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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Reality-based Liberal
Published Letters: 950 Editor's Choice: 102
I agree with posters who say that some people will never respect science and that Blunt’s global-warming denial is yet another motivator for voting this fall.
But what is often left unsaid - perhaps because it's just too depressing - is that our government doesn't represent us at all. This is astounding. The vast majority of the public (let alone the scientific community) is not only persuaded by the evidence, it wants action.
Blunt is a stark reminder that at least half our Congress - probably most of it - feels no compunction whatsoever to work for the people; we're just rubes who must be paid lip service or bought off with our bigotries around election time. Meanwhile, Rome slowly bakes.
Anyone who's honest and paying attention knows that civil war is not only likely, it's already underway. It was the same with the WMDs - we weren't all fooled, like the Democrats and Bush alike suggest. I knew Bush was full of it well before the invasion as did anyone else who read the papers.
Facts don't matter any longer. If that freaks you out, it should.
Hillary Clinton might have said the same thing about Hussein, and she still defends the decision to remove him by warring on a massive nation. Only her desire to be President and the corresponding need to woo anti-war voters drives this sudden alarm over the administration's performance in Iraq.
Of course any moron with a subscription to the NYT could have told you this mess would turn out badly before the invasion, yet Hillary Clinton gave the transparently-dangerous Bush the power to invade Iraq anyhow - and continues to stand by that callous decision.
So while I’d usually enjoy seeing ol' Don Rumsfeld get kicked while he’s down, watching Clinton do it makes me sick.
I agree with artMonster that this has a lot to do with targeting the audience that advertisers would most like to reach - idle white folks with disposable income. Don't forget, this is a business, not a public service. (Another good reason to support and listen to news outlets like Pacifica radio.)
But another big problem with missing white girl news, at least on cable news, is that this stuff is nothing but local crime stories. What can we do about a missing girl in Aruba? Nothing. Likewise, we can’t do much about missing minority women either. Neither story should be on CNN (unless they are stories about national trends in crime that have obvious implications for national policy, which are rare and usually useless as broadcast).
Alternatively, we could do a lot more about media regulations, for example (through votes and public pressure), yet those stories don't get aired at all. The problem again is that most of our news outlets are businesses and businesses want to: 1) run entertaining stories (albeit morbidly entertaining) that attract the right product-buying audience; and 2) avoid running stories that could hurt their bottom line, either directly, as in the case of media consolidation, or indirectly, by making the politicians in their pockets look bad on other issues.
A senator has limited say on abortion. But a senator does confirm judges who decide what the laws on abortion are - and Casey said he'd vote for Alito and Roberts (two certain votes against Roe). So people who care about abortion should be mad as f--ing hell that the Dems picked this joker.
Moreover, as bjkeeke's sister points out, this position is indicative of a political demeanor that stretches well beyond choice.
Finally, Casey is right-wing dem on a whole bunch of issues. Beating Santorum with an honest, forthright candidate - even a liberal one - is like shooting fish in a barrel. The Democrat's problem is that they confuse being a leader with being some sell-out fence straddler.
Can you imagine what people would feel like if there was honest reporting about how 60+ percent of the nation has almost no congressional representation on the issue voters rank as #1?
Try health care too. A majority of the nation wants a single-payer system, yet if a single high-profile Democratic candidate for Senate pushed this issue to the front, the same media creeps would express shock at how the radical fringe is taking over the party.
Whether intentional or not, the result of this kind of reporting hides how broken our democracy is. What “we the people” want is not what we get; instead we get to pick from a buffet of dishes we'd never cook for ourselves.
Here's hoping more Lamonts make it on the menu.
Said Lieberman: "For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot, I will not let this result stand."
Translation: "For the sake of our state, our country and my party, I cannot, I will not, let the Democratic voters of CT decide who should represent them in November."
The media is as bad as Lieberman. "Has the crazy, anti-war left taken over the party?"
As many have pointed out, 60% of the nation thinks the war was wrong in the first place, which must mean at least 85% of Democrats think so. Think about that; 85% of the party is on the fringe of the party, according to “conventional wisdom.”
Meanwhile, warmongers like Bill Kristol (whose views are reflected in no more than 15% of the population) continue to help define "the center" as a part of inside-the-beltway roundtables broadcast by cable channels up and down the dial.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
