Blogcritics

Bush And Obama: What Really Happened at the White House

Mark Schannon — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:21:37 EST

What really happened when President Bush and President-elect Obama met at the White House? Here's the real dope.
President-elect Barack Obama made his first visit to the White House at the invitation of George Bush. Although reporters were kept away from the meeting, and the two offered no remarks after the visit, your intrepid reporter has sources deep inside the presidential mansion and has learned much of what transpired between the two former adversaries....

Stephen Colbert and Jameson Irish Whiskey: I Learn From The Master

Mark Schannon — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:53:26 EST

Stephen Colbert has taught me the fine art of begging. And so I beg, you, Jameson Irish whiskey... show me the money.
Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert is perhaps the most successful self-promoter in the history of the human race. All others are but pale copies of his masterful manipulation of the cosmic realm. When he wanted to run for president, he got Doritos to fund his campaign; likewise, Doritos footed the bill when he wanted to spend a week in...

Obama's First News Conference: Questions We Wish They'd Asked

Mark Schannon — Sun, 9 Nov 2008 01:44:52 EST

What might we have learned had reporters asked the right questions at Obama's first news conference as President-elect.
Is there a group more trapped in the world of hysterical obviousness than the presidential press corps? In his first news conference as president-elect, Obama was called cautious in his responses by The Washington Post. Perhaps that’s not the right word. Bored brainless might be better. Every question, regardless of whether it was on...

It's Just An Election... Relax

Mark Schannon — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:31:20 EDT

Stop demonizing your opponents and start hugging them. It may be the only solace we get for a long time.
Fear, anxiety, and, dare I say it, panic abound in the election-o-sphere these days, as captured in an article in today's Washington Post. The good voters of America are anxiously awaiting the ten plagues of Egypt, Arab hordes swarming over our shores, economic meltdown a la Chernobyl, and really bad acne attacks... regardless of who they...

Satire: Iraqi-Mania... And What Do Americans/Iraqis Want?

Mark Schannon — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 19:48:50 EDT

Ever feel like you were watching the world through one of those fun-house mirrors?
“We’ll be greeted as liberators,” said VP Dick “My Other Car is a Waterboard” Cheney, fifty-three years ago when we started the Iraq war.“Mission accomplished,” crowed Pres. George “Huh?” Bush on an aircraft carrier just thirty years into the war.“Oy, did we fuck up,” said General...

Is A Reasoned Approach Possible With Gun Control?

Mark Schannon — Wed, 5 Sep 2007 21:38:03 EDT

The gun control issue will never be resolved until we admit the 2nd Amendment is flawed and start negotiating with empathy and understanding.
Daddy was right. Ain't no use in talking about religion, politics, whether that dress makes yer wife look fat, or guns... unless you're sitting among a bunch of hunters all dressed up in their "out-to-kill" finery, oiling stocks and cutting cross-hatches into their bullet points.Take abortion. The gyrations politicians go through...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Satire: Another Week With No News

