The Media Elite vs. Mike Huckabee

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is now the front runner in the Republican Presidential contest and will probably be sworn in as president of the United States in January 2008.
I make this bold prediction because the media elite has marked Mr. Huckabee for destruction. National liberal propaganda outlets like ABC News are running stories about a rapist whose parole Huckabee helped arrange, who later raped and killed two women. Bloggers have branded Huckabee, an ordained Baptist pastor (just like Al Gore) a religious nut and a far more dangerous fanatic than Bin Laden.
So why is the liberal elite so afraid of Huckabee? Mainly because he will probably win both the Republican primary and the presidential election. Instead of crowning Queen Hillary liberals will face four more years of conservative Republican administration.
Huckabee is a friendly, personable, down earth folksy old school politician from Arkansas with a lot of Southern charm (sounds like a certain Democrat who came out of nowhere to win big in 1992). Like Clinton, Huckabee is a moderate and a conciliator who brings people together. Huckabee is against abortion but he’s also come out in favor of tax increases, balanced budgets and universal healthcare. He’ll be popular and possibly an effective president.
The media liberals know that Huckabee is an effective candidate with little money he’s knocked out the Republican front runners. Huckabee is a conservative populist with the common touch, the kind of candidate the Democrats can’t beat. The Democrats want the Republicans to run an old school country club moderate like Giuliani or Bob Dole the kind of person they can beat. When the Republicans ran guys like that in 1992 and 1996 they lost, when they ran a folksy populist in 2000 and 2008 they won. Huckabee is a folksy populist like Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
History is also on Huckabee’s side in another way, all of the men elected president since 1964 have either come from the West or the South. Huckabee is from Arkansas, Giuliani is from New York, Romney from Massachusetts, Hillary from New York by way of Illinois. Obama who knows where he’s from but in my mind anybody who moved from Hawaii to Chicago has a serious deficit in the brain department. Unlike Hillary, Huckabee stayed down home with his people that will count for a lot out in the red states.
Huckabee is also a governor, no US Senator has been elected President since John F. Kennedy back in 1960 and he barely squeaked in. Every President elected since 1976, except George H.W. Bush has been a former governor. The two times a former Vice President faced off against a former governor, the former governor won. There was an exception in 1988 when Bush I beat Mike Dukakis but Bush I was from Texas and Dukakis from Massachusetts.
Finally, Huckabee has the Religious Right on his side, he can and will mobilize the values voters. Bush won in 2004 because the Religious Right deployed its armies, large numbers of cultural conservatives came out to vote many of them against gay marriage. A similar strategy could carry Huckabee to the White House in 2008, the cultural conservatives will need to find an issue to energize the people in the pews but I’m sure Karl Rove will think of something.
So it looks like Huckabee will be the next president of the United States unless the media elite figures out a way to destroy him.

