dromody on television

Not to overlink, but it seems like we're teetering at the edge of something grand, a point at which a contradiction of the Bush administration's 'position' on an issue by someone with(in) the Bush administration and the administration's enunciation of that 'position' will occur simultaneously. I'm crossing my fingers that the contradictions will begin to precede the positions, so that those positions only develop as rejections of the contradictions of the positions that are rejections of the contradictions...

Anyway, until Condi's defense of the Iraqi constitutional 'process' supersedes Bush's statement that the arbitrary deadline will be followed, we have Denny "W is my co-pilot" Hastert instantiating a major fucking fumble. This happened a little while ago, remarks regarding the ridiculously bloated $286 billion highway bill--what happened to that plated body armor?--that was just passed, but is just surfacing on some blogs. See below as he publicly accuses the administration's number inventors of constructing alternate (faith-based?) numerical realities. Maybe the reality-based community has a new member.

Following is an exceprt from remarks made on March 11 by House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert at a pen and pad with reporters...go to releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=27400 for full transcript.

Speaker Hastert. Well, we can still do a lot. I mean, when we started talking, some people started talking about $375 billion. It wasn't sustained by the revenues coming into the highway fund. And that was talking about probably what they perceived as needs, but it wasn't sustained by revenue. We always have been able to sustain a highway bill with the revenue that came into it. The White House has laid out the parameters that we have to sustain it with the revenue. That has always been where we are at in principle, and we will have a highway bill that is sustained by revenue.

So we will take care of roads and bridges. That is an increase, about a 25 percent increase over what we had the last time, and so, you know, it is increased. I think Members will have their needs met, maybe not quite as fully as they would have hoped, but they will have their needs met. We need to get a bill done. I think it is important to have that certainty of letting of those contracts over a 6-year period of time. We need to move forward and get that work done.

Q You met with the administration yesterday. Did they say they would support the target number? Speaker Hastert. We need to go forward, we need to go to conference with the Senate, and then if they want to be involved in that conference, they certainly will be able to be involved in it.

Q But did they say they would sign?

Speaker Hastert. They didn't make a commitment.

Q Did they say they would veto it?

Speaker Hastert. They didn't say they would veto it.

Q Is that with the President or with the people?

Speaker Hastert. That is with the President. I don't deal with his people anymore.

Q Mr. Speaker, do you anticipate the assault weapons ban renewal? It expires in September.

Speaker Hastert. The Senate was going to go through the bill first. It kind of fell away over in the Senate. I am not sure what is going to happen.

Q Sir, what did you mean by that last comment: That was with the President; I don't deal with his people anymore?

Speaker Hastert. Well, we weren't getting straight numbers from his people, and they changed their mind in the middle of the process. So we are going to do what we feel we need to do.

Q Just on this issue or on...

Speaker Hastert. On this issue.

Q Or in general?

Speaker Hastert. On this issue.

Q Sir --

Q What kind of numbers were you getting from them?

Speaker Hastert. Different numbers.

Q Different from?

Speaker Hastert: Where they added up.

* * *

Postscript:

Virilio coined the term dromocracy (from the Greek 'dromos', meaning avenue or race course) to describe a political system in which acceleration is the definitive feature. The limits of acceleration in the sphere of technological civilization, at least in relation to the natural environment, are maybe being matched by a little political human comedy of sorts? How quickly can lies replace each other? With what frequency can new terms be invented to redefine the same catastrophes? I'm looking forward to the moment we can all turn on the TV and watch Bush and his fellow speed demons chase an electric rabbit around a racetrack. And I hope there's a big fucking screen at the track, so they can catch the show.

if this is the nomos of modernity, what does caramel fudge taste like?

A friend's suggestion, in reference to an article entitled "Zones of Indistinction: Security, Terror and Bare Life":

I might suggest smoking weed, reading this while listening to the Isis album Panopticon, then getting naked and writing the
words "master" and "slave" all over your body with permanent marker, summoning the omnipotent master to appear in the
form of a hot washcloth.

If anyone is into doing the cinematography for this project, we can arrange a form of payment, or maybe establish a pedagogical sexual relationship instead. Also, for all you marketing heads, we're looking for WWW representation, distribution, advertising, franchising, spin-offs, breakfast cereals, etc. Addiitionally, we could use interns who would act as 'warm-up girls/boys'. Please send photos, measurements, and a concise analysis of 'Being and Time'.

israel is calling and it's never been cheaper!

make this vacation the vacation of a lifetime!

chartered planes leave every day from major american cities to israel, where guests will be given tours of the forced evacuations of israeli settlements by accredited zionists. guests will also be given the opportunity to participate in protests against the israeli soldiers charged with the removal of israeli citizens from their homes. for a nominal fee, guests can purchase large sticks and pieces of wood with nails in them as to better intimidate soldiers who, as has been noted by multiple reliable settler sources, greatly resemble the nazis who killed my family, though with much better tans.

for an additional price, guests may take home limited edition bricks from settler homes, encased in a handsome israeli flag and signed by future prime minister benjamin netanyahu. limited edition bricks should NOT be used as projectiles.

Nietzsche is dead

Continuing the conflation of American political rhetoric--the heavens meet the road, the bumper sticker as icon and index. In other words, this is the base element of public discourse, and perhaps the most democratic and transparent, too. So join the party (as seen on the I-80 in Iowa).

Family of Americans: obese woman with "bite me" shirt; Nascar dad with titties hanging from his cut-off shirt and "America" hat blazing in the midwestern sun; one child a promise keeper, one a streaked blond adolescent boy with a Marilyn Manson shirt, knee socks, and a supremely alienated pair of black Converse.

The signs:
1) Calvin praying, kneeling before the cross.
2) Q. Dear God, Why is there so much violence in public schools? -Concerned student
A. Dear concerned student, I am not allowed in public schools. -God

Anyway, the joke is running, let's see if it's farce or tragedy.

UPDATE: I've been alerted to the exceeding lameness of this post. As cultural critique, it lacks substance, and attempts to subsitute for that absence with excessive implication and a tone of condescension. Furthermore, it implicates the inability of voyeuristic elite to mount an effective critique of a culture to which they are thoroughly alien, though they may share a government, even a common national identity, with those more closely tied to the aforementioned culture. Typical post-collegiate bullshit, thrashing around in the belly of America trying to tear down whatever seems less than stable. Clearly stability is a constructed value, and a poorly constructed one at that--one I thought I was totally over. Now I see my own shortcomings and I would like to take a more tempered approach. I would also like to say that I bought some rad psychedelic pins at the I-80, including but not limited to a totally technicolor hot air balloon that's like floating into a vibed out dimension of space time or something!

Postscript noting exclusivity/inclusivity in relation to viewership of the marked body:
Obesity is not something to laugh about, nor can it--as an individual problem or national epidemic--be attributed to those afflicted with it. There is, however, a bit of irony in the consumption habits of a vast majority of the country, the political tendencies of those who constitute that population, and the massive burden on the national healthcare system as a result of obesity. So where the sky meets the prairie, save a kind word for your brethren and keep an eye out for the common enemy--you can get the hippies, but you can't get us.