Bias? What Bias?
Found over at Mostly Cajun:
See tomorrow’s Quote of the Day.
Month: November 2008
What I’ve Been Saying for Over Five YEARS
What I’ve Been Saying for Over Five YEARS
What makes me angriest: that there is no outcry against election fraud; that the media have become pure political instruments; that our “educational system” has produced an ignorant electorate.
—
Never before has the ignorance of the electorate been so intensely cultivated as in this election. We all know that major publications and broadcasters have simply refused to report news, and what they did report was spun politically. And among the stories they are not reporting, is the massive electoral fraud, from the “where is all that money coming from?” to the “how dare state officials refuse to verify the identity of voters?” one, to the refusal to report, day by day, on Joe Biden’s scandalously inept, incompetent, and often meretricious campaign. Instead, they obsess on every real and imagined misstatement by Sarah Palin, who for me has been the most attractive of the four candidates.
An ignorant electorate is a real threat to good government, and the whole point of the First Amendment is to create a wide-open national debate from which the truth might emerge. The current behavior of the media–now totally politicized–makes it very hard to get to the truth. They censor themselves, just as our Italian friends confessed they were doing to themselves thirty years ago.
Rush today played some clips from a conversation about Obama between Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw. Each said repeatedly “we really don’t know much about him.” Well, duh, whose fault is that, y’all? Yours. You haven’t done your job.
That’s from Faster, Please! in a piece entitled Election Thoughts. RTWT.
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
The problem is which paragraph to choose? I settled on this one:
All across the world, Mr. Obama’s election has helped mend America’s tattered image as a racist, violent cowboy, willing to retaliate with bombs at the slightest provocation. The huge outpouring of international support following the election shows that America can still win new friendships while rebuilding its old ones, and provides Mr. Obama with unprecedented diplomatic leverage over our remaining enemies. When Russian tanks start pouring into eastern Europe and Iranian missiles begin raining down on Jerusalem, their leaders will know they will be facing a man who not only conquered America’s racial divide but the hearts of the entire Cannes film community. And those Al Qaeda terrorists plotting a dirty nuke or chemical attack on San Francisco face a stark new reality: while they may no longer need to worry about US Marines, they are looking down the barrel of a strongly worded diplomatic condemnation by a Europe fully united in their deep sympathy for surviving Americans. – Iowahawk: Election Analysis: America Can Take Pride In This Historic, Inspirational Disaster
Tip of the hat to reader DJ for the pointer.
Somebody’s going to offer Iowahawk a lot of money to write comedy for a living, I think.
Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig
Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig
Man, that four-hour trip home from the jobsite sucks. Blogging will probably be light this weekend. Like everyone else, I’m burned the hell out on politics. I think I want to kick back and read some brain-candy.
Quote of the Day
Quote of the Day
This little corner of America did NOT provide a majority vote to elect Barack Hussein Obama. This state didn’t. The shadow that was a great nation did.
I am NOT a happy person this morning. – Mostly Cajun, Yesterday
Cuts to the Quick, Doesn’t He?
Cuts to the Quick, Doesn’t He?
Michael Ramirez pens another Pulitzer-worthy effort:
As I’ve said before, “I don’t care who you are, that’s funny right there!”
I Reiterate . . .
I Reiterate . . .
Steven Den Beste in his post on the election, not the end of the world wrote, among other things:
A lot of bad things are going to happen during this term. But I don’t think that this is an irreversible catastrophe for the union. I’ve lived long enough to absorb this basic truth: the US is too large and too strong to destroy in just 4 years. Or even in 8. We survived 6 years of Nixon. We survived 4 years of Carter. We even survived 8 years of Clinton, God alone knows how.
The President of the United States is the most powerful political figure in the world, but as national executives go his powers are actually quite restricted. Obama will become President, but he won’t be dictator or king, let alone deity. He still has to work with the House and the Senate, and he still has to live within Constitutional restrictions, and with a judiciary that he mostly didn’t appoint.
