Distillation of Truth: The Flowering of the American Empire

You can see how a certain element in the American culture is fascinated and seduced by Empire. The glory of it all, just the idea of it, not the realities - that's what hooks people. As Chalmers Johnson said, America is sacrificing its democracy for Empire.
'Hermetically sealed' bases within Iraq for decades to come will fool dumbed-down Americans into the notion that we aren't REALLY an empire. Beware the terms bandied about. A big part of the crap shoot of the Bush Administration is that they're going for Empire NOW, before someone else gets the prizes. I think that was a BIG incentive behind invading Iraq, not the laughable Wolfowitless ‘idealism’ of bringing democracy to the benighted or the WMD burlesque…
Call me ‘over the top’, but are they kidding with this crap . . . ?

The Gruesome Truth About Slam-Dunk

Post Mortem on Juan's Love-Cuddle With Junior

It's as if all the little biggies at NPR News have signed onto Junior's porno program with drooling relish. The love fest is just too intoxicating. Tipsy with corporate capital, they're just too drunk with power to realize that they have unabashedly hopped on to the doomed caravan so late, so very late in the Bush Era. How else could such insipid performances on such a wide scale be explained?

Juan Williams Interviews the Blessed One on NPR

Leaving aside all the factors of what this interview SHOULD have been, (and it should have been an opportunity for somebody really bold to nail Bush's ass on every issue) it is nevertheless a considerable example of just how good our boy Junior has gotten at posing in the presidenting act. Not only has he long been able to buddy up one on one, he has also been able to refine his conversational parrying to and fro. It is breathtaking what progress that boy has made. Some of his responses were downright reminiscent of a (get ready) Henry James paragraph-sentence. Could it be that he genuinely impresses the interviewer who happens to be in his presence, so that said interviewer, expecting a true dumbo, discovers Bush to be surprisingly adept at verbal rattling, and so they are defused from asking the tough, intelligent questions, and instead get derailed onto a sidetrack of superficiality, causing the Pres to 'win'. . . ? Why is his decorum so powerful? I noticed that Andy Rooney let fly a complaint yesterday on '60 Minutes' that the Pres can't even say 'nuclear' properly, yet here's poor, pathetic, overrated Juan Williams, taking the Pres to heavy task on his saying 'Democrat Congress' in the SOTU, and even gets him to utter an 'official' statement, saying that he can't pronounce certain words very well, yet drops the ball on this and every other opportunity . . . Well, that's not very accessible or helpful journalism, because the timidity in the face of the Throned One is too great for truth to prevail. I happen to know a woman who, when she lived in Texas, got to talk with the then governor at a benefit in which he appeared. The two talked for over an hour. And because of that - because he deigned to talk to a commoner one on one for over an hour at a public function - the woman I know was exalted. She felt so cared-for, so attended-to. And now, years later, Bush is still able to work his wonders on people who should know better. Question: Bush may have a knack of yak, but is it so formidible that NPR wimps can't stand up to it? Answer: why should they stand up to it when they are perfectly happy to go along with it?

Mara Rage #723

When is someone going to pull up Mara Liasson's turtleneck collar, so that not only her turkey-neck is concealed, but that her trap will be shut as well?
Who the hell likes her? Who thinks she's funny? Or witty? Why does she have to talk in that self-amused, slime-filled, jelly-masticating rattle-babble, that is so blatantly skewed against Democrats and Whigs, despite her alleged 'center-left' stance? Why, why, WHY??
I know, I know, this is 'NPR Loathing 101', but I listen to her in horror, and I know I can turn the radio off, but - wait, I don't want Mara to know that she has this power over me! I know she enjoys it! OK, I'm better now. Her segment is over - for now. But, but, why can't she just stay at Fox, where she's the token gal amongst Bill 'Howdy Doody' Kristol, Brit ‘Lurch’ Hume, et al. At least in their company she can't compete, so she's just boring, what with her time-filling blah-blah-blah and attention-starved pop-eyed grimaces.
End of Mara Rage #723.

Condi Is A Flop

There is little doubt that Condi is a failure as Sec. of State. That is, in conventional terms. As a tool of the Bush Machine she is, admittedly, a success in taking her orders from Chief Martial Law Administrator Cheney, like a good overrated girl.

