Palin = anti-intellectual "cancer"

A PF shout-out for conservative thinker/columnist David Brooks, somone I've disagreed with for years but respect because he is actually a conservative thinker rather than talking-points babbling political tool. In a recent exchange with Atlantic magazine, Brooks gushes over Obama and characterizes Palin as representing a "fatal cancer to the Republican Party." One can only hope other thoughtful conservatives agree...

Meant to provoke, not to be believed...

I think Bush speechwriter David Frum has got it right on this one--as much as I'd love to see Obama really take the gloves off and go after the bullshit McPalin are throwing his way... Slow and steady as she goes until the election...where hopefully the Stealth Racists won't be voting in significant enough numbers to make these pre-election polls unrealiable...

This emperor-to-be has no clothes...

Wow...talk about an eye-opening piece. This Rolling Stone expose of McCain leaves few stones unturned and lays bare this sham of a man with gems like this:

In its broad strokes, McCain's life story is oddly similar to that of the current occupant of the White House. John Sidney McCain III and George Walker Bush both represent the third generation of American dynasties. Both were born into positions of privilege against which they rebelled into mediocrity. Both developed an uncanny social intelligence that allowed them to skate by with a minimum of mental exertion. Both struggled with booze and loutish behavior. At each step, with the aid of their fathers' powerful friends, both failed upward. And both shed their skins as Episcopalian members of the Washington elite to build political careers as self-styled, ranch-inhabiting Westerners who pray to Jesus in their wives' evangelical churches.

In one vital respect, however, the comparison is deeply unfair to the current president: George W. Bush was a much better pilot.

>>>>

"I enjoyed the off-duty life of a Navy flier more than I enjoyed the actual
flying," McCain writes. "I drove a Corvette, dated a lot, spent all my free
hours at bars and beach parties." McCain chased a lot of tail. He hit the dog
track. Developed a taste for poker and dice. He picked up models when he could,
screwed a stripper when he couldn't.

>>>

Dramesi says he has no desire to dishonor McCain's service, but he believes that celebrating the downed pilot's behavior as heroic — "he wasn't exceptional one way or the other" — has a corrosive effect on military discipline. "This business of my country before my life?" Dramesi says. "Well, he had that opportunity and failed miserably. If it really were country first, John McCain would probably be walking around without one or two arms or legs — or he'd be dead."

>>>

If heroism is defined by physical suffering, Carol McCain is every bit her ex husband's equal. Driving alone on Christmas Eve 1969, she skidded out on a patch of ice and crashed into a telephone pole. She would spend six months in the hospital and undergo 23 surgeries. The former model McCain bragged of to his buddies in the POW camp as his "long tall Sally" was now five inches shorter and walked with crutches.

By any standard, McCain treated her contemptibly. Whatever his dreams of getting laid in Rio, he got plenty of ass during his command post in Jacksonville. According to biographer Robert Timberg, McCain seduced his conquests on off-duty cross-country flights — even though adultery is a court-martial offense. He was also rumored to be romantically involved with a number of his subordinates.

As much as this tightly-written story is a searing microscoping of the McCain we don't know, it is a much more damning indictment of our McMedia that fails to produce even one hint of anything approaching journalism of this type. Here were are months (years?) into this election cycle. How much time and money have the McMedia spent on fixating on polls, phony-debates, phony-issues (lipstick on pigs) and informational landfills full of similar garbage. And yet here we have the real McCain. And of course its not like this information required a team of DeepThroats to extract. It was there for any "journalist" of moderate work-ethic, drive and curiosity to ferret out.

And (again), much more needs to be said about excellence (oops I mean elitism), mediocrity and failure. The author of this piece somewhat kindly characterizes McCain as "mediocre" for his graduating 894th of 899 at the Naval Academy. That isn't mediocrity, that's a fucking failure. And the only reason McCain isn't in his own personal dustbin of history is becasue--like George W. Bush--he relied upon and beneffited from the only kind of affirmative action conservative whites love....the long-thrown shadow of family legacy, power and influence. "Legacy" programs at otherwise respectable schools like Harvard and Yale are the welfare trains for spoiled fuckups like Bush and McCain. And they provide a undeserved teflon coating for future fuckups as well.

Imagine what folks like McCain and his followers would have to say about some minority who lived the life of McCain: academic failure, gambler, fighter, womaziner, crashes several Navy planes, etc. "Another failure of family values in the __________ [insert minority group here] family." But oh no...not Johnny McCain. Through a combination of egoist ambition and our lazy McMedia, McCain is able to spin and sell a tale of a modern steely-eyed George Washington.

Or consider if Obama had even one or two "chapters" out of McCain's generally piss-poor Book of Life. Can we even imagine him in the running today?

'A shocking but enjoyable read...

PF

Damn it Sam...(a defense of elitism)

...you stole my fire on a blog I was going to do on elitism....oh well...saved me an hour :)

But isn't this so true? His example of neurosurgery is brilliant, but could be applied to any one of hundreds of other instances of daily life where we not only tolerate elites--people who are "better" than us in certain respects--but we demand them. Who on earth would seek out a mecahnic, lawyer, preacher, accountant, doctor or pilot based on the same ridiculous "standards" some of us use to determine a president (an "average person who relates to me" or "someone I'd like to have a beer with"). I WANT something who thinks they are better than me when it comes to me deciding where to put trust in them to do a job I can't/won't do for myself.

I'm no Obama-worshipper. He's not nearly liberal/progressive/radical enough for me on most issues (I wish he WAS in fact the liberal bogeyman McPalin portrays him as...). But the guy was a constitutional law professor at one of the most prestigious colleges in the world for 12 years. Hmmmm...the Constitution....doesn't that factor into the presidency somewhere. Oh yeah I remember...you gotta SWEAR to uphold and defend it before taking office. So being one of the most knowledgeable people about the Constitution might, it would be seem, be relevant in a president right? Yet have we even heard this factor discussed? If at all, it is more evidence of his "elitism" and difficulty relating to the "average American." Well guess what folks, I don't want the "average American" with nuclear launch codes and trying to tackle complex problems from energy independence to market collapse to bioterrorism. I WANT someone who is a lot smarter than me rather than someone who graduated 4th from the bottom of his class (McCain) or took 4 different colleges to earn a fluff degree in communications/journalism (Palin) while instead focusing on winning "Ms. Congeniality" and who now is proud of the fact that her ignorance somehow represents a "fresh perspective" in politics. Since when did we decide that intelligence was somehow a liability in people we choose to run the country....? I thought "Idiocracy" the movie was fun fantasy....now I'm not quite so sure...

Christian outside the box

'Listened to this podcast the other day...very interesting...talk about a Christian who defies easy-labeling...in some ways it's tough to see how he's a Christian in any familiar sense, but he has a number of thought-provoking observations worth listening to--including his assertion that the most important thing we have to do in the next 50-100 years is to convince religious people that environmental sustainability is a crisis that must be addressed (ie they aren't going to become Dawkins-loving atheists overnight...you're going to have sell religious believers largely on their own terms of the idea of global environmental sustainability). Dowd's home page is here; lots of interesting stuff there as well...

This "infidel guy's" podcast is pretty decent by the way. I particularly like his segments with the "Bible Geek" (Robert Price), who always has something interesting and very intelligent to say about Biblical history, issues, etc.

McMedia starts coming clean...

Now here's a shocker...in the wake of Scotty McClellan's tell-all screed...a mea culpa from reporter Jessica Yellin that

the press corps was under enormous pressure from corporate executives to make sure the war was presented "in a way that was consistent with the patriotic fever in the nation and the president's high approval ratings."

AP story here. She continues that her bosses bosses "would turn down critical stories about the administration and try to put on positive pieces," which of course the Bush/Rove/Rice/Rumsfeld/McClellan propaganda machine were more than happy to provide. Yellin goes on to express some shock/dismay that she is now "being reported on," which is "not the most comfortable position for a reporter..." Yellin seems as uncomfortable being asked tough questions as she was (not) asking them in the early chapters of the war-march.

Five years too late, and of course by now most of the American sheeple have moved on to more pressing concerns. 'Few Upton Sinclairs in this crowd...

PF

Truthiness

NEBRASKANS BEWARE

I don't know about you, but PF is sleeping much more soundly this evening after learning that Nebraska's progressive Game & Parks Commission constables dispatched this menacing bear caught harassing the residents of Harrison, Nebraska:















This story is picking up more and more traction as a fair number of no doubt latte-sipping flip-flopping Nebraska LIB-rawls question why the level-headed six shooters at Game & Parks couldn't have relocated the bear (see recent stories in Omaha World-Herald and Lincoln Journal Star here, here and here).

A quick review of these articles will reveal that Game & Parks is doing a fair amount of after-the-fact rationalizing. Unfortunately the reality of the situation is far different. Here are excerpts from a friend of mine who lives in Harrison about the whole incident:

“The small brown bear apparently drifted down from the ridge and came through the tree-belt just north of town about 4:30-5:00 p.m. (A yearling male, somebody thought.) He crossed the football field, and then headed southeast across yards and alleys...”

