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Today's
Stories
February
5, 2004
Benjamin
Shepard
Turning NYC into a Patriot Act Free
Zone
Khury
Petersen-Smith
A Report from Occupied Iraq: "We Don't Want Army USA"
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
The 10 Worst Corporations of 2003
Teresa
Josette
The Exeuctioner's Pslam? Christian Nation? Yeah, Right
David Krieger
Why Dr. King's Message on Vietnam is Relevant to Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Monkey Business: Of Recess and Evolution in Georgia Schools
Norman
Solomon
The Deadly Lies of Reliable Sources
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Presenting President Edwards!
February
4, 2004
Brian
McKinlay
Bush's Australian Deputy: Howard's
Last Round Up?
Mark
Gaffney
Ariel Sharon's Favorite Senator: Ron Wyden and Israel
Judith
Brown
Palestine and the Media
Frederick
B. Hudson
Moseley-Braun and the Butcher: Campaign for Justice or Big Oil's
Junta?
Kurt Nimmo
Bush's Independent Commission: Exonerating
the Spooks
M.
Junaid Alam
Philly School Workers Fight for Fair Contract
Fran Shor
Whose Boob Tube?
Kevin
Cooper
This is Not My Execution and I Will Not Claim It
February
3, 2004
Alan
Maass
The
Dems' New Mantra: What They Really Mean by "Electability"
Nick
Halfinger
How the Other Half Lives: Embedded
in Iraq
Rahul
Mahajan
Our True Intelligence Failure
Neve Gordon
The Only Democracy in the Middle East?
Laura
Carlsen
Mexico: Two Anniversaries; Two Futures
Jordan
Green
Democratic Patronage in Northern New
Mexico
Terry
Lodge
An Open Letter to Michael Powell from the Boobs & Body Parts
Fairness Campaign
Hammond
Guthrie
Investigating the Meaningless
Website
of the Day
Waging Peace
January
24/5, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq's Shia: "Our Day Has Come"
Laura
Flanders
State of the Conservative Union
Simon
Helweg-Larsen
Enter Berger: Signs of Hope in Guatemala
Dave
Lindorff
Ground Control to Maj. George
Susan
Davis
The Birdwatcher Menace
Alexander
Cockburn
The Fog of Cop Out: McNamara 10, Morris
0
January
23, 2004
Yonathan Shapira
An Israeli Pilot Speaks Out
Standard
Schaefer
Italian Philosopher Giorgio Agamben
Protests US Travel Policy
Josh
Frank
In Defense of Polluters: Howard Dean's
Vermont
William
A. Cook
Rule by the Corrupt and the Capricious
January
22, 2004
Sam
Smith
Howards End?
Patricia
Koyce Wanniski
Lost in Space
Alexander
Lukin
Putin and the Clans
Katherine
van Wormer
Dry Drunk Confirmed: O'Neill's Revelations
and Bush's Mind
Forrest
Hylton
The Prisoner, the President and the Mafia
|
February
6, 2004
Another Weekend in So Cal
A
Happy Family in a Barnum & Botox World
By SAUL LANDAU
President
Bush and his entourage have undertaken a nation-building project and
some in the Administration (like Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz
and other “neo cons) want to do more: kick out the undemocratic,
old fashioned, non-market oriented, Islamic zealots and substitute the
happiness and harmony that our middle classes enjoy. I found a typical
example that Bush spinners might want to employ to export this 21st
Century model of family bliss and psychic stability.
My
daughter’s friend’s mother looks almost as young as her
seventeen year old well, like her slightly older sister. She produces
soap and shampoo commercials. Her husband is a VP for a marketing firm.
The corporation he works for orders its executives to vote Republican
and to contribute
generously as well. But the couple appreciated good Democrats like Bill
Clinton who except for that silliness with Monica -- “really knew
how to govern.” Clinton gutted welfare and committed the country
to free trade, they say, and “created an atmosphere of freedom
and creativity in the corporate world.” Clinton’s tax cuts
made more sense than the extreme measures of Bush, they opine. If you
push the poor too much, they might rebel bad for business; disturbing
to stability. On the other hand, Bush’s tax cuts mean a few thousand
more to spend each year.
They
bought a split level home in suburban Los Angeles for less than a million.
It’s worth more now. They still pay less than $2000 a year in
real estate taxes. Modern BBQ technology in the manicured yard works
well for their frequent parties. “My husband keeps his staff and
the other VPs happy,” his wife boasts. “We spend thousands
on booze and steaks, but it pays off. You know how the corporate world
is.”
The
children, the elder a senior at the suburban high school, and the younger
a freshman at a private, faith-based school, after being caught with
a bag of marijuana, spend significant parts of their $400 a month each
allowance on clothes. President Bush would approve of the youngster’s
new school. The father hoped the kid would find redemption through God.
Neither he nor his son have yet found that sense of Christian certainty
that Bush exudes.
The
older girl drives a 2003 SUV, a birthday present and a reward for getting
a B average. Her father does not know or pretends that she smokes weed
with the other kids, drinks at weekend parties and does more than heavy
petting with boys. If he knew, he would take the SUV away and ground
her.
Based
on overheard conversations (arguments) she speculates that dad fools
around. But, that’s how families behave on HBO movies. Does mom
reciprocate? Why does she work so hard to look so young? Just to please
dad?
On
Sundays, the family attends a fundamentalist church, but doesn’t
follow the orthodox dictates of the preacher. “He’s a good
counselor,” mother said after he recommended that they remove
the boy from public and place him in a “faith-based” environment.