Mark Schannon — Sun, 8 Jul 2007 20:44:51 EDT

Dateline: MadagascarTalk about your small island. It's about two miles wide and three miles long. Palm trees are fighting it out with lizards for their share of land. There are 35 million inhabitants, stacked higher than an elephant's eye. It's a good thing there aren't any elephants on the island, though -- they'd likely tip it over. But that's not what's on my mind.Having read through most of today's Sunday New York Times and Washington Post, and having read the Post all week, your intrepid reporter has come to the conclusion once again that the reason why politics is so intolerably boring is that nothing ever happens. For clarity's sake, let us define "nothing."Posturing, blathering, introducing bills that'll never get passed, Supreme Court rulings that defy comprehension or undermine years of precedent, candidates who are only distinguishable by the amount of money they raise -- all these things make up a small part of what is "nothing." Since nothing can never lead to something (although quantum physics has proven this statement wrong, but who listens to them anyway), it's fair to say that, once again, virtually (I'm covering my bets) nothing happened again this week.At least, nothing covered by the media. However, as a dedicated investigative reporter known far and wide as one with no regard for the truth whatsoever, I have uncovered plenty of somethings worth reporting for your edification.Bush Who? A high-level Republican source told this reporter in the strictest confidence that a group of powerful Republican Senators up for reelection in 2008 are crafting a Constitutional Amendment which would deny that George W. Bush was ever president. The amendment will say that the United States went leaderless from the time of Bill (Love a Good Cigar) Clinton until election day, 2008. Word has it that they have the support of the majority of Republican governors and state legislators.If Elected, Hillary Won't Serve. Word is spreading through senior Democratic circles that the whole Hillary campaign is nothing more than a thinly-veiled plot to get Bill back in office. The theory is that she will select Bill as her running mate, win the election, claim some bizarre medical condition that makes it impossible for her to serve, and, voila, Bill's back.Immigration Illegals Are Disappearing. A strange virus is infecting illegal immigrants, causing quick, painful deaths. Said to have been created in a Christian fundamentalist laboratory, this virus only attacks illegal immigrants. Their scientists predict that, with a kill rate of one million per year, the 12 million illegal immigrants will disappear in 12 years -- assuming of course that no more enter the country, but once word spreads as quickly as the virus, who in their right mind would sneak in. Problem solved. Yay.The Iraqi War is a Myth. Just as conspiracy theorists have proved that hundreds of people were involved in the assassination of John Kennedy, that there never was a moon landing, and that Paris Hilton is really a guy, so too have they amassed evidence that not only did we not invade Iraq, there is no Iraq. The television and newspaper coverage has all been manufactured by a mass conspiracy among the left-wing (or is it right-wing) owners. The billions being spent is actually sitting in an off-shore account getting five percent interest and will be used to shore up social security and medicare. Yay. Oh, and those dead soldiers? According to my sources, they're casualties of increasingly demanding training exercises.Osama Bin Laden is Jewish. He never was a member of the ruling Saudi parasitic family. His father was a Saudi prince who fell in love with a Jewess slave and had a child by her -- Osama. Since the religion is passed through the mother, Osama's Jewish, which is why he was thrown out of Saudi Arabia. His secret plan is not to destroy Israel and the Great Satan, America, but to get revenge on the royal house of Saud. When he succeeds, the oil revenue will flow to Israel, which has promised to finally build cities and homes for Palestinians -- something the Arab rulers of those territories have failed to do for over 50 years.The Barbi Twins Will Win The Presidency. Having spent three grueling hours interviewing these two... women, it's become clear that they have an absolutely fool-proof, brilliant strategy for winning both the Republican and Democratic conventions. I dare not reveal the approach for fear of retribution, but I can tell you that, since they're virtually indistinguishable, they plan to serve as co-presidents. Now that's something to write home about. As you can see, something did happen over the past week, but you'll only be able to read about it here. The mainstream media is to lazy or frightened to cover these dramatic stories. Stay tuned. There's a lot more truth to be uncovered.In the meantime, remember that maxim handed down by the ancient Irish Kings:In Jameson Veritas

Crisis/risk/issues management and communications and PR consultant, free-lance writer, aspiring pundit and author. Blogcritics.org asst. ed, politics. Wanted to set world on fire, but bride won't let me play with matches, so I'm counting on upcoming, someday, perhaps novels to accomplish through awe and wild acclaim what arson didn't. Also, yes, I take my meds regularly. Please check out my lit blog, No Blank Pages

