The Bengals Deacon Report

The Deacon, by way of a report on his trip to Seattle, reminds us not to bite those cyanide capsules yet...

"I am just now really recovering from my trip out to Seattle. The rush of the whole week was so much that I never really slept much. I have posted a bit about all this in Randomville, so let's just get to the Bengals stuff here in sports

My two favorite teams did battle, and it was a joy to see. The only other thing I could of asked for is that the Bengals did not fumble that kickoff with a minute to go. I so wish they would have gone down the field and tied the game up, and then I could have watched a chance for a tie. That would have been ok with me. Now the Bengals and Hawks don't hook up for a while again, so here is my take on what I saw from the Bengals.

They went on the road in the most hostile and loud place I have ever been in, and play toe to toe with a great team. It is the NFL, and that is hard to do. All the Seahawks fans that were around me had so much respect and nervousness about how the Bengals at any time can do what they want on offense at any given moment.

Sure, there seems to be panic in this city sometimes about the Bengals, but watching Seattle local sports for the days leading up to the game, you would have thought the Seahawks were underdogs at times. The Seattle media and fan base was very concerned about the Bengals ability to put up 400 yards at will, AND THEY FUCKING DID IT AGAIN, AND LOST AGAIN.

The Bengals are banged the fuck up. They are trying to get the special teams back on track after losing key contributors like Kevin K. and Tony Stewart, among others. It is taking a bit. The Bengals D did hold the Hawks to 24 points, and after giving up 51, I would say that is something considering The Hawks Offense is way better than the Brown Stains O.

If the Bengals can pull out a win Monday night going into the by week, all should get way better in a big hurry in Bengaldome. Because that will be a week of rest, and it will be almost time to bring back Chris Perry, and Chris Henry to an offense that is still putting up crazy numbers. And just think, the Bengals have gotten off to crazy fast starts in the last few years, and then to seem to fade out, where as many other playoff teams made their run at the end of the season after a slow start. If the injury bug stays away from the Bengals and begins to take it's toll on other teams.......who knows, maybe the Bengals will roll right into the playoffs with a 2 seed in the AFC.

I got to quest field early on Sunday, and I got to make my way down to the tunnel where the Bengals came out. Got some great pics, and got to have a little halla exchange with Chad Johnson. I screamed, "Hey Chad, what kind of show are you going to give us today?"...... He looked up, gave me a smile and a node.

The Bengals and Seahawks will get to the playoffs. I promise."

Party of Lincoln: We Care A Lot

...cannot seem to fathom why black voters do not vote for them. This is the party of Lincoln, afterall, and you would think they would be hellbent on protecting that legacy, or at least, appearing to.

The thing is, I kind of feel sorry for Black Republicans in that there is a question of racial authenticity (see Obama) because they are Black and Republican; they do not conform to the what the Democratic establishment and its agents think is "authentically" black, whatever that means. This is a question that does not appear as often among working class white Republicans, who were also traditionally Democrats, except in strictly defining the binary. Reagan Democrats have now morphed into the authentic real Americans because they vote Republican, whereas Black people would not be authentically black for the same reason, at least in the black community.

However, when any group gets in the business of mandating "authenticity" on others, you are about a mustache hair from National Socialism, Stalinism, or any other totalitarian ideology that works within such ridiculous binaries, so when Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney get to decide who is an "Uncle Tom" (a race traitor, in other words) or a "Liberal" vs. being "Black" or an "American", you find this ideology churning hard and fast, making specious distinctions between people and groups, you are way closer to that totalitarian mind set than I am ever willing to go.

It is the right of every American, regardless of their ethnicity, class, or religion, to vote against their self interests and buy into the the most ostensibly empowering bullshit imaginable. Our humanity makes this possible. Having said all of this, for the Republican frontrunners to call in sick for a black hosted debate is a disgrace, and feeds in the idea, which they are seemingly clueless about its origins, that they don't give a hot fuck about black people.

Let's pull back for a second, and say, instead, that they don't give a hot fuck about most people. If the GOP, as it is now constituted, were to truly debate in front of its constituency, its real constituency, it would in a closed boardroom somewhere in Dubai, and they'd pipe it in to the so called social conservatives in the rich suburban megachurches can continue their infantile apocalyptic fantasies about Jerusalem and revelation through auto de fey.

Still, for the Party of Lincoln, it wasn't much of a party at all: I mean, they had to roll out Alan Keyes, for crissakes...

2013: the Year We, uh....nevermind.

Yup...That's what she said. I mean, you can't have a proper quagmire without the time, the treasure, and the wasted lives, right?

Except in this case, she gets to be Nixon to Bush's Johnson (ick...sorry about that one).

