frere Jaques, frere Jaques, dormez-vous?
 

No, you don't. Kids are a natural disassociative. You're going to be scrambling to find reality, not an exit from it. You'll already have that.

frere Jaques, frere Jaques, dormez-vous?
 

Really? Why the fuck didn't you tell me this earlier?

frere Jaques, frere Jaques, dormez-vous?
 

I had serious doubts as to whether you should reproduce.

And I know what I'm talking about. I have serious doubts as to whether I should reproduce.

But it's too late for us . . .

Honesty
 

"One of France's leading TV news executives has admitted censoring his coverage of the riots in the country for fear of encouraging support for far-right politicians.

. . . .

"Politics in France is heading to the right and I don't want rightwing politicians back in second, or even first place because we showed burning cars on television," Mr Dassier told an audience of broadcasters at the News Xchange conference in Amsterdam today."

http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/sto...639538,00.html

Would that the NYT and CBS be so up-front.

Honesty
 

Do you have Hank on ignore?

Honesty
 

Well, no, I've just been ducking in and out as airport lounges and free wireless allow. Did he already post this? Sorry.

Honesty
 

I asked bilmore to re-post because I want you liberals to admit the same liberal bias exists in the US. Do you have your soul on ignore Balt- that's the real question bilmore and I ask.

Honesty
 

I will admit that liberal media is biased. I will admit that every single person in the entire world views the world through the lens of their own experiences and prejudices, and that these must inevitablely color the perspective of every reporter. I'll also admit that the journalist profession - like academia - is almost inevitably biased toward the left due to its economic structures - at the lowest and even mid levels, journalists are paid so poorly that the profession tends to attract a disproportionate number of people who are attracted to the job by its ability to "make an impact" and who view their roles as social benefactors, and who are therefor willing to accept the crappy pay.

I also believe that nonetheless, most journalists are earnest in their desire to do what they perceive to be the right thing.

Finally, I'd note that the freedom of the press belongs to those who own one. One the conservatives got Fox News, I became a lot less sympathetic to accusations of media bias. Accept it and move on.

Honesty
 

Dan Rather believed that the "right thing" involved facilitating the election of Kerry. So, he proceded to use his influence as a high-ranking member of a national press to make up shit in order to fool people into voting as he wanted them to vote.

I don't think this particular point gets you far.

Honesty
 

I was speaking of generalities, and perceived trend of bias. You respond with an anecdote. I have two responses:

1) Judith Miller

2) The freedom of the press belongs to those who own one. Dan Rather was not elected by anybody. Don't like him? Don't watch him.

ETA: And wait. Not a single person was "fool[ed] ... into voting as he wanted them to vote." Why? Because others brought the mistake/fraud to the nation's attention.

Honesty
 

This presupposes an informed and concerned electorate. You're not that naive. You know that when any national figure makes a pronouncement, significant numbers of stoopid voters are affected. That's why slogan-based campaigning works. That's why Edwards spent hours on his hair. It's not enough that I don't watch Rather, or you don't read Coulter. They affect many people who seldom look beyond the surface.

Honesty
 

I agree. That's why I find Fox News's coverage completely irresponsible.

Honesty
 

Plus, I don't want to change the subject: Hank wanted me to admit that the media was biased. I did, and gave an explanation for why I think that it. You seem to want to end it. It's not going to happen, because of basic human nature. So you need to start thinking of ways around it. I'd say the conservative world has done a pretty stunning job of doing just that over the past 10 years.

Honesty
 

We have Fox. You have ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, CNN, Rueters, AP . . .

Oh, and we do have selected parts of The History Channel. Thank gawd.

Yes it sucks to be in the same party as this lunatic. But I would take him any day over the Unions and the socialists. The unions have been running california into the ground and they just spent forty million dollars to make sure we don't change course. Politics is always the choice of the lesser of two evils. The teacher unions have done more damage and will continue to do damage to our education system that these fundamentalists could never even hope to match.

Honesty
 

Don't forget that we own talk radio. We control what I call the secondary media. Radio, the internet and newsletters. The secondary media was key in 2000.

Honesty
 

When you read that Customs busted a guy trying to bring coke over the border, do you assume there is no coke coming into the country, and there is nothing wrong with trying to bring it it?

When he would run for stuff, there was talk that if he got close to appearing to have a legit chance, some 700 Club tape would come out. There is tape of him speaking in tongues to God to try and divert a hurricane headed for the Coast. He appears quite unpresidential, it is said.

Thing is, I don't think a guy praying to something who might help save people and people's lives is as bad as a child or privilege going to Public officials who do help him hide the murder of a young girl one drunk driving evening.

Who's worse?

Honesty
 

And yet, you've dominated at a national level for the past 11 years. Like Balt said, y'all found a way around it.

Oh, you also need to convince some of your filthy rich conservative ideologues to buy more mainstream media outlets from the filthy rich liberal ideologues. That will just cement _everyone's_ ability to hear only the news they agree with -- and ignore the stuff they don't want to hear. Seems only fair.

