Note from the Editor

Following the Bush administration's Iraq war rhetoric these days, one gets a sense of what it must be like inside Karl Rove's brain; analyzing, attacking, checking the pulse, changing strategy, refocusing... If charges of "irresponsible" to "reprehensible" seem disingenuous, try allegations of revisionism; if that doesn't stick (due to those Meet the Press transcripts and Abu Ghraib photos, perhaps?) then try taking a higher ground, invoking freedom of speech and dissent. For an administration that doesn't care about polls, no matter what it tries it can't seem to increase the job approval ratings: Bush, 34; Rumsfeld, 34; Cheney, 30, Hastert, 22; Republicans in Congress, 27; Democrats in Congress, 25; and most frightening of all, Condi Rice, 52. How can 52% approve of Condi Rice, while only 27% feel that the country's headed in the right direction? Will someone please provide a job description for Secretary of State?

Of course, experiences are subjective and words can only approximate them. It is up to each of us, Milo Clark explains, to understand the depredations being heaped upon the world by those who have usurped power in Washington, D.C. With support for the war in Iraq dropping as fast as Bush's approval, Philip Greenspan asks how much longer can it last and what will it take to stop it? Robert Wrubel provides some scenarios, building on a recent Michael Doliner piece and giving advice to the Democrats; William Hathaway, however, says we must change the politics of No Choice. Deck Deckert's holding out for Mr. Bush's impeachment, and short of that, is counting down the seconds remaining in the Bush reign. Dubya may well spend more and more of it in friendlier places like Mongolia and China -- Jan Baughman has a look at George and Ahnold's respective retreats to Asia.

Our Arts & Culture corner could be hijacked by American capitalist ingenuity. Alma Hromic shares a frightening, true story of patent attorney Andrew F. Knight's plan to make a bundle by patenting storylines; thereby putting her and every other author, film maker, and playwright out of business. Shakespeare would be a very wealthy man, if he weren't turning in his grave. Actually, if he were alive today, according to a recent Charles Marowitz lecture, he'd be warding off the cinematic plagiarists -- perhaps with representation by the very Knight & Associates...

The editor's blips delve further into the justification for impeachment and the historical evidence that it will never happen; the bicephalous system and the alternatives; and the dark side of Anderson Valley. Finally, your letters regarding Lukacs, Tocqueville, and more.

As always, please form your OWN opinion, and let your friends (and foes) know about Swans.

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Patterns Which Connect

Milo Clark:  Re-Reading Wittgenstein To Grok Now

Are my experiences of knowing knowledge? Likewise, may my knowing also become someone else's knowledge? Am I mistaken? I don't think so.   More...

 

Philip Greenspan:  How Much Longer Will The War Last

The many deceits and blunders of Bush and his neocon cohorts have turned the public against them and their policies. They regularly receive bleaker and bleaker tidings as poll after poll reports that their support keeps dropping and dropping.   More...

 

Robert Wrubel:  Cold Porridge, The Morning After

Michael Doliner's excellent article in the recent issue of Swans, "Soup of the Evening, Beautiful Soup", presents the game plan and balance of forces as seen by the neo-conservative cabal in the White House.   More...

 

William T. Hathaway:  The Politics Of No Choice

Yet another election has shown us the Republicans and Democrats aren't real political parties, they're just two modes of control by the corporate oligarchy, two sides of the same gold coin.   More...

 

Deck Deckert:  Impeachment Is Just Another Word, For Nothing Left To Lose

Paul Krugman, whose syndicated column appears regularly in newspapers nationally, dislikes labels. "But," he told me, as we visited before his talk in Portland, "'liberal' may be a fair tag, although I'm really a centrist. I'm viewed as on the left because the administration feels my criticisms of it make me a leftist."   More...

 

Jan Baughman:  When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Go To Asia

Even though Mr. Bush does not read newspapers nor pay attention to the silly and meaningless polls because he has a more important job to do -- knowing what's best for the country and the world and all -- the frying pan seems to be getting a bit hot for the man who's been in over his head from the beginning.   More...

 

 
Arts & Culture

Alma A. Hromic:  End Of Story

In sane times, creative people were treasured and supported and called "gifted." In sane days, a muse arrived uninvited and was welcomed with open arms and feted and praised and sacrificed to in order that she should stay and keep her bounty flowing.   More...

 

Charles Marowitz:  Cinematizing Shakespeare

It's been said that if William Shakespeare were alive today, he'd be writing for the movies. More likely, he'd be engaged in acrimonious credit battles with the Writers Guild to ward off his plagiarists.   More...

 

 
Tidbits Flying Across the Martian Desk

Gilles d'Aymery:  Blips #29

"I do not know any country where, in general, less independence of mind and genuine freedom of discussion reign than in America."
—Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

A few selected issues that landed on the Editor's desk, from justification for impeaching Mr. Bush to historical reasons it won't happen; to chemical weapons and apple pie; progressives and conspiracists; with a few blips on the dark side of Boonville in between.   More...

 

 
Letters to the Editor

Letters

On Milo Clark and John Lukacs; Tocqueville evoked by a like-minded expat; and as for satire, well, you know it when you see it...   More...

 

 
Announcements

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SWANS
URL: http://www.swans.com/library/past_issues/2005/051121.html
Created: December 5, 2005