Nixon ran on ending the war as well, but instead expanded it, and with all the sabre rattling going on concerning Iran, will Hillary be the one to bomb Cambodia, so to speak. I wouldn't put it past her, considering, as Maher eloquently noted, she claims that she was "fooled" by dumb ass George Bush, that she believed Dick Cheney. Are you kidding me? If I didn't know these two numbnuts from Adam, and they walked up to me on the street, and they told me the sky was fucking blue, I still wouldn't believe them. Smartest woman in the world? She's not the smartest woman in Washington.

Folks, I hate to turn my humble little corner of cyberspace into a hate Hillary outpost, but I cannot be loud enough in this assertion: She is the wrong turn for our Republic, which sits on the precipice of either a new dawn for our real creed, or the cynical commodification of ostensible freedom.

Which is it?

Oh yeah, and the torture thing: How craven is this person? A five year old knows that the "good guys" don't torture. Jesus, Mary and Joseph!!!

Mercenaries

"Did some work in Zaire, the jolly old Belgian Congo
Went back to Geneva to get paid
Back there in Geneva, that's were the money grows
That's were the money grows, that's were the money flows"

(John Cale "Mercenaries (Ready For War" Sabotage).

What happens when you try to privatize too much...

Free Speech

While watching the Orange and Black Debacle yesterday with cyber-notables Tavern Wench, Covington Jim and Mr. Sheperd, the beer commercial conversation turned to Mr. Ahmadinejad, who is due to speak at Columbia, and has been the source of right wing hysterics (and left wing pussy footing) since he expressed an interest in laying a wreath at Ground Zero.

What's been lost, here, in all of this, is our ability to set an example, to take the moral high ground: While there is some evidence Iran has fuelled the insurgency, there is some evidence that our allies have as well, not to metion our great friend in Pakistan harboring the son of another great ally Saudi Arabia, the one who put the crater there in the first case, and why would not want this guy to face some tough questions from some of the most educated minds in this country.

Which raises another point: Maybe the right wing doesn't want all those left/liberal/lesbi/femin/marx/deconstruction/ists asking this guy tough questions, since it would certainly destroy that right wing notion that we are all waiting, with ticket tape parade, for this guy.

Let's get this thing straight: Mahmoud does not want to answer the question about what he admire about Bush because, in Iran, he is Bush...

UPDATE: The Liberal University indeed...see, we can be utter boorish louts, too. You see, this is exactly what we didn't need: ideological grandstanding. What is the point of bringing Ahmadinejad to Columbia if you are framing the debate Dr. Bollinger with your, um, characterization of Evil. I would expect a person of your learning to understand what is at stake here, and not throwing the right wingers a bone...

GM to Strike

I'm sure that the usual labor haters will piss and moan about poor GM, but what about the people who do the heavy lifting.

Let's Keep These Brave Americans in our Thoughts. This is Democracy in action.

UPDATE: That didn't take long.

Roman Progressives

Interesting piece over at Kos on Catiline and Cicero, and the historical hegemony.

Hillary

The annointing of Hillary Clinton has been problematic for me because, though we are told she is the front runner, I have yet find one person who actually supports Hillary Clinton, and I work in an English Department at a large public university among feminists, marxists, lesbians and other fellow travellers, and even among my self described mainstream Democrats, I still can't find one Hillary supporter, and yet, she is the front runner. Seems a bit odd...

Anyone care to hazard a guess?

This One's For You, Deacon

Today, the beloved Bengals try to redeem themselves after last week's Special Teams Abortion in Seattle. While not really much of a rivalry, the teams are tied 8 a piece since they first met in the Seventies, and the Bengals triumphed in a divisional playoff game in 1988.

My long time friend, and too infrequent contributor to this blog, The Deacon, is in Seattle for the game, and to catch up with family.

Who Dey, Deacon!!! Who Dey!!!

UPDATE:Bamboozled! WTF is going on here, goddammit!!!

Try (Str)angulation

Today, for your edification, a guest post from Mike. He's not just an expert wino, after all, but a guy with a beef with the Ragin' Cajun.:

For progressives, this may be the most disappointing week we've had since the Democratic party retook Congress. This was a week of challenge -- the opportunity to at least lay the groundwork for the reversal of so many wrongheaded policies -- habeas, the war, the unlimited cash flow to the defense contractors.

Fear of those nasty schoolyard bullies won out.

Most hurtful is the fact that there was no effort. No forcing the Republicans to get up in front of God and everyone to say, "Yes, THIS is why our troops don't need to come home. THIS is why combat leave isn't really necessary. THIS is why detention without charge and indefinite internment is necessary to preserve our nation."

