I haven’t posted in a while as work and my activities with PLAN have filled practically every waking moment but this cannot pass without my small contribution to promote and amplify a superlative voice brilliantly distilling birtherism into the cold, hard, facts…
This video has some strong language, not that it isn’t warranted. Please take the time to watch… I am willing to bet that you will then be willing to share…
Thank you for your time
Progressive angst, irritation and ultimate victory…
When I was a very young man it was still shocking to the general population to see interracial couples, the civil rights amendment was shiny new and almost all homosexuals were deep in the closet.
Almost my whole life I have known that it wasn’t cool to treat people differently based on the color of their skin. People who love each other should be allowed to love each other even if they came from divergent racial backgrounds.
Almost my whole life I recognized that individual qualifications were exactly that, individual! Skills, knowledge and talent were a factor of luck and desire and had no connection to race other than access. I knew that it was wrong to deprive anyone the access and opportunity of fully realizing potential.
From very early on I recognized that homosexuality wasn’t about a perversion it was about self and identity. People say “be true to yourself” yet shrink when that truth is at odds with what their religion says about human behavior. I knew that that these humans were just as American, honorable, fragile, human, valuable and necessary as any other in our union and that perfection of that union would never be complete until they enjoyed the same rights, freedoms and respect that every other member of this society should enjoy.
The point is that enormous progress has been made in all these issues, and though it has been frustratingly slow and ridiculously uneven, (particularly from the standpoint of KNOWING what the right thing was), progress has been made. We always knew that eventually a majority of people would come to the same conclusion but that didn’t make the struggle any less difficult or painful.
So now we stand on the edge of the most recent battle looking at the carnage and we ask, (logically, cause that IS what progressives do), what now?
What now?
You don’t stop fighting for the things that you know are right just because you didn’t win the argument
You don’t stop fighting for the things that you know are right just because someone else convinced enough people that we were just not ready for that truth
You don’t stop fighting for the things that you know are right just because someone bet the American people would vote emotionally and not logically, and won that bet.
You don’t stop fighting for the things you know are right until enough people acknowledge that it IS right and you can take up the cause further down the road to progress.
They beat us back this time. They beat us back with hate. They beat us back with fear. Most of all they beat us back with a relentless assault on the truth, a media enhanced, fact optional, trigger phrase, dog whistle assault on the truth. Eventually we will win, we know it, they do NOT. They have not the vision, they have not the imagination, they have not the facility to escape their fear to recognize the awesome potential of human beings…
Truth will eventually prevail… The earth is not flat, it is also not the center of the universe, Galileo would have had to lived almost four hundred years to experience an acknowledgment of that with respect to the Church. Hopefully we won’t have to wait so long…
I’d like to leave you with a thought from The Talking Heads…
Facts are simple and facts are straight
Facts are lazy and facts are late
Facts all come with points of view
Facts don’t do what I want them to
Facts just twist the truth around
Facts are living turned inside out
Facts are getting the best of them
I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting
I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting
I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting
I’m still waiting, I’m still waiting
It is not enough to be right… we still have to struggle to MAKE IT RIGHT!
We still fight because it is our calling, our curse and our quest (Monty Python reference deliberately avoided…)
I’m not dead yet! (damn!)
The teaparty movement is supposed to be taken as a serious phenomenon because their anger is genuine, but what is genuine about their anger if it isn’t based in fact?
I hear news report after news report about the populist anger of this movement, frequently the reporters will even bother to ask the participants why they are upset and the reporter gravely nods while they regurgitate some crap they heard Glenn Beck spew in one of his deluded rants about fascism or Marxism or socialism or communism acting like the words actually were interchangeable. The real insult is that after interviewing the protesters for their views, the media doesn’t even bother to weigh in on the veracity of their statements. What the hell? Is everyone supposed to go to factcheck.org to check it out on their own?
I am angry.
I am angry at the media.
I am angry that teabaggers get press and I get to rant alone with facts.
I am angry that a farce like Sarah Palin can still claim credulity and air time from the press after demonstrably false claims over and over again.
I am angry that the media is more interested in scoring the political game than informing the public.
But mostly I am angry that the lack of exposure by the media to the absolute vacuum of truth coming out of the teaparty movement has encouraged the entire Republican Party to swing into nonsense land where they see voter enthusiasm and virtually no fear of reprisal.
The danger of course is that to play in nonsense land you first must cede reality to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bill Kristol, Michelle Malkin and Sarah Palin. In nonsense land things that Americans should be proud of and those which should be shamed are flipped around in a twisted nationalism of symbols over substance.
