By GottaLaff
This will be a lighter posting day. Still struggling with a few computer issues.
That said, here's your ClusterFox of the day:
"Three of the top five choices in the Southern Republican Leadership Conference's recent straw poll on favorite 2012 presidential candidates had more than one thing in common: They're all on the Fox News Channel payroll," the AP reports.
By GottaLaff
I don't know if it was due to feeling weakened and vulnerable from a week of having the flu, or a legitimate emotional response to what has occurred over the past few weeks, but at 7:30 this morning, I broke down in tears. I sobbed. It was way too early in the day to feel much of anything, let alone an avalanche of despair. But I did.
Or was I mourning? With each L.A. Times page that I turned, my eyes filled with more tears, no matter how hard I tried to talk myself out of them.
With each report on the Supreme Court's decision, with every sentence about the current Prop 8 court battle, with every photo of the devastation of Haiti, with every twist and turn in the health care "debate", with each postmortem of the uncanny Coakley loss to a former centerfold whose policy positions frustrate me no end, with every military death, with each inept, biased piece of news reporting, I found myself succumbing to tears that I tried like crazy to resist.
My sons are facing a world of things I can't even fathom. Where I had hopes, I now have anxiety. Where I thought the world would be safer for them, I see growing dangers that I thought would dissipate over time, not intensify. Health care hurdles, hatred, financial roadblocks, discrimination, wars, political obstruction, you name it.
Who do they turn to for justice? How can fairness be achieved? What happened to judicial objectivity? Who can provide that for them? Certainly not the highest court in the land.
Five people have changed my kids' futures. Five people have made voting seem nearly meaningless. Five people who should be standing up for fairness and democracy have instead slammed a whole lot of doors in my children's faces. And mine. And yours.
And so I cried. I cried because I, along with so many of you, continue to fight, and continue to lose to irrationality. We do what we can, both individually and collectively. Speaking for myself, I donate, I tweet, I post, I Facebook, I try to get a message out, I vote, I scream, I explain, I quip. But it hasn't been enough.
I feel smaller than I've ever felt, more insignificant even though I'm reaching thousands on a daily basis. I fight as hard as I can, and give as much as I can give, but this latest body blow from SCOTUS really hurt.
And so today I finally broke down and cried.
However...
As impotent as I feel, and I suspect many of you are feeling the same way, I have no intention of giving up. None.
I'll continue to donate, tweet, post, Facebook, vote, scream, explain, quip. But just like you, I need to vent sometimes in order to unload the negative and start all over again with the positive.
I hope you understand, I'm not whining. I'm not surrendering. I'm not walking away. I haven't lost my resolve. I'm simply sharing the overwhelming rush of emotion I had this morning, because if I didn't, my head would explode.
And having done that, it's time to start over, breathe, and do everything in my power to make the world better for my kids, myself, and anyone who wants to join me.
By GottaLaff
Paddy and I were just discussing the glut of Republican talking heads v. the m.i.a. Democratic pundits/representatives, as was Ady in Comments. No surprise here except, oops,the Democrats hold the majority in both houses of Congress and have a Democratic president in the White House.
As Paddy and I recalled, when Bush was in office, it was all Republicans all the time. We both assumed that now that a Democrat is in office, we'd be better represented on the Tee Vee Machine.
Silly us:
Even though President Obama and his team are in control of the executive branch and Democrats are in the majority in Congress, the cable networks are still turning more often to Republicans and allowing them to set the agenda on major issues, most recently on the debate over the economic recovery package. [...]The media have been aiding their efforts. In a new analysis, ThinkProgress has found that the five cable news networks — CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, Fox Business and CNBC — have hosted more Republican lawmakers to discuss the plan than Democrats by a 2 to 1 ratio this week:
So much for fair and balanced.In total, from 6 AM on Monday to 4 PM on Wednesday, the networks have hosted Republican lawmakers 51 times and Democratic lawmakers only 24 times. Surprisingly, Fox News came the closest to offering balance, hosting 8 Republicans and 6 Democrats. CNN had only one Democrat compared to 7 Republicans. [...]
As ThinkProgress reported on Monday, the cable networks, the Sunday shows and the network newscasts promoted a controversial CBO non-report 81 times before the actual CBO analysis of the stimulus plan was released.
By GottaLaff
Last night I watched CNN for about 45 minutes or so, before switching to a DVR recording. The entire broadcast consisted of clips of IWRC* Palin and Gramm-pa McCain blasting Obama. There was nary a glimpse of Barack or Biden.
Today I watched MSNBC for roughly 40 minutes. Again, it was all Gramm-pa/IWRC, all the time.
Finally, there was a snippet (a short one) of Obama's interview with Rachel Maddow. I'm guessing that was, at least in part, self-serving.
Just to balance the equation, here is a letter from today's L.A. Times:
Re “Tug of war in the GOP,” Oct. 28Just doing my itty bitty part to bring "fair and balanced" back.
I've been a Republican all my life, but with evangelical zealots virtually taking over the party, I have no choice this time but to cut off my nose to spite my face and vote for Barack Obama.
Religion, especially when it embraces the radical viewpoints of Sarah Palin, belongs in church, not in politics. Why should abortion rights, stem cell research, gay marriage and illegal immigration be more significant matters than the economy, the Iraq war and foreign relations?
I'll still hold my nose when Sen. Barbara Boxer rants and raves, but I'll do it gladly -- as long as my vote against the Republicans and their dangerous religious followers helps to someday reshape the fallen party.
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