Instead -- a simple cloture vote on all of them, and it's "Oh, well -- guess we can't win this…so let's go home." And then, as Kos put it so succinctly, "There was an ad! In a newspaper!" and the Dems were bipartisan in saying, "You can't say anything nasty about a General. He's wearing a uniform with pretty stars and everything."

That sound you heard was John Kerry's head exploding.

Since this all fell out, there's been a lot of fingerpointing. It's Harry Reid's fault for not forcing the GOP to filibuster. It's Obama's fault for not being more vocal. It's [insert Democratic Senator here] for not keeping the promise they made when elected. And so on, and so on. As with anything, there's a bigger picture -- The Wizard loves to talk meta, and it's perfectly applicable here. The blame for this sorry display largely lies at the feet of one man, in my opinion -- the person who almost singlehandedly crafted the most weak-spined political party since go-to punching bag Neville Chamberlain led Parliament. Give credit where credit is due:

Congratulations, James Carville. This is the result of your vision.

The roots of this week's events lie squarely with the Carville's strategy in Bill Clinton's election. While "It's the economy, stupid" became the buzzword -- the tactics of triangulation rose from here. Carville saw that the country was willing to select Republicans who gave lip service to social moderation. While Reagan and Bush I ran on "American Pride" and the evil of tax and spend liberals -- they knew that there were certain social programs they'd be sunk without. So, they wouldn't quite "starve the beast," but they'd keep it pretty hungry.

Enter Carville -- who turned the Republican message on its head. He decided to run a more-or-less populist sounding campaign, but one that actually supported business and a strong traditional economy at the same time. Throw in the economic insanity of Ross Perot in 1992, and you've got Clinton in the White House. And if his vision had stopped there, things would have been very different.

The GOP licked its wounds for a bit, and decided, "To hell with this centrist crap. Hard to starboard!" Values, bluster, Gingrich, Contract With America, and the 1994 elections followed.

So, what to do? Back to Carville -- the Kingmaker who Created Clinton. And he gave them the Triangulation Doctrine. Figuring that there was no way the left wing of the Democratic Party would ever vote for a Republican, he crafted messages that Republicans who weren't fundamentalist flagwavers could actually get behind. And, to an extent, it worked. The hemorrhaging in Congress stopped, and Clinton won another term. Without the third party challenge, however, Carville directed his charges to go farther right.

The die was cast. The Democrats who were able to win back seats in Congress looked very little like the ones voted out in 1994. They were "centrist," which basically meant, "We don't piss anyone off too much. No one really loves us -- but we don't need people to love us. We just need to be more palatable than the other guy." But with this came a lack of vision, a lack of ideas, and worst of all, a lack of historical perspective as to why Democrats were Democrats in the first place.

The GOP did what it does best -- namecall and bluster. "Liberal" became firmly entrenched as a word meaning, "Anyone not a Republican." Bill Clinton, whose economic policies were barely left of Reagan, was made out to be Adlai Stevenson. Rather then push back, the Dems simply said, "We've got the moral high ground. Conflict and confrontation will piss off our electorate. So, like our hero Woodrow Wilson, we're too proud to fight."

So, for years, the GOP dominated the discourse, and the Democrats who still did have a backbone were marginalized within their own party. The leadership of the party became folks like Harry Reid -- a pro-life senator who may do good things from time to time, but who is unable to unwilling to stand up as strong as he needs to in such times.

Which brings us to this week. Carville's Crew disintegrated in front of the threat of possibly losing votes for "not supporting the troops," choosing instead to unite behind John Cornyn to shout down dissent, when they were too weak to even defend their own against similar attacks a scant two years earlier.

Ironically, the leading Democrat who performed best in this whole sad display was Carville's own creation: Hillary Clinton. She actually called this theater what it was -- ridiculous and disgusting. She actually had the spine to call bullshit on this display. Most shocking to me was Jim Webb, who sponsored the Amendment to withdraw the troops -- voting to condemn MoveOn.

Unlike the Wiz, I'm not calling for revolution yet. As more and more vets return home either in pine boxes or locked in the coffins of their own post-traumatic minds…the ridiculousness of the Carville Democrats will start to fade. Much as the fundamentalists have decimated the Republican party, any primary challenger to one of the Carville Democrats has a paper trail to run on. Just as support for the war waned as it personally affected more and more of the people who were asked to simply shop to support America -- a person running on the simple message, "They had their chance and stood by, I will not" will resonate more and more strongly.

But, for now, Carville, the DLC, and their ilk have created the "Cautious Caucus," afraid to make waves for fear they'll lose the support that got them there. And more and more of us will die out of fear -- not of the Islamofascistwhatevers…but of the schoolyard bullies.

