ON THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION AND HURRICANE GUSTOF
The New Orleans hurricane was a god send for McCain. First and foremost, he didn’t have to face the embarrassment of the exceedingly unpopular Bush and Cheney speaking at his personal coronation. Second, he could pretend his party cared about the fate of the poor in the South. Third, he had an opportunity to allege the relatively paltry sums raised by volunteer giving through so-called faith based and other charities is all that is really needed. Fourth, thanks to the relative mildness of the precipitation the storm dropped, he could pretend that all problems with the levees, the Homeland Insecurity Department, FEMA, the rising ocean heights and global warming were somehow magically cured and would never occur again. Finally, he had an excuse to not have to show how dismal and unenthusiastic his crowds would be for his speeches in comparison to Obama.
ON HEARING OF JOURNALISTS AT THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION BEING ARRESTED
As an attorney and an officer of the court, I am appalled to watch on the national news that the police of any city would act so outrageously. Don’t your officers give an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution? What is the point of fighting terrorists if we become terrorists ourselves?
ON HEARING THE OPEN MIKE COMMENTS OF WSJ “JOURNALIST” PEGGY NOONAN AT THE REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
Nice spin, Ms. Noonan, but don’t assume that is a compliment. Frankly, your entire “explanation” strikes me as what you euphemistically refer to (when you are not on a live mike that is) nothing but a collection of “barnyard epithets.”
Why is it that self described journalists like Ms. Noonan are almost never punished by their employers for being unprofessional, condescending, cowardly, lazy, herd-like, stupid, consistently wrong or, more importantly, intellectually dishonest? Why are biased politicians like Karl Rove hired and given the misleading title of “reporter?”
Over the past two decades, the so-called Profession of Journalism has degenerated into a cacophony unworthy of any such designation. Journalists, thanks to arrogant, prima donna, self centered hacks dazzled by their perceived brilliance and assumed entitlement like Ms. Noonan and Mr. Rove, have become almost as distrusted as used car salesmen.
To be a true profession, the job requires strict ethics and standards which result in a loss of license to practice when the standards are violated. Unlike the medical, legal and accounting professions, that is certainly not true of journalism. That’s really sad because our nation desperately needs real journalists who are true professionals. So long as the field is dominated by the likes of Ms. Noonan and Mr. Rove though, that will never happen.
Thanks Ms. Noonan for continually letting us down and letting the politicians you are supposed to be watching know once again just how easily journalists can be manipulated and how dishonest they presently are.
COMMENT ON THE SUPPOSED MAVERICK LABEL AWARDED TO MCCAIN
When will the raucous flock of chattering parrots known as the Main Stream Media finally stop squawking that John McCain (or for that matter Gordon Smith here in Oregon) is a “Maverick”? You should not be allowed to bestow upon someone the usually helpful moniker of supposed Maverick if he slavishly votes the party line 90% or more of the time.
Ron Paul might deserve the title of Republican Maverick. And there are plenty among putative Democrats who are such. An example is Senator Lieberman, who not only was a featured speaker at the Republican Convention, but touted for the Republican VP spot (although technically he is probably more accurately described as someone flying under false colors like Caribbean pirates used to do as opposed to being a mere Maverick). McCain might have merited the title if he had actually picked a VP running mate like Lieberman who was not a daring to the conservative far right wing party base or if he had stuck by his beliefs from his younger years such as opposing the intermingling of church and state. Instead, all McCain’s choices for the last year have been the exact opposite of Maverick.
Republicans used to have a lot more Mavericks than Ron Paul. Teddy Roosevelt contesting Taft, Nelson Rockefeller contesting Goldwater and Tom McCall any time come to mind. Unfortunately, since the “ethnic cleansing” commenced in the early 80s by conservative zealots, any moderates have been long since scrubbed from the party.
In any event, neither McCain (nor Smith who is now pretending he is against the war) come even close to being genuine Mavericks no matter how many times lazy or incompetent reporters insist on repeating such misnomers.
COMMENT ON HEARING OBAMA IS THINKING ABOUT TRUSTING FOX NEWS TO BE FAIR
Obama ought to stay off the self styled Fox News. To use the words “Fox” and “News” in the same sentence is tantamount to an oxymoron. To call any of them journalists or reporters is to insult everyone who graduated from Journalism School. The BS Fox peddles demonstrates daily that it is really nothing more than the PR department for the Republican Party. There is no more chance of Ailes, O’Reilly, and the rest of the gang on that network being “fair and balanced” toward Democrats than there is for them to breath water. In fact, there is a better chance that Obama will walk on water than for Fox alleged News to be honest with viewers.
COMMENT ON LEARNING MRS. MCCAIN’S CONVENTION OUTFIT COST $300,000
Edwards was excoriated by almost all the talking heads on the Main Stream Media because he dared to have a $300 haircut. McCain’s wife wears a $300,000 outfit for one convention appearance and gets a pass from the pundits. Obama and his wife were excoriated for having a house worth more than a million. Although McCain and his wife have several houses worth more than a million, it is hardly mentioned in the MSM. Apparently, the difference is that Democrats, wealthy or not, believe the rich should pay a more fair share of taxes when the rich want to do expensive things like fighting unneeded wars and wrecking the environment, while the wealthier still McCain believes others, particularly the grandchildren should pay for those things. That is an important difference to the pundits, anchors and owners of MSM since they after all are very rich themselves and don’t want their personal share of running the country increased. Of course that cannot be mentioned when the MSM works to insure Democrats are not allowed to win.
ON SEEING THE HURRICANE DAMAGE TO GALVESTON AND HOUSTON
Some Christian Fundamentalists loudly speculated that Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment of New Orleans for being a sinful city. Does that mean the hurricanes smashing Texas are to punish Texans for inflicting Bush on America?
WONDERING AT THE LEAD IN THE POLLS BY REPUBLICANS DESPITE HEMORRHAGING MARKETS
The con men who brought us our disastrous financial meltdowns and recession are the same ones who want to peddle McCain/Palin. How many times will the public buy that wrecked car, new paint job or not?
UPON READING THE CURRENT FINANCIAL MELTDOWN WAS PRIMARILY TAKING FROM THE POOR
It is all part of the undeclared class warfare which has been going on for decades. First, the rich and very selfish thieves who already own 90% of this country’s wealth sought to steal by deception whatever little bit of money the poor had by taking it from them through a program of nasty morphing loans, false appraisals and other cheats.
Now that that pool of money has dried up, the only unstolen pool of money left is the US Treasury. The uber rich, through their purchase of Congress and the President, have been insuring that only the middle class had the burden paying taxes. All that the thieves needed to do was figure out an excuse to divert those treasury funds from other needed uses. The perversion and looting of the financial industry created the perfect reason.
Once the top one percent convert the middle class to lower class and insure there are no means to climb up again, the segregation process will be complete and the class war won for the rich.
ON HEARING PELOSI SUPPOSEDLY IS BALKING AT BAILOUT SCHEME
Two bits says the gutless Pelosi (who refuses to consider a much deserved impeachment of the President and an even more needed curtailment of the Iraq war) will bail on preventing an unrestricted bailout of the thieves who jeopardized our entire economy. Bet ya, the financial thieves responsibly will be allowed to dump their bad choices on the taxpayer, pocket the gold and be free to do it all again.
COMMENT ON READING THE PARTICULARS OF BUSH’S BAILOUT PLAN
Bet ya two-bits that 98% of the financial companies the Republican Treasury Secretary wants to bailout with the near Trillion of taxpayer funds are Republican owned, Republican CEOed or gave campaign contributions to Republicans. Do you still have two-bits left to bet?
