Letters to the Editor
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It's worth mentioning...
that Wednesday's debate has been (to my knowledge) the only one on broadcast TV. That fact alone might account for the larger viewing numbers... not because anyone was particularly interested in what either Charlie Gibson or George S. had to say/ask, or because anyone believed that they would ask the questions we wanted to hear... some (many?) of us probably hoped that the two candidates would manage to say something of substance, in spite of the two moderators.
I remember when campaign debates were not only regularly available on broadcast TV, but were also sponsored by the League of Women Voter. Those were the days... [I also remember where I was when JFK was shot, unlike David Brooks, who was only an infant.]
Corporatizing the media is responsible for so many ills, including what almost amounts to a "poll tax." If you don't have cable, you must not be a "serious" consumer/citizen/voter, and therefore, are not worthy of complete access to the political process. [Hah! And that's why I go to the internet. I gave up on network news ages ago.] So much for the public service that used to be required in exchange for the use of the public air waves. Gone. Completely Gone. Now all "service" serves profit.
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casual_observer.
It's a blue bird of happiness. Let the turkey rest on the left shoulder. The poop gets transformed. (A blue bird sits on casual_observers shoulder and poops a fecal crap)
Yikes. sorta looks like cheese?
Anger does too. Anger, said Athena, will become sweeter than honeycomb. . . . It will transform with an embrace, acknowledgement, and gentle care with time. Who isn't angry?The poop is necessary for a flower's growth. Nature is the interaction of the opposites. Old Bernard Telesio,
'On The Nature of Things' in chapter one... wrote... ~That the construction of the world of nature, and the magnitude of bodies therein contained, should be investigated not by reason alone as some of the ancients believed, but by sense experience.~. (`a dark labyrinth is there if one is not honest, and a wandering person will lose any potential natural splendor... there is dull refuse here too') Yes.
Sit outside and shut up! okay.
This is a juggle. It's a game?
Well. Who wants to miss out?
It is a task. It's not easy to explain.
O, I tease... A sore leg must go forth.
O, joy. Shake it about and find a morel.
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Just like Æsop
GC!: Shake it about and find a morel
There's a morel to every story.
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Brooks presents his doctoral thesis on "white trash"... and becomes a member of the established corporate flimflammer, insecure, media.
okay. So, now he can afford brandy, yellow liqueur, and reveal a nonsensical and violent worldview. Blind lead the blind. A GOP can buy chartreuse wine or lime green shoestring
cowboy boot laces? Cowboy boots have no strings? okay.
Mr. Brooks wears pink laced tuff boy underpants? who cares.
Mr. Brooks flares his nose nostril real wide as he reads Glenn.
The bored public sneeze as he reports on the average toddler.
Tomorrow maybe Opus will waddle out to pretend he's a lab.
What joy to have an alarm clock that licks a face or screams.
I yell out in the middle of the night. Nature bless a left leg!
Please.
My legs make me yell at Yakuza gangsters! o wear disguises.
apologies.
I'm cranky.
Wow. lame.
Take a walk.
okay. skip it.
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Does anyone else besides me remember the Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs match?
Before the match, the reporters/pundits/sportscasters/ were all chattering about how Riggs was going to win. They talked about his history of winning and what kind of competitor he was, etc. Billie Jean may have been excellent tennis player, but she was no Bobby Riggs. [Sub-text: he had a penis. She did not.] Not a political contest, per se, but there was a lot of gender politics at stake, not to mention a potential threat to the status quo for a lot of authoritarians (we had them then, too) just raring for an opportunity to remind King of her proper place.
Afterwards, it was all about the fundamentals, e.g., her weight, strength, speed, muscle-tone, etc. [They had to come up with something to save face.] And, she was much younger, but that simple fact had merited little attention in the frenzy before the match.
Now the sub-text (according to M$M standards) is that McCain is the Republican, i.e., the predetermined "winner" (the virile one). And the coverage, just like for Bobby Riggs, is all about his history, how he campaigns, but nothing about his current reality, and how much of a disconnect there is between that and what the American voting public will be demanding in November... no matter what the punditocracy may think they know.
Afterwards, (I predict) it will again (just like in Nov. 2006) be all about the fundamentals: the odious occupation of Iraq, the economy, credit, bailouts, disappearing jobs, the infrastructure, health care, and how-- of course-- all of those issues had to favor the Democrats.
I know that sports analogies are not perfect. My point is more about the backpedaling that the press has been known to adopt immediately, once they've been caught wearing egg instead of sunscreen. Will they ever learn?
I was in my early twenties; that match-- or perhaps really its coverage-- made quite an impression on me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_the_Sexes
I found the following quote and its link in the reference section of the wiki entry on "The Battle of the Sexes." Note, that it was Riggs who challenged King after he beat Margaret Court, insisting that women's tennis was vastly inferior.
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907843,00.html
Billie Jean King is one of the alltime tennis greats, she's one of the superstars, she's ready for the big one, but she doesn't stand a chance against me, women's tennis is so far beneath men's tennis, that's what makes the contest with a 55-year-old man the greatest contest of all time. I went to Wimbledon this year to watch her play, I wasn't scared before, but after watching the girls at Wimbledon I may even be overconfident. You may want to ask me if I have a game plan for Billie Jean. I don't need a game plan. I'll let her start something and I'll finish it. I have such a vast assortment of tennis weapons in my arsenal that I can handle anything she can throw at me. I'll psych her out a little bit. I'm psyching her out already, she won't admit it but I can see her coming apart at the seams already ...
And that, gentlemen and ladies, as Bobby Riggs likes to put it, is what is known in the trade as hustle. Which is what happens to any man, woman or child who comes within earshot of Robert Larimore Riggs, the most notorious, obstreperous and, a good many women would say, obnoxious 55-year-old adolescent in the land.
I had forgotten until reading these links today that Riggs was known for being a hustler, but reading the Time story about the match-- in this political environment-- there are many obvious parallels between that match and the opposition of the two parties (not even including the Mommy/Daddy parties), hubris being the main parallel. Just like when I read that Tom DeLay had roared at a restaurant employee (in a federal building) who asked him to put out his cigar, "I AM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT."
Clearly, just as Riggs consciously chose the life of a hustler, the current GOP has deliberately transformed itself into the party of Hustlers. Most of the American voting public is aware of that fact, as well as the steep & slippery slope from hustle to corruption.
In order for us to win by a significant margin in November, a few more voters need to be informed about McCain's true agenda. Let's spend our time doing that, and posting comments about his many faults-- creating talking points-- rather than arguing about who is receiving worse treatment from the press: Hillary or Obama. They're both getting a raw deal. Because they're Democrats. But McCain is the one we need to defeat. Why wait until September to start on him?
Ironically, Riggs's hubris actually enhanced the image of women's tennis. The GOP can certainly do as much for DFHs and other Democrats.