Saturday, August 03, 2002
Welcome to monchieland, a weblog (or blog) devoted entirely to the interests, whims, and obsessions of Monchie B. Monchum...
...Among those obsessions are politics, music and trains, though the new weblog will most likely concentrate heavily on political issues.
Born and raised in the Philadelphia area and currently residing atop a hill in Upper Manhattan, Mr. Monchum is the founder of the IRC chat channel #politics on dalnet. While he describes himself as liberal or left-of-center politically, right wingnuts often refer to him as a leftist or a commie. Conversely, left wingnuts think he's practically a Republican, which is somewhat true, since he was actually a registered Republican as a naive youth.
While ideologically he's at the center or even a bit toward the right in the Democratic Party, Mr. Monchum has no time for those he calls "pink-tutu Democrats." "While over the past 20 years the Republican Party has increasingly been taken over by totalitarian thugs, some Democrats think the proper response to this bizarre situation is to cower in the corner and beg the right-wing bullies for forgiveness. They remind me of abused wives who constantly make excuses for their brutal husbands."
Other, more forthright Democrats, however, earn Mr. Monchum's praise. "I wish the Dems had thousands of James Carvilles and Paul Begalas." he says, referring to the current hosts of CNN's "Crossfire." "They stand up to the right-wing bullyboys and bullygirls and call them on the typical tactics of the GOP Smear Machine, like wild misrepresentations, gross distortions and outright lies. Whenever the pink tutu Dems appear on TV or radio, they just let that BS slide by."
While Mr. Monchum is highly critical of the Republican Party, he's even more tart-tongued toward what he calls "the so-called liberal media." "During the 2000 campaign," he explains, "I watched as the so-called 'liberal media' lied, and lied, and lied about things President Gore had said, in order to smear him as a liar. At the same time, the Shrub lied, and lied, and bald-faced lied about issues that were extremely important to the average American, and no one in the mainstream media called him on it, except for one columnist in the New York Times, Paul Krugman. It's interesting to note that Krugman isn't a journalist, but rather an economist who isn't part of the Beltway Blowhard gang."
Besides Krugman, Carville, and Begala, Mr. Monchum's journalistic and political heroes also include, among others: Joe Conason; Gene Lyons; Bob Somerby of The Daily Howler; the late, great Lars Erik Nelson; the anonymous genius behind mediawhoresonline.com; and of course Presidents Clinton and Gore. "What all my heroes have in common," he says, "is that they're fighting the good fight against the number one internal threat to the American democratic republic: the totalitarian right wing. After all, people like Tom DeLay, Dick Armey, Trent Lott, and the entire Bush Crime Family would've fit in very well in Stalin's USSR or Pinochet's Chile -- they have the same black-and-white, you're-either-with-us-or-against-us mentality that is a trademark of totalitarian regimes."
Some space in monchieland will be devoted to Mr. Monchum's other obsessions, such as his love of music and trains. "Of course sometimes I'll tie them together," he adds. "For example, in my opinion liberals generally have better taste in music than right wingnuts. After all, President Clinton was the first president in my lifetime to cite jazz guys like Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane as two of his favorite musicians, though I admit to wincing when he once favorably mentioned Kenny G. And one of my favorite left-of-center commentators, Eric Alterman, wrote a very well-regarded book about Bruce Springsteen. On the other hand, I can't think of a single right-winger who has decent taste in music -- no wonder they all listen to talk radio!"
So, let the monchieland blogging begin!
...Among those obsessions are politics, music and trains, though the new weblog will most likely concentrate heavily on political issues.
Born and raised in the Philadelphia area and currently residing atop a hill in Upper Manhattan, Mr. Monchum is the founder of the IRC chat channel #politics on dalnet. While he describes himself as liberal or left-of-center politically, right wingnuts often refer to him as a leftist or a commie. Conversely, left wingnuts think he's practically a Republican, which is somewhat true, since he was actually a registered Republican as a naive youth.
While ideologically he's at the center or even a bit toward the right in the Democratic Party, Mr. Monchum has no time for those he calls "pink-tutu Democrats." "While over the past 20 years the Republican Party has increasingly been taken over by totalitarian thugs, some Democrats think the proper response to this bizarre situation is to cower in the corner and beg the right-wing bullies for forgiveness. They remind me of abused wives who constantly make excuses for their brutal husbands."
Other, more forthright Democrats, however, earn Mr. Monchum's praise. "I wish the Dems had thousands of James Carvilles and Paul Begalas." he says, referring to the current hosts of CNN's "Crossfire." "They stand up to the right-wing bullyboys and bullygirls and call them on the typical tactics of the GOP Smear Machine, like wild misrepresentations, gross distortions and outright lies. Whenever the pink tutu Dems appear on TV or radio, they just let that BS slide by."
While Mr. Monchum is highly critical of the Republican Party, he's even more tart-tongued toward what he calls "the so-called liberal media." "During the 2000 campaign," he explains, "I watched as the so-called 'liberal media' lied, and lied, and lied about things President Gore had said, in order to smear him as a liar. At the same time, the Shrub lied, and lied, and bald-faced lied about issues that were extremely important to the average American, and no one in the mainstream media called him on it, except for one columnist in the New York Times, Paul Krugman. It's interesting to note that Krugman isn't a journalist, but rather an economist who isn't part of the Beltway Blowhard gang."
Besides Krugman, Carville, and Begala, Mr. Monchum's journalistic and political heroes also include, among others: Joe Conason; Gene Lyons; Bob Somerby of The Daily Howler; the late, great Lars Erik Nelson; the anonymous genius behind mediawhoresonline.com; and of course Presidents Clinton and Gore. "What all my heroes have in common," he says, "is that they're fighting the good fight against the number one internal threat to the American democratic republic: the totalitarian right wing. After all, people like Tom DeLay, Dick Armey, Trent Lott, and the entire Bush Crime Family would've fit in very well in Stalin's USSR or Pinochet's Chile -- they have the same black-and-white, you're-either-with-us-or-against-us mentality that is a trademark of totalitarian regimes."
Some space in monchieland will be devoted to Mr. Monchum's other obsessions, such as his love of music and trains. "Of course sometimes I'll tie them together," he adds. "For example, in my opinion liberals generally have better taste in music than right wingnuts. After all, President Clinton was the first president in my lifetime to cite jazz guys like Thelonious Monk and John Coltrane as two of his favorite musicians, though I admit to wincing when he once favorably mentioned Kenny G. And one of my favorite left-of-center commentators, Eric Alterman, wrote a very well-regarded book about Bruce Springsteen. On the other hand, I can't think of a single right-winger who has decent taste in music -- no wonder they all listen to talk radio!"
So, let the monchieland blogging begin!
