Escape from the Veal Pen

1. Veal Pen: an individual's cube in the feed lot that is corporate America. The unsuspecting worker occupying the cube is kept in the dark and restrained to keep him or her tender until he and or she is butchered. (Urban Dictionary)


2. Veal Pen: Soon after the election, the (Obama) Administration began corralling the big liberal DC interest groups into a variety of organizations and communication networks through which they telegraphed their wishes — into a virtual veal pen.  (Jane Hamsher, founder of Firedoglake).


Some well-known examples of liberal veal pens are MoveOn.Org, DailyKos, MSNBC,  and ironically, the new group that Andrew Breitbart victim/ fired White House staffer Van Jones has founded. Called "Rebuilding the Dream", it trumpets the grand resurgence of Democratic values.  I got all excited until I read through their list of "supporters" -- not only the usual veal pen suspects, but the Obama Re-election Campaign itself!  Van Jones was veal penned before he even got calved, for cryin' out loud.  Here is a trenchant critique of Van the Brand.

So much for the liberal organizations co-opted by the White House.  But most of the denizens of the veal pen belong under Definition Number One, above.  The miserable masses living lives of quiet desperation, cowed by the powers that be and their pundit stenographers.  But not so fast!  The anger is a-rising!


The Rant to End All Rants was delivered by a raging bull of a veal pen escapee Dylan Ratigan yesterday on MSNBC .  If you haven't seen it yet, do not miss it!  I was in my usual mid-afternoon semi-coma on the couch when he literally woke me up.  Here is an excerpt to give you a preview of its glorious content:

"Tens of trillions of dollars are being extracted from the United States of America. Democrats aren’t doing it, Republicans are not doing it, an entire integrated system, financial system, trading system, taxing system, that was created by both parties over a period of two decades is at work on our entire country right now. We’re sitting here arguing about whether we should do the $4 trillion plan that kicks the can down the road for the president for 2017, or burn the place to the ground, both of which are reckless, irresponsible and stupid."

While we're waiting for Ratigan to get fired, there is this from today's New York Times, written by the guy in charge of moderating readers' comments, about reaction to the UK riots. The Times is amazed, just amazed, that readers are angry, fed up, decidedly unapathetic and are not going to take it any more.  We finally have proof that they actually digest what ordinary people write.

I got particularly ticked off reading another Times article today, by one of the Washington insiders of the journalistic class, Helene Cooper.  The article unquestioningly parroted the Administration drivel about Grand Bargains and the need to cut back "entitlement" programs in order to reduce the deficit.  Readers, God bless them, were not having any of her stenographic government propaganda:

Cutting the deficit will not stimulate the economy. And fixing social security is not a factor in the budget deficit. Yet these are the 2 main points of this article.
The bigger problem in this country is the superficiality of the news media. Allowing these comments as facts will help to insure that this country will struggle unnecessarily for longer than it should.
When will we start to see the NYTimes become the news organization of its past? -- Herje, Ft. Lauderdale.

Another propaganda piece for the deficit hawks!
Social security needs strengthening, not cuts. Our US system pays much lower benefits than any other modern country. We shold raise the cap on contriutions so the wealthy pay FICA on all their income, and use that revenue to make SS solvent "forever" while raising benefits to a more reasonable level. -- Ezra, Somerville, MA.

This writer is no doubt a rich neo con who, like all neo cons, wants to impose immense suffering on the elderly, the ill, and the working classes, and soon. She does not attempt to explain why it is that countries with much better credit ratings than the US manage to maintain much, much, much more humane and generous social safety nets which improve the quality of life for all citizens. There is no great hue and cry in the Scandinavian countries, or in Canada, or Australia, or France or Germany to throw senior citizens out on the streets. Why is that option so appealing to Americans, and to hypocrites like this one? -- Elizabeth, Florida.

The rhetoric of the hoi polloi is getting stronger and the activist anger is becoming palpable.  The "thundering herd" described by NY Times Public Enemy Editor Arthur Brisbane is getting noticed on Times Square itself.  The veal pen prisoners are calling bullshit on the whole culture of greed and corruption.  I knew it had to come sooner or later, and it appears that the sooner is right about now.



Moo