The Fourth Estate

This year following the debates I noticed for the first time fact checking. Maybe they’ve always done this but I sure don’t remember it. What a welcome change.

Candidates would make outrageous accusations and the moderators would always seem to let them slide.

Dick Cheney has proven that if you repeat a lie often enough it will be accepted as fact. He still insists Saddam had something to do with 911.

I’ve never had any respect for the voting public. It’s always been maddening how easily we’re manipulated.

Republicans have made “The Press” as ugly a term as “Liberal”.

The McCain people were making the press out as bullies in anticipation of Palin’s stupid remarks. Katie Couric’s credibility actually shot up because of her interview with her. It’s hard to see Couric as a bully.

We need a press that can hold these people’s feet to the fire. The press isn’t only disliked by the right. A lot of us on the left see them as cowards or at least held hostage by their employers.

When I hear the expression “Liberal Media” I wonder who they’re talking about. There’s nothing Liberal on the radio. T.V. is certainly too lame to count as anything. The internet is so rife with misinformation you have to do so much homework your head spins.

It’s always amusing to me when a story conservatives don’t like needs an opposing point of view. Not every story has 2 sides. Sometimes stupid is just stupid.

There is nothing as import as the press for good government. Hopefully several sources so we can triangulate the truth.

If you think we shouldn’t have the press you’re looking for dictatorship.  Although I have said in the past we need a benevolent dictatorship because people are too ignorant to have an opinion about anything. Of course some idiot kid would inherit the kingdom and mess it all up.

What can you do?

Science

I can’t remember an American president with as much disdain for science as Bush. He has a reputation for picking advisors that tell him what he wants to hear. He finally acquiesced that global warming might be influenced by humans. It must have sunk in that he would go down in history as a complete idiot with his head in the sand.

He has such a reputation that even the Smithsonian Institute toned down an exhibit on the arctic for fear of funding reprisals.

His assaults on science are so numerous I couldn’t even scratch the surface in my short blog.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a group commissioned by the ACLU, issued a report in 2004 called “Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policymaking.” It has been signed by over 6,000 American scientists, including 48 Nobel laureates, 62 National Medal of Science recipients, and 135 members of the National Academy of Sciences. Parts of it cover political interference in science.

In the past month, the United States has been in a science war. The nation's scientific community is at war with the administration. Led by twenty Nobel laureates, the scientists say Bush's government has systematically distorted and undermined scientific information in pursuit of political objectives. Examples include the suppression and censorship of reports on subjects like climate change and mercury pollution, the stacking of scientific advisory panels, and the suspicious removal of scientific information from government Web sites.

Obama, on the other hand, is picking John P. Holdren as his science advisor, Jane Lubchenco as head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Nobel Prize winning physicist Steven Chu to head the Department of Energy. These are all respected scientist that won’t be afraid to tell the truth. We will probably hear things we don’t want to know. Who knows, maybe it will save our asses!

Culture of Corruption

Something smells fishy to me with the Blagojevich scandal. This whole story seems tailored for the American voting public, the same thoughtful crowd that voted for Bush twice. It seems too blatant.

How could a man, knowing his staff was already under surveillance, and under suspicion himself, say the things he did on the phone?

My 14 year old son summed it up perfectly. He said, basically Blagojevich is part of a very large culture of corruption. He must not have played by the rules so they took him down. I’m very proud of his cynicism.

This man shook down a children’s hospital! Crooked politicians are supposed to donate turkeys and make sure the photographers are around to shoot it.

I’ve already heard the predictable opinions of local radio personalities. “You can connect the dots to Obama!” These kind of people are still in court trying to prove Barack isn’t a legal U.S. citizen.

I used to think only republicans were corrupt. After all, their philosophy is based on money. Then they find $90,000 in democratic congressman Bill Jefferson’s freezer. I used to hide my drugs there!

Blagojevich’s exposure is so sudden and so damning, it seems obvious there’s something much larger were not privy to.

I think what ever the current flavor, right or left, opportunists will belong to that party. Power corrupts and corruption will seek out power.

Proposition 8 in California

Last week 70% of black voters in California voted for Proposition 8. Gay marriage is illegal in California again. I heard an interview with a black lesbian who said she was torn between 2 loyalties. She blamed white gays for not courting the black vote. Their vote was taken for granted because white gays thought it was a civil rights issue. The woman was making the case that to black people in California it wasn’t a civil rights issue but a religious and moral one.

I’m incredibly frustrated with this narrow minded view. What this means to me is the majority of black voters in California want to legislate religion. Put their morality views into law. This is not only illegal but immoral.

If you want to live by a certain ethical code that’s fine, but I might happen to disagree with it. That’s why religion is kept out of government in our country.

For me this is personally frustrating because I see religion as superstition. If you don’t follow God’s laws and don’t believe, you’ll be condemned to eternal hellfire and damnation because of HIS infinite love and compassion. It makes heaven sound like Hell to me.

Could God be vengeful? Does God have self worth issues?

The only people more hated and feared in our country than gays are atheists.

Gay marriage is a civil rights issue and the black voters of California should be ashamed of themselves for not seeing it. The people they voted against were on their side during the civil rights movement. We all want justice!