The preacher eschews drinking, but the father wouldn’t even consider
this prohibition. His fellow fun-loving executives would goad him mercilessly
if he showed such puritanical behavior.
The
family has learned to live with contradictions. Indeed, they rarely
talk about morality. Shopping, however, absorbs endless hours for motherand
daughter. Often, they venture together to sales and spend the better
part of a Saturday or Sunday afternoon at up scale stores at the nearby
malls.
On
Saturday morning Dad golfs from eight to noon. His low 90s score seemed
more than passable. He doesn’t love golf like some office mates,
but it’s pleasant being outdoors on the green. He felt a mild
resentment against the group of environmentalists who had waved placards
at his windshield last month, complaining of something related to the
amount of water used to maintain the golf course. Occasionally, a global
warming headline disturbs him. But he long ago stopped reading the newspaper.
The unpleasantness of “news” diverted his thoughts from
his marketing job and from his aspirations to become CEO and accumulate
his fortune.
At
home, he eats weight conscious lunches (usually salad) and on Sundays,
from September through January, after church, he sits in his $1500 leather
recliner and watches professional football on his $2000 plasma screen
TV. He sips beer, even martinis if his business buddies join him. He
disciplines himself with alcohol as he does with food. He knows that
exceeding limits could affect his career.
He
enjoys seeing the expressions on the faces of the players after they
get hit with bone crushing tackles. “The Superbowl,” he
philosophizes, “represents one of the greatest occasions, the
day when the strongest and the most athletic compete in the world’s
most scientific and interesting game.”
His
son watches with him. He has for three years invited his neighbors to
see the spectacle with him on his high density TV. They held lengthy
discussion before and during the Superbowl during commercials about
the relative virtues of the Carolina Panthers and the favored New England
Patriots. All noted that Patriot quarterback Tom Brady attended President
Bush’s State of the Union address.
Once
in a while, a neighbor will say something about Iraq or other current
news. “Saddam was one SOB,” a real estate accountant offered.
The others assented. “Good that we got him,” another remarks.
Heads nod in agreement. The war has made Dad uncomfortable; not the
actual bombing and invasion, but the daily killing and wounding of Coalition
forces. “I thought this would be cleaner,” he confided to
one neighbor.
“We
should get out of there. We did wheat we had to do. Now let someone
else clean up,” another said. All agreed with that as well. None
showed interest in the failure of investigators to find weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq or links to Al Qaeda terrorists.
During
the game, mom and her friends conversed for hours about their skin,
figures and diets. They compared Botox doctors and liposuction clinics.
“I can’t help gaining weight,” one neighbor confided,
“and my husband complains that my boobs and butt are too big.
But it doesn’t stop him,” she laughed.
Mom
has undergone liposuction and gets regular botox treatments fro wrinkles,
but doesn’t admit it. She leaves the room and puts on another
CD of what she calls “cool jazz.” Her daughter calls it
“elevator music.”
The
women discussed “kid” problems, especially dangers related
to drugs, alcohol, sex and cars the four perils of adolescence in suburbia.
“I hardly remember the early 1980s,” says a perky blond
with three teenagers. She doesn’t work, but her husband sells
houses in the Rancho Cucamonga area. “I smoked a little pot and
I sure did drink. Hey, all of us did things we shouldn’t have
done in the car.” She giggled. The others smiled nervously, worrying
about their kids and perhaps regretting stupidities of their own adolescence.
The
football game ended and the women went home to “fix” dinner.
The men continued their Superbowl conversation as the murmuring sounds
of “60 Minutes” mixed with background music. “New
England had offense and defense…” One of the neighbors had
drunk too much.
The
family ate greasy, take-in Chinese food. The daughter retired to her
room “to do homework.” She looked in the mirror, made a
face and said a prayer: “Please God, don’t let me be pregnant
or worse.” She regretted that she had allowed herself to get talked
into unprotected sex in the back of her own SUV, no less. “Too
much booze,” she explained to herself.
The
brother played his new hip hop CD, locked his door and pulled the new
Playboy from between the pages of his Algebra text.
The
mother applied creams and moisturizers in her bathroom. She stared at
her youthful face and her model’s figure. “What will happen
to me when I start to look my age?” she asked herself, trying
to subdue the rushing waves of panic that she felt every day.
The
father checked his agenda before slipping into his silk pajamas. He
had not yet figured out how to cover up his recent mistakes at the office
or how to shift blame onto his subordinates. He reran a few plays from
Superbowl in his mind. “There are always different options,”
he said silently. He fantasized about manipulating the foxy, new buyer
into an after-work drink; maybe a roll in the motel bed. He switched
on the bedroom plasma screen to HBO channels, flipped past Bill Maher’s
“Real Time” and Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm”
and settled on “Real Sex,” something that might direct his
thoughts toward his wife. The overweight woman on the screen explained
the therapeutic effects of orgies. He locked the bedroom door. He didn’t
want his son walking in and seeing his father watching such smut.
He
said a quick prayer. “Please, God don’t punish me for bad
thoughts.” He felt better immediately. The desire for his wife
had dissipated. He relaxed, assuring himself he would sleep peacefully.
Iraqis
might one day enjoy the spiritual depth of the American way of life
practiced by a family that thought of itself as very typical.
Saul
Landau’s new book is THE PRE-EMPTIVE EMPIRE: A GUIDE
TO BUSH’S KINGDOM. His new film is SYRIA: BETWEEN IRAQ AND A HARD
PLACE. Look at www.progreso.com for his essays in Spanish. He teaches
at Cal Poly Pomona Univeristy and is a fellow of the Institute for Policy
Studies
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