CORPORATE MEDIA v HOWARD DEAN/ED SCHULTZ SUCKS
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I woke up this morning to the pathetically tepid CNN morning show with Frick and Frack. It takes me about 5 minutes to get out of bed before I go for a 6AM swim. But they teased the news today with some new Howard Dean "outrage" so I hung around in bed to hear what kind of bullshit the corporately-owned media is spreading about Dean today. It took another 15 seconds to realize it was more nothing from the right's pet media. I can't remember the exact words from Frick or Frack but the CNN website says: "Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday defended his recent harsh criticism of Republicans, including his observation that they are 'pretty much a white, Christian party.' Dean noted that he, too, is a white Christian. But he said the GOP is too narrow in its scope and the Democratic Party is far more diverse... Dean told a forum of journalists and minority leaders Monday that Republicans are 'not very friendly to different kinds of people, they are a pretty monolithic party ... it's pretty much a white, Christian party.' Challenged on that during the NBC interview, Dean said 'unfortunately, by and large it is. And they have the agenda of the conservative Christians. This is a diversion from the issues that really matter: Social Security, and adequate job opportunity, strong public schools, a strong defense, Dean said."
Dean is a wildly popular progressive with an independent-- that is independent of the corporate power structure-- base. He may have been elected chairman of the DNC but he is certainly not beloved by the Inside-the-Beltway-careerist-hacks. (Notice how fast this class jumped on the bandwagon and attacked him. I mean what Democrat could be more symbolic of the corporate power structure, regardless of party, than a hack like Biden, a confessed plagiarist who voted with the right to screw over working people on the GOP bankruptcy bill?)
But what really pissed me off was when I turned on the Los Angeles Air America outlet today, KTLK. They have quite a bit of their own programming including the Ed Schultz Show at noon. I've really been an enthusiastic fan of Schultz' because he's a seasoned radio host who knows far better than the far smarter Franken or Garofolo (for example) how to entertain a radio audience. It's been easy for me to forgive his lapses when he doesn't have the right answers to challenges from conservative callers. It's been less easy for me to forgive his frequent egocentric attacks on Howard Dean. Once I was listening to him attack Dean and I thought I had Limbaugh on-- FOR FIVE WHOLE MINUTES. But today took the cake. I'm now a reconfirmed KCRW listener and the hell with Ed Schultz.
Dean is the most dangerous man in America to the corporate right. Because he can appeal directly to actual people-- and not just yammer harmlessly like a Biden creature-- the fascists recognize him as a real enemy. They thought they got their media partners to destroy him after the Iowa caucuses. But here he is again calling them on their crap loud and clear. My friend Ken, asked me this morning if Dean was congratulating the GOP on having achieved what they set out to achieve over the last few decades. I mean that's all he really did, just recognize the reality of what they've been striving for.
posted by DownWithTyranny @ 3:37 PM
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The mass media went to town on Howard Dean and even some corporate-oriented Democrats and others jealous of Dean's popularity with the Democratic base joined them. Funny how no one went after conservative ex-Senator John Danforth (R-MO) for saying much the same. This was in the NY TIMES about a week ago:
GOP's Danforth Agrees With Howard Dean on N.Y. Times Op Ed Page
--"In the Name of Politics"
John C. Danforth, The New York Times, March 30, 2005
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/033005H.shtml
St. Louis - By a series of recent initiatives, Republicans have transformed our party into the political arm of conservative Christians. The elements of this transformation have included advocacy of a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, opposition to stem cell research involving both frozen embryos and human cells in petri dishes, and the extraordinary effort to keep Terri Schiavo hooked up to a feeding tube.
Standing alone, each of these initiatives has its advocates, within the Republican Party and beyond. But the distinct elements do not stand alone. Rather they are parts of a larger package, an agenda of positions common to conservative Christians and the dominant wing of the Republican Party.
Christian activists, eager to take credit for recent electoral successes, would not be likely to concede that Republican adoption of their political agenda is merely the natural convergence of conservative religious and political values. Correctly, they would see a causal relationship between the activism of the churches and the responsiveness of Republican politicians. In turn, pragmatic Republicans would agree that motivating Christian conservatives has contributed to their successes.
High-profile Republican efforts to prolong the life of Ms. Schiavo, including departures from Republican principles like approving Congressional involvement in private decisions and empowering a federal court to overrule a state court, can rightfully be interpreted as yielding to the pressure of religious power blocs.
