OK, it’s painfully obvious that these two fellers are liberals and their show is meant to make fun of conservatives. It’s obvious that neither of them are conservative in the least. I’ve never posted their stuff here for that very reason.
But these old boys are funny ANYWAY. So, enjoy the latest Red State Update for a Sunday afternoon.
-By Warner Todd Huston
There is a major drawback to blogs, the Internet, even up-to-the-minute cable news. Oh, it isn’t a drawback specific to those venues but it is one that makes itself felt sooner and with a woeful result there. I call it “the next big thing factor.” It is that state of being so hungry to post “the next big thing” that good sense and often the facts become less important than being first and loudest with the story.
In the Internet age this problem leads often to the sensational story that deflates on the facts, the “fact” that isn’t one, or the incident that never really happened. Recently a whole bunch of liberals fell for this sort of error and David Freddoso of the Washington Examiner had a bit of fun slapping them around over it.
It seems the nutty left-o-sphere got its panties in a bunch over the “fact” that Representative Michelle Bachmann (R, Minn.) attempted to torpedo a resolution in the House that celebrated the 50th anniversary of Hawaii becoming a state. And why would she do this, you might wonder? Well according to the profane snarks at Wonkette, it’s because Bachmann is a “birther” out to punish Hawaii for having been the non-birthplace of Barack Obama. They just couldn’t understand why anyone would try to postpone such a resolution and decided that there MUST be something nefarious afoot, dontcha know?
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One of the Drawbacks to the Internet: The Next Big Thing Factor”
-By Selwyn Duke
When I first heard that radio host Michael Savage had been banned from traveling to England along with an assortment of Moslem terrorists and other miscreants, my first thought was that the public relations arm of the politically correct thought police had struck again. It only made sense. Given how Britain is now bedeviled by Islamic jihadists, it had a legitimate reason to keep their most zealous fellows from the nation’s increasingly volatile Moslem masses. Yet the spineless Neville Chamberlain bureaucrats charged with this task — whose credo seems to be “peace through capitulation” — would never want to be seen as singling out Moslems. So they traded a man’s reputation for peace in our time.
Now this analysis has been vindicated with the release, under a Freedom of Information law, of shocking documents showing that the U.K.’s Home Office did in fact ban Savage to “balance” the Moslem personae non gratae. Writes the Daily Mail:
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Britannia Ruled by Knaves: Savage Banned to Fill White Man Quota”
-By Thomas E. Brewton
We are following the downward path of Great Britain, one of the two greatest of Western history’s empires.
We can draw several cautionary lessons from the history of our British cousins. Of all the world’s nations we and the UK are most similar, both in our rise and in our decline.
In addition to sharing the English language, our whole constitutional ethos and legal system derive from the British constitution and from the common law. Ours are the principal nations that made the sovereign’s right to taxation subject to the will of the people expressed in Parliament and our state and national legislatures.
Most especially, ours were the only nations that arose upon the primacy of private property rights. It was this fundamental element of natural law that, more than anything else, accounted for English and American individualism. It was an ethos that the German Empire’s Iron Chancellor Bismarck contemptuously dismissed as a society of shopkeepers, as opposed to the Prussian landed aristocracy. It was, however, an ethos that twice bested the statist collectivism of Continental Europe in world wars.
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The Long, Agonizing Decline of the United States”
-By Frank Salvato
It is fairly clear, to anyone paying attention, that the people of the United States are currently suffering the political tyranny of the special interest minority. We arrive at this point not because the character of the nation has changed dramatically – we are still a center-right nation ideologically, although we have become more permissive in our social views – but because we have fallen prey to exactly the political malady James Madison feared we would: factionalism.
This factionalism exists within both political parties, as well as throughout our society.
Neo-Marxists have come to power in the Democrat Party even though the majority of Democrats could be considered moderate to centrist. And because of the hierarchical system utilized by our federal Legislative Branch, this minority faction of the Democrat Party has come to power nationally.
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Instituting a Safeguard Against Political & Ideological Tyranny”
-By John Armor
Today I read an obscure book which is adequately written. Its subject is not of front-burner importance, all things considered. And yet, it tells a story that entirely too many Americans are unaware of, but should be. The book is “Legacy of Honor, the Values and Influence of America’s Eagle Scouts,” by Alvin Townley.
