Breitbart Readers Celebrate Death of Murtha

A sampling of responses to the death of Democratic Representative John Murtha at breitbart.com shows how low many in the far right have sunk:

This feeble old bastard was a traitor. Good riddance. It should’ve happened years ago.

FInally the theif will meet his maker, he was a traitor, liar, stole from Americans hard earned tax money…Good riddance to this democratic sludge!

Murtha was a piece of sh!t. He didn’t speak “for those in uniform.” Mostly he spoke against them. Just ask the Marines of Haditha he falsely accused of murder. May John Murtha rot in Hell.

WOW it is getting better every day.Maybe a few more Libs will see the darkness soon hopefully.Teddy you have company coming down there.

thank God for small favors… Kennedy & Murtha…. I just wish McAwful would join them.

time for this traitor to join teddy in hell ! , see you america haters there is a god.

Lord, thank You for receiving this POS into Your mercy.

WOW!!!! These Dems are dropping like flies! Good riddance to this traitor! I’m sure Murtha and Teddy Kennedy are roasting in hell like the pigs they were in this life!

This lying piece of liberal garbage is dead THANK GOD. That fat f*** ted kennedy and now this lying scum. More seats for the CONSERVATIVES (not weak spined republicans). More seats that people like SARAH PALIN will be taking from libtards that think they are untouchable in office. It’s being shown more and more that they are not. If these lying sacks of s*** have to die to vacate the seat so be it as long as they are gone. And I hope there is a god for their sake and they have to answer for all of their lies and all of the profits they made on human suffering while pretending to be the saviors of the poor. GOOD RIDDANCE you lying pile of crap. Enjoy your gay-sex parties with satan and teddy kennedy and saddam and … who’s going to be the next dead scumbag. Nazi pelosi or diane feinstein? A world without liberals is a better world.

He was a Communist foot soldier in Obama’s Fourth Reich movement. It’s good to see the herd is being thinned out! First Teddy and now Johnnie — Christmas just keeps coming.

His treatment and abandonment of US Military personnel was disgraceful and the act of a traitor! He provided comfort to the enemy. I hope he’s stuck in hell forever having to watch slideshows of the Kennedy’s family vacations!! Tell Lucifer we all said hi, and please reach out for more of your Socialist conspirators to join you.

This is shaping up to be a good year. The Incompetent in the White House has poll numbers dropping faster than Democrats politicians. Teddy – bye bye you blowhard limousine liberal, Murtha – kiss my ass and burn in hell for stealing our tax dollars for that airport and backstabbing the Marines. Hey Murtha – dont get to close to Teddy ‘Car Killer’ Drunkass, in Hell those flames get near him and that booze barrel will explode!

No goodbye for you scumbag! I hope Jesus turns the burners of hell a few degrees hotter for you.

One more stinking liberal gone out of the picture. Good riddance.

Good riddance to a total POS! No better than a Kennedy and anyone with a functioning brainstem knows the only good Kennedy is a dead one. The scumbags can’t die fast enough.

Thank You God for removing YET ANOTHER treasonous democrat from the planet and placing them in the eternal pit of fire…HELL. Good riddence tjhis Murtha was a shameless bast_rd…rotting in hell is exactly what he and all democrats deserve for selling us all out to their own power mad egos…rot in hell…

The vast majority of comments at breitbart.com are in this same vein. At freerepublic.com, hotair.com, and other conservative blogs, there are a few sickos, but more posters are offering condolences or measured criticism of Murtha.

Newsprism has seen similar reactions to the deaths of conservative politicians at sites like HuffingtonPost.com, where at least the moderators had the good sense to close comments.

Instead of taking that course, Breitbart.com’s moderator chose not to even post Newsprism’s criticism of the invective.

Mr. Murtha served his country with honor as a US Marine in Vietnam. Regardless of his political beliefs, he deserves our respect, and his family should be spared the disgraceful kind of hatred being vented at Breitbart.com.

Newsprism

Obama Budget Digs Debt and Deficit Holes Deeper (Next Stop: China)

The $3.8 trillion dollar federal budget unveiled yesterday includes a whopping $1.6 trillion dollar deficit for the upcoming fiscal year.

Younger Americans should be particularly outraged at the massive size of both this deficit and the national debt, which has now surpassed $12.3 trillion.

In order to fund this deficit spending, the Senate voted last week to raise the nation’s debt ceiling—the maximum amount of federal debt allowed by law—by $1.9 trillion. This will allow the national debt to climb to around $14.3 trillion.

Whatever happened to the good old days, when we could count our debts and deficits in billions?

Both national parties blame each other for the out-of-control spending that put us in this mess, and both parties are right; it took decades of substantial deficit spending dating back to the Reagan and Carter administrations to dig a fiscal hole this deep.

Democrats want massive social spending while Republicans want massive tax cuts. We can’t have both, yet that’s exactly what our two major parties have given us, both indulging themselves like petulant children unaware of the consequences of their actions.

The Bush administration managed to do both—it spent at an unprecedented rate while at the same time deeply cutting taxes. And now the Obama administration seems intent on outspending the Bush administration…a situation that many are now (belatedly) calling a serious threat to our national security.

If we keep digging at this rate, we’ll end up, as every schoolboy knows, in China.

How convenient. We can just drop our tax dollars right in that hole and send it straight to our largest creditor.

Newsprism

Obama’s State of the Union Address Channels His Inner Reagan, Sort Of

President Obama’s State of the Union address was Reaganesque: optimistic, humorous, frank, conciliatory without abandoning principles, and both tough-minded and fair-minded. It combined policy issues with spiritual ones.

