To: You
From: Guess
Date: Duh
Subject: [Insert 30 seconds of thinking up a vapid subject line.]
You know, you'd be surprised how easy it is (sometimes) to contact fairly famous people. It's something I learned during my days at the newspaper, but it's becoming more and more evident now that I'm working for a nationally circulated magazine. It's got to be a little scary (I would think) for these notable politicians, huge movie stars, professional athletes, etc. that anyone with a brain and a quick wit could find their e-mail or mail address and/or phone number.
... And I thought they were always paranoid because of the massive amounts of cocaine they ingested! What the fuck was I smoking?
Another thing you learn, though, is how rude people can be. I thought I was rude, but these folks have me beat to hell. I've kinda learned tricks of the trade, though. Say I'm trying to contact Hillary Clinton, I'll look on all her Web sites and look for different names of people I might could contact. Usually they don't have phone numbers for those names—just e-mails. So when I call the main number, I'll just say, "Hi, I'm [blobbity blah], can you forward me to Sam please?" Works every time.
• • •
The New York Times published an article (either today, or it's coming out tomorrow) about this "secret" memo, which reveals President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair plotted to provoke war in Iraq. News flash: Thank you, Captain Obvious.
Anyone remember the Downing Street Memo? Despite the magnitude of said memos, they never reach the heights I would expect them to—most likely because numerous media conglomerates (including Fox News) refuse to give the stories proper or sufficient air time, all the while downplaying the severity of the situations.
Why do people choose to neglect the idea that George Bush and his cabinet lied—flat out lied—to everyone? And even when people do come to that realization, they usually ask, "Well, what the hell can we do about it now?" Impeach that sonuvabitch. OK, Washington was in disarray for months over the Clinton impeachment—and it had absolutely nothing (nada, nil) to do with our country or the way the president was running our country at the time. In this instance our president has lied to everyone (yes, that means you) about his reasons for going to war, and even those presumptions have shown themselves to be totally false.
I know, it's getting old. But it's not beating a dead horse if the fucking horse isn't dead.
2 comments:
At the risk of revealing my lack of knowledge about the Bush administration's reasons for going to war -- does anybody really know? -- I'll only attempt to draw a thin correlation between our government's current state of affairs and that of Britain in 2025 in the new film V for Vendetta.
In V, the U.S. has already fallen and weak Britain and its fearful citizens are being controlled by a tyrannical chancellor and his gaggle of idiot puppets.
Over 100,000 British citizens, mostly children, died from what was thought to be a virus brought into the country by terrorists, but was in fact led and covered up by its own leaders to evoke fear and unite the divided country. All religious extremists, political activists, gays, lesbians, and transgender people were rounded up and blacklisted, if not murdered, to rid the country of people of difference.
The British television network delivered lies, lies, and more lies (rubbish, or bollocks, if you will) as it was run by the chancellor and his men who hid all of this from the public.
The parallels of the U.S. and this warped futuristic Britain are, again, somewhat forced, but this is all to say, the movie makes you realize how vulnerable we Americans are and how we're allowing ourselves, in some ways, to be mislead by being ill-informed.
I've stayed relatively out of the Iraq debate because, again, my lack of knowledge prevents me from doing so, but I feel compelled to educate myself about what's going on, compelled as an American taxpayer and as a human being. There are people still dying for no reason --for no fucking reason. The least I can do is find out why and how to voice my (not-yet-but-working-on-it) educated opinion about why I think it's wrong and what we can do to stop it.
If that means donning a V for Vendetta mask and blowing up the White House, then so be it, or if it means just talking to my friends, having healthy debates, and voting for policymakers who will protect not put citizens in harms way, if such people still exist, then I'll try to do that, too.
"If that means donning a V for Vendetta mask and blowing up the White House, then so be it"
~I'm reporting you to the authorities. Not because of that comment, but for giving away the plot to a movie I will no longer think about going to see in the theater ... thanks.
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