There are now about two million people in the US who hold the rank of Eagle Scout, of the 110 million Americans who have ever been part of the Boy Scouts of America. The Eagles are a small fraction of Scouts, a tiny fraction of the nation’s population. Yet, they are present far out of their proportion among astronauts, Congressmen (not necessarily a recommendation), business leaders, military officers, and last but best, among the winners of the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Why is this all true?
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Of Scouts, Scholarship and Swans”
-By Warner Todd Huston
We are speeding headlong toward a time when our Congress will have become just like Mad King George’s Parliament, that body from which in 1776 the American colonists separated with the rallying cry of “no taxation without representation.” Our national government is fast becoming just as unrepresentative of the people as far off Briton was when we went to war to become the United States of America.
Does that seem like a hyperbolic statement to you? At first blush, it might. But a considered look at the direction in which we are quickly heading will prove that, compared to the British Parliament that raised the ire of our forefathers so long ago, today’s Congress shows many signs of the same, oppressive, haughty, disinterested politicians that considered their national government more important than the local’s interests and needs.
Representation is the key word, here. What does it mean? What did it mean then? Of course, the problem was that it meant two different things to the opposing sides of the Revolutionary era, hence the conflict. In England, representation meant that Parliament “represented” the whole of the country and that each member of that body was elected from their home to go forth and become a member of the whole. British politicians generally did not imagine that they were representing their hometown when they went to Parliament.
Congress is Taxation Without Representation”
-By Thomas E. Brewton
The Constitution’s commerce clause has been stretched beyond recognition to justify traveling the road to tyranny by obliterating the 9th and 10th Amendments in the Bill of Rights.
The Constitution’s Article I, Section. 8 says, inter alia:
“The Congress shall have Power…To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes…”
In the hearing for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, she was asked to comment upon the Constitution’s commerce clause. Senator Dianne Feinstein inquired about the extent to which the Court can restrain Congress’s use of the commerce clause to regulate anything and everything it lays eyes upon. As Senator Feinstein noted, that will become particularly important as Congress and executive branch regulatory bodies embark upon procrustean regulations under President Obama’s proposed “green” legislation.
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The Supreme Court And The Commerce Clause”
-By Selwyn Duke
If you’ve ever seen the movie Idiocracy, the title of this piece may seem familiar. The film is a dystopian comedy about a futuristic America in which complete ignorance is the norm. People are inarticulate to the point where even those of status — politicians, doctors, etc. — mangle the language and use profanity to fill in gaps when expressing themselves. The president is a porn star and ex-professional wrestler who wears a muscle shirt, the society’s number-one rated show features nothing but an endless array of groin shots, and the farmers water their plants with a sports electrolyte drink called “Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator” and yet can’t figure out why the crops fail to grow. And, to illustrate how people have become consumed with frivolity and sex — and frivolous sex at that — the title of a certain famous news magazine that just recently curtailed its print publication (in reality) has been changed to “Hot Naked Chicks & World Report.”
It’s a silly movie rife with profanity, so I cannot give it a thumbs up, but I’ll tell you what brings it to mind. A couple of weeks ago I was watching Hannity on Fox News, and one segment concerned media attacks on Sarah Palin — in particular, a Vanity Fair hatchet job written by Todd Purdum. Hannity had columnist S.E. Cupp and one of Fox’ anchors, Kimberly Guilfoyle, as guests, and he was making much of what he characterized as Purdum’s sexism in devoting copious ink to Palin’s comely appearance. Guilfoyle chimed in, complaining that Purdum’s implication that Palin only succeeded because of her looks was “insulting and degrading to women.”
Now, while I’m no fan of Purdum, I find Guilfoyle’s commentary insulting and degrading to my intelligence. Let’s face it, to deny that Palin’s looks played a part in her rise to prominence is to ignore the pink elephant with the frilly dress and lipstick in the middle of the room. However, I will add a little perspective. First, I’m not sure Palin’s looks are quite the factor some people think. Second, despite the “Oh, the patriarchy strikes again!” narrative, appearance is a factor with men as well. Remember how Richard Nixon’s five-o’clock shadow sealed his fate in his 1960 debate with John F. Kennedy, the first televised presidential debate in history? Titillating John just trumped Tricky Dick. And could you imagine a short, fat, ugly, bald man capturing the Oval Office? Why, its current occupant is all image, with his decent, youthful looks, resonant voice and rock-star persona. So attractive is he, in fact, that his teleprompter just can’t stand to be apart from him.
