AMONG OTHER THINGS…A BAD DAY OF POLLS, ANN COULTER ON THE CONSPIRACY ZONE, AND THEN ON PI
(February 22, 2002)
A Media Watch Special Report (Posted 2/23/02)
I’m beginning to feel that we’re
not entitled to even the faintest glimmer of hope. Even a
momentary high gained from seeing a smattering of protest against
the Bush regime is quickly dashed.
After a good Thursday with the Daily Show
and Michael Moore, Friday was an all round bad day. It
started out with a poll from Quinnipiac University. http://www.quinnipiac.edu/polls/
Quinnipiac is located in Connecticut, polling Connecticut, New
York and New Jersey residents as well as fielding national polls.
Before leaving the New York area a couple of years ago, I heard
their ads for what was then Quinnipiac College. Apparently
they’ve grown enough to be granted university status,
perhaps because their Communications Department now has the new
Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center!! (Seriously!!)
How convenient it is to have such a fine department and a Polling
Institute up and running together!! These guys certainly
know how to prepare top-notch journalists for the future,
don’t they? Read this inspiring excerpt from their
site:
“In addition to this cutting-edge
practical training, students receive a thorough grounding in the
history and theories of communication, and a rich and full sense
of the relationship between the current "information
explosion" and Western culture, allowing them to become
enlightened leaders in the media world.”
Imagine how well Edward R. Murrow could have
done if he had had all this training!!
But I digress! A poster at the
Democratic Underground had chosen to seek solace in the
“fact” that Cheney was polling at a 58% approval
rating, way below Powell’s 85% and Bush’s 76%.
"More good news for the President: Americans say they are
satisfied with the way things are going in the nation. That's
always a good sign for incumbents, " says Maurice Carroll,
director of the Polling Institute. And when I looked at the
breakdowns and saw Independents were polling at 75% approval of
Bush, the thought of leaving the country seriously entered my
mind.
Since Friday night TV is almost as bad as
Saturday night TV, I wound up at TNN watching a rerun of Star
Trek: The Next Generation, which is still my favorite ST series
and always makes me feel better. Then I made a mistake. I
hung around for The Conspiracy Zone. I haven’t watched
this monstrosity since the premiere, which was devoted to Elvis.
Kevin Nealon tries to blend conspiracy with humor and the whole
thing is a total fiasco. Nealon claims to know nothing
about conspiracy theory, which I believe, and presents the whole
mess with a mocking tone, almost as if he’s embarrassed to
be there. The guests on this show range from comics to serious
conspiracy theorists to conspiracy theorists trying to be comics.
Tonight’s show was supposed to delve
into secret societies. I was curious to see if any mention
would be made of Skull and Bones, Bush’s little group at
Yale. The camera panned in at an angle from a long shot
above and I noticed a woman with long hair sitting to the right.
I couldn’t tell who it was, but I had a sense of foreboding.
Nealon rattled of a list of secret
societies, with Skull and Bones absent from the list. Then
he introduced the guests. First up was Marc Maron, billed
as a comic/author, then Jon Rappaport (Note: Rappaport runs a
site called No More Fake News at http://www.nomorefakenews.com/
which has an annoying format and also has a newsletter and does
seminars.)
And, last but not least, there was… Ann
Coulter!
I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or
head for the door! Miss Constitutional Lawyer (whatever
that is) was done up in a brown knit dress with a string across
one shoulder and the other bare and her “skirt”
practically up to her waist--and since this was a set with a
glass table and no skirt panel, she was slumped down in her chair
with her legs twisted like I had never seen before. I would argue
that this piece of work has no common sense at all, but then
again, she might parade herself around like this simply to gain
any sort of attention possible. Ugh!
Nealon tried to be funny by talking about
all the different style hats secret societies have. He
bombed. Coulter then started on how why we shouldn’t
worry about covert societies taking control because “the
government does it overtly, they’re taking away our money by
taxing and controlling our water.” She kept right on
blathering as Nealon changed the subject by mentioning that
Europe now had the Euro and that there was a plan to turn it into
an enclosed mall. Maron said France would be the food
court.
Rappaport tried to get serious by bringing
up the CIA and secret operations in Afghanistan and how the CIA
equipped the bin Laden family. He mentioned Bill Casey and how he
intentionally expanded the drug trade there. Coulter tried
to interject, but Rappaport managed to hold the floor and say
that the CIA secrets were now more nasty and more vicious.The
audience remained comatose throughout this little speech—it
was obviously way over their heads.
Rappaport moved on to the Illuminati, which
he says is for the abolition of all private property. He pointed
to the USSR as an example, but said that elsewhere (like here)
they “sell paradise” to people while behind the scenes
“3 people take over everything.” That was about
the last sane commentary heard.
