Throwing these fucksticks in federal prison would be a good start.
Seriously–now what?
Hopefully, come January, we can start to fix some of the damage from the Bush years.
That set of tasks makes the labors of Heracles look like a fucking Sunday school picnic. Basically, we need an entire overhaul of foreign and domestic policy. (Sounds kind of simple when you put it like that, doesn’t it?) Despite the vital nature of fixing things, however, we face an even more important job: How do we keep this shit from ever happening again?
Reading Athenae’s description of and reaction to Steve Kroft’s interview with Douglas “Stupidest Fucking Guy on the Planet” Feith, I’m at a loss for answers. So here’s me trying to work something out.
I’m thinking that, even if the press hadn’t totally abandoned skepticism in 2002-2007, this war would still have gone on. Can you imagine Feith (or Wolfowitz, or Perle, or smartass Rumsfeld, or snarling Cheney, or dumbfuck Bush) acting any differently if they’d been confronted with their lies before the war?
Honestly, the only way to stop this entire fuck-up would’ve been a huge victory for Gore in 2000. Once these rotten Republican cocksuckers had power, it was over. They had to be stopped before they had control of the government.
So how do we do that? Well, it seems that this whole “blogging” thing might actually be important to that. Not what I do, mind you. I just find funny pictures and swear a lot. But words matter. They do. It’s something Steve Gilliard (rest his world champion of writing soul) reminded us about from time to time. Words matter. The right wing crazies have controlled the debate in this country, and controlled the narratives, for far too long. The list of acceptable ideas to mention in public ranges from center-right to bomb-the-fuck-out-of-everyone-and-eat-the-poor-for-Jeebus. There just wasn’t any place to discuss liberal/progressive/non-batshit-insane-and-horridly-cruel ideas. I know that many of us started shouting into the void following the 2000 election. It’s what got me into blogs, first as a commenter at Eschaton, then at my own little place, and finally here. We knew there was something dreadfully wrong about that entire contest. It was like watching a heavyweight boxer lose a fight to a hamster. How the fuck did that happen?
The right wing nutjobs have spent years honing their rhetoric and studying how to exploit the weaknesses of our press. And they did a great job. As Athenae points out, reporters are often lazy and ignorant, as opposed to biased. I’d throw in “shallow,” as well, especially as pertains to the press who cover campaigns. I’d also add “thin-skinned.” Because, when we started calling them on their laziness, ignorance, and shallowness, they responded by throwing hissy fits. I guess that is a lot easier than self-reflection and evaluation.
But words matter. If they didn’t, the rich motherfuckers who benefit from having the GOP in power wouldn’t subsidize shit like the National Review or the Weekly Standard. They wouldn’t pay skanky-ass, tranny-chic, Taliban wannabe Ann Coulter scads of money to spew her bile if words didn’t matter. And don’t even get me started on that dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks piece of shit Jonah Goldberg. (Liberal Fascism? I’ll have what you’re smoking, please). Rich people don’t like losing money, and they wouldn’t shell out millions of dollars to keep these fourth-rate hacks sitting at keyboards if there was no return.
How do we fight that? How do we beat people who get paid good money to lie, proudly and publicly, about everything?
It would be nice, I suppose, to have some rich-ass liberals underwrite progressive voices. We have far, far better writers than the fucksockets on the right. And most of us do this shit for free, in between day jobs and personal lives, while dealing with bills and spouses and friends and children and pets. Can you imagine what it would be like if Athenae had all day to load her rhetorical bazooka and take aim? (Provided she could stay off the sauce for five minutes, of course. Kidding!) There are lots of other great options, too: the wicked-smart Juan Cole, the tough and funny GNB people, the amazing snark of TBogg and Sadly, No!
We need to support these people. Because words matter. So, all you rich liberals who regularly read this site (*cough cough* donate to us *cough cough*)–if your ideals are important, start writing checks.
You can just mail me cash, though.