04.22.08
Who is afraid of the big black patriot?
Posted in Politics, Race, sex tagged ABC, ABC Debate, Arabs, Barack Obama, Bullshit, CNN, Democrats, Dick Cheney, Fox News, George Stephanopoulos, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Mainstream media, Martin Luther King Jr, MSNBC, Patriot, Patriotism, Racism, Republicans, Sexism, Voters at 3:57 am by soulful07
After watching that last ABC debate err… talk err… mud wrestling extravaganza “about” politics, I wanted to cling to my gun, but since I don’t have one and the bible was out of reach I’ll just use this computer to show how “bitter” I am. I’ve been sitting on these thoughts for a minute now, I didn’t think it needed to be stated because it was so obvious but apparently I was wrooooong so here goes. The theme building up lately has been to paint Barack as unpatriotic, the republicans have been working this angle for literally years now. I saw it coming a mile away but I didn’t really expect democrats to hop on board this idea. I could go on and on about how blatantly racist it is that the black guy with the Arab sounding name is the only person who is getting beat over the head with a flag, even though the other two people probably have alot more to answer for. And I could go on and on about how ridiculous it is that Barack Obama is the only person who (it seems) has to answer for what every black guy with a microphone thinks or says like he is their publicist. Or I could go on and on about how stupid it is that he is the only person who (it seems) has to answer for everybody he ever worked with, met on the subway, sat down next to at a diner, opened a door for, you catch my drift. The fact that these superb scientific benchmarks are only “applicable” to him has restored all my faith if in 4th estate better known as main stream media. And I appreciate every waking hour they have devoted to this in depth investigative research that has been used for years to determine who the next commander in chief will be. If you detected the slightest bit of sarcasm please continue reading on, if you didn’t I would suggest you go back to your elementary school and punch every teacher in the face for failing you.
I’ve been hearing this dog whistle for a while now and it’s starting to hurt my ears. What is a patriot? Does anybody even know anymore? It seems everybody and their gun toting grandmother wants their president to be one, but could anybody spot one if it fell out of the sky and landed on your head? It’s a catch phrase that has won and lost many an election, but it reminds me of a funny line from this movie called The Princess Bride. In the movie Vizzini kept uttering the word “inconceivable” and finally Inigo blurted out “you keep saying that word, but I don’t think it means what you think it does”. Mainstream Media, Republicans, Voters, Politicians, you keep saying “patriot” but I do not think it means what you think it does.
Is Dick Cheney a patriot, he thought it was so important to protect America that he fought tooth and nail to remain home from the Vietnam war 5 times. Is George Bush Jr a patriot, he stood up for telecommunication companies to spy on Americans without oversight and retroactive immunity. Is John McCain a patriot, he believed that Americans have had too many vacations Martin Luther King Day was just another excuse for liberals to have another long weekend, he has also stood out against for torture of everybody not American. Is Bill O’Reilly a patriot he fights everyday (on tv) for the rich white man minority, and has even served tours of duty in the war on Christmas. Is Sean Hanity, Ann Coulter, and the rest of the talking heads patriots for working overtime without regard for their sanity to insert republican talking points in the Democratic discourse.
It’s sad that in 2008 patriotism isn’t so much standing up for the principles of your country (like the constitution) on which it was founded that takes too much work. Patriotism in 2008 means wearing a flag made in China dripping with lead paint made by child factory workers. Nothing says I’m a patriot like waving a flag made in a different country which violates human rights. Obama’s problem isn’t that he is “not patriotic” enough, his problem is that he hasn’t exploited his patriotism into fancy photo ops during tours of flag factories. Obama’s bus isn’t named the Gettysburg straight talk eagle patriot flag Express, he doesn’t have a flag tattoo, his wife had the audacity (to coin a phrase) of being disappointed in anything about America, how dare she in this free country. The Obama name isn’t patriotic enough, he doesn’t have a dog, and a point 5 kid. Obama’s problem doesn’t stop there, he also had the nerve to assume that working with community organizers instead of working with a company shipping jobs overseas, crushing unions and destroying communities was the way to go.
Obama’s naivety is going to be a problem in November when is he going to learn, if you can’t bowl you won’t be able to solve the housing crisis. No war has ever been fought or won by anybody not wearing a flag pin (everybody knows it provides magic powers). Saying you are praying for me in this economic crisis is more important that actually making a plan and doing anything about it.
REAL Patriots jerks, clowns, jackasses for years have used flags, symbols, and catch praises to let us people know that words are more important than actions.
03.24.08
News you can’t use, what happened to the Mainstream media
Posted in 2008 Election, Barack Obama, CNN, Democrats, Fox News, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Politics, Race, Republicans, Technology, Wolf Blitzer tagged Barack Obama, CNBC, CNN, Dan Rather, FOX, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Mainstream media, MSNBC, New York Times, Rev Wright, Ted Koppel, The Washington Post, The Wire at 5:13 pm by soulful07
I guess the best thing to do is ask the question… what happened to journalist? Deep inside this paradox lies the trillion dollar Iraq war, Lacy Peterson question. What happened to journalistic integrity? And i guess a even bigger question is when did these institutions of “facts” become institutions of “opinion”? I guess what I am asking is, when did we replace these guys


