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For The Trees
A weblog for Liberals who are FED UP with Bush and the Right! About the Authors: Dave Johnson John Emerson Richard Reich Thomas Leavitt 
Recent Posts: BEST OF STF: Dave's: Articles not at STF: The ATLA Speech on building a progressive infrastructure Lowering the Bar The Attack on Trial Lawyers and Tort Law Who's Behind the Attack on Liberal Professors On the Right and their communications infrastructure: Why Republicans Win Win or Lose The "Conventional Wisdom" Machine Some History of the Conservative Movement HOW TO FIGHT BACK An Amplifier Of Our Own Don't Blame the Democrats How They Do It 1 2 3 4 Getting Rolled Other: You're Gonna Get Drafted Scalia and Self-Government Who is Our Economy For? Voting Machine Story Link Collection What's Wrong with this Picture? (Voting Machines) Like Meat in the Supermarket Get Active Thin Line 1 2 3 Fixing Social Security Seeing the Forest I, II, III "Incredibly Positive News" The Breadth of It The Republican Crony Club Moon Bush Ralph Nader is a Scab John's Best Of: Kerry Smear Page Bandar Bush 9/11 Commission Report Damages Bush -- if you read it Florida Goon Squad Intimidated the Supreme Court The Use and Abuse of George Orwell Zizka's Archives (John's previous identity) Zizka Sampler News Sources: AlterNet BuzzFlash Common Dreams Cursor Drudge Retort Information Clearing House Smirking Chimp TruthOut What REALLY Happened Links to Other Weblogs: |
 Thursday, March 31, 2005 Democracy Arsenal Democracy Arsenal, a new blog from The Security and Peace Institute: " The Security and Peace Institute was formed in 2005 as a joint initiative of the Center for American Progress and The Century Foundation. The Institute works to advance a responsible U.S. foreign policy based on strong defense, collective security, capable international institutions, and effective promotion of democracy and the rule of law. SPI supports fellows, sponsors research and convenes foreign policy conferences and meetings." --- Posted at 5:06 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post  
Thought Crimes Those Evil, Terrorist Loving "Libruls" (Thanks to Oliver Willis) --- Posted at 5:03 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Think Progress Been to Think Progress lately? How about Smirking Chimp? BuzzFlash? --- Posted at 4:58 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Wednesday, March 30, 2005 Bill Bradley Describes VRWC in NY Times Piece Today Sounding like a Seeing the Forest regular, in A Party Inverted, former Senator Bill Bradley today describes how the Right has built a network of organizations that have become the foundation for the Republican Party, and how this structure supports their candidates outside of the election cycle. This is a must-read! To further the party's ideological and political goals, Republicans in the 1970's and 1980's built a comprehensive structure based on Powell's blueprint. Visualize that structure as a pyramid.He describes how this structure supports candidates. The Republicans have this massive structure in place so it doesn't really matter who they run. As I have said here, just look at who they run and tell me they are better candidates! At the very top of the pyramid you'll find the president. Because the pyramid is stable, all you have to do is put a different top on it and it works fine.This understanding of how much the Right is doing outside of the election cycle that directly affects elections is so important to get. From Win or Lose, The Right's machine is not oriented around the election cycle, it is constant, yet this is why they win elections. Their organizations provide a drumbeat of propaganda all year, every year, working with the latest PR and marketing techniques, utilizing the latest research into the psychology of persuasion, exploiting the latest trends, etc. Because its marketing is constant, their politicians have it easy -- they just show up and echo the ideology that this machine has been pumping out and ride along on the rest of the resulting public opinion. Their politicians are almost interchangable, their work having been already done for them by the organizations, they have only to show up and say the right things and they have an automatic base of support.Now go here and give them some money so they can fight the Right, here to study up on what has been happening to us, and here to read up on Progressive Infrastructure to give "our side" a voice. --- Posted at 1:49 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Blog Change Coming Friday On Friday Seeing the Forest is going to switch over to its new site. That site will be at Seeingtheforest.com. The blog you are reading now is located at seetheforest.blogspot.com, and I currently have a "redirect" set up for Seeingtheforest.com that sends everyone here. On Friday we leave Blogger and blogspot (and all the problems) behind for good. I will change the "name servers" for SeeingtheForest.com to point to the new blog. Many of you won't have to do anything because you'll just be sent to the new location automatically. But people who have bookmarks set to "seetheforest.blogspot.com" will continue to