S_A_M

You are temporarally bitter, and your perspective is clouded. You also forget that the fundamentalists have big hopes.

S_A_M

Kennedy was worse then. But we gotta remember that, there but for the grace of God and some good luck, goes your current President.

(And many of us, except that we would not have the connections to help us out.)

S_A_M

Honesty
 

Agreed. Most of the Left is just pissed and whiny about Fox because Fox has moved into its turf and kicked its ass. Lets face it - love it or hate it, Fox News is entertaining.

Fox is like watching a hard rock concert. They slam the shit forward and keep you interested. Most of the Lefty stuff is like a bad jaz club. You can't listen for more than a minute without getting bored.

Its taken the Left five years to figure out how to deal with Fox. All the Let ever really had to do was grow some balls and fight Fox by acting like Fox. But entertaining people is foreign to the Left (outside Hollywood). It'd rather preach.

Nice to see CNN grow some balls and finally shitcan that Aaron Brown piece of crap. Who hired that fucking corpse in the first place?

He apparently predicted similar biblical disasters for Florida (or some town/county therein). Nothing came to pass, at least not immediately. Doesn't that tell him something?

Sure. That G-d works in mysterious ways. As long as something possibly bad happens to or occurs at [town in question] then Pat is correct.

aV

frere Jaques, frere Jaques, dormez-vous?
 

If George Lincoln Rockwell were alive, he'd clearly answer your question in the affirmative.

frere Jaques, frere Jaques, dormez-vous?
 

What "Bush lied" bullshit? Bush is representing his economic program as being pro-middle class and it's not. He's claiming to be in favor of cutting waste while keeping in place the safety net and that's not what his budget plan calls for. Even his own party refuses to back him up. And with good reason; they have to run again.

I'm pretty sure you answered your own question.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond
 

Demand better. Don't contribute to the party, either one. Respond to solicitations with a letter stating you'll be glad to contribute when they start fielding candidates you're proud to vote for. Spend your time and money on individual candidates who represent your ideals, even if you aren't a direct constituent.

Or you could start a blog.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond
 

Show us you contribution to the Nader campaign '04 and Bilmore and I will find our analog.

Chuck Klosterman on Poltics (from ESPN Page 2)
 

I like his perspective:

"I am an apolitical person. Absolutely nobody believes me when I say that, but it's true. Every conservative person I know thinks I'm mixing Noam Chomsky's personal Kool-Aid, and every liberal I know seems to assume I want to shampoo Ann Coulter's hair while watching outtakes from "The Passion of the Christ." I have no idea how this happened. For example, I don't have an opinion on abortion. I really, truly do not. You want to have an abortion? Fine; take my car keys, You think abortion is murder? Well, you're probably right. Who knows? Either way, it doesn't have anything to do with me. Do I think George W. Bush is the worst president of my lifetime? Well, of course I do -- but that's not because he's a Republican. It's because he somehow (a) got into Yale, yet (b) claims "the jury is still out" on the theory of evolution.

Everything is situational, and that reality informs how I interpret the world. At least within my mind, it seems as though any people who consciously and consistently perceive themselves as right-leaning or left-leaning are simply admitting that they don't want to think critically about complexity. It always strikes me as staunchly unsophisticated and mildly insane."

Honesty
 

So does Fox and the WSJ. The press in the US is biased. Many outlets, especially at the national level are liberal. However, there are plenty of conservative papers too. People tend to favor the media outlet that reflects their particular bias and villify the outlets that hold the opposing viewpoint.

That's why I count on Club and NFH for all my news.

Other than seeing that it's a slam on Ted Kennedy, I am having a very hard time understanding this sentence. What are you trying to say here?

Shine On You Crazy Diamond
 

Nader's a total loon. The only campaign I contributed to in '04 was Obama's. There wasn't anyone else among the Democrats I thought deserved my money and there weren't any non-Democrats.

Both begged a high power to achieve a goal. One's attempt was for good at least, the other's was sinister. I would rather be in the party of the goofy one.

I would rather not identify myself with either party. That way I don't have to defend the buffoons and villains for either side.

Chuck Klosterman on Poltics (from ESPN Page 2)
 

Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs is a great book. Killing Yourself to Live is not so great.

His Esquire column is always great. Justifies buying the damn rag...

Son, the question is, how long do the fine upstanding Christians of America need the likes of you to maintain a majority. We are winning, and will soon be able to rule without the Yankee-phile tools of Wall Street. Ultimately, the Republican Party is and will be about God and Country, and American Values like outlawing abortion, invading Iraq, and teaching our children about morality instead of sexuality. We put with with the so-called economic conservatives, who are really more libertine and libertarian, long enough.

Honesty
 

Yes.

2. I am with Spanky. Maybe I should move to California to bolster the electorate by a couple of votes.

Shine On You Crazy Diamond
 

I am already there. T-shirt, coffee mug or mouse pad?