With these guys?


I, like a small minority of free thinkers (I guess you can call it that) have long since unplugged from the matrix if you will. No not because of some vast grand conspiracy, no not at all, I got out while the getting was good, because I simply couldn’t take it anymore. It’s hard to notice the drivel passed around as news until you take a step back and watch all the news channels at once. The current state of the mainstream media could be equated down to a group of people in a crowded room yelling FIRE!!! After the panic these same people walk around and interview people about how they feel about being scared and/or confused.
My favourite thing about the news is how news anchors and reporters protray themselves as being shocked at the reactions of people they have spent a whole week stirring up. Actually I have another analogy try this on for size, today’s mainstream media is like a child with a large magnifying glass focusing the suns ray onto an ant hill. If done effectively it could provide light to the busy ants working below but instead it is used to burn a few ants in hopes of starting a frenzy. Too harsh you say… possibly, or maybe it’s not harsh enough. I think the most discouraging thing about watching 24 hour news media outlets is the narrative. It is hard to grasp at first, but when you flip through all the news shows at the same time, you begin to see news isn’t simply reported as just the facts, news has become mere sound bites and ideas tossed through your TV screen. The “narrative leads” is another way of looking at it. As you change channels it is fairly easy to see the catch phrase of the day. How is it that four 24 hour news channels with its hundreds of reporters, news anchors, and editors all decided on one phrase for the whole day. The odds of that are astounding… or not, the cynic in me thinks that somebody is copying off of somebody else’s work. And as such, are no longer “reporting” but “repeating”. Whatever happened to the crack team of investigators, whatever happened having different ideas, and interpretations of events?

Never has it become more obvious then this last week’s shit storm called the “Rev Wright controversy”. While I don’t agree with some of his views it took me 2 minutes of top notch investigating to discover that his most controversial of statements weren’t actually his words, but a quotation from a US ambassador. It was like celestial choirs were singing and the sky opened up and I believe my quote at the time was “wtf”. The sad realization sank in, news isn’t reported it is created. I refuse to believe that there is a team of monkeys wearing hats with the words press on it doing research for all 500 newspapers, magazines, and television shows. Somebody somewhere must have been said to someone hey buddy go research Obama’s crazy pastor, and this smart investigative fellow/lady must have, after doing the long strenuous 2 minutes of leg work I did, discovered this gaffe and told their supervising editors. Surely somewhere between all these thousands of people thrust with the most important task of reporting the news would have a said maybe we should provide some context or maybe even investigate the other candidates? No? Yeah I know but then THAT would have been news.
After the slight air of frustration had subsided I thought about doing a special comment like Keith Olbermann one of the few people in the media who is even bothering to do any research (or their job). I was and still am stuck by an article written by one of the creators of the TV show The Wire. He spoke about the newspaper in the show and one of the most shocking things about its portrayal. He goes on to say that the newspaper had missed or overlooked every important story of the day. My biggest fear isn’t so much that today’s media has missed, or done a poor job reporting every important news story of the day, no my biggest fear is that it was done on purpose for ratings.