Why watching network news is so pointless. Thanks Steve Bennen of The Washington Monthly for sharing this.
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Boeing Wants You Dead
55 minutes ago
Looking at the social and political world today through my sociological and artistic imagination
"There are little folds of skin all over the place, you can hardly find it. The little hole underneath is so terribly small that I simply can’t imagine how a man can get in there, let alone how a whole baby can get out!"Seriously. Have these people actually read their Old Testament? Or when they say The Bible, do they mean the modern versions of the New Testament with Jesus's words printed in red? One of the most sexually explicit books around is The Bible if anyone took the time to read it.
[...]
Contessa Brewer: So my partner Melissa, Senator Greg, is really asking for specifics. If you don't believe that we should have a 1.3 trillion dollar budget, which programs are you willing to cut. Are you willing to tell schools, no money for you? And do you side then with those who say, when you look back at the great depression, economists say that we landed back into real problems in 1937 when people got onto cutting the deficit and a lot of government spending was pulled back before it should have been?
Gregg: Well first off, nobody is saying no money for schools. What an absurd statement to make. What a dishonest statement to make. On its face you are being fundamentally dishonest when you make that type of statement.
Brewer: We're just asking which programs you would cut
Francis: tell us what to cut...
[...]
Brewer: Senator, you're going to be asked to cut certain programs if you're on the Senate banking committee. Which programs would you want to cut?
Gregg: Oh I have no problems telling you. I would freeze discretionary spending. A real freeze, not a freeze plus inflation. I would eliminate the TARP money which would get us close to 400 billion dollars. I would end the stimulus spending effective in June of this year, if not sooner, so we can recover all the money that's going to be spent outside the window of this recession and we shouldn't be spending it adding it to the debt. I would take a major effort to try to reform our entitlement programs. In fact we had a major vote yesterday to try to do that under a bill which I've proposed with Senator Conrad.
So I've made some very specific proposals and I'm willing to stand by them. The problem is that this administration's view of governance is that economic prosperity is created by growing the government dramatically and then it gets misrepresented by people like yourself who are saying that if you do any of this stuff you are going to end up not funding education. That statement alone is the most irresponsible statement I've heard probably in a month.
Brewer: it wasn't a statement, it was a question...
Gregg: And there are a lot of irresponsible statements made by reporters and that was the most irresponsible I've heard.
Francis: Senator, with respect, that's not what she said, she was asking you what you would like to cut ..
Gregg: That's exactly what she said! Go back and read your transcript.
Brewer: thank you for your time, Senator ...
Gregg: You can't be duplicitous about this! You can't make a representation and then claim you didn't make it. You've got to have some integrity on your side of this camera too.
Francis: She asked you what you would like to cut, she asked you if you would cut schools. You said no.
Gregg: You're suggesting we should have a zero in education. Well of course, nobody's suggesting that. Nobody's even implying that. But in your introduction to me you said that. That education funding would be cut. Well, education funding isn't going to be cut.
Brewer: Well Senator, I'm sorry for any communication problems that we've had, but as always, we appreciate your time ...
"...we’ve excluded lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions."But he completely lost me when he suggested a partial freeze on government spending. Everyone knows that you do not freeze spending during a recession and saying that:
"...I know that some in my own party will argue that we cannot address the deficit or freeze government spending when so many are still hurting. I agree, which is why this freeze will not take effect until next year, when the economy is stronger. "I'm sorry, I would love to think that the economy will be strong enough in one year to handle addressing the deficit, but I do not think it will.
"They [Republicans] either work with us or they have to pay the price for working against us."WTF? What price? Later in the same interview, as reported by Ezra Klein at the Washington Post, he said that:
"If they want to block everything, they will be held to account."He also said that:
"We are going to very visibly seek their support moving forward, and we will shine a bright light on them when they don't."
"...Look, I am not interested in punishing banks, I’m interested in protecting our economy. A strong, healthy financial market makes it possible for businesses to access credit and create new jobs. It channels the savings of families into investments that raise incomes. But that can only happen if we guard against the same recklessness that nearly brought down our entire economy."
"...I am not interested in re-litigating the past. I know that all of us love this country. All of us are committed to its defense. So let’s put aside the schoolyard taunts about who is tough. Let’s reject the false choice between protecting our people and upholding our values. Let’s leave behind the fear and division, and do what it takes to defend our nation and forge a more hopeful future – for America and the world."Why on earth would anyone care about paying the price, being held to account, or having a bright light shone on them? Torture and other war crimes, assassination squads, unlawful detainment, unlawful wiretapping, kidnapping, and on and on and no one has been held to account. We are to move forward.
"...only 26% of Americans could correctly identify 60 votes as the numbers needed to break a filibuster. Another 25% thought 51 votes was sufficient, and 37% had no idea.
Similarly, 39% of Americans have no idea how many Republicans voted for health-care reform. Only 32% know that zero Republicans voted for health-care reform, at least in the Senate. For that matter, only 39% of Americans know who Harry Reid is."If most of the country has no idea or interest who is responsible for what is going on and sees only who is currently in office, then the Republican Party has no incentive to work with the President and in fact, has every reason to continue obstructing his efforts and ensuring that the country continues on a downward spiral not only until the mid-terms, but through 2012 as well.