The address began and ended with a common theme: what are the core values and beliefs that bind us together as Americans, that make this a nation both powerful and decent, that define the American spirit? And how can we get past our political divisions to create policies that reflect our decency, our spirit?

In terms of policy, the bulk of the speech addressed economic concerns. The president laid out an ambitious program of tax incentives, budget constraints, a partial spending freeze, jobs programs, and some limited spending programs, all aimed at creating jobs while reducing our deficits and our national debt. Congressional gridlock, he warned, is not an acceptable option. 

He called for policies that promote clean, efficient energy to make us once again the world’s leader in technology, and he made it clear that regardless of one’s opinions about global climate change, clean energy is a must.

He called for changes that will energize community colleges and make it easier for families to save and pay for their children’s educations.

He called for continuing the pursuit of health care reform, insisting that rising health care costs threaten the economic security of both individuals and businesses.

Most importantly, he called for a concerted effort to begin the long, hard process of reducing our budget deficits and our national debt.

The ends outlined in this ambitious agenda are commendable. However, the means to those ends weren’t made clear or specific enough.

Implicit in the president’s agenda is a belief in the ability of an activist government to unleash economic forces; overlooked is the fact that getting government out of the way of capital formation by lowering taxes and fostering competition in the private sector can unleash those forces with more speed and efficiency than even the best-intended of government activism can.

Mr. Obama did propose a series of policies aimed at invigorating small businesses, including using repaid TARP funds to fund small business loans and giving significant tax breaks to small businesses that hire new employees or give raises to current ones. But at the same time, he called for added fees on banks and for tax increases on the wealthy.

In short, while the president appears to have veered towards the center on economic policy and to have turned his focus to jobs, his agenda still increases the power and scope, if not the size, of the federal government.

If the State of the Union address was Reaganesque, the policies it proposed were anything but.

Where Mr. Obama really shined was in his attempt to cut through the partisanship and rancor that characterize so much of our political culture; both our discourse and our policymaking have turned the American people off. We’re losing faith in our institutions, he noted, including government, media, and (his favorite targets) the banks.

The president repeatedly pleaded with both Democrats and Republicans to work together to solve the nation’s problems. He asked Republicans to put forward more ideas on health care reform, for example, and to stop “just saying ‘No’.”

But obstructionism is sometimes warranted. Perhaps if the president wants a more bipartisan effort, he should scale back his ambitious agenda and let individuals and market forces do more of the heavy lifting rather than government.

He also had some harsh words for those in the media who seem intent on dividing the nation rather than solving its problems. Too many pundits, he said, “reduce serious debates down to silly arguments.”

Amen to that.

Like President Reagan, President Obama used the State of the Union address in part to try to heal some of our spiritual ills, to bind us together, and to foster not only unity, but optimism. Cynicism and selfishness are spiritual problems that legislation can’t touch. Partisans on both sides of the aisle should take that message to heart, as should the more shrill voices in the media.

But unlike President Reagan, President Obama sees government as the solution to our problems, when to most of us, government is just as often the cause of those problems.

If Mr. Obama truly wants to unite the nation, he could begin by crafting more policies that tap into the American spirit directly, and not through the medium of government.

“Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.” —Ronald Reagan

“All great change in America begins at the dinner table.” —Ronald Reagan

Newsprism

Keith Olbermann Sinks to the Bottom

One of the most vocal and vicious critics of the hot rhetoric of the far right is Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. His diatribes against Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck demonstrate a take-no-prisoners approach to political discourse.

But Olbermann is guilty of using rhetoric at least as partisan and incendiary as that of his three favorite targets. In many ways, Olbermann is worse than those he condemns.

The night before the election of Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts, for example, Olbermann accused Brown of supporting violence against women. The accusation was based solely on video from a campaign rally in which an audience member can be heard shouting that someone should stick something up the rectum of Democratic candidate Martha Coakley.

Brown then says, “We can do that,” but it’s not clear that he’s responding to the audience member. Brown’s campaign claims the candidate was addressing the crowd and referring to the broader Republican agenda rather than responding to the audience member. At any rate, a little rectal humor does not a misogynist make. To state unequivocally that Brown supports violence against women based on such flimsy evidence is irresponsible at best.

On that same program, Olbermann showed a video clip of Brown debating an Obama supporter. The Obama supporter notes that President Obama was born to a teenaged mother who was married at the time of the birth. Brown responds, “I don’t know about that.”

Based solely on this exchange, Olbermann accuses Brown of claiming that Obama was an illegitimate child. Brown did no such thing. “I don’t know” means, well, “I don’t know.”

To sum up his rant against Brown, Olbermann says this (video): “In short, in Scott Brown we have an irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against women…” (On the night of Brown’s election, a churlish Olbermann repeated the litany and pointedly added, “”sexist.”)

The “teabagging” insult is Olbermann’s favorite. Along with a number of MSNBC anchors and hosts, Olbermann has long been calling the Tea Party protesters “tea baggers.” Teabagging is a sexual act somewhere between (actually, directly between) fellatio and anilingus.

Can you imagine the outrage if FoxNews anchors and hosts started routinely calling leftist protesters “c***suckers” and “a** munchers”? (Even Senator Chuck Schumer has now used the obscene term in a campaign mailing, lowering the standards of the Senate down to the level of those of cable news.)

Finally, Olbermann has for years signed off his program by referring to George Bush’s infamous “Mission Accomplished” incident. Last night he ended his broadcast, ”That’s it for this, the 2456th day since the previous president claimed ‘Mission Accomplished’ in Iraq.”

