LOS ANGELES—I’m trying to find CNN on satellite TV when this strange and somewhat scary individual appears—screaming loudly, face in various grimaces, body in frightening contortions.
Then I find the individual is Bono.
That’s right, a fellow I’m told is Prime Minister Paul Martin’s spiritual adviser or something along those lines.
Cripes, and we thought he had problems with Belinda Stronach on his hands.
Here I apologize to Paris Hilton for once describing Stronach as Canada’s very own homegrown spoiled, rich and vacuous heiress, actually our equivalent to Paris.
Then, just a week or so ago, I saw the Hilton TV commercial for Carl’s Jr. hamburger chain and my opinion of Paris soared dramatically.
Before seeing the commercial (www.spicyparis.com) I had indeed thought Hilton really was just a spoiled, rich silly fool, again the equivalent of Stronach, but now realize Paris is an extremely talented young lady.
One can’t say that for Stronach.
As for Bono, and I couldn’t name a single song he has ever attempted to howl, it is incredible that talented members of the Calgary Philharmonic are paid peanuts while this grotesque individual rakes in millions of dollars.
Society has misplaced its values.
Still on this stream, but I’ll get to the main thrust soon, a year or so ago while attending a Canadian Alliance conference in Red Deer, I took a breather for a beer in a bar and on the TV was this youngish blond nymphet prancing around on stage and attempting to warble—again out of tune, like Bono—some songs.
She pranced around, one guesses, because unlike Cyd Charisse or Ann Miller, she can’t dance.
But, streuth, I was told she was Britney Spears, another talentless individual who makes millions of dollars from the naive and uneducated who have been conned into thinking Spears can both sing and actually dance.
Now, normally I watch only Fox News and CTV Newsnet. Fox being fair and balanced and CTV Newsnet being better than its CBC equivalent.
That said, I was looking for CNN—like the CBC seemingly a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Lib-Left—to see what CNN might be saying about my friend Howard Dean’s latest blunder.
In “Dean factor” (June 12) I recalled meeting the failed Democratic presidential contender in Hong Kong last October and being impressed by his speech and thoughtful cocktail hour demeanour.
Not like the infamous “screaming” Dean of the 2004 primaries.
Yet, guess what?
He has apparently gone berserk again, yelling Republicans have a “dark and dishonest vision” for the U.S. and that few Republicans, if any, had ever made a “honest” living.
With that, he insulted much of Middle America and any hope of winning over uncommitted or ‘soft’ Republican votes to the Democratic cause was lost
Naturally, a lot of Democratic senators exploded, and Dean’s job as chairman of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) now seems shaky.
Readers who had seen “Dean factor” started e-mailing asking how it felt to now have egg all over my face.
Dean is a loose cannon all the way down.
A retired U.S. diplomat friend explained the GOP loves seeing Dean as chairman of the DNC, because his antics (A) Galvanize the Republican base and makes its members fighting mad, and (B) Alienates the moderate centre of the electorate that knows Republicans are not demons as Dean depicts but at worse misguided fellow citizens.
My diplomat colleague also said several journalists who followed Dean around in 2004 said his “screaming” outburst was par for the course.
Life surely is full of lessons.
Many in the U.S., he continued, are aware of the “football” with its nuclear release codes that accompanies a U.S. president everywhere he goes
Having someone who is only marginally out of control becomes scary in that context.
CNN (mockingly called the Clinton News Network) painted a picture of Fox News being just out to get Dean in reporting his outburst, but never quite explained why he could demonize American voters who backed the Republicans and not expect a backlash.
Or explain why Democratic senators are furious with Dean.
But the weird and none-too-wonderful Lib-Left are dauntless in their lunacy.
Case in point: In the column “Sore losers” (June 7) I assessed fading movie star Warren Beatty’s sudden attacks against California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Womanizer Beatty is a big pusher in Democratic ranks, and despises Schwarzenegger’s success in Republican politics.
Well, now Beatty is whining the reason he didn’t put his own name on the ballot and face voters upfront is Republicans like to “beat up” on Hollywood.
Considering all the so-called stars who slurred and tried to sabotage George W. Bush’s election campaign, with few, if any, of the Hollywood elite publicly backing Bush, Beatty’s accusation is laughable.
Anyway, since on one of the rare occasions when I have had anything good to say about the Democrats, everything blew up in my face, I’ll ponder matters a little more deeply the next time.
Yet it surely does look like dark days ahead for the Democrats.
As dark as for Canada’s Conservatives.
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