Could It Get Any Worse for Bush? Sure, Just Watch

Mark Schannon — Sat, 7 Jul 2007 15:44:39 EDT

You have to wonder how the president puts up with it, day after day, receiving nothing but increasingly bad news -- except from his ultra-conservative Supreme Court. He now has the honor of having the lowest ratings for the longest period of any president since Julius Caesar in Rome, and that was a long time ago.A poll by the American Research Group reported Friday that nearly half of Americans want Bush impeached. Over half want to see VP Cheney get the axe. The AFP story acknowledged that Congress is unlikely to act on impeachment, although that's a mystery as well. What do they have to do? Have sex with interns or something? But act or not, it's another in a series of body blows this week that has to leave the administration wondering who cast a spell on them.Today's Washington Post ran a story on independent voters in Virginia, that former bastion of Republican strength. Based on a survey conducted by The Post, The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, and Harvard, not only are independents more likely to support a Democrat for president, 46 percent named Bush the worst president since 1960. No one else got more than 15 percent. Half of Virginia independents named Busher the worst president since 1960. That's gotta sting.An AP story released just recently found that Dick Cheney's popularity has now sunk as low as Bush's. Worse, many Republicans are growing weary of his bizarre concepts of the Constitution and the Vice President's place in the grand scheme of things. Bush may be pathetic. Cheney is downright bizarre. He's the best reason not to impeach the president.Even Bush's formerly strongest war supporters, many looking at reelection in 2008, are calling on Bush to start doing something in Iraq that will work. When Republican Senators such as John Warner (VA), Pete Dominici (NM), Richard Lugar, George Voinovich (OH), Susan Collins (ME), John Sununu (NH), and Lamar Alexander (TN) all call for a new idea, any new idea or actually support some Democratic proposals...well, what's a president to do? I'd suggest Disney World, but he'd probably get booed out of the park.Perhaps no president has been so ill-served by his closest advisors: Cheney and the thankfully-departed Rumsfeld. With Bush having no foreign policy experience, he was dependent on them, and they've let him down every step of the way. Will it get worse? The economy's a mixed bag. If you're wealthy, it's great. If you're poor or middle class, you're struggling. The environment? I've just bought ocean front property in the mountains of West Virginia. We're hated around the world, and we don't even think much of ourselves. Of course it's going to get worse.I never thought I'd write this, but I actually feel sorry for the Busher. Man, forget the pledge, take a shot of something and relax. I recommend Jameson Irish Whiskey. (That, alas, is an unpaid endorsement, and if the Middleton Brewery doesn't start recognizing and appreciating and paying for all the free publicity I give them...well, there'll be heck to pay, I can tell you.)

People Aren't Human And Never Have Been

Mark Schannon — Fri, 6 Jul 2007 11:46:46 EDT

Some time ago, I wrote an article for BC called Three Steps From The Cave. In my distress about the state of society, I wrote, "Are we living on the edge of a precipice? I look around and see that our society is failing, the world is failing, we are making a mess of this Eden given to us — by God or Darwin, I don't care — it doesn't matter. What do you see, I wonder, and how can we resolve our different visions?" And then I added, "Human beings as civilized creatures is the most dangerous myth ever foisted upon a species." The reality of being three steps from the cave, i.e., we're barely civilized, plagues me. It's important to understand the context for me to state that, barring some catastrophic event in the next few decades, I'm old enough and financially secure enough that the implications won't affect me. And I don't have children, so it's hard to worry about their future. However, I do live here, although few will remember that some short years after I'm gone. And because I live here -- on this earth, not in this country -- the savagery that is the social norm around the world causes me pain.Perhaps the sense of impending doom so pervasive in the previous article was overdone. Recently, I've reread Masse's masterpiece, Peter the Great, a fictional/history on the early years of Genghis Khan, and the book, The Last Samurai, which was twisted into what I thought a powerful movie, although little of movie bore any relation to the reality of the story. The problem is that the history of homo sapiens is primarily a story of barbarism, cruelty, and inhumanity. (Interesting question: What is humanity if we are simply barbarians? What does the word mean?) With the growing desire on the part of third-world nations to acquire nuclear arms in response to Iran, and the failure of the West to constrain them, what is clear is that we do have the ability now to destroy ourselves in ways never before imagined.However, the lack of weapons of mass destruction in the past didn't stop nations from doing their best to wreak as much havoc as possible given the technology of the time. How many historians treat the development of the long bow in England, which allowed them to devastate the French during the Hundred Years War as a technological advance, as something to admire? The Crusades quickly became a means for looting and pillaging. The Ottomans, the ancient Chinese and Japanese, and virtually every other nation were built upon the blood and bones of those who came before. America and Europe have been no better. It was only 300 years ago that Americans burned witches at the stake. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Europe crippled Africa and the Middle East with their so-called nation building that ignored centuries of tribal realities. So what?When we consider the world today and try to comprehend the massive failures of virtually every foreign policy initiative by all countries for improvements, we should recognize that, for all our best intentions, human beings simply do not have the ability to accomplish great goals. Recent studies in neurology, psychology, economics, and other fields make it clear that emotions and primitive urges are much more powerful than either the rational or conscious parts of our minds. The 18th Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, the belief that human beings could harness the power of our rational minds has been revealed to be a myth. We do stand on the edge of a precipice, but I've come to realize that we have always stood there. It is not a new phenomenon. Most cannot even see the precipice; it is too terrifying to imagine. Others believe that technology and the illusion of control over it will provide a bridge. I no longer know what to believe, but I also now question my own fears that homo sapiens is simply another in a series of failed experiments by nature. It's not that I have more hope; it's rather that, looking backwards, I can't find an historical period when we were any better. That is not to say that one should succumb to despair and cease all efforts at improvements. Human beings do have good qualities, not the least of which is a fundamental optimism -- perhaps unreasonable but nonetheless valuable. Despair is tantamount to submission: We have always been and will always been three steps from the cave. Progress is futile.I can't accept that. We must never stop trying to create a more just, equitable world, but perhaps we'll have more success if we realize how much of our own barbarism we have to overcome to achieve it.

