[Marxism] James Wolcott's blog

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

(For my money, one of the finest blogs in the entire blogosphere is
JamesWolcott.com. I first ran into Wolcott's writings when he was a
columnist for the Village Voice in the 1970s. This was around the time that
Alex Cockburn was also writing for them. God, has the Voice gone into a
tail-spin over the years since people like that left. I can't remember why,
but Cockburn and Wolcott had a falling out in the 80s. It had something to
do with politics obviously but I can't remember the exact details. Wolcott,
like Hitchens, makes his living nowadays writing for Vanity Fair, a glossy
magazine that is the place to go if you are interested in a profile on
Jennifer Aniston or Donald Trump. Since I am not a subscriber myself, I
can't judge what Wolcott is doing there. However, I can say that the
politics and the prose that emanates from his blog are nonpareil. Wolcott
wrote a book last year on the rightwing media titled "Attack Poodles and
Other Media Mutants:The Looting of the News in a Time of Terror."  Based on
the evidence of his latest blog entry below, I imagine that it is very,
very, very good. Look for it in your local bookstore or on the Internet.)

http://www.jameswolcott.com/
Tracer Fire
Killer Portfolio
Posted by James Wolcott

It's difficult to think of a smarmier band of cold-hearted bastards than
the stockpickers and marketwatchers who behave like over-age frat boys each
week on Fox News's Saturday morning "business block". A few women are
sprinkled into the mix of hosts and panelists, but White Male Bluster
prevails, as it does in the rest of the Fox lineup. And although the four
programs that make up the business block have separate names and guests,
it's really one big two-hour suds dispenser, the same talking points
reiterated by different inflatable fatheads.

Today one of the themes was the shooting of the passenger at the Miami
airport, which most people would regard as a human tragedy, but to the
fun-lovin' guys on "Bulls & Bears" a dead body is a buying opportunity. One
guest recommended airlines stocks--American Airlines in particular, I
think--because American travelers would now feel safer knowing that
security forces leap into action with such lethal authority. Although his
stock pick was ridiculed (razzing each other's picks is part of the
chortling entertainment here--my wife says the guests snap and bark like
dogs fighting over a choice cut of meat), everyone agreed that killing the
passenger was a show of strength that would boost Americans' confidence in
Homeland Security. It meant the system was working, and that the sky
marshals were up to the task. It was asserted as fact that the poor guy
claimed to have a bomb--the truth of the situation is considerably
hazier--and scant attention was paid to his bipolar condition, or the
reactions of his fellow passengers to his killing. This is how bad it's
gotten in Bush America: gunning down a mentally ill passenger is now a
thumbs-up sign of virility and vigilance.

On Neil Cavuto's "Cavuto on Business," the passenger's death was also
touted as a big thumb's up for Homeland Security, with the odious Stewart
Varney (can't we send him back from wherever he and his approval-courting
accent came?) claiming Americans were "reassured" by the dispatch with
which this passenger was put down with deadly force. Perhaps the sky
marshals should have shot the man's wife too, so that Varney's imaginary
Americans could be doubly reassured.

Killing the mentally ill: that's Fox News's idea of a "feel-good."

Then followed "Forbes on Fox," hosted by David "The Assman" Asman, which
exploited the Miami incident as a springboard to propose that victims and
victims' survivors of Homeland Security excesses be denied the right to
sue. Because otherwise trial lawyers are going to infest the scene and clog
the courts with their frivolous lawsuits seeking restitution. One Forbes
editor who was against the lawsuit ban nevertheless lambasted trial lawyers
as "terrorists against the economy." The words "terrorist" and "terrorism"
mean nothing spouting out of a Republican mouth now, they're used so
promiscuously.

And as I type this, the antediluvian Beltway Boys--Fred and Mort (each with
a tube of Ben Gay discreetly tucked into a derringer holster)--are agreeing
with each other so vigorously that the sky marshals did the right thing
that they may dislocate something if they're not careful. Mort says what
happened in Miami could provide a boost to air-marshal funding, and Fred is
marveling over how little second-guessing there's been of their
quick-trigger action.

The only thing that's left is for Charles Krauthammer to lament on
tomorrow's Fox News Sunday that by swiftly executing suspected terrorists,
we deprive ourselves of the edifying opportunity to torture them first.


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