While Newsprism agrees that the Mission Accomplished incident was ridiculous, how long does Olbermann intend to continue harping on it? 2456 days is quite a stretch.

The Becks and Limbaughs of the world had already dragged our political discourse into the toilet. Keith Olbermann has chosen to plop right in there with them.

If only there were some way to flush these ”gentlemen” once and for all.

Newsprism

Liberal Massachusetts Tells the President to Slow Down and Turn Right

Scott Brown’s victory in the special election held yesterday to fill Ted Kenedy’s old Senate seat comes at a pivotal moment in the presidency of Barack Obama.

In essence, the voters in liberal Massachusetts have told the Obama administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress, “Slow down, and turn right!” The perception is that Obama is leaving too much up to a leftist Congress, for instance on health care reform and cap and trade, and is spending way too much while expanding the size and scope of government.

Thoughtful conservative columnists have been coming to the same conclusion as the voters in Massachusetts, and they’ve reached some similar conclusions:

Peggy Noonan characterizes Obama as “disconnected” from the people, especially on health care reform and federal spending:

The people are here, and (Obama) is there. The popularity of his health-care plan is very low, at 35% support. Someone on television the other day noted it is as low as George Bush’s popularity ratings in 2008.

Yet—and this is the key part—the president does not seem to see or hear. He does not respond. He is not supple, able to hear reservations and see opposition and change tack. He has a grim determination to bull this thing through. He negotiates each day with Congress, not with the people. But the people hate Congress! Has he not noticed?

The people have come alive on the issue of spending—it’s too high, it threatens us! He spends more. Mr. Obama seems at best disconnected from this anxiety.

Charles Krauthammer believes that Obama overestimated the mandate handed to him in 2006 and 2008:

The health-care drive is the most important reason Obama has sunk to 46 percent. But this reflects something larger. In the end, what matters is not the persona but the agenda… to introduce a powerful social democratic stream into America’s deeply and historically individualist polity.

Perhaps Obama thought he’d been sent to the White House to do just that. If so, he vastly over-read his mandate. His own electoral success — twinned with handy victories and large majorities in both houses of Congress — was a referendum on his predecessor’s governance and the post-Lehman financial collapse. It was not an endorsement of European-style social democracy.

David Brooks has plenty of praise for Obama, but he thinks the president has tried to do too much, too soon: 

Driven by circumstances and self-confidence, the president has made himself the star performer in the national drama. He has been ubiquitous, appearing everywhere, trying to overhaul most sectors of national life: finance, health, energy, automobiles and transportation, housing, and education, among others….

The American people are not always right, but their basic sense of equilibrium is worthy of the profoundest respect. President Obama has shown himself to be a fine administrator, but he erred in trying to make himself the irreplaceable man in nearly ever sphere of public life. He erred in not sensing that even a pragmatic government could seem imperious and alarming.

If I were President Obama, I would spend the next year showing how government can serve a humble, helpful and supportive role to the central institutions of American life. Even in blue states like Massachusetts, voters want a government that is energetic but limited…

It’s a simple message: slow down, and turn right.

If the President and Congressional Democrats listen to that message, they may still bring about some fundamental changes, albeit on a smaller scale and with more input from independents and conservatives.

If they don’t listen, there will be many, many more Scott Browns rising up across the nation.

Newsprism

Limbaugh Discourages Donations to Haiti, Questions Obama’s Motives for Encouraging Donations

Newsprism has been monitoring the blogosphere today to guage reactions to the earthquake in Haiti. I’m happy to report that on the left and right, the predominant reaction has been to offer prayers and sympathy and to inform people where they can donate to relief efforts.

At wizbang.com and breitbart.com (scroll down to see comments), I’ve found some very offensive remarks and some inappropriate politicization, but nobody should judge these sites nor the conservative movement based on a few wingnuts. (In fact, it could well be that a misguided liberal troll or two is trying to discredit the right with these posts.)

The alleged leader of the conservative movement, however, has shown his true colors today in a way that should shock and disgust any true conservative, and certainly, any good Christian or thoughtful American.

On his radio program, Rush Limbaugh has not only chosen to politicize the earthquake, but he’s actually discouraging listeners from donating to relief efforts! (audio)

Limbaugh’s reasoning is chilling: First, he claims that “we” have already donated via income taxes…in other words, since our government is helping Haiti, we need do no more (other than complain about it.) Second, Limbaugh insists that such donations would be wasted anyhow:

There are people that have been trying to save Haiti just as we’re trying to save Africa. You just can’t keep throwing money at it because the dictatorships there just take it all…(and) you’re not creating a permanent system where people can provide for themselves.

Aside from conflating Africa and Haiti (a rather racist rhetorical move), Limbaugh ignores the fact that the charities involved are or will be working on the ground directly with the victims in a country whose government has been all but wiped out; no dictator will be able to pilfer significantly from donated funds. He also ignores the fact that relief is needed immediately without regard to the long-term systemic issues he brings up.

Just as unconscionable is Limbaugh’s suggestion that President Obama is using whitehouse.gov to solicit donations for earthquake relief in order to 1.) skim cash from some of those donations and 2.) develop a list of potential contributors from whom to solicit donations.

But all whitehouse.gov does is link directly to charities providing relief! It would be all but impossible for the president to steal from these charities—as if he’d even consider that—though the accusation, in addition to its racist overtones, surely gives us a glimpse into Limbaugh’s mentality.

This is not conservatism. It’s the most vile of partisan politics mixed with a disgraceful lack of human compassion.

Newsprism

Here are three lists of links to organizations providing relief in Haiti.