“By this time, several people had joined the "spotters" and a big discussion was on as to how to get him out of town without hurting him. One Harrison resident called Game and Parks, and was told that they'd tranquilize him and move him--if he was still in town when they got here. "Teddy" [as the bear was now being called] then circled through the Sale-Barn property and moved across 29 toward the Harrison House (startling a trucker who came to a stop) where he came within 15 feet of another resident (who isn't afraid of bears, and who provided the best description by far) and headed west and then north again. He charged straight thru the park, then across Hwy 20, and into the tree-belt again…”

“By this time he was being "herded north" by cowboys in pickup trucks...and to my knowledge he never stopped running scared the entire time he was in Harrison. So, when the poor little bear got to Bill Grote's place, he must have been exhausted. Bill and his son waved him into a big tool-shed and slammed the door on him. Then Bill called Game and Parks and told them where the bear was. He now wishes he'd just let the poor thing out...but hindsight is always 20-20. Another Harrison resident asked Game & Parks some pertinent questions...and then was horribly upset at the answers. Seems they [Game & Parks] never had any intention of saving this bear. They "didn't bring" the bear-transport barrel cage. They didn't "have" any tranquilizers, because only the state vet had those and "he wasn't available."

My friend concludes by noting that “everybody is upset, several are in tears, and "Game-and-Parks" will never be called again, nor co-operated with in any way. EVER.”

Well done Game & Parks. I for one as mad as hell and this is the last straw. Game & Parks has a clear track record of “kill first, BS later.” They never come across an animal that isn’t “menacing” or “potentially dangerous” (what one earth isn’t “potentially” dangerous???), and despite the fact that these folks are supposedly experts at wildlife management, they never seem to have any equipment, knowledge or inclination to use anything but a shotgun.

It’s high time that Nebraskans call the Legislature and demand that our tax dollars be better spent. Game & Parks wildlife management “policy” needs to be closely scrutinized and reformulated to integrate some honesty, common sense and intelligence.

Incidentally, I tried several times to post the above letter excerpt in the online Comments section of the Lincoln Journal-Star's story on this incident. Despite the fact that there were over 60 of varying intelligence--none of which related any firsthand knowledge of the incident itself--the jokers at the JS refused to print my contribution. I'm sure it exceeded their length limit by 23 words or something critical like that. And we wonder why we live in a world of complex issues debated and decided by sound-bite length reasoning...

PF

UPDATE 5/23/08

Here's the NE Game & Parks "official response" to this incident on their website. They state in relevant part:

When large predators come in contact with humans in towns or around other places where people live, the result is often not positive for that particular individual, in Nebraska or anywhere else. Western states with resident bear populations annually have to kill dozens of bears which have had multiple human encounters. Colorado Division of Wildlife put down sixty- three such bears last year.

To review that day’s events, Game and Parks biologists and conservation officers were called to a ranch where the bear was contained in a barn and were expected to resolve the situation. The bear was sighted within the town of Harrison earlier in the day, and had subsequently appeared at the ranch north of town. The chances of this happening at random were miniscule; the bear was obviously attracted to human habitations, either through sight or smell, as potential food sources. There was no reason to believe this pattern of behavior would suddenly change, so relocating the bear anywhere near other habitations would very likely have resulted in more interactions with people. Although uncommon, black bears have attacked humans, so the concern for public safety could not be dismissed. Given the extensive movements of this bear and the density of human habitations even in sparsely populated western Nebraska, relocating the bear within the state was not a realistic option.

'Nice story, but not exactly squaring with the facts of Harrison residents. First, G&P was not expected the "resolve the situation." Harrison residents were quite capable of doing that on their own. They were assured that the G&P wildlife "professionals" would relocate the bear; if the "resolution" was killing, Harrison residents are certainly capable of doing that on their own.

Second, G&P appears to place great emphasis on the fact that the bear was sighted near human habitation twice, as if this were conclusive evidence of a "problem bear" that would continue to do so. In fact, Harrison residents confirm that the bear was acting as if it was quite scared and wanted nothing to do with humans. It ended up at the ranch after being "escorted" by Harrison residents themselves...it did not show up there a second time independently.

"Pattern of behavior..." What "pattern"??? A bear showed up ONCE to a small town, ran away at top speed from all humans, and was forcibly "corralled" into a barn. How on earth is that a "pattern" of anything?

"Black bears attacking humans..." Yes I'm sure it does happen. G&P please "put up or shut up" with some facts here....put up some studies showing us how often black bear attacks occur, and compare those facts with other potential threats to human safety.

Somebody's lying...I wonder who? Who has the motive/reason to be deceptive about this incident after-the-fact? Harrison residents or G&P now that their "shoot first" and "rationale later" policy has once again been questioned.

G&P "professionals" in "wildlife management" seem to do no better than a bunch of rednecks in a pickup full of shotguns, and the latter would be much cheaper for Nebraska taxpayers.

PF

PS Incidentally, I provided detailed contact info for several Harrison residents substantiating the above account to both the Omaha World-Herald (Paul Hammel) and Lincoln Journal-Star. Neither has, to my knowledge, chosen to actually practice a little investigative journalism and actually question the "official" Game & Parks account. 'Nice work local McMedia...