Wednesday, May 10, 2006

[political-researchp] Bloglines - Crack That Blah Blah Whip


Kate/A/blog
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Crack That Blah Blah Whip

By Kate-A

America's alternative party, the coming new Democrats? What's the "left's" stated goal these days? Vote in more democrats. Get rid of Bush/Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice, those neocons. Oh yes, Joe Blow has benefited these last 40 years, with a 4-8 year change of big business asskissers. I really do not look forward to the next few years of the "right" having their turn at bashing.

I'm reminded of the scene from the movie Copycat when Sigourney Weaver is hanging and squirming over the toilet as Harry Connick Jr. has headlocked a cop and with knife and gun grins - "Should I shoot him or stick him? Stick him or shoot him?" Reminds me of our political choices. Should I vote Democrat or Republican? Green or Indie? Shoot 'em or stick 'em? No matter, lower middle working class America is left for dead, hanging and hemorrhaging.

To illustrate, I'll use the biggest blogger's site, who supposedly represents America's Dems with a plan, spokesperson and co-author for progressive democrats on how to take back the party and fix it, Mr. Daily Kos (Markos Zuniga). I'll not go into detail as to who, why, and where I think Zuniga is coming from. Last I lurked at DK Mr. Kos was big on Howard Dean (and a campaign adviser). (Excuse my hearty laugh here at the Great Dem Hope.)

Kos himself states he has a "heavy focus on elections." Head 'em up, herd 'em out, keep them voters movin' rawhide. But if the followers of a high ranked political weblog still believe there are honest politicians out there and voting makes a difference ….if we can find 'em and fix 'em, all will be fine … That's the plan? Vote? However, I admit I stopped visiting the DK site a couple of years ago as it seemed to be mostly short-takes with participatory reader comments, whose (I say this reluctantly) ages and IQs seemed a matched set (and names like anonymouse, rockerharder, prettyprowler, litmonkey).

What's even more sleep inducing about the layman "leaders" of the "left/progressive" is the constant airing of tidbitty stories that matter not a damn in the grand scheme of things. Picked up and linked by 99.9 percent of "left" sites. Tales from questionable sources, or human interest stories used to draw an "ain't that awful" when there may not be an awful. But for purposes of outrage they can be played that way. For instance, this one Marines Asking Iraqi for Food. We sent them into battle without ammo and gear, now this! Are the bossmen really starving the troops who are guarding and securing their oil and geopolitical plans?

Is the government (composed of Dem and Rep) not feeding our boots on the ground? Or is it, as with my sons, the food in the field is not that good and tuna tastes better than an MRE. Although mine prefer beef summer sausage, crackers, jalapeƱos, canned pineapple. If you've ever spent time in a war zone there is good food available for the right price. The blackmarket is big, really big, business. I would bet my old jeep I could dine in Iraq any night of the week on kuzi (lamb), tomatoes, bread and tea. And cheaper than what I'd pay for the after dinner liquor and American cigarettes.

Providing roadside meals is how many locals in a war zone survive – it's income. Every businessman in the region is selling food, smokes, and more to Iraqis who resell it to the troops if they can. You give MREs to Iraqi street orphans, to those who have no one wiring money to them, to Iraqis too poor to buy from the border venders selling at inflated prices.

My initial thought was not that American soldiers are hungry, starving – but that they may eat something that doesn't sit well. Is it safe to just walk up and ask anyone in Iraq to feed you? A soldier would spend time in the 'hood with people before breaking bread with them, unless maybe they were finger eating out of the same pot.

So, a typical occurrence in a war zone becomes a jerked fuzzy story (elicits warm fuzzy and angry knee jerk) for use against the right wingnuts. Which is why the "left" is going nowhere. Too busy encouraging voters to "pick me pick me" and pointing to too many stories they want you to think has teeth but is all gums.




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