"A memo from the district's assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction this week called the Merriam-Webster dictionary a respected resource but noted district officials found that "a number of referenced words are age-inappropriate."Evidently a committee is being formed to review the situation and:
"determine the extent to which the challenged material supports curriculum, the educational appropriateness of the material and its suitability to the age level of the students," according to school district policy."A number of years ago, the State of Washington introduced a new, and mandatory, AIDS curriculum at the middle-school level. Parents could waive the participation of their children, but in order to do so, the parent/s were required to review the materials first. Being new in town and also eager to see how the subject was to be handled, I attended the parent session. It was conducted just as it would be taught to our children and I thought, very well done. After the class, we were divided into small discussion groups and I had my first experience of small-town small-mindedness and bigotry. This is not to say that this mind-set would not have existed in the big city from which we had come, but if so, I had not yet experienced it directly.
"On Morning Joe just now, Tom Brokaw was complaining that Americans don't know what's in the healthcare reform bill. Scarborough laughing the background. As if this is the fault of the Democrats and the president.Normally I just excerpt, but this is short, to the point, and I couldn't say it any better.
You know what, Mr. Brokaw? This is your fault, sir. You and your colleagues.
The television news media has a responsibility to explain policy and, specifically, this legislation to the American people, and the television news media has failed in lieu of the Letterman and Tiger Woods underpants party. The television news media has failed in lieu of manufacturing "smackdown" drama. The television news media has failed on so many levels to deliver the readily available details of healthcare reform to the American viewing public.
So when you guys sit around and bullshit about how people don't know anything about policy, don't blame anyone but yourselves."
"Not many writers would have the courage to use a tragic event like a 50,000-fatality earthquake to volubly address the problem of nonwhite laziness and why it sometimes makes natural disasters seem timely, but then again, David Brooks isn’t just any writer."
"...Obama threw a party that cost $50 million more than he's sending to Haiti. Yup! He spent $150 million on his Inaugural Ball. We also learned the following:
Top U.S. Firms are on pace to award $148.85 Billion in payouts for 2009, according to a Wall Street Journal Study. Billions with a B!
You can also buy a Beverly Hills mansion, a yacht, or a painting for more than the relatively meager sum Obama is donating. Obviously, we cannot rely on this government to do the right thing by Haitians in their hour of need. It never has."
"I also believe this is dividing the nation…to where the nation sees him react so rapidly on Haiti and yet he couldn’t react rapidly on Afghanistan. He couldn’t react rapidly on Ft. Hood. He couldn’t react rapidly on our own airplanes with an underwear bomber…it doesn’t make sense. [...] Three different events and Haiti is the only one. I think personally that it deepens the divide to see him react this rapidly to Haiti."Let's see. Afghanistan. Obama did exactly what he said during his campaign that he was going to do. He took time to deliberate his options and weigh the ramifications of the various courses of action presented to him. The GOPhers got upset because 1) Obama is a Democrat, 2) he did not instantly do what the generals wanted, and 3) he considered the costs of what was being asked of him. Unlike Bush, Obama actually include war spending in his budget which is why his budget figures looked so bad. General McCrystal verged on insubordination by releasing a confidential report as a way to force Obama to give him what he wanted, but what the GOPhers forget, is that Obama has to think about 2 wars, recruitment, other hot spots in the world, and all the other ways the military is used (disaster relief anyone?). McCrystal is concerned only with Afghanistan. That was made abundantly clear.
"Republicans used to be the daddy party – the party of responsibility, of rules, of the hard truths of life. Yet these two pre-eminently visible spokespersons for conservatism and Republicanism talked for a full hour about their … feelings. They talked about trust and betrayal, they talked about wounds and hurt, they talked about spirituality and even relationships. But they pronounced scarcely a word about any external reality: war, recession, the long-term prospects for the country. It was like a scene from a Marin County fern bar in 1977."
"Alain Le Roy, the U.N. peacekeeping chief in New York, said late Tuesday that the headquarters of the 9,000-member Haiti peacekeeping mission and other U.N. installations were seriously damaged."
"Contacts with the U.N. on the ground have been severely hampered," Le Roy said in a statement, adding: "For the moment, a large number of personnel remain unaccounted for."
"Felix Augustin, Haiti's consul general in New York, said a portion of the National Palace had disintegrated."
"These figures are appalling," said Pat Nolan, president of Justice Fellowship, a group that advocates for prison reform. "We stripped a prisoner of their ability to defend themselves. They can't control where they go; they can't control whether the shower has a light bulb in it."
"Nearly seven years ago, Congress passed a law designed to reduce prison rape, establishing a commission to develop standards for state and federal prison leaders. Lawmakers said funding could be cut for prisons that failed to comply with the guidelines."
Hello? Did I miss something? When was President Bush in the military? Vice-President Cheney? Secretary Rice? Oh right. Bush was in the National Guard for a few minutes, although the records show that he was absent more often than not and received his plum spot because of his last name rather than ability. Cheney managed five deferments and his obvious fears for his personal safety were evident in that and his behavior on 9/11 and thereafter. Republicans are very, very good at sending poor young men into combat and their own to officers' training school where they can avoid danger. Democrats who served honorably and earn medals (Kerry?) are smeared.
"Well, it's always politically difficult for Democrats when they are dealing with an issue like terrorism. It remained the Republican's only winning issue through most of President Bush's second term, and it's a particular problem for a Democrat who hasn't served in the military. But the policy problem is that it takes up a great deal of the administration's time, and will from here on out - particularly when the Senate Intelligence Committee starts hearings in a couple of weeks." [h/t Crooks and Liars]