None other than the ever-reliable Bob Novak points out that State is a mess under her genius leadership:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/
wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/10/
AR2007011002021.html

Regarding Ahmadinejad's state of mind, as revealed by our thoughtful Julie McCarthy on NPR as the US being his 'bitter enemy', it's another example of the Bush Machine's too-perfect packaging of 'evil' enemies. NPR loves to suck up to such opportunities; not much incentive to look past the BS shoveled in their direction. Most of the duds at NPR have about as much imagination as a dried up slug. Of course, this is typical of the mainstream media, where if a reporter gets truly investigative these days, they'll be written off as a conspiracy theorist. Julie wants to keep her comfy gig.
Speaking of theories, I hope I don't risk offense by suggesting that it's not too far out to think that Ahmadinejad just might be on the US payroll in order to agitate matters, so as to 'justify' a US invasion/intervention. After all, Saddam was our man in Baghdad for years, though he didn't stay bought, as Bill Clinton would say. Chavez, that other nasty bogeyman, is too smart to suck up. He can smell sulfur more than a kilometer away. That's what bugs the BM (Bush Machine) so much.

And there is this: the fact that Chairman Mao & Co. embraced US overtures to China as quickly as they did, especially after more than two decades of demonization, is plenty of evidence that nations want deals instead of wars. The Chinese had long been terrified of a US invasion.
Engaging Iran would be just about the simplest and least complicated gesture the US could make right now.
But as we know, the BM does not want a cooperative Iran as it exists now. The BM wants an Iran remade in its own choice of image.

The Yakkings of Melmoth

NPR Knows How To Handle Hugo Chavez & Co
I find it difficult not to be crabby about NPR's frequent smirking over something like the recent (9/19-20/06) UN speeches by world leaders. In reviewing Hugo Chavez' fan-mucking-tastic screed at the Bush Machine's accomplishments (9/20/06), it was obvious that 'All Things Considered's Melissa Block's mouth was curved into a smug little smile for the whole duration of the piece, and her voice had a tone and inflexion far more comfortable with a garden party story. So that's how she handled it. Her voice betrayed the triteness of her own condescension. The only good thing was that we didn't have to suffer through Robert Siegel's tut-tutting. So much of prime-show NPR is becoming unlistenable to me. Their on-air talent has either been around too long (i.e. Cory Flintoff STILL sounds like he's a middle school nerd trying to prove himself) or they're just plain terrible (Jack Speer reading the news!). Of course, they all take themselves so seriously that their opinions of themselves and their enterprise could not possibly be anything but self-congratulatory. Yet they're still the only viable alternative game in town as far as convenience is concerned.

As far as Chavez's speech is concerned, it was certainly a burlesque. But supposedly sober, supposedly upright (but terminally bozo) characters like John Bolton may wish to learn that the Latin American world-view often integrates literary and theatrical techniques, sometimes involving 'low-brow' or surrealistic humor to make very serious points. I cite G. Garcia Marquez, Reinaldo Arenas, and J.L. Borges as masters and practitioners of this approach. NPR might have attempted to explore this angle, but I guess they were just too cool to bother.

The conservative corporate influence has its protruding dangerous instruments poised at, near, or within every orifice and sphincter associated with the body of NPR, and that fact is certainly an embarrassment, but an unavoidable fact.

There is hope: there IS life after NPR. Stay tuned.

The Yakkings of Melmoth

A SPIN, WITH VOLGAMATIC TRANSMISSION

The scene spun out like this:

Dubya: How the f@*% d'ya steer this Commiemobile?

Vlad: Mistr Prayseedawnt, has forklift-style stee-reeng box.

Dubya: How the f@*% d'ya shift it?

Vlad: Has Stalin-o-matic drive.

Dubya: Holy f@*%! Y'mean the Leader and Teacher hisselfs drove this
here rig, Vladimur?

Vlad: (lying, as it seems to please the President) You bet you, Mistr
Prayseedawnt.

Dubya: Can't wait to get the f@*% back to my Suburban!

Vlad: (in post-Soviet Russian, to the press outside) Poor Mistr Boosch.
He is how you say, baby-coddled with the GM autos.

Dubya: Hey Vladimur, kin you f@*%ing do me a favour?

Vlad: Anything, Mistr Prayseedawnt.

