Comments on: Media Shit Storms and Heartland Reality http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/ a radical newsletter in the struggle for peace and social justice Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:20:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: Joe Bageant http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18534 Joe Bageant Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:59:44 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18534 Tom, You've said it out as clearly as it can possibly be said. I tried to gut my way through that so-called "debate." About five minutes was all I could take. As a person I deeply respect, let me ask you this: Why do we all keep on shouting in this deaf ward called America? joe Tom,

You’ve said it out as clearly as it can possibly be said.

I tried to gut my way through that so-called “debate.” About five minutes was all I could take.

As a person I deeply respect, let me ask you this:

Why do we all keep on shouting in this deaf ward called America?

joe

]]> By: tom payne http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18514 tom payne Thu, 17 Apr 2008 03:45:16 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18514 Yes, we'll laugh the puppet Bush out of office. Then we'll replace him with a new puppet. I'm betting that it will be the first black puppet. But when you are watching the same puppeteer and all he's done is change puppets, you'd be foolish to think you'll see a different show. BTW, its not 'media mediocrity'. That implies it can be fixed by getting some better skilled technicians. I was reading comments on the night's Democratic faux-debate. They said it took an hour to get passed this stuff and ask a single question about policy. That's what its all about. Its about an hour that's supposed to be about a discussion of issues that face our country and how we plan to solve them being diverted into a fake discussion of this sort of bull. That's not media mediocrity. That's deliberate misdirection. That's what its all about. They are stealing us blind. They've given billions to their friends. That's our money. They don't want us to notice. So, no way is that 'debate' going to talk about giving billions of our money to Wall Street firms. The people getting the money own the media and the candidates, so they ain't about to let them question it. Instead, we get an hour of 'debate' over Obama's 'bitter' comment and Rev. Wright and Hillary In Bosnia. Its not mediocrity. Its deliberate misdirection. Yes, we’ll laugh the puppet Bush out of office. Then we’ll replace him with a new puppet. I’m betting that it will be the first black puppet. But when you are watching the same puppeteer and all he’s done is change puppets, you’d be foolish to think you’ll see a different show.

BTW, its not ‘media mediocrity’. That implies it can be fixed by getting some better skilled technicians. I was reading comments on the night’s Democratic faux-debate. They said it took an hour to get passed this stuff and ask a single question about policy.

That’s what its all about. Its about an hour that’s supposed to be about a discussion of issues that face our country and how we plan to solve them being diverted into a fake discussion of this sort of bull. That’s not media mediocrity. That’s deliberate misdirection. That’s what its all about.

They are stealing us blind. They’ve given billions to their friends. That’s our money. They don’t want us to notice. So, no way is that ‘debate’ going to talk about giving billions of our money to Wall Street firms. The people getting the money own the media and the candidates, so they ain’t about to let them question it. Instead, we get an hour of ‘debate’ over Obama’s ‘bitter’ comment and Rev. Wright and Hillary In Bosnia. Its not mediocrity. Its deliberate misdirection.

]]> By: Danny Ray http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18504 Danny Ray Thu, 17 Apr 2008 00:35:13 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18504 Sorry i thought I was losse That was a joke duaner, sorry some got it some did not :-) Sorry i thought I was losse That was a joke duaner, sorry some got it some did not :-)

]]> By: duaner http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18485 duaner Wed, 16 Apr 2008 17:57:33 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18485 Danny Ray: sometimes, profanity is indeed the crutch of the inarticulate. In this case, however, it is just another tool in the toolbox of a master wordsmith. Profanity can be the tabasco sauce on the scrambled eggs of everyday communication. Granted, some people put wayyyy too much tabasco on, so that you can't even taste the eggs. I do not think that this is the case here. The use of spice is not "a sign of a damn small" cookbook. Loosen up, man. Danny Ray: sometimes, profanity is indeed the crutch of the inarticulate. In this case, however, it is just another tool in the toolbox of a master wordsmith. Profanity can be the tabasco sauce on the scrambled eggs of everyday communication. Granted, some people put wayyyy too much tabasco on, so that you can’t even taste the eggs. I do not think that this is the case here. The use of spice is not “a sign of a damn small” cookbook. Loosen up, man.

]]> By: One Wing Left » It’s News To M_A - 4/16/08 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18464 One Wing Left » It’s News To M_A - 4/16/08 Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:44:51 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18464 [...] Media Shit Storms and Heartland Reality For me, listening to politicians talk, then listening to the media talk about politicians talking, rates right up there with swapping spit with a gingivitis victim. I do not like, nor trust, nor much listen to Hillary, McCain or Obama. And I wouldn’t vote for any of the three even if they knocked on my door bearing a bucket of smoked pork ribs and a bottle of Jack Daniels. However, after hearing Obama’s March “race speech” in Philadelphia, I can understand the Obama cult a little better. Although his speech was full of national clichés and meaningless soaring rhetoric, somehow it was still a goddamned good one, and right on in my opinion. Maybe I liked it because, like the poverty victim he brought forth in typical Democratic Pity Party fashion, I too have eaten mustard and relish sandwiches growing up (or when lacking those condiments, plain sugar on white bread.) I loved the speech. But I still ain’t drinking the Kool-Aid. In any case, Obama has proven you cannot even use the innocuous word bitterness in conjunction with the national lie of white American culture. In the officially sanctioned media lexicon, Blacks can be angry, disillusioned and even bitter enough to burn down Watts. But the white race, being blessed by a Christian god and divine providence, never harbor bitterness in their hearts. The reason the word bitterness has caused such horror is because what is really going on out there is the sprouting seeds of class animosity. And no candidate or pontificating media mugwump dares touch that one because they are in the class that benefits from our classist society. Let’s get to the nub of this thing here: Obama, Hillary and McCain are farting through silk while playing out their roles in our theatrical state’s false drama called presidential elections, while smug and media sanctioned pundits snark from the edge of the proscenium arc of politics, each hoping to draw enough attention to have his or her own proscenium in that national cathedral of the American consciousness — television. Before too long this earth shaking “incident” will be drowned out by the accumulating noise of the election year. Then even the election’s hoopla will all be wiped away when Oprah Winfrey, in one of her ever grander spectacles of televised largess, gives away the city of Detroit to the sixth grade author of the most heart rending essay on black poverty. November is still seven months away. No normal person can stand, much less relish, seven more months of all this. But we will wallow in it all for the same reason a hog spends most of its life knee deep in shit. It has no other choice, it has plenty of company, and doesn’t know any other way of life. [...] [...] Media Shit Storms and Heartland Reality For me, listening to politicians talk, then listening to the media talk about politicians talking, rates right up there with swapping spit with a gingivitis victim. I do not like, nor trust, nor much listen to Hillary, McCain or Obama. And I wouldn’t vote for any of the three even if they knocked on my door bearing a bucket of smoked pork ribs and a bottle of Jack Daniels. However, after hearing Obama’s March “race speech” in Philadelphia, I can understand the Obama cult a little better. Although his speech was full of national clichés and meaningless soaring rhetoric, somehow it was still a goddamned good one, and right on in my opinion. Maybe I liked it because, like the poverty victim he brought forth in typical Democratic Pity Party fashion, I too have eaten mustard and relish sandwiches growing up (or when lacking those condiments, plain sugar on white bread.) I loved the speech. But I still ain’t drinking the Kool-Aid. In any case, Obama has proven you cannot even use the innocuous word bitterness in conjunction with the national lie of white American culture. In the officially sanctioned media lexicon, Blacks can be angry, disillusioned and even bitter enough to burn down Watts. But the white race, being blessed by a Christian god and divine providence, never harbor bitterness in their hearts. The reason the word bitterness has caused such horror is because what is really going on out there is the sprouting seeds of class animosity. And no candidate or pontificating media mugwump dares touch that one because they are in the class that benefits from our classist society. Let’s get to the nub of this thing here: Obama, Hillary and McCain are farting through silk while playing out their roles in our theatrical state’s false drama called presidential elections, while smug and media sanctioned pundits snark from the edge of the proscenium arc of politics, each hoping to draw enough attention to have his or her own proscenium in that national cathedral of the American consciousness — television. Before too long this earth shaking “incident” will be drowned out by the accumulating noise of the election year. Then even the election’s hoopla will all be wiped away when Oprah Winfrey, in one of her ever grander spectacles of televised largess, gives away the city of Detroit to the sixth grade author of the most heart rending essay on black poverty. November is still seven months away. No normal person can stand, much less relish, seven more months of all this. But we will wallow in it all for the same reason a hog spends most of its life knee deep in shit. It has no other choice, it has plenty of company, and doesn’t know any other way of life. [...]

]]> By: Raven http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18447 Raven Wed, 16 Apr 2008 03:25:16 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18447 Thanks for expressing my deep-felt frustration, and doing an EFFING good job at making me laugh while doing so. Thanks for expressing my deep-felt frustration, and doing an EFFING good job at making me laugh while doing so.

]]> By: DavidG. http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18441 DavidG. Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:35:11 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18441 Glad to see some Americans laughing at themselves. Perhaps you could get together and laugh Bush out of office before he destroys our world? P.S. The TWO EMPERORS have met. Check my blog for searching analysis! Glad to see some Americans laughing at themselves. Perhaps you could get together and laugh Bush out of office before he destroys our world?

P.S. The TWO EMPERORS have met. Check my blog for searching analysis!

]]> By: Jim Crittenden http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18440 Jim Crittenden Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:26:43 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18440 Nubbilicious! Nubbilicious!

]]> By: hp http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18435 hp Tue, 15 Apr 2008 22:09:37 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18435 Beats the Hell out of all those exclamation points! Beats the Hell out of all those exclamation points!

]]> By: Danny Ray http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18429 Danny Ray Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:31:30 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18429 Profanity is a sign of a Damn small vocabulary but other than that I found this a very good read. Profanity is a sign of a Damn small vocabulary
but other than that I found this a very good read.

]]> By: Don Hawkins http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18428 Don Hawkins Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:02:56 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18428 Joe you can't write stuff like that? That's the truth you just wrote are you out of your mind. Do you have any idea what could happen if more people started to do this and fast. Joe you can’t write stuff like that? That’s the truth you just wrote are you out of your mind. Do you have any idea what could happen if more people started to do this and fast.

]]> By: hp http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18418 hp Tue, 15 Apr 2008 17:18:22 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18418 Thanks Joe. Good job. Proof positive Americana ain't all bad. As long as guys like you, Fred Reed and that Morford shit are around, I'll be laughing all the way downhill, wobbly as she goes. Happy that it is downhill. I'd hate to have to demise uphill, that would really be un-American. Thanks Joe. Good job. Proof positive Americana ain’t all bad.
As long as guys like you, Fred Reed and that Morford shit are around, I’ll be laughing all the way downhill, wobbly as she goes. Happy that it is downhill. I’d hate to have to demise uphill, that would really be un-American.

]]> By: Rich Griffin http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18396 Rich Griffin Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:19:17 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18396 "It is neither a good thing or a bad thing"... WRONG!! Clinging to religion has caused so much pain and suffering. Attachment to ancestral religions, attachment to guns, KILL people, animals, the planet. It provides solace, but it's destructive and delusional - and it is used to harm others all the time. AND it is not a "belief", it's a form of brainwashing, with a historical fiction novel at its center. Obama is an ELITIST, and I don't want an elitist as president (I don't want anybody to be president, but that's a different story!). His comments were problematic due to the VENUE the comments were made, not so much the comments themselves, which were just an opinion. But I believe in transparency: you have to live with your real convictions. If he had said these things in Pennsylvania I would have respected him more - and he would have lost tons more votes! (it's still going to cost him tons of votes; that's the fault of the voters - but he does need to be transparent. Live or die on your real convictions, not on your pre-scripted storyline). a "faith & compassion" forum?? Excuse me! How about separation of church & state?? “It is neither a good thing or a bad thing”… WRONG!! Clinging to religion has caused so much pain and suffering. Attachment to ancestral religions, attachment to guns, KILL people, animals, the planet. It provides solace, but it’s destructive and delusional - and it is used to harm others all the time. AND it is not a “belief”, it’s a form of brainwashing, with a historical fiction novel at its center.

Obama is an ELITIST, and I don’t want an elitist as president (I don’t want anybody to be president, but that’s a different story!). His comments were problematic due to the VENUE the comments were made, not so much the comments themselves, which were just an opinion. But I believe in transparency: you have to live with your real convictions. If he had said these things in Pennsylvania I would have respected him more - and he would have lost tons more votes! (it’s still going to cost him tons of votes; that’s the fault of the voters - but he does need to be transparent. Live or die on your real convictions, not on your pre-scripted storyline).

a “faith & compassion” forum?? Excuse me! How about separation of church & state??

]]> By: Rich Griffin http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18395 Rich Griffin Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:17:08 +0000 http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/04/media-shit-storms-and-heartland-reality/#comment-18395 "It is neither a good thing or a bad thing"... WRONG!! Clinging to religion has caused so much pain and suffering. Attachment to ancestral religions, attachment to guns, KILL people, animals, the planet. It provides solace, but it's destructive and delusional - and it is used to harm others all the time. AND it is not a "belief", it's a form of brainwashing, with a historical fiction novel at its center. Obama is an ELITIST, and I don't want an elitist as president (I don't want anybody to be president, but that's a different story!). His comments were problematic due to the VENUE the comments were made, not so much the comments themselves, which were just an opinion. But I believe in transparency: you have to live with your real convictions. If he had said these things in Pennsylvania I would have respected him more - and he would have lost tons more votes! (it's still going to cost him tons of votes; that's the fault of the voters - but he does need to be transparent. Live or die on your real convictions, not on your pre-scripted storyline). “It is neither a good thing or a bad thing”… WRONG!! Clinging to religion has caused so much pain and suffering. Attachment to ancestral religions, attachment to guns, KILL people, animals, the planet. It provides solace, but it’s destructive and delusional - and it is used to harm others all the time. AND it is not a “belief”, it’s a form of brainwashing, with a historical fiction novel at its center.

Obama is an ELITIST, and I don’t want an elitist as president (I don’t want anybody to be president, but that’s a different story!). His comments were problematic due to the VENUE the comments were made, not so much the comments themselves, which were just an opinion. But I believe in transparency: you have to live with your real convictions. If he had said these things in Pennsylvania I would have respected him more - and he would have lost tons more votes! (it’s still going to cost him tons of votes; that’s the fault of the voters - but he does need to be transparent. Live or die on your real convictions, not on your pre-scripted storyline).

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