Yesterday the BEA's preliminary estimate for GDP came in at 1.8% (at an annualized rate). This anemic growth was accompanied by a surge in new unemployment claims. But nobody cares about this stuff.
The really Big News was that the President released his birth certificate. The so-called "birthers", led by TV show host Donald Trump, have maintained that Obama was born in Kenya, and thus is not allowed by the constitution to serve as President. Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick, a supporter of Obama, said that questions surrounding the president’s birth represent a new low in American politics.
Patrick was appearing on his weekly segment on WTKK-FM in Boston, when he was asked by the program’s hosts, Jim Braude and Margery Eagan, whether Obama had played into Donald Trump’s hands by publicly discussing the matter of his birth certificate.
Patrick didn't take the bait. “I hope and I believe that the American people are bigger and better than this,” he said.” I hope and believe the Republican Party is bigger and better than this.”
Asked whether the so-called “birther” movement was fueled by racism, Patrick, an African-American in his second term as governor, responded: “I have no idea, but whatever it is motivating it, it feels like a new low in American politics,” he said, “particularly when you consider the enormous challenges facing this country.”
This wasn't a new low in American politics. There is no bottom. Politicians or political wannabes just can't stoop low enough anymore. And our mindless, compliant media duly reports it all every time a "new" low is reached. This is what happens when there's really nothing at stake.
The problem for the humorist is that there is simply no way to satirize it. Our politics is already a joke, and has been for as long as I can remember. You can't make a joke about a joke. Once you've crossed the line into absurd, surrealist theater, how do make it funnier?
We are nearing the beginning of an 18-month cycle of new political lows that can not be satirized. Only the November, 2012 presidential election will end our misery. I can already hear them, the intrepid reporters on NPR, CBS, The New York Times, PBS and all the rest, giving us the seemingly endless details about who's screwing who in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina as the seemingly interminable horse race grinds on and on. Are these reporters really this vacuous? Yes, they are.
Perhaps suicide is not our only option.
As the media focused on the now-refuted arguments of the birthers, the President said that the origin of his miraculous birth was a distraction from the really important business at hand (video below). And what was the really important business at hand? Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is retiring, so there was an Imperial game of musical chairs.
President President Obama has stuck with a “safe” team of leaders he knows by choosing Leon Panetta as his next defense secretary and Army General David Petraeus as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, according to analysts and former national security officials.
Panetta, the current CIA director, and Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, already are part of Obama’s national security structure. If confirmed by the Senate, they will be in position to follow through on security priorities they helped form as Obama heads into an election year.
“The big message here is no change in policy, and that means a careful and centrist approach on national security issues,” said John Ullyot, who worked on the Republican staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee and is now a senior vice president at Hill & Knowlton in Washington.
A careful and centrist approach! The head of the CIA is now the head of the Defense Department and the Army's top commander is now the head of the CIA. Left-wing conspiracy theorists are going to make hay with this one. Talk about grist for the mill! We are involved in not one, not two, but three wars in predominantly Muslim countries. If that's not a careful, centrist approach, I don't know what is.
Maybe we're better off with the birthers. Who can take this country seriously anymore?
I had been planning to sit out the 2012 election, but I might just go ahead and vote for Trump. A reality teevee show President is nothing more or less than this country desrves. His election would certainly speed up the collapse so we can just get it over with already.
Posted by: Bill Hicks | 04/29/2011 at 12:32 PM