Dubya: Well, y'know, cuz Poppy won the Kold Worr an' all, I uh,
promised him that when I'd finally driven Joey Stalin's car in triumph,
with you ridin' shotgun so's you're humiliated in front of all your
Commie friends, I promised Poppy that I'd take a dump in Joey's crapper,
too, jes for good measure. And hey, YOU get to f@*%ing flush! Can we go
over there now?

Vlad: But of course Mistr Prayseedawnt. Take 'left' turn up ahead. 'Get
it'? (laughs)

Dubya: (a tad dim in picking up on Vlad's wry wit in roasting him with
a little post-Leninist-Marxist humour) OK. I can't wait no longer. This
is gonna be a the f@*%ing highlight of this here joyride.

Vlad: (as former head of KGB, Vlad knows that all Kremlin toilets are
equipped with spy-cams; he whips out his Nokia and, in deepest Russian,
requests for the Josef Stalin Memorial Sanitary Pedistal Stall to be
dolled up for the President's imminent arrival, and that spy-cam access
be opened up to the international media) I totally agree, Mistr
Prayseedawnt.





The Yakkings of Melmoth

The Yakkings of Melmoth

Continuing our series of celeb affairs, none other than Angela Davis
appeared here on campus for a lecture. I remember seeing her in her more
radical days, in 1976, when I worked at the Paramutual. Speaking of V.I.
Lenin, she was appearing there as candidate for Richard X. Chaenei's
office on the Commonist Party ticket, with the legendary Gus 'I'm Just
Like Brezhnev' Hall going for the Pres slot. I thought she was brilliant
back then, and she is even more so now. She gave a wonderful talk about
corporations and globalism. Ronnuld Wilson Raygun had her framed in a
preposterous bogus case, of which she was exonerated (no one ever said
they were even sorry), and as a consequence, Jay Ed Hoov put her on the
FIB's 10 Most Wanted. She is utterly without any bitterness on her own
behalf though, and is not burdoned with an ego. She is totally cool.

The Yakkings of Melmoth

The Yakkings of Melmoth

Bush-y Moustache is on the mat. Personally, I hope he gets into the UN
position, if for nothing else because his subsequent boorish berhaviour
(which will no doubt include throwing staplers at any number of
delegates from sub-Saharan African nations) will show the world what
radicals the Cartel really are. I'd love to see him make a complete and
utter bozo of hisself on, as the Bush Twins would say, 'LIVE TV!!', or
else he will be completely and utterly emasculated and humiliated by the
constraints of the office, and will wobble off into private life, in
need of Viagra I-V boosts in order to just keep his Bushy lip brush from
falling out. The latter will no doubt satisfy Condi's housecleaning
obsessions most thoroughly.


'But in Iraq, which already had a secular state, we have the additional
complication of sectarian/ethnic divisions -- your Sunnis, your Shiites,
your Kurds -- not to mention, the tribalism within those divisions. (Am
I bitter enough to point out once again that Paul Wolfowitz said under
oath, "There is no history of ethnic strife in Iraq"? You bet your ass I
am.)' - Molly Ivins


The Yakkings of Melmoth

The Yakkings of Melmoth

HE DIDN’T STAY BOUGHT

Now listen. What I'm about to say may strike you as incredulous, but I
tell you, it's all based on a pretty credible-sounding speculation I saw
on the Beeb. That is, the Cartel is trying to 'work' with Saddam. When
Little Dohn was over there a few weeks ago, he gave about 17 minutes to
cheering the droop troops up. Where was he the rest of his day-long
cameo in B-dad? Hanging out behind the chopped-down palms on the
Merciless Road To The Airport? No sir. Seeings how Donn and The Saddom
had their buddy days, why not have the little wrestler meet face to face
with the ageing Stalin admirer and make him a full-Nelson offer? That
is, promise exile in return for some Saddamish condemnation for this
here insurgency. No one knows what happened as a result, but I would
imagine that by the time Dawn trotted daintily up the embarkation ramp
and got on his little Pentagon jammies for the long flight home, the
Cartel was busily coming up with a plan B. Which is: just a few days
ago, it was Condi's turn. After 14.5 minutes pepping with our men and
women in uniform (reminding them to 'stay focused' while in Iraq!!), she
too went unto the recalcitrant Leader and tried her black chick
schtick-hula dance in front of him. Because, heck, this pesky
insurgency's GOT to stop SOME time! Right? Personally, I think they're
desperately trying to get Mr Hussain to somehow defuse the insurgency.
As if any of the insurgents still CARE about him! Listen, they're in it
for themselves. Why should they still be following some 68 year old
jailbird? I'm sure that Richard X. Cheney, enraged over sending
candy-ass Condi to do a big Dick's job, is preparing discreet procedures
so as to lean on the Saddam in ways that will finally produce some
gawdam RESULTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



