What the HECK is a Conservative?

Download this radio program
List all ... & download any ... installments

New World Notes News

Volume 2, Number 4 -- January 27, 2009

This week in New World Notes, #49 -- January 27 & 30:

What the HECK is a "Conservative"?

If memory serves, during the Presidential campaign, John "Songbird" McCain charged Barack Hussein Obama with being "the most liberal member of the Senate." To me, even if true, this would be low praise at best, like being the "most tolerant" member of the Ku Klux Klan or the roughest, toughest Teletubby of 'em all!

Seems to me that our Senators run the gamut from Eisenhower Republicans (Ted Kennedy) rightwards to people who call Mussolini a Commie because he supported public transportation (McCain and 53 others). With Obama just a step right of center.

Why most duck-hunters prefer daytime.

Bushism differs from traditional conservatism
in a few respects.

Incidentally, I have no idea how McCain gained the nickname "Songbird." According to an article in CounterPunch several months ago, it was given to him by his POW comrades back in Vietnam days. Has anyone heard details about what particular Asiatic tortures his evil captors inflicted upon the airman whom they knew to be the son of the commander of all U.S. forces in southeast Asia? I suspect the tortures involved being forced to read Asian Socialist magazine and eating locally-grown brown rice instead of Uncle Ben's.

But I digress. I'm old enough to remember when people who proclaimed themselves to be Conservatives advocated (1) limited government (2) "fiscal responsibility," including (3) balanced budgets; (4) maximum freedom of the individual from the heavy hand of government control; (5) local control of schools, even to the point of (6) abolishing the Department of Education; (7) avoiding debt; (8) restraint in military interventions abroad; and (9) oh, why go on? These principles are all so quaint . . . all so 20th-century!

Conservative icon

Conservative icon

Apparently not a conservative icon

So if the Cheney-Bush CABAL was "conservative," what the heck is a Conservative? By the same token--with Ted Kennedy a leading advocate of the "No Child Left Behind" anti-education horror--what the heck is a Liberal? But since no politician is willing to be called a Liberal, that's the less pressing of the two questions.

So in NWN #49 we explore what turns out to be a very interesting question . . . with important implications to our lives. After a general look around, we'll zero in on two contentious issues: The No-Child-Left-Behind fiasco of recent years and the school-integration-through-busing fiasco several decades back.

The show is mostly brilliant monologue, but the topic does give me excuse to play the two funniest songs about conservatives I've ever heard (not counting "Ballad of the Green Berets").

Yes, but you have to marry them first. T-shirt sociology.

TV commentatress Ann Coulter: GOP heartthrob.

Naturally, pointy-headed Liberals disagreed with Coulter's
plans for the European Union.

This week's music:

• Roy Zimmerman, My Conservative Girlfriend
• The Foremen [includes Roy Zimmerman], Ain't No Liberal
• Intro/Outro: Warren Zevon with Something Happens, Werewolves of London
  

Catch New World Notes . . .

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford) & http://wwuh.org/
• Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs) & http://www.whus.org/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New%20World%20Notes .

Duck-hunting at Wasilla Municipal Pool? Is this Sara Palin or Tina Fay? In either
case, she looks better in a patriotic bikini than Vice President Cheney ever did.
She also has a better grasp of elementary gun safety than Cheney. Note trigger-
finger kept alongside (not on) the trigger when there's no intent to fire imminently.
This summer I asked if America was ready for a Vice President who posed a
greater danger to game species than to her hunting partner. In November,
America answered with a resounding NO! Gul-durn Liberals!

Christmas Special: Molly Ivins . . .

Download this radio program
List all ... & download any ... installments

New World Notes News
Volume 1, Number 24 -- December 23 , 2008
http://newworldnotes.blogspot.com/

This week in New World Notes, #44 -- December 23 & 26:

Christmas Special:
Molly Ivins on Religion, Politics, Democracy,
Fun, and Those Darn 'Lord Impersonators'

Now comes New World Notes's first-ever Christmas Special. I should have devoted installment #38 (November 11) to the subject of guns. Then I could have called it NWN's ".38 Special." Yes, I know, I could have done it this week as well, as there's also a ".44 Special." Not too common these days, though. And since I know neither how to breed or nor how to shoot horses, I can't use ".45 Colt" next week either!

Probably my best bet would be to wait another six years, get permission to do an hour-long show on guns, and call it our ".357 Magnum."

So installment #44 is our Christmas Special, and let's not hear any cracks about shooting off my mouth!

Featured speaker is the late, great humorist, journalist, and Texas-liberal agitator, Molly Ivins (d. 2007). And to hear Molly inevitably is to hear about Texas--which is how my mind turned to the subject of guns & ammo in the first place. Who ever heard a story about Texas that didn't involve at least one gun?

Texas Governor Rick "Goodhair" Perry. "That man has a head
of hair every Texan can be proud of, regardless of party."