come to this site. I suspect that most blogs that link to Seeing the Forest are linking to that incorrect address. So if you find yourself wondering why Seeing the Forest is not being updated, it is because you are looking at the old blogspot site, missing out on all the fun. I know that some of you fear change, and a few of you can be very excitable, so I have worked hard to make sure the new blog looks just like the current one. (Yes, I messed up a perfectly good template to do that. Over time I promise to make it look better. But I just had to get away from blogger before anything else!) And I know that many of you depend on Seeing the Forest for your very life essence. Yes, I recognize and respect and shoulder the tremendous responsibility that you have entrusted me with. With which you have entrusted me. So I will make sure that there are posts here on Thursday and posts there on Friday, and continuity of the flow will be assured. AND I will make sure that anyone who comes here to the blogger location will be able to get to the new location. On top of that I have made sure that all the links and archives at the new location are correct. So you can find old Seeing the Forest posts to read on slower days, and relive better times. --- Posted at 9:05 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
How the Liberal Media Myth is Created Everyone should read eriposte's series at The Left Coaster, How the Liberal Media Myth is Created. I insist. The series covers how this myth is created using: Part 1, "tone" of media coverage Part 2, "catch-phrases" like 'right-wing extremist' v. 'left-wing extremist' Part 3, "newspaper headlines" Part 4, "topics" covered Part 5, "think-tank" citations Part 6, surveys of journalist ideology or voting preferences --- Posted at 8:40 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Tuesday, March 29, 2005 Interest Rates For a one-year CD I can get 3.16%. But that is lower than the current inflation rate AND gas is up to $2.35 a gallon and rising fast around here, housing prices up 20% last year. WTF? The government is telling us that it is wrong, just wrong, to try to save money. --- Posted at 5:54 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Monday, March 28, 2005 Finally Leaving Blogger I been bloggered so long it looks like up to me. I'm finally going to leave Blogger. Oh my God they give bad service!!!!!! I signed up a Moveable Type account at LivingDot, and will start the process of getting to know the new software and setting up a blog template. I'll switch over soon. Not sure how to handle the last two-and-a-half years of archives... but I'll figure it out. If you have Seeing the Forest bookmarked or blogrolled, make sure you are using "seeingtheforest.com" as your bookmark and not the "http://seetheforest.blogspot.com/" address. Seeingtheforest.com will always point to the current Seeing the Forest blog. P.S. I have been trying to post this since last night but Blogger keeps crashing. --- Posted at 10:01 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Insulting Bloggers The National Press Club Welcomes ... Jeff Gannon? You've heard of Jeff Gannon. He's the right-wing male prostitute that the White House was using as a shill to deflect critical press questions. Well, now the National Press club is including him on a panel (1st paragraph only) as a --- BLOGGER!!! And, of course, they aren't putting any actual bloggers on the panel. Yes, the same day that the prestigious Washington, D.C., journalism organization plans to present a lunch talk by former Washington Post executive editor Ben Bradlee, it will also allow the former White House reporter/sex site operator to be on a panel discussing bloggers and online journalism.Responging to this, The Agonist has organized An Open Letter To The National Press Club Members of The National Press Club, --- Posted at 3:09 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Housing Bubble/Crash Putting Stock in Property, "This is more exciting than a mutual fund," Boome said. "It feels safer too. You buy a piece of dirt, you feel you'll always have a piece of dirt."Angry Bear: Housing: Speculation and the Price-Rent Ratio I was going to link to and quote from a number of recent articles, and then I found Housing Crash Blog, and its links to recent articles on the subject. So just go there. --- Posted at 10:24 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Sunday, March 27, 2005 Moderates, Academics, and Democrats Recently on Kos and MYDD there's been a discussion of the left blogosphere which traces back to an old post by Kevin Drum. The gist of the discussion is here: If you remove Atrios, the left blogosphere is neatly divided into two mutually-linking spheres: the moderate/intellectual (academicky) types - Drum, DeLong, Yglesias, TPM, Tapped, Crooked Timber - and the left activist types - Kos, MyDD, Digby, Left Coaster, Pandagon (only this one surprised me a bit). Even at the modest 5-link level, none of these blogs link to anyone on other side.Here are a few points I'd like to add to the discussion: The moderation of the journalists (TAPPED, Marshall) has a lot to do with the fact that the career path for