COLDS NEWS #2

When the COLD NEWS first appeared, we, America and me, were in the middle of the first Bush Depression. Bill Clinton’s boom was over and the Regressives were  getting ready  to  piratize  the public  sector,  big time. LIKE all good things Clinton’s  efforts to spread  the  wealth,  by economic  diversification  and  relative  peace,  would  end with  the  “need for greed’’,  Bush   administration.

COLD SOUP, a dinner theatre, started in the summer of 2003. Thus, the COLD NEWS, an integral part of CS, was born of progressive discount, popular rage. 9/11 had been used to silence Bush’s critics. Protesters were put in “FREE SPEECH ZONES,” guarded by riot cops and photographed by plain clothes but obvious agents of homeland security.

Not unlike the anti-war movement during Vietnam, protests became “un-American.”  Bill Maher and Cynthia McKinney were attacked, marginalized, and dismissed from the public eye.  Max Cleland, a triple amputee Viet-war hero, was run out of office by Saxby Chambliss, a draft dodger, because Cleland wasn’t sufficiently patriotic enough.

The industrial media always eager for war, got in line immediately. Hollywood and public broadcast “self” censored, hiding behind “objectivity,” like a drunk hiding under the covers because something scary was going to happen if they ever uttered the name Bush.

To the point, anybody who merely objected to Regressive policies, were relegated to nonperson status and silenced while the war lovers prepared to profit. These were dark days.

In 2005, COLD SOUP produced The Much Anticipated, Long Awaited, Karl Rove Goes to Hell, my personal fave.

As far as the COLD NEWS went, I modeled my style after the honorable Lewis Black, as translated by John Stewart, a deranged news man out for deep irony with a big slice of snark on the side. My fan loved it.

Only good taste restrained me, but then not often. When the COLD SOUP crowd had drunk all the wine and were scarfing down dessert, the street lamp shone behind me and the vox populist could be heard baying at the full moon.