The Yakkings of Melmoth

The Yakkings of Melmoth

BOLTONIA

This is the 16th hour in which I've been down on my knees, doing some
mega-heavy-duty Elmo Gantry-style holy rolling, doing my part to
arm-twist the Lord into allowing His country to make sure that such
leaders of the future, such as Ultra-Judge Janice Rogers Browne and John
'Misplaced Moustasche' Bolton, be placed in their high-high offices, and
so that Christian Fascism will become the Rule of Law in His nation, now
and for ever.

It is, as President George Skwalker Bush would say, 'hard work', but
now that that chunky Tex bitch Prissy 'Thank Yieu!' Owens is planting
her 50-year old widetrack ass in the easy chair of the 459th Circuit
Court - a chair that is heavy duty enough to be wheeled with no problem
across the street into the Supreme Temple of HyperJustice when Bill 'I'm
Almost Wrapped' Wrenkwiszt trips over his robes for the last time -
there is now hope that the hopelessness and melancholy despair of
Rillidjuss Write lifestyle gloom will further seep into His country's
very soul. Rejoice and be dismal!

In all seriousness, while I have a contempt for all those unsavoury
judicial candidates, as I said before, I DO want Moustache to get into
the UN position. At this point, I want the Cartel to pepper the points
of power with their clones, if only to show the world (not to mention
the just over half-braindead Americanski peipl) just what radicals these
characters be. If they cannot be avoided by namby-pamby conventional
means, then they must be indulged so that they can either self-destruct
or burn out, or demonstarte to decent people, interested in still doing
this thing we call civilization, that we don't want what they bring with
them, and thus they will press for their removal in more aggressive and
effective ways. I want the extremists to blow out so the pendulum can
swing back again. This may sound overly optimistic, but I think it's
possible - still.

One thought on the ReeLidJus Wryte. It is a fact that much of
conservative and evangelical Christianity (if the latter term can be
accurately used) tends to be fatalistic, if not downright apocalyptic in
their world view. They bring little comfort, what with their Final Days
scenario, which has no basis other than mumbo-jumbo legends that aren't
even as classy as the Mayan calender cut-off. This yearning for the end
of all things has seeped into Gubment in that it lends a dreariness to
the conservative agenda. I remember, while growing up, that mainstream
Christianity always used to badmouth eastern religions for being
fatalistic, but there's not much talk about that any more. And I'm not
talking about Islam, cuz it's a western religion, being Abrahamic and
all. Today, in comparison with the Christian tilt to the right, so to
speak, Hindoos and Buddhists look positively hedonistic, cheerful, and
more sure of themselves than ever. The world of the 'Merican holy roller
is very constricted, and it continues to shrink. Yet, with their
political influence, they have brought an anxious dreariness with them,
and they have inflicted it on the rest of us. Even though they have what
they think is a sympathetic president in control, and a virtual majority
in congress, and now the judicial wing might be within their grasp, they
are still miserable. Because that's what they think they're supposed to
be. Life MUST be a Vale of Tears. Never mind about making it better.
Personally, I think that the Cartel is scarcely interested in such
gobbledegook, and is only tolerating the Dreary Ones for political
purposes. That's why this conjoined extremism must be allowed to extend
further, so that it can collapse under its own weight.

So in the meantime, GO, Moustache, GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!



The Yakkings of Melmoth

The Yakkings of Melmoth

WHAT TO DO:

I would add that those persons directly responsible for prosecuting this invasion (e.g. Messrs. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Cheney, et al) should themselves be prosecuted in light of gross abuse of power. MoveOn.org would be well advised to thoroughly inform the American public as to who actualized this war, and why, to serve as an ethical compensation for the ensuing tragedy.

