Katrina, four dollar gas, a trillion dollar war, rising unemployment, deregulated housing market, global warming...no more.

I find myself amazed and terrified with the power of the Press. Adam McKay said it well in the Huffington Post:

We're coming off the worst eight years in our country's history. Six of those eight years the Congress, White House and even the Supreme Court were controlled by the Republicans and the last two years the R's have filibustered like tantrum throwing 4-year-olds, yet we're going to elect a Republican who voted with that leadership 90% of the time and a former sportscaster who wants to teach Adam and Eve as science? That's not odd as a difference of opinion, that's logically and mathematically queer.
....

So what is this house advantage the Republicans have? It's the press. There is no more fourth estate. Wait, hold on...I'm not going down some esoteric path with theories on the deregulation of the media and corporate bias and CNN versus Fox...I mean it: there is no more functioning press in this country. And without a real press the corporate and religious Republicans can lie all they want and get away with it. And that's the 51% advantage.

Think this is some opinion being wryly posited to titillate other bloggers and inspire dialogue with Tucker Carlson or Gore Vidal? Fuck that. Four corporations own all the TV channels. All of them. If they don't get ratings they get canceled or fired. All news is about sex, blame and anger, and fear. Exposing lies about amounts of money taken from lobbyists and votes cast for the agenda of the last eight years does not rate. The end.

...
Obama and Biden should also create a "master sound bite sentence" and repeat it hundreds of times. It should be so true that even the corporations can't screw with it when it makes the airwaves. Here's my attempt: "Katrina, four dollar gas, a trillion dollar war, rising unemployment, deregulated housing market, global warming...no more."

Yesterday, I got a call from the Republican Party. I gave the poor lady an earful. I told her that I'd seen evidence that 9/11 was an inside job, and that Bush and Cheney were complicit in the murder of thousands of Americans. I told her that the corruption at the top levels of her party was so thick, they should be tried for treason and murder. I told her that the only Republican I would ever consider voting for was Ron Paul. She thought for a hard time, asked me if I was serious about 9/11, and then told me that the corruption really bothered her too, and that she wished Paul had the nomination over McCain as well.

"I suppose I should just skip the 4th and 5th questions, then," she said "that's the part where I ask you if you'd be willing to donate time or money to the Republican party..."

I told her the only way they'd get my support is if McCain publicly pledged to press criminal charges against Bush. Then I talked her ear off about 3rd Parties - focusing on Bob Barr since he's the most likely vote for a former Republican. I pointed out that her multiple choice options on her poll were intentionally limiting people from voting for what they really want, and that there's a lot more options than just McCain, Obama and Undecided.

She got kinda emotional during parts of the conversation - really choked up when I mentioned 9/11 being an inside job. Makes me wonder if that was the last phone call she made on behalf of McCain.

By the way, here's a point-by-point dissection of how to smear an opponent, the Fox way...

A big warm thank you to Daved for pointing me at that video.

One more quote from McKay:

This race should be about whether the Republican Party is going to be dismantled or not after the borderline treason of the past eight years.

I think he went one word too far: "borderline" had no place in that sentence.

In summation:
"Katrina, four dollar gas, a trillion dollar war, rising unemployment, deregulated housing market, global warming...no more!"
I'm putting it in my forum sigs today.

And while I hate to interject into someone's blog post, this is Jake with a video addition. I saw it this morning and had considered sharing, but had other things to get done at that time.

Here is Dan Rather, network news icon, talking about the same media problem. As he puts it, instead of news media owners who shield their reporters and tell those in power that the buck stops here... 'The News Stops With Making Bucks'.



Rolfe, feel free to remove this if you don't want it here.

No, I'm quite happy with your addition. Dan Rather definitely knows what he's talking about. Best line of that video: "American journalism is in need of a spine transplant."