UPDATE: The White House responds to Limbaugh as reported in the Washington Post.

UPDATE: For a genuinely conservative response to this disaster, see the Christian Science Monitor

UPDATE: How ironic is this: the Haiti earthquake occurred on Limbaugh’s birthday…he turned 59 on Tuesday.

Haiti Earthquake Relief—Here’s How You Can Help

The earthquake in Haiti appears to have killed as many as hundreds of thousands of people; this may be the worst humanitarian disaster in our hemisphere in many, many decades.

To donate to relief efforts, please go here, here or here. These web pages provide links to various agencies and organizations working to help the survivors.

You can also help by forwarding these links widely:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/huffpost/20100113/cm_huffpost/421014 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,582902,00.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34835478/ns/world_news-haiti_earthquake/

Newsprism

2000-2009 The Decade of the Uh-0s

Looking back on the decade of the Uh-0s, Newsprism would just like to say, “00ps.”

Newsprism

America’s Debt Clock—Countdown to Mediocrity?

The US national debt has now surpassed $12 trillion (that’s $12,000,000,000,000.00.)

To watch our debt (along with dozens of related metrics) mount in real time, go to the non-partisan USDebtClock.org.

As if the raw numbers weren’t bad enough, we also have to deal with a wave of debt payments coming due, as well as the looming entitlement payments owed to soon-to-be-retiring baby boomers, in addition to the cost of funding two ongoing wars, on top of declining revenues, over and above massive interest payments approaching half a trillion dollars a year…well, you get the picture.

Paul Krugman may not be worried, but more and more Americans are asking the question: is the debt clock documenting our moral and economic decline?

Newsprism

Fool Me Twice, Shame on FoxNews

We’ve all heard it before: Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Well, twice in the past two weeks, FoxNews has run video of large crowds meant to illustrate the strength of support for two conservative causes. The first such incident occurred during the Hannity program, and the second during regular news coverage .

The first cause was a Washington, DC, anti-health care reform rally. The second was a Sarah Palin book signing. In both cases, FoxNews ran video footage of larger crowds…from other, better-attended rallies.

To its credit, FoxNews apologized for both mistakes and promised to take disciplinary action against those responsible.

But what would you think the second time a business shortchanged you? Would you assume there were two honest mistakes, both of which cost you money and made money for the business? Or would you take your business elsewhere?

FoxNews has become increasingly shrill and dishonest in its coverage of the Obama administration. The news function at the network is clearly being subordinated to the opinion function.

The tail is wagging the dog.

To be fair, FoxNews sees its mission as countering the liberal bias of the majority of broadcast and cable news outlets, a mission Newsprism applauds wholeheartedly.

But Newsprism believes FoxNews has gone beyond bias and into advocacy journalism, with certain hosts going well beyond that into propaganda and demagoguery. Glenn Beck, for example, has no regard for the truth or for meaningful political discourse.

Granted, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann is even worse, and the far-left blogosphere is full of wingnuts who make Beck look almost sane.

Being less obnoxious, less arrogant, or less partisan than Keith Olbermann, or less nutty than DemocraticUnderground, is nothing to be proud of.

Newsprism

 

Making Sense of Marijuana Laws

The Obama administration announced this week that the Justice Department will no longer aggressively prosecute medical marijuana users or dispensaries like those in California, where voters legalized use of the drug with a doctor’s prescription in 1996.

Under both the Clinton and Bush administrations, the Justice Department had continued to enforce the federal ban on marijuana despite referenda (reeferenda?) in 14 states legalizing its medicinal use.

The question is, do states have the right to override federal drug laws? Or does the federal government’s authority trump states’ rights? The courts have been adjudicating the issue since 1973, when the first case involving the “compassionate use” of the drug was filed.

Newsprism thinks this is an easy one: the Tenth Amendment to the US Constitution clearly states, “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

Another question that should be easy for most to answer is, should people whose suffering could be eased by marijuana be allowed to use it? This is an especially easy question to answer when other medications aren’t as effective as marijuana; for instance, marijuana most definitely increases the appetite of patients struggling to maintain their weight due to chemotherapy or AIDS.

A separate issue of interest to college students is, should students who’ve been convicted of drug possession, including marijuana, be allowed to receive federally-guaranteed student loans? At present, even simple possession of marijuana disqualifies a student from these loans for at least one year, and potentially for a lifetime.

As a new generation takes power in Washington, and as budget crises filter through the economies of more and more states, some liberalization of marijuana laws is likely. California, with its history of liberal social policies and its crippling debt, could become the first state to legalize the drug in the near future.

Tinkering with US drug laws carries with it any number of risks, including an increase in the use of any drug that is decriminalized or legalized, an increase in violence associated with the production of such drugs (as has happened in northern California already,) and a diminishing of the social stigma rightly attached to drug abuse.

How our legislators and executive branch officials choose to treat marijuana at both the state and federal levels should at the very least reflect a more enlightened, more compassionate approach than has been seen over the last few decades. Medical marijuana has far too many benefits and far too few risks to be withheld from suffering patients.

Using marijuana possession convictions to refuse student loans seems equally draconian.

Whether the drug should be made legal for all to use is a different issue, but one that can now at least receive a fair and objective hearing in state houses, governor’s mansions, Congress, and the White House.

Newsprism

Deficit Passes $1.4 Trillion as National Debt Approaches $12 Trillion

The Office of Management and Budget released the latest federal deficit figures. For the Fiscal Year (FY) 2009, which ended in September, the federal deficit was $1.42 trillion.

