Back From The Shadows Again

After reading as much news as I could stomach this morning … I immediately thought of Rod Serling, the guy who understood better than most the banal surrealism of MainStream America, Machiavelli’s The Prince, The guidebook on getting and preserving power, and The Firesign Theatre’s I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus.

So what does an old TV show, the writings of a 481 year old dead guy, and a comedy album from 1971 have anything to do with August 2008?

Rod Serling set the stage:

You’re traveling through another dimension beyond that which is known to man. You’re moving into a land between light and shadow, between science and superstition. That’s a signpost up ahead: your next stop: the Twilight Zone.

Machiavelli provided the techniques.

If Karl Rove only read one book throughout his miserable lifetime … it’s a safe assumption that one book would be Machiavelli’s The Prince. Rove’s entire political career is filled with one example after another of getting and maintaining power. From “The end justifies the means” as a working foundation, to the most audacious … Accuse other people of crimes you have committed … all from the pages of Machiavelli’s playbook.

In 1986, when helping William Clements, Jr. running for governor of Texas a second time, Rove bugged his own campaign office just before a crucial debate in the campaign … and blamed the Democrats. Police and FBI investigated and discovered that the bug’s battery was so small it would need to be changed every few hours. The investigation was dropped but more importantly … Clements won.

Rove has been proclaimed to be a “genius.” In reality, he’s more like an idiot savant. His one and only “talent” is that he can lie. Most of us learned as children that it is wrong to tell a lie. Sociopaths like Rove somehow never learned that lesson and Rove has been handsomely rewarded for all his lies.

In 1973 the sociopathic Karl Rove met the psycopathic George W. Bush. In different times, different circumstances, their story would have been told in lurid “True Crimes” magazines. But with family connections and the deep pockets of the Republican Party … their history won’t be found on magazine racks but in a Presidential Library.

So what’s ol’ Karl up to these days?

Last March as reported by Politico.com … he’s still a busy boy:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0308/8911.html

Mehlman, Rove boost McCain campaign.

John McCain is getting much more than President Bush’s endorsement and fundraising help for his campaign. He’s getting Bush’s staff.

… Ken Mehlman, who ran Bush’s 2004 campaign, is now serving as an unpaid, outside adviser to the Arizona Republican. Karl Rove, the president’s top political hand since his Texas days, recently gave money to McCain and soon after had a private conversation with the senator. A top McCain adviser said both Mehlman and Rove are now informally advising the campaign. Rove refused to detail his conversation with McCain.

This explains the tone of the current spate of McCain ads. John McCain pledged to run a “respectful campaign” and has proved that he doesn’t know what those words mean in that order. The ads are not filled with spin, distortions, or hyperbole. They are simply … lies. One claimed that Obama is playing “The Race Card” … completely untrue … when the McCain campaign played that same card in an ad back in April.

Thank you Machiavelli. Accuse your opponent of doing what you have already done. It’s amazing people still fall for that.

But McCain’s latest attack ad is completely off the scale.

Politicians have always used “Code Words” that sound innocent enough but speak volumes to a target audience. You can’t flat out use The N Word but you can certainly talk of “State’s Rights” down in the South and those voters know what you’re talking about.

In order to completely get a lock on The Crazy Evangelical Vote … McCain’s newest spot portrays Barack Obama as … The Antichrist.

You really can’t get much crazier than that. A quote from the book of Psalms, an insinuation from Revelations, and Charlton-Gawd-Damned-Heston himself as Moses will drive those Bible-Thumpin’ Mouth Breathers straight to the voting booth scared witless that Satan’s minion is comin’ to town … and he’s black!

If you don’t think that McCain attack ads don’t make much difference … Google “obama anti-Christ” and over a million pages show up. And The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday, August 4th shows the race for the White House is tied with Barack Obama and John McCain each attracting 44% of the vote. However, when “leaners” are included, it’s McCain 47% and Obama 46%.

Karl Rove’s slimy fingerprints are all over the McCain ads. And if you can believe the polls … they’re working.

I take back that “You really can’t get much crazier than that” statement. We’ve got 3 loooooong months to go until election day. I don’t know where McCain can go after the Obama as Antichrist ad runs its course but I’m sure Karl will think of a lie so cynically evil … The MainStreamMedia will talk about it endlessly for days.

Which is what Rove wants in the first place.

Hey … if the Rove tactic of accusing Democrats of a flaw that the Rove Republicans possess … and we all know that Barack Obama is not The Antichrist … then … does that mean that Karl Rove could be ??? … Oh never mind.

Oh … I almost forgot. How does the Firesign Theatre fit into all this?

I believe that if one follows “Current Events” and attempts to dig beneath the veneer of MainStreamMedia … there are um … certain repercussions.

As the Honorable Chester Cadaver from I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus explains:

“Sure, understanding today’s complex world of the future is a little like having bees live in your head. But, there they are.”

I know exactly what that feels like.

So … Go Ahead, Squeeze the Wheeze … We’re all bozos on this bus.

August 4, 2008