IT LOOKS ALL THE MORE LIKELY THAT THOSE WHO SEE THEMSELVES AS "PATRIOTS" AND "SAVIOURS" OF AN IDEALISED "AMERICA WE ONCE KNEW" will start turning to Al Cohol all the more as their dear and bosom friend and companion within measurable distance, if not already.

I mention this because of the House of Representatives' passing (and by a rather close margin, but no cigar--instead, maybe a cigarillo?) on the overnight what may be serious health-care reform. Which, though not exactly perfect, may be what we "morally superior" Americans have been calling for.

Even if it means having to eventually reconcile such with what the Senate will offer before final details are worked out. (Come to think of it, Buzzflash is suggesting on Twitter that "Medicare for All would have been simpler. It would have been a one page bill and the system is in place." Suggest that to your Congressional Delegation as the debate continues.)

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THE IDEA OF AL COHOL BEING AN ALL THE MORE LIKELY COMPANION OF THE "TEA PARTY" ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS, ALL THE WHILE (UN)CONSCIOUSLY (UN)AWARE, in the stylee of Orwellian Doublethink, of their being tools of "the Four Hundred" through "astroturf" fronts with deceptive and misleading names and stylees like "Americans For Prosperity" and "FreedomWorks," is not outside the realm of possibility; besides, I suppose we've all heard our parents or grandparents make threats of hitting the bottle in case their offspring go into such acts, deeds or exploits suggesting Serious Moral Lapse.

As, e.g., these lines in "Hot Rod Lincoln" by Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen (vintage 1971), repeated @ its beginning and end:

My pappy said "Son, you're gonna drive me to drinkin'
If you don't stop drivin' that Hot Rod Lincoln!"

Even more so considering where liquor stores and/or bars seem to dominate lower-income "white trash" communities as are prime recruitment targets for pseudo-"patriotic" movements exploiting fear, loathing and socioeconomic uncertainty by pushing articles of faith which, in the end, are to the detrius of Joe Sixpack. Articles of faith as are somehow rooted in quasi-mythologised 1950's values-systems forever insisting that the defence of capitalism was one with that of Our Antient and Peculiar Sovereignty and Sovereign Identity, and that the two were mutually interconnected.

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EXPECT THIS TO BE THE NEXT PLUM TARGET FOR "TEA PARTY" OBSTRUCTIONISM TENDING TO SCANDAL AND OUTRAGE, ALL SCRIPTED in a stylee not unlike the traditional Japanese kabuki and noh drama:

As we all know, boys and girls, radio and television broadcasters in our "morally superior" United States are required every seven years (howbeit on a rolling basis vis-a-vis the several states) to show cause before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that they are, indeed, serving public interest in its programming and operations. (And, in the case of TV, must also show that they are serving the Special Educational and Informational Needs of Children with @ least three hours per week of programmes along such lines.)

In any case, some in the Fox Prolefeed camp are using the 40-year anniversary of the PBS childrens' series Sesame Street to take issue with public television as being "too liberal" in its tone and leanings, not to mention "showing reckless and utter disregard for conservative viewpoints and beliefs" in the name (so they think) of "fairness and balance" (and where have we heard THAT one before?!!), let alone "not showing due regard for neutrality" because of its non-commercial nature.

That, and the usual crybaby platitude of conservatives of "It's YOUR money!!"

Hence, calling for wholesale and "wholehearted" challenges to pending licence renewal applications of public-television broadcasters of the sort translating into an undue increase of work burden for the FCC's mailroom and correspondence-intake staff in the Broadcasting Bureau (not to mention its e-mail servers working overtime to the point of crashes ensuing) ... the whole, in the end, containing almost-identical phrasing and nuances, written almost exclusively @ a 4th-5th grade reading level (with allowances for spelling, punctuation, grammar and syntax errors), so as to (in theory) trigger a series of public hearings by the FCC vis-a-vis the licence renewal application.

Hearings expected to be on a par with the Congressional "town meetings" over the summer seeking to deflate health-care reform as some class of a threat to Our Antient and Peculiar Sovereignty and Sovereign Identity, not to mention Our Holy and Beloved Nation--replete with scripted bawling, taunts, caterwauling, boohoohooing, the whole shooting match.

Which, in any case, will only cost taxpayers money in the process.

In any case, perhaps what the FCC should do is approach any sudden spike in challenges to licence renewal applications among PBS stations with care and caution, paying especial attention to:

• the inevitable conservative bromides otherwise known as "talking points" being used prominently;
• the letters coming primarily from lower-income or otherwise economically-disadvantaged ZIP+4 codes with significant and measurable "white trash" populations and the e-mails using online services like Yahoo Mail, MSN Hotmail, Google's Gmail and Mail.com (sent, as the headers will reveal, by way of Internet termini @ public libraries or community centres more than likely, absent realistic Information Stuporbahn access @ home; and
• the generally insincere and scripted tone and nuance of the comments, as in predictable-sounding boilerplate seeking to needlessly disrupt the FCC's work and, hence, trigger public hearings.

glitter-graphics.com

"...and that is is a way."