Monday, March 24, 2008

The Pro Hillary/McCain Media

The major cable media outlets have made two things quite clear in the last few weeks. Their only issues of concern are race and anything that is damaging to Barack Obama. Which have become one and the same.

We have learned that the White voters have little or no interest in the economy or the occupation of Iraq, except where it benefits John McCain. The American people will make their voting decisions based on the statements of Jeremiah White only. The Jeremiah Wright story has become the foundation of all cable news stories night and day. You need only turn on any of the three Cable news networks and get a three minute egg timer. Rarely a period will pass that you couldn't both cook a tasty cholesterol filled egg and hear a Jeremiah Wright reference. The polls that showed Senator Obama moving ahead of Senator Clinton in preference for handling the economy and foreign policy have been replaced by endless loops of Jeremiah Wright looking like a scary angry Black man.

The subtle racism of the major cable news outlets has been replaced by outright divisive anti-black bias. The language of racial division is used routinely. Every political story refers to the "WHITE VOTERS" and their reaction to whatever racially charged issue is discussed. The unspoken inference is that the white voter is turned off by the discussion of race. The leap of logic from there assumes that they once the white voter is turned off by issue of race being discussed they will not vote for a Black candidate. They will ignore their dire economic circumstances and the horrendous foreign policy blunder that is Iraq, then vote based on race and race only. Barack Obama receiving 85% to 92% of the Black vote in various states is a sign of racial division that will send a negative signal to "WHITE VOTERS", yet Bill Clinton consistently getting 85% and higher of the Black vote was a sign of his acceptance by Black America and helped him win.

The major news networks' most insidious racially misleading tactic is to consistently put right wing Black pundits on the air and infer that the black community is equally divided between the right and left politically. This hides the reality that the Black community sees the right wing pro confederacy movement as its natural enemy. Joe Watkins, a Black Republican strategist has morphed into a "Black preacher" since the Jeremiah Wright story has come to prominence. The number of Black republicans on air has skyrocketed while the presence of left leaning Black pundits has been reduced to practically none.

MSNBC has increased the visibility of Pat Buchanan, one of the most racist political pundits in America. In 1969 Buchanan opposed President Nixon visiting Martin Luther King's widow because in his words "It would outrage many, many people who believe Dr. King was a fraud and a demagogue, and perhaps worse. ... It does not seem to be in the interests of national unity for the president to lend his national prestige to the argument that this divisive figure is a modern saint." He would later go on record as opposing making Dr. King's birthday a national holiday. Buchanan has also defended the Confederacy writing that the Civil War was about "the right of a people to break free of a government to which they could no longer give allegiance," States' rights, and cultural differences. As an example of his racially biased work, last week when Bill Richardson endorsed Obama, Nancy Pelosi stated that the candidate with the most pledged delegates should be the nominee, and it was announced that there will be no re-vote in Florida and Michigan, Buchanan announced that Barack Obama had the worst week of any of the Presidential candidates because of the three week old Jeremiah Wright story.

Its time to call these pro-Hillary/McCain alleged news organizations out. They will not stop their intentional racially divisive tactics, but we who oppose and resent these tactics should make our opposition clear.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

Suffering Fools Poorly

A few moments ago I turned on the morning news. It was like a right hand coming out of the television grabbing my collar and a left hand slapping me repeatedly in the face. The strange reality of a former Republican Congressman named Joe Scarborough and Tucker Carlson, a right wing Republican writer for the Weekly Standard whose father is a member of the Scooter Libby Defense Fund, on an alleged News outlet that is owned by a defense contractor bringing me the politics of the day. I'll wager you could guess what the first issue was? Here's a hint, there were clips of Reverend Jeremiah Wright being shown within the first five minutes of the program and a discussion of the WHITE voters reaction to Obama's speech. Apparently, the only issue they noted was that Senator Obama refused to completely disown Wright, which would have obviously been of little consequence since the next order of business was to attack him for being a member of Wright's Church in the first place. Should I have been shocked that a news station owned by General Electric, a massive defense contractor, would work to insure that U.S. voters could have only a choice of war hawks John McCain and Hillary Clinton as President. Here are some tidbits of information about the owner of MSNBC:

  • GE is the holder of several massive military contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
  • In a list of the 100 biggest defense contractors the company is ranked number seven.
  • Throughout the 1990s GE was involved in so many fraud cases that the government set up a special investigations office specifically for the company in the Pentagon’s Defense Contract Management Agency. GE was indicted on 22 criminal counts.
  • The CEO of GE, Jeffrey Immelt, gave $4,000 for President Bush’s 2004 campaign, and $1,000 for Bush’s 2000 campaign.
  • NBC’s parent corporation, General Electric, had $14.6 billion in total military revenues during 2003-2006 (10th biggest U.S. military contractor)