Pulling yourself up by your boot straps is laudable to these people but educating yourself is not? Being strong is an asset but being smart is elitist? Wielding a gun is a right but legislating as a democratically elected majority is tyranny? Torturing prisoners is not only necessary, but it preserves our freedom even though the United States was instrumental in crafting the international prohibitions on the use of torture? Using the filibuster at a rate that has never been seen in the history of the country is their patriotic duty but spending a painful year to pass legislation that was promised in the campaigns they won is somehow the legislative equivalent of rape?
At what point does fact and truth have any bearing at all in the process? Is the game of politics more important than the policies with which we as a nation govern ourselves?
Sarah Palin wants to browbeat the media for reporting on very real threats to law makers, threats from people who are angry, people who are angry about things that frequently aren’t even true? Let me be clear Sarah, if you have to explain that “taking up arms” doesn’t mean literally “taking up arms” but rather going to vote, then how much more could YOUR message be misunderstood by angry people?
Rush, Beck and Palin are like the idiots in Southern California with matches when the Santa Ana winds blow, fascinated with starting something up, completely enamored with their power to incite and with absolutely no responsibility to the heartbreak and devastation that might erupt from their callous handling of fire. If the media is going to give these idiots matches to play with the least they could do is correct the more incendiary statements so that the American people don’t get burned.
“When anger rises, think of the consequences” – Confucius
Teabaggers (in the political sense) break down into three distinct types, very different in method, motivation and madness. Let’s bring them out into the light so we can see them for what they really are.
The first are the organizers and lieutenants, they are fully cognizant of the stakes, goals and truth in this battle. The leaders work for very well funded lobbying and advocacy groups largely funded by corporate interests with very real financial motivations, health care reform could cost them literally billions of dollars. For them, the debate was never about a “government taker over” or “death panels” is was always about stopping any restrictions on the obscene abuses of the American people. Denial of claims, dropping coverage, rescissions, pre-existing conditions maximizing their profits on the suffering and not uncommonly death of their customers. The real “roots” of this so called grass roots movement is money in the soulless pursuit of more.
The second category of teabagger is what the country sees, what the media reports on and what largely gets mistaken for a ground swell of populist anger. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t deny that the anger is real it is, the point is that it’s not based any rational understanding of policy proposals let alone disagreement with them. The anger among these people is based in their own fear and prejudices and though some of it is directly manufactured by the ludicrous talking points of the aforementioned lobbyists, they manage to bring plenty of their own hate to the party. These are the group that can do the most damage to the prospects for health care reform but only of we forget who is pulling the strings and what their motives are. Populist anger in the tea party crowd is propaganda, fabricated by power to take more from the powerless.
The final group of teabaggers is the group I worry about, the unstable, impressionable, depressed, repressed, angry misfit just waiting for someone to work them up enough to lose the last tenuous grip on peaceful co-existence in our society. These are the people that hear “government takeover” and start stock piling guns, talk about death panels and they buy and extra ammunition, references to Fascism and re-education camps and who knows what’s next.
The fact that groups like FreedomWorks spread their lies and distortion for greed is bad. Deliberately stoking hate, fear and prejudice for political advantage is deplorable. Wild hyperbole that holds the possibility of inflaming passions in the less stable in the population is stupid, irresponsible and should be called out by everyone along the political spectrum for the good of the country, our democracy and our citizenry.
So as we push through this last hurdle in this battle of the ongoing war for social justice in the perfection of our union. Let’s make sure we maintain a clear vision of exactly who we are going up against, how they are organized, funded, motivated and what their goals are. Let us also make sure that the media cares enough to report to the country not just the anger but the players and the increasingly staggering price of the status quo.
Meet The Press is the longest running program in the history of television. The first broadcast in November of 1946 was more than 60 years and 10 anchors ago. One could say that Meet The Press is the epitome of the intersection between news and politics.
Anyone who reads my blog or follows me on Twitter knows how I feel about David Gregory’s version of the show… A quick check of the hashtag #MeetDepressed (which I coined) would show many critical tweets than I am compelled to write as I struggle to sit through the shallow shell of a program that it has devolved into since the loss of Tim Russert. David Gregory was never going to fill Tim’s shoes, but the job that he is doing becomes increasingly pathetic.
Tim Russert loved politics, he loved the game, he loved busting the chops of his guests pressing them for information and challenging them for inconsistent statements. Tim was aggressive, unyielding, political and yet Tim always maintained the appearance, warranted I believe, that the purpose of his aggressive style was to better inform the American people. David Gregory never manages to cross that threshold. David gets aggressive, but it is always about the politics of the situation and never the truth. Gregory probes for information and rarely manages to leave his audience better informed. Russert never forgot that his audience was the people in Buffalo, NY and audiences like them all over this country. Gregory plays to an audience of beltway insiders, sneaking a quick glance at the camera with a quick little smirk around the corner of his lips before asking yet another question that informs the politics of the situation leaving the policy and how it affects the American populace in the dark.
