Just Because They Say It Doesn’t Make It So

Anyone who has had a family member in recovery will recognize this phrase, and as I watched the media's manipulation of last week's presidential primaries, I couldn't help but think it aptly applied in that case as well.

Have we become a nation of co-dependents who believe everything we hear without questioning the agenda or the pathological state of the pundit who's uttering it? It may be that we are so beat up by nearly eight years of completely unsubstantiated statements out of the White House,  "Mission Accomplished", WMD's, etc., that we are unable to decipher fact from fiction.

Ever since KPBS gave me the opportunity to become a Citizens Voices blogger, I've felt the responsibility to investigate the source of everything I read, or hear on TV, whether it's on John Stewart  or CNN or Fox. That often means researching the writer, and then the writer's affiliations, and finally, who's behind those affiliations. I can get lost in Googleland, just trying to track down the back-stories.

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Floyd Morrow, Taxes, and Elections

In local news, Democratic San Diego mayoral candidate Floyd Morrow appeared on These Days this morning. Mr. Morrow pulled no punches with the interview, and was rather scathing in his attack on the corruption, in his eyes, of some of the other candidate's campaigns. He also spoke wanting a city-wide health care system as a stepping stone to universal health care. Once again, I still can say nothing bad about this candidate. He wants affordable housing, to help the people of the county, and isn't being shoved in my face by the mass media. Overall, it was an interesting interview.

In other news, Hillary Clinton and John McCain are both urging for the 18 cents of taxes to be removed from gasoline for the tax season. Well, today they heard about it from economists around the world. All of them screamed, "NO! What are you thinking!?"

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Presidential Debates, Godwin’s Law, and Bloggers Blamed

In Libertarian news, the 2008 Libertarian Party Presidential Debate will be broadcast live from Heartland Libertarian Convention in Kansas City on Saturday, April 5. You can hear it on KCXL or Blog Talk Radio.

The debate will feature George Phillies; Wayne Allyn Root; Christine Smith; Michael Jingozian; Dr. Mary J. Ruwart; and Mike Gravel. It will start at 10:00 a.m. Central Standard Time, so it will be at 8 a.m. Saturday morning Pacific Standard Time (For those of us on the West Coast!).

Also, a 30-minute recap of the debate is scheduled! I urge all those interested or curious about third-party politics to listen in for my party's candidates.

In other news, it seems the Right Wing's spokeswoman, the 'beloved' Ann Coulter, made headlines this week when she compared Obama's autobiography, "Dreams From My Father", to "Mein Kampf".

She does make some interesting points, but this is, by far, not the first time a candidate has been Godwin-ed in the news. Does this mean we can stop paying attention to Ann Coulter now, as she'll have noting more of value to say? Lord, I really hope so.

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Following in Mitt’s Footsteps

Photo: Mitt Romney in San Diego, January 2008. Nicole Lozare/KPBS.  

Note to both Democratic candidates: Consider quitting.

It's not an option easily mulled over for highly educated, highly accomplished patriotic professionals, but consider the consequences.

By my biased calculations, Mitt Romney really should have won his party’s nomination. He has the familial and political pedigrees. He has the poise. Even for those critics who point to his record as governor of Massachusetts as proof of his being a flip-flopper, apparently it’s a non-issue.

After all, who blows hot and cold on more important issues than John McCain, the presumptive nominee? 

Just because Gov. Romney failed to hang tough in the race or to capture the popular right-wing vote, he still won respect. He showed a measure of leadership by choosing to withdraw from the race. I don’t buy that he was trying to save face after losing a string of states. Maybe he’s preparing for the 2012 race but even so, quitting didn’t hurt him.

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Personal-Responsibility, Redux

Last week, I wrote about Democrats championing accepting personal-responsibility.

Oddly enough, it was the same week Eliot Spitzer spoke publicly about “letting his family down” by getting caught/spending fundraising dollars inappropriately/breaking his moral code/embarrassing the Spitzer family name...the list goes on. 

