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The Gong Show!by
Jim Grichar (aka Exx-Gman)
Anyway, the Gong Show featured a variety of aspiring entertainers, who were always chosen by Barris so as to present some of the worst possible amateur talent available in the country. Barris would start the show with a line of rude, crude, or lewd jokes and then bring on the "talent." A panel of four minor Hollywood celebrities would banter back and forth with Barris, often engaging in more rude, crude and lewd talk. Barris, ever the pitchman, was always praising the talent he brought on so as to prevent the panel from giving the person the gong. Eventually, the panel would decide whether or not the entertainer in question deserved to get the gong, which meant he or she was viewed as bad talent. At that point, one of the panelists would get up, walk over to the gong, and strike it with a mallet. Of course, each panelist had a sort of negative veto in the sense that even if three other panelists thought the entertainer was passable, a dissenter could get up and give the guest the gong. Well, what does the Gong Show have to do with the current political predicament of American citizens? In a word, plenty. While Chuck Barris’ Gong Show was just a crazy form of afternoon television designed to wake up the bored, George Bush’s version is designed to confuse and bamboozle the panel (i.e., the American public) and take away the few freedoms they have left. View George Bush in the role of Chuck Barris, hosting his own updated version of the Gong Show, where the American public is the panel. While Bush has eschewed the use of lewd lines, he has picked the so-called talent and foisted them off on the American public. Look at Bush’s war on terror and the so-called talent he has assembled and presented. This list includes Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, and the rest of neo-con warmongers both inside and outside the administration. To avoid getting the gong from the public, Bush’s talent have employed fellow neo-con media mavens to convince the public that U.S. imperialism in Iraq was justified on the basis of Iraq supposedly having weapons of mass destruction and supposedly working in concert with Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda on the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. Despite no evidence to support either of these contentions, most of the American public – dumbed down by decades of useless education in public schools – still believe that Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks and that the U.S. will find evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. A large part of the public has also been convinced that the French and Germans were evil in opposing the U.S. war on Iraq. And they have not yet given the gong to the Bush Administration for this loony notion. On the domestic front, things are just as bad. With budget deficits at the half-trillion dollar level and still apparently climbing, Bush’s crew of Dr. Feelgood economists continues to sing the tune that a solid – but still jobless – recovery is occurring and that all is well or will soon be well. No gong has been given for this mess. But the panel – the American public – is getting upset. Look at voters in California, who are so angry that they have taken the unprecedented step of trying to get rid of their governor. This political charlatan has been running his own Gong Show and has made a mess of California’s electricity markets, spent the state into penury, and increased the tax and regulatory burden on businesses to such an extent that they are leaving in droves. When faced with the certainty of being given the "electoral gong," this political skunk has attempted to stack the vote against his recall by making it easier for illegal aliens to vote; by getting drivers’ licenses, these illegals can use that process to register to vote. But if the polls are at all accurate, this stunt will probably fail, as it looks like Californians are so angry and so desperate that they are going to turn to "The Terminator" to solve their problems. Will George Bush and his crew get the electoral gong next year? Just like California voters, the American public is getting increasingly disgusted with Bush’s Gong Show. Angered by all the spending on rebuilding Iraq and the number of Americans being killed in that endless imperial misadventure, mad at all the welfare being automatically given to illegal aliens, up in arms over taxes that are still so high as to be confiscatory and over bloated and wasteful government spending, the American public could be just as desperate as California residents. Will Bush recognize that his Gong Show is failing and bring in new talent to try to convince the public that he is doing a good job? Will they vote George Bush out of office? Or will they view whoever opposes Bush as being even worse than Bush? Stay tuned. An interesting round of America’s Gong Show is beginning. October 3, 2003 Copyright © 2003 LewRockwell.com
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For
the last two years, various parts of the Bush Administration have
looked like the host and would-be entertainers on the old afternoon
television program, "The Gong Show." The bad news is that
the American public appears to be stuck with this bunch of losers
as long as George Bush remains in office. The good news is that
the American public might well reach the boiling point like California
voters have. California voters apparently view their governor and
lieutenant governor as a pair of mountebanks who have destroyed
the Golden State’s economy. Like California voters, the American
public are starting to view Dubya and his bunch the same way, thus
opening up the possibility that Dubya might get the big "electoral
gong" in November of 2004. 
For
those who don’t remember, the Gong Show appeared for a short time
on afternoon television in the late 1970's. Created and hosted by
the sleepy-eyed game show creator and writer Chuck Barris, the show
was far-out and zany even for that time. Barris also went on to
create the Newlywed Game and the Dating Game and recently, after
a long absence from the spotlight, he wrote a book and starred in
a movie based upon that book, 