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U.S. News and Hot, Sexy Chicks”
-By Marie Jon
“I recommend my soul to that Almighty Being who gave it, and my body I commit to the dust, relying upon the merits of Jesus Christ for a pardon of all my sins.” — From the will of Samuel Adams, forefather of the American Revolution and signer of the Declaration of Independence
Our Christian beliefs have been trampled upon to the point that they do not have the positive impact they should upon our nation or our personal lives. There are far too many Christians who are still drinking doctrinal “milk” and have remained spiritually immature. We live in a land where many Christians are biblically illiterate and prone to fall prey to every whim and foolish thought. God commands His servants to “study to show yourself approved before God” (2 Timothy 2:15).
All one has to do is listen to the George Noory show or Michael Medved’s “conspiracy day” on conservative talk radio to hear what professing Christians are embracing. It’s shocking and sad. What does light have to do with darkness?
If Christians fail, America will also”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Idaho is about to get its first conservative high school, Nampa Classical Academy, to be opened next semester in Nampa, Idaho. Founder Isaac Moffett has organized the school as a public charter school.
It’s about time that a school based on American exceptionalism again grace the land and Moffett aims to fulfill that very goal.
Nampa Classical will teach Latin and Western classics, including the Bible. The school will not teach “certain sex ed,” will eschew anti-American rhetoric and troop bashing and will impart the “good of America, the good of Western civilization,” Moffett said.
Moffett has modeled his curriculum on that of Hillside Academy, a private Christian prep school in Michigan which is part of Hillside College.
A Conservative High School in Idaho?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Apparently, YouTube doesn’t think that a conservative journalist has anything to say to help all you budding citizen journalists out there. A glance at the denizens of the Old Media offered up as journalism experts on the Internet video giant will show a long list of well known lefties with not a single center or center right professional in the mix.
On April 30, YouTube set up a channel dedicated to a sort of how-to instruction manual or an online media 101 class that folks interested in becoming citizen journalists can watch to help them learn some of the tricks of the Media trade. Ostensibly, this will help the average, every day blogger present his work in a more professional way. This is a great idea, by the way. Many blogs could use some tips on better writing and presentation, interview skills, and video presentation if not an occasional editor — and I should know on that last one!
But it seems that no one that represents the center-right in the world of journalism seems to qualify as an expert as far as Google’s YouTube is concerned. Going to the main page will reveal a whole bunch of lefty jurnos offering you their help. Not only do we get the advice from the heavily left-slanted Chris Cillizza, NPR or Katie Couric, but YouTube even offers “advice” from AlJazeera’s Riz Kahn, for Pete’s sake!
Imagine, AlJeazeera on journalistic professionalism!
YouTube’s ‘How To’ on Citizen Journalism Filled With Lefty Media Types, No Conservatives”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Rep. Mark Kirk (R, IL) just voted for the worst tax hiking, jobs killing, garbage bill based on the lies of globaloney that ever hit the U.S. Congress. Mark Kirk has eliminated any possibility that I will support him in anything ever again.
Mark Kirk is a traitor to the GOP, to capitalism, to the Constitution of the US.
And even more ridiculously, just as this fool votes for cap and tax bill… I mean cap and trade… the Australians have realized that the exact same bill they passed is so bad for them that they are getting rid of it.
Let us hope that the Senate is smarter than the anti-American House of Representatives and defeats this destructive law.
And, Mr. Kirk? I will work to defeat you, even if it means a Democrat wins your seat.
-By Warner Todd Huston
This week, Senator Jim DeMint will give his reply to Obamacare and it is sure to be a conservative reply as he is being backed by several stalwartly conservative organizations in the effort.
Groups like Americans for Tax Reform, Media Research Center, Americans for Prosperity, Conservatives for Patients’ Rights and Tea Party Patriots will all stand behind Senator DeMint’s presentation in the Cannon Building in the House Budget Committee Hearing room on the Hill this Wednesday at noon.
A Conservative Case for Healthcare to be Made Wednesday”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Cypress Times of Cypress, Texas has started a little effort to help conservatives show that they are proud to be American and proud to be conservatives. Times Publisher John G. Winder decided it’s time to show the world that “I Am Conservative America” by having conservatives of all stripes from all across the country send in their photo holding a little sign that proclaims their self pride.
I know, I know. if you are a conservative and are reading this posting, I’ll bet your first thought is to roll your eyes. I do know how you feel because I did the same thing. After all, isn’t it the “feels-good idiots” on the left that indulge in these sorts of empty gestures? These are the sorts of fluffy, pointless things that leftist goofballs do, right? We are serious, ya know? I mean, posting our photos on some webpage ain’t a’gonna change anything, we all know.
