|
|
|---|
|
American Politics Journal Atrios Barry Crimmins Betty Bowers Buzzflash Consortium News Daily Howler Daily Kos Democatic Underground Disinfotainment Today Evil GOP Bastards Faux News Channel Greg Palast The Hollywood Liberal Internet Weekly Jesus General Joe Conason Josh Marshall Liberal Oasis Make Them Accountable Mark Morford Mike Malloy Political Humor - About.com Political Wire Randi Rhodes Rude Pundit Smirking Chimp Take Back the Media Whitehouse.org More Links |
by John Tully New York Herald Sun
Before the deep freeze starts here in the East-
A brief summary of another bummer of a summer…
Summer is just the perfect time to see just exactly what the heck is going on out there in “America”.
The first thing I remember was British Petroleum destroying the planet and our Leaders sitting on their thumbs.
All of a sudden I’m sitting in a hotel room in Florida after a friend’s wedding and watching a humongous plasma television.
A woman named Trish Regan from CNBC declared: “the stimulus didn’t work”. I wondered what had happened and how
she knew so I quickly switched the channel and witnessed ABC News’ Jonathan Karl file a brave and hard-hitting four-minute
“piece” on the cost of the road signs that tell citizens about stimulus money being used for infrastructure projects.
It reminded me of that George Stepa-not-on-Pols on World News Tonight.
Less than two months into President Obama’s term, immediately after the Stimulus Bill was finally passed with all kinds
of silly concessions to the fiscally illogical demands of the Say No Republicans (already in full Waterloo-mode) the TV Star
declared gleefully “Now, Barack Obama owns theeconomy….”
Those ABC boys sure are wankers.
Jake Tapper much?
The next thing I know I’m in South Jersey and watching CBS News’ Bob Schieffer indignantly imploring Bloggers
to “pick up the phone next time and do some reporting” Mr. Schieffer’s lazy network, lead by Fox News, had been
fooled by a well-known fraud named Andrew Breitbart into covering the story of how every major news gathering
organization in the U.S. had failed to investigate an obvious right-wing smear job that lead the cowardly Obama
administration to fire an employee of the Department of Agriculture for doing the right thing and speaking the
truth about Racism.
Schieffer’s wise and sage shtick is utterly revered in the District but this completely backwards, twisted and wholly
illogical pooh-poohing/blame shifting was truly a Spin of epic proportions.
He’s got BS right there in his initials after all.
That began a second straight summer of red-herring race babble.
Remember last summer’s “Beer Summit”? Months of wasted time and newsprint on distractions from the
real problems in this country and it happened again this year. Halliburton and Blackwater were relieved I’m sure.
I met sweet and dopey 80 year-old Democrats who think the Mr. Obama was still just swell; never mind that
the President has continued all of the most heinous policies of the Bush-Cheney administration. “State Secrets”
to defend endless imprisonment, renditions and assassinations in the War on Terror-coupled with no intention
to prosecute the definitive War Crimes of the former administration.
The next thing I remember Fox News is on in some restaurant.
There is a weepy, pinkish, Morning DJ on the screen and he’s assembled a bunch of Libertarians who listen to
bad music cry about God and Gold on the anniversary and location of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech.
The stupid hurts.
That reminded me of long-time DC columnist and television commentator Mark Shields and his outrage
three years ago about that famous Move-On
Ad questioning General Petraeus and his leadership.
Betray Us?
Perish the thought.
I was so mystified at the time that I called Shields on the phone. He politely explained to me that basically
the Move-On folks and their approach was not only disrespectful but highly arrogant. But then I saw the
same Mr. Shields this summer on Television- making sure to declare that he “liked” House Minority leader
John Boehner before politely and gently criticising his newest nonexistent policies.
This is a politician, Mr. Boehner, who has so little respect for his opposition that he routinely uses the
derogatory term “Democrat Party” to describe his critics. He and Deputy Dog Mitch McConnell love
to throw that phrase in every chance they can get.
I spoke with a 40-something Republican woman who asked me about Obama. She railed against
“all these people being on the dole” and all this darn “spending” in Washington. I started to argue that
taxes have never been lower and that TARP was Bush’s plan but it seemed to be a losing proposition.
She looked me dead in the eye and politely informed me that pesky facts and hard-truths about politics
and Glenn Beck and Obama were merely my personal opinions. Well, you’ve just asked me for them….
I decided not to mention Al Gore’s Global Warming Hoax.
The summer was almost over but a plan to build a Muslim community center took center-stage in the
American News Soap Opera. Plans for the “9/11 mosque” in a neighborhood sort of close to the place
where mostly Saudi Arabians flew planes into buildings, where it’s taken 10 years to rebuild anything
has unleashed the pure stupid.
TV anchor Brian Williams, who wears excellent ties, threw to the next commercial, intoning:
“the mosque that is proving to be Too Much for some people”
I’m just glad that the rational and reasonable Jon Stewart has identified the problem in America
and has planned a rally in DC for later in the month to address it.
I mean, really, the Democrat Party needs to stop being so gosh-darn harsh and mean and partisan.
Love, Peggy Noonan