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| California Republican Party Convention |
I didn't watch Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation yesterday, so I have no idea if he ended his broadcast with his usual, "Both sides do it" - whatever "it" is at any given time. I hope not. I hope by now he has finally come to realize just how lazy, shallow and misguided he and the rest of the main stream media have become.
To keep saying "both sides do it" is wrong and irresponsible. As Aljazeera reports, "This sort of false equivalence is not just a failure of journalism. It is also a failure of democracy."
The Atlantic goes so far as to charge the "broken media" of actually aiding and abetting in breaking the government: "There's a direct connection between the shutdown and hyperbolic, partisan journalistic outlets driven more by profits than the search for truth."
Back in January 2011 Parsley's Pics featured an in depth look at bias in the media entitled The Main Stream Media Can't Do Their Job Wearing Blinders. Apparently they weren't listening because they're still wearing them.
No, Democrats do not "do it, too" and both sides do not have an over-abundance of liars and loons.
On the loony side are the conservatives who hate Obamacare but think the Affordable Care Act is acceptable:
Even loonier, there are a number of petitions going around to fire John Boehner. I always ask, "replace him with whom? Eric Cantor?" Oh no, no, no. "Ted Cruz"? Nope. How about Sarah Palin? You bet'cha!
The Democrats pride themselves on their diversity but Republicans have their diversity, too. I'm just not sure how you measure it because they all look alike to me: Old. White. Men. The few women who remain in the party all walk, talk, think and dress alike: no pant suits for them, no independent thinking, no war on women. Their battle cry: Submit!
I guess you have to look a little deeper than age and skin color to find the diversity - maybe a brain scan or a coronary angiogram - assuming they have one or both organs.
Even some of the slow-to-come-to-Jesus-media are beginning to blame the shutdown on the Republicans but due to their ineptness and self-delusion, the Republicans who believed Romney was leading in the polls in 2012 seem to be completely unaware that they are the ones who brought it about.
Despite voting for the shutdown, Rep. Renee Ellmers (NC) expressed outrage that "needless, needless suffering" is happening at Fort Bragg which, of course, is in her district, and of course, it is Obama's fault.
Then we have this Republican bully from Texas displaying his brass when he berates a U.S. Parks ranger, who just happens to be a woman, for the shutdown of the World War II Memorial on the Washington Mall. This is the same Randy Neugebauer who once shouted "baby killer" at Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich) on the floor of the House of Representatives. A real class act.
I don't know the name of the longest book ever written but I do know that if one were to write a book listing the Republican hypocrisy and lies from just the last decade, it would surely be longer than War and Peace. Obviously, there's no way to adequately cover them in a blog piece but here's a small sampling.
Martin Bashir, a British journalist and one of the most astute political commentators today, calls out "Professor" Cruz after he delivered a "masterclass in duplicity, self-contradiction and rank hypocrisy" to the senate. Right before the vote on the government shutdown Bashir focused on the "GOP's lunatic hypocrisy." There's plenty of both.
The lies that emanate from the TPGOP keep the fact checkers hopping like a bunch of Mexican jumping beans. Little old women squirm around in high anticipation waiting for their daily dose of fright wing chain emails and squeal with delight when they finally arrive. They just love to get all "skeert". Here's just a few but please try to contain yourselves:
-- Spiteful Obama blocks off Mt. Rushmore with a sheet suspended from helicopters.
-- A dire warning about Obamacare (one among thousands)
-- One of my favorites from Fox News: Obama is personally funding Muslim Museum
-- Obama declares November National Muslim Month
-- Pants On Fire: A man who opted out of Obamacare charged a $4,000 fine
-- 15 myths the media (and fright wingers) should ignore during Obamacare implementation
-- Top 16 myths about the health care law
-- Obamacare myths explored from FactCheck and reprinted in Huffington Post
If all this depresses you, imagine how this poor guy feels.
