Thursday, January 20, 2005

BLOGGING BUSH'S BASH. There's been a change of plan. I've returned to Media Log Central, and will be blogging the inauguration through most of the day. Only Hunter Thompson could do this hideous spectacle justice, but I'll do what I can.

A little while ago, during my drive back to the compound, I heard right-wing talk-show host Mike Gallagher interview Tod Brilliant, of Not One Damn Dime Day, which is urging a consumer boycott today to protest the war in Iraq.

Gallagher was amazingly polite - he's never going to be able to play with Rush and O'Reilly if he keeps this up - but his manners were exceeded only by his cluelessness. He asked Brilliant whether Not One Damn Dime's real goal was to find a way to make money on the Internet. After Brilliant assured him that was not the case, Gallagher followed up by asking whether Not One Damn Dime was "against capitalism." Really.

All this was interspersed with the clumsiest on-air sponsor announcements I've heard in quite a while - three times in 10 minutes, Gallagher had to interrupt Brilliant to read ads.

Gallagher also let Brilliant pull a fast one. Brilliant claimed that because John Kerry favored the war, Not One Damn Dime would have called for a day of protest even if Kerry had been elected president. I, uh, think not. (Maybe Brilliant, a Nader supporter, would have staged his own one-person boycott.) But Gallagher said nothing. Probably thinking about the next sponsor.

By the way, Gallagher, Ramblin' Gamblin' Bill Bennett, Hugh Hewitt, and an assortment of other right-wingers can be heard locally on WTTT Radio (AM 1150), which is apparently devoted to the proposition that Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and the like just aren't right-wing enough, damn it!

1 comment:

Tod Brilliant said...

True enough, I may well have staged a one-man protest against Kerry's involvement in Iraq. It's rather tough, to be opposed to both Bush AND the current crop of Democrats who, collectively, do little more than offer token resistance to Bush's army. Three cheers for Barbara Boxer for fiercely tongue-whipping Condi Rice? I don't think so. Boxer's verbal showboating did nothing to hasten the Iraq war's end, nor did it do anything to help the folks in Uganda who really could use some of Boxer's attention. The Dems' collective function seems to be to in not functioning at all. Sad, but true.

Did Not One Damned Dime Day do any damned good? Hell if I know. Yet, if you're not interested in TRYING, however lame your effort, you deserve the fate that befalls you. Trouble with this is, every apathetic, resource-gobbling U.S. citizen unknowingly (uncaringly?) makes decisions for thousands of those who are less fortunate in the world.

As for Mike Gallagher - he really was polite! Almost threw me off stride, the way he handled me with baby mittens.

Stay gold,

tod brilliant
www.radioactivefuture.com/brilliant.htm <---ran as 1/2 page ad in Bay Area (CA) paper for 2 weeks