The Yakkings of Melmoth

The Yakkings of Melmoth

Why Does The Country Approve?

If dimbulbs in charge
Rankle as to their steering
And if Big Gubment so offends,
Why is it then,
That everything that such culprits do
Is apparently OK?
If people love to bitch
About the stuff that bugs them,
But the trends go on
And indeed, deepen,
All the stuff they don't like,
Like the bush-league machine
That hijacks their life
More, day by day -
Why, then, do they put up with it?
With the whole dreary crew now in charge,
What's WITH the citizen
Who supposedly cares?
What??!!
Well . . .
I think they are dissolved with fear,
Even though they pretend
Or even think
That's all's really OK,
They cannot speak it,
Cannot lift it,
Off their chest high enough
To see the real threat,
The real rot,
And the extent of the corruption now in play.
If the only legal answer is to Chimpeach
The whole lot of them,
So that the decks may be swept clean,
These citizens are yet as children
And children are not ready
To seize such opportunities
- Whether Last or Best.
So that's the deal;
It's not all that bad right now.
Apparently.
That's why they say it's OK
To proceed with what we now have.
As Prez sez: 'To continue . . .'

I, uh, disagree.
Who supposedly cares?

The Yakkings of Melmoth

The Yakkings of Melmoth

The Yakkings of Melmoth

Lynndie! Alas, Alas For Lynndie!

Oh Lyndie!
Perverted Punky Brewster!
Storm chaser!
Tough little onion
From the farm of bitterness!
Now - hear -
Eleven years!
In deepest stir!
Because of a wink, a cig, a thumbs up!
Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!
Why didst thou go with Graner the Seducer,
Unto unholy works
In Baghdad the Damned?
Was it your Oxygen-deprived silence?
Or your will to follow,
Not reading in any way
The signs towards your misfortune?

But, thy infant child, thy one hope!
Seed of trailer trash
Bound for grimness,
Nevertheless, could well rise
From the fumes of failure
In the years ahead, of future dynastic tyrrany,
Towards triumph,
When he testifies in front of Congress all
To reveal the truth about his unhappy mother:
That The Don himself,
Knowing the Private's cellphone number,
Made, with approbation from assistant The Paul,
Who, comb in mouth,
Hovering over his boss's wrestler's shoulder
In timid but commanding form,
Chuckled, as The Don
Gave direct writ to sullied Lynndie,
To go, make merry with Eye-Racky flesh;
Pose, in trophy hunt form,
Have big fun, and go in saturnalian joy.
But do not ask - yea - and do not tell,
Of these arcane orders - evermore.
Under a threat which cannot be named.

And Lynndie, tough punky pipsqueak,
Kept silent, as was her old way, those long years,
Bitter, but resolved, to retain her merit as loyal
To they who commanded her,
Be it unto the grave.

Yet, in son's noble quest for justice,
They who made their princely plots from afar
Will still come unto judgement,
Ultimately in a court far higher
Than any now known.

Oh Lynndie, young Lynndie!
- If 22 be still young -
How could you have known,
In your trailerian days in old W. Virginny,
That you could have made
Pentagonian trusses tremble,
And the inhabitants therein cry
Unto heaven for mercy?

As you sit out your youth
In the not unpleasant cooler
In an as yet undetermined military facility,
But without a Freedom nor Liberty
Of which the Leader hath benovolently
And magnanimously brought
To they whom you posed with,
Know this: ye can still shake ye foundations
Via a bestseller, so that The Dons and The Pauls
And all they who are of them,
Have ye to fear!

Winter Light

Faded blue miniature lamps, strung from a post with a red plastic star at its summit, start to stand out in the gathering snowy gloom.

Meanwhile, back in Port Blair, scenes of stark horror under the white hot noon bloat into inarticulate states of silence.

Prelude

Irving J. Kenderson presents - in creative association with

Lord BOYLESTON-CHIGGS

the Chance Parker production of

The
Yakkings of MELMOTH

An Epic Wandering into the heart of what's shakin' wherever and whenever the need to expostulate erupts...
It could be at any time and under any circumstance.

The previous utterance is the ONLY WARNING that will be given, as the Yakkings cannot be directed, hogtied, and/or otherwised coerced.

Next:

Let the Yakkings BEGIN!