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Ramblings From the Ragged Crumbling Edge Of The Reality-Based Community

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Bring Back Bobby Jindal 

...I am watching the Republican response to President Obama's State of the Union address right now, which is being delivered by the newly elected Republican Governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell. It is a truly painful experience on a couple of levels...

First - for those of us who may not have been sufficiently engaged in the Virginia gubernatorial race last fall - is the pain of realizing just how bad a candidate the Democrats must have offered if this particular remarkably life-like cardboard cutout could actually win the election. I don't know about you, but I'm thinking that if I want to go up against a rather accomplished orator like Barack Obama, I'm going to pick some handsome white male (which seems to be the Republican strategy after Bobby Jindal's remarkable and vaguely spooky meltdown last year) who actually can read a speech without sounding like he's reading a speech to his classmates in his high-school speech class...

Second, it is absurd to try to create some Republican Potemkin Village like the disturbingly handsome and photogenic collection of Republicans collected in the Virginia statehouse that seemingly suggests that Americans from all walks of life and racial/ethnic backgrounds are all the way down with whatever it was he said (I confess that I hit the mute button about 4 minutes in to keep from injuring myself by toppling out of my chair from speech-induced somnolence). These are not the faces of the Republican party and it is simply an insult to all those Blacks and Asians and Hispanics - and even to a whole hosts of attractive young Euro-Americans - who haven't found any solace in the Republican message to try to suggest that there is some sort of broad support for whatever the message was (ibid - "mute button"). While the Republican producers of this odd little event did a good job of hiding the "applause" sign that - based on the style and delivery of Governor McDonnell's apparent speech class assignment - clearly must have been flaring up like sun spots at all the appropriate places, it still remains that there are not majorities of all those ethnic and racial categories that Republicans apparent have divided us into who accept or even tolerate Republican views on the great issues of the day...

I actually feel a little bit sad for the Republicans for cranking up another rather lame attempt to respond to an Obama speech. I almost feel most sorry for the dude in the uniform behind the Governor, because I suspect that someone...somewhere...is going to raise the question of why anyone is showing up in uniform to be seen in a prominent spot behind the person making a solely political statement in the SOTU response. The State of the Union speech at least has some attachment to the Constitution requirement to make an annual report to Congress; there is no corresponding requirement of a response by the party out of power, and to involve one's self in what is a purely political exercise opens up all sorts of personal disciplinary and legal risks for anyone who wants to show up wearing a uniform...

Jindal's performance last year may have been a political disaster that gave the children nightmares and scared the cats under the sofa, but it at least has some entertainment value because of its pure strangeness. Tonight's performance was simply embarrassingly lame with all of its stiff, stilted amateurish oratory, stale message, and manufactured cheering. Bring back Bobby Jindal, I say!! Make the Republican response interesting - or at least amusing - again!
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:39 PM 0 comments

Monday, January 25, 2010

When Mail Fraud Is A Policy 

...so the Republican National Committee, as part of the on-going efforts by Chairman Michael "Keepin' It Real" Steele to keep it real, has sent out letters labeled "Official Document" in the finest tradition of Publisher's Clearing House that combine 'we need money' dunning letters with supposed "Census Surveys" to people all across the nation. The letters, of course, don't contain an actual Census of Congressional Districts, despite what all the heavy-duty capitalized "Do Not Destroy" lingo on the envelope says; they include a set of remarkably lame push-polling questions delivered by Postal employees who have better things to do rather than being delivered directly to your telephone by some stammering half-witted hireling who seems less than regretful about interrupting your dinner...

I suppose it's important in their own minds for Steele and the Republican National Committee to combine fund raising with a survey - one that they apparently would like you to think of as an Official Do-Not-Destroy Census document (and I'm sure its timing being coincident with the start of the actual real live U.S. Census is a simple accident of timing) - that asks questions like "Do you agree or disagree with the current B. Hussein Obama administration's proposal to kill cuuute cute cute little kittens and warm snuggly adorable little puppies to produce luxuriant sleeping robes from their skins for the illegal immigrants who will be sitting at the front of the lines at all the doctor's offices and health clinics after the Government takeover of health care?"...

Lord knows Michael and his...well, OK, not "supporters", but maybe "fellow travelers... need the money in order to tap into the rising tide of Tea Baggerdom sweeping the nation. At least, that is what we are told by those experts who talked at length about the Permanent Republican Majority and the advent of Dow Jones averages on the high side of 30,000. So it seems perfectly reasonable to me that Mikey and the RNC might tippy-toe right up to the very edge of mail fraud to rake in some bucks and collect meaningless survey data that nobody but FAUX News and the RNC's ad writers will have any use for. After all, those same 'Permanent Republican Majority'/'Dow at 30K' talking heads have been telling us that last week's SCOTUS decision on McCain-Feingold won't actually have all that much real impact on real American's lives, so fund raising under the fairly obvious sheep's cloak of a bogus Official "Census" mailing is apparently called for to try to refill Republican coffers...

I think the observation of Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who is a Democrat who received the mailing at his official residence (apparently news travels slow in Republican circles), perfectly captures the value of this so-called Republican Census:
"The Republicans have said they want to get a bigger tent," Schweitzer told The Associated Press, "so perhaps they are trying to lure a politician into the Republican Party that can actually balance a budget."
Posted by: Jack K. / 7:58 PM 0 comments

Sunday, January 24, 2010

A "Who Dat?" Kind Of Night 

...I don't want to talk about politics tonight for a whole lot of reasons, but I can't help wanting to talk about a couple of things...

I am a stone cold sucker for great sports stories, because I am even more a fan of a variety of sports than I am of politics - and the gulf is starting to grow more expansive every day recently. The N'awlins Saints are the story of the year, in my mind. A rookie head coach and what was essentially an injured, supposedly washed-up cast-off San Diego Charger quarterback took hold of a devastated, still-suffering city and, finally, picked up and carried that city and its still suffering residents on their own two backs to a place that it has never been. I don't have a dog in the Super Bowl fight - again - but I will be a part of the "Who Dat" nation in two weeks, regardless of my appreciation of the talents of Peyton Manning...

While surfing the TV after the game, I stumbled across BET's UNCF tribute to Lionel Ritchie, which prompted a flood of memories of a time when I actually had a full head of hair and far less adipose tissue than that which now haunts me. In its own way, this provided another "Who Dat" moment in its own perverse way; it allowed me to reflect on a part of my musical past - one that my teenage children seem incapable of either appreciating or understanding - that appears to be long dead culturally, in the same way that my questionable contributions to the future of our great nation view my appreciation of the early Beatles or the Beach Boys. It is almost impossible to explain to them why a particular cover of the Lionel Ritchie/Diana Ross hit "Endless Love" even matters, much less trumps the original. I've decided to not even try; I will only offer Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross in a remarkable version of a song that was part of the soundtrack to a life that my children can't appreciate but probably should learn to understand when their own minds turn to the question of "why am I here" (if you know what I mean)...

Posted by: Jack K. / 9:03 PM 0 comments

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