Monday, September 19, 2011
CNN jumps the shark with the tea party.
After watching last weeks Tea Party Debate it became obvious to me that CNN has in fact jumped the shark. Or more accurately the Tea Party has and CNN has gone with them.
Because it seems obvious to me it makes it harder to explain but I think it comes down to a lack of DIRECT pandering. The candidates were definitely keeping the general election in mind in their answers. One would expect that at a Tea Party Debate republicans would pander towards Tea Partiers. The power of the Tea Party is defined on their influence in primaries but it looked to me like all the candidates were more afraid of giving Obama ammunition than they were of the Tea Party.
The reason I think CNN is going along with the Tea Party is that their credibility is starting to crumble in the face of an audience that wants news that reinforces their beliefs. Fox has Republicans, MSNBC has Democrats, and I think CNN sees the Tea Party as their niche. I could be wrong but the fact that they had a CNN debate on 9/12 and put Tea Party in the title seems telling. I don't watch CNN (other than GPS) so I don't know how extensive this Tea Party grab is on a daily programming but I do know that they had a Tea Party rebuttal when other networks were having airing the official Republican party rebuttal.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
post 9/11 America
When I was a kid I got into a lot of fights and my dad would tell me that when another person makes you angry you have lost. Being taunted into anger means that you've given over a little of your power to them.
He never said not to fight. He just said that I shouldn't fight because someone made me angry.
Fast forward twenty something years to the present and we've just passed the 10th anniversary of 9/11. I wasn't going to say anything about it but then I tweeted "I don't understand people who wave flags on 9/11 but change the channel at dying first responders."
I decided that I should offer some explanation to that. I was in downtown Chicago on 9/11. I wasn't scared then. I'm not scared now of terrorist. Okay a bit but I'm less scared of terrorist than I am say- home invasion.
When you say terrorist Timothy McVeigh has about equal chance of jumping to my mind as Bin Laden.
It makes me angry when someone says that 9/11 changed everything. The only thing that changed is that our country lost it's cool. A little bit of our power was given away.
For the everyday person who says 'we'll never forget 9/11' nothing has really changed. In previous wars people stateside were expected to help the war effort by using less fuel and recycling (thinking specifically of metal ) but post 9/11 Americans get angry if you try raise the efficiency of vehicles and to a large degree can't be bothered to pull out a separate bin for glass (used to pave roads) plastic (reduces oil consumption) or metal (requires less energy to recycle).
And then there's taxes. In previous wars taxes were increased and people were encouraged to by war bonds to pay for the effort. Post 9/11 America calls raising taxes socialism even though the wars they support cost more than helping their neighbor who is among the 1 out of 10 Americans who can't find a job.
Post 9/11 Americans are afraid and angry that something will change in their life. They don't want to think about the rest of the world or the rest of the country. They want to go to work, relax, go to sleep- rinse and repeat. The only thing 9/11 changed for them was that it made the horizon go out past where the floor in their living room meets the wall.
Not every American is a Post 9/11 American. Though you may think I was condemning Republicans, being republican doesn't automatically make you one. Being a Democrat doesn't exonerate you. Most people are at least in part guilty of turning a blind eye to the big picture and how their lifestyle is contributing to it.
He never said not to fight. He just said that I shouldn't fight because someone made me angry.
Fast forward twenty something years to the present and we've just passed the 10th anniversary of 9/11. I wasn't going to say anything about it but then I tweeted "I don't understand people who wave flags on 9/11 but change the channel at dying first responders."
I decided that I should offer some explanation to that. I was in downtown Chicago on 9/11. I wasn't scared then. I'm not scared now of terrorist. Okay a bit but I'm less scared of terrorist than I am say- home invasion.
When you say terrorist Timothy McVeigh has about equal chance of jumping to my mind as Bin Laden.
It makes me angry when someone says that 9/11 changed everything. The only thing that changed is that our country lost it's cool. A little bit of our power was given away.
For the everyday person who says 'we'll never forget 9/11' nothing has really changed. In previous wars people stateside were expected to help the war effort by using less fuel and recycling (thinking specifically of metal ) but post 9/11 Americans get angry if you try raise the efficiency of vehicles and to a large degree can't be bothered to pull out a separate bin for glass (used to pave roads) plastic (reduces oil consumption) or metal (requires less energy to recycle).
And then there's taxes. In previous wars taxes were increased and people were encouraged to by war bonds to pay for the effort. Post 9/11 America calls raising taxes socialism even though the wars they support cost more than helping their neighbor who is among the 1 out of 10 Americans who can't find a job.
Post 9/11 Americans are afraid and angry that something will change in their life. They don't want to think about the rest of the world or the rest of the country. They want to go to work, relax, go to sleep- rinse and repeat. The only thing 9/11 changed for them was that it made the horizon go out past where the floor in their living room meets the wall.
Not every American is a Post 9/11 American. Though you may think I was condemning Republicans, being republican doesn't automatically make you one. Being a Democrat doesn't exonerate you. Most people are at least in part guilty of turning a blind eye to the big picture and how their lifestyle is contributing to it.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Thursday, September 1, 2011
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