Icy Dock
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the great island of Nantucket! Great to be with you on this Tuesday morning, the eighth day of February, 2011, with the weather finally acting like a “normal” winter’s morning, no giant low pressure systems heading up the Atlantic seaboard, as we here in Osterville can get back to our work collecting oysters and clams on the bays and inlets surrounding this little, tiny seaside village, as most, even the senior citizens who live here, of our residents can be seen early in the morning, bundled up in their winter foul weather gear, aboard small dories, gathering up the crustacean delicacies that we all love so much. Of course, I jest, but would that not be a sight for sore eyes, billionaires out in the frozen waters of Nantucket Sound, fashioned with rubber hip waders, “clamming” for their next meal? Yesterday was a day of interesting thoughts and actions by people who are involved in the day to day world of Washington D.C. politics, as Monday mornings after the Superbowl usually are–congratulations to the Green Bay Packers by the way, on an outstanding game and WIN. For example, the interview, “seen by over 100 million people,” by Bill O’Reilly of FOX NEWS, conducted prior to the big game, with the President of the United States, Barrack Obama, was a spectacle seen by many as a rather pushy, arrogant display of the bully mentality of the far right wing media in this nation, devoid of grace, civility and wit. Case in point, the question was raised, ‘how many times was the President interrupted by the rather large and aggressive “pin head”?, or “Billo”, as Mr. Keith Olbermann called him, p.s. Keith, we miss you and hope you get your own television station soon, perhaps calling in “O squared”?…the answer, 43 times. Forty three times? I was waiting for that famous clip of Bill that Keith used to play on the great show, “Countdown, with Keith Olbermann”, where Keith showed footage of the volatile and very angry younger Bill O’Reilly getting hot under the collar during a broadcast where Bill was obviously arguing with a producer that he did not want the piece to air live, but in the end relented with this classic outburst, “F&ck it! We’ll do it LIVE!” “It seemed more like two ships passing in the night”, as one commentator put it on “Morning Joe” this morning, only on MSNBC, almost as if the two were in separate phone booths having a conversation. When Bill asked the simple question, simple in a non-flattering way, “what’s the worst thing about being President?”, the response should have been, “well, Bill, can I call you Bill?, it would have to be just sitting here listening to your asinine questions, or, more to the point, being in the same room with you altogether.” Bill then switched gears to a more intellectually stimulating query, “Does it disturb you that so many people out there hate you?” An odd question to ask the President of the United States, and as Howard Fineman, senior editor of the Huffington Post put it, begging Dr. Freud to be paged, “this interview was more about Bill O’Reilly, then the President of the United States.” With the President, yesterday, visiting the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, giving a speech to hundreds of CEO’s, who make 263 times, on average, more than the amount the average worker earns, I personally was impressed with the symbolic olive branch. However, it was all for show, as we all know about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and their actions during these past November elections, where they began the process of taking advantage, by design, of the United States Supreme court decision in the Citizens United case, whereby corporations are now allowed to funnel unlimited amounts of monies into ‘candidates of their choice’ campaign coffers, and thus, allowing those corporations to “be people” and literally BUY elections, therefore politicians, and ultimately U.S. policy via the laws that the legislative branch does so well, in this country of LAWS, many of which are skirted every day via the countless loopholes set like land mines by the ruling class of corporate lobbyists. The U.S. Chamber, as Howard put it, “has become an Apostle for the right wing in this country,” and that the BUSH era tax cuts for the wealthy should have been addressed, but, it seems, like gun control, are off the table, sacrosanct, when everything else, with the exception of the Defense budget, is on the table, especially anything that does not bring profit forward as the number one priority to the sacred corporations, such as programs designed to help the poor and the hungry, the sick and the needy in this nation–this grand nation of illusions and a good slight of hand. Washington D.C. has become like a fun house of mirrors, where skillful, seasoned political vets can make the sky “appear” green just by chanting that inaccurate mantra to the masses over and over again, via the carefully worded “talking points” crafted by ingenious, but diabolical, political strategists like Frank Luntz of “word doctors.com”, and ultimately funneled through the corporate owned airwaves of FOX NEWS. You know, real FAIR and BALANCED news delivered to your living room via a smart ass, perhaps mentally unstable Irishman named “Billo, the clown.” But what would a Monday be if we did not hear from our dear friend and mentor Sarah Palin, who spoke to the strength of her college degree (?), apparently a five college smorgasbord, in journalism and her desire to help people like me, and presumably anyone else out there who is just bursting with anticipation for her gracious offer of intellectual help, in our reporting of the FACTS, as they appear in say, one of her strong suits, foreign policy, helping us all better grasp the foreign policy mess that is now Egypt. She has come a long way since the days of her interview with Katie Couric, when she explained to all of us her favorite Supreme Court case, where she said, “oh, Katie, I just don’t know, there are so many of them, in our long history of these here United States…” This is what she offered in her softball interview with CBN, “Christian Broadcasting Network”, regarding the complicated diplomatic MISSION of what will happen next with this key international ally of both the United States and Israel, a country that they have been at peace with for over thirty years, thanks to former President Jimmy Carter brokering a deal with former President Anwar Sadat and former Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin…and I quote the reality “tv” star verbatim– enjoy… AND ACTION: “You know, ah, er, um, not real enthused about what is being done on a national level from D.C. in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt, and, um, er, er, um, in these areas that are so volatile (a ten dollar word for Sarah, much like the word “mayonnaise”) right now and could be…obviously it’s not just Egypt, it’s other countries too, we’re seeing uprisings, we know that now, (a man living under a rock knows that) more than ever, we need strength and ’sound mind’ in the White House… (another run on thought that went no where) We need to know what it is that America stands for, so we know who it is that America will stand with, and we do not have all of that information yet.” (Sarah went on to explore her depth of KNOWLEDGE regarding the Muslim Brotherhood, and said this of the 20 percent political slice of the Egyptian pie, by a non-radical element, made up, partially, of lawyers and doctors, a situation that she knows NOTHING of, showing us all “how to be better journalists”)–“Who’s gonna fill the void of Mubarak? Mubarak? He’s gone, so now the information needs to be gathered and understood, and who will be that, will fill the void in the Egyptian government, will it be the Muslim Brotherhood (drum roll and lightening strikes, evoking fear in the audience of deeply devout “Christians”)? WE should not stand for that, or with any ‘radical islamists’, no that is not who we should be supporting, and standing by, um, er, er, so we need to find out who is behind all of the turmoil, and revolt, and the protests, so that good decisions can be made in terms of who we will stand by and support.” I suppose that person is you Sarah, what, with your cracker jack intellect and stellar journalistic instincts, I imagine you and Billo, the clown can crack this case and come out with a ten point plan to oh, I don’t know, tell the 98 percent of the Egyptian people, who have lived under a brutal dictatorship for over 30 years now, who they should pick as their next leader, tell those people, who are native to a country that has been around for over 5000 years what they are, who they are, how they are, why they are, and most importantly WHERE they are, for, unlike you, they cannot see RUSSIA from their house! Have a wonderful day folks and may creative intelligence always shine upon you and yours. PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