committed, aggressive liberal Democrats is pretty puny. What you see on TV, on the talk shows, and on most of the newspapers is almost entirely conservative Republicans, centrists of both parties, and apolitical professionals. Beyond ideology, ambitious journalists can't afford to offend important people in the biz, even if they are egregiously dishonest, and from time to time all of them make a point of saying nice things about whoever they think is the least loathesome guy on the other side of the aisle. Bob Somerby is the person they don't dare to be. Recently he applauded a statement of Josh Marshall's about the dismal state of reporting on this issue or that, but pointed out that Marshall had failed to name any names. Somerby is almost always right, but he names names and has made too many enemies. The people at TAPPED have slammed Somerby whenever they've gotten the chance, and lo! -- Nick Confessore just got hired by the New York Times. I think that the collegiality of academia, combined with excessive doses of Orwell and Gandhi, tend to incapacitate academics for the kind of gutter fighting you need when you're facing Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove, and Grover Norquist. I think that the habits and ways characteristic of academic institutions are the problem, and I think that many of these habits and ways are also characteristic of the various other kinds of large institutions where Democrats tend to make their careers. The Republicans hire semi-criminal entrepreneurs, and it works for them. Finally, Ivy-League whiz kids bring a lot to the party, but I think that they're too influential. They tend to have a pretty limited class experience, and even the ones who come from non-elite backgrounds can be careerists intent on escaping from their past. To put it simply, I think that the Democrats should hire more people from SW Texas State and fewer from Harvard. Before I get accused of being a know-nothing Maoist-Populist wrecker, I don't think that anyone should be purged because of their background. But I do think that there's been a skew in the Democratic Party which should be corrected. The Democrats' populist roots are still featured at Roosevelt-Kennedy nostalgia fests, but are not very evident in the party's real-time activities. Republican populism is fake, but it works. And finally -- as always, I think that the big fact of today's political world is that there are no good guys on the other side of the aisle, and that Democrats should quit looking for them. (Temporarily out of retirement). Update - Also Ian at Blogging of the President --- Posted at 7:17 PM by John Emerson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Nuclear I wonder if global warming and world oil demand mean it's time to re-think nuclear energy. In my opinion the consequences of getting our energy from fossil fuels are greater than the risks from nuclear energy. --- Posted at 7:53 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Government DID Help Saudis Leave After 9/11! New Details on F.B.I. Aid for Saudis After 9/11 The episode has been retold so many times in the last three and a half years that it has become the stuff of political legend: in the frenzied days after Sept. 11, 2001, when some flights were still grounded, dozens of well-connected Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, managed to leave the United States on specially chartered flights.The key for me line in Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 movie was: Imagine how the press and conservatives would react if, after the Oklahoma City bombing, we learned that Bill Clinton had helped get Timothy McVeigh's family out of the country. --- Posted at 7:21 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Saturday, March 26, 2005 Whiskey Bar: The Passion of Terri Show me the way to the next Whiskey Bar Oh, don’t ask why Oh, don’t ask why Just go read. --- Posted at 7:58 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Financial Ruin From this story about housing prices in the SF Bay Area, House buying: receding dream: "With Bay Area home prices rising steeply over the past two years, most buyers have opted for adjustable-rate mortgages -- often with the option of ``interest-only'' payments -- to ensure affordable monthly payments.The "For Sale" signs are sprouting like mushrooms. It probably won't be long now. How many of you remember the Savings and Loan crisis, and the root causes? --- Posted at 11:16 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Friday, March 25, 2005 Republicans Set Up Phony Front Group to Testify at Hearing! The story is at THE BRAD BLOG. Apparently the Republicans set up a phony front group to testify at a Congressional hearing on voting rights. But what really makes this story good is the pictures in the blog post. (Through Oliver Willis.) --- Posted at 4:11 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Advertising Money Subsidizing the Right, Moonies I visited the Moonie Washngton Times to see this story, Conservative Web site, Heritage split. At the top of the page, at least when I visited, was a large banner ad that said, "Now Hiring," from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), with