Friday, December 11, 2009

Quote of the Day

"The tea party nation announced that Sarah Palin will headline what is being called the first national tea party convention in February. It is expected to be the nation's largest ever gathering of  misspelled signs." –Seth

It's the media, stupid.

I've been thinking quite a bit lately about all of those Obama supporters who have been so disappointed in him since the election, especially yours truly. Then it occurred to me that the same very reason why George W. Bush was able to get away with so much bullshit is exactly why Obama gets so much shit.

It's the media, stupid.

I've ranted plenty about the Mainstream Media (MSM, or Corporate-run media as I prefer to call them. It should have been immediately obvious what was going on. The bottom line is that the media - and not just Fox News - has been doing all the negative reporting on Obama that they can. This is in stark contrast to how the media bent over muscle-snapping backwards to do positive reporting on W and do as little negative reporting as possible until it just became unavoidable.

The majority of media outlets are owned and operated by huge corporate interests, we all know that. Large corporate interests are as anti-liberal and anti-progressive as can be. They are, at their core, in deep opposition to any politician that is not conservative. It only stands to reason that they would do their best to undermine politicians - and most importantly a President - who are not conservative. Obama may not be a liberal, but he is also not a conservative, er go, the media will do as much as it can to whittle away at Obama in a "death by a thousand cuts" effort to ruin his standing among his supporters, and the fencesitters.

The evidence is all around you, and often right in front of our faces. The Corporate-run media doesn't do the type of negative reporting that panders to right-wngers and tea-baggers, those people are already in the bag. No, the Corporate-run media targets their reporting to the aforementioned Obama supporters, and fencesitters. Often times, the reports may not start out negative, but frequently, buried in the reports are little jabs and swipes that serve to discredit Obama.

But don't take my word for it. Just keep your eyes fully open when reading articles, or columns, or listen to reports on TV or the radio, especially anything from the Associated Press. Keep track of all the little asides, swipes, jabs, and barbs. You'll see the pattern emerge clearly.

Then, eventually, you'll realize - like me - that you've been played like a fiddle. Once that happens, you can choose to not be played by the media, ad you can stop being a sucker for their bullshit games.

Animal Farm Friday - Sea cows don't moo

But they do other cute stuff!



Achoo!



Thursday, December 10, 2009

Rachel's Courage

Glenn Greenwald has a great post about Rachel Maddow's courageous Tuesday night demolishing of so-called "formerly gay" Richard Cohen. My favorite part is where he subtly - and rightly - implies that other Beltway media stars just don't match up to her intellectual capacity:

Rachel's guest last night was modestly smart, coy and well-prepared, and pinning him down this way was not an easy task.  Rachel was able to demolish his statements only because she is extremely smart, intellectually quick and dexterous, and able to think critically on the spot.  To put it as politely as possible, people like David Gregory or, say, Brian Williams and John King  don't exactly have those instruments at their disposal.  That deprivation is a major reason why they're selected for those positions. (Emphasis mine.)

If you haven't watched Rachel go to work on that fraud, you can watch it here:




It really gets good here:

Cohen: "You're taking it out of context..."

Rachel: "I'm reading it from your book, dude."




Jesus had two dads...

http://s.buzzfed.com/static/enhanced/terminal01/2009/12/3/16/enhanced-buzz-31899-1259875741-17.jpg

Funny.

Young-earth creationist Kent Hovind's doctoral dissertation

From WikiLeaks:
Released December 9, 2009
Summary

Young-earth creationist Kent E. Hovind's doctoral dissertation.

"Hello, my name is Kent Hovind. I am a creation/science evangelist. I live in Pensacola, Florida. I have been a high school science teacher since 1976. I've been very active in the creation/evolution controversy for quite some time."

Kent Kovind Hovind is a well-known "young-earth" biblical creationist. As such the strength of his dissertation is of broad interest.

According to our source, contrary to accepted practices in academia where doctoral dissertations are available to the public. Kent. Hovind, along with his alma mater, Patriot Bible University, has consistently refused to allow his dissertation to be offered for public reprint or scholarly inquiry.
Help us create a just and corruption free world.
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Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Animal Farm Friday on Wednesday - Scratching Kitty

Kitty hits the decks and breaks it down!



Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Hitch on Palin

Christopher Hitchens has a deliciously prosaic post at Slate on the gloriously stupid Sarah Palin, and how it is that she manages to continue being insinuated into "polite circles", despite being such a political fraud:

What price the courageous frontier huntress now—an empty-headed echo chamber for rumor-mongers and freaks who shoots from ambush and then runs away? Some condescending right-wing intellectuals are calling her style "populist" and comparing it with Andrew Jackson and William Jennings Bryan. The true name for it is demagogy, descending from Joseph McCarthy, Robert Welch, and the nastier elements of the old Nixon gang—people to whom slander and defamation was second nature.



US+Israel+Iran=Depressing

Andrew Sullivan has an illuminating post about a recently war-gamed scenario at Harvard by some highly experienced foreign policy experts. The end result was far more depressing than anyone anticipated:

The fact that it was seasoned veterans of the policy process playing these roles makes it even more significant. The lesson was not so much that Iran could “win” this [game of Israel choosing to attack Iran without US approval] so easily; it was that the US and its allies were unable even to imagine any alternatives.

...the outcome was simply depressing!



Monday, December 7, 2009

Monday Kickstarter 2 - Ukraine's Got Talent!

I can't get enough of these sand animation videos. I wouldn't even know where to begin. Very inspiring!



They are not giving up!



Atheist Cat

ZOMG LOL!

http://i.imgur.com/PuOAy.jpg

Monday Kickstarter - Projecting

From the LA Examiner: