Glenn,

This is off-topic, but if you haven't already you really need to read this Salon piece:

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/07/12/obama_hillary/index.html

I expect this kind of writing from the Dowds of the world, but Salon? I'd appreciate your review and comment in a future post.

And let’s not forget poll after poll that show Americans do not favor a war with Iran.

"If the U.S. government decides to take military action in Iran, would you favor or oppose it?" 68% were opposed in the most recent in CNN poll and those results are backed up in all other polls on this issue.

Yet, all leading Republican candidates are eager for a war, and Rudy Giuliani just hired Norman “bomb them to smithereens” Podhoretz as an advisor.

The Republican “fringe” has called their opponents un-American and anti-American for so long that some of them may believe their own propaganda.

Sadly, our media goes along with these talking points, and we’ve reached the point where the majority of Americans cannot turn on their TV or radio without be called “un-American” for their majority viewpoints.

http://www.pollingreport.com/iran.htm

Thanks Glenn.

It was 1998, and Salon's Joe Conason was one of the few sane voices covering the Clinton witch hunts. The Liberal Media shibboleth was everywhere, to suggest otherwise was to invite ridicule.

Against those who complained about the Liberal Media I would argue; "Journalists may be a bit liberal, but Big Media owners are Republican conservatives. Since Ford trucks are made by union members, are they Union trucks? The boss has more say then the line workers."

But it was no use. The noise machine has powerful voodoo and can bamboozle the simple mind. It takes a huge dose of ugly reality to kill a media created zombie, but the final blows are coming from hunters like Glenn.

Thanks again.

( it's finally safe to drop the scare quotes around Liberal Media :)

Even when the opinion leaders have lost their leadership ability. For some reason, an angry conservative always garners respect. It's just weird.

Until the Majority Party in Congress starts getting serious with witnesses at its "hearings" there's no reason to believe they (hearings) are anything but swill for the voters.

Congress should issue a contempt citation and request that the Justice Department arrest and detain Miers until such time as she either decides to obey the law or that the Supreme Court rules that our Constitution is bunk.

Grow some balls, Nancy.

What is depressing about these numbers in a lot of cases is how high they are. 36% of Americans still think it was a good idea to invade Iraq? What if they actually knew what was going on, instead of being misled constantly by the complicit 'mainstream' beltway media?

If FOX, CNN, and the rest of the corporate controlled complicit press (CCCP) were to tell the truth for just one week, the president's approval rating could be expressed by a single digit.

Preferrably the middle finger.

The Democrats aren't doing enough. But as one of TPM's readers and Josh Marshall notes, the F word has now gone down the memory hole with the aid of the pliant media.

F-Word Down the Memory Hole?

TPM Reader TS raises a good point I've been wondering a lot about. I can't figure it out ...

"There seems to be no mention in the press of the current use of the threat of filibuster by Senate Republicans. In the previous Congress, as I recall, there was much criticism of Democrats for suggesting that they might filibuster Bush's Court appointments. Am I wrong in thinking that Republicans have stopped ordinary legislation at least twice in the last week by threatening extended debate? But where's the mention of it in the press? In the NYT story this morning about the amendment to give troops more time at home, the f-word only appears in the second to last paragraph. shouldn't they be called on this?"

If anything it's worse than this as Senate Republicans have been filibustering just about everything. Everything on Iraq certainly. And this is the sense of 'filibuster' as it has been used more or less continuously for a decade.

The Dems are idiots on this. Reporters should note it, yes. But it's not really their job.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/015298.php

See, those polls include the opinions of flyover country, and the Left Coast. Since they don't really know what's best for them, we'll have to exclude those numbers and just count the opinions of those who matter; i.e., those who live on Versailles on the Potomac.

Thank you Paul R.

grubert... Since Ford trucks are made by union members, are they Union trucks? The boss has more say then the line workers.

"Several union avoidance firms operate internationally, but only in the US has this industry developed into a multimillion-dollar concern that operates throughout the country and in every sector of the economy. And only in the US do employers, policy makers and (to a lesser extent) the general public consider the activities of union avoidance experts a legitimate part of mainstream industrial relations.”

-- John Logan, The Union Avoidance Industry in the United States, 2006

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_busting

The political fringe you mention has been split over the war in Iraq, which is symbolic of the new Progressive Activism of George Bush. Congressional Democrats haven't reined in Bush. They would rather influence his decisions, and work with the President, because there is no fundamental political difference between the world view of the Congress, and the President.

On social and cultural issues, the media's wellspring of nativist ideology is alive and well. Core Republicans are fightng a battle against the President, and his cross party alignment with the Democrats, on the issue of immigration. Defending core Conservatism is a viable strategy. If all of your polls are accurate, why are the GOP candidates running closely to their Democratic challengers? Let me add that if not for the Iraq war, the GOP candidates would be running ahead of their Democratic counterparts.