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Loading ...RachelWatch: Neocons vanish, but zombies still walk the land
There is so much joy to be had in Friday episodes of The Rachel Maddow Show. So much joy.
Best Month Ever?
It’s our one-month anniversary with President Obama! Did you remember to make dinner reservations, or did you just pick up a card at the drugstore on your way home?
On the other hand, you haven’t been holding prisoners in your kitchen drawer without trial, which Obama has just quietly decided to keep doing in Afghanistan. (Except for the kitchen drawer part.)
Rachel welcomed Rick Perlstein, the author of “Nixonland,” who said that no President has done so much since Roosevelt. So apparently if future Presidents get lazy, the best thing to do is fake a massive financial collapse. No one tell, OK?
GOP in Exile
Remember those neocons who were all excited to have a war with Iraq, which they would have just loved to have personally served in if it weren’t for their darn sciatica and all, but still, hey – guaranteed easy win and supercheap, so let’s do it, right?
Psyche! They were never there! Or at least that’s what neoconservative Richard Perle thundered at a reporter who had just noticed Toto tugging at the curtain.
Rachel noted Perle’s “demanding eyebrows” and then she and her staff made everyone’s evening by fading from Perle’s picture to a pleasingly matched photo of an owl. OK, the owl looked a little less predatory.
Rachel also mentioned that Perle is proud to be nicknamed “The Prince of Darkness”. Whoa. Did he and Cheney leg wrestle for it or what?
Rachel talked about the sudden Sasquatching of neoconservatives with James Mann, author of “Rise of the Vulcans,” which, while I’m sure it is a great book, is not about what I was hoping.
Mann was fairly blunt about Perle’s statement being false, but I’m forced to root the other way here. According to Rachel, if Perle is telling the truth, both kinds of runways just got way more fun.
Ms. Information
California has a budget! 276 public safety projects didn’t shut down, saving jobs and millions of dollars. Plus one day soon drivers will be able to travel nearly all of Interstate 5 without having to worry about giant bats.
In International News of Awesome, Ireland has come up with the closest true thing I’ve heard to those stories about the origin of the word “kangaroo”.
On Feb 20, 1839, dueling was outlawed in Washington, D.C., in case you were wondering when and why the Congressional Freestyle Danceoffs started.
Get ready for the most fun, boyish footage of Chris Matthews you have ever seen as he cracks up while Zell Miller furiously looks around for his matching pearl-handled pistols and a second.
(Since we’re making human-bird connections tonight, can we talk about Zell and Rachel’s pal Sam the Eagle?)
Solving Afghanistan
Rachel continues to be agreeably self-deprecating (if a tad hard on herself) about her maiden voyage with what I’ve just learned is called a telestrator. She seems to think of it as taking one for the team, explaining that we need to take risks with information technology if we want to be “a less dumb country” about our own wars.
Are we sure that less dumb is a national goal? Because I’ve seen Rock of Love Bus. Come to think of it, I’m pretty sure there’s a Swat Valley on there too.
To help us sort things out, Rachel introduced Dr. David Kilcullen, “one of the world’s foremost experts on guerilla warfare.” Jumping Jehosephat. He pretty much wins any cocktail party he goes to.
He talked with Rachel about the complex problems of counterinsurgency in a foreign culture and the need for finding solutions that might be uncomfortable to us, but on the upside could actually work. He also seems to hold the radical notion that understanding the history of the region might help us untangle what’s happening now.
(Hey, remember how Rick Perlstein mentioned Roosevelt earlier? Well, one of the things FDR did during World War II was hire a magnificent bunch of anthropology nerds so he could try to understand the mindset of the people we were shooting at and would one day be negotiating with. I’m just saying.)
Night of the Living Head
If Ms. Maddow ever gets tired of the news, I hope she takes up analyzing horror movies. Or at least crackerjack zombie movies. She’s showing an invigorating commitment to the metaphor.
Anyway, Roland Burris is still thumping up against the door hard enough to make it shudder no matter how many old planks we nail up, and Rod Blagojevich continues to moan and shamble around just outside the range of the torchlight.
Neither of them will ever, ever go away, so please do not be so foolish as to put down the chainsaw and breathe a sigh of relief.
Do not split up to go look for help. Do not go upstairs to take a shower. And for the love of God, DO NOT START MAKING OUT WITH ANYONE!
Until next time, stay safe and sleep with the lights on.
So why is it that Rachel gets a special section on a site that has absolutely nothing to do with the owners and operators of 365gay.com.
If it’s because she’s gay… I’m waiting for the daily recap of AC360.