Militarism in Popular Culture

A funny thing has happened on the way to the future it has become thoroughly militarized at least in the vision of it offered by American television producers.
Case in point the two versions of the classic space opera “Battlestar: Galactica” a series about a space-going aircraft carrier. Despite its name the original “Battlestar” was thoroughly unmilitary in its style and trappings. The giant spaceship was more like a lounge than a warship filled with comfortable chairs and spacious apartments. The ship’s crew wore comfortable pajama like clothes and didn’t salute and discipline was almost nonexistent. The captain, Commander Adama, was a kindly father figure played by Loren Green of “Bonanza” fame. Everybody was laid back and relaxed even though they were in a life and death situation. The only people in the 1970s version of Galactica who had anything like a military bearing were the bad guys the Cylons swaggering robotic killing machines and the fascist Eastern Alliance.
The new Battlestar which has been on since 2004 is an almost complete contrast. The new Galactica is a gloomy, cramped mess of corridors and industrial equipment reminiscent of a sea-going warship. The crew members wear uniforms similar to US military fatigues, and Marines clomp around in full battle armor. Soldiers salute and military discipline is harsh. The second in command is proud of the fact that the crew hates him, the commander is an all powerful figure who is practically worshipped by his men.
In contrast to the crew of the Battlestar Galactica, the revamped Cylons are funky, organic and casual like 1970s science fiction heroes. The Cylons fly around in living ships that look like something out of a 1970s TV show. The Cylon leaders unlike the Galacticans are all blatantly civilian.
“Battlestar Galactica” is perhaps the most blatant example of the militarization of American popular culture but hardly the only one. Galactica and its competitor, Stargate, are examples of military science fiction, a sub genre of SF once confined to paperback novels but now the mainstream. The new Galactica seems to have vanquished the blatantly anti-military Star Trek to become the gold standard of American science fiction TV. American popular culture with science fiction as its cutting edge has become thoroughly militarized a far cry from the status quo just 25 years ago.
Back when I was a kid in the 1970s and 80s when a military man with short cropped hair and a pressed uniform popped up on the screen you knew he was the bad guy. Whether it was a Star Wars movie, Indiana Jones or a TV show like MASH or the A-Team you knew the military establishment was the enemy. Even in blatantly military entertainments like Rambo (and remember Rambo was more like the military equivalent of a hippy than a good soldier he had long hair and wore no shirt) and the GI Joe comic books the funky unmilitary everyman was the hero. The guy in the uniform was a stiff shirt and the enemy. The ultimate example of this was the classic TV show “The A-Team” where heroic soldiers who fought for freedom and good were pursued by a ruthless by the book disciplinarian officer.
Now flash forward to the year 2007 and see how things have changed. The only TV show that regularly focuses on military matters is “The Unit” produced oddly enough by avant-garde film director David Mamet (who ten years ago produced the anti military film “Wag the Dog”). “The Unit” focuses on a group of ruthless by the book special forces soldiers who will do whatever it takes to defend the United States including kidnapping a US Senator. The US soldiers on the Unit are always heroic, and the horrible things they do are always necessary for America’s defense.
“The Unit” is only one example of this mentality, a far more popular one is the video game “Halo” where the hero is a ruthless armored soldier of an interstellar empire. In other words, an Imperial storm trooper, a Star Wars bad guy. Halo is perhaps as popular as Star Wars in our popular culture I see it on pop bottles and paperback novels.
So how did our culture get this militarized? That’s hard to say especially since the vast majority of Americans have little or no contact with the military and only a tiny minority actually serve in it. Part of it maybe guilt older Americans feel guilty because they think they betrayed our troops in Vietnam (notice they’ll never admit this publicly anymore than Neocons will admit they are wrong about Iraq but they think it none the less) by opposing that war or dodging the draft. Younger Americans well they feel they should be over there in Iraq but the Army doesn’t pay enough. The American whether he be a software designer bringing down a half million dollars a year or a guy driving the forklift for thirty thousand bucks a year feels guilty that some poor kid from the trailer park is taking a bullet for him in the Middle East so he wants to show his support.
Then there is insecurity, until Sept. 11, 2001, we Americans whether we were leftist college professors or beer guzzling construction workers thought we were invulnerable. The bad guys would never get over here and kill our people. Hollywood producers could afford to portray military men as Nazis and country club types could bad mouth professional soldiers. They were an anachronism we didn’t need any more. Well the bad guys were smarter than we thought they got over here and killed our people on American soil. Even peace protestors are paying their respects to our men and women in uniform.
Suddenly we Americans are insecure again and no matter what our political beliefs we might need the military again. We might need the men and women in uniform to kill the guys with the funny accents so they don’t come over here and kill our families. So like our grandparents in World War II we like the military again. Today’s bad guys aren’t the Russians, they actually want to fight and kill. So we need to fight them and more importantly kill them, so we need somebody to do the fighting for us, so we need the military and we respect them again.
So I wonder will in thirty years some producer make an unmilitary “Battlestar Galactica” to reflect a more secure era? I hope the answer will be yes.

