Catching up on a view from behind the NYTimes paywall: Bob Herbert

In retrospect, I should have included Bob Herbert among those journalists recognized by Lyssa Strada as being Real Men. All along, before and during the war, Herbert has consistently written about the impact of the news on the lives of real people. The war, the tax breaks, Katrina, the increasing wage gap and the new uneasiness of the now precarious middle class, are among the stories he has tackled with humanity and insight.

In a recent column, "Warfare as It Really Is" (May 1st), Herbert describes some of the realities of war as seen in the documentary, "Baghdad ER," (due to be released on May 21st). An excerpt:

Above all else, war is about the suffering of individuals. The suffering is endured mostly by the young, and these days the government and the media are careful to keep the worst of it out of the sight of the average American. That way we can worry in peace about the cost of the gasoline we need to get us to the mall.''

Baghdad ER'' is going to tell us right in the comfort of our living rooms that there is really horrible stuff going on over there in Iraq, and whether we think this is a good war or a bad war, we need to be paying closer attention to the human consequences.''

We tried to put a human face on the war,'' said Sheila Nevins, the head of documentary programming at HBO. ''It's a part of the story that hasn't really been told.''

[snip]

A member of the operating room team, commenting on the amputation of a soldier's thumb and the partial amputation of his ring finger, says that the patient who immediately preceded him ''lost his left arm and his right leg above the knee. And, you know, there was a couple of marines in here the other day, one lost both his arms, the other lost both his legs. And this is a bad injury, but certainly could have been worse.''

The movie does not shrink from those instances in which the G.I.'s do not survive. We see doctors all but begging the patient to make it. We see buddies weeping. We see a chaplain speaking softly to a mortally wounded marine:'

'We don't want you to go. We want you to fight. But if you can't, it's O.K. to go. It's O.K. to go. But we'll be right with you. If you get better, or if you go.''

In an even more recent column, "When Warriors Come Home" (May 4th), Herbert bemoans the invisibililty of the wounded to most Americans, who are shielded from such images by a press that is all too willing to oblige the president by not writing about the devastating personal cost to those who serve in Iraq, and are grievously wounded, yet survive injuries that will change their lives. Not to mention, the effects on their families...

The extent of the suffering caused by the war seldom penetrates the consciousness of most Americans. For the public at large, the dead and the wounded are little more than statistics. They're out of sight, and thus mostly out of mind.

The media are much more focused on the trendy problem of steroids in baseball than, say, the agony of the once healthy young men and women who are now struggling to resurrect their lives after being paralyzed, or losing their eyesight, or shedding one or two or three or even four limbs in Iraq.

The truth is that the suffering comes in myriad forms. I spoke by phone this week with Stefanie Pelkey, a former Army captain who lives in Spring, Tex., with her 3-year-old son, Benjamin. Her husband, Michael, a captain with the First Armored Division, was sent to Iraq just a few weeks after Benjamin was born. Michael was a big man, 6 feet 4 1/2 inches tall, who loved to play golf and, like President Bush, ride his bicycle.

[snip]

A civilian family therapist eventually told Captain Pelkey that he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and recommended that he be put on medication. Ms. Pelkey said her husband seemed hopeful after receiving the diagnosis, but just a week later he shot himself to death in their living room.

Ms. Pelkey told me that her husband had been reluctant to discuss his time in Iraq, but she knew that he had seen soldiers die, and that he had been affected by the sight of civilian casualties and the suffering of children.

In Ms. Pelkey's view, her husband was as much a casualty of the war as a soldier killed in combat. ''Just as some soldiers perish from bullet wounds or other trauma of war,'' she said, ''Michael perished from the psychic wounds of war.''

MSM's Reluctant Epiphany-- Stephen Colbert is HOT!!!

See update from comments at Political Physics at the end of this post.

Okay, let's put aside all discussion of: comedic theory and whether self-deprecating humor is more evolved than its ancient ancestors of irony and satire (not!); whether Colbert was playing to the room or to those of us in cable-land and cyber-space; the sycophantic & disgusting chumminess of the WH and its Press Corps; what it means to go over the line & who gets to decide where the line is drawn. Ultimately, those issues are not what this very hot debate is really about.

Sure, we all have our opinions on these topics, and, as the President pretends to feel, reasonable people can disagree. My own opinion, one with which he would likely disagree, is that the powerful often lose their sense of humor along the way to the top... most likely because no one likes to be laughed at for being considered pompous, whether true or not. (How many Republicans do you know who actually have a decent sense of humor? Few enough to count on one hand?)

The real reason that the WH and its Press Corps, and, by extension, the cable news guys, the less-than-moderate members of the GOP, the ReligiousRighteous-- that whole unlikely cabal of electoral votes-- are so threatened by Stephen Colbert, is because they know, even if only subconsciously, that there are a lot of us women who find him incredibly appealing. In fact, we think he's damn hot!

Is it his boyish charm, or his incredibly expressive eyebrows, or his ability to maintain focus, or his lean build? Or, maybe it's that twinkle in his eye, or the wry grin? Sure, he's got all that and more, including being incredibly smart, which is another big turn-on for many women. But, it's really because the man is an honest-to-goodness testosterone unit like we haven't seen in years-- and especially not in journalism-- that we are all so enamored of him.

Name just one man in the MSM-- just one other man-- who could have, and would have, stood there on that dais for 20 minutes, and kept both his charm and persona intact, while within reach of the President, an often testy man, who is considered to be in pretty good shape for his age, not to mention all of those Secret Service guys standing by who have no compunction against removing vegetarians and Quakers from the Republicans' no-longer-open-to-Americans, pre-screened political events. [tick tock, tick tock] I can't think of many, either, although I'm betting that Kurt Vonnegut and Lewis Lapham and Bill Moyers and Garrison Keillor might have been up to creating their own versions of such a spectacle. But, among the usual suspects, the ones we so affectionately refer to as the MSM, I'm drawing a complete and total blank.

The other team prefers to make light of Colbert's nerve, insisting that we do, after all, live in a society where one is free to speak one's mind. Tell that to Cindy Sheehan, who was removed from the SOTU speech for not complying with the federal T-shirt code, or to the Colorado Three, who were removed from a Republicans-only, but tax-payer-funded, event in Denver, not for anything they said, but on the basis of their car's bumper stickers. Tell that to the Quakers and other anti-war and peace groups who have been monitored by the Feds. (It's all so secret, I'm not even sure which agency.) Tell that to Moyers, whose outstanding public affairs program, NOW's, very existence was threatened by a Bush appointee-mole because of Moyers' own truth-telling, prompting him to retire from the show prematurely, in order to prevent it from becoming a conservative lightning rod.

Of course, there have also been a few generals, and a senator or congressman here or there who have spoken the Truth and suffered its Consequences (the Republicans' talking point denials not withstanding). All the more reason to be impressed by Colbert, for having witnessed their firings and ostracisms, and being marginalized by the MSM, and still being man enough to stand up there alone, under the lights and the President's glare. The other men I've mentioned, as appealing as they may be, because they are just enough older than we are, just the tiniest bit, might elicit a response from us more appropriate to an uncle or a father. Besides, none of them are in the MSM. Even Moyers, who has spent most of his adult life in both broadcasting & journalism, cannot properly be called a member of the MSM.

It is more than ironic that a woman of a certain age, one who is past the age of caring only about a pretty face, and yearns, instead, to see a real man in the Public Square-- slaying the dragons that threaten our Constitution and our way of life-- it is ironic that she must turn not to athletes, elected officials or those who jealously guard the power they wield in their fiefdoms-- and wallets-- but must look instead to the Arts, to find a Real Man. It is surreal. A man who merely pretends on TV to be a Republican sycophant appears to us as more manly than his intended targets of irony.

