Category: Politics

Fewer and fewer stories are showing up on many news aggregators about the whole bodiddlelink over Attorney Gen. Eric Holder and Operation Fast and Furious. Actually, George W. Bush should be in that group since the so-called “gunwalking” operation first happened under that latter’s watch as POTUS. The above link goes to a piece by L.A. Times columnist/cartoonist Davide Horsey which wraps up the whole story very well, I think. So good is that synopsis that the whole shebang doesn’t deserve repetition. Not to mention that it makes me somewhat sad and even repulsed that the right wing propaganda machine has spun such a wild tale and have millions believing that it is true that the whole operation — which did I tell you it was started under GW? — was a vast Obama conspiracy to take away our guns?

You know, when you say “take away our guns,” as in “Obama wants to take away our guns” it sounds rather infantile in the first place.  They want to take away our guns and we can’t play with them. Well, isn’t that what most of us actually end  up doing with our guns, playing with them? Shot anybody lately? I’m not speaking about George Zimmerman and, yes, it happens quite regularly that people protect their lives but mostly their property and end up, shooting and killing someone. This article cites FBI and state statistics which show justifiable homicide almost doubled over the past decade but the number was only about 2 percent of the total killings over that time period.

Some of my friends and relatives won’t like the tone of what I am saying. I also am not saying it because I think our guns should be taken away. First of all, there is no way in hell that is going to happen unless we end up with a leader like Hitler. And Barack Obama, you’re not Hitler. I am just being kind of a devil’s advocate. We all talk about guns for self-defense. That’s why we can’t let nothing happen to our Second Amendment right, right? Well, that’s a fact, Jack. If that is what you believe. I’m just saying that as many or more would really not want our guns taken away because of our fondness for them as a collectible — like stamps or cars or baseball cards — or because we like to shoot skeet or beer cans or old couches or squirrels or deer or bears or elk with them.

Look deep down into your soul and be truthful. How many of you who worry about something happening to your “right” to bear arms are concerned because your really worry someone is going to try to attack you or your property? Now, how many of you — still telling the truth — would hate to see guns disappear because of all the fun activities you have had with them?

I bet there are some friends of mine who either dislike guns or have some problem with the debate over having guns in the U.S. also may not be happy with me as well.  It doesn’t matter. I am just trying to make a point here. I have had a lot of fun with guns. Yet, if I said “I have had a lot of fun ‘playing’ with guns” to some folks I might sound like some irresponsible lunatic.

But, I have had fun playing with guns. By that I mean shooting skeet. Shooting beer cans. Shooting watermelons. Target shooting. And yes, when I was much younger I hunted. Some of the best times of my life I had playing with guns. Heaven forbid, sometimes we were even drinking beer while we were doing this. I got a couple of “Magnum eyebrows” that way.  Real ne’er-do-wells we were in our reckless youth. All of this was done by someone who also came very close to being shot by accident as a toddler.

It’s complicated, the relationship Americans have with their guns. We also have a difficult time telling ourselves the truth about why we are passionate about firearms.

This whole “Fast and Furious” thing, yeah, it was stupid. It was as stupid as when the program was started under Shrub Bush. It is despicable, though, that the right and the propaganda artists at Fox, Limbaugh and elsewhere have weaved this into such a deceitful and absurd story.

I don’t know. I feel like I have gone nowhere with writing this. It’s sort of symbolic of the whole story.

Shoot!

A New York magazine piece online that I came across brilliantly defines what is the biggest problem today in politics. No, I’m not talking about Mitt Romney nor John Boehner. Nor do I speak of Barack Obama. I am talking about “the gaffe.” The article relates how so-called “deconstructionist” political writers turn the mole hill into a mountain where the fact with the least significance becomes the day’s leading story.

The article, by veteran writer and editor Jonathan Chait, doesn’t have to explain the Marshall McLuhan theory regarding the message and the medium to follow the line out where media and politics intersect.

Campaign beat reporters have seemingly never-ending periods where nothing of substance surfaces so the latest gaffe, or gossip, or garbage begets the day’s top political news story which may or not move the polls a point or two. This might even leave the bonus of a self-fulfilling bit for the eventing cable show.

Presidential campaign beats are coveted because the reporters who cover the winner often ends up in that elite of the elite, the White House press corps. I spent some time with those folks, so all I have to say to potential permanent pool members is Lotsa Luck. Don’t try to breathe too much of that rarefied air at one time and if your salary doesn’t grow exponentially, at least your butt will, eating all those catered meals that your cohorts loathe to share with the poor waifs from the local pools. Too much inside baseball there, sorry.

A discussion of political news today is usually less-than flattering and it is a shame because there are still many good writers out there. Too often though, the news with the least effort and the biggest bang ends up as the day’s story line. What John Q. Public reads or sees on TV when he gets home is the inconsequential framed by the insignificant.

The high and mighty of the political world — mostly those trying to make a cheap point — often remind us poor slobs of the intent of those who formed our imperfect union. I’m speaking of whom “Honest Abe” called ” … our fathers who set forth on this continent a new nation … ” and so forth. Mostly these are folks who somehow believe they glean all reasoning of the Franklins and the Jeffersons. I speak of Ben and Thomas, not the $100 bill Franklins nor George and Weezy Jeffersons.

Okay, so what would our foredads have to say about how the direction of politics these days happens to fly like a drunken buzzard? Just what we intended? A magnificent republic? What the f**k?

Welcome to our brave new world. The home of the free. The land of all-u-can eat politics. Ooops. Sorry, I didn’t mean to say that.