FY2009 includes the last four months or so of the Bush administration in addition to the first eight months or so of the Obama administration. Both Bush’s TARP program and the initial spending under Obama’s economic stimulus plan were included in the figure.

The ongoing federal spending spree (part of which was surely justified by economic circumstances) raised the national debt to $11.9 trillion.

Just over a year ago, Newsprism noted that the national debt had surpassed $10 trillion.

Just over six months ago, Newsprism noted that the national debt had risen another $1 trillion dollars in the previous six months. Now the national debt has once again risen nearly $1 trillion dollars more in just over six months.

President Bush inhereted a national debt of around $5 trillion along with a federal budget surplus when he took office in 2001. Since 2000, here’s how the federal deficit has grown:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Both parties are responsible for overspending without adequate revenue to pay for that spending. While the TEA Party movement is right on in decrying this, the blame must be spread evenly between Democrats and Republicans, and between Bush, Obama, and presidents dating back to Ronald Reagan, all of whom have failed to keep federal spending in check.

We’re stealing from future generations—”we” because we continue to vote for politicians who refuse to confront our fiscal problems.

Shame on us. Shame on all of us.

Newsprism

Whom Do You Trust with Your Family’s Health—Scientists, or Entertainers?

With the rollout of the new H1N1 flu vaccine, some legitimate medical questions arise: who should get the vaccine first? Who can do without it? Under whose authority will such decisions be made?

In today’s political environment, there are also legitimate questions to ask concerning the role and scope of government as well as government’s competence.

Separate from these questions are the comments of media blowhards who would bypass science and exploit any political angle for their own self interest.

The usual suspects are already busy undermining public health in ways that could literally lead to the loss of lives. Rush Limbaugh defiantly insisted on-air he won’t be vaccinated and that the government can’t force him to. On FoxNews, Glenn Beck called into question the dangers the vaccine may entail while repeating his usual call to distrust government.

Interestingly, Beck wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that his followers not be vaccinated. Beck is no fool; couldn’t he be liable if someone took that advice and wound up dead?

The usually more thoughtful Bill Maher said on HBO that he doesn’t trust the government with his health and wouldn’t take the H1N1 vaccine or any other vaccine. A guest on his show, Senator and Doctor Bill Frist, scolded Maher succinctly, saying, “You’re wrong. Look at the science.”

What a novel idea: look at the science. Listen to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Respect the work of epidemiologists and immunologists. Take the advice of medical professionals.

The CDC has documented the rising death rate from H1N1, and, according to MSNBC, has now specifically attributed 86 deaths of children to the H1N1 flu, including 43 in the last six weeks and 11 last week.

Millions already dismiss the scientific work of the vast majority of the planet’s climate scientists in favor of the conspiracy theories and apologetics of the likes of Limbaugh and Beck.

How many people, including innocent children, could get sick, could die, from this flu simply because someone put the opinions of media blowhards, with all their self-aggrandizement and political posturing, above the knowledge of experts in the relevant fields?

Newsprism

Balloon Boy Transfixes Media as F-16 Pilot Remains Missing in Atlantic

Six-year-old balloon boy Falcon Heene blurted out the truth about his “ordeal” on Larry King Live last night when he said, ”We did it for the show.”

This transparent attempt to extend the Heene family’s fifteen minutes of fame can’t be taken seriously. Falcon’s father, Richard, should be investigated, and if it can be proven that the runaway balloon story was a hoax, prosecuted. The costs of the rescue effort, which involved over 100 law enforcement officers, should be borne by the Heenes, and appropriate charges filed.

Mr. Heene was already suspected of seeking media attention and using his children in the effort. The family was featured twice on the “reality” TV show Wife Swap, and father Richard has been profiled in a documentary. He also runs a web site.

And just by coincidence, the family was videotaping their helium balloon at the very moment it allegedly came untethered and took off with little Falcon inside. What a crock. The behavior of the father, both on this homemade video and in subsequent interviews, makes it clear what happened here. He’s not much of an actor. Tellingly, according to ABC News, the family called their local TV station before dialing 911.

But the larger issue here is how the media has covered the story. The rush to get live video of the stray balloon was reminiscent of the frenzy to cover OJ Simpson’s Bronco chase. That was followed by a stampede of news outlets scrambling to interview the Heenes. Next came an insincere round of questioning whether the event was a hoax or not, followed by some equally insincere self-examination over whether the story ever deserved the attention it received and continues to receive. We can look forward to the hoax angle being exploited for days or weeks to come.

And who doubts that in the long run, the Heenes will be back on television? Bad behavior is the raw material of reality television. Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Smith, Ozzy Osborne, Victoria Gotti…we literally reward illicit sex, drug abuse, and even organized crime and murder on the airwaves. Why not reward the Heenes for manipulating and exploiting their son, law enforcement, and the media?

As Neil Postman said, maybe we’re amusing ourselves to death.

Meanwhile, on the same damn day that little Falcon became famous through his father’s conniving and depravity, two air force pilots were involved in a mid-air collision during exercises over the Atlantic off the South Carolina coast. One of the polits made it back to Shaw Air Force Base safely. The other is still missing and, presumably, dead.

How many of you heard about that?

One hero and one villian. Which one deserves the media’s attention? Which one deserves to be rewarded?

Newsprism

UPDATE: Jim Alderden, the sheriff in Larimer County, Colorado, announced today (Saturday, October 17) that criminal charges will be filed in the case.

Also, Robert Thomas, a former associate of Richard Henne now says that earlier this year, he and Henne planned a hoax involving a balloon made to look like a UFO in hopes of attracting a reality television show contract.

