And, on that note: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1175834/posts
Posted on 7/21/2004, 9:44:54 PM by churchillbuff
What passes these days for the artsy-intellectual set in America has gone completely bonkers over the prospect of George W. Bush winning a second term as president.
Current polls show that Bush continues to run neck-and-neck with John Kerry despite a slower-than-expected economic recovery, bloody setbacks in Iraq, and cheerleading for Democrats from a press corps that admits to an unprecedented identification with the left.
The proportion of national journalists calling themselves liberal, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center, has risen 50 percent since 1995. Currently, 34 percent of journalists say they are liberal, 7 percent conservative. For the general public, the results are reversed: 33 percent of Americans say they are conservatives, 20 percent liberals.
But media bias is not enough to turn the tide. Something must be done to prevent another Bush victory, and America's artistes are out to do it.
First, there was Michael Moore's movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11," a crude quasi-Marxist fantasy about the war in Iraq, filled with distortions but widely praised by reviewers. (Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper, for instance, gave it two thumbs up, with Roeper explaining, "I've been angry at Bush's arrogance and incompetence, and I've despised his policies.")
Next, there was the July 8 fundraiser for John Kerry in New York, at which Whoopi Goldberg "fired off a stream of vulgar sexual wordplays on Bush's name in a riff about female genitalia," as one newspaper put it. Paul Newman said that Bush's tax cuts were "borderline criminal."
Now, get ready for Act III. On Aug. 10, Alfred A. Knopf, America's most distinguished publishing house, is bringing out a novel by Nicholson Baker, winner of the 2002 National Book Critics Circle Award and a darling of the New York intelligentsia. Baker's bestseller, "Vox," which Monica Lewinsky gave Bill Clinton as a gift in 1998, was about phone sex between two "obsessive, yuppie masturbators," according to Kirkus Reviews.
Baker's new book, called "Checkpoint," eschews kinky sex for political murder. It is a long conversation between two men about assassinating President Bush. Yes, killing the sitting president of the United States.
One of the characters, named Jay, says of Bush, "He is beyond the beyond. What he's done with this war. The murder of the innocent. And now the prisons. It's too much. It makes me angry…. I'm going to kill the bastard…. I'm going to assassinate the president."
Jay calls Bush "an unelected [expletive deleted] drunken oilman" who is "squatting" in the White House and "muttering over his prayer book each morning." He says Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have "fought their way back up out of the peat bogs where they've been lying, and they're stumbling around with grubs scurrying out of their noses."
Jay then describes methods of murdering the president, including radio-controlled flying saws that are "ultrasharp and they're totally deadly, really nasty." Other methods: a gun and a remote-controlled boulder.
A statement from Knopf says that "Baker wrote 'Checkpoint' in response to the powerless seething fury many Americans felt when President Bush decided to take the nation to war." (Never mind that the October 2002 votes on authorizing the president to use force in Iraq were 77-23 in the Senate and 296-133 in the House.)
"I wanted to capture the specificity of that rage," said Baker. "How do you react to something that you think is hideously wrong? How do you keep it from driving you nuts?"
Well, one way might be to campaign aggressively on behalf of candidates who want to end the war, like Ralph Nader. Another might be to write cogent, rational essays. Baker has chosen a different route: write a book about killing George W. Bush.
Knopf, which expects a big initial sale, is clearly defensive. "Baker's book does not suggest violence is ever an appropriate response," says the publisher's statement. Really? Some readers will almost certainly disagree. They will find compelling Jay's hatred of Bush and his plan for resolving it -- "a murder," says Knopf, "that will change the course of history."
John Kerry may not be responsible for the rantings of the likes of Moore, Goldberg and Baker. But he could strike a blow for decency in America - and, coincidentally, help his own cause - if he would forcefully denounce the murderous hysteria in Hollywood and Manhattan. A candidate who lacks the moral integrity to take a stand against these mounting outrages doesn't deserve to be president.
Won't happen for two reasons:
If they really want one, that's fine with me because I know who would win.
I just wonder if they know what they're getting themselves into.
"I wanted to capture the specificity of that rage," said Baker. "How do you react to something that you think is hideously wrong? How do you keep it from driving you nuts?" What makes him think he did?
"...despite a slower-than-expected economic recovery..."
I know the article isn't about this statement, but it really ticked me off. What are they smoking?
This economy has skyrocketed to recovery WAY above expectations!
These people need public flogging. The lies and deceit are escalating to what I think is a dangerous level.
Why spend hard earned money on this book? We can read the same vomit on DU for free.
Censorship isn't a good thing. Instead, I'm for killing the author Nicholson Baker.
Be prepared to invoke Rule .308 on traitors, insurrectionists, seditionists, and their sputniki.
Aim small, miss small.
(+)
It didn't drive him nuts.
It was only a short putt.
Jay calls Bush "an unelected [expletive deleted] drunken oilman" who is "squatting" in the White House and "muttering over his prayer book each morning." He says Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have "fought their way back up out of the peat bogs where they've been lying, and they're stumbling around with grubs scurrying out of their noses."
"Jay" reminds me of somebody that ultimately is driven from the land he hates and goes to live amongst others in the world who share his values.
If they really want one, that's fine with me because I know who would win.
I just wonder if they know what they're getting themselves into.
In order for them to know what they are getting into, they would have to drag themselves out of their morass of childish emotional petulence, and actually think something through.
As we all know, there is nothing more difficult for your garden variety hate-mongering liberal to accomplish.
Even Paul Newman steps up to the plate and proves himself to be an idiot.
No more Newmans' salad dressing for me.
What will happen when Bush wins re-election? The legions of addled, mind-numbed robots the Left has seeded with fury at Bush and conservatives might just decide to take action and actually try and murder President Bush. After all, they've been told "Bush stole the last election", which is Liberal-speak for "The Republicans committed a coup d'etat".
I fear bloodshed will occur leading up to, including and after the November elections. Not only from the jihadist terrorists, but from the brainwashed Democrat fringes who will see the results as some sort of "call to revolution", a'la Chomsky and Moore.
Shouldn't the Secrete Service, FBI and Police in General be looking into this creep! Arrest his arse, try him for plotting to kill the President.
They really want the President dead. Its good to see this out in the open. The Left has really lost its collective marbles.
If President Bush wins re-election, the hatred from the Democrats is gonna turn homicidal. You ain't seen nothin' yet and this novel is just the tip of the iceberg in Liberalland.
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