cardigrl (![[info]](http://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} cardigrl) wrote,@ 2009-07-29 09:52:00 |
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News follies...
or why focus on the substantive stuff when we can pointlessly insult each other.
Let's start with this piece in Media Matters, on how Sean Hannity, the clueless right-wing "news" host took out of context old comments from Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s 1994 interview on C-SPAN's Booknotes. He did so in an attempt to make Gates out to be a radical racist. Why do I say this is pointless? First, Hannity is an idiot, the people who would believe his shtick already think that, and nobody else is going to fall for it. Second, because the rest of us should be spending our time on things that matter, rather than muttering together that Hannity is a racist who is dishonest, a clueless idiot, or both. Where's the news in that?
Then we have Maxine Waters' blaming the fact that they have not yet passed health care reform on Rahm Emanuel . How does that work, you ask? Well, if he had not done such a good job getting moderate Democrats to run for Congress so that they regained their majority, all the liberals would have already voted for it. Apparently, she does not get it that liberal Democrats would not have won in all those districts. ~sigh~
As to the Dems who are in Congress, what's with them? Harry Reid said he wasn't going to say whether he favored a public plan for health care. Because, you know, it's not like he's in a leadership position or anything. Or perhaps the Democratic Caucus has a different definition of leadership? As in, never commit to anything so you can blame everybody else if it goes south?
And on the economic front... Does anyone know if there's any truth in the AP's claim that the jobs created by the stimulus bill (remember, the one that cost trillions?) lasted an average of 35 hours each, after which the people are again unemployed?
And on the racism front.... Yes, I know this will annoy some people, but if we want to talk about racism, can we stop talking about whether Gates got offended for being asked for ID and talk about things like the way the federal government denies equal protection to millions of Native women by stripping tribes and states of any ability to effectively prosecute assaults against them and then refusing to do it themselves? See this brief for a summary of how that has occurred. Sorry, but I am getting really tired of people talking about race in America as a black/white issue, when it is much broader than that. And I'm sick and tired of the way that I (and the state-side LEOs I work with) would dearly love to go after some of these rapists and assailants, but have to stand by and watch the feds ignore it. I actually had a case where I pushed the US Attorney's office to go after a rapist, and the AUSA finally sneered that if the rapist's latest victim wanted to drive to his office (a 160 mile round trip), he'd round somebody up to talk to her. Because, you know, it was too much to ask FBI Agents to drive to the rez to investigate a crime against a woman after they pushed through the laws that said nobody else could do it.
or why focus on the substantive stuff when we can pointlessly insult each other.
Let's start with this piece in Media Matters, on how Sean Hannity, the clueless right-wing "news" host took out of context old comments from Henry Louis Gates Jr.'s 1994 interview on C-SPAN's Booknotes. He did so in an attempt to make Gates out to be a radical racist. Why do I say this is pointless? First, Hannity is an idiot, the people who would believe his shtick already think that, and nobody else is going to fall for it. Second, because the rest of us should be spending our time on things that matter, rather than muttering together that Hannity is a racist who is dishonest, a clueless idiot, or both. Where's the news in that?
Then we have Maxine Waters' blaming the fact that they have not yet passed health care reform on Rahm Emanuel . How does that work, you ask? Well, if he had not done such a good job getting moderate Democrats to run for Congress so that they regained their majority, all the liberals would have already voted for it. Apparently, she does not get it that liberal Democrats would not have won in all those districts. ~sigh~
As to the Dems who are in Congress, what's with them? Harry Reid said he wasn't going to say whether he favored a public plan for health care. Because, you know, it's not like he's in a leadership position or anything. Or perhaps the Democratic Caucus has a different definition of leadership? As in, never commit to anything so you can blame everybody else if it goes south?
And on the economic front... Does anyone know if there's any truth in the AP's claim that the jobs created by the stimulus bill (remember, the one that cost trillions?) lasted an average of 35 hours each, after which the people are again unemployed?
And on the racism front.... Yes, I know this will annoy some people, but if we want to talk about racism, can we stop talking about whether Gates got offended for being asked for ID and talk about things like the way the federal government denies equal protection to millions of Native women by stripping tribes and states of any ability to effectively prosecute assaults against them and then refusing to do it themselves? See this brief for a summary of how that has occurred. Sorry, but I am getting really tired of people talking about race in America as a black/white issue, when it is much broader than that. And I'm sick and tired of the way that I (and the state-side LEOs I work with) would dearly love to go after some of these rapists and assailants, but have to stand by and watch the feds ignore it. I actually had a case where I pushed the US Attorney's office to go after a rapist, and the AUSA finally sneered that if the rapist's latest victim wanted to drive to his office (a 160 mile round trip), he'd round somebody up to talk to her. Because, you know, it was too much to ask FBI Agents to drive to the rez to investigate a crime against a woman after they pushed through the laws that said nobody else could do it.