Why I'll Never Vote For Hillary

I'll never vote for Hillary because I remember a young boy named Elian Gonzalez. You remember Elian back in 1999 he and his mother tried to escape the Communist hell known as Fidel Castro's Cuba on a leaky boat. The boat sank on the way to Miami and Elian's mother died. Elian reached US soil and was released to his relatives in Miami took him in. Almost immediately a man claiming to be Elian's father, Juan Migueal (note Elian's paternity was never established) demanded he be returned to Castro's Cuba. Naturally the liberal media in the USA sided with Fidel's brand of tyranny, and Fidel. Juan Miguel and two women claiming to be Elian's grandmothers even came to the US and demanded custody. Notice they never established a legal claim no blood test was ever done. The sorry thing was that Bill Clinton President of the United States sided with Fidel Castro and the New York Times editorial board (Bill Clinton's true masters) against Elian. On April 22, 2000, agents of the Federal border dressed up like storm troopers from some grade b science fiction movie burst into a working class home of Cuban immigrants (the kind of average folk Bill Clinton was supposed to represent) and took Elian away. A reporter even snapped a shot of one of the Federal thugs pointing a submachine gun at a young woman carrying young Elian. A few hours Elian was reunited with the man claiming to be his father (note paternity was never established). Elian is now back in Cuba talking about his wonderful Uncle Fidel he's even given interviews to American news media (no doubt gazing across the room at a couple of vicious KBG trained thugs with pistol sized bulges under their jackets). Clinton leader of the world's greatest super power caved in to the pathetic comic opera leader of a sorry little nation with no military. He did it only so he would be allowed into the cocktail parties of New York's liberal elite and no other reason. Bill Clinton cares nothing for Fidel Castro I imagine if Castro showed up at Slick Willy's door, Bill would tell him to get lost or I'll sick the dog on you. Slick Willy and his wife don't give a fucking damn about Castro, they care only about the rich elitists who think Fidel is wonderful. They're sorry excuses for human beings and I'm ashamed I ever voted for Bill Clinton, I did twice he fooled a lot of people but he'll never fool me again. Bill Clinton if I ever see you dying of a heart attack on a street corner and ask for CPR, I'll walk up to you and say remember Elian and walk away. Before you Republicans get holier than thou I have a few questions for you. Your man George W., Elian is still in Cuba why? When he took over in January 2001, W. could have picked up the phone called Fidel (I imagine the CIA has that piece of shit's number on file) and said Elian I want him back now. You know who I am the Marines are coming to get him. The response would have been se senior he will be on the plane within the hour. Then Bush could have said excellent Fidel now there will be a few changes in your country the Communist Party, the Secret Police and the Cuban Army formed after 1959 are abolished. Private property is restored and the Cuban Constitution of 1941 is restored. All Cuban exiles can return and all foreign companies operating concessions under your filthy regime can clear out. When I can expect democratic elections under the supervision of the US military? Fidel listen to me you can retire like your old buddy Pinochet I'll even let you keep your Swiss Bank Accounts. The response would have been se senor, I have called the moving van and it is coming to take my possessions away. You are a great leader. I love you." All of Bush's demands would have been met and Fidel would now be the admired leader of the new capitalist Cuba. He would have even shaved his beard. Nor did Bush or the so called Republican Congress make any effort to hold the thugs responsible for terrorizing the Gonzalez family responsible for their crimes. No Federal Grand Jury was convened, if one had been it would have undoubtedly pressed charges against those high school drop outs whose qualification for service in the Border Patrol was probably winning the good conduct medal during their army service (that means they did a good job of washing the tanks because the sergeant was afraid to let them near a loaded gun) Notice Bush did nothing of the kind he let Castro's sorry little show go on. The Border Patrol agents who terrorized young Elian and his family are retired probably enjoying the big bass boats they bought with the bribe money from drug trafickers. So I have little respect for him.
So Hillary I won't vote for you, anybody who would turn a little boy over to Fidel Castro is no better than somebody who would turn Anne Frank into the SS. Actually you are far worse than that collaborator in Nazi occuppied Holland, he might not have had a choice you did. You Hillary are pathetic if you had a shred of human dignity in your body you would have packed your bags on April 22, 2000, moved out of the White House and never called back. Then you didn't, you knew what you had married long ago and you approved of that sorry excuse of humanity. I can forgive Monica Lewinksy that was a human foible, Elian Gonzalez that was a crime against all this country stands for.
Hopefully someday Elian will grow up and come to this country, in a just world after he and his friends watch as Fidel and his worthless brother Raul are hung from street lamps then tossed into a garbage dump filled with copies of the Communist manifesto. When he does Elian, will make his way to New York, take a train out to a certain suburb knock on the door of a large house and ask for President Clinton's autograph. Bill Clinton arrogantly full of himself after giving a interview to the New York Times (now an internet blog maintained by a former employee of that august publication who had plenty of extra time in his high paying new job as greeter at the local Wal Mart) lamenting the fate of Fidel Castro. The door bill will ring, the butler will call slick Willy away from his internet porn, and slick Willy will shuffle down to the door. The young Latin looking man will say hi I'm Elian Gonzalez remember me" and slug Bill Clinton in the face as hard he can. The worried security guards will tell Bill to call the police he'll say no and ask Elian how big a check he wants to keep his mouth shut....