or should I say the pundit boy millionaires like Matthews, Gregory and a few others think "American lives' are more valued than others, what does one expect.

I KNEW that racist, cold hearted, selfish jerks like Hannity, Limbaugh and O'Reilly would defend torture. No surprise at all. These are men who loved the plutocracy, love their gated communities and despise poor people, especially those of color.

But even the so called progressive pundits defend and have defended the right wing for years. Matthews still cannot get past his hatred for the Clintons and his obsession with Bill's sex life, but he used his really serious face to defend the Bush presidency and admire it and, despite his claim to admire Obama, men like him love the status quo and sadly believe Americans/white Christians have more value than other peoples.

I love hearing you Joan....I really wish you would boycott the MSNBC jerks....

and Joan Walsh too. And all the other real journalists who are doing their jobs....the ones who are keeping us informed; reminding us that we are indeed a nation of laws, not a nation of men. Meacham, Broder and all the millionaire pundit class is part and parcel to why our country is where it is. They love their gated communities, their "privilege and wealth." These people stopped believing in democracy when they became a part of the plutocracy.

I taught school for forty years. Now retired, I think back. I remember when I would tell my middle school age students....that our free and independent press was a huge reason why our country was of the people, by the people, for the people. I remember telling them how the media were our watch dogs.

Now sadly, as you have noted, too many of the media are lapdogs.

They are elitist snobs who would rather insult and impeach over a personal human flaw than over the rule of law. No president, no politician is any better than you or I when it comes to the law. Sadly, the right and and even sadder, many on the left are a part of that elitist mentality.

I weep for our future.

against those two.

Matthews is and has always been an elitist type Irish Catholic, who looks his nose down at the rest of us. Having grown up a few miles from Matthews at the same time, I remember the mixers where boys from the all male prep school sent for girls from the local parishes. My town was the poor steel town filled with lots of immigrants and it was clear that certain ethnic groups were OK and others....not so much. Matthews comparison of the Irish "fire fighter" tradition with his "do people complain about the Italian barbers???" was pathetic....insulting and laughable.

My Italian American father was a cop, not a barber. In fact there were no barbers in our family....law enforcement, steel workers, pipe fitters...factory workers. All of my uncles went to war and two of my Aunts worked in the Pentagon during WWII. Matthews needs to get off his Irish Catholic elitist pedestal he climbs upon. His bigotry is every bit as obnoxious as his misogyny.

I got his snotty comparison loud and clear.

Women and minorities and other ethnicities other than Irish could be firefighters and would have been years ago had they not been blocked out by the nepotism and controls.

Buchanan is a racist....and always has been and will be.

I wish you would boycott those shows Joan. You are so much above them.

For years, starting way back in the 80's with the election of Reagan, many of us wondered "How did this happen?" When and how did the press become part and parcel of the corporations and get so much control over what we Americans were supposed to know, supposed to think? Maybe it was always that way. Maybe it shocked me as I came of age in the late sixties and found my voice (along with millions of others) in the form of protesting the institutionalized racism, sexism, class warfare.

Whenever I hear the myths about Reagan, whenever I remember the elitism that allowed the status quo to continue for decades after the sixties, I realize how much the internet has now, finally, given regular citizens, the opportunity to enact change, REAL CHANGE. Still not sure if President Obama will be the one to really help us push for real change, but he is a start. In the end, it is voices like yours, like the many bloggers, with nothing to gain in terms of money and power, who will keep us all fighting for real change, and real democracy.

If your comment was not so hysterically over-the-top ridiculous; if the fear of white males losing their absolute power over the country was not so ridiculous, it would be worth discussing.

Sir or Madam, PLEASE do some research.

White males still control 98% of all the money and the power in this country. Women and minorities still struggle to have a voice and you consider this woman a threat; a voice for supremacy????

Seriously, did you even read her speech, read the context? I am betting not. Sad for all that so many people in the republican are like you; ignorant, close minded and in need of education.