Posted on by Joe
Did you see this floating around the internet? I picked it up on the New York Times’ website and I admit, it made me smile at the absurdity of it all. If you’ve got three minutes, I encourage you to click play below and enjoy this mash-up. Hilarious!
Now why aren’t all of the debates handled in this manner?
Posted on by Joe
You don’t have to like my religion – heck, you don’t have to like your own religion! However, I like my Roman Catholic faith and I both read up on it as well as review the different contemporary interpretations of its values. To that end, I see videos like the one below as presenting an interesting message in how Catholics should attempt to live up to their faith. Take a look, more discussion afterwards.
The message here is obvious, right? If you’re Catholic, then you should probably vote for the candidate that will support religious freedom as defined by not forcing religious institutions to provide contraception to their employees. Like it or not, I agree with that stance. I think if you’re a registered, recognized religious organization (Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Wiccan, whatever!), then you are protected by the Constitution’s guaranty of religious freedom. Further, I think if the government tells you that you have to do anything that is fundamentally against your teachings, then the government is wrong.
I have no interest in going into details on the other issues noted in the video such as the job creation, the economy, the definition of marriage (my take on this particular issue is totally out of view with the mainstream anyway since I don’t think the government should be saying anyone is “married”), and so on. However, I do think the overall message of the video is one that religious folks should consider during this election cycle and all election cycles: do you vote according to what is popular or do you seriously consider the issues and vote according to your faith?
Most folks would assume that voting your faith means that you’re going to vote Republican. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. In some parts of this country, the education reform movement is bolstered and supported by the Democratic Party and thus if you vote your Christian faith (or whatever faith you are) you may be persuaded to vote Democrat. Further, if you are of a new age Christian faith where your interpretation of the Bible redefines marriage and the structure of civil society, then you’re probably also voting Democrat.
The point here is two fold. First, I like that the video encourages religious people to consider what their faith teaches them about the issues of the day. Second, don’t be so quick to assume that integrating a faith-based perspective into politics automatically means a vote for the Republicans or the Democrats.
Give it some thought. If you believe in something greater than yourself that is of a religious nature, then maybe this is the year that you want to let your faith be your guide.
Posted on by Joe
Can anyone honestly review the media’s coverage of the 2008 Presidential election and say that the media wasn’t completely in the tank for then-Senator Barack Obama? Didn’t think so. To that end, libertarian filmmaker John Ziegler put together his documentary/expose, Media Malpractice, to give evidence to the former statement. And after watching this documentary, I would suggest that it is required viewing for those who study the media or have an interest in how the American media has fallen apart.
As I looked at some reviews of this documentary on the web, I was shocked by the amount of detractors who suggested that Ziegler was your typical, aggravated conservative who was frustrated with his party’s candidate and is now lashing out. Well, that’s a ton of a bullshit if there ever was some! Ziegler is a committed libertarian and has only ever donated money to democratic politicians. Sounds like a regular Rush Limbaugh, right?
Thought not.
From my view, the documentary really dives into two major issues in the 2008 campaign. First, it looks at how the media deliberately paid no serious attention to the various three alarm fires associated with Senator Obama. For example, the audiotape that came out a few days before the election where Obama specifically cited that previous supposedly-liberal Supreme Courts had not gone far enough into redistributing wealth and addressing issues of economic justice. Second, the documentary looks at how the media absolutely destroyed Alaska Governor and former Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin. When you watch the various attacks played in succession, it’s enough to turn your stomach.
People like Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric twisted and bent Palin’s previous statements and then asked her to respond. And when Palin questioned their phrasing of the questions, they lashed out at her like she was a dummy! The thing that always got me about Palin is that she’s just a regular Mom who rose up the political ranks. When she suggested that she was your typical “hockey Mom,” I can see that being true! And it shows you the vast disconnect between the media and regular Americans that they didn’t “get it.”
Understanding Palin boils down to one of the major issues that Bill O’Reilly has been going on about for years now – class warfare; the “elites” versus regular citizens. I put “elite” in quotations because most of the people who fall into this category may not even realize it. For example, I have friends (conservative, liberal, and independent) who have no idea that think in terms of class warfare and their “class” being better than those “below” them. It’s frustrating and a topic for another entry at another time.
