16 February 2003
It'll be interesting to see just what Bush will do now that it's been demonstrated that world opinion--including the US--is against him. You wonder why he pigheadedly refuses to stop wasting people's time with this and instead tells us all to buy duct tape and plastic sheeting--a message that said "Look after yourselves because we're not, even though we're placing all of you in harm's way."
This administration seems to think it can scare people into submission for as long as it wants, but when it panicks people and then backpedals as they did with the orange alert debacle--they mightas well have been telling people to duck and cover--it makes them mad. And when they're mad they're more inclined to be skeptical of you. This week Dubya just may have given the game away.
What he may not understand is that every day he perversely brakes any growth in the economy and lets people stay jobless, he's making people even madder and nobody has an infinite breaking point. If we go to Iraq we increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks on our own soil. This has not made Americans more belligerent and compliant, as Bush hoped. Well, compliant to a point, but only in the sense there are certain things we have to live with--after all, this president was never completely elected at all. The only thing he seems to have wanted from public opinion was its silence and willingness to let him put words in its mouth. People, though, haven't grown hostile--they've grown pragmatic. If a war means the place I work can be destroyed, I'm much less likely to want to go to war, and that seems to be the developing consensus. The misstep in Bush's game was making people realize at this particular moment that he's doing nothing for homeland security, as well-expressed in this speech by Sen. Robert Byrd.
He knows we don't want it, but what we do want--to rebuild our deathly sick economy--is something he is unable and ill-equipped to do. What will be his next step? Will he back down, or are the right-wing radicals really, as has been suspected, trying to touch off Armageddon?
******************
In other brief news: WORKING FOR THE MAN has turned out to be Unbound Comics' best-seller over a month running. Help Bill & Nadine Loebs and purchase it here. A big thanks to all the contributors and everyone who supported this book.
Also, please enjoy these reviews. I know I did; one from Poopsheet and one from Comic Book Galaxy. Of course, if
they were bad reviews I'd never let you hear of them.
And lastly--but I promise, more details when I have time--I'll be published by Eros/Fantagraphics Books this June and August. Yes, it's smut. One book-length story and one 5-pager, but much more to (ahem)come. I assume that won't pique your interest but check back for more thoughts later, including a few words on the technical side of learning a new genre of this sort.
This administration seems to think it can scare people into submission for as long as it wants, but when it panicks people and then backpedals as they did with the orange alert debacle--they mightas well have been telling people to duck and cover--it makes them mad. And when they're mad they're more inclined to be skeptical of you. This week Dubya just may have given the game away.
What he may not understand is that every day he perversely brakes any growth in the economy and lets people stay jobless, he's making people even madder and nobody has an infinite breaking point. If we go to Iraq we increase the likelihood of terrorist attacks on our own soil. This has not made Americans more belligerent and compliant, as Bush hoped. Well, compliant to a point, but only in the sense there are certain things we have to live with--after all, this president was never completely elected at all. The only thing he seems to have wanted from public opinion was its silence and willingness to let him put words in its mouth. People, though, haven't grown hostile--they've grown pragmatic. If a war means the place I work can be destroyed, I'm much less likely to want to go to war, and that seems to be the developing consensus. The misstep in Bush's game was making people realize at this particular moment that he's doing nothing for homeland security, as well-expressed in this speech by Sen. Robert Byrd.
He knows we don't want it, but what we do want--to rebuild our deathly sick economy--is something he is unable and ill-equipped to do. What will be his next step? Will he back down, or are the right-wing radicals really, as has been suspected, trying to touch off Armageddon?
******************
In other brief news: WORKING FOR THE MAN has turned out to be Unbound Comics' best-seller over a month running. Help Bill & Nadine Loebs and purchase it here. A big thanks to all the contributors and everyone who supported this book.
Also, please enjoy these reviews. I know I did; one from Poopsheet and one from Comic Book Galaxy. Of course, if
they were bad reviews I'd never let you hear of them.
And lastly--but I promise, more details when I have time--I'll be published by Eros/Fantagraphics Books this June and August. Yes, it's smut. One book-length story and one 5-pager, but much more to (ahem)come. I assume that won't pique your interest but check back for more thoughts later, including a few words on the technical side of learning a new genre of this sort.
Labels: politics
¶ February 16, 2003
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