This being modern Texas, though, the story has more religious nutcases than guns. People who believe that God is giving them special assignments. For instance: drive to Louisiana naked. With 16 naked neighbors. In the same car. (If you have to ask: Pontiac GTO.)

Or for instance: invade Iraq, bring the hajjis Christianity, democracy, and free-market capitalism, and let them pay for our help out of their oil revenues.

Looking in good spirits despite chemotherapy. Quite a contrast
to the Governor, though!--as she was in most other respects
as well as tonsorially. Molly died of breast cancer in 2007.

Molly--who is addressing an audience in Berkeley--also touches on California Governor Schwarzenegger (who looks like "a condom stuffed with walnuts"), Texas Governor Rick "Goodhair" Perry, and the Enron executive appointed as Texas State Utilities Commissioner--and driven out of office by the state's legion of small-game hunters. Plus musings on democracy in America and hard-earned advice from a Texas Liberal to left-wing activists everywhere: Have a good time now. Don't wait until you've won all the battles to make politics fun!

And next time you get special instructions from On High, make sure it's the real Lord who's speaking and not one of those damn' Lord Impersonators such as the one Crawford's Connecticut Cowboy has been listening to!

California Governator Schwarzenegger:
"a condom stuffed with walnuts"?

Ann Richards--Governor of Texas, 1991-1995; defeated for re-election by
W. Bush; died in 2006. Possibly the only politician in the state Molly ever
admired--apart from onetime Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower.
Here Richards tests the radical new motorcycle--the first ever designed
and built in Texas --the Alamoster 883, as Keith Olberman (rear)
scowls in approval.

But in our Christmas Special, it wouldn't do to let the Lord Impersonators have the only word about Higher Things, so the program features other voices too. Roy Zimmerman sings about "Jerry Falwell's God." Tom Lehrer sings about celebrating Christmas, American-style. And I offer a few words of praise for the man Ezra Pound (I think it was) appreciatively dubbed "Commander Carpenter." A.k.a. Jesus of Nazareth.

So happy Christmas, one and all! And if anyone happens to give you a Christian Bible as a Christmas present, see if it has a decent index. If it does, try looking up some topics, just to see if Jesus might ever have had anything interesting to say on the subject. Possibly,

• America, God's blessing of, or not
• homosexuality
• abortion
• neighbor, loving your
• hungry, feeding the
• naked, clothing the
• homeless, giving shelter to the
• peacemakers
• ploughshares
• wealth, personal
• stones, casting the first

As the byline shows, Molly's wit and sanity are missed
well beyond the confines of Texas. Cartoon by Bagley.

Catch New World Notes . . .

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford) & http://wwuh.org/
• Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs) & http://www.whus.org/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New%20World%20Notes

Disclosure: A number of captious critics, some of them clad in leather jackets, have taken issue with certain points of the Ann Richards caption.

Khrushchev, Kennedy, WW III, & the Great Address -- Part 2

Download this radio program
List all ... & download any ... installments

New World Notes News
Volume 1, Number 23 -- December 16 , 2008

Miss Porter's School (just a few miles from here) teaches that pearls
are always appropriate. I guess. Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy
(left, with John Jr.) was Class of '47. Portrait by Richard Avedon.

This week in New World Notes, #43 -- December 16 & 19:

* * * * *

Khruschev, Kennedy, World War III, and the
Great Address at American University -- Part 2
* * * * *

This week NWN presents less analysis and more story, and Jim Douglas tells the story well. From the inauguration to the Bay of Pigs invasion . . . to Kennedy's secret correspondence with Khrushchev, his secret negotiations with Castro, his escalating battles against powerful war-hawks, the Cuban Missile Crisis, . . . and the stunning address at American University, June 10, 1963. And we'll also hear the second half of this address.

* * * * *

For nearly eight years the United States has suffered under a pair of rulers, each with a screw severely loose somewhere in his cranium. Somewhat disconcertingly, many of the loudest voices calling for injecting some reason, logic, and caution into the state's foreign policy have come from the upper ranks of the military establishment.

So it's hard to imagine a time when the situation was the opposite. When the President could pass any sanity test yet devised, and the rest of whole "national security state"--the Top Brass of the Pentagon, the National Security Council, the higher-ups at the CIA--was demonstrably crazy. Legally, clinically, and for all practical purposes.

Unless you think it's sane to fear communism and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics so much that you do everything you can to start a "preemptive" nuclear war with the USSR. Sure, the Soviets had atomic bombs and the ability to drop them on the USA. But don't you see? We have more atomic bombs than they do! We can win the Cold War! Once and for all! Now is the time! God bless America!

Kennedy addresses the nation on the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I'm making this up, right? I wish! Seriously, they "reasoned" that the US could destroy nearly all of the USSR's industrial capacity and kill 150 million Soviet citizens at the cost of only 40 million American dead. I'm not sure if they factored the effects of radioactive fallout into their equations. Probably not.

