By way of Smirking Chimp I come across this fascinating (and utterly depressing) account of how Karl Rove “reached out” to (Saint) Jack Welch, A.K.A “the buzz saw”, Chairman of General Electric, the parent company of NBC, and how together they put in place the right wing noise machine that masquerades as our nation's electronic news media.

More cavalry appearing on the horizon. Go there now and see how you can help.

I went to my first rock concert in years last night. Wife and I took our oldest daughter to see Snow Patrol.

The base player for opening opener Silversun Pickups had an amp with a GREEN LIGHT on it instead of a RED one. What's up with that? Kids these days...

Seriously, it wasn't very different from years ago. OK Go (the middle band) had a a screen behind them with their music videos playing. The music was pretty much like early U2 with a maybe a little Iggy Pop thrown into the first two.

One thing that was kind of weird: no lighters in the air. There was enough cigarette smoking to make my hair stink, but not very much. No pot. Instead of lighters, people held up their cell phones!

Some of that was for taking pictures. It's kind of interesting that where they used to ban recording devices (they may still do so, officially), there's no freakin' way that they can effectively stop that now. (The drummer for one of the bands actually whipped out a little camera to take pictures of his bandmates on stage taking their bows. From behind. Probably included a lot of the audience.) I wonder why they don't have a live Web site on the screen to which the audience can upload their pictures while the show is in progress. More participatory and all...

Anyway, seeing all those cell phones being held up in the air was pretty weird. It was like some sort of bizarre Verizon ad.

It occurs to me that one of the reasons that we are all so accepting of government abuse is that we came of age going to concerts where we would be searched for alcohol (and recording devices), and then be served alcohol on the premises. There's no flipping principle of safety or law at work there — it's simply the exercise of commercial power. We accept it when it's convenient enough to do so, and don't accept it when it irks us enough. For example, we're not going to throw away our cell phones during the entry search. And the “them” accept that, and only try to enforce the abuse of power that they can get away with. So as long as the government keeps the planes running without TOO much delay, and doesn't send us personally to Iraq, we acquiesce.

It seems that the RIAA going around scaring children again.
[Read More!]

Just a note to celebrate the conviction of Shooter Cheney's loyal underling Lewis Libby, a lying weasle if ever there was one (not to mention a purveyor of kiddie porn --see is “novel”). As expected, the corporate media are working overtime to spread the meme that some kind of injustice was done to poor ol' Scooter. Well, that's a syndrome we know well here at Wetmachine. Nobody expected Moloch to whither away after one little conviction, nor Bush neither. Nevertheless we can take joy that one soldier of the Bush crime family has been at least temporarily sidelined.

For a great analysis of the right wing/Bushista/corporate infotainment spin, see this helpful post at premiere site Firedoglake. And if you have a few pennies to throw in the direction of that stellar group of citizen journalists, by all means do so. They're fighting a brave battle on behalf of all of us.

P.S. This FDL post about the role played by NPR's “All Things Considered” in shilling for the administration is also well worth your while.

Isadore Barmash, who passed away last November at the age of 84, was a longtime reporter for the New York Times. Political junkies may be forgiven for not being familiar with his extensive body of work, for Barmash's beat was retail business, not politics. He had a particular interest in the apparel industry (he had worked at Women's Wear Daily before joining the Times). His articles were found most often not in the front section of the paper, but deep in the business pages. I myself don't care about fashion, and when I read a newspaper I usually skip the business stories. So I'm not the kind of guy who would be expected to notice Barmash's byline. But I used to follow Barmash's work because for a period in from the late 60's through 1975, when I was in high school and college, he had series of front-page-of-the-New-York-Times articles that I found absolutely compelling.

His subject was my father.

I thought of Barmash a few weeks ago when Tim Russert's testimony at the Lewis Libby trial was reported. Under oath, Russert said that when he talked to senior government officials, everything was “off the record” unless the official explicitly agreed to go “on the record.” People who value the role of journalism in a democracy were appalled by Russert's admission, but attentive students of contemporary American “journalism” were not surprised. Dan Froomkin rightly said, “That's not reporting, that's enabling.” Russert's sworn testimony made patently clear that what he does for a living is not journalism properly understood, but rather a form of court stenography served up in a a faux-journalism format.

Below the fold, what Barmash, a real journalist, told my father about “on the record” and “off the record.” [Read More!]

Pardon me for piling on, and I'll get back to my usual Wetmachine technoparanoia beat forthwith, but kindly allow me to chime in here with Josh Marshall on the subject of the criminal, nonsensical, dangerous and stupid sociopath who shares the presidency with what's-his-face, that chimp-faced guy about whom the Grammy-winning Dixie Chicks were embarassed to share a home state:

But Dick Cheney's an exceptional case. He stands on his own unique ground of ridiculousness. And because of that he's not simply a bully but a glass bully. Outside of the very hard right wing of American politics, pretty much everyone now sees that Dick Cheney is a screw-up and a moron of historic proportions.

It really is time for us to laugh this guy out of office, is it not, my fellow patriots? Every moment that we allow him to remain in the constitutional office he now occupies (however he got there) is a moment that imperils all of us, and those who will follow us.

Those of you who do not think Dick Cheney is a screw-up and a moron of historic proportions, kindly resume your telephone santitizing or whatever else you were doing. Everybody else, please contact your state senators and representatives and get this impeachment ball rolling. Clearly the congress is not going to take up impeachment until we make them do it. When it comes it will come from the state legistlatures. Do your part. Make sure your state reps are on board.

Updated

I have chaged the title of this little entry, which never really worked (something about Cheney being a fart joke). The point I was trying to make, which is small but important, is that this man deserves no respect at all. Fearing him is understandable — he's a Tony Soprano-like sociopath who manages to extract apologies from people whom he has blasted in the face with shotguns. But he deserves no respect, especially not the phoney-baloney respect “for the office, not the man.” The guy is a first-class moron, every bit as clueless as Bush is. Bush is a universal laughingstock, but Cheney, although he's despised, is somehow still considered “smart” in some circles. He's about as smart as the rocket scientists who decided to go to the Sun instead of the moon. To avoid the heat problem, they were going to go up at night.

Being ancient is no crime, neither is it a crime to be an ignorant prissy mandarin. Nor, in most cases, is it a crime to be a liar.

But it's my blog, and I would like to take this moment to call your attention to the fact that the ancient, ignorant, prissy mandarin known as David Broder, just back from a sold-out performance at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, is up to his usual lying ways.

Now please resume your deliberations over which of Harold Feld's articles to recommend for the technical writing award.

Impeach Cheney; Impeach Bush. Impeach Rice and Hadley. Impeach the whole festering, law-breaking, constitution-hating lot of them. Start at the top and work down or start at the bottom and work up, I don't care.

Reclaim our country. Bring back the rule of law. Not only does our whole country deserve it, but the whole world depends upon it.

NOTE: As with every other posting here at Wetmachine, this one reflects the opinion of me alone, not (necessarily) those of my fellow bloggers.

Some background is here, at MYDD.

Harold, as always we'll look to you for guidance in how to best help out. And of course factual analysis of the issues will help us too.

This fight is far from over. The good guys may be poised to take leadership positions in the Congress, but there are statehose battles raging as well. Now is no time to let down our guard.