Month: March 2004

Great Moments in Talk Therapy

If you want to get in on a little moment in media history, watch the Dennis Miller Show on CNBC before it’s canceled. It’s a valiant attempt to skewer the Bush-hating left with humor that’s failing to find an audience. The problem is that Dennis’ hip humor, laden with pop-culture references, is lost on the … Continue reading “Great Moments in Talk Therapy”

If you want to get in on a little moment in media history, watch the Dennis Miller Show on CNBC before it’s canceled. It’s a valiant attempt to skewer the Bush-hating left with humor that’s failing to find an audience. The problem is that Dennis’ hip humor, laden with pop-culture references, is lost on the conservative audience most drawn to his unvarnished support of the President and his conduct of the war on terror. Not that there aren’t plenty of people who get the humor and support the President – the South Park audience is full of us – but I’m not sure they’re in the mood for another daily news/talk/politics/humor show, and they’re certainly not in the studio audience; those stiffs sit on their hands when Dennis makes the most hilarious jabs, just not getting any of it.

One of the show’s unique moments was an interview with Eric Alter-the-facts-man, where Dennis just quit talking and pretended to doze off after his guest exhausted his quota of received opinion, knee-jerk response, and scripted claims. See the Observer’s account:

[Miller] pretended to be asleep.

When Mr. Alterman finished his spiel, Mr. Miller went bolt upright and snapped at the camera: “All right, you’ve been great. Come back anytime.”

Mr. Alterman left stunned.

Alterman flogged the heck out of the story on his blog, and was livid with the Observer’s account.

Whether the incident was a melt-down for Miller or a brilliant move probably depends on where you sit. It’s clear that there’s not much point in trying to engage someone as dishonest as Alterman (or Chomsky or Moore) in a point-by-point debate, so yawning is probably the best move. Mocking would be another angle, but Alterman himself wouldn’t know he was being messed with, and neither would the dimwitted audience. So yeah, maybe it was brilliant, but if it was it was too brilliant for TV.

I like Dennis Miller and want him to succeed, but the show clearly needs work.

Logic Problem

Bush-haters’ criticisms of the liberation of Iraq tend to follow scripts. One common complaint was first voiced by Wesley Clark at the beginning of his ill-fated but highly amusing run for the nomination, to the effect that Iraq was a “distraction” from the war on terror that actually emboldened the terrorists at the same time … Continue reading “Logic Problem”

Bush-haters’ criticisms of the liberation of Iraq tend to follow scripts. One common complaint was first voiced by Wesley Clark at the beginning of his ill-fated but highly amusing run for the nomination, to the effect that Iraq was a “distraction” from the war on terror that actually emboldened the terrorists at the same time that it pissed them off. We should never irritate the terrorists though express action, because if we ignore them they’ll go away.

Another script is making the rounds of the more extreme (explicitly) anti-capitalist wing: that Saddam wasn’t really such a bad ruler, because the sanctions regime was the real villain in pre-liberation Iraq. This script is put out by the same people – Noam Chomsky and Michael Moore – who say that invasion was unnecessary because “containment was working.”

Excuse me, but “containment” and “sanctions” are two names for the same thing. So how can this thing be bad when the Bush-haters need to answer the human rights dimension of the liberation, but good when they need to slam the death and destruction coincident to the liberation?

In Chomsky’s fantasy, lifting the sanctions would have ensured that the Iraqis themselves could have otherthrown Saddam, which means that he at least sees the contradiction and tries to address it, while Moore doesn’t see it at all (at least according to his appearance on the lame Air America “O’Franken Factor” today).

If elimination of the sanctions was the key to the overthrow of Saddam by Iraqis, why didn’t they get around to it before the sanctions were put in place?

Television viewing tip

The Epicurious web site has spawned a TV show, arguably the worst cooking show ever. In this week’s episode the bone-head chef made a so-called Philly cheese steak with Provolone instead of Cheez-Whiz and so-called Texas chili with water insead of beer. The FCC should fine this program for indecent content.

The Epicurious web site has spawned a TV show, arguably the worst cooking show ever. In this week’s episode the bone-head chef made a so-called Philly cheese steak with Provolone instead of Cheez-Whiz and so-called Texas chili with water insead of beer.

The FCC should fine this program for indecent content.

Yes-man Richard Clarke’s Complaint

Tme Magazine’s not exactly a part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, but they’re not at all impressed with Richard Clarke’s increasingly shrill shilling for his book: While Clarke claims that he is “an independent” not driven by partisan motives, it’s hard not to read some passages in his book as anything but shrill broadsides. … Continue reading “Yes-man Richard Clarke’s Complaint”

Tme Magazine’s not exactly a part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, but they’re not at all impressed with Richard Clarke’s increasingly shrill shilling for his book:

While Clarke claims that he is “an independent” not driven by partisan motives, it’s hard not to read some passages in his book as anything but shrill broadsides. In his descriptions of Bush aides, he discerns their true ideological beliefs not in their words but in their body language: “As I briefed Rice on al-Qaeda, her facial expression gave me the impression she had never heard the term before.” When the cabinet met to discuss al-Qaeda on Sept. 4, Rumsfeld “looked distracted throughout the session.” As for the President, Clarke doesn’t even try to read Bush’s body language; he just makes the encounters up. “I have a disturbing image of him sitting by a warm White House fireplace drawing a dozen red Xs on the faces of the former al-Qaeda corporate board…..while the new clones of al-Qaeda….are recruiting thousands whose names we will never know, whose faces will never be on President Bush’s little charts, not until it is again too late.” Clarke conjured up this chilling scene again on 60 Minutes. Only in this version he also manages to read Bush’s mind, and “he’s thinking that he’s got most of them and therefore he’s taken care of the problem.” The only things missing are the black winged chair and white cat.