Proud to be a Conservative? Well, Show It!”
-By Frank Salvato
“Among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.” – Samuel Johnson
Few things are more important in life than the facts and the truth. Ironically, the quest for both has waned over generations. Today, fact and truth suffer the narcissism of a generation of self-indulgent ideologues who have sought to shape the world to their belief system, doing so armed with little more than falsely elevated self-esteem. The result has been to bring our great nation to a divide not seen since the US Civil War; a divide of politics, ideology and culture; a divide that threatens our Republic’s very existence.
Samuel Johnson’s adage about truth being a casualty of war is not exclusive to wars of nations, it is applicable to wars of all breeds: cultural, violent, ideological and political. In fact, today’s American culture places more worth on the delivery of words than on the credibility of words. A gifted orator can mesmerize the citizenry into reacting to a melodic tone and artful inflection and into caring little for the accuracy of the statements being made. He can pass impossibilities as realities using hollow promises, promises that serve as distractions to truth and fact. Truth be told, today, the American public is more interested in being captivated by the “bright shiny” distraction, being entertained by the slickly delivered sleight-of-hand rhetoric of “hope” and “change,” than they are in gathering the facts in an effort to better understand reality.
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With All Things, Facts & Truth Matter”
-By Warner Todd Huston
“I am not beholden to any party.”
California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, candidate for governor
That must be true given Steve Poizner’s history of political donations. Poizner has given, and generously at that, to both Republican and Democrat candidates for office in addition to several Democrat controlled committees, this based on he and his wife’s publicly reported accounts, anyway. Oddly, Poizner’s wife happens to be a registered Democrat who Poizner has “blamed” for many of the Democrat contributions that have his signature affixed. Such donations include: a $10,000 contribution to the Democratic National Committee on 10/02/00; $1,000 to John Forbes Kerry on 02/15/01; and a $10,000 donation he made to the ’00 Gore/Lieberman Recount Committee.
In fact, there is quite a lot of chatter out there that seems to point to Poizner’s less than stellar Republican credentials. He has been termed everything but a conservative for the last 5 years.
Will the Real Republican Please Stand Up?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
The Associated Press posted an “analysis” piece by writer Tom Raum on June 15 to address the GOP strategy against Obamacare and other administration policies but the APs characterization of the GOPs efforts almost seem meant to belittle and de-legitimize that opposition as opposed to describing it. The entire GOP argument against Obama is boiled down to a use of “buzz words” as far as APs Raum is concerned. Apparently, no political truth or ideological disagreement really enters into it. Only “tactic,” and “strategy” built on “buzz words” and “fear” is offered by the GOP instead of real issues according to the AP.
In “GOP using buzz words to taunt Democrats,” with a subhead of “Republicans claim Obama embraces ‘socialism,'” Raum never once admits that Republicans just might have a principled ideological opposition to Obama’s policies leaving readers to get the vague feeling that the GOP is trying just anything to find a winning issue. Further, the entire article is premised as if the Democrats are correct and the GOP is just trying to chip away at their essentially correct stand on the issues. AP even presents a lefty professor to shore up the AP point of view — naturally the professor’s propensities are not divulged.
AP Brands GOP Opposition as Built on ‘Buzz Words’”
-By Warner Todd Huston
On a recent Reason Magazine blog called “Hit and Run,” Jacob Sullum asks the tough question of why it’s wrong to kill an abortion doctor if the killer truly believes that abortion is murder? Why would Christian groups, Sullum wonders, denounce the murder of abortionist, George Tiller?
Sullum asks what might appear to be logical questions, but it also seems that he didn’t do much to research the issue before posing them. My cursory look at Christian ethics and the Bible, for instance, shows that there is no way in keeping with a Christian worldview to justify the killing of an abortion doctor by a lone actor outside the duly constituted law.
Still, Sullum asks some salient questions and offers some pointed remarks and they deserve to be addressed.
Reason Asks, Why is Killing Abortionists Wrong? Because it is Un-Christian, That’s Why!”
-By Frederick Meekins
The human mind and spirit cannot endure for very long the chaotic vacillation of such lawlessness before the individual eventually cries out for answers to the extremes of licentiousness and total control. Throughout much of the Modern Era, the Christian apologist could appeal to a shared respect for historic and scientific fact common to both Christianity and commonsense realism. Today, the Christian must first reestablish why anyone ought to believe in anything at all and then assert how the Biblical approach provides the best possible explanation for the condition in which man actually finds himself and the facts as they are rather than how he might like them to be.
