Darth Tater!

It's been a slow week.

Madness. And not the March Madness variety either.

So, the tragic saga of Terry Schiavo finally blew up into a full-blown political media circus over the weekend. In a nutshell, after a Florida judge ruled in favor of Michael Schiavo to have the feeding tube removed from Terry Schiavo, Congress, in a flurry of activity (and sanctimonious, self-serving oratory), hastily constructed a bill that would allow a Federal judge to rule on the case. If anyone can be counted as being victorious, it's certainly not Michael Schiavo or his estranged in-laws. No, those who believe they have earned a "victory" will just have to be content to count themselves among the most craven political opportunists in recent memory. In the rush to appease its right-wing religious base, the emergency legislation enacted by the Republican party effectively emasculates the authority of the Florida court system and sets a dangerous precedent with respect to the relationship between the federal government and state governments. Interestingly enough, no one seems to have noticed the irony that Florida, the state that put our current president into office back in 2000, was the first state to be on the receiving end of the federal bitch-slap. It is also particularly worthwhile to note that the Republicans, the champions of states rights, were the ones who were so eager to enact this dramatic judicial intervention. Hmm, I suppose the Gingrich revolution of 1995 is finally over. I guess there is a silver lining to this whole miserable, sordid affair. Of course, with the conventional media having its collective head stuck up its ass, no one is going to pick up on the hypocrisy and Democrats will be demonized as the root of all evil in no time once again. Dammit.

Yeah. Um... duh?

This just in. FCC concludes that the 'Desperate Housewives'/'Monday Night Football' crossover intro not indecent. Oh, for crying out loud.

More journalistic goofiness

While I'm on the topic of "Jeff Gannon," here's the most recent "This Modern World" comic. (Click here for a larger version)



Argh. Once again, the substance of the scandal has been overshadowed by the "salacity" factor. (For anyone keeping score, "salacity" is a real word.) In this case, the appalling security oversight that allowed Mr. "Gannon" into the White House despite his lack of any journalistic credentials has been eclipsed by the (frankly irrelevant) fact that "Jeff Gannon" was a $200/hour male escort who ran homoerotic websites and was delinquent on his taxes.

Anyone remember Rathergate? People got themselves worked up into a frenzy over the fact that the documents were fabricated thanks to observant bloggers who knew the minutiae of the history of fonts and typewriters. No one seemed to be upset that the veracity (or lack thereof) of the purported documents did nothing to mitigate the fact that President Bush himself, arguably the president most eager to commit ground troops into action in recent memory, evaded the draft during the Vietnam War by serving in the Texas Air National Guard.

Yeesh. It's enough to drive one to distraction.

What the fuck?!

First, Bush's military records of his service (or lack thereof, I guess we'll never know at this point) in the Texas Air National Guard mysteriously "disappear." Now this bullshit about the secretly recorded audiotapes leading up to his 2000 presidential election campaign. In a nutshell, the tapes have been handed over to the White House and the matter is considered closed, according to White House press secretary Scott McClellan. Geez, I thought Ari Fleischer irritated me. The current avatar of the Mouth of Bush is just as bad. Anyway, here's the scoop from CNN.

Argh. Just one more example of how little the Bush administration regards the press media. Or rather, it seems that the administration has realized that it can punish uncooperative members of the media (and by "uncooperative" I mean "critical" and by "critical" I mean anyone with a spine who can think for themselves) while rewarding (literally!) "journalists" who are willing to squawk like parrots to promote the administration's policies. And if anyone cries foul, the administration will just unleash the force of the Justice Department on the sorry bastards who had the guts to speak out. Valerie Plame. Armstrong Williams. "Jeff Gannon." Not a shining moment in the history of American journalism right about now. Not at all.