Voyage of the Damned – The Nation’s Cruise
Not my headline, but rather that of the alternative Seattle Weekly to describe The Nation’s all Liberal cruise to Alaska, with prices from $2600 to $8400. Focus cruises are proliferating, started by The National Review decades ago. The cruise departed Seattle last Saturday.
Of course it was the success of The National Review’s cruise that obviously prompted The Nation’s first seminar-at-sea 10 years ago, a clever means of fundraising, cultivating subscribers, and rallying the base, so to speak. And I’m not sure which is worse: a boatload of smug, rich, insular conservatives, or a boatload of smug, rich, insular liberals.
Cough. You won’t find me on either cruise, though you might find me on an Alaskan cruise. I don’t need a week of political boot camp = fundraiser for a magazine.
Oh, but it’s not just a week-long sightseeing cruise to Alaska, it’s a seminar, a learning opportunity, a chance to rub shoulders not only with Nader (guaranteed not to remove his suit in the hot tub), but The Nation’s Katrina vanden Heuvel and Victor Navasky, actor Richard Dreyfuss, journalist Mary Mapes (she who pushed the Bush-Air National Guard story a little too hard on 60 Minutes), several other lefty authors, the mayor of Salt Lake City (he’s a liberal Democrat?), and actress-journalist Annabelle Gurwitch (whom we kind of like after her stage show and movie Fired!, which leads from getting shitcanned by Woody Allen to a broader examination of downsizing and corporate insecurity)….
But the point is this: Liberals on the high seas! Birds of a feather flocking together! It’s a blue-state booze cruise, and some tickets may yet be available.
Seriously though, the minute you include Mary Mapes as a headliner you have destroyed any claim to objectivity. But you can sit with her at dinner.
Confirmed speakers include Richard Dreyfuss, Mark Hertsgaard, Ralph Nader, Mary Mapes, Liza Featherstone, Patricia Williams, Doug Henwood, Robert Scheer, Gary Younge and Salt Lake City’s mayor, Rocky Anderson as well as others soon to be named. They’ll join Nation publisher emeritus Victor Navasky and Nation editor and publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel in what has always been both an enlightening exchange of ideas and a no-hassle, relaxing vacation. Each day and night you’ll mingle with these Nation comrades – in both informal and formal settings. And dinner seating is arranged so that everyone has a chance to dine with the guest speakers.
And don’t forget, you can buy carbon offsets and make Al Gore richer at an additional cost.
we’ve partnered with Eco-Logic to re-forest a recently devastated area in Guatemala, paying for the planting of enough trees to offset the carbon emissions of each passenger on the Nation cruise.
Or as the Seattle Weekly says
it’s probably best not to consider what those Guatemalan tree planters are being paid—just like the Filipino deckhands and boiler stokers laboring in the bowels of the ship.
Even the left-leaning weeklies see through the charade. Though they are way behind the times as far as cruise ship propulsion, which is mostly gas turbines, not boilers.
I would have the same response to a cruise featuring O’Reilly and Coulter. These are preaching to the converted fundraisers.
If you want full marketing details on the cruise, The Nation has set up a cruise website.
Objective… You mean like Tony Sonw?
The Press Secretary to the President is obviously part of the political Administration they represent, be it Tony Snow or George Stephanopoulis. That is not objectivity.
But in the case of Mary Mapes and 60 Minutes, they claim to be reporting stuff free of political ties. By her actions she proved that was not the case, and my opinion is that she was justly fired.
Others see her as a saint for daring to stand up to the evil President Bush. I don’t. I see her as a lying propagandist. I have nothing against propaganda, it is relabeled PR, but to pretend you are objective then complain when your lies are uncovered I will not accept.
I also refuse to believe the various conspiracy theories out here. Tony Snow did not support the Bush Administration when he was on Fox News in hopes of getting his current job. However, the fact he supported the Administration must have played into the fact he was on the final list – they weren’t going to hire Dan Rather.
It is specifically marketed to progressives. Where does it claim to be non partisan?
The fact remains that he was no more objective than Mapes or Hume.
As the later quote states the carbon offsets are organized through EcoLogic, a non-profit that is not associated with Gore. You no doubt knew this but couldn’t resist the cheap shot. Their work in in Latin America is coordinated with local ,often indigenous, community environmental groups (Ulew Che Ja and PAF-Maya in Guatemala). Like most non-profits they rely heavily on volunteer help.
They are a non-profit doing good work in cooperation with local community groups. Why the cheap shot?
Nader (guaranteed not to remove his suit in the hot tub
Nader in a hottub – {{shudder}}!
Viva La Revolución!
The author reveals his own ignorance of American politics. Yes, the mayor of Salt Lake City is a liberal Democrat. The author obviously doesn’t know anything about the politics of that city and just works from his own prejudice and ignorance.
Here’s the wikipedia article on the mayor:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Anderson
Interestingly, the next National Review cruise leaves from Seattle this week. Hopefully, they will take the same ship. Then we can get Jonah writing about how the Dems trashed the place on the way out.
7 day Alaska cruise in September via Vancouver: about$500
Going on a cruise without Mapes et al: PRICELESS
I can’t believe these liberals are going on a cruise. They should never be allowed to leave their Upper West Side liberalville.
“The Press Secretary to the President is obviously part of the political Administration they represent, be it Tony Snow or George
When somebody has told so many lies, and has spread so much BS, and has helped with so much evil as anybody who works for the Bush administration has, I find claims that they never claimed to be objective to be unsatisfying.
And, of course, you may have forgotten, but George pledged to ‘restore honor and dignity to the White House’. I guess that that’s no longer operative, as they said during the Watergate cover-up.
Grewgills : It’s something that right wingers/conservatives seem required to do.
What I find hilarious is how rabidly hateful conservatives are towards Gore and any perceived profits from his environmentalism yet they have no problem with Cheney and his friends using the war in Iraq as a source of massive profits.