In my state, Missouri, Republicans in the General Assembly have advanced legislation to criminalize even stem cell research in which the cells are artificially produced in petri dishes and will never be transplanted into the human uterus. They argue that such cells are human life that must be protected, by threat of criminal prosecution, from promising research on diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and juvenile diabetes.
It is not evident to many of us that cells in a petri dish are equivalent to identifiable people suffering from terrible diseases. I am and have always been pro-life. But the only explanation for legislators comparing cells in a petri dish to babies in the womb is the extension of religious doctrine into statutory law.
I do not fault religious people for political action. Since Moses confronted the pharaoh, faithful people have heard God's call to political involvement. Nor has political action been unique to conservative Christians. Religious liberals have been politically active in support of gay rights and against nuclear weapons and the death penalty. In America, everyone has the right to try to influence political issues, regardless of his religious motivations.
The problem is not with people or churches that are politically active. It is with a party that has gone so far in adopting a sectarian agenda that it has become the political extension of a religious movement.
When government becomes the means of carrying out a religious program, it raises obvious questions under the First Amendment. But even in the absence of constitutional issues, a political party should resist identification with a religious movement. While religions are free to advocate for their own sectarian causes, the work of government and those who engage in it is to hold together as one people a very diverse country. At its best, religion can be a uniting influence, but in practice, nothing is more divisive. For politicians to advance the cause of one religious group is often to oppose the cause of another.
Take stem cell research. Criminalizing the work of scientists doing such research would give strong support to one religious doctrine, and it would punish people who believe it is their religious duty to use science to heal the sick.
During the 18 years I served in the Senate, Republicans often disagreed with each other. But there was much that held us together. We believed in limited government, in keeping light the burden of taxation and regulation. We encouraged the private sector, so that a free economy might thrive. We believed that judges should interpret the law, not legislate. We were internationalists who supported an engaged foreign policy, a strong national defense and free trade. These were principles shared by virtually all Republicans.
But in recent times, we Republicans have allowed this shared agenda to become secondary to the agenda of Christian conservatives. As a senator, I worried every day about the size of the federal deficit. I did not spend a single minute worrying about the effect of gays on the institution of marriage. Today it seems to be the other way around.
The historic principles of the Republican Party offer America its best hope for a prosperous and secure future. Our current fixation on a religious agenda has turned us in the wrong direction. It is time for Republicans to rediscover our roots.
--John C. Danforth, a former United States senator from Missouri, resigned in January as United States ambassador to the United Nations. He is an Episcopal minister.
A guest editorial-- a GREAT ONE-- from "TruthOut" and John Corey:
We Love Howard Dean
By John Cory
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 10 June 2005
The Bush GOP is a Wal-Mart of five-and-dime ethics, self-enriching corporate sponsored war, imitation morality made in China, and a fresh baker's dozen of half-truths for every occasion. America on sale: to the right folks in the right place at the right time for the right price. Going once, going twice ...
Bible-thumping-bunko artists shove the hand of God into your pants pocket for thirty pieces of silver to buy membership lists from the likes of David Dukes and the KKK, because we all know, Heaven is white with just a touch of beige. And if you question that, James Dobson will take his Bible belt and show you the lashing love of Jesus.
We've long since passed murder at 1600 and now head to 1700 dead soldiers in Bush's war on Iraq. And while Condi visits the troops, with a smile that could slit your throat from ear to ear, nobody asks what the plan is for this sandbox game of death.
The Downing Street Memo is all the talk to avoid. There are some people who want the American media to cover the contents of the memo that show Bush and Blair conspired to wage war despite their promises otherwise. But the media won't cover the memo any more than they covered Bush's words in the second presidential debate of 2000 when he said: ".... The coalition against Saddam has fallen apart or it's unraveling, let's put it that way. The sanctions are being violated. We don't know whether he's developing weapons of mass destruction. He better not be or there's going to be a consequence should I be the president."
So what is the topic that grabs the news and the Democratic leadership's attention?
Howard Dean said something mean. Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
Bush lied and people died. Nope - not news. Ohio Republicans involved in financial and voting scandal. Nope - not news. Republicans jam Democratic phone lines during 2004 election to stop the vote. Republicans hack into Democratic computers. No news there. Tom Delay has repeated ethical lapses and takes money from lobbyists like Jack Abramoff. Nope - not news. The White House edits critical environmental reports to refute scientific fact. Nope - no news there. Wait a minute - this just in:
Howard Dean said something mean.