a Department of Homeland Security logo. Clicking the ad took me to this page. How much do you think the TSA paid the Moonies to put the ad there? Did they pay normal rates? Double? Have you seen ads like this in non-right-wing media? WHO is the TSA trying to recruit by advertising with the Moonies, and why? I checked NewsMax, and didn't see any government-paid ads, but you might be interested to know that NewsMax brags that Sears, Hitachi, Citibank, OfficeMax and Purina advertise with them. WorldNetDaily has University of Phoenix, Cisco Systems, Xerox, Blockbuster. Drudge has NetFlix, Monster.com, Starbucks, EarthLink, Sprint... You might want to really think about whether those companies deserve your business. --- Posted at 12:38 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
IMPORTANT NOTICE Important Changes to Your Citizenship Agreement - Please read and retain for your records.: [. . .] SECTION 11 --- Posted at 10:05 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Thursday, March 24, 2005 Cursor's Media Transparency It's a good idea to check in regularly at Cursor's Media Transparency and see what they have going on. Also, scroll down. The articles stack. --- Posted at 9:42 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Right-Wingers, Read This TalkLeft: Did Congress Really Want to Save Terri Schiavo's Life? Meanwhile, former Senate majority counsel Julian Epstein was on Larry King tonight. He said Congress didn't really want to save Terri Schiavo's life. He was faxed a draft of the legislation in advance and said he told Congress staffers that the law wouldn't work, but that there were options that could work. He said Congress could easily have assured the reinsertion of the feeding tube by writing an automatic stay into the law -- or by creating new evidentiary rules. Congress' refusal to do so, Julian says, means it knowingly passed a half-hearted law that wouldn't work.They once again got the political use out of the Christians without giving the Christians anything. How long can they keep that up? Apparently, forever. --- Posted at 8:09 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Norman Spinrad: corporate publishing oligopoly dooming science fiction novel Just read the latest "On Books" column for Issac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, written by Norman Spinrad (author of, among others, the classic SF novels "Bug Jack Barron" and "The Iron Dream"). In it, he details the sorry state of science fiction publishing (one look at the lousy design of the IASFM web site is worth a thousand words on the economic state of the industry... not to mention the lack of interior illustrations in recent issues), and a very sad and woleful tale it is. Major publishers count themselves lucky to distribute 15,000 copies of a "mass market" publication. Small press publishers deem 1,000 copies a major success.
The ultimate result, in his view, will be the death of "science fiction" as we know it... and the loss of our society's primary vehicle for cultural transformation. Here's what he has to say on the subject:
You can log one more negative side effect of corporate consolidation and media monopolies... the potential death of our culture's ability to evolve and respond to new challenges. This from someone on our side of the fence - he participated in unauthorized street protests during the Republican National Convention last year (just before he wrote this column). There's a hint, earlier on, that perhaps some of the small press publishers can grow themselves into "independent" publishers... perhaps the answer to the call to revolution he ends the column with is for us, the readers, to set up our own self-contained economic ecology (much like the Christians have done). Santa Cruz's resident curmudgeon columnist, Bruce Bratton, has written for three weeks straight about Jennifer Nix's challenge to major figures on the left, Sleeping With The Enemy, asking why folks such as Michael Moore, Amy Goodman and Jim Hightower choose to make fortunes for media conglomerates rather than helping small independent publishers such as Chelsea Green (her company) grow... even writing these authors and getting no response from any of them. Its a serious question... how addicted are we to the corporate culture we inhabit? Can we really envision an alternative? One for which we'd honestly be willing to put our money where our mouth is? If folks as eminent as the ones Bruce mentions in his column can't do so, what does it say about the chances of the rest of us? --Thomas Leavitt --- Posted at 3:07 AM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Wednesday, March 23, 2005 Dear Progressive Bloggers You're doing it again. You're not seeing what is really going on. You are missing the bigger picture. You are looking at trees and missing the forest. Do you really, after all this time and all these defeats, think the Right is stupid? You mock the Republicans for blatantly acting politically, and ignore that they ARE ACTING POLITICALLY. In other words, they're acting in the way that will in the long term gain them more support for their candidates and issues. You mock their