Hillary's home run

Woman charged with misdemeanor
for registering her Australian-
sheperd/terrior to vote.

Hillary Clinton gave an absolutely electrifying speech tonight. She could not have done any better with her task of convincing her supporters to vote for Obama. Although she was very critical of both Bush and McCain, and made it clear what the differences between the two parties are, I think it will still be up to Joe Biden to mount the full-fledged, all-out attack on Bush/McCain. No one so far has mentioned torture, illegal spying, war profiteering, lying us into a “war,” and the almost uncountable scandals of the present administration. Will either Bill Clinton or Joe Biden do so? If not, why not? I do not understand why Democrats insist on handling the Brafia with such kid gloves. The worst President in U.S. history, the lowest ratings of any President, 80% of the public believing we are on the wrong track, the largest debt in history, and on and on. Why the reticence to tell it like it really is? And why is Dick the Slimy being spared? I simply do not understand this.

I also do not understand why MSNBC pays big bucks for Chris Matthews to blather on making a fool of himself. It’s not only that he talks when he should be listening, it’s also that he says things that are just plain stupid. I believe I saw Olberman actually roll his eyes at one of Matthew’s more idiotic pronouncements. Pat Buchanan is just as bad. Tonight he was so far out in some separate universe that even his fellow panelists were laughing at him. It was almost as if they were having a contest to see who could say the dumbest things. They both seem to get some idea in their head, no matter how absurd, and then become obsessed with it. I think this is part of the news 24/7 syndrome where they just have to keep talking even with nothing to say. Frankly, I think we got more actual news back in the days when we received it once a week in the movie houses. At least we didn’t have to put up with hours of nothing but mindless blabber and idiocy.

Another casualty of 24/7 news, along with the restricted corporate ownership of the major networks, seems to be “truth.” It may be the case that we never had absolute truth about things but we used to at least think we did sometimes. That was because we trusted the media to hold our politicians and others to account when they strayed too far from the facts. Now Bush, Cheney, and others are allowed to say absolutely blatantly false things and are rarely if ever challenged by reporters. When one does challenge them, like Helen Thomas, they are moved to the back of the room and ignored in favor of someone who is more receptive to the garbage they hand out on a daily basis. They even go so far as to use shills and fake reporters. We have reached the point where no one trusts anything they hear anymore. This is not healthy for a so-called democracy, not at all, and it smells, of course, of fascism. When you allow the world to be controlled by a small number of huge corporations and obscenely wealthy people what do you expect?

None of this is going to change if McCain should, by some evil trick of fate, get elected. Democrats must not only control the White House, they also need to chalk up majorities in both the House and the Senate. Failing this, there is little to hope for. Michelle’s speech last night, and Hillary’s speech tonight should go a long way to bringing about a resounding Democratic victory in the coming election.

LKBIQ:
The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth.
Edith Sitwell