The pilot of the F-16 that crashed in the Atlantic off the South Carolina coast has now been identified as Nicholas Giglio. The search for Giglio has been expanded and includes both seacraft and aircraft from the Coast Guard, Navy, and Air Force.

UPDATE: Captain Giglio was killed in the crash.

Politics, Religion and Broadcasting

Could it be that broadcasting rewards the worst instincts in both politics and religion?

What kind of religious leader is most successful on television, for example? The slickest, greediest, most egomaniacal and self-absorbed—Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell. The best work in that field is done at the grassroots level by the “foot soldiers” in their places of worship, or by a Billy Graham, who took his ministry to the people, not to the sound stage.

In politics, what kind of commentator is most successful on the airwaves? The confrontational, judgmental, provocative, egomaniacal and self-absorbed—Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity.

What a shame that broadcasting has eclipsed the written word in our culture. Writing fosters reflection, depth, self-criticism. Broadcasting fosters shallow spontaneity, emotionalism, self-promotion.

The best political commentary on television tends to come from writers and columnists like George Will, David Brooks, Pat Buchanan, Peggy Noonan, and Michael Kinsley. The cable news and talk radio commentators so predominant today can’t hold a candle to Walter Lippmann and Bill Buckley.

The most profound religious thought, I believe, comes from our best writers—Henry David Thoreau, or, if you read his less popular works, Mark Twain.

Quote for the day: Read not the Times. Read the Eternities. —Thoreau

Newsprism

And That’s the Way It Appears To Be

Walter Cronkite was a print journalist before television came along. As such, he brough old fashioned journalistic ethics to the small screen.

I don’t think there’s any such thing as “journalistic objectivity.” Not even science can lay claim to objectivity all of the time.

But at least Cronkite’s guiding principle was to tell it like it is. When he said, “And that’s the way it is,” he meant it.

At the very best, journalists can realistically say, “And that’s the way it appears to be.”

Today’s television news is a far cry from what the three major network news divisions provided for decades. The fragmentation of the audience and the trend towards infotainment have left broadcast news a shell of its former self.

In the spirit of Cronkite’s genuine attempt to remain objective, I’d like to offer some signoffs for today’s broadcasters to choose from:

And that’s the way I want you to think it is.

And that’s the way I wish it were.

And that’s the way my producer told me to spin it.

And that’s the way I need to spin it to really piss off those loony liberals.

And that’s the way I need to spin it to really piss off those rascally Republicans.

And that’s the way my sponsors would have me spin it.

And that’s the way we report it in order to best counterprogram against our competitors.

And that’s the way to report it to help me sell the most books.

And that’s the way the tabloids would report it.

And that’s the way our audience wants us to report it.

And that’s the way we maximize profits.

At least, that’s the way it appears to me.

Rest in peace, Mr. Cronkite.

Newsprism

 

Something Has to Give—and It Ain’t the Taxpayer

Pat Buchanan’s latest column repeats his ongoing plea for sanity in American fiscal policy. Spending has been out of control for decades, and in response, we’ve been adding entitlements rather than eliminating them. Current levels of spending for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security cannot be sustained. Our foreign policy includes billions of giveaways. We welcome legal and illegal immigrants who, in sum, take more than they give to this nation.

This kind of irresponsible spending, however well intentioned, cannot be sustained without seriously eroding, and eventually destroying, America’s economic stability.

We just dodged an economic collapse of historical proportions. What sense does it make to set out immediately on the same path—a path that leads off a cliff?

If you think Buchanan is an extremist and/or an alarmist, take note—the director of the nonpartisan and highly credible Congressional Budget Office came out yesterday with a chilling statement:

Under current law, the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, because federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run.

Unsustainable.

Nature imposes limits on everything, including generosity. We as a nation can heed those limits, or march like lemmings off the cliff of good intentions.

Newsprism

Tom Coburn (R-Ok) Asks, “But What If I Want to Drive a Gas Guzzler?” Answer: War, Terrorism, Pollution…

In response to the new fuel efficiency standards set by the Obama administration this week, Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn asked a revealing question:

“But what if I want to drive a gas guzzler?”

Coburn’s infantile and self-absorbed attitude exemplifies what’s gone wrong with the Republican Party.

Senator Coburn, if we all drive whatever gas-guzzling vehicle we want to, regardless of that gas-guzzling vehicle’s impact on others, we’ll be responsible for:

1.) ongoing war and instability in the Middle East as we protect “our” access to the oil that vehicle wastes,

2.) ongoing terrorism as radical Muslims seek to push us out of the Middle East, and

3.) the possibility, and likely the probability, of long-term global climate change and all the death, disease, and social upheavals that would cause.

To answer Coburn’s question with another question: Senator, is your desire to waste energy and drive a pretentious vehicle really worth all the death, destruction, and destabilization such extravagance causes?

Rush Limbaugh literally mocks efficiency; on his radio program he advocates wastefulness and mocks alternative energy and fuel economy standards. Excess at any cost—is that really what conservatism is all about?

God forbid that ANY American EVER be prevented from doing ANYTHING he or she wants to do, regardless of the consequences for others. That, to too many Republicans, is the American Way.

Senator Coburn, Rush Limbaugh, here’s a little lesson in simple, basic moral philosophy:

Efficiency, good. Waste, bad.

Peace, good. War, bad.

Self-sufficiency, good. Dependence, bad.

Sustainability, good. Unsustainable extravagance, bad.

The bottom line is simple—the post-Bush Republican Party has no clue what conservatism means. Instead of a philosophy centered on social stability, individual responsibility, and tradition, conservatism has become little more than a fig leaf for the greed and excess and selfishness exemplified by ridiculous figures like Coburn and Limbaugh.

Newsprism

Giving the Republican Party a Bad Name (or Two or Three)

At his speech to Republican Party state chairs today, RNC Chairman Michael Steele engaged in some fascinating name dropping.

First, he invoked three conservative legends: Edmund Burke, William Buckley, and Ronald Reagan. Burke is the intellectual founding father of conservatism; Buckley was its greatest American proponent; and Reagan its most compelling American icon. The renewal of the GOP couldn’t be based on a more stable foundation, and by invoking these three, Steele demonstrated a depth sorely lacking in other contemporary conservative figures.

Steele went on to suggest that Republicans should stop attacking Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Tim Geithner, and Barney Frank and concentrate their fire on President Obama and his policies. Again, Steele demonstrated depth and directness where too many on the right have become loose cannons engaged in a circular firing squad.

Finally, Steele alluded to the two most toxic voices on the right, a “conservative talk radio host” and a “former vice president,” without actually naming them. While his criticism was implicit rather than explicit—testament to the ruthlessness and viciousness of both Limbaugh and Cheney—Steele clearly sees them as liabilities, and rightly so.

The fact that Cheney actually prefers Limbaugh over Colin Powell as the face of the party shows how out of touch the former veep has become. Limbaugh’s character alone should disqualify him from that role, while Powell’s is beyond reproach. Limbaugh is an entertainer with zero governing experience of any kind, while Powell has served as Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during nearly half a century of exemplary public service; how can any serious person even compare the two, much less dismiss Powell and lionize Limbaugh?

The most serious problem conservatism and the Republicans face is the success of shallow, mean-spirited, hyper partisan, McCarthyesque ideologues like Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, and Michael Savage. These entertainers aren’t fit to shine the shoes of thoughtful figures like George Will, David Brooks, Peggy Noonan, Newt Gingrich, and Pat Buchanan—the heirs of intellectual conservative giants like Buckley and Walter Lippmann.

If conservatism is to make a comeback, its leaders must go back to its roots in Burke’s foundational philosophy and Buckley’s brilliant rhetoric. Re-establishing conservatism’s intellectual integrity may be the first step towards finding its next Ronald Reagan.

With the exceptions of fundamentalists and senior citizens, the Republican Party is losing adherents across the board, but especially among the college-educated.

With a childish clown (and college dropout) like Rush Limbaugh as its most prominent voice, is it any wonder?

Newsprism

Why Are Perez Hilton and Rush Limbaugh Driving our National Discourse?

When California beauty contestant Carrie Prejean was asked her views on gay marriage, she gave a measured, polite response in favor of traditional marriage. In most contexts, in most states, that wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows.

But in progressive California, at a contest judged in part by gossip columnist Perez Hilton, Prejean’s remarks sparked a controversy that flared across the nation on the Internet and cable news programs.

A question worth asking is, why? The answer is simple: liberal bias at cable news bellweather MSNBC, alongside the considerable clout Mr. Hilton exercises in the world of Hollywood gossip, combined to put the non-story in the spotlight.

On MSNBC and elsewhere, Miss Prejean is being cast as a bigot on par with anti-abolitionists in the mid-nineteenth century. In the Hollywood gossip blogosphere (which, as Newsprism loves to point out, includes The Huffington Post,) she’s been demonized even further.

This tempest-in-a-teapot reminds Newsprism of the disproportionate influence weilded by Rush Limbaugh, whose more outrageous comments of late have filtered their way through cable news, talk radio, and the Internet to become fodder for “legitimate” print and broadcast news outlets.

The difference between Hilton and Limbaugh may be less than appears on the surface: Hilton covers the most shallow topics in depth, while Limbaugh covers the deepest topics ever so shallowly.

Both are creatures of the entertainment industry and ought not to be taken seriously when discussing consequential political and moral issues.

Newsprism

UPDATE—On tonight’s NBC evening news, the top four stories in the opening tease: the bank bailouts; wildfires in California; Elizabeth Edwards’ appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show; and the new Star Trek movie.

Neal Postman was right; we’re amusing ourselves to death.

Obama Budget Cuts TipToe in the Right Direction

President Obama’s proposed budget, released this morning, includes $17 billion in cuts to federal programs deemed inefficient or unnecessary.

While $17 billion dollars is a significant sum, it is dwarfed by the $3.4 trillion in proposed spending for the upcoming fiscal year.

And that’s assuming a Democratic Congress will accept the entire $17 billion in cuts…hardly a sure bet.

The proposed cuts are a step tiptoe in the right direction.

To paraphrase Lao Tzu, “The journey of 1000 miles begins with one tiptoe.”

Newsprism

GOP’s New Mascot—An Albino Dinosaur

What the GOP is missing: a DEMOGRAPHER

I have nothing against old white guys—I’ll be one soon enough myself—but is this any way to compete in an increasingly diverse democracy?

The GOP is rapidly becoming a dinosaur.

An albino one.

Newsprism

R.I.P. G.O.P.? Not Just Yet, BUT…

Barely one in five Americans now identify themselves as Republicans. In the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, only 21% of respondents identified themselves as Republicans, compared to 35% who identified themselves as Democrats and 38% as Independents.

Now that Arlen Specter has defected to the Democrats, and with Al Franken closing in on the Minnesota Senate seat, the Democrats may soon hold 60 seats, giving them a filibuster-proof majority.

How did a party that three years ago controlled the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate—and arguably, the Supreme Court as well—fall so far, so fast? And what are the consequences for the GOP?