politicians for flocking to this because of a Republican talking points memo telling them this will gain them a political advantage, yet you do not see that THIS WILL GAIN THEM POLITICAL ADVANTAGE. You're nitpicking details and ignoring the larger narrative. They are "trying to save this poor woman." They are "defending this poor woman's family." Meanwhile, you are pointing out discrepancies in the finer details. "What about her husband?" you ask when they talk about her parents. "She can't feel pain," you say, when they accuse Democrats of starving her to death. How many people hear that they are trying to save this poor woman? Everyone. How many people, over time, will pay attention to the nitpicking details? You THINK what the Republicans are doing is unpopular with the public because you see the issue details in the polls and think they matter. Polls say people wouldn't want to live if they were in her situation. Polls say the state should have precedence over the Feds. But have you seen polls that reflect the larger narrative that the Republican machine is spreading? Do the polls ask if Republicans are trying to save this poor woman's life, while Democrats are trying to kill her? What do you think those polls would say? You point out how hypocritical the Republicans are being without thinking about WHY. Stop arguing details, getting all caught up and pinned down. Start arguing the larger narrative. Tune in to Limbaugh. Go read the Right's press. They are escalating this. Ask yourself why. And watch your backs. Update Never mind polls showing the public thinks Congress shouldn't interfere, feels they would want to die in the same situation, etc. Those are narrow issue points. WE ALREADY KNOW that we win on issues. But they win on the larger strategic narratives. We know all these things and here we are doing it all over again. We're arguing the details of their lies instead of reaching the broader, general public with a larger narrative that reinforces public acceptance of the benefits of underlying Progressive values. --- Posted at 11:12 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Tuesday, March 22, 2005 Contrasts August, 2001, Bush receives a memo titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," leaves for vacation. March, 2005, Bush receives a Republican strategy memo saying "This is a great political issue, ... and this is a tough issue for Democrats," flies back from vacation for emergency Congressional session. Party over country. --- Posted at 8:45 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Mike's Blog Roundup At Crooks and Liars --- Posted at 6:31 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Must read material... Toward a Unified Theory of Black America --- Posted at 1:23 PM by Thomas Leavitt Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Church Accused Of Political Activity The IRS is accusing a church of violating its tax-exempt status for engaging in political activities. Read the next line only if you are sitting down. They are making the accusation because of an appearance by a Democratic candidate. Yes, you heard me right: "The IRS has notified a Liberty City church that it is under investigation for possibly engaging in political activity -- putting its tax-exempt status into question.The agencies of the government are being used to enforce a one-party state. Churches and religious leaders publicly support the Republican Party with impunity. Catholic Bishops and Southern Baptists tell their flocks it is a sin to vote for Democrats, but this is allowed. And just to drive the point home, the government investigates a church because it allowed a Democrat to speak. The IRS is also investigating the NAACP for political activity. Not the Heritage Foundation, Cato, American Enterprise Institute, or any of the 500 other organizations in the "conservative movement" network, financed to the tune of $400 million a year, that are the core of the Republican Party. Nope, not them. Next it will be jobs. If you are a Democrat you don't get hired, don't get promoted, etc... --- Posted at 12:23 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Monday, March 21, 2005 Visit A New Blog Visit a random webog from the loooongggg "Links to Other Weblogs" blogroll a ways down the left column here. There are so many good things to read, and it is such a great community of Progressive bloggers. Don't get stuck in a rut. Of course, come back here every day. --- Posted at 9:39 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Been There? Been to The Sideshow lately? --- Posted at 9:36 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Oh My God! Not to echo Atrios or anything, but HOLY CRAP! A "conservative" pundit is writing about the corruption of the conservatives! Update - McCain Blocks DeLay Investigation --- Posted at 9:15 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
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Bloggered IF you knew to scroll wayyyyy down the page, you are seeing this. I have no idea why Blogger does this sometimes. --- Posted at 2:08 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Good Blog Summaries Good places to visit: The Daou Report Peek: The Blog Of Blogs Cursor Media Patrol --- Posted at 2:03 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Bring The Troops Home? Is it really a good idea to bring these guys home, where the Republicans will be making up stories about how treasonous Democrats and Liberals betrayed them, and hate them, and are working with terrorists to kill their families? Warning - the video is probably too disturbing for most of us. (American soldiers in Iraq killing a dog for fun.) --- Posted at 10:33 AM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Sunday, March 20, 2005 Bloggered Yet Again As you can probably see, the site is bloggered yet again... --- Posted at 3:44 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Great Animated Cartoon At skippy the bush kangaroo. --- Posted at 2:41 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
Saturday, March 19, 2005 Drives Me Crazy See the updates at the bottom of this post. I am upset by the tone of John's post below. I just got home from a very long day, and will get some sleep and think about what I want to say about it. Update It was the language, directed at a person, that bothered me. John addressed this. Everything is OK now. Also, I think (hope) Kevin's post might have been misinterpreted. But misinterpreted or not, Kevin quoted and did not address Milbank mentioning "a press that brought the Clinton scandals to light". GOOD LORD, THERE WERE NO CLINTON SCANDALS!!!! Just one guy got a blow job. That's it! After all of the accusations and investigations - investigations that distracted from real issues and threats - not a SINGLE accusation turned out to have any merit at all, and not a SINGLE member of the administration was found to have done anything wrong! The investigations were so thorough and the members of the Clinton administration were so clean that one guy was found to have overbilled clients years earlier, and was sent to Federal prison for a long time for it. That's the whole thing. Saying there were "Clinton scandals" is a right-wing talking point. It is part of a strategic campaign of lies to discredit legitimate government and pave the way for the right-wing/corporate takeover of the country that we have seen occur. Aside from anything else in the post, Kevin should have picked that up and called Milbank on that. Milbank should have understood what he was saying. These are the kinds of things we should all be aware of now. I can't address the rest of what Kevin was saying because I'm not sure what he was saying. Kevin drives me crazy that way, but I have learned to give him the benefit of the doubt because he IS on our side. Update Digby writes about the Clinton Scandals aspect of this: The Clinton scandals were contrived political character assassination that were investigated to the tune of 70 million dollars by numerous Republican congressional committees and Republican special prosecutors and WERE PROVED TO BE WITHOUT MERIT!!! The mainstream press were not muckrakers, they were willing whores and shills for a partisan agenda. They obsessed over a decades old land deal, the firing of some employees in the travel office, some bozo in the basement reading FBI files and Clinton's sex life among many other trivial charges. None of them came to anything. These facts are clear.So here we are. We all watched the media go after Clinton - who ran the most honest, public-serving, dedicated and intelligent government possibly in our nation's entire history. We all watched them repeat and echo every single accusation and lie, no matter how ridiculous. And now we all watch the very same media provide cover for outright theft of the country's savings, absolute corporate crony corruption, even wars of aggression and torture. But it's the way it is and how long do we continue to whine and complain about it before we start DOING something about it? John is right, they have taken over, with The Party increasingly using the power and resources of the state to enforce one-party rule. The country is drifting toward corporate fascism and the question is how repressive and violent might they get toward us, the enemy within? But the Soviet Union fell, and Marcos, and the Shah, and other entrenched one-party states have fallen. So we can't give up hope. We have to try to inform the public and resist the Right's takeover as best we can. Giving up really is not an option, in my opinion. --- Posted at 11:27 PM by Dave Johnson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
WHY I QUIT Below (slightly edited) is what I wrote in response to this post by Kevin Drum, in which he said "I continue to believe that on a list of problems with the American media, ideological bias barely cracks the top ten." (Remember, guys -- in theory, Kevin is on our side.) This kind of post is why I think that Kevin is worthless, and a good part of the reason why I gave up on blogging, the Democratic Party, and the US. --- Posted at 7:07 PM by John Emerson Link to this | | | | e-mail this post
No More IMAX Movies About Science A New Screen Test for Imax: It's the Bible vs. the Volcano, The fight over evolution has reached the big, big screen.Thanks to The Blogging of the President. | ||||