the best way god could help us would be to take the fun and money out of the process for the squeeb-feeding industry. a nice euro-short six weeks for a public-paid election. if draining that swamp didn't do it, well, at least the pain'd be shorter and cheaper than pregnancy.

Our problems are mere flecks of basil nightshade sauce on a single one of His infinite pasta-like appendages.

Buermann,

A mighty marinara is our God!

Thou art a follower of the FSM too?

I am a mere squeeb before that which is hidden behind andante tentacles, but whosoever blasphemies against the garlic bread will not be forgiven.

230+ years and AMERICAN POLITICS ain't changed a bit except to get MORE EXPENSIVE and longer winded. (strickly the same diet of horse manure) Still getting OUR politics from "Hellfire and Damnation Baptist Preachers". Reminds me of Zappa's song "Rhymein' Man", about Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Two Years later
Legend says
Rhymein' Man
Made a run for Prez
FARRAKKHAN made him a clown
Over there near Hymie Town

So what you are saying is that in fact democracy does not and cannot work. Agreed Taibbi is a turd, a snotty little turd. I recall an article he wrote about Americans kicking ass in Iraq, what a jackass.

...I think this part applies to any situation:

Many, anyway, in this society and others like it. In societies where they're dealing with actual problems like the significant daily risk of being blown apart, not so much. There was a brief period after 9/11 when Americans got a taste of that kind of existence; thank goodness it's over, and we're free once again to pay proper attention to distractions.

" like the significant daily risk of being blown apart, not so much. There was a brief period after 9/11 when Americans got a taste of that kind of existence; "

As I recently said at another blog, for a few days I was stupid enough to think 9/11 would make Americans more empathic--we'd finally be able to understand what it was like to live at the mercy of people who wanted to kill us and we'd feel appropriate sorrow for what we'd done to others.

I have no idea why that little bit of sentimentality took hold of my brain, as under normal circumstances I'd have predicted exactly what happened--America took 9/11 to be proof of our virtue and the evil of others. Perhaps it was just how the mass hysteria of the time effected me.

You and Taibbi speak for yourselves, Kimo Sabi. And then tell me: what is the difference between your condescencion of the American people and that of the GOP? Aside from them owning the airwaves, I mean.

Donald: I had a friend who joined the CIA after 9/11, to help defend the country against the evil people who'd plotted it. But at a talk I was doing about my time in the West Bank, I also met someone who said that 9/11 had made him realize that there must be a reason people hated the US, and he wanted to understand why. And I've talked to people who joined either the military or the peace movement as a result of 9/11.

So you shouldn't despair completely. The empathy may not have been universal, but some people felt it, and it at least made most people think for a while (until pat answers to the difficult questions made that unnecessary again).

So you shouldn't despair completely. The empathy may not have been universal, but some people felt it, and it at least made most people think for a while

Well, I do despair completely, because it's quite clear that nothing short of utter catastrophe will get people to even think, much less understand, for anything more than 'a while'.

For Germany and Japan, it took World War II, the deaths of millions, and utter devastation. I see no reason to think it will take any less for the US. Certainly a few thousand people in a high-rise won't do it.

I recall an article he wrote about Americans kicking ass in Iraq, what a jackass.

You must have encountered that through Dennis Perrin's misinterpretation of it. Taibbi is hardly a cheerleader for BushCo.

what is the difference between your condescencion of the American people and that of the GOP? Aside from them owning the airwaves, I mean.

Well, that's a pretty stark difference, wouldn't you say? Kinda like - what's the difference between me and George Clooney, other than fame, wealth and desirability?

But more to the point - harrumphing about "condescension" to the glorious American People! isn't an answer to the description Taibbi gives. The proof is all around you. Frankly, Americans deserve condescension for being so goddamn stupid and apparently unable to learn.

God help us if we ever had to deal with a real problem.

Praying to God won't help here because prayers generally get unanswered. The ultimate in passivity -- an active passivity encouraged by some, detracted by others, each according to their goals.

Which is why the trilaterals have taken it upon themselves that you shouldn't busy your bass fishing, HDTV watching little head with the real problems of the world.

We'll let you know when to feel appropriately outraged and shake your fist at the ceiling. On our command though, please.

...and tended to drape itself in a paper-thin patriotism whenever it felt threatened,...

Although I agree with the rest of the article, this phrase I think is a bit much considering that in those 70 years there was that WWII thing with about 20M dead. Maybe that part was a blip in the production of paper thinness.

Taibbi is brilliant. But he's usually talking about how the media react to things. Thankfully, that isn't the same as how people react. He thinks it is. I think he is (sometimes, in important, hopeful ways) wrong.

Frankly, Americans deserve condescension for being so goddamn stupid and apparently unable to learn.

And rape victims deserve condescension for lying there and getting fucked. Yawn.

I don't think that Americans who voted for Bush in 2004 are in the same position as a rape victim, Dan. Rape victims don't have choices. If we're throwing around terms like condescension, it's condescending to treat the majority of Americans as hapless victims of propaganda. It's never occurred to any Bush supporter, I suppose, that the American government might lie to them about very important matters.

But anyway, yawn. Or whatever.

he's usually talking about how the media react to things. Thankfully, that isn't the same as how people react. He thinks it is.

Good point. Joe Scarborough freaks out over Rev. Wright and that means the entire country is outraged?

Yes, it's possible the entire country is outraged, but I'd need more evidence to come to that conclusion than what Matt Taibbi saw on his TeeVee.

i don't like how taibbi lets the VRWC's death-by-a-thousand-cuts effort off the hook and i think it's silly to say this press corps would muckrake if it weren't for drudge and we-the-overstimulated-audience.

I saw Matt Taibbi interviewed on the Tee Vee once.

My wife, who is not given to my MST3K-like commentaries in front of the tube, made this comment: "Who is this moron?"

He's not just talking about so-called journalists. He's also talking about people who live with the TV on all day, several TVs in the house all tuned to the same channel so you can hear the FoxTV stream of "consciousness" when you go room to room.

These people DO exist, and they also vote, own houses, and have children. I know some of them.

Those of you who think Taibbi is making it up are oh-so-sweetly and COMPLETELY out of touch.

In fact, you are enabling the squeebs by denying their existence. So keep at it. Then you can drool in disbelief when the next stupid quasi-suicidal electoral "decision" is made by the "voters."

These people DO exist, and they also vote, own houses, and have children. I know some of them.

No shit. I know a few myself. But what percentage of the population do they represent? I have no idea, and I suspect you don't either.

What's wrong with what Taibbi is doing is that he's taking the idiot box in his living room as a representative sample of the US. See a small contradiction here? Fox News is constantly lying to us and is nothing more than an arm of the Ministry of Government Propaganda, but when they show nonstop coverage of a college student going missing in the Caribbean, it's because the American People really want to know all about it, and when they obsess over some statements by Obama's pastor, it's a sign that the public really does share their obsession.

If you don't believe their news coverage, why would you believe their editorial decisions actually reflect public opinion?

What's wrong with what Taibbi is doing is that he's taking the idiot box in his living room as a representative sample of the US.

Partly, but he's actually talking more about one on one conversations with real people.