"Television politics and journalism delivered George Bush to the country and no one is laughing now."
I remember we all posted, over and over again, that if Bush was reelected in 2004, the Country was going to get exactly what it deserved. Well, we sure did, didn't we.
Posted by Judith at November 2, 2008 08:12 AMWell, we shouldn't get too excited about a democratic win....Yes, I do hope Obama wins, but I don't hold any false hope to believe that the very structure of the current political and economic system will somehow be made to answer to the vast collection of the American masses.
While we will see superficial issues taken care of, I believe that we will be equally disappointed and disgusted as the next four years come about.
Obama's hands will be tied very tightly...no wiggle room for much of any benevolent social tinkering. Lets hope I'm severely in the wrong.
I think it's gonna be a mass psychological UPPER whose zillions of small unseen effects will reverberate through every corner of this country and the world.
Posted by Sharkbabe at November 2, 2008 09:42 AMHere's an item from the BBC News site which might interest folks in Alaska!
"The eruption of the Lusi mud volcano in Indonesia was caused by drilling for oil and gas, a meeting of 74 leading geologists has concluded.
Lusi erupted in May 2006 and continues to spew out boiling mud, displacing around 30,000 people in East Java."
Colin: Alaska is just begging for a major disaster.
They are on the Pacific "Ring of Fire". In 1964 they had a massive earthquake that was more severe than any of the famous California quakes. There will be another, there always is.
Yet, stunningly, in places like Wasilla they have NO BUILDING CODES. Colin, you're not familiar with the U.S., but there is a standard national building code that has been created that local states and cities almost invariably adopt, plus or minus various local adjustments. In California there are stringent additional earthquake building code requirements, made much more stringent since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake just south of the San Francisco bay. (Yes, in a previous life I did work as a general contractor in California.)
The very notion that a town would not have ANY building code requirements is stunning. That this town would be in an earthquake zone, in 2008, and not bother inspecting new buildings for compliance, is the height of ideologic stupidity. But that is what the blithering rightwing anti-government idiots who run Wasilla have elected to do (the nearby rational town of Palmer does have stringent building codes).
When the next earthquake does hit Alaska I'm all in favor of having FEMA ignore Wasilla, then blame them for their own predicament the same way they and their wingnut friends blamed the residents of New Orleans in 2005.
Posted by Anonny at November 2, 2008 07:17 PMI gave up on TV news during the run up to the Iraq war. I'm glad to hear terms like "propaganda" and "corporate obfuscation" because that has been my feeling for years -- I'm glad to see that it's not just me.
We recently had an issue at my work, where other workers wanted to install a TV in our breakroom, so they could dutifully watch CNN during the day. I was treated like a nutjob for strongly objecting, but we now have a TV in the breakroom. People simply like drinking poisoned water, it tastes better than the truth. VOTE
Posted by Beasly at November 3, 2008 02:42 AMAnonny - thanks for the information about building codes. I can imagine similar things happening over here, though fortunately we don't get earthquakes, at any rate not severe ones. It's the Holy Grail of the Right, deregulation. It's presented as taking excess government off everyone's backs, but it's really removing anything that might slow down business. In the real world it means results like plumbers (now why did I pick on them?)not installing heating properly, so householders die of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Posted by Colin at November 3, 2008 07:45 AMMost of what passes as news on TV is purely entertainment, but I do enjoy watching Olbermann and Maddow even though they are obviously biased. The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are also pretty good at not pulling punches.
Posted by drivelocity at November 3, 2008 03:49 PM