I for one actually enjoy these columns. I even switched my bookmarks from CNN to MSNBC. I can see why people would assume Maddow’s show is bias but it really doesn’t play against the stories that she reports and how she reports them because she is a commentator. Those who are complaining about a bias need to take a step back and think about whats going on here. MSNBC and FOX news network do NOT report news. They comment on it. Gawd. Get a freakin’ brain people.
Burnf, if you don’t agree with Rachel Maddow’s opinions just explain why. Debate. Discuss. It doesn’t have to be a discussion ender, it’s a discussion starter. You are in fact the one trying to end the discussion by talking about whether or not the discussion should even take place on 365gay.com instead of the actual political topics.
If you think LGBTs are conformists just by being left, then I think you need to get out more and maybe stop stereotyping members of your own community.
I don’t see how looking at the facts, forming an opinion and coming to a conclusion automatically makes the conclusion false. You make it sound as if there are no actual solutions to any problems.
Tax cuts probably won’t stimulate the economy. Government spending probably will. Historically, it does. People who say WWII and not the New Deal is what ended the depression are in disagreement with the historical timeline. 8 years of tax cuts have not only not improved the economy, but have made it worse.
Rebeca, I have said several times in earlier Maddow ‘articles’ on this site that she is fun to listen to. The problem is that she is biased. She is left, so, if this site doesn’t want to alienate many nonconforming LGBTs, they need to post moderate and right opinions as well.
On a personal opinion note:
I would be careful throwing around the word facts. Everything that can be said in a tv show is a vast simplification of the reality. Occlusion makes most of anything said on tv for the most part false. I cannot say that tax cuts will benefit businesses. I cannot say universal health care will save the dieing. There is so much that’s not being said that the conclusions very well may be false. So when someone jumps on any medium and blurbs a paragraph professing truths, take it with a grain of salt.
Rachel Maddow is a Rhodes Scholar, a brillian political commentator and one of the few who bases her show on facts. I applaud 365 for highlighting her news opinion shows, we all need to stay informed beyond just the gay issues. She is one of the few who invites the opposition to her show to talk her down, and because she does her own extensive research, her political opinions are worth a great deal–they are based on facts and not partisan bull. She is the first to be able to break through the very heterosexual main stream media business barricade, and as such we should give her our support. Before you rag on her, why not try listening to her show once in a while, you might be pleasantly surprised!
Singing With The Choir.
I really am not sure why 365Gay, Logo or even Viacom are giving so much free publicity to MSNBC.
Jeff, isn’t paleoconservatism even more into maintaining traditions than neoconservatism?
I think the problem with how Americans understand wars is rooted in how we perceive Good and Evil. We like for there to be clear heroes and villains, and reality doesn’t usually work that way.
And neoconservatism never existed? That’s rich. And an interesting spin on how to explain the shrinking base…it never existed in the first place.
I really enjoy Rachael Maddow, but I watch her new show to get her coverage of the news. She is a hilarious out lesbian commentator and I enjoy her show. I do appreciate your mentioning her on 365; however, this on-going column is annoying and repetitive
Go get ‘em Rachel!
I’m glad to see a few people taking up this subject, too. I made the comment this isn’t gay news on the last couple of these, and I got chewed out.
I feel there may be space for side articles from gay individuals about current topics, like Rachel Maddow, but it needs to be balanced by differing opinions, to show the diversity of thought within the community and not alienate any of the groups that comprise it. It should be off to the side, though, and it should be listed as opinion pieces.
Wow. Just wow. Didn’t even catch that Perle thing.
Well, chilluns, the war between the neocons and the paleocons seems to be almost over.
As a gift, we paleocons will give you marriage within 2 years.
Enjoy.
I completely agree with Stephen. This website is only valuable because of the unique, gay-related news provided. Everything else–and perhaps, especially, the All Rachel news summary–is fluff. I encourage the webmaster here to stick with and highlight what this site does best.
I’ve been saying the same thing. However it’ll probably change now because someone who could be male “Stephen” has complained about it.
Please stop force feeding us this person Rachel. Who’s next Suze Orman? Is Ali Davis so in love with Maddow that she can’t control herself?
Wow…so 365gay is All Rachel, All the Time?
I’m really not sure who Ms. Maddow is, nor why she’s so important to the writers at this website…but your credibility is diminished when all you’re doing is regurgitating somebody else’s news.
I read 365 daily, for all of those little news articles you’ve relegated to the left-hand column on the page….the other 80% of the page… is opinion and fluff. As the leading gay news source, an argument could be made to reassess and reverse those two priorities.