Oh my God! Stop the presses! Did you hear? Dean has gone mean, pass it on. Get Candy Crowley at CNN and Chris Matthews at MSNBC. Don't forget Scarborough. This is a week's worth of programming! Get Holy Joe Lieberman to speak for the good Democrats. Get Jive-Joe Biden, he'll be good for a sensible quote to contrast with the madness of Howard "Beal" Dean.
Quick, do you know why Republicans are against federal money for stem cell research? They're afraid the Democrats will use it to grow a spine. (ba-da-boom)
The Dainty Dems of Petticoat Junction got their knickers in a twist because Howard Dean spoke harshly about Republicans. Not that any of the Democratic leadership heard what Dean said or even asked him what he said. No, they got it from talk radio or from someone with good hair and white teeth on TV, or from some other reliable source.
If you Democratic leaders want to get upset about something, here's part of my list:
1. Lack of health care in this country.
2. Trampling of civil rights and privacy in the name of phony patriotism.
3. Religious hate discrimination against gays sanctioned as legislation.
4. Corporations ruining the environment and defiling worker's rights.
5. In a culture of life - why does more money go to improving bombs than improving schools?
6. How can a president lie to Congress about war and get away with it?
7. Church and State do not belong together. Ever.
8. Why do I need to remind you of any of this?
I don't give a crap whether or not you like Howard Dean. It's about damned time the Democratic Party quit sucking up to corporations and Republicans and began sticking up for the people! You remember, we the people? Of the people, by the people, and for the people? It is there somewhere in a government document, as I recall. Make a Freedom of Information request and maybe one of your new conservative judges will let you look at it under the glass where they keep it.
You want to hold Howard Dean accountable for what he says, fine. How about holding Bush accountable for what he does?
1. Sending our troops into harm's way without sufficient and proper armor.
2. Cutting veterans' services and budgets when it is needed most.
3. Not allowing our returning dead to be photographed and honored openly.
4. Failing the sick and afflicted while enriching the drug industry.
5. Selling the sweat of America to the highest corporate bidder.
The list is long and ignored. I understand you are much too busy trying to teach Howard Dean how polite society functions.
Like I said in the beginning, this administration has stocked its shelves with half-truths. The price of one half-truth is a whole life. And a whole lot of life is dying for the dollar lies of Bush Inc.
I want someone who will stand up not stand down. I want someone outspoken and outrageous and out there, for me. I want someone on my side, not on my back for more money. I want someone who fights, not folds at the first sign of fake indignation.
To paraphrase my good friend Titus: You whiny Democratic Leadership wussies - get down off the cross and use the wood to build a bridge to get over it! We love Howard Dean!
------------------------------------
John Cory is a Vietnam veteran. He received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star with V device, 1969 - 1970.
Dean Was Right
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Saturday 11 June 2005
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."
-- Revelations 3:15-16
If the leadership qualities of those in charge of the national Democratic Party could be squeezed into a shampoo bottle, the directions on the back of the bottle might read something like this: “Make tentative statement. Offer equivocation to avoid appearing adamant. Scramble for cover when colleague offers stinging critique of opposition. Stab colleague in back in public. Palpitate and fret, hem and haw. Lather, rinse, repeat.”
Quite a recipe for success, yes? Not lately.
For the last several years, the Democratic Party has been, for the most part, leaving skid marks on the street as they have retreated from confrontation after confrontation with the radicals who now control the Republican party. This retreat has gone from the ridiculous to the sublime to the utterly outrageous.
Here and there resistance has been put forth - on the Social Security issue, on the stem cell legislation, on the nomination of Bolton as UN ambassador - but all too often the most effective resistance to these and other disastrous policy initiatives has come from other Republicans, and not from the Democrats. It was the eloquence of Republican Senator Voinovich that threw sand in the gears of the Bolton nomination, and it was Republican Senator Specter’s promised override of any Bush veto of the stem cell legislation that has made that issue a problem for the White House.
And then along comes Howard Dean, chairman of the DNC, outspoken and uncompromising, swinging Willie Stark’s meat ax with a will and a purpose. He dared to say that he hates Republicans, that the leadership of that party hasn’t worked a day in their lives, that the GOP has become a radical hothouse of right-wing Christians, almost all of whom are white, and that House majority leader Tom DeLay should go back to Texas and get his looming prison sentence over with. Insert palpitations. Suddenly, Democrats like Joe Biden and Bill Richardson start knocking over furniture and old ladies in their rush to get to a microphone so they can distance themselves from the wild man.