I can forsee Lyssa Strada instituting an annual post on our own version of the sexiest men in public life, timed each year to coincide with the aftermath of the WHCA Dinner (if it survives) . In the spirit of this occasion, I would like to nominate Vonnegut, Lapham, Moyers and Keillor, as well as the inimitable Colbert. They are all Real Men.

Any other nominations?


UPDATE! UPDATE! Laughingcat, who also posts here, nominated a few more candidates at Political Physics...

I nominate Joe Wilson and Ray McGovern

Submitted by laughingcat on Fri, 05/05/2006 - 10:40am (0.00/1)

For facing up to the dirty power players and still maintaining their integrity, and the integrity of all men (and women) in the "intelligence community," an oxymoron if ever there was one. For Joe and Val to sit at the dinner, laughing and applauding Colbert, knowing that Rove was also in the room? I'd have been shooting daggers of ill will Rove's way. Joe and Val are a class act if ever there was one. And Ray taking on Rummy in a public forum is bold, strong, and noble. These are real men, unlike the pinhead meanspirited vermin in charge. (And I know I'm beginning to sound like the Captain in the Tintin series in my invectives!)

"If not here, where? If not now, when?"

[This piece is cross-posted at Political Physics]

Election Reform - Women Deserve More Representation in Congress

by laughingcat

Hello all! I floated this idea years ago, most recently in this post at Political Physics and believe it is one of the quickest ways for women to achieve a greater influence in our government and therefore our social policy. Though I have heard many objections (usually from men!) I think this idea has great merit and would break the good old boy system presently strangling our country. In fact, it would open up the public dialogue like few other things, and if we could accomplish this one thing, it would change the course of our country forever, empowering women in every state and eventually every country on Earth.

Part of a several-part plan, it is simple and constitutes true election reform. This proposal brings the makeup of the government more in line with the original intent of our Constitution and restores key elements of our democracy. To implement any part of this proposal would be to upset the entrenched interests now running our government. It is a way to begin to fix a system that seems broken. We certainly need some new ideas about how this government should function. This proposal forever ends the two-party male money monopoly.

Another part of this proposal, "More Congressional Seats opens up the game," outlines the need for more members in the House of Representatives to increase our ability to be represented, and the Constitutional basis for expanding the numbers representing us in Congress. I attracted some interesting feedback from that one, and it seems as though there are other people also directing their efforts at increasing our representation and breaking the power monopoly a few hundred people have to determine the lives and affairs of hundreds of millions of Americans. What follows is key in restoring proper representation to the female majority of our population.

Fair representation for women is in the interests of representative democracy and the enfranchisement of many millions of our citizens who are under-represented. I recall reading somewhere that we once considered an election format for Iraq so that women would be guaranteed a certain percentage of legislative seats. This would supposedly ensure their continued enfranchisement in the Iraqi government and the laws being made.

I believe we should try the same format in our country. Instead of open elections that historically have been dominated by men as a result of favored wealthy connections, I propose that we set aside 1/3 of all seats in the House and Senate for women, 1/3 for men, and 1/3 open races where either gender may compete. At the most skewed, we would have at least 1/3 gender representation, a much more fair proportion than what exists today. I am willing to concede that this proposal may yield some objections, but if true fairness were to be shown, then we would have to reserve about 53% of all seats for women. I'm sure this proposal would yield even more objections.

This point is not about race, or beliefs, or any other "minority" criteria than biological. If we were to designate a decent percentage of legislative seats for the female majority of our population, I have no doubt that there would be some radical changes in the public dialogue about budget priorities and like matters. And I'm willing to guarantee we would have health care reform quicker than the present Congress has ever imagined!

Aristophanes reincarnated... ?

Either Stephen Colbert is brilliantly channeling Aristophanes and the spirit of his original comedic satire... or else Aristophanes has chosen to inhabit Stephen Colbert's skin in his newest incarnation. We don't really care which it is... let's just hope it lasts long enough to effect a lasting change, if not in the current administration, then at least in the [com]media lazily basking on a raft in the main stream's current.