Food for thought, no?

The Best Things in Life Are Free (or should be)

Like Speech. And Democracy.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: I realize the speech isn't free, because it costs, and has costed, lives in its defense.

This is materially different than saying that speech should not cost money, which is the current paradigm, making those with deeper pockets more able to afford to speak (and, by extension, decide who runs and who wins).

This makes sense in a late stage capitalist society, where everything has a price tag. However, I strongly doubt that this is the meaning of the "value" of free speech in a democratic society.

The relative merits of one candidate over another are now subservient to the idea of fundraising, and it is interesting that Bill Clinton brought up the influence of money on the Daily Show, and the need to fundraise when his wife, the media annointed candidate, is in a bit of a scrape for questionable contributions.

But its really not just Hillary, but all of them. EVERY CANDIDATE. EVERY ONE.

The effect of this phenomenon is alienating, to say the least. (more later...)

Habeas Corpus

Here's a chance to, oh, I dunno, re-claim your basic human rights.

Semiotics and Cartoon Literacy

Pretty interesting rhetorical analysis of Conservative Political Cartoons.

Some Food for Thought

Via Adam: On Reinventing ourselves as a culture.

ANN COULTER IS A FAG: A Deconstruction

I was more than a little disheartening to to hear the College Morons at one of my Alma Maters (for those keeping score-the Jesuit one) decided that, at this time of national crisis, when the disasterously stupid policies of King George are raining holy hell down everywhere, and even the Ur NeoCon's have repudiated the Iraq War (thanks...wish you'd thought that through 3800 dead Americans ago) have decided to bring Ann "Gore/Edwards/Liberal/Progressives are Fags" Coulter to speak to the faithful, who, by the way, are obviously not learning a fucking thing in school (or, more aptly, are learning everything they need from the WASP-wannabes at that institution-think Miami, only with a little more guilt. Only a little, though...).

Then again, they had Hannity in a few years back, so there you go.

Anyway, the word "fag" and "faggot", as a term of derision, comes from the Middle English, and means a woman or a child, and, thus, by extrapolation through the patriarchy, becomes a word of abuse directed at homosexual men, who, by virtue of their homosexuality, are thought of as less than manly, effeminate, even.

If we know anything about Annie, she loves the patriarchy. As Bill Maher pointed out in his recent comedy special, this does not means that she believes that Gore or Edwards are homosexuals, but she does believe that the consensus building, the thoughtful policy decisions, and careful study are less than manly. She might as well have called them geeks, but Annie, oh Annie, you are sooo redstate, and as the other redstaters know, that geeks are really faggots, right, because smart people make you feel stupid and thus...they have to be gay or something?!

After all, John Wayne couldn't be bothered to read. I just saw The Green Berets the other day, and that fucker probably couldn't do his ABC's. But he could kickass-or appear to, and that's all that really matters, right?


Ann Coulter, in a particular sense of the word, as a woman, is a fag herself, but what's interesting is the element of self loathing here, because she certainly doesn't seem to give a shit about other women, or the justice they fight for. Ann is all about the status quo, because that is how she makes her money, and to look at the misery the WASP patriarchies have foisted upon this country, and indeed, the world, and decide, as a member of an oppressed group, that this is a good thing makes one self loathing, to put it nicely.

So, either Ann Coulter is a cynical opportunist, or a self loathing fag, in the Middle English Sense.

Then again, there is that Adam's Apple, that love of Patriarchy, and all that butch bluster...

Perhaps Ann Coulter is a male homosexual trapped in a woman's body. I wouldn't be the first to speculate this, but the point I'm trying to make is a linguistic one; more specifically, a semiotic one, for it is Coulter and her ilk who poison the sign, only to hide behind some kind of detached tough pose-you know, "I'm only kidding." Except that she isn't: the valence here is exactly what you are feeling, my queer brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, moms and dads out there. This isn't some bullshit post modern irony here...this is, in fact, what it seems to be. Ann Coulter, regardless of whatever gender identity issues she struggles with, regardless of however deeply she buries herself in an a booze and bile GOP closet, she is exactly as she appears to be; the very embodiement of every negative valence surrounding this word "fag": a spineless woman, genuflecting through WASP entitlement, a child quaking at the sound of the stern father's voice, without critical thought, hell, without self reflection, and a fawning sycophant.

Perhaps Ann's love of this word is just another act of projection...

Unfortunately, I think it bodes ill for the health of this country that a semiotic train wreck has admirers, but hey...they are the Establishment, at least they'd like to think so.

Watch Olbermann

Olbermann, as usual, hits it right on the head.

And, as per usual, the intellectual abortion known as Olbermann Watch gets it wrong.

No shock there.