The right wing media outlets are following Hillary's lead for an all out full court press on Obama and the anti-war members of the electorate. Many months back Senator Obama warned that the Status Quo will not go down easily and that Exxon-Mobile will not give up their profits without a fight. It should be obvious to even the most casual observer that there is a bi-partisan effort by the mainstream political machine to stop the "Change Movement" from upsetting the apple cart and weakening the military industrial complex's stranglehold on a Country that at least had the appearance of democracy. The race issue may appear to be the center of this controversy but in reality it is merely a tool of a desperate bi-partisan right wing political order facing its greatest threat since the Civil War. Hillary's desperate "do anything to win" tactics are actually reflecting the fear, desperation, and determination of her Republican and Democratic supporters.

I don't believe that Senator Obama has been blindsided by recent events. If you have ever been deep sea fishing you should think of the analogy of a fish fighting on a line. The fish puts up a tough fight then appears to fade and give up at one point. However, when the fish gets close enough to see the boat and recognize the reality of its impending doom, it makes its last run which is also its most powerful. Any seasoned fishermen knows that this fight is coming and that if the fish is going to break the line, this is where it is going to happen. The veteran fishermen is not fooled by the appearance of a victory just before that last run by the fish. He or she keeps steady pressure on the fish all the while anticipating the strongest resistance near the end of the battle.

It is at this critical point in the fight that progressives need to recognize that the current attacks are not on Senator Obama or any particular group of his supporters. There are much larger issues in play and falling for the race bait helps the bi-partisan right wing political establishment hide their true motivations. Like you and I, Hillary's core support groups recognize that she is near the boat. The real fight has just begun.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

John Murtha Endorses Fellow War Hawk

The strangest thing happened yesterday. No, I don't mean that John Murtha endorsed Hillary Clinton, thats not strange whatsoever. The strange thing is that long time war hawk John Murtha has been reborn in the media as a dove. The Washington post is running a story in which they refer to him as "a prominent anti-war Democrat".

Like Hillary, Murtha has a history as a right wing pro-war House Democrat whose views have often been barely discernible from most Republicans. In 2001 he co-authored the "Flag Desecration Amendment" with Republican Duke Cunningham. In 2005 Senator Clinton followed suit by co-sponsoring anti flag burning legislation along with Republican Bob Bennet of Utah. Both Clinton and Murtha voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 though Senator Clinton later implied that she thought it was a vote for inspections. However, I would argue that the name of the resolution should have been sufficient to clear up any questions about the intent of the bill's authors. As late as 2005 Murtha still argued that the problems in Iraq were due to lack of planning, refusing to admit that the invasion was a mistake. Dick Cheney referenced John Murtha saying "One of my strongest allies in Congress when I was secretary of defense was Jack Murtha, a Democrat who was chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee."

The media was shocked by Murtha's sudden about face on the Iraq occupation mainly because of his long time record as a war hawk. Now his endorsement of another right wing war hawk has been used to re-write history and recast both he and Hillary as doves.

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Jeremiah Wright's 24 Hour Coverage

It's difficult for me to recall a minor story in recent history that has received more press coverage than the comments of Barack Obama's Pastor Jeremiah Wright. Part of me is extremely angry over the unfair, illogical, and suspect timing of the story and another part is glad to see it hit the press now rather than next October. How convenient that a story which came out and was covered several months ago suddenly gets revived and brought to the forefront of the news when Hillary needs help going into Pennsylvania. Every news channel talks about the story non-stop as though Senator Obama had made the comments himself. A Preacher whose support was sought after and received by Senator McCain referred to the Catholic church as "the great whore" and it received less than a day of coverage. The silver lining is that the media is using it up now and they will get little play out of it in the general election. Senator Clinton is obviously finished as a candidate. It appears now that her goal is to act as a political suicide bomber and try to kill the Obama Campaign when hers dies.

One thing is very clear regarding this issue, white America (a term I use to refer to a culture rather than merely a race or ethnicity) has no idea of the anger and resentment in the Black Community over the vicious racism and oppression their people have faced. I would surmise that if the press were to look over videotapes of most Black Preachers for twenty years they would be shocked by many of the angry comments they would find. Let me be honest, as a radio talk show host for several years, there are quite a few comments that I have made that would likely bring the ire of the mainstream press. A few hundred years of slavery, lynchings, and Jim crow laws tend to leave a bad taste in one's mouth. I once devoted an entire show to why America should celebrate the date the emancipation proclamation was signed rather than July Fourth. I referred to Thomas Jefferson as a serial rapist and questioned why George Washington waited until after his death to free his slaves. Believe me, that show had enough sound bites to keep Fox News busy for weeks. Mainstream America is shocked that Black community leaders have verbally attacked the mainstream culture in this country, maybe it needs to be aired out and discussed. The anger and resentment is real, so lets make it public.

