78uuu lumière des étoiles

Dusty:Starlight:Culture



Will Sing and Dance for Votes
2005-01-03   5:38 p.m.

What's funnier than that tape of John Ashcroft singing "Let the Eagle Soar"? Except for maybe how seriously he was taking himself while he was singing?

But no seriously, I'm asking - is there anything funnier? Besides maybe that footage of Colin Powell dancing to YMCA, complete with hard hat and big rubber yellow overalls?

Oh, those crazy chuckleheads of the Bush Administration.

While I'm not sure what in particular struck Ashcroft to burst into patriotic song and grant us all the pleasure of his forced vibrato at some press conference one day, I can say that the footage of Powell comes directly from
some annual Asian security summit where it's tradition that at the week's end, diplomats and politicians make asses of themselves, better known to Asian summit attendees as "putting on a performance". These events are closed to the press, but some wonderful human always seems to sneak in and get footage.

Isn't that what politics is all about, anyway? Showing off? Apparently so, with Bush's "Er, did I say three million in Tsunami relief? I meant 13 million! Oh, Spain's giving what? Oh, I, um, meant 38 million! Take that, Zapatero, you crazy feminist commie freak!" While the increase in aid is a good thing, it's funny how it all came about - and how the US press is handling it. That UN and foreign leaders' accusations of American stingy-ness were made so public in the media interested me, as this is usually something (the accusations part) the US media wouldn't readily cover. I'm used to such ideas in the foreign press, but to see it on CNN surprised me. But we're back to the same old, same old, today; when I logged onto my computer at school this afternoon, both MSN headlines were about how much money we're giving and how our president just insists we make relief our "top priority". In fact, I think there was some big fhancy meeting today about how sad we all are, complete with Bush jr. being flanked by dad and Bill Clinton, somberly nodding in agreement.

Sigh, I don't want to become someone who complains about the administration all the time, no matter what they're doing. That the administration has actually responded to all the criticism shows some progress. But this year to attack is just so damn easy, I'm becoming bored of it. Or, I'm becoming conditioned to expect imperialist, profit-driven and anti-progressive decisions from our government, no matter how inhumane, selfish, or egocentric. How sad.

Speaking of Zapatero, and foreign vs. US press, how funny were the headlines (if they existed at all, bleh) about his advisors and policy when he was elected back in April? I remember the Post's went something like this: "CRAZY SPANIARD SELECTS WOMEN FOR CABINET POSITIONS!" Ok, so they didn't call him a crazy spaniard, but that was about the gist of it. First of all, he's a socialist, and insisted on swearing on the Spanish constitution rather than the Bible during his inaugural proceedings, so he was enough of an "anomaly" for the US press to pick on in the first place. But then he goes and publicly labels himself a feminist, and makes good on his promise to create a balanced cabinet, with eight men and eight women. Holy Pinko, Batman! Oh, and lest I forget to mention it: he immediately pulled Spain's troops out of Iraq. So needless to say, he'd been turned into a raging hippie in our papers.

But reading through the South African Mail & Guardian or the Taipei Times, a Taiwanese English language daily, all you'd come away with was that Zapatero was inaugurated, selected some veteran and new politicians for his cabinet, and made some changes to Spain's domestic policy. Sometimes the disparity is so huge, it's comical. Like I keep saying about our country right now, we Victorians love our psychosis and obsessions...

It's all about perspective, I guess.
Maybe this quick response to international criticism means Bush and his Bushies are turning over a new leaf. But let's just see what happens with W's administration's plans and policies for sex ed over the next four years. Cause right now, their plan pretty much looks like this:

xox,