pleased as punch pedophilia is nuking GOP but embarrassed that

[yurbud]

this is what it took to turn the corner and sink them.

In South America, which is supposedly more backward than us, they chased out their governments for things like privatization and not getting fair royalties from corporations for their oil and other natural resources.

I doubt that most Americans know what privatization is, how much corporations give us for sucking the oil out of our ground or cutting down trees on public land, or are even aware that they pay anything for those.

Instead, we get our panties in a knot about people's sex lives, when you can and can't mention god, and whether you can smoke the weeds in your garden. We are arguing about which picture to hang in the living room while someone is knocking down our house with a wrecking ball.


I have a girl from South Africa in my class who says she normally likes to talk about politics, but she has to keep her mouth shut around most Americans because they are so ill-informed but simultaneously smug.

Obviously, this ignorance had to be cultivated and nurtured, but it still pisses me off.

[Redstone]

1. Any other country, there would have been blood in the streets in

November, 2000.

Your point is absolutely correct.

Redstone

[John Gauger]

2. The United States is renowned in Political Science circles

for its deference to orderly procedure. That means that no matter how bad the abuses, we always just sit and take it.

[yurbud]

13. definitely working against us with the corporate Elmer Gantrys at wheel

[nam78_two]

3. very well said/nt

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. In France, didn't they file criminal charges against the guy who knew

that the blood supply was tainted with HIV, but still allowed the bags to be used? Now think what's going to happen when we boot Bush out of office, and we're free to test our beef. What's going to happen if we find out that they knew that there might be problems with our beef supply & mad cow disease?

[MrModerate]

5. Sadly, prurient interests seem much more important . . .

to the American public than substantive issues like war crimes and election theft -- or at least to the media. See Clinton, William Jefferson.

I'm wondering if this isn't just the equivalent of a missing-white-girl feeding frenzy. The same breathless coverage all over the media map for something that, while disturbing, is hardly earth-shattering when compared to war, death, and destruction -- but much easier to flog on television.

I'd also be interested in knowing whether anyone outside the beltway, media headquarters, and political junkies really care very much.

[yurbud]

10. well, to contradict myself in a later reply, what subjects can you cover

in depth in a seven second sound bite?

The actual substance of issues is covered for a few seonds, then the MSM goes to either the horse race or gossip.

My all time favorite of this was when Ted Koppel was moderating the Democratic primary debate, and his question was, "If Governor Dean wins the election, do you think he could be elected president?"

Aside from being awkward for everybody but Howard Dean, it was as vapid as Britney spears on ether. Dennis Kucinich called him on it, and rattled off a list of real issues that they could have been talking about and essentially gave Koppel an ass whipping for what the mainstream media does every single day. The next day, ABC pulled their reporters from the Kucinich campaign.

When people do go to substance, they are either ridiculed and shouted down, or more often simply ignored.

I posted a couple of days ago that I just found out that Senate Democrats have been trying to get bills or amendments passed that would ensure the Iraqis had control of their oil and wouldn't be bound by any deals the Bushies force on them. That was an off-hand comment in a story on something else, but it's pretty central to the Iraqis themselves. And yet it didn't get any play in the MSM, and barely more than a footnote in the alternative media.

[bowens43]

6. They were sunk without this.

This is just the final nail in the coffin.

[yurbud]

9. someone wanted to make sure there wasn't ANY chance of them winning

It would be more than miraculous if the Democrats did this as the GOP shills claim--it's too ballsy.

[stillcool]

7. the american people or the american media?

why is it assumed that whatever the 'media' chooses to be outraged about correlates to the american people...at this late date? It serves to perpetuate the myth that americans don't care....and frankly, I'm getting tired of that particular broken record. I've been fortunate to have some time to read, and learn what exactly American government and businesses have been doing since WWII. My neighbors are not as fortunate. They have children, jobs, and daily needs to be filled before they can think about what to read. If they are fortunate enough to spend the time seeking news that's fit to print, they are then overwhelmed by the enormity of the problem. One such friend loves to talk to me about all this crap, but then she gets totally bummed out. I spread fear, almost as much as this administration, and that doesn't get the can kicked any further down the street. These people sit on school boards, are active in their communities, and are good people. Blaming them smacks of blaming the victim...how many times does that dead horse need to be kicked?

[yurbud]

8. It isn't exactly the same, but the public is still a ways from reality

although the media is divorced from it all tog--wait, breaking news! a dog has fallen down a well and confessed to killing John Benet Ramsey! We go now to our reporter in the field to get Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes reaction to the unfolding "puppy hole" crisis..."

[U4ikLefty]

11. Oh goodness....how I concur!!! n/t

[yurbud]

12. US: "800 years of civil rights gone? 100,000 Iraqis dead? YAWN...

...One garden variety perv who wasn't properly punished? AAAAAAHHH! OOOOOO! EEEEEEEE! MY HAIRS ON FIRE! SWEET JESUS!