Yes, yes, lather and rinse and repeat. The problem with all the equivocation is that it obscures a simple fact that requires exposure and discussion in this country: Dean was right. Ninety nine percent of Republicans in the state legislatures in all 50 states, and in Congress in Washington DC, are white. Even in states and districts with large minority populations, the Republican representatives for those places are almost uniformly white Christians.
Of 3,643 Republicans serving in state legislatures across the country, only 44 of them are minorities, amounting to 1.2%. Texas, with a minority population of 47%, has 106 Republicans in the state legislature. There are exactly zero African Americans and exactly zero Hispanics serving in that body as Republicans. In Washington, 274 of the 535 elected Senators and Representatives are Republican. Exactly five are minorities.
Of course, there are ethnic and religious minorities within the rank and file of the GOP, but every demographic analysis of the party’s makeup clearly shows the vast majority of Republicans fit exactly into the description offered by Mr. Dean. His point, by the way, was not that white Christians are bad people. His point was that, in this pluralist society made up of so much diversity, the Republican Party does not represent the true face of this country. He was also pointing out that the GOP has been taken over by that small, radical minority of white Christians who believe separation of church and state is evil, and who believe Biblical law is a better tool of governance than that pesky Constitution.
As for hating Republicans, the employment record of the GOP leadership, and DeLay’s date with a Houston cellblock, there is method to the supposed madness here. Those who question the wisdom of Dean firing broadsides like this look to the old lawyer’s maxim: When you have the law on your side, pound on the law, and when you have the facts on your side, pound on the facts, and when you have neither the law nor the facts on your side, pound on the table. On so many issues facing us today, Dean and the Democrats have both the facts and the law on their side. The question becomes, then, about why Dean is pounding on the table.
The answer is straightforward, and appropriately bold after several years of ineffective limp-noodle Democratic leadership. Every time Dean fires off one of his salvos, reporters flip open their notebooks. Headlines get made, discussion begins, and a whole lot of people start debating the facts and merits of his statements. Is the Republican leadership run by right-wing yahoos? Is DeLay going to jail? Controversy begets press. Dean can see, as well as anyone else, how effective the moderate, soft-touch, treading-lightly approach has been working lately for the Democrats.
But how are we going to win those white Christian middle-America voters to our side by having Dean basically call them out? asks the ruffled Democratic leadership. The answer to this lies at the heart of what the Democratic party has been failing at for a while now. The voters who are supposedly going to be alienated by this kind of talk are the very same voters who look for guts, strength and straight talk from the leadership of this country. All too often, Democratic leaders come off sounding like they are saying seven things at once, leaving the impression that their spines are somewhat slippery. Boldness, on the other hand, begets confidence, even in disagreement.
These Dean statements also, coincidentally, whip the Democratic base into a roaring frenzy as they hear an actual Democratic leader speak their beliefs out loud and in public. One of the things Dean is working on every day is to redirect DNC fundraising away from the big-dollar donors who give equally to both parties in order to hedge their bets. Dependence on this breed of donor causes the party to crab towards the middle and avoid anything resembling true opposition.
Dean wants DNC fundraising efforts to be focused on the common citizen, the Democratic activist who has been screaming at the party to say what must be said, and Dean’s inflammatory statements spark the kind of donation avalanche that turned his Presidential campaign into a financial juggernaut. He may have lost in the end, but the manner in which he raised campaign money changed the face of electoral politics. He is porting those lessons into national DNC fundraising efforts, and statements like these go a long way towards making those efforts wildly successful.
Memo to Dean: Keep doing what you are doing. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Ed Schultz is a right winger in the closet. Have you ever noticed how AAR hosts always seem to avoid the big questions, like 9/11 "conspiracy theories", and why Kerry threw the election for Bush (technically, by giving up with a whimper after promising to fight with teams of lawyers, he did just that)? Anyone listening to Big Eddie last week will have heard him cut off two or three callers who were simply asking for a more open minded discussion of what happened to us on September 11th. He cut the first caller off outright and went to a comercial in the middle of the second caller. That is a bit suspicious to me. I always wondered if they were put in place by the ruling junta to give us the illusion of "another side", and to keep discussion from going in the "wrong" direction. Ed Schultz is a poser in my book. I will never listen to him again.
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