Ultimately, Senator Obama just has to keep fighting and get to the convention. He will surely be beaten up and tattered when Hillary gets through. Then, the Jeremiah Wright story will be long used up and it will be rather difficult for the Republicans to convince the voters that Senator Obama is a Muslim after spending so much time attacking his Baptist Minister.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

THE MEDIA CREATES THE RACE, RACE

It was surprising how little the race factor played into the Democratic campaign early in the primary season. Iowa, a state with a population that is 98% white, went overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. He nearly took New Hampshire and the race was neck and neck through Super Tuesday. It was clear to the casual observer that the voters were more interested in the issues than the race or gender of the candidates. Stunned by the public reaction to Barack Obama's success, every candidate transformed into a vehicle for "CHANGE". How clear the contradiction when a candidate who campaigns as a conservative argues that they are best suited to bring change. The very definition of political conservatism is to favor tradition and gradual change. None the less, the bandwagon mentality began and every candidate wanted to be Barack Obama in one form or another.

The problem arose when it became fairly obvious that, barring a miracle, this change movement was going to seriously threaten the status quo. The status quo, led principally by the mainstream media, has embarked on a major campaign to neutralize this threat. Senator Obama has a brief political background and little or no skeletons in his closet which left the media with one issue, race. You need only watch CNN for a few hours to recognize that it has become all race, all the time regarding the Democratic Primary. One week they are showing pictures of Senator Obama in traditional Kenyan apparel and linking him to Louis Farrakhan inferring that he is a Muslim. The next week they are showing film clips of his Christian pastor making extremely ethnic sermons and commenting on race related issues in a fashion that most blue collar Whites find uncomfortable. The strategy is clear, paint Senator Obama as a Black only candidate and frighten the blue collar White voter in Pennsylvania into voting for Senator Clinton. As revolting as the strategy is, I can't see an alternative for the Clinton media surrogates at this point. Hillary's one week of victory and momentum left her behind a dozen more delegates than before the week began. She will be heading to the convention behind in delegates, popular votes, states won, and money. You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

To be honest, we can't be surprised that the mainstream political machine would stoop to such historic lows to try and stop a monumental threat to their political cash cow. Before the Pennsylvania primary vote I expect them to trot out a modern equivalent to Willie Horton and try to scare the be-Jesus out of the average White guy. What alternative do they have, stick to the issues and get crushed?

I continue to hold the position that the Clinton People are out of control and it is the duty of the Party Leaders to stop this cancer in the Party. It has become clear that the Clinton wing of the Party is challenging the authority of the standing Party Leaders. It is my belief that the Party Leaders have put together a strategy to stop Hillary's insurrection. Keep an eye on Nancy Pelosi and her inner circle for clues.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Delusional Groupthink, The Hillary/Dubya Disaster Machines

Delusion - A false belief despite incontrovertible and obvious evidence to the contrary. (A Mind of it's own, Cordelia Fine - 2006 Castle House Books)

Groupthink - a type of thought exhibited by group members who try to minimize conflict and reach consensus without critically testing, analyzing, and evaluating ideas. (Wikipedia)

In my evaluation of the Clinton Camp's recent activities I am struck by the similarities between their inner circle and the inner circle of the Bush Administration during the run up to the invasion of Iraq.

The term "groupthink"was coined in 1952 by William H. Whyte and researched extensively by Irving Janis. Mr. Janis recognized two prevalent causes of this condition:

  • Structural faults in the organization: insulation of the group, lack of tradition of impartial leadership, lack of norms requiring methodological procedures, homogeneity of members' social background and ideology.
  • Provocative situational context: high stress from external threats, recent failures, excessive difficulties on the decision-making task, moral dilemmas.
In the run up to the invasion, the inner circle of the Bush Administration notoriously ignored evidence that there were no WMD's and high level warnings of a post invasion armed resistance. In hindsight, it is near mind boggling that they could have expected anything other than total disaster with the information that they were being given.

Fast forward to the Clinton campaign. The Clinton camp continues to project success despite Obama's overwhelming lead in both the pledged delegate count and popular vote with few States left, several of which are likely victories for Senator Obama. They appear blind to the long term damage caused by their brutal reckless tactics. Worse yet, they have attacked and offended the groups they would undoubtedly need if they were able to secure the nomination. Their current illogical rationale seems to be that they can lose the popular vote and the pledged delegate count, promote the Republican nominee, infuriate the Black community, then convince the Superdelegates to override the wishes of the voters.

It appears that they believe the path to the nomination will be a "cakewalk" and the Obama supporters will "welcome them as liberators". Isn't it always amazing how groups of people get together and create a paradigm contrary to reality. Then live comfortably in that paradigm as it crumbles around them.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

The Penalty for Treason?

Despite the current focus on race in the Democratic Primary, a much greater issue looms virtually ignored. The Democratic leadership has presumably overlooked the most blatant case of treason in the history of the party. Shortly after publicly declaring the intent to "throw the kitchen sink" at Senator Obama, Senator Clinton made the following remarks:

"[McCain has] never been president, but he will put forth his lifetime of experience. I will put forth my lifetime of experience. Senator Obama will put forth a speech he made in 2002."


"I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."

"Of course, well, you know, I've got a lifetime of experience. Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience. And you know, Senator Obama's whole campaign is about one speech he made in 2002."

The issue of experience is certainly a fair, though ineffective, strategy for the Clinton camp to employ. However, confounded by the futility of their efforts, the Clinton camp transformed the strategy into a bipartisan attack on the likely Democratic nominee. They unofficially joined forces with Senator McCain and began the Republican Senator's first line of attack. I suspect that sometime between now and November we will see the video of Senator Clinton's remarks again.

It is clear that the Clintons have ignited a war between the right wing (liberals) and the left wing (progressives) of the Democratic Party. However, Senator Obama's near insurmountable lead in delegates and overall votes means that Senator Clinton's treasonous remarks damages both wings in the general election.

The appearance is that the right wing of the Democratic Party would prefer a Republican President over a progressive. This should come as no great surprise since their history has always been to strike so called "bi-partisan" deals with the Republicans rather than side with the left wing of their own Party on issues of substance.....such as Preemptive military attacks on sovereign nations and massive tax cuts for the wealthy.

The Democratic leadership would be foolish to allow this contest to continue in its current form until Pennsylvania. The Clintons have declared in both words and deeds their intent to destroy the Party's likely nominee. Five weeks of scorched earth Clinton politics may be fatal for the party's White House bid. The Party leadership needs to take immediate and decisive action. Treason of this magnitude cannot be tolerated. Gary Hart floated this balloon as soon as the incident occurred. He was dead on target with his article "Breaking the Final Rule".

If any party accepts treason as a routine political tactic, its demise can't be far off.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Geraldine Ferraro (AKA Big Brother)

Geraldine Ferraro's recent comment about Barack Obama immediately brings to mind three quotes from George Orwell's epic novel "1984":

Ferraro Stated:

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman [of any color] he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is."


The quote from "1984" was:

War is Peace
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength

The remarkable similarity between these quotes is fairly obvious, both deliberately invert reality. In the style of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and the Bill O'Reilly Mrs. Ferraro infers that America has changed in a fashion that now gives the advantages to Black males and the disadvantages to White males. In Mrs. Ferraro's twisted version of reality, Black males are lucky because they are a privileged class and the unfortunate Whites of both genders have to take the crumbs left behind. In a country where white males occupy 97% of all administrative positions in the fortune 500 Companies, Black males are socially privileged? The naked truth is that the exact opposite is true.

This is reminiscent of the fascist dictator Joseph Stalin claiming to be a socialist and Hitler naming the fascist Nazi party the "National Socialist" party. The ultimate dishonesty is to make statements that are not merely incorrect, but are a deliberate inversions of the truth. In this case, playing the race card in this manner is intended to send a coded message to Whites that they must band together to protect themselves before the privileged class of Blacks take everything they have. It is directed towards the struggling blue collar Pennsylvania voters who are viewed as susceptible to this kind of right wing fear mongering. It is remarkable similar to the arguments made by modern White supremacists and identifies Mrs. Ferraro as another Democrat who resides with Zell Miller, Joe Lieberman (until his recent rejection by the voters), and Hillary Clinton in the far right wing of the Democratic Party.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Hillary Fights for Democracy (unless Barack wins)

The Clinton camp's contradictory arguments regarding the Michigan and Florida primaries are much too obvious to ignore. Which, I might add, is precisely what the mainstream media is doing. Rather than a complicated explanation, I'll expose the blatant hypocrisy by simply stating the two arguments together:

1 - The Clinton Camp argues that the voices of the Florida and Michigan voters must be heard for the sake of democracy. These voters, if overlooked, will be so angry that they will flock to John McCain in the general election and give the White House to the Republicans. If the Democratic Party disenfranchises millions of voters in two critical States, the White House will go to the Republicans.

2 - If Barack Obama is selected by the primary voters (which I am guessing includes Michigan and Florida) the Super-delegates should ignore the voters and select Hillary as the nominee, effectively disenfranchising every democratic primary voter in every state. This may not be democratic, but those are the rules. The disenfranchisement of overwhelming numbers of African American and youthful voters will be of little consequence in November.

Any Questions?