The Culture War: It's So On!!!!

As a semi-retired, card-carrying, left-leaning member of the MSM, I am delighted that McSame/Palin '08 has reignited The Culture Wars™. It has, perhaps, angered and energized me enough to re-fire this Blog to fight the Perfidious Palin & Her Less Popular Sidekick™. I'm pissed!

This ploy---blaming the media---is as old as The Republic, but one can trace its modern roots to Richard Milhous Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew*---still the only Prez/Vice Prez team to resign in disgrace. It should be noted that Agnew also fulfilled the cynical "Southern Strategy," an election ploy played by the Republicans in various guises ever since.

Spiro set the bar pretty high, but that's because he counted Pat Buchanan and William Safire among his speech writers. Those guys loved illiteration and Agnew was glib enough to deliver lines like "nattering nabobs of negativism", "pusillanimous pussyfooters", and "hopeless, hysterical hypochondriacs of history" without a single LOL. One of his best lines, and one which echoes in this election cycle, was when he attacked "an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."

Can anyone say "arugula"? No. Really. Can you? It's a fun word to say.

But now even Eruca sativa is a Casualty of the Culture Wars™.

While it's true that Agnew set the bar pretty high, it's been lowered each election cycle. However, after years of Rushbo Limpballs (detained for the the importation of Viagra, not his own), Loofah Lad, mAnn Coulter and Shawnie Scammity, now it's as low as a Limbo Stick, far easier to step over it than to try and go under it.

Attacking the MSM is a two-fer for the Repugs:

► Lashing out at the so-called leftist MSM as part of the Eastern Establishment™ plays right into The Reich Wing Play Book and puts the media on defense, which might stop the tough questions;

► Painting Senator Obama as elite and effete, part of that Eastern Establishment™ that the MSM is so in love with.

These memes have been swirling not-so-quietly for months. They have intesified by a factor of 1,000 since Vee Pee Pick Palin was tapped. The Media's now been told that questioning Palin is off limits and she was vetted sufficiently. After the Repug convention bashed The Media at every turn, and then cut off all inquiries afterward, The Media is now going over Palin's Past with a fine-toothed comb. The Republican Convention may have woken up a sleeping giant to do its proper job.

[JUST ANNOUNCED: One interview, with ABC News, is tentatively scheduled for later this week.]

Ironically, had the MSM done its job 8 years ago, it's possible we'd have had a different president. Had the MSM done its job 6 years ago, Americans and Iraqis would not have died in a bogus war that's sapping our treasure. Had the MSM done its job 4 years ago the Swift Boaters would have been consigned to The Dustbin of History™.

As for the unofficial vetting of Governor Pain: We'll know what we know when we know it.

Meanwhile, there's already a lot of information out in the Blogopolis, from a "bridge to nowhere" to "Troopergate" to her saddling her hometown of Wassilla, Alaska with a crushing debt.

I predicted over at the News Hounds** OT Forum that Palin will not be on the ticket come election day. I stand by that prediction.

Meanwhile, The Culture War is on and I am prepared for battle.

Bring it on!!!

With all my love,
Aunty Em
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*Yeah, I know. It's The WikiWikiWee™. While I would caution not to believe everything one reads on The Wiki, it can still stand as a quick and dirty source as long as you back it up.

** If you want to know what those loons on Faux Noise are saying, but don't have the stomach for actually watching it, News Hounds is the blog for you. It dissects the lies on Faux Noise on a show-by-show basis, If you get over there, drop in to The Off Topic Forum and say "Hello."