Moderate Republican Senator Olympia Snowe says it is the right-wing extremism of the GOP that has “disaffected and alienated so many Americans…” That may be the understatement of the year. Between the antics of Rush “I hope Obama fails” Limbaugh and Dick “Tortures R Us” Cheney, moderates and independents can’t run away from the party fast enough.

The Bush years were disasterous enough for the party without Cheney and Limbaugh acting as constant reminders of the incompetence and, frankly, depravity that characterized the last eight years.

Many others who make up the public face of the GOP aren’t helpful, either. Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter, for example, taint the party with their arrogance, mean-spiritedness, and absolutism. Their schtick may work on FoxNews and talk radio, but to the mainstream American, they look every bit as rabid and irrational as the leftust fringe they routinely demonize.

Worse yet, as moderates and independents leave the party, it becomes even more extremist, creating a vicious cycle that may well relegate it to regional status.

If the GOP continues down the Limbaugh-led path of exclusion, if it continues to rationalize the rigidity and depravity of the Bush years, it will ensure its irrelevance for a generation.

Peggy Noonan, with her usual grace, puts it this way:

A great party allows everyone in, and allows prospective members to self-define. If they say they’re Republicans, they should be welcomed and helped to find a place where they fit. A great party has a lot of such places. A great party is expansive. A great party has give.

Rumors of the death of the Republican Party are greatly exaggerated, but it’s becoming more and more apparent that it sorely needs to treat the tumor of exclusive and reactionary extremism.

Newsprism

TEA Parties Turn Into Pissing Contest

It’s Tax Day—April 15, the deadline for filing federal income tax forms.

What usually passes with a few (million) grumbles and some local news video of post offices packed with procrastinating taxs filers has has taken on added significance in the media this year as hundreds of TEA (as in, “Taxed Enough Already”) Parties are being held across the nation. This kind of protest should be welcome news in any democracy, but for a few prominent voices in the media, it’s little more than an excuse to misbehave.

Right wing news outlets and commentators, especially on FoxNews and talk radio, have been promoting the events ad nauseum, to the point that FoxNews is acting more like a corporate sponsor than a news organization. This at the very least blurs the line between advocacy and reporting. Many commentators on the right have also strongly criticized the mainstream media for failing to cover the events (quite a neat trick, considering that most of the criticism came before the events were held…)

On the left, while the news coverage has been mostly straightforward (with the notable exception of  this grandstanding CNN reporter who lost her cool with a protester), the commentary has been anything but. Numerous commentators have  belittled the events as staged propaganda planned and coordinated by right wing media and public interest groups, as if libertarians and conservatives can’t possibly think for, or organize, themselves.

The worst behavior has been on liberal cable news. MSNBC’s prime time hosts—Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow—along with other anchors on MSNBC and CNN have inexplicably chosen to disparage, ad nauseum, the tea parties as tea bagging (a slang term for an unusual sex act…Google it if you don’t know.) Liberal pack journalism has never been as vulgar and sophomoric as it was today.

You’d think the left, with its tradition of protest and civil disobedience, would honor citizens exercising their First Amendment rights.

Sadly, it seems the usual suspects on the left and right are incapable of rationally discussing the issues involved—taxation and the size and scope of government. Instead, the cartoon conservatives on FoxNews (Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity) and talk radio (Hannity, Rush Limbaugh) are using the events to shamelessly promote themselves while glibly criticizing the mainstream media for failing to cover that self-promotion. The loony liberals on cable news and in the blogosphere are using the events to mock and patronize conservatives, too often with a vulgarity that is puzzling and disturbing.

While more thoughtful media outlets—including the network news divisions and most newspapers—are covering the events responsibly without a red or blue filter, the loons on the left and the cartoons on the right are cynically exploiting the TEA Parties to boost their own ratings and circulation.

I wonder what the patriots who participated in the Boston Tea Party would think of the way Olbermann and Maddow, or Beck, Hannity, and Limbaugh, are turning honest protest into a pissing contest.

One thing’s for sure. This isn’t the best moment to be swimming in the waters of American politics.

Newsprism

Pig Book Documents Swine Research

Citizens Against Government Waste has just released this year’s (fiscal year 2009) Pig Book, their annual compilation of pork barrel projects coming out of our esteemed Congress.

Last year (fiscal year 2008), we spent $17,200,000,000.00 on 11,600 special projects, or “earmarks,” proposed and funded by members of Congress.

The good news: this year we only had 10,160 such projects, a decrease of 1,440 earmarks.

The bad news: those projects cost $19,600,000,000.00, an increase of $2,400,000,000.00.

The Christian Science Monitor calculates those numbers to be a 12.5% decrease in the number of earmarks, and a 14% increase in their cost.

This is just the kind of “progress” Congress specializes in.

Among the pet projects imposed on taxpayers are these gems:

$1.8 million for swine odor and manure studies in Iowa. Ah, the sweet smell of what comes out the rear end of pigs!

$27.8 million for fitness centers at Air Force bases in Texas, South Carolina, and Mississippi. ‘Cause how else are all those flyboys supposed to stay in shape? (Hint: PUSHUPS)

$950,000 for energy efficient street lighting in Detroit. Great! Now the gangbangers can see whom they’re shooting at without damaging the environment!

$2 million for the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program. Sponsored by (who else?) Senator Pat Roberts!

Democrats came to power in 2006 and 2008 promising reforms. Fat chance.

Menwhile, Republicans have been grunting and grumbling over spending by Democrats; CAGW notes that about 40% of earmarked funds came from Republicans, who make up, oh, roughly, 40% of Congress.

Newsprism