Obama's SOTU Address - what stands out about the reaction ...

It’s a simple way of saying the American right-wing has lost finally control of the overall national debate. 25+ years over the last 40 has finally opened up a lot of eyes and ears across the country to a central point – these conservatives and right-wingers simply cannot govern the United States effectively for its people. And as a direct result of the economic problems of the last two years - they are no longer able to control the overall message. And no amount of help from the corporate media is helping, because people now are seeing them too as fundamentally dishonest. One need only go online and simply search for the media outlet or personality to see the lack of objective journalism, integrity or honestly.

 

The 2008 elections are direct proof of this. The reaction to Obama’s economic stimulus plan is direct proof of this. Governor Jindal’s SOTU response last night is proof that apparently the Republican Party doesn’t get it. And with each type or response like this, the American right-wing are only making themselves less and less relevant in this country.

Darwin's Birthday and American's belief in evolution.

On this day 200 years ago, Charles Darwin was born. (Also, Abraham Lincoln was born on this day in 1809.)
 
On that note, here's a Gallup survey released recently on Darwin's theory of evolution - now the basis for modern biology:
 
http://www.gallup.com/poll/114544/Darwin-Birthday-Believe-Evolution.aspx
 
I find it both disburbing and troubling that only 39% of those polled actually believe in evolution. 
 
In a day and age where education in sciences, engineering, and biology will be keys to enduring in the 21th Century, this country better start working to improve those numbers. I think its economic future depends on people being properly educated with facts, not indoctrinated by religion.

Why the Republican Party is losing the debate on the economic stimlus.

Here's a really bright statement from a Republican Congressman from Ohio (h/t to Steve Benen).

 

""When Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression.... He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a Great Depression. That's just history." "

 

Wow.

 

I wonder how his constituents feel about him getting basic history wrong? To have elected someone who would say something completely at odds with history, reality and fact.

 

I believe recent polls taken show the majority of Americans support the Obama stimlus package.

 

The Republicans have no choice but to act this way and fight Obama on every point.

 

If they agree, they will be seen as 'moderate' or 'centrist', almost Democrats to the right-wing, and will probably be villified. Voters who have a choice between a pretend-Democrat and a real one in the next election will likely choose the real thing. This is because they know that if it passes, it will likely be successful, and voters will reward him and the Democrats, not them.

 

(On a side note, it's quite a turn around from 6-7 years ago, when it seemed as though voters had a choice between Democrats who acted like pretend-Republicans and the real thing. Voters saw it as a sham and voted for the latter, despite all the obvious evidence that it was contrary to their interests).

 

To fight as they are is playing right into (what I suspect is) Obama's real motivation behind his 'bipartisan approach'. That is, to make voters in Republican congressional districts see just how incompetant and useless they really are.

 

Either way, it's a win for Obama, and eventually voters.

An open letter to Charles Gibson of ABC ...

Mr. Gibson,

 

During the 2008 US Presidential Election Campaign, I along with many in the United States tuned into your employer's network to view one of the Presidential Candidate debates.

 

Like many, I was appalled and dismayed by the quality of questions being asked.  Indeed, I wasn't the only one who thought so. Evidently some of your peers in the media drew the same conclusion.

 

With the country in the midst of several gripping financial issues, voters in the election chose to reject the policies of the last 8 years that got us into these messes. They elected someone to come up with plans to clean up these messes.

 

Now, no one is asking you to give the new President preferential treatment. After all, the opposite seems to be the pattern when Democratic Presidential Candidates assume office now, isn't it?

 

And of course, you work for ABC, where it's clear, two of your colleagues, cannot even get the most basic information correct - here and here.

 

 

But after watching how the media has handled coverage of the proposed economic stimulus package - and how the media have largely allowed the Republican Party to dominate the airwaves with their diatribes I've come to one specific conclusion -

 

I've had enough of your broadcasts.

 

So, please do everyone a favor and stop.

 

Retire. Quit. Or just walk off the set and don't come back. Take your pick.

 

 

Someone on your Wikipedia entry claimed you to be 'very affable', but frankly I have never bought into that. Indeed, you never ever seem to be happy at all.

 

I'm sick of your smug arrogance, and your inability to get over the fact that the Republican Party lost the 2008 elections, and that for whatever reason, ABC won't let you leave.

 

Watching you and your network allow yourself and corporate media outlets to get even the most basic issues about the proposed Obama economic stimulus wrong is bad enough. But even after being repeatedly corrected, you still spout falsehoods on your broadcast.

 

No, it goes beyond that, as it this irresponsible behavior on the part of the corporate media is business as usual.

 

I have found you to be completely insufferable - you and your program are neither informative, or entertaining.

 

Honestly the only good thing about your broadcasts, is the pleasure in turning the television off knowing -

 

• it's time to eat dinner
  
• that you are able once again unable to hide your absolute contempt for the new Obama Government or promote honest, objective journalism
  
• that anyone who decides to continue to tune into you will continue to be misinformed about the events that shape our lives
  
• and that I can get more reliable, objective news elsewhere.