Coulter immediately jumped in by saying that
here in the USA this is being done by…the Democratic Party!
“They’re the ones who want to take
your money, “ she screeched, while one of the others moaned,
“Do we have to talk about parties?” Coulter kept
on going—“I’m not trying to make a political
point, but you’re working for the Federal Government!”
Question to Ann: If you’re not making a political point,
then why don’t you mention the Republicans?? Are only
Democrats running the government??
Nealon mentioned the Trilateral Commission
and Rappaport listed Cyrus Vance, Paul Volcker and a couple of
others who were members and who showed up in the Carter
Administration. This warmed Coulter’s heart even more.
“A lot of people are liberal…They’re all in
government and the Supreme Court…they’re all from Yale,
Harvard…,” she shrieked. Rappaport said,
“This isn’t about liberalism,” but then proceeded
to state that “Liberals underneath, while pretending to love
you, want to control you.” He did go on to say
that there were some conservatives in the Trilateral Commission.
“They say ‘trust us, we are for freedom,’ we are
for tweaking and controlling everybody.”
What a mish mash of disconnected stupidity
this all was! I attribute most of why any conversation
involving Coulter always manages to descend into confusion to her
screwy comments which throw everything off kilter and her rabid
tactics of never letting anybody finish a sentence.
Luckily, the rest of the show was devoted to
an “inteview” with the Master of Church Secrets from
The Sub-Geniuses Secret Society out of Colorado. This had to be a
set-up because the guy was genuinely pulling Nealon's leg…I
think. This outfit, if it exists, works against the removal
of “slack” in society (i.e., everyone is being forced
to work and everyone is entitled to some “slack”) and
holds “devivals” and “sickenings” (healings).
Send them $30 and “we laugh and mock those who do.”
“Freemasonry wants to get what’s hidden out, so this
show is an agency of freemasonry and of The Sub-Geniuses since
we’re getting all this propaganda out.”
As you can see, Coulter was right at home
here with this crew!
And, then, to make matters worse, when The
Conspiracy Zone ended I happened upon Politically Incorrect!!
Maher was just setting up a discussion of a book called
“What’s Wrong with America.”
Apparently, the author had been on
previously, but he wasn’t on tonight. Instead, there was
Chevy Chase, Naomi Judd, a dumb looking actor named Michael
Rappaport, and…Ann Coulter (more fully dressed for this
occasion). This time she wasn’t announced as a
“constitutional lawyer” but simply as an attorney.
An attorney of WHAT, I keep asking.Why isn’t she described
as a columnist and conservative commentator, and one who
advocates killing liberals, at that? Why are her true
endeavors always covered up with the title “attorney”
or “constitutional lawyer?”
Bill Maher immediately began annoying the
hell out of me. Before reading down a list of American
faults as portrayed in the book (“gluttonous, greedy,
myopic, narcissistic, too feminized, naïve, and too easily
marketed to”), he made sure that we understood that he
thought America was the greatest country on earth several times,
probably to keep Coulter at bay and to make sure Proctor and
Gamble heard it VERY CLEARLY. Chevy Chase asked if the
French weren’t narcissistic, then went back to being a lump.
Then Coulter revved up. “It’s very hard to criticize
this country, the only non-militaristic super power.” She
launched into something about being a loving country and how we
bombed Afghanistan and how now we’re were rebuilding the
country. I couldn’t keep track of it all and Maher
looked at her like she was nuts. I wish he had debated on
her on how we are a “non-militaristic super power” or
how we’re “rebuilding the country” but he was
sticking to the safety of his script.
The goofy actor said their was nothing wrong
with greed, it was just about “super-sizing” for 39
cents which is GREAT and Judd, a noted Republican, came out for
“simplification.” In the face of some panel
skepticism, she pronounced that she lives in a two-bedroom
cottage with a carport!!
Coulter dove in and blamed gluttony on
“the culture of New York and LA,” to which Maher
retorted, “You’re not laying it all
on…Hollywood!”
To which Coulter replied, “the
materialism and lack of values…I’m laying it all on the
doorstep of LIBERALS!”
That was it! Fifteen minutes into this
developing travesty, I cut out!
But help is on the way, I feel it in my
bones, because Quinnipiac University is going to save us by
giving all those fresh-faced “enlightened leaders” to
the media world. With all that hi-tech training over at the
Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center, Nealon and Maher better
watch out!! A QU graduate is waiting to take over!!
Oh, one last question…why is the word
“Trilateral” in Microsoft’s Spell check??? Just
asking….
Copyright 2002, Gloria R. Lalumia
More Stuff at: http://www.zianet.com/insightanalytical.com