The apologist must begin this process by exposing the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the Postmodernist system. James Sire writes in The Universe Next Door, “If we hold that all linguistic utterances are power plays, then that utterance itself is a power play and no more likely to be more proper than any other (187).”
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Minding The Times: An Exposition On Postmodernism, Part 2″
-By Warner Todd Huston
California’s gubernatorial race is widening on the Republican side with one famous name from the business world, ebay’s Meg Whitman, one former congressman, the 15th District’s Tom Campbell, and current State Insurance Commissioner, Steve Poizner all ready to hit the ground running. But as each candidate is vetted, some are wondering if Steve Poizner is a Ronnie(Reagan)-come-lately to the Republican Party as it has been discovered that Poizner donated money to the Gore/Leiberman Recount Committee in 2000.
IRS records* confirm that Mr. Poizner gave the hefty sum of $10,000 to the recount effort, a fund to which Jane Fonda is also listed as having donated $100,000. Records also show that Poizner donated $1,000 to Al Gore’s run for president as well as $2,000 to John Kerry’s.
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Why Did Calif. Republican Poizner Donate To Gore/Lieberman Recount Fund?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Early in May, Lawrence High School of Lawrence, Kansas fired government and history teacher Tim Latham. Latham charges that District 912 fired him because he is a conservative and many of his students have since rallied to his defense. Some 200 of them joined a FaceBook page in support and four appeared at a school board meeting on June 8 to advocate for their favorite teacher.
One reason given for the firing is that Mr. Latham did not show Obama’s inauguration live in his class and another is that staff members disparaged him for supporting Republicans during the late presidential race, most especially then vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin.
On June 8, an advocacy group, Kansas 9.12 Project also attended the school board meeting and spoke on Mr. Latham’s behalf.
Kansas High School Teacher Fired for Being Conservative?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Water is wet. The sky is blue. And Democrats aren’t friendly to taxpayers. These should be natural assumptions, of course, and in the age of Obama the later is more true than ever. But color powerful New York businessman Tom Golisano surprised that, even after he gave tons of cash to New York Democrats, he was treated like an annoyance when he asked them not to raise taxes in the Empire state.
Golisano says that he was ignored and shunted aside after his big money donations to New York’s Democratic power players in Albany and so he worked with Republicans to engineer the stunning upset that put the New York State Senate back in the hands of the GOP early this week.
I only have to ask: why did Golisano ever imagine that mere campaign donations would keep these Democrat leopards from changing their big taxing spots?
Shocking: Businessman Finds N.Y. Dems are Unfriendly”
This guy has some major chops. I was born in Ohio and now I wish I still lived there just to be able to vote for John Kasich for Governor. But it won’t stop me from donating money to him. It shouldn’t stop you either:
-By Frank Salvato
The debate over the disposition of the terrorist detainees currently housed in Guantanamo Bay’s detention centers (, Camp Echo Camp Delta, Camp Iguana & Camp 7) rages on. The anti-war/anti-Bush contingent continues to call for the shuttering of the facilities while those in support of fighting the war against violent Islamist aggression challenge them on their alternative for the securing of the enemy combatants housed at the facility. And as this debate drags on one thing has become painfully obvious: the efforts of the anti-war/anti-Bush contingent are not only visionless, they are purely political.
First, we need to be honest about two critical points that have been allowed to morph from political talking points to perceived realities; talking points that have become the anti-war/anti-Bush contingent’s mantra: 1) That the mere existence of the facility at Guantanamo Bay has tarnished the reputation of the United States around the world, and 2) That the mere existence of the facility more commonly referred to as “Gitmo” has served to create more jihadis. Both assertions are manufactured, contrived and patently false.
Gitmo, Liberals, Politics & Deceit”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Naturally from our vantage point, Barack Obama is a left-wing terror as president. To name just a few things, he is turning our system from one of capitalism to one of socialism, he is attempting to undermine the Constitution by placing an activist on the Supreme Court, he is weakening our national security by frittering away the gains of the previous administration and by bending over backwards for our enemies while constantly flipping off our allies, he is looking to destroy our national healthcare system by introducing a disastrous single payer system, and he is attempting to give anti-business unions the power to destroy what is left of the business community that he himself hasn’t gotten around to crushing as of yet. We on the right are alarmed by his trip down the ruinous road that Europe has already well traveled to rueful results.