Comedy did not begin as the self-deprecating sort of humor we have grown so accustomed to in recent years, the kind that the president tried to use last Saturday night to blunt the devastating effect of his plummeting poll numbers. Comedy, that is, satirical comedy, began in the days of Aristophanes, as a way of needling those in power who often deserved it.

Stephen Colbert hearkens back to those ancient times. Then, in those days before journalists and political correspondents and press secretaries, we had playwrights, storytellers and poets. True, Colbert doesn't wear a mask or a codpiece, or even a toga; nor does he speak in verse. Yet, he does wear his persona as sycophant to an incompetent, war-mongering, president to devastating effect. And he does it with wit and charm and style.


Update: Political Humor has the best video and transcript of Colbert's fearless performance that we have found. Thank you, Political Physics!

Another Update: from Greg Mitchell at Editor & Publisher, an autopsy on the media's slant:
Many say Stephen Colbert went too far in lampooning President Bush at the White House Correspondents Dinner, or was just "not funny." Where was all that disapproval when Bush, at a very similar gathering two years ago, built a whole comedy routine around not finding WMD in Iraq?

In this same piece, Mitchell quotes former CIA analyst Ray McGovern:
At that same Downing Street memo forum at the Capitol last year that Milbank mocked, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, after cataloguing the bogus Bush case for WMDs and the Iraqi threat, looked out at the cameras and notepads, mentioned the March 24, 2004 dinner, and acted out the president looking under papers and table for those missing WMDs. “And the media was all yucking it up ... hahaha,” McGovern said. “You all laughed with him, folks.” Then he mentioned soldiers who had died “after that big joke.”

Dana Milbank, who seems to like a good laugh, did not mention this in his hit piece the following day.

Another Update Called For: Follow the links from Peter Daou to Digby to Marshall and back to Digby, for their reasons on why the Press deserved everything they got from Colbert on Saturday night.

One of my GCSE (16+) Drama groups has devised a piece about men for their practical assessment in a month. Part of the presentation comprises statements made by women about the opposite sex. These are the utterances selected.

WOMEN ON TOP

I have yet to hear a man ask for advice on how to combine marriage and a career.
GLORIA STEINEM

You see a lot of smart guys with dumb women but you hardly ever see a smart woman with a dumb guy.
ERICA JONG

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.
OSCAR WILDE

Instead of getting hard ourselves and trying to compete, women should try and give their best qualities to men - bring them softness, teach them how to cry.
JOAN BAEZ

Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then.
KATHARINE HEPBURN

The source of all life and knowledge is in man and woman, and the source of all living is in the interchange and the meeting and mingling of these two: man-life and woman-life, man-knowledge and woman-knowledge, man-being and woman-being.
D.H. LAWRENCE

Every time we liberate a woman, we liberate a man.
MARGARET MEAD

Men are gentle, honest and straightforward. Women are convoluted, deceptive and dangerous.
ERIN PIZZEY

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes."
CLARE BOOTHE LUCE

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.
REBECCA WEST

If the world were a logical place, men would ride sidesaddle.
RITA MAE BROWN

Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels.
FAITH WHITTLESEY (attr.)

Nobody will ever win the Battle of the Sexes. There's just too much fraternizing with the enemy.
HENRY KISSINGER

The vote means nothing to women. We should be armed.
EDNA O'BRIEN

Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition.
TIMOTHY LEARY

Men weren't really the enemy -- they were fellow victims suffering from an outmoded masculine mystique that made them feel unnecessarily inadequate when there were no bears to kill.
BETTY FRIEDAN

Why are women ... so much more interesting to men than men are to women?
VIRGINIA WOOLF

A man has every season while a woman only has the right to spring.
JANE FONDA

Woman was God's second mistake.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE