this just in: BFEE caused Cambria earthquake...part of Saddam coverup

[buycitgo]

think I'm kidding?

do you put ANYthing past them?

and have you heard word ONE about who really captured Saddam?

the list of distractions they have in mind is endless; we have a government by publicity stunt now.

thanks to Jeff Dorchen for coming up with that idea in this very astute radio editorial, transcribed at his website, from the most excellent show, thisishell.com

It's been a mantra of the right wing that the Great Depression fixed itself and laws protecting the interests of labor somehow emerged from nowhere. I wish I were setting up a straw man here, but it's the sad, sickening truth that this is the prevailing ideological wisdom of the day: all the New Deal did was nurture the anti-American notions that people should help and rely on each other and that a society that provides nothing but the freedom for some to accumulate wealth is destined to starve a great many of its people; all unions did was form unruly groups of ungrateful workers who sought to artificially increase their market value above that of a commodity in oversupply.

then, the setup for California publicity stunt, employing vehicle of the blindness of the "Market":

So, for example, if we just make Arnold Schwarzenegger the Governor of California, then for a while The Markets will believe and get everyone else to believe that the California bicycle will go. That euphoria will last a little while. Then maybe a big corporation will fire a bunch of people, and The Markets will get excited again. But again, the bicycle will not have moved, and eventually another dazzling spectacle, another publicity stunt, will have to be arranged. Or maybe a new technology will be developed, and The Markets will resume jabbering happily. But still the bicycle will not move, and as the confetti settles and the party balloons sag and wrinkle, the sobering image of a motionless bicycle with a bag of magic beans on its seat will again come into focus

Yet there's really no finite supply of publicity stunts. In fact, the art of governing has become the art of producing publicity stunts. And a really good policy maker is a guy who can come up with an engine for producing a long chain of publicity stunts that seem to follow logically from one to the next, based on some kind of principle or other. Like "family values" or "the strong, independent American." Or "Jesus is Lord." Or "poor people just don't have what it takes." Or "War on Terrorism."

Now go back to FDR. I don't know why, I just see his policy-making as more authentic. I'm no historian, obviously. But I just I don't see the New Deal as a series of publicity stunts. Certainly FDR's attempt to manipulate the makeup of the Supreme Court was fascistic. But was it a publicity stunt? Maybe I'm wrong, but the jobs programs seem like a genuine attempt to get money, food and housing to people who didn't have any by creating jobs the corporate sector was unable or unwilling to provide.

http://www.oblivio.com/mejeffdorchen/moments/moment_beans.html

I really think this is important......just look back: Aircraft carrier landing, Turkey Day, all those insipid backdrops, just for starters.

they've become MASTERS of the cheapass, transparent (to anyone with half a cortex) PR scam, cynically designed to scare, fool, emotionally traumatize the vast majority of the voting public (non-voting, too.....keeps em from voting in the first place, and that's a GOOD thing for them).

time to wake up to this obvious fact, and somehow call them on it

[Danocrat]

1. Yea, with all due respect to Californians

This earthquake coverage is pissing me off. They're reporting on books falling off this guy's shelfs and water sloshing around in this person's pool. They even had a weather expert on to drive home the fact that there were no tsunami warnings. Now a press conference with the USGS. I'm sure if there were real news like Halliburton stealing taxpayer money or maybe if perhaps the Kurds actually caught Saddam and left him drugged in a hole for the Americans, they would be reporting on it.

[buycitgo]

2. thank you, I meant to include that POV in the header

this is EXACTLY what the junta loves to happen: more baby Jessicas, more Lacies, more Condits, more miners in a hole (which actually WAS their fault), more more more MICHAEL

anything to keep everybody's eyes off the prize.

sure, the quake is breaking news, but I sense the relief every time something like this happens.

ANYthing to avoid covering the events that are stripping away our democracy....increments large and small

Judy Woodruff says.........NOW, back to those nasty dems, criticizing our beloved leader's War on Terra.

[economic justice]

3. Politics and Government is only PART of the news

Just because we're political junkies doesn't mean the news channels should program 24/7 for us. Yes, Virginia, there really IS a life outside of partisan politics! :)