There were some portions of Ziegler’s that will stick with me. Maybe the most glaring is how completely biased Katie Couric was in her interview with Palin. And, specifically, how Katie took Senator John McCain’s two major regulatory battles in the realm of the housing meltdown (his relentless pursuit of tighter oversight over Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) off of the table when she asked Palin to explain what McCain had done to help stave off the mortgage meltdown. That’s the equivalent of asking someone, “Other than red, white, and blue, what other colors are there on the flag of the United States of America?”
What?
And the documentary also does a good job of talking about how certain issues were blown up to mean much more than they actually did (i.e. race). If you look at the exit polls, race meant nothing to the voters. By and large, the voters went for Obama because they found what the media suggested that he stood for as a good thing (the nebulous concept of “change”). I have no issues with the voters voting anyway they choose, but to constantly use race as a battering ram against anyone who would even think to mention it (such as former Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro) is absurd. Sure, if a pundit tried to use it as a negative, then they should have been criticized, but over and again that was not the case.
Watching Media Malpractice gives you a plethora of such aggravating and disgusting examples of the media’s bias. But, as has been reported on this blog by both my entries and my readers via their comments – the American mass media is a complete joke. It is an empire that has forgotten what unbiased reporting is supposed to be about and is, instead, dominated by profits and ratings. Just like now is the perfect time for a third party to rise at the national level, now is the perfect time for us as a nation to turn our backs on the biased media and support independent sources of news and citizen-led media.
In any event, if you have an interest in this stuff, then I suggest that you check out Media Malpractice. You’ll be as disgusted with the mainstream media as I am.
Posted on by Joe
President Barack Obama made a visit to Jay Leno’s couch last night and I’m not sure that I’m okay with his decision to do so. I’m not like one of these people on the far right who is calling it the end of the presidency as we know it, but it does strike me as odd that when the country has hit a near-depression level in our economy that the President would be heading over to late night television.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s because this is something new for a President, but his loose attitude at Leno last night was a little bit much for me. Just as it was refreshing to have a President break that austere facade that we have grown accustomed to seeing from the Oval Office, I was a little uneasy that the leader of the free world was yucking it up on a talk show. And as for his comment about the Special Olympics, it was absolutely insulting and another in a line of gaffes from the Obama/Biden combination.
It seems to me that the President hasn’t really evolved from that campaign mode into the leadership role that he needs to assume. He needs to stop worrying about whether or not people like him and get back to swinging the hammer at against the “Washington-as-usual” crowd. Then you have the inherent bias against the Republicans where if a Republican President had visited Leno he would have been universally panned and if he had made the Special Olympics comment he would have been told to resign from office.
It just made me uneasy to have the President on late night television when there is so much crap going on in the country that need strong leadership right now. You can read an even better description (with links from around the blogosphere) about what President Obama’s appearance on The Tonight Show means at Fausta’s Blog.
Posted on by Joe
After listening to President Bush’s farewell speech last night, I hope the fanatics who destroy every word that this man says will let up a bit. His speech was genuine and from the heart. Many of the fanatics who hate Bush (not dislike, but hate the man) are pessimistic anyway, so I doubt that they’ll give this man his moment to say goodbye. President Bush’s speech was very classy and to the point – you couldn’t ask much more for a now-controversial President who is leaving the White House after eight years.
I have to say, though, I got a kick out of the audience shots looking at Vice President Dick Cheney. Again, I think that history and scholars will show that Cheney didn’t overstep the bounds of his office, but rather scared a nation who became used to an impotent Vice President. Frankly, I hope that Vice President-Elect Joe Biden takes as active as a role in that position as Cheney did because Biden has some good thoughts in his head if he just lets them out.
Anyway, Cheney amused me because he has that perpetual angry old man look on his face. About halfway through the speech they spanned to Cheney and he had a look on his face like, “Let’s go, George. I gotta get to sleep!” I loved it – hilarious. And then when the speech was over you KNOW Cheney wanted to turn to the crowd and say, “Alright, assholes. Get out!”
He’s the best.
Whether you love or hate the man, you have to admit that President Bush’s message last night about freedom in the Middle East and a strengthened security system at home was mildly inspiring. Whenever we, as a country, step back and look at the results of our good work around the world you can’t help but be in awe. Sure, most of the world doesn’t understand us and we’ve been too aggressive in foreign policy lately, but that doesn’t negate the positive results worldwide thanks to American involvement.
Foreign and domestic policy will change drastically with the new administration. I’m looking forward to these changes for a variety of reasons, but I thank President Bush and his administration for their contributions over the last eight years.
