It’s Thanksgiving and I am indeed thankful for many things. I am first and foremost thankful for whoever locked that door the President tried to open while escaping his press conference in Beijing the other day. It provided us with an "uber-metaphoric" moment for this White House and the bad decisions they have made and then run away from. If the President had tripped and fallen face first into a giant Iraq-shaped cake it would not have been more on the money than the locked door moment. So thank you random Chinese building attendant or janitor for doing your job and locking the door on the left.
I am also thankful for the crazy rise of blogs and news web sites that have at least semi-made up for the complete collapse of our mainstream media. Anderson Cooper aside, the dance between our corrupt government and corporate owned media has gone from flirtatious to fucking. I never thought there would be a day when I signed on to the Internet and immediately went to read the news but thanks to Judith Miller, Fox News, and thousands of other lazy journalists who trade access for truth I now do so religiously.
I'm also very thankful for the Daily Show and now the Colbert Report. At a time when all other comedy has gone to sleep on the most corrupt administration in America's history these shows have stayed focused and funny.
Thank you to Kanye West, Green Day, and, yes, the Rolling Stones for making political music in a time when making political statements scares the hell out of many.
I also thank the producers of “Breaking Bonaduce” for starting with a trashy reality TV show but then, when the story changed, having the guts to shoot it like a Lars Von Trier movie. It's a remarkable show and is proof that there is always hope for TV.
And now here are some random thank yous to people who know what they do and that they do it well: Phil Angelides (they said you were crazy for going after the Terminator but you will have the last laugh and will go on to be a force in American politics for the next forty years), Ricky Davis (just for being Ricky), David Sirota (why aren't you running the DNC? Why?), Laurie David (that TBS special was insanely ambitious and you pulled it off. And now even Fox is admitting global warming is for real), John Murtha, Patrick Fitzgerald, Tom Delay's mug shot photographer.
But most of all we thank all of the armed forces who are fighting and dying -- because they are loyal Americans who heeded the call. Now let's hope the folks at home can get over their own pride enough to look at the world critically and to question how that sacrifice is being used.
Amen.