Anyone would think there were a few elections coming up. Last week, apropos (presumably) of the Jack Thomas control order, we had the Federal government ranting and raving from the PM down (with assists from Cossie and Ruddock and various minor characters) about how Muslims should learn English, respect women (femoRWDB Janet Albrechtsen thought he didn’t go far enough), and hurry up and assimilate. Meanwhile, in NSW, Peter Debnam, fresh from interfering with justice and demanding that thousands of gang members be arrested the day after the election, wanted cop cars to be displaying the Aussie flag. The good folk in their Vaucluse mansions must be cowering in their beds at night.
[Worth observing here that The Devine Mrs Miranda mixes her messages as usual - quite understandable, burqas, really when you consider the need to protect your daughters from Paris Hilton.]
Meanwhile, over in the land of the free, we had Bush comparing Bin Laden (presumably breathing a sigh of relief now that Musharraf has decided to leave the Al Qaeda and Taliban types near the Afghan border alone) with Lenin and Condi comparing folks who dislike the Iraq War with supporters of slavery during the Civil War. Hmmm, them were Democrats, weren’t they?
The Decider-in-Chief has topped all this by claiming that his use of rendition, secret CIA prisons (whose existence Condi et al are on the record as denying), Guantanamo Bay, and military tribunals frustrated by those pesky judicial activists had foiled numerous terrorist plots. Just before, erm, September 11. Interesting that some snakes which used to lurk in the mud are now exposed to (partial) view (can’t tell the good folks at home too much about “techniques” and “intelligence” in case the terrorists are listening). I’m sure his motives are patriotism and defence of our civilisation, and nothing at all to do with the parlous position of the GOP going into the November elections.
Elsewhere: Tim Dunlop parses the Bush speech succinctly.
yes, snakes in the mud are there no longer cause now
THEY’RE
ON
THE
MOTHERFUCKIN’ PLANE!
Now there’s a story out that Rove held an exorcism of Hillary Clinton‘s “left-wing spirit” from her West Wing office before he moved in.
Did you say something about an election?
An exorcism? Never would have picked Rove for a good Catholic. Wonder how that will play in fundy land.
Exorcisms, huh. Overrated.
Take it from me.
all those bodies happily bobbing up & down and applauding in response to the confused witterings of the decider-in-chief look like a set-piece from the jon stewart show.
presumably, someone, somewhere is taking these routines seriously.
Exorcisms are not just a Catholic thing but thrive in fundie land, especially amongst the Pentecostals. Brian Eno deployed one of those fundie exorcism sessions as the base of one of the tracks on his album, My Life In a Bush of Ghosts. And then there was that weird yankee preacehr who tried to exorcise John Saffran. His world was haunted by demons everywhere. I think he was completely crazy but had enough ‘spiritual power’ to share his madness with others, including from what I saw on the program, Saffran himnself
Oh c’mon Michael, surely it was obvious enough that Saffran was taking the p*ss. People are so credulous.
I had been thinking that myself, but then there were these stories that he hadn’t been putting it on and that he didn’t remember all of what had happened, which he didn’t deny. And I’ve met enough ‘powerful’ people in my time, not only Christian fundies, to know that, even if they are barking mad, they can generate potent effects on people. That’s how come they can get a following. But it doesn’t matter to me whether Saffran was taking the piss or not, his exorcist was probably the sort of person Rove would have called upon to ‘cleanse’ his White House offices.
Ah yes, I forgot about the Safran thing. Maybe in my early-morning stupor I was just latching onto the famous example in ‘The Exorcist’, or was it the ‘Omen’… not my area of expertise, clearly.