They thought that they could trap or trick the young and inexperienced President into touching off this war, which would begin with the bombing of Cuba and escalate into nuclear war with the Soviet Union. They came extremely close to trapping him during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. The world was saved (I guess) by the Celtic stubbornness of Kennedy--with a surprising and huge amount of help from his nominal enemy and secret pen-pal, Nikita S. Khrushchev.

Had Truman or Clinton or The Little Cowboy been President in 1962, instead of Kennedy, today we'd all be speaking Cockroach.

"US, Russia Now Facing Test of Will," reads one headline.

How the government & Corporate media wanted us to see the crisis.
The truth was much more interesting--and improbable--than this.

Long before the missile crisis, Kennedy had become estranged from his national security state. Now he declared all-out war on them. He announced this "war" to the world in his great commencement address at American University, June 10, 1963.

Here's my version of what happened next. The national security state reminded Kennedy of who's in charge with three assassination attempts in November. The third one worked. The powers-that-be of the Soviet Union removed Khrushchev from his dual office (Premier of USSR and Chairman of the Communist Party of the USSR) in October 1964.

The speech at American University touched on civil rights (hear this week's
excerpt). The next day, Kennedy spoke to the nation on that subject.. Early in
his term, Kennedy was not an especially strong civil rights advocate. Later
he came to realize that disarmament and world peace were impossible
without civil rights. Conversely, Martin Luther King, Jr., came to realize
that civil rights were impossible without disarmament.

Catch New World Notes . . .
Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH-FM 91.3 (West Hartford) & http://wwuh.org/
Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS-FM 91.7 (Storrs) & http://www.whus.org/
Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New%20World%20Notes

Trivia (?) :

On January 28, 2008, Sen. Edward Kennedy (JFK's brother), Rep. Patrick Kennedy (nephew) and Caroline Kennedy (daughter) formally endorsed Barack Obama to be the Democratic candidate for President. They chose American University as the place to make their announcement. Just coincidence or symbolic statement?

Weinholtz's Gratuitous Art

JOE by David Weinholtz

FOR SALE--Cheap!

.

Junior Senator (slightly used)

.

Answers to the name of "Joe" or--called by AIPAC--"Here, Boy!"

.
Housebroken. Some identity issues.

.

Quotable quote--on bombing Iran: "What, me worry?"

.

No reasonable offer refused!

.

Jello Biafra on the Candidates

Download program

Paul Wolfowitz

New World Notes News
Volume 1, Number 14 -- October 21, 2008

This week in New World Notes:

Tuesday, October 21 / Friday, October 24: #35--New World Notes's first and only Election Special--features two long passages from a funny and biting 2-hour stand-up monologue ("spoken-word art") performed by Jello Biafra--in July of this year, I believe . First, Jello presents a highly selective review of world news. We then break for a song--not by Jello and the Melvins or the Dead Kennedys (Jello's current and previous groups), I promise! Then Jello skewers every major-party aspirant to the U.S. presidency, including HRC, Huckabee, Guiliani, McCain, not least "the Barack star"--plus Nancy Pelosi, for good measure. Here's how the presidential horserace looks from a genuinely Progressive perspective. It isn't pretty, but it's funny.

Alas, no mention of McKinney (who wasn't yet nominated) or Ralph Nader. Alack, the recording was made before Sarah P. swooped down upon the Lower 48, scoped .30-06 in hand.* Is America ready for a Vice President who poses a greater threat to wildlife than to her hunting partner?

Jello's fine comic-satire monologues are among the discoveries I've made as a result of doing New World Notes. Other discoveries include singers Emma's Revolution, Anne Feeney (a long-lost friend), Rich Wyman, and The Foremen; interesting writers and speakers including Naomi Woolf, Glen Ford, and James Bamford; and a large handful of good people producing good public-affairs radio shows for nonprofit stations.

I've scheduled for mid-December another 22 minutes--not about the election--from the same performance by Jello. So if you enjoy this kind of thing (as I do), be sure to tune in.

More gratuitous artwork is attached: (1) Paul Wolfowitz (Top of page: plays a role in the song this week); (2-3) two posters celebrating Jello Biafra's 50th birthday (b. 1958); (4) the man himself.

Next week: Part 1 of a 3-part radio documentary. New World Notes's title pretty well sums it up: "Mutual Corruption: Media, Business, and Politics (or: Roll Over, George Orwell, and Tell Tim Russert the News)."

Catch New World Notes . . .

• Tuesdays, Noon to 12:30 PM, WWUH 91.3 (West Hartford) & wwuh.org
• Fridays, 7:30 to 8:00 AM, WHUS 91.7 (Storrs) & http://www.whus.org/
• Any time: Listen to or download any installment ... or subscribe to a podcast ... at A-Infos Radio Project: http://www.radio4all.net/index.php?op=result&action=series&series=New%20World%20Notes

Cheers!
Ken

* Pronounced “thirty-aught-six.” Not to be confused with the more modest .30-30, pronounced “THUD-y THUD-y.” Onomatopoeia, anyone?