01 December 2006

Hal's Friday Evening Blog Review #9 - JunkPower

What a difference a week makes! From one of the net's realest turkeys in FEBR#8 to a bona fide classic piece of US political agitation, JunkPower. Not, as you might first have expected from the name, a site for the political mobilisation of heroin addicts, but rather an "ex-Corporate and Southwesterner, sometimes anarcho-syndicalist transitionist." This guy is f***ing pissed off about what the people Hunter Thompson called "these cheap, greedy killers who speak for America today" - Dubya Bush plus support. And he ain't gonna give up until they kindly leave the stage.

If there was merely quart after quart of vitriol here, expressed in posts like 2,868 Soldiers Died So That This Asshole Could Provide the Best Evidence Against Intelligent Design, it would be great reading. But there's brilliant humour, too, in posts like Hooked on Gay Phonics Kung-Fu Cocktacular, Come Back With Your Shield, Or On It, Missisippi Kicked Out of Union? Trent Lott to Lose Citizenship? Wishful Thinking, or my personal favourite, Jesus Loves My SUV: This I Know, Because the Billboards Tell Me So, where Mr JunkPower analyses the merits of car stickers which state, "[insert name of American soldier] Died So I Can Drive This SUV." I might start to manufacture some UK versions. "Tragically under-pensioned octagenarians fought the Battle of Britain so I could intimidate them as the poor buggers stumble across the zebra crossing on zimmer frames while I'm doing the school run in my 4x4", anyone? A bit wordy but I'm sure it would sell well.

Anyway, putting this site all together you've got a superb radical political entertainment. Of course it does trade heavily on the "Bush is a Dumbass" line, whereas the truth is probably a bit more complex - a complete imbecile couldn't have got that far, even in America, and the meticulous chronicling of his early career in Molly Ivins's excellent Shrub (for example) shows a first rate political campaigner and slugger. But nonetheless, running for office with skill is very different from filling that office with skill, and from the moment he stepped in the White House door it was obvious that GWB was way out of his depth. Given that simple fact, you'll rarely see a site that kicks a man when he's down (but not out for another 2 years sadly) more gleefully than JunkPower. Great stuff!

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