Grading The Bush Administration, Part II: Domestic Policy

Mark Schannon — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 20:12:42 EDT

In Part I, we looked at some aspects of the Bush Administration’s foreign policy, but, more important, we acknowledged how difficult it is to play historian when dealing with current events. Historians have enough trouble with past events where one can at least see some of the implications of policies that may have looked good or bad at the time but later turned out to have unintended consequences. In addition, one’s personal bias filters judgments – objectivity is futile, which is why I freely admit to my somewhat liberal approach while also expressing my frustration with many liberal approaches to public policy.Therefore, one has to approach this exercise with caution and humility. A sense of humor is also useful. Compassionate Conservatism: It was never clear what that meant, but it had a nice ring to it. The recent Washington Post series on Dick Cheney makes it clear that the compassionate word means little to him, and given his unusual power and political skill, he’s managed to turn the phrase into just that – nice words. There’s very little indication of compassion in the Bush administration track record, save for the wealthy, and lots of examples of quite the opposite. (Grade: F)No Child Left Behind: Another great sound bite that has shown some results but has also forced schools and teachers into becoming training grounds for standardized test taking as opposed to learning. I would argue that, while the concept is excellent, the approach taken is clumsy and counter-productive. And the budget cuts in education to pay for Iraq and military expansion have made it even more difficult to turn the slogan into reality. To be fair, the public education system in American has been a mess for years, so one can’t blame Bush for all the problems, particularly when competing ideologies and a bunch of Congressional Neanderthals seem incapable of keeping the focus on the real issue: the nation’s children. (Grade: D)Faith-Based Initiatives: I have not seen the data on this, but a friend who filed an FOI request years ago and has been dogged about getting the information relates that virtually 100% of the money has gone to evangelical Protestant groups—none to mainline Protestant, Catholics, Jews, or, gasp, Muslims. Very scary if true. More important, what business does the government have even supporting these kinds of activities? (Grade: F)The Economy, Taxes, Wealth, & Poverty: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed." Guess who said that. Edward Kennedy? Hillary Clinton? The President of Lithuania? Try General Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1950. What a quaint little thought. How... 1950ish, eh? As Peter Drucker, the business consulting guru, once said, "Policy is what we do, not what we say." By that criteria, the policy of the United States is to turn its back on the poor, the disenfranchised, and the struggling.However, once again, one cannot simply blame the Bush administration for an economic system whose goal seems to be wealth creation for the rich and wannabe rich while ignoring the needs of the poor and middle class. The wild growth in disparity of income and wealth began years ago, and the Bush tax cuts simply are a reflection of this strange loss of empathy in America for those whose struggle grows daily. In addition, people tend to assume that presidents have much more power to affect the economy than they actually do, which makes an assessment even more difficult.This issue splits right down ideological lines. Conservatives believe that current economic policy, including tax cuts, are a blessing and have brought prosperity. Liberals compare it to Reagan’s "credit card" economy where he stimulated growth by busting the budget. In early June, the General Accounting Office issued an ominous report, “The Bottom Line – Federal Fiscal Policy Remains Unsustainable.” Federal budget analyst Susan Irving wrote in the report, "Absent any action to change the path of health-care and Social Security spending and a decision about the level of taxes, you cannot fix the long-term fiscal challenge."To his credit, Bush has at least tried to address some of these ticking time bombs, but like every president in the last few decades, he has failed to rally support for third-rail issues such as social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and health care. The American Association for the Advancement of Retired People (Motto: “We’ve got ours—fuck you”) is such a powerful and negative voice against rational change that it’s hard to imagine what anyone can do. (Grade: Take Your Pick – D-F)The Environment: The Washington Post