Leaving aside the fact that Bush never fails to insist that the terror threat is as great today as it was on 9/11, these passages reveal the polemical, partisan mean-spiritedness that lies at the heart of Clarke’s book, and to an even greater degree, his television appearances flacking it.

The man obviously has an axe to grind, and it’s becoming increasingly obvious that his main beef isn’t that the Admistration failed to take Osama seriously as much as they failed to take him — and his quirky obsession with cyber-terrorism — seriously and to treat him with the respect that he alone thought he deserved.

The Administration didn’t need yes-men after Sept. 11th, they needed serious policy advisers, and that’s the reason Clarke had to go.

World’s funniest blog

Turning the Tide replaces Protein Wisdom as the world’s funniest blog thanks to posts like this one: People in the more civilized sectors of the world (what we call “the third world,” or the “developing countries”) often burst out laughing when they witness an election in which the choices are two men from very wealthy … Continue reading “World’s funniest blog”

Turning the Tide replaces Protein Wisdom as the world’s funniest blog thanks to posts like this one:

People in the more civilized sectors of the world (what we call “the third world,” or the “developing countries”) often burst out laughing when they witness an election in which the choices are two men from very wealthy families with plenty of clout in the very narrow political system, who went to the same elite university and even joined the same secret society to be socialized into the manners and attitudes of the rulers, and who are able to participate in the election because they have massive funding from highly concentrated sectors of unaccountable power that cast over society the shadow called “politics,” as John Dewey put it.

While Protein Wisdom’s humor is stylish and intentional, ChomskyBlog’s isn’t, and that’s why it’s so funny.

Link via Michael J. Totten

All Noam, all the time

Leave it to the brilliant Noam Chomsky to peer deep inside the brain of the Anglosphere and expose our fascist ways: Political leaders in both Washington and London, which assisted in last year’s American-led invasion, insist that what they want to establish in Iraq is a government that answers to the wants, needs and goals … Continue reading “All Noam, all the time”

Leave it to the brilliant Noam Chomsky to peer deep inside the brain of the Anglosphere and expose our fascist ways:

Political leaders in both Washington and London, which assisted in last year’s American-led invasion, insist that what they want to establish in Iraq is a government that answers to the wants, needs and goals of its own people.

Chomsky doesn’t believe it.

“Is there any evidence that the U.S. or Britain has tried to do that anywhere?” he asked.

“They’re imperial powers.”

So there, mes amis. And you know he’s right about the US and the UK’s historical failure to support even a single democratic state — if you ignore India, Canada, Mexico, all of South America, most of Africa, Europe, the rest of Asia, and Australia/New Zealand.

Who does this deranged bastard think he’s kidding?

Bad news for Bush

Forget Paul O’Neill and Dick Clarke; the Bush campaign is in real trouble now that Kerry’s got the most coveted endorsement in contemporary politics: Noam Chomsky, the political theorist and leftwing guru, yesterday gave his reluctant endorsement to the Democratic party’s presidential contender, John Kerry, calling him “Bush-lite”, but a “fraction” better than his rival. … Continue reading “Bad news for Bush”

Forget Paul O’Neill and Dick Clarke; the Bush campaign is in real trouble now that Kerry’s got the most coveted endorsement in contemporary politics:

Noam Chomsky, the political theorist and leftwing guru, yesterday gave his reluctant endorsement to the Democratic party’s presidential contender, John Kerry, calling him “Bush-lite”, but a “fraction” better than his rival.

The Chomsky endorsement follows similar Kerry votes-of-confidence from Courtney Love and the homeless guy who nibbled her nipple at Wendy’s, and is of similar magnitude. Karl Rove can’t be happy about this.

That’s nuts

Forbes writer Stephen Manes isn’t impressed with Larry Lessig’s new book: The intellectual property issue of our time is how to balance the rights of creators and consumers. Don’t look to Lessig for that balance. First he reasonably extols “‘Walt Disney creativity’–a form of expression and genius that builds upon the culture around us and … Continue reading “That’s nuts”

Forbes writer Stephen Manes isn’t impressed with Larry Lessig’s new book:

The intellectual property issue of our time is how to balance the rights of creators and consumers.

Don’t look to Lessig for that balance. First he reasonably extols “‘Walt Disney creativity’–a form of expression and genius that builds upon the culture around us and makes it something different.” But then, in a rhetorical bait-and-switch, he spends most of the book making the case that a free pass should be given to the specific kind of “creativity” that directly reuses existing work, up to and including wholesale sampling and so-called sharing.

That’s nuts.

Link via Lessig’s blog.