The news also ran stories about Florida and Michigan’s Democratic leadership lobbying Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee to rerun the rules-be-damned primary elections and to legitimize voters’ dreams of picking an historic candidate.

There was one particularly interesting CNN Op-Ed piece about the topic written by Mr. Glenn Beck, the title of which, “Too bad, Michigan and Florida” dealt specifically with the importance of personal-responsibility.

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I Listened to Rush Limbaugh and Got an Idea

"Remember what I told you, Mr. Snerdley: There are no rules in the Democrat Party, there are only customs and traditions. Don't frown at me! Do you realize what a brilliant observation that is?" Rush Limbaugh, March 5 broadcast, 2008.

Love him or loathe him, the Right listens to Rush. Why? He’s entertaining. He’s bombastic. But answering beyond that, well, that’s why I listen to Rush.

Plenty of brave souls willingly espouse their political beliefs in public, but few delve the depths of why it matters to them so much as does Rush. I’ve been thinking a lot about Rush lately, and not because he’s so brazenly self-congratulatory. More so because he’s been saying the same thing for so many years and people still listen. 

From what I gather that message all boils down to this: The Democratic Party wants to destroy this country. 

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Extreme Democracy

Did you hear me on the "These Days" earlier this week, dear readers? I hope you did, as it was fun being on the show with Alma! We talked about what could be the end of the race for the main party seats, among other topics. Overall, I'm happy with how it turned out.

But, let's face it, American politics is a bit tame, compared to other places.

The worst thing we have is controversy over using Obama's middle name. A little silly, really, when people can buy 'Obama Bin Laden' shirts on the internet already. Is this a sign of what is to come in the coming weeks? I sure hope not.

But, over in Russia, as they are also dealing with a presidential election, we have Vladimir Zhirinovsky! Ah, this candidate is quite interesting. Two weeks ago, he was in a debate with one of the party members. Thanks to a friend from Russia, I know what they are saying.

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Survivor: American Edition

Americans are having a love affair with reality TV shows and I’ve noticed that this election has all of the elements of a good one: two teams fight against each other in small competitions, voting off members along the way until there is one final victor.

Enthusiastic viewers cheer on their favorite characters while being entertained by the bickering teammates and backstabbing shenanigans. Alliances are made and the plot twists and turns every week.  The drama of this year’s political game has turned into “Must See TV.”

Candidates have been voted off at as we discover quirky things we don’t like about them or as they aren’t able to keep up with the latest challenge. Like the buffs worn on Survivor, candidates drape themselves with the banner of their party and add a few creative touches to express their individuality.

And yes, they’ll eat a lot of unpleasant words during their stint on prime time.      

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Campaign Vertigo

The recent distressing Pew Research Report stating that 1 in every 100 Americans is currently imprisoned got me thinking about how weary I’ve suddenly become of these presidential campaigns.

I know Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are in a tight race for delegates and each need to win big in these delegate-rich states. And that John McCain struggles to gain traction with conservative cultural leaders like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.  I’ve also become painfully aware that Ron Paul has become even more marginalized in terms of substantive coverage, while Mike Huckabee gets mad-props for his “SNL” appearance, suggesting perhaps that Congressman Paul’s message is too sobering to be taken lightly. 

But we’ve got bigger fish to fry in this country than swallowing story after story about whether Clinton's people leaked “the photo” that repulsed the opposition.

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The 545

No, 545 is not the number of people who participated in my survey last week. It’s not the number of calories I consumed by devouring that chocolate chip cookie a few minutes ago. Nope, it’s not even the number of times I’ve told my sons to put the toilet seat down this week (although it’s pretty close). It’s the number of people columnist Charley Reese declares are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

Specifically, they are one hundred senators, 435 congressmen, one president and nine Supreme Court justices. 

He claims that the mess we’re in is precisely their fault since they are the ones who ultimately have the power to enact legislation in this country. Is our government really “of the people, by the people and for the people” or do a few hands control all of the strings regardless of what we, the people, really want? My questions to you this week are not in the form of an online poll, but were certainly spawned by my last one.

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