onegoodmove

people getting riled up over saying the pledge in a different language? You've got to be kidding me! We did that one week every year in my high school. And I graduated just a year ago from a school in a very conservative central Wisconsin city. Never had any concerns about it at all. Hell, never thought there even was anything to be concerned about...

I agree with Norm I think on Iran. The only case in which a sane person would even think about nuking Iran is if Iran launched an unprovoked nuclear attack on Israel or some other neighbor. But in that situation 90% of the world would demand that Iran be invaded, the entire regime and theocratic power structure be dismantled, and the leaders of the regime executed. Many if not most of Iran's own people would demand it. And yet we've hemmed ourselves into a situation where we'd feel obligated to kill millions of innocent Iranians gratuitously. The retaliation would carry no military necessity at all.

As a deterrent, however, mass murder can't be beat. The problem is that you have to set up military procedures and practices that involve actively planning to kill millions of innocents. There's a chance you'd have to follow through with the threat. In this case it's far worse than the Cold War, because Iran could never in 100 years launch an attack that would destroy anything more than an American city (even that would be extremely unlikely), and could never win a war with the U.S. even if they could pull off a sneak nuclear first strike. So the idea of "massive retaliation" doesn't even have proportionality on its side.

Bowling 1, Rev. Wright 1, Flag Pin 1, Health Care 0, Food Shortages 0, "obliterate them" 0.

Also, McCain got a free pass on his "gas tax holiday". I'll sum up a brilliant arguement I heard on NPR about the gas tax holiday: 1) Nevermind global warming and decreasing the cost a commodity that has environmental costs 2) Nevermind crumbling infrastructure that needs those taxes 3) The reason why oil prices go up in the summer is demand increasing over supply, so decreasing prices does NOTHING to help "the poor". In fact, making oil $.30 cheaper might even cause demand to increase higher than supply, possibly leading to rationing and shortages.

I think the reason why I've been a bit irrational lately about the whole presidential election is because it feels like my country is falling apart around me, and the most imporant question we care about in presidential politics is flag pins and rev. wright. OGM was always my oasis in the desert of info-tainment, but days with posts like this make it seem like the oasis is a bit more pure than it has been lately.

How do the Obama supporters here feel about his failure to confront Fox about their coverage of him?

Don't give a shit. Just like I don't give a shit about that uber conservative news group Hillary did an interview with. Non-issue.

Drug war, "War on Terror", torture, health care, Iraq, Iran, world food crisis, ...

Those are real issues.

The MSM is dying. It's first cracks were with the "I-report" crap. This will be the last US election where they have any influence. Every one of their special commentators will have their own video blogs next time. The Debates can be held by any high school media department and broadcast to the world.

In 4 years, sensational news-porn will be forwarded on from every cellphone to laptop in the world before they can put a headline graphic on it, and their smut peddling will fade into that noise. They will be forced to become reliable filters of quality info, or die.

Keep in mind that this adviser said this specifically to mollify critics who worried that Obama's decision to appear on Fox would help legitimize the network and hence hurt Dems overall. There's no ambiguity here to speak of: The adviser was telling these critics not to worry, that the reason Obama was going on was to "take Fox on."

Obama went on there to defend himself, and explain some of his views and policies--it was important, I think, that he present his own views on the Wright/flag pin/bullshit issues on the network that has pressed them most.

But speaking of enabling Fox, and being a dishonest hack, a spokesman for the Clinton campaign, Terry McAuliffe, dailydish/2008/04/terry-loves-fox.html" because they declared after 1% of the PA primary vote was in that Clinton had won.

So what is more harmful: A candidate defending his views on the network that smeared him in a calm and rational fashion? Or positively praising the network with its own by-line of "fair and balanced".

As for Clinton and Iran, I have already explained why it was such an injudicious remark, and why her 'security umbrella' comment is incoherent. It alienates the countries we would putatively claim to protect, ignores the Israel/Palestine issue which is the source of most security and cultural anxiety, and further opinion/editorials/articles/2008/04/27/hillarystrangelove/".

That is a big step away from saying one is 'leaving all options on the table', which is vague, while explicitly committing to a policy diplomacy and dialog.

My links and part of my comments were cut off.

Here is McAuliffe praising Fox News as Fair and Balanced:

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/04/terry-loves-fox.html

Here is the article on the responses in the Middle East to HillRod's "let's nuke'em" remarks:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2008/04/27/hillary_strangelove/

How do the Obama supporters here feel about his failure to confront Fox about their coverage of him?

Devastated. Total deal breaker. I'm voting for Hillary now. (rolling eyes)

He gave Fox the cold shoulder for a year and 1/2 to solidly drive his point home, and then sat down with them like a gentleman and made his case for their viewers. No complaints from me.

And can we have a little balance here, please? Hillary sought out the affectionate endorsement of this evil monster.

You wanna talk about failure....to go hat in hand to the guy who spent thousands in an attempt to frame you for murder is fucking FAIL in my book!

Re Obama interview:

He did great, and i am sad to say, the Fox interview was reasonably fair, asked him all the talking point/distraction things, but gave him time to answer. Certainly better than that stupid debate.

There were some interesting things in the interview that none of us are talking about as well. Where he deviates from party platform etc? Curious to me is how he did with the standard fox viewer. Anyone know?

The MSM is dying. It's first cracks were with the "I-report" crap. This will be the last US election where they have any influence. (...) In 4 years, sensational news-porn will be forwarded on from every cellphone to laptop in the world before they can put a headline graphic on it, and their smut peddling will fade into that noise. They will be forced to become reliable filters of quality info, or die.

Thaddeus, I love you.

I hereby confess: I was dismayed by Obama's Fox interview. As I am dismayed by the crap the MSM is pulling for weeks now (and will be until November).

Your post really gave me hope. Honestly. Because I think you're right. Thanks.

You may be right, Thaddeus, but the MSM will not go quietly into the good night, not least because of the fact that they are highly profitable subsidiaries of Viacom, GE, Newscorp., etc.

To this end it's open question how much of the bullshit issues are based on:

1. Catering to "the market" which is measured in eyeballs, which they believe cannot be sustained by covering "serious" issues (personally I think they're wrong).

2. The time and money it takes to do real journalism, as opposed to just paying the salaries of talking heads.

3. The more sinister aspect that it's in the interests of their corporate parents that the MSM doesn't cover real issues, because then people might be informed in such a way as to threaten profits (think environmental policies and the like).

Anyway, we can certainly hope that either the MSM's influence will significantly wane, or they will realize that people will get the "bullshit" from Youtube and blogs, but they still have the resources to give us legit stories and big/real issues.