Motley Moose – Archive

One of the most common complaints about the Beltway media is that they are more concerned with process than with policy. That's why we get stories about Boehner improving his image by leading the House Republicans against the stimulus. We also hear about Republicans getting shut out of the debate. When it comes to policy, silence. That is why we never heard a discussion about the merits of the items in the stimulus bill that the Republicans opposed. All we heard were the Republicans belittling such items.

The media is sometimes part of the solution, but more often part of the problem. There are signs that the blogosphere is causing the media to improve their coverage. The signs are few and far between now, however that will change as time goes on. With that in mind, how should the Moose contribute to the discussion? In other words, what do you guys and gals want to read?

Issues:

This isn’t really worth a diary, but it was too good not to share.

SNL’s Valentine’s Day skit about the Republican caucus.

A small sampling of current Republican lies talking points spin lies.

One of the most frustrating things about being a progressive in America is that we not only have to fight to get a fair hearing in the media we also have to battle the disinformation pushed by the Right.

Politics would be a lot more useful to the citizens of this country if there was a legitimate discussion about the pros and cons of policy proposals. Unfortunately, the Right doesn’t seem to want that discussion. I can’t really blame them since their policies have been shown to be faulty. All they seem to be left with are lies about the proposals offered by the Democrats.

The debate over the stimulus bill offers several examples of those Republican lies. Here are three outright lies that have been pushed by Republicans in the last few days.

The political spectrum in this country is usually divided into 3 broad groups: Left, Center, Right. This is a very simplified description. Because of that simplicity, the media loves to break the country down into those three groups.

While I disagree with this simplistic approach, my main disagreement is what the media claims constitutes the center.

The recent cuts in the Senate to the House version of the stimulus bill have been hailed as an effort lead by centrists to hold the line on pork and spending. That’s the media’s interpretation of events. In reality, these cuts look like a wish list from the Right.

Most of the cuts can be categorized in five main groups: education, science, health care, the environment, and law enforcement. All of these, except for law enforcement, are areas that the conservative right has fought against. Even law enforcement is starting to get short shrift from the Right. They prefer privatized prisons, so prison funding had to go.

Photo courtesy of CuriousGeorge81

Some of the other cuts are completely nonsensical.

Full list after the break.

Many liberals cheered when the New York Times decided to stop carrying Bill Kristol’s column. Those cheers were premature. The Washington Post added Kristol to their stable of neo-cons within a few days of his leaving the Times.

Those who follow politics closely are well aware of Kristol’s abysmal record. He has become something of a joke. “How do you know what not to do? Read Bill Kristol and do the opposite of what he proposes.”

The Moose’s own, Stipes!, wrote a diary about Kristol’s hiring. In it, Stipes! put it well, “Monkeys pounding on keyboards will occasionally come up with the right answer.  Bill has had to work very hard to avoid the accidental, random, rightness that we would expect to see occasionally from lower order primates.”

It didn’t take long for Kristol to resume his brain-in-rectum pontificating. He’s already living up to his reputation with a column in the WaPo.

Kristol’s column is titled, “The Republicans’ Opportunity.” I’d say that reflects quite nicely on Mr. K’s partisan view of the world.

It doesn’t end with the title.

Super Bowl Sunday naturally brings lots of articles and columns about the game. None of the sportswriters who will type those articles and columns is better than Mitch Albom of the Detroit Free Press. Mitch has been voted national Sportswriter of the Year more than once. His articles are read nationwide in guest columns and articles in publications like Sports Illustrated. I had just watched a great game and was online looking for commentary about it so it’s not surprising that I decided to see what Mitch might have said about it.

When I got to www.freep.com and looked at the list of columns by Albom I was quickly reminded that Mitch is much more than a sportswriter. He’s one hell of a sportswriter, of course. He won Sportswriter of the Year 13 times and Feature Writer 7 times. No other writer has won it more than once. Mitch has also written plays and songs, both lyrics and music. But what Mitch is probably most famous for are his novels. He wrote three NY Times best sellers including, Tuesdays with Morey,  The Five People You Meet in Heaven, and For One More Day. All of them have been made into movies.

Mitch could be writing for any publication in the world. I have no doubt that he has turned down offers from papers like the NY papers or the LA Times. For some reason, he never accepted one of those offers. He seems to have fallen in love with Detroit since he first came here in 1985. Instead of taking his trophies and popularity and cashing in he decided to stay in Detroit. He’s highly respected in this state for his loyalty to Michigan.

President-elect, now President Obama has been taking some flak from the LGBT community for his actions and words about gay rights during the transition period. Perhaps the most controversial was the inclusion of the pro-Prop 8 minister Rick Warren in the inauguration festivities.

It is easy to understand the frustration and doubts those actions caused in the LGBT community and among supporters of equal rights for all people. Balancing the expressions of outrage from some were calls for patience from supporters, like myself, who felt it was unfair to make judgments until Obama took office. Those calls for patience seem to have been vindicated on the day Obama took office.

The Internet savvy Obama team continued to show they are on top of their game when it came to the transfer of power from Bush to Obama. The White House web site (www.whitehouse.gov) changed at the same moment Obama took office. What I found on that site gave me great satisfaction.

There is a page on the site that addresses civil rights. On that page is a section dealing specifically with LGBT issues. There are many encouraging subjects listed in that section. I’ve included the complete section below.

This is going to be a very short diary. I just received an email from the DSCC declaring victory in MN for Al Franken.

Here is the text of the email.

It snowed for twelve hours last night and today. It was almost a blizzard. The snow came down at the rate of one inch per hour. The wind was strong enough to push it sideways. By the time it ended, we had almost ten inches on the ground. That’s a lot of snow. And, a lot of shoveling.

I started shoveling as soon as it stopped snowing. Apparently, some of the other people on the street were waiting for the same moment. Shovelfuls of snow were flying up and down the street. The next-door neighbor and I exchanged waves and then buckled down to work.

Snow shoveling is a lot of work. It is very easy to over-do it. Since I’m older and badly out of shape, I make a point of taking lots of breaks. During one of those breaks, I leaned on the shovel and watched the neighbor work. He was like an automaton. Snow was flying everywhere. The thought crossed my mind that he had better slow down or he would give himself a heart attack.

My world has turned upside down. I read a column by William Kristol in the NY Times and found myself agreeing with him. How has this come to be? What next, agreeing with Charles Krauthammer? If that happens, please drag me out behind the barn and shoot me.

In his latest column, which is the source of my great discomfort, Kristol says the Right and Left are dumping on the  auto companies. (my emphasis)

Today, G.M., Ford and Chrysler get no respect. Maybe they don’t deserve much. Detroit has many sins to answer for, and it’s been doing plenty of answering. But – and I say this as someone who grew up in non-car-driving family in New York and who is the furthest thing from an auto aficionado – there is a kind of undeserved disdain, even casual contempt, that seems to characterize the attitude of the political and media elites toward the American auto industry.

Kristol goes on to quote Warren Brown of the Washington Post.