The main reason this will be a “coming of age” moment is that now Obama and the Democrats have to put up or shut up. Obama got elected by making himself a blank slate, with vapid promises about “hope” and “change” — but now he actually has to do something. Now he has to reveal his true agenda. And with the Democrats also having a majority in both chambers of Congress, now the Democrats really have to lead. And they’re not going to do a very good job of it. It’s going to be amusing to watch.
And the people who fell for the demagoguery will learn an invaluable lesson.
Oh, the Democrats (will) try to blame failure on Republican filibusters, of which there will be many. But that’s always been a factor in our system, and many people believe it’s an important check on government excess. The tradition in the Senate is that it is supposed to be a buffer against transient political fads, and the filibuster is a major part of that.
If the Democrats go all in, and change the filibuster rule, then they’ll have truly seized the nettle with both hands and won’t have any excuses any longer. That’s why they won’t do it. It’s their last fig-leaf. But even with the filibuster rule in place, they’ll be stuck trying to deliver now on all the promises implied, or inferred, during this election. The Republicans can only filibuster on bills the Democrats have already proposed.
(My emphasis.)
As I wrote in The Nuclear Option back in May,
The title of this essay is “The Nuclear Option.” I named it that for a reason. John McCain has caught a lot of flak for preventing the implementation of “The Nuclear Option” with his Gang of 14 who negotiated the compromise that also resulted in Judge (Janice Rogers) Brown’s confirmation.
But he was right.
As we go into the 2008 elections, the Democrats will, once again, control the House and Senate – perhaps with significant majorities. No matter who ends up in the White House, the Senate Judiciary Committee will be run by Democrats, and any and all nominees will be vetted by them. If John McCain wins the White House, then “moderates” are the best we as a nation can expect to see confirmed, but if Obama or Hillary wins, then Republicans will be in precisely the same position the Democrats were in. Filibuster will be the Republican’s only arrow in their quiver.
What do you want to bet that “The Nuclear Option” will be brought up by the Democrats in that event?
At least that’s not a tool the Republicans generously handed them.
Thank whatever Diety you worship for that.
Awwww Crap!
Awwww Crap!
Michael Crichton has died. I didn’t even know he had cancer. One of the most eloquent voices against the abuse of and the politicization of science has been silenced. And it appears that his web page, where most of his speeches and essays are posted is getting hammered – I’m seeing a lot of “503 Error – Service Unavailable” messages.
I’ve read just about every book he’s written, and most if not all of his essays. The last book of his I read was Next, and it was one of the most disturbing novels I’ve ever read – especially since I know how thoroughly he researched his work. The man was a national treasure.
If you haven’t already seen it, I strongly recommend you go to this post from July and watch the 56 minute interview he gave to Charlie Rose after Next came out.
RIP, Michael. We need you, and we’re going to miss you. The Church of Global Warming will be ramping up their membership drive shortly.
Quote(s) of the Day
Quote(s) of the Day
From Billy Beck:
At the moment, I have two general things to say:
1) That was the capstone of twentieth century American politics. That catastrophe is complete now.
2) It was the most profoundly foolish thing that American voters have ever done. As a matter of justice, it might be interesting to see how many of them discover this fact in the next four or eight years. It won’t make any difference, however, to the price that comes with the lesson. This event will hobble Americans for whole generations. It is very much an open question to me whether anyone will learn anything in the wake of this. I am very much afraid that that capacity is on its way completely out of American civil life. I’m not kidding.
All bets are off.
ObamaNation
ObamaNation
Catastrophe defeated Disaster. Well, that answers one question – can a black man be elected President of the U.S.?
And another – no, there were apparently no “celebratory riots,” thankfully.
The Democrats now have at least 56 Senate seats – not 60 (also thankfully), but not far off. They may have as many as 256 House seats.
For that which The Change we are about to receive, may we be truly thankful . . .
Here’s hoping that Markadelphia isn’t wrong about everything.