December 29, 2005
The Pall of "Normalcy" Has Once Again Fallen Over the Radical, Rogue Regime
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
The pall of "normalcy" has once again fallen over the rogue, radical, lawbreaking, bumbling, national security threatening, lying, character assassinating administration.
By that we return to one of our favorite BuzzFlash themes, how Karl Rove has turned incompetence, lying and lawbreaking into what Hannah Arendt, a philospher, called the banality of evil.
So now we are treated to an Associated Press story that announces Bush's grand plans for 2006. We see photos of "Baby Doc" and Laura carrying their photo-op dogs for that warm fuzzy feeling. There are articles in every paper about what books Bush is allegedly -- and we emphasize allegedly -- reading while the world burns. (Of course, these are actually books that Bush carries in his hand on photo-ops to give the impression that he is reading them because they create a certain image about him; in this case a book about rough rider Teddy Roosevelt, and one about the heroism of U.S. soldiers. Just more props. We dare a White House "reporter" to ask Bush a substantive question about either book. They will just get a blank stare. The last book he read in full was "My Pet Goat" on 9/11.)
And the Washington Post runs a long story about the Bush Administration plan for political "recovery." Shouldn't that just be about a rehabilitation program for people after they get out of jail?
It's as though we weren't being ruled by a bunch of Constitution shredding, incompetent, fanatical thugs. These guys should be in the hoosegow, not guffawing about how Scott McClellan is so good at never answering a question, as Christmas goose gravy drips from their chins.
This sort of "pall of normalcy" settles over the media after every Bush debacle and horrid revelation that any other president would be impeached for. In part, it's because the Democratic leadership (although acting a bit tougher on occasion than in the past) doesn't push back hard enough -- and doesn't sustain the outrage and demand for accountabilty appropriate for the situation.
And then there's the press, which just rides the crest of each news cycle without providing any historical context to the latest propaganda from the White House. And today, historical context for an evening story would mean just remembering what the White House said in the morning, which is often just the opposite of what it is declaring by the evening. But the media obliviously trudges on like good stenographers, making crime breaking seem like a routine function of government.
There's little doubt now that you could have a pumpkin as president and the mainstream corporate press would still print the same "business as usual" stories as they do about Bush.
After all, having a cabbage head as president isn't that different from having a pumpkin.
Except that this cabbage head is something that you would serve up for a prison meal, not treat with deference and complacency.
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS