"WHEN FASCISM COMES TO AMERICA IT WILL BE WRAPPED IN THE FLAG
AND CARRYING A CROSS." -SINCLAIR LEWIS

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Rudy Giuliani Is A Partisan Douchebag

You probably already knew that but then someone asked him what he thought of President Obama's State of the Union address:


I remember when the Internet and especially the blogosphere had both become large enough that they started having a real effect on politics and I would watch a compilation like the one above and think to myself, "What is this guy, stupid? Doesn't he know that people are going to be fact checking his every word when he says this about the president? Maybe he could have gotten away with saying something like this and not be exposed as a bald-faced liar thirty years ago but certainly not today, doesn't he know this?" I would think that to myself but I didn't know at the time how wrong I was.

He can get away with it, they all can get away with it and almost all of them do. Politicians and pundits and talking heads go on television and lie every day and the entire political blogosphere devotes its energy toward exposing them and then what happens? The tiny minority of Americans who actually give a shit about politics and government educate themselves and learn the truth only to ultimately be held hostage to the electoral whims of everyone else who only know who Giuliani is because he's the guy from that 9/11 thing on TV. You just watched proof that the things he's saying are lies but all he has to do is say them on television enough times and eventually enough people will consider them truth. This is the state of American politics in the 21st century.

Sorry, I woke up really early today and I'm grumpy. I needs me some Red Bull.

(via)

7 comments:

Leslie Parsley said...

What's in a word, Juliana? Anyone with any intelligence knows what the President is talking about. Ah, that's the problem. Juliana doesn't have the brains to understand, and even if he did, he's too damn petty to pick on anything but Obama's choice of words.

magpie said...

They don't get away with it. Not forever.

They have the moment but the truth catches up, as it always does eventually.
The strategy of the reactionary Right has been to spill verbal pollution till it reaches a critical mass that entangles the Obama administration in fear of what the public can be made to fear. Liking sowing mines in the political landscape that double as booby traps as well talking-point ammo dumps for the dufus Right.
But they haven't reached that critical mass after a year of full-on horseshit over some of the most sensitive topics in America: Health Care, Torture, War, you name it, which tells me they are ... fucked.

You're right when you say only a minority do their homework... that's all it takes thanks to the Internet. One guy comes to work the next day and says "no actually, what I read is....". And then the political capital is spent. Their bluster is done, their lungs are deflated, and they look like dicks for being caught out.

I wouldn't worry too much. It is the political weapon of the really desperate. And like their real-world equivalent... they don't care if innocents are hurt and the country scorched.
Not saying anything here you don't already know, but....

It will not work anymore.

And if you're one of the one in ten who doesn't have a job, then "hope" is far from passé. You haven't got time to buy into elaborate lies. And when you get that job, in the next three years, and health care to boot, THEY will be the facts you hold onto.

JBW said...

I think I need to decrease my intake of Giuliani until after breakfast, Leslie. He obviously doesn't agree with me first thing in the morning.

JBW said...

Your lack of cynicism is an inspiration, magpie. Of course you live in a laid back country with universal health care surrounded by hot Aussie and Asian chicks so I guess that makes sense.

magpie said...

I have vast reserves of cynicism.

I just don't think Americans are fools, on the whole.

JBW said...

I like to think that as well magpie, but I see and hear many things on a daily basis that make me sometimes question that assumption.

KA said...

I still cannot comprehend why Rudy "A noun, a verb, and 911" Giulani is even relevant in the political discourse. What has the man accomplished, besides in your face lies, fear-tactic hypocrisy, and one of the worst Primary election presidential runs of all time (including the slogan of Tested. Ready. Now.,which sounds like an advertisement for a male prostitute). On a positive note, the "NY Times" did cover Rudy's unchallenged mishaps.