One would think that the American left (or the anti-American left as the case may be) would be thrilled that their most fantasized about social, political, and economic sledgehammers were being wielded by their Obammessiah. But, one might be surprised to see that the extremists on the left are beginning to rumble in seething anger over the fact that, to date, Obama hasn’t gone fast enough or far enough to the extreme left to suit them. One of these wild-eyed, bomb-throwers has even just called for his resignation.
So, are we beginning to see waning the far left’s love affair with The One? Might this disappointment turn into the sort of lefty outrage that it did with Lyndon Baines Johnson? Will Barack Obama’s left wing flap him to death?
Could Obama’s Left Wing Flap him to Death?”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Margery Eagan of the Boston Herald has done it again. She’s unleashed her deathless prose filled with soaring rhetoric and high concepts all revealing her infinite sagacity. OK, that was just sarcasm. In truth, Eagan has given us another example of the sort of low-end, guttural, sputterings that we have become so used to seeing drip like sour milk from her pen. Her latest Boston Herald piece is a prime example of the unprofessionalism that pervades her work.
In a posting titled “Men in throes of Supreme panic,” Eagan gets into her best name calling mode against all those eeeevil “white men” out there that might find reason to oppose President Obama’s nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, a woman well known for positing that female Hispanics are inherently better judges than white men — a sentiment that if reversed would be considered a racist statement.
Unprofessionalism at the Boston Herald: White Men Attacked”
-By Nancy Salvato
The last I heard, the United States was not a signatory to the Law of the Sea Convention. Yet back in 1996, under President Clinton, we became signatories to an agreement with the Commonwealth of the Bahamas “concerning a cooperative Shiprider and Overflight Drug Interdiction Program for Joint Operations,” known as the 1996 Shiprider Agreement.
“Based on the principles of international law, respect for the sovereign equality of States and in full respect of the principle of the right of freedom of navigation consistent with the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention,” this agreement was superseded by a more comprehensive agreement in 2004 (US State Department).
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Circumnavigating the Rule of Law”
-By Warner Todd Huston
Francis Wilkinson, executive editor of The Week news magazine, seems to think that The New York Times is a model of restraint with a centrist editorial policy and that conservatives should be afraid of the day when the Old Gray Lady publishes its last sheet. My guess: if your eyebrow could be raised any higher at this claim, it’d become a toupee.
In a somewhat contradictory piece headlined “Will GOP regret attacks on The Times?,” Wilkinson by turns says that The New York Times has on one hand allowed the Bush administration to program its content while on the other hand says that the paper exhibits “bedrock liberal assumptions that define the paper.” How it can be both is hard to understand, but Wilkinson seems to think it’s possible.
The central point of the piece, though, sets up a sort of straw man that is then knocked down by saying that The New York Times is a model of journalistic restraint that will be sorely missed by conservatives when the paper is buried to be replaced by Internet based “news” outlets like The Huffington Post and Talking Points Memo. Even so, this piece is not without merit.
The Week: Conservatives Should ‘Regret’ New York Times’ $$ Troubles?”
-By Frank Salvato
It couldn’t have been planed more perfectly. President Barack Obama uses the power of the presidential bully pulpit to show his dismay with anyone and everyone who dares to question his version of morality where the war on terrorism is concerned. Just moments later, former Vice President Dick Cheney effectively rebuts the president and dismantles several of the president’s talking points. The “impromptu” tele-debate made for great television. What it didn’t do was move anyone to question what they believe on the issues that were presented. In fact, it simply ensconced each to his or her position.
The American public has long suffered from what I call a sitcom attention span (I blame Norman Lear but I digress). Truth be told, the limited attention span of the American people goes back to well before the invention of television, having become an increasing problem ever since the American Revolution. Politicians recognized this malady – or opportunity as they see it – right off the bat and have been taking incredible advantage of the public’s limited attention span for almost as long as our country has been sovereign. It is for this reason that troublesome reports, testimonies and declarations are usually released after 2pm on Friday as Americans turn their brains off in preparation for the weekend. Where they may be outraged at something on Friday at 2pm – if in fact they even become aware of it then – by Monday it is just one more reason why all politicians can’t be trusted and anyway, what are you going to do about it, right?
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Obama, Cheney & The Bright Shiny Thing”