Well, photoblogger is behaving like regular blogger--a small image upload is taking, oh, only 5 tries per attempt...but at last, Shrubjongil.jpg is "preserved" for posterity...
Anyway, the above pic is in response to the following four posts--here, here, here, and here that both caught my attention this morning and describe, better than I can, the sort of GOP'er mindset prevalent these days: blind fealty to dear leader who
Oh, and just an aside re: Big Time's bagging of a donor Saturday: do you think Harry Whittington, once recovered, will have the nickname "Daffy" bestowed upon him by His Chimpness? "It's Duck Season, Fire!"
However, I think Big Time's abject stupidity in handling firearms--and the media being all too willing to downplay the story--point to profoundly disturbing, undemocratic, and indeed, anti-American trends...trends that, unfortunately, are becoming all the rage among the punditocracy, the federal government itself, and, to be sure, those cultists who consume in bulk what Ashley Morris rightly calls "Kook-Aid."
These trends help explain, as Peter Daou recently noted, why an Administration where the scandals come so thick it would require multiple large container ships to hold them all continues to smirk its way along. Meanwhile, the destruction of the national treasury is rivaled only by the destruction of Iraq, while along the Gulf Coast, stunning incompetence is paired with an equally stunning utter lack of concern.
And the media, the punditocracy--and the 38 percent of die-hard Bush supporters that they apparently think constitute the body politic--continue to reside in an ever- more-obvious world of their own creation, oblivious to reality. Criticism of ANY type, as Greenwald notes, becomes grounds for labeling, if not libeling.
The ONLY way to describe such group-think is by calling it what it IS: literally, a cult. Cultists are prone to dismiss or ignore obvious failings, or, when convenient, seek scapegoats for affixing blame. Hence, what is for me the VERY obvious failure of Team Bush between 1/21/01 and 9/11/01 to function in the role of "executive," that is, to ascertain potential threats BEFORE they became an ACTUAL threats (despite TONS of warnings and/or evidence) becomes, for the cultists, merely a point in time "without form, a void." The true believers screeched for a war against Iraq, thinking that dear leader was bound to smite on a scale not seen--indeed, when all seemed safely in the bag, a victory prance was organized and arranged for them to express their adulation. This prance had all the subtlety of an old Roman triumph. Of course, in this case, it might as well have been Caligula declaring victory over Neptune.
But the cultist has far too much invested psychologically--so the sheer stupidity of Team Bush's strategery in Iraq is ignored...while blame for this is assigned to...the war's opponents. Shrub and Deadeye have both been fond of stressing this of late.
Likewise, at home, the equally stupid handling of Hurricane Katrina--remember, Shrub was TAKING A VACATION FROM HIS VACATION at this time, mostly because he was too petulant to deal with the very real questions embodied by Cindy Sheehan's vigil--anyway, the ignorant, inept response to a NATIONAL CALAMITY that was so awful that even a partisan GOP committee gave it poor marks--was and will be, for the cultists, the fault of Kathleen Blanco and Ray Nagin. Nevermind that this was the biggest storm to hit the Gulf Coast since Camille...yet neither the pResident nor V.P. Fudd was even in Washington, much less in a position to work with idiot Brownie. Nevermind that for a NATIONAL CATASTROPHE, which is what Katrina was, there was NO national plan--even though we ALL knew Katrina wasn't a matter of "if," but "when."
Nevermind that a genuine PLAN for evacuating half a million people would, BY NECESSITY, REQUIRE the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT playing an active, if not leading role, utilizing not merely buses, but rail AND air transport--the latter freely available to the federal government in the form of military transports in Texas, Florida, and South Carolina, i.e., in the vicinity of the Gulf Coast (those who whine about buses, usually in conjuction with Blanco and Nagin, reveal not only profound ignorance as to the logistics, but show their inner racism when they CHOOSE to ignore the obvious necessity, in this case, of moving people out of the region BY AIR TRANSPORT, which was done several days later, at much greater cost in lives and money).
Nevermind that obtaining a warrant via FISA is, as far as I can tell, about as easy as falling off a log. Nevermind that NO ONE CAN DOCUMENT A SINGLE INSTANCE where legitimate efforts to go through the FISA procedure resulted in denial by a FISA judge. Nevermind that it's probably a mix and match of sheer incompetence and political data mining behind Team Bush's decision to bypass what is already a pretty clear concession to government in contravention of the 4th Amendment...
And nevermind that if ANY of this had been done by a Democratic Administration, Tweety and the Punditocracy would've been pissing themselves in orgiastic glee. I mean, shit, if V.P. Al Gore had accidently shot his hunting partner--and not bothered to inform the public--Tweety, et al, would be hollering "Almer Fudd" until they were hoarse. If Bill Clinton had decided that he couldn't be bothered with FISA--of if he'd fucked up by invading Iraq, or spent money more lavishly than LBJ in his heyday, do you think they'd all insist that "only a few whackjobs hate him." Jimmy Carter was vilified for a desert fiasco in Central Asia--but HIS desert fiasco didn't kill 2500 soldiers.
Finally, I'll note the Shrub Cult's insistance on defining themselves as "Christian," when NO evidence of such persuasion exists. And, therefore, I will no longer refer to that particular movement as the "Christian Right," since they are neither. They are fundamentalists, yes, but they engage in a weird sort of idol, personality, and money worship...one that is decidedly NOT Christian. And their habits are not merely irritating--they are dangerous to the security of the nation.
Jesus would be rolling over in his grave...but Stalin would feel right at home.
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