series on Cheney, above, makes it clear that the VP, not very sharp with a gun, hasn’t a clue about environmental issues. It turns out that former EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman, by no means a tree hugger, resigned primarily because of Cheney’s interference in clean air, clean water, natural resource use, and virtually every other issue—all to the detriment of the environment. Worse, the refusal of the administration to engage in any rational way on the global warming debate makes American look like ostriches on the world stage. (Grade: F)Energy: Liberal conspiracy theorists are still convinced we invaded Iraq to get their oil. That's never made any sense to me, but I still haven’t a clue why we invaded Iraq. On the other hand, the Bush team-energy industry relations are well known. The problem is that America has been embroiled in an energy crisis for decades, and, as with other social problems that require personal sacrifice on the part of Americans, rhetoric has far outstripped performance. The calls for a Manhattan Project for new forms of energy have resulted in exclamations of support and huzzahs from all sides -- but no one seems to want to fund it. Solar, geothermal, wind power, and corn cobs are great, but they’re not going to solve the problem. The marketplace, which conservatives tout as the solution to all ills, has been full of hype about hybrid cars, 30+ mpg cars, and winged-tip shoes that actually flap and fly, but it’s mostly hype. Bush could have been the perfect president to break the log jam with a “Nixon Goes to China” breakthrough. Alas, that isn’t his style. So, we leave it to the next president to do nothing on energy. (Grade: It’s not completely fair, but Bush has done virtually nothing except call for drilling in my backyard, which I completely support: F)Immigration: The most moronic piece of legislation ever to surface in Congress finally died…for now, and the Democrats are as responsible as the Republicans for this idiocy.Again, we’re trapped between competing ideologies. The conservatives can’t explain how we’re going to arrest and deport 12+ million illegals; the liberals can’t explain how we’re going to make them legal without unfairly penalizing those legal immigrants who’ve been playing by the rules. Conservatives worry, with some justification, that we’ll be an Hispanic nation within the next few decades; liberals don’t talk about it. Some problems seem simply too massive for a democracy to resolve. (Grade: D, only because Bush supported something, even if it was a horrible bill.)The Bill of Rights, Justice, Security, Freedom: Oh, what a tangled web we weave. The Cheney series in the Post makes it clear that he and his cronies were willing to shatter not only the Bill of Rights, but treaties the U.S. has embraced for over 100 years. What a surprise that our moral authority around the world is now slightly higher than Lithuania’s. The wiretapping of Americans by the National Security Agency, the politicization of the Justice Department (when John Ashcroft refuses to agree with you on how to bend the laws, you know you’re in trouble,) and all the rest suggest that the balance has tilted dangerously in the direction of security over personal freedoms. Why conservatives aren’t screaming about that is one of life’s great mysteries. (Grade: F)Science, Research, and American Technology: One of the most dangerous and short-sighted moves by the Bush administration has been the sapping of research dollars into basic research. As we continue to lose our manufacturing base, which is inevitable, our primary source of economic power will be technology fueled by new science, and we’re slowly losing our supremacy. (Grade: F)The Supreme Court: Conservatives will give Bush an A, liberals will fail him completely. Recent rulings, all by a 5-4 margin, make it clear that Chief Justice Roberts’ claim to want to build consensus is just so much baloney. Personally, I’m horrified, particularly because many of these super conservative justices are so young. For good or ill, the Court may be Bush’s most important legacy; only time will reveal what kind of legacy it is.There is so much more one could explore, but if there’s a sense of sameness about much of the above, it’s because the conservative, pro-business, anti-consumer philosophy is the foundation of this administration’s approach to governance. Ah yes, one more category: The American People. We are becoming self-centered, xenophobic, mean spirited, distrustful, shadows of a once proud nation. We will sacrifice nothing for another -- even our own children. The rare accounts of random acts of kindness are mere drips of color on a canvas painted with scenes from a country I barely recognize any longer. Grade: F