Media Matters, More Than They Should.

I just watched a creation of Hollywood from the incredible imagination of one of my child hood story telling favorites. Stan Lee. Yes, I’m from generation X-Men. Iron man stirred me up, so does the media.

The big media complex is in the tank for Obama. They don’t think that a military hero and a hockey mom can get the job done. Forget their accomplishments. Belittle their intelligence, they didn’t walk the halls of the Ivy league. What could they possibly bring to the leadership of our nation. Our nation of uneducated boobs, teetering on the brink of economic collapse they want, no they need, the “One.” A maverick senator and a small town mayor do not fit into the media narrative, “The Era of Obama.”

I never walked the halls of the Ivy league either, and I don’t need a savior, I found mine on my knees not at the Presidential Debates. I’m one of the millions of people who make this nation work. I don’t do it here at the key board, I work with my hands. My hands hurt when the weather changes, tell tale signs of a dozen injuries and a thousand indignities that would never be suffered by a pair of Ivy League hands.

In my idiocy I’ve noticed a couple of things about the way that things work in the Media Machine. They scoff at people like me. They think that I need them to form an educated opinion of how things work in the world. What could I possibly know with out them. How could I possibly comprehend the horrors of the failure of the Bush presidency or the need for Obama to save us from ourselves.

I've noticed that the Media expresses a great interest in our military when they suffer defeat, when they can be cast as pathetic losers, when they don’t live up to their own high standards. Can you say Abu Ghraib? Of course you can, even with the foreign spelling and pronunciation. When they can be shown as victims of the Bush Doctrine. Belittle them, they deserve no better, if they had studied harder they could have gone to journalism school and made a real difference in the world. They deserve better.

Outside of Hollywood there are no super heroes. There are farm boys and city boys that stand on the frontiers of freedom even when it’s not politically expedient for the Media to cover their sacrifices. They were out there before Bush became President. They miss holidays at home, tender anniversaries, first steps and ballgames and sometimes, even when they’ve done every thing right, for the right reasons, they lose their lives. They are every day iron men, they don’t have a cool special effects driven heart that powers their super human strength. They only have strength of character.

They witness horrible things, they weep for their comrades, they accomplish a thousand small advances of humanity that are totaling up to success in Iraq, and they view the Media with well deserved trepidation that they will make them infamous. You think I’m exaggerating. Ilario Pantano. Look him up. Read in “Lone Survivor” how Navy Seals consider how the media will portray them even as they make life and death decisions in the hills of Afghanistan.

I digress, back to the issue at hand.

In the last 24 hours I’ve been exposed to a couple of glaring Media reports. “Hoovervilles are springing up across the nation.” “President Bush wants to bailout Wall Street.” In the latter report we hear the President’s voice saying that “People on main street are hurting and we need to take action.” It doesn’t quite fit the intro but, they think I am too stupid to grasp the incongruity of the sound bite. Every thing Bush has done, from how his global acts of pre-emption have turned the world against us, to his failed economic policies, are brought to us with a doleful solemnity due to such a disastrous President. Didn’t Pelosi say, “Failed economic policies,” on the floor of the House the other day? Funny how the left of center politicians and the objective media sound so much a like. The Media narrative of the Bush Administration, he has by his great bumbling ineptitude brought us to this precipice where the last thing we need is a gung-ho war hero to continue his unpopular policies.

I’m no Bush kool-aid drinker. He’s made mistakes, every president in our history has made mistakes, you know what I haven’t seen? Since 9/11/01 I haven’t seen my fellow Americans plunging 80 stories to escape a hell on earth brought about by holy warriors.

Perhaps it’s time to tune out the static, perhaps it’s time to ignore the pundits and pay attention to the candidates. What? President Bush isn’t on the ticket? Who would have guessed it, certainly not any one in the media.

We all deserve better.

Obama Is the Agent Orange of Change

Barack Obama talks about hope. Barack Obama talks about change. Don’t look to close though, he’s really hoping that you won’t see past his empty rhetoric. He’s a very gifted politician. He also wants you to believe he’s something other than what he is. Socialism doesn’t make money. Socialism doesn’t create jobs. Socialism is the warm fuzzy bear hug that kills economies and smothers dreams. Barack Obama is a socialist.

Socialism is a utopian dream. You can have everything and some one else will pay for it. Tax cuts for 95% of Americans. You can have socialism but it will cost your individual liberty and it will bankrupt our Nation.

Our government got involved in the mortgage system and that went splendidly didn’t it?

Our government run schools are the envy of the world right? Even if you are raising a family in the inner city you don’t have to worry that your child will not receive the very best education that the Government can offer. Socialism smothers innovation by dictating via the dollar. You want federal money for your school? You had bettered believe there are strings attached.

Enron? Fannie Mae? They have nothing on the accounting practices of Social Security. The greatest ponsi scheme in American History has yet to go bust. But it will. Aside from the fact that socialism always promises more to its adherents than it can deliver, it also quashes choice. Liberty is the first casualty of socialism. I’m pretty sure I could manage to do better with 13%of my income than to send it to Social Security. I was never asked if I wanted to participate in it. I am forced to. So are you.

Say you want some pizza. You walk out your front door and find a gathering of your neighbors on the side walk, you overhear them talking about a community pizza party. You were wanting some pizza any way and it’s for the community so you decide to go in with them for a block party. You look in your wallet and the smallest bill you’ve got is a twenty, it’s more than other people are putting in, but it’s for your community so you shrug and put it in. It takes 15 minutes to decide which Pizza Joint to order from. Another 15 minutes to argue over what type of pizzas to order. Since it’s a large order, it takes 45 minutes before the pizza will be ready. Some one volunteers to go get the seven pizzas. They take their time and by the time the pizzas get there you are so hungry that you barely care that the pizza is cold. People from two blocks over come to share in the free food. By the time you’ve finished your first piece there are only six empty boxes left. You feel cheated. At least you didn’t have to go to the pizza place yourself right?

Socialism always leaves people hanging. It pools your individual choice with the collective concerns of the community and you always lose. You want socialized health care? Vote Obama. He’ll deliver that change and your grand children will wonder what you were thinking when you elected him.

Imagine You Are a Congressman

Facing re-election in five weeks. You know that you should vote for the bill to help salvage the mortgage mess because Congress is complicit in it’s creation and it’s what’s best for the American people. You’ve been getting e-mail that is 20-1 against the bill. You are going to bite the bullet and attempt to explain to your constituents that you did what was right for the nation.

You are in the chamber in a cold sweat because you may very well be committing political suicide when the Speaker of the House and one of the proponents of the bill gets to the podium and says very dramatically. “Seven Hundred Billion Dollars,” she makes point after point against the bill and calls for your vote. She just re-affirmed you constituents concerns over the bill and now she wants your vote.

What do you do?

We know what 95 Democrats and 133 Republicans did. They voted, “No,” and the rest is history.
Leaving off the Partisan claims and Pelosi’s calls for bi-partisan co-operation after she made blatantly partisan remarks, step back and view her floor exercise from the perspective that she was trying to get House members to vote against public opinion and ask if any rational person could believe that her comments made it easier for any Congressman to vote “Aye.”

Truly stupefying.