Compared to the other political anchors these days David Gregory isn’t completely “Teh Suck”, but Meet The Press is not just another political talk show, at least it didn’t used to be.
I know that most television media feel that they endeavor to report the news as fairly and evenly as they can, given the pressures of the 24 hour news cycle, the constraints of network formats and intense competition for ratings. The fact though is that few manage to earn the trust that the American people vest in them, few manage to even come close.
Don’t buy it? Try these examples of how the main stream news media fails the American people everyday.
“Just reporting what happened”
The media reports the event, elevating hyperbole and idiocy to news worthiness and promoting more of the same, the more outrageous the behavior the bigger the story.
“Just reporting what they said”
The media reports what someone says and spotlights the controversy it creates instead of making those guilty of lies, distortions and obfuscation the subject of correction and ridicule.
“The basics are…”
The media simplifies stories, dumbing them down to the point of inaccuracy, as though they are fulfilling a service by offering the cliff notes instead of the facts.
“We called them out”
The media corrects the bullshit once, and they are done, but that is not really enough is it? We need the media to be as persistent at correcting the lies as the purveyors of the crap are at shoveling it. The job could be painfully tedious but the American people deserve the full measure of effort in the defense of the truth.
“We tell both sides of the story”
The media needs to realize that “fair” is not the even apportionment of time between fact and some wild distortion, it is even handed reporting and fact based analysis to help the American people understand the truth in political discourse without making politics their life.
It is vitally important that the media understand that just because they deal with these issues and talking point everyday the vast majority of Americans don’t and the flippant dismissal of blatant bullshit because you’ve dispelled it before isn’t good enough.
It might be easy to dismiss these complaints as trivial or picky I assure you it is not.
A substantial portion of the electorate believe our President is: foreign, Muslim, socialist, fascist and actively trying to destroy the country. If the media had handled any of these ridiculous claims responsibly how could it be possible that so many people still believe demonstrably false claims? Laugh it off if you will, but when some people are buying ammunition at record rates, searching for signals of the end of times and crashing planes into IRS offices the strenuous defense of the truth is perhaps the highest calling for anyone who would call themselves journalist.
BTW – I am not including Fox News in what I describe as main stream media, Fox is clearly an advocacy group promoting a particular ideology, for them the accurate dissemination of fact is a distant concern.
Attention those that bring us political news; I am sick and tired of the split screen, one Democrat, one Republican, one hockey puck of a political question in which;
1) Nothing of substance is said, talking points only.
2) The one that speaks loudest or is simply more rude “wins”.
3) There is no attempt to police the veracity of assertions.
4) No resolution cause “we’ll have to leave it there”.
This style of journalism does nothing to serve your viewership, personally I feel like I am being slapped in the face every time I see this ridiculous device employed.
Try this, if you want to have a couple of pundits weigh in on a subject fine. First have a couple of your interns do research on the question so you can rebut the talking points and correct statements that are not factual. Second give your guests the opportunity to state their case if it is worth having them on, it’s worth having them on long enough to make the point that you apparently cared enough to ask for. Third if an actual debate breaks out, let it run! Give you audience enough respect to finish what you started. Finally I think that is completely appropriate to summarize factual inaccuracies that YOUR guests make on YOUR show, in fact I think that you owe your audience that much.
Of course if you want to drop the staged pundit cage fight paradigm completely, even better.
The health care summit coming up on Thursday is quite important, it is critically important to the American people but the reason might surprise you. The health care summit is necessary due to a failure of the national media.
The debate surrounding health care reform or health insurance reform or the government takeover of health care or the pulling of the plug… Has proceeded in the open, in the media and largely on two separate playing fields.
The average American does not time into C-SPAN2 to watch the debates in the Senate. The average American does not download and read the text of the proposed legislation and grapple with what the ramifications of those proposals will be. Most Americans tune into the news that they identify with and believe the impressions that they get from the various pundits accept those views as fact and form their views about the legislation based on a sound bite not sound fact.
So the Republicans watch Fox report about death panels and government takeovers and that is their reality of health care reform.
Democrats watch MSNBC report about insurance company boondoggles and caving in to corporate interests and that becomes their reality of health care reform.
Now before you get too upset please note that I realize that MY readership does not at all reflect the average American, I expect that anyone reading this post is much more informed than your average Joe. The point is that regardless of your politics or ideology, you have been able to watch the debate unfold exactly according to your preconceptions. For most people there hasn’t BEEN a debate, only a reinforcement of belief.
The health care summit holds the very real possibility of being the first time many Americans get to witness actual debate on an issue that is critically important to the future of the country. People of good conscience that believe in the tenets of democracy cannot possibly think that a debate of this kind is a bad thing. Debate in the open, on the same playing field in front of the American people benefits all that would participate with truth and honor. If the GOP believes they have real, viable solutions to the issues that face the country with respect to health care how could the spotlight of a health care summit be a trap? If your ideas are worthy of debate, what better forum could the President of the United States offer the minority party than a high profile, televised debate?
