawyers, Guns & Money nails it with this headline:

Socialism for me but not for thee

Here is the reaction from Wall Street as reported by the New York Times:

“I think President Obama painted everyone with a broad stroke,” said Brian McCaffrey, 55, a Wall Street lawyer who was on his way to see a client. “The way we pay our taxes is bonuses. The only way that we’ll get any of our bailout money back is from taxes on bonuses. I think bonuses should be looked at on a case by case basis, or you turn into a socialist.”

That, indeed, was a recurring equation: Broad strokes + bonuses = socialist.

And here is Jim Cramer yesterday on MSNBC (February 2, 2009):



Here is the same Jim Cramer last year:

Just for once, Jim, shut the fuck up!

Socialism for Wall Street.  Socialism for corporate America.  Or as one LG&M commenter put it (NonyNony):  American style "capitalism" is all about privatizing profits and socializing losses.  But what about American taxpayers who will be shouldering this burden for a generation?  Don’t ask. That’s socialism.

Update (11:00 am):  Apropos of this subject, I recommend this article at TruthDig (complements of Calliegirl).

Not EXACTLY Peaceful Protest…

Seems shoe throwing has become the new symbol of international protest. A human rights protester apparently had enough of listening to the Chinese prime minister as he spoke at Cambridge University.

After shouting, "How can you listen to this unchallenged?" Or something similar, the man removed his shoe and threw it. The Iraqi journalist was a much better shot, this guy didn’t even come close, but he got his point across.

Funny, though how the mind performs associations. What this brought to mind was an incident I was sort of involved in during 6th grade.

I was part of the 6th grade all town chorus which drew from all the schools in the town for a performance for some event I can no longer recall. We met in a central location under the tutelage of the high school music director, affectionately known as Old Lady Humphreville.

Now, standing to my right was a kid named Manny who was a bit of a cut up. During practice he would poke me and whisper stuff and I would hit him and tell him to shut up, all the while watching Ms. H. who would turn and stare at us. After this happened a few times, without warning – SHE TOOK OFF HER HIGH HEEL AND LOBBED IT AT MANNY! Hit him square in the forehead, fortunately not with the heel.

These days, I’m sure she would have been arrested, as both this protester and the Iraqi journalist before him were. The Iraqis had a large bronze shoe sculpture for a few days but the government made them take it down. Even so, this could be the start of an interesting new trend.