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The Debate
I didn't watch it. It was rigged. Today's New York City rightwing newsrags are saying Mitt the Mormon scored big time against President Black Man. Though Jim Lehrer's a good man, I've known him since 1965 when I first met him and his wife and newborn daughter at my brother's house, but all his bullshit talk about "the Commission" not having seen the questions he chose from the thousands sent in by email and Twitter is just that, bullshit (William Pitt Rivers totally trashed old Jim in his Truthout article on the smelly debate that you can read on buzzflash.com). First of all this "Commission" is a joke. Its two heads are the former Republican Party chairman and Bill Clinton's old chief advisor. This Commission, sponsored by the way mainly by Annhauser-Busch (which is now owned by a Brazil-Dutch company), free beer for the boys in the back room, I assume, took over these debates from the League of Women Voters back in the 90s in a coup that was fomented by both parties to keep third-party candidates out of the debates. I mean, come on, these debates being taken seriously, come on, only a duped fool would believe these silly events aren't rigged. Amy Goodman and Democracy Now had an interesting program planned--they were going to pause after every Mitt and Obama statement and let Green Party candidate, Dr. Jill Stein, and Justice Party candidate, Rocky Anderson, respond. But, alas, New York's Pacifica station, WBAI, hooked up with their Houston affiliate and just broadcast the debate straight, with in-house afterward commentary by Dick Wolff and Greg Palast.
Politics is so beneath me now. Instead of watching the debate, I relished reading a new book I got in the mail, Rifftide, the Life and Opinions of Papa Jo Jones, compiled and edited by Paul Devlin from a series of taped interviews with Papa Jo Albert Murray made back in the late 70s and in 1985, the year Jo died. Paul Devlin's meeting Albert Murray is quiet a story in itself, but thank goodness for that union. Murray, a man who's now in his early 90s, had pushed the tapes aside and instead concentrated on writing a couple of novels. Paul Devlin came along to help boogie Albert around town and such when one day Albert, now in bad health, suggested why didn't Paul take the tapes and make a book out of them. And Paul did it and after 11 years finished the job, sold it to the University of Minnesota Press, and thus Rifftide, a wonderful book about a wondrous man, Papa Jo Jones. Albert Murray compared Jo's life and opinions to James Joyce's Finegan's Wake, a wise comparison when you consider the art of punning and dreaming at the same time. Both books are stream of consciousness at its best.
Later in this broad day I notice that the rightwing corporate media are trumpeting how Mitt "the Mormon" Romney whacked Obama the first Black President real good. Put this uppity N-worder in his place. It seems the humble Obama has no balls at all and didn't whack back at Mitt "the Mormon"--what a shame this president has turned out to be. Actually as Gore Vidal said, there's no difference in these characters except that Mitt is richer and more corporately tied than Obama. H.L. Mencken said the American people had rather believe lies than believe the truth.
Then on Gary Null's noon radio program he had this dude on who says it won't matter who is president next year when the solar flares start hurling themselves full blast at this old planet. A few days ago I read that a huge explosion due to a solar flare had happened on the back side of the Sun, our true natural God, a solar flare so magnificent that if it had been on the front side of the Sun we human monkeys today would have our lives changed drastically, those of us still alive.
We are doomed. We are in utter chaos now--a Chaos I don't think we will escape.
thegrowlingapoliticalwolf
for The Daily Growler
The following is from Greg Palast...the first paragraphs are missing:
When Mr. PBS Bumblebrain asked you the difference between your views and Gov. Romney’s on Social Security, you said, “You know, I suspect that, on Social Security, we’ve got a somewhat similar position.”
Really, Mr. President, REALLY?
Romney says that if you’re 38 or 54, it doesn’t matter that you’ve paid into Medicare and Social Security all your life, you don’t get the insurance you paid for. You get some stinking voucher, some coupon that says, “Here’s a hundred bucks kid, go buy a gold watch.”
Who exactly is going to take a voucher to provide health insurance to a 72-year-old with asthma, in a walker and prostate problems?
Governor Romney said, with that smirky, smarmy grin, “I’d assume I’d rather have a private [health] plan.” Gee, Mr. Romney, could you give me the number of your insurance company and tell them to take my “voucher”?
Mr. President, you gabbled on about the Cleveland Medical Clinic and its “best practices.” Who the hell cares, Mr. President? There are people bleeding out here, LITERALLY BLEEDING, who now can get health coverage because of ObamaCare. For all its failings, it saves lives, saves homes from foreclosure caused by insane medical bills – only recently, the number one cause of foreclosures in America.
Can’t you even defend the one thing that’s worth a damn and has your name on it?
Romney’s wife has MS. That’s sad. But what’s tragic is that there are millions in America with MS who couldn’t get insurance because they have this prior condition—and are not married to an investment banker demi-billionaire.
I don’t care that you couldn’t seem to defend yourself tonight, Mr. President. That’s a Democratic Party headache. What I resent, what gets me furious and angry, is that you didn’t defend ME. Me and my family.
When Romney says he defends small business, let me tell you, I have a small business. I don’t need a tax break – hell, like most small businesses, we don’t make money. We need health insurance. We need government loans.
When Romney says government never does anything cheaper than the private sector, Mr. President, don’t you know that it was government mortgage agencies that funded America’s middle class homeownership? That’s what government did – and licked Hitler to boot.
When mortgages were privatized, we were thrown at the mercy of the Banksters.
(And why the hell did you, Mr. Obama, bring up that right-wing canard that banks just gave out mortgages to people who couldn't afford them – blaming sub-prime predatory mortgage crimes on the victims. Sounds like you agree that 47% of Americans are leeches.)
Maybe it’s true that you, Mr. President, are actually just a hollow man, a creation of PR consultants and rich donors, a Ken-doll of repeating lines about “Hope,” “change” and “this country thrives when the middle class thrives.”
The truth is, you were ready to raise the retirement age for Social Security and cut back-room deals with drug companies. Maybe in the end, progressive policies are just a marketing niche you’ve found to cover aimless ambition and a yearning to compromise.
If someone drilled a hole in you, could we blow in and play you like a flute? Or is there some substance, some hard core of principle that couldn’t break out tonight because it was imprisoned by advisors who told you to play it safe, play it in a coma?
Mr. President, if you can’t explain why you are the Commander-in-Chief in this class war against the billionaire bandits attempting to seize our government, then get off the horse and let someone in the saddle who can ride.
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