Carpe Datum

Typical

Apparently, one of my problems as a liberal is that I am totally blind to the wholesale corruption going on at the United Nations. I'm supposed to be outraged that there is some back-scratching going on in which, gasp, there is corruption in a large international bureaucracy. I mean, Kofi Annan's son may have netted hundreds of thousands of dollars from all this because, God forbid, he got a plum job as a result of being well-connected.

Is it me, or isn't that basically the life story of Flight-Suit Georgie? Ok, I'll agree that both are awful. Let's fire Kofi Annan and the Worst President Ever. And while we're at it, all the other Republicans in Washington making millions collectively in patronage jobs. Deal?

Josh Marshall helpfully provides a similar example from the Reality-Based World of Washington lobbyists. I mean, imagine an administration in which the Chief of Staff's brother ends up with a plum political job worth probably millions (for which his qualifications are dubious, other than his connectedness, obviously).

Ok, it's not hard to imagine because it is one of many examples in the current "accountability" administration. That's the same administration, by the way, that is trying to quash hearings about the made-up reasons for the Iraq War because it just amounts to "people looking for someone to blame". Last I heard, that was pretty much the definition of accountability.

If you think the same ConservaBorg who will be pounding the drum about Annan and the United Nations are going to be outraged (or hell, even annoyed enough to talk) about any of this, then you are officially Part of the Problem.

Of course, what's really going on here is the never-ending two-pronged quest of the right-wing nutball power brokers. To keep their listeners tuning in, to keep their heads buried in the sand while the Powers That Be loot the country, two things are needed: a powerful enemy (Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry, Kofi Annan and when desperate Michael Shiavo or the ACLU will do fine) and victimhood status. Both of these combined give the conservative a good, clean conscience from which to hate with a whole heart.

After all, if they truly believe this shit, any amount of hateful crap they throw out there (e.g. Rush describing liberals with terms like "all the gloating, glee and happiness over her death" or Peggy Noonan saying "red-fanged and ravenous" hunger for death) must be ok because it is less than what the other side is doing and justified in the face of so many horrible problems. Who is cheering for death? Franken pointed out that if Terri's husband changed his mind and decided to leave the feeding tube in, we would be fine with that, too. You've got to be gut-wrenchingly evil and cynical to imply otherwise when you know better. It's disgusting.

Like I said before, it's a cancer, and the nutballs in front of the Florida hospice are just another symptom, like an annoying rash. The deadly, malignant stuff is in the federal government itself.

Posted by Observer at March 29, 2005 07:13 AM