The health care summit is important because the American people need to know what is really being proposed. The people need to hear the relative benefits and sacrifices of proposals. The people need to see honorable engagement by their elected officials in this issue. The people need the truth, not the spin about the distortion about the misinterpretation of the truth.
The people need a government of by and for the people to respect, inform and include the people.
If the minority party thinks that the health care summit is a stunt I would have to counter that giving them this forum is quite generous if they really want to be part of the solution.
That the GOP wants to be part of the solution remains debatable.
CPAC started this morning in Washington DC. For those of you who might not know CPAC stands for Corporate Policy Acting Conservative… No that’s not right, Crass Pigs Advocating Corporatism? Crappy Politicians Aiding Corporations? Corporate Pretenders Acting Centrist? Callous Pariah Advocating Crap? Causing Paralysis Above Consensus? Now I remember, it stands for Conservative Political Action Conference and the annual meeting started today.
The hot topic for the first day of CPAC seems to be that the President of the United States has used, on more than one occasion, a teleprompter! It is also reported that he frequently makes use of the wheel and indoor plumbing. What the hell is wrong with these people that they try to make something out of nothing? Isn’t there some substantive policy issues that you would like to cap on the President for? Has Obama robbed you of all validity and you really are left with nothing but made up crap to harp about?
The United States is in two wars. The economy is recovering from the worst recession since the great depression. The President just had to create a deficit commission because the Republicans refused to vote for an initiative they co sponsored. Health insurers across the country are threatening to raise premiums up to almost 40%. The filibuster is being abused like at no time in the history of the nation… And the Conservative Political Action Conference is obsessed with the use of teleprompters. Heaven help us if these people ever regain power.
Snap out of it! The two party system only really works if there are two parties and the right is driveling on about nonsensical bullshit at a time that we need adults to solve real problems. It reminds me of a quote from “The American President” that one of my readers sent me recently.
Being President of this country is entirely about character. For the record: yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU. But the more important question is why aren’t you, Bob? Now, this is an organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it naturally begs the question: Why would a senator, his party’s most powerful spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the Constitution? If you can answer that question, folks, then you’re smarter than I am, because I didn’t understand it until a few hours ago. America isn’t easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, ’cause it’s gonna put up a fight. It’s gonna say “You want free speech? Let’s see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who’s standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the free? Then the symbol of your country can’t just be a flag; the symbol also has to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest. Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can stand up and sing about the “land of the free”. I’ve known Bob Rumson for years, and I’ve been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply didn’t get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob’s problem isn’t that he doesn’t get it. Bob’s problem is that he can’t sell it! We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who’s to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections… We’ve got serious problems, and we need serious people, and if you want to talk about character, Bob, you’d better come at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card. If you want to talk about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and I’ll show up. This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes are up. My name is Andrew Shepherd, and I *am* the President.
The truth is under serious assault in our society on a scale that would horrify you if you paid any attention at all to the facts on the ground. I am not being hyperbolic even though I am sure that even some of my readers will respond with “yeah, yeah, both sides stretch the truth to advance their ideology”.
Fox regularly sells hate and vitriol to its viewers, day after day until surprise we find out that not only are Fox viewers amongst the worst informed when it comes to actual facts… but amazingly they believe, really believe all kinds of absolute crap that the Fox and friends have fed them for advancement of… News Corp, a company run by a man that only became a US citizen to satisfy regulatory requirements that stopped him as a non-citizen from owning even more media in the United States.
I would not have anything to object to if a foreign interest created a network that yielded the best informed viewers in the United States but what kind of a citizen would I be not to point out the obvious danger with the reality that Fox has wrought?
You reap what you sow… And what exactly do we expect Fox and their ilk to reap? An angry, ill informed mob of undereducated white people that desperately cling to the concept that president Obama is foreign because the concept that a man of color however well qualified or educated could honestly hold the office of president offends their very sense of being.
What happens when these same people find out that they are only cannon fodder for the moneyed interests that would use their prejudices and fears to gain political advantage, to transfer even more wealth to the obscenely wealthy to strip away the last vestiges of power from those who barely have any to wield. Will they strike back? Will their anger be brought to bear on those who have manipulated them? Will they stand with the opposition or simply stop voting out of disgust and disappointment.
In either case Fox and the GOP are facing a day of reckoning. Every time the president gets up in public and tears down the opposition like so many con artists the day gets closer. Every time there is another poll that proves how desperately misguided the radical right tea party crowd has gotten the day gets closer. Every time someone with facts, stands up and presents those facts in the face of lies and distortion the day gets closer.
We need to do everything in our power to bring that day, the sooner the better.
The truth will set you free, but you have to free it first…
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