That Was The Week That Was: Sunday Evening Open Thread

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Welcome to the VOTS Sunday evening open thread. I’ve been on hiatus for the past three weeks while moving across the country and starting a new job. Three weeks ago I bid farewell to Texas, where I lived for just under a year, and began my journey back to my longtime home in the Pacific Northwest.

I’m still more or less behind on current events because I’ve spent every day of that time either traveling, working, unpacking, or crashing and burning – but this YouTube video did catch my attention this past week. It’s a bit lengthy, but well worth the time. In-depth analysis takes time, after all.

It’s a real shame we have to turn to sources like Al Jazeera for objective and in-depth analysis of our presidential candidates, but apparently that’s what we have to do. Heaven knows we’re not going to get it from the American media.

In other news, a certain Missouri Congressman appears to have been 'legitimately' dropped on his head when he was an infant;

The Mars rover continues to be, you know, totally awesome;

The Pacific Northwest continues to suffer through a terrible series of wildfires; and

Great Britain has really gone and done it now.

How was your week?

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Working with illness

geomoo's picture

Ugh. Sorry about that. I was just sick for 3 weeks. I'm not one of the brave sufferers who plug along--my abilities plummet. I try to pretend I'm not sick for as along as I can, and I'm pretty good at that and I can often carry it off until I'm well. But once I clearly am sick, I just want to rest and drink water.. Sleep sleep sleep. I hope you can afford to do that a lot now before the week is out.

Best thing about sickness--it always passes.

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Akin embarrassed the entire country with his stupidity.

sartoris's picture

It makes me sad that Akin is a former Congressman and is actually leading in all of the polls to win a Senate seat from Missouri. How sad for our country. Can't we pass a constitutional admendment that requires that one pass a basic "I'm not a Moron" test before one can serve as an elected representative? I'm no fan of McCaskill but the DNC cannot allow her seat to go to this fool. Seriously, what the heck is wrong with this country?

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How Dumb Are We?

geomoo's picture

I made the mistake of buying a book with that title. It documented the stupidity: date, time, place, name, rank, serial number. Answer to the question: much much much dumber than you even suspected. It wasn't being snide or elitist--it was documenting a jaw-dropping combination of ignorance and stupidity. Seriously, not joking, I didn't make it halfway through the book. It was too depressing. Iow, your voting requirement is way too stringent.

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Read it read it read it read it and then cry cause Joe is dead

sartoris's picture

You should read that book immediately. Joe Bageant was a remarkable writer who understood the American voter in a manner I have never encountered. He was a regular guy who just 'got it'. He died last year. I never understood why he was not more widely read. I think the problem is that there are too many freaking people in politics who do nothing more than laugh at 'flyover' people. It is the same way that Hollywood thinks that there really are honest to God cannibalistic rednecks in the deep South waiting to prey on people. The smartest people in the room are often the most ignorant about the life that is lived by the vast majority of people.

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link to his old website

sartoris's picture

You're probably aware of his website but here is the link just in case anyone else wants to read him: http://www.joebageant.com/
I just cannot recommend him enough. His writing is like a non fiction version of Alan Sillitoe or Raymond Carver. His site is still online and has all of his essays. I go there often when I need a splash of cold water.

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this:

triv33's picture

Providence and Prostitutes

Now I look in the mirror and see myself for what I am in this declining age where the virtual passes for the vital and Oprah is the national arbiter of American literature and morality. I'm a fucked up old guy from a generation caught between the Beats and the hippies. So I over-romanticize the gritty side of life. But Algren is dead, Bukowski is dead, Kerouac didn't hold up as real literature, and providence doesn't smile on America or Philadelphia like it did in 1965 when a lonely hillbilly sailor was introduced to live, fire-breathing poets in Rittenhouse Square and shared cheap wine and Trotsky's vision with an artistic Jewess on a June night. I never loved my country more than I did in those times of utter belief that change was possible, inevitable even.

And I still I love my country and the very soil presently beneath my feet that hold the bones of my Virginia ancestors, who came here believing in an agrarian based liberty that would eventually become my inheritance as artistic freedom.

But I'll tell ya right now and I'll tell you straight up. If I could get a divorce from this country I would. And I've tried. But an American will always be an American, even if he or she escapes what is proving to be our terrible undoing, learns to be an honest citizen of this crumbling world which we alone did not destroy, and even learns to care with all his heart for the rest of humanity, starting with our own people. It's like loving the most cutthroat whore on the planet, one whose tits are bunker buster bombs and whose heart is in the Chase Manhattan bank vault. Her high crimes may have driven me to a foreign shore, but even from the grave I expect to be scanning God's black canopy for the ghosts of dead poets and Jefferson's dream of peaceful oat crops.

http://www.joebageant.com/joe/2007/04/three_nights_in.html

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Sternly worded statement from S. America?

geomoo's picture

I immediately thought of the outrage congress would officially express when members of the Bush administration would blatantly break the law. Who has the power to back up the law?

Saw a thoroughly delightful French film this afternoon, The Intouchables--a wealthy paralyzed man being cared for by a street-smart African. It could have been trite and good enough, but it was quite beautiful. The acting was off the charts, so human. Also sad. It's based on a true story, whatever that means. Funny and uplifting.

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The al Jazzera interview was excellent

traveler's picture

Near the end of the discussion it was mentioned, especially with respect to foreign policy, that there will be more public resistance to our militaristic dominated policies when a Republican is in the White House than when a Democrat is. Witness the resistance to and criticism of Bush - Cheney and very little of the current administration.

This will be quite apparent to those of us who spent time at "the other place".

For this reason it makes sense that the oligarchy knows that it will be more in their interests to see Obama re-elected.

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Yep. It would seem so

geomoo's picture

But they're not running scared either way.

I've been thinking to collect all the articles, but especially email fund-raising or petition-signing letters. They love to say things like, "They're running scared" and "Help us shut down Monsanto." Just ridiculous things. Corporate America is not scared. No one at Langley is frightened of "the American people". I think the people who are manipulating things, whoever that is, spend more time worrying how to make the theater look realistic than about which "side" wins. If it's the lesser of two evils for us, then it's a win - win for them.

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