Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for f**koffs and misfits - a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage."~~Hunter Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

If the Bush administration and the US mainstream media are united on any one issue, it's an absolute refusal to rock the political boat as they sail mercilessly through the seas of corporate profit on the good ship Terrorbush. For the most part, each group is an incurious lot -- undead creatures who neither care, nor dare, to glance over the side of the ship at the bloated, swirling bodies in the blood-red water below. From the beginning, their mission has been to perform so fantastically against a backdrop of such violent, explosive madness on so many fronts that we watch hypnotically but do not see -- listen intently but do not hear.

They are very good at what they do.

Okay, so Pelosi put herself in the line of fire when she decided to make very public her campaign to make John Murtha her second in charge.

Some say her act was a sign of courage. She took a solid position on what she thought was best and she stuck with it through to the very end -- no apologies, no excuses. That's what leaders do. Of course they can't win every battle.

Others, including the mainstream media and conservative bloggers, have pointed out that Hoyer's win was a 'devastating' defeat for Pelosi -- one that might set the stage for Democratic infighting or serve as a hobbling message to Speaker Pelosi. Clearly this is the easiest tack for media outlets to take. It's simply more exciting to the average reader to hear about such drama. That Pelosi has 'great leadership skills' would seem far less interesting for the majority of the consuming public.

So off they ago...

The AP notes Pelosi's own election is being largely "overshadowed by Murtha's defeat,"

The USA Today says "the next speaker of the House lost her first test Thursday."

Dana Milbank writes in the Washington Post that Pelosi "experienced her first smackdown." It "should have been a coronation," but "instead, her party...plunged into fratricide."

The Los Angeles Times wrote "Pelosi's Early Setback Has Her Party On Alert," and says Democrats "gave Pelosi a brusque lesson in the limits of her power." Hoyer "didn't merely defeat Murtha, Pelosi's strong preference, but trounced him."

On the CBS Evening News, Bob Schieffer said the Murtha-Hoyer debate "has raised real questions about [Pelosi's] judgment."

The Washington Post says the vote "was viewed by many in the party as a repudiation of Pelosi's strong-arm tactics."

The Baltimore Sun reports California Rep. Maxine Waters, "a Hoyer supporter, said Pelosi's campaign...had raised serious questions within the party. 'What most people didn't understand was the why's of it all,' Waters said."

And the New York Times notes "some supporters of Mr. Murtha...were disgruntled and said they were trying to identify lawmakers who had broken pledges to support him. 'We won't trust them on issues like this the next time,' said Representative James P. Moran, a Murtha ally from Virginia who said Mr. Murtha had been betrayed."

Perhaps next time, Speaker Pelosi will deal with such internal matters more subtly and behind closed doors as much as possible. After all, she had relatively little to gain and much to lose from making this such an unnecessarily public debate.

[crossposted at dailykos]

I'll admit I can be a glutton for punishment sometimes.

Maybe it's because I really want to believe that everyone has some level of decency; a modicum of respect for their fellow man (and woman). That eventually, anyone could be able to understand someone else's POV, even if they don't agree with it.

In the case with our illustrious media (print, radio, online and TV), I always fall into the trap of thinking that today will be the day that they'll catch on and develop something resembling a spine and a brain.

Unfortunately, more often than not, I get disappointed.

Al Gore's response on this dangerous program is below, which I agree with. Just what will it take before we realize the capabilities we have to destroy ourselves, and that in the hands of the wrong people that well may come to pass?

There's something about Bush declaring a smackdown of Hezbollah that reminds me of the Pharoah Ramses II and his truthiness version of the battle of Qadesh. In 1273, Ramses declared victory over the Hittites despite massive Egyptian casualties and the loss of Syria. Lo and behold, as Bush does his hamster dance of hegemony, here comes Hezbollah's announcement of historic, strategic victory.

Though the mainstream media frequently talks about the "War on Terror" with terminology lifted from the battlefields of World War II, the net has featured some terrific discussion of what it means to engage in warfare against an enemy that refuses to fight by your own standards of "honorable behavior."  In particular, Pericles' diary on asymmetrical warfare is one of the clearest, most informative pieces of writing you're likely to find in any forum.

But as we're appreciating the difficulty that conventional armies face in asymmetrical engagements, let's remember the quote by Mao Tse-Tung: "all politics is war."  And on the political language front, Democrats are fighting a conventional war against an enemy that just won't "fight fair."

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

Last summer, it must have been... I hosted the first of what would become many parties at my home in Sherman Oaks, California. Among the many guests were a vivacious woman named Kathi Gori (pictured above) and her partner, Alan Berger. Brilliant people, naturally -- excellent conversationalists, deeply concerned and active politically -- you know, BLOGGERS.

: )

Time passed and I never saw them at my parties again; seems they up and moved to northern California, the lucky ducks. Well, Alan called me a while back and told me Kathi was about to get into broadcasting again, and how would I like to help her kick off her inaugural podcast, give her a little fanfare introduction to my own modest audience?

Would I?! Hell, yeah!

I am very pleased and proud to introduce to you Ms. Kathi Gori, here interviewing the former White House Counsel to Richard M. Nixon and, more recently, vocal and nonpartisan critic of the Bush Administration (Worse Than Watergate) -- Mr. John Dean, in the inaugural podcast of...

Afternoon on the southbound Garden State Parkway, one of the New Jersey's main arteries.  We are on our way to the so-called exit 0, Cape May, the Victorian vestige at the tip of the state.  The roadway is crowded and we have spent considerable time sitting in stopped traffic.  The Toyota is in need of some fuel and so are we.  Dodging a lumbering SUV, we head off the highway onto the ramp for the next service center.

After some searching, we find a space in the vast and crowded parking lot and walk up to the building.  Once inside we are greeted by crowds and a choice of fast food menus.  After waiting in line and making our selections, we find an empty table amongst the many seated diners.

Once seated, a scan of the dining room reveals that mounted on brackets above the diners are two large TV monitors.  And many heads are turned in the direction of these monitors.  In fact, a number of people are actually standing so that they will be better able to see the broadcast.

Crossposted from MY LEFT WING

 A couple months ago I got a cryptic email from someone claiming to be a reporter from the Washington Post; he asked me to call him in regard to a story he wanted to write.

I looked up the reporter on the Internet... turns out David Finkel is a Pulitzer-prize nominated reporter for the Washington Post. Still, easy to write an email and use someone else's name, right? So I called him.

It was for real. Finkel said he got my name from an email someone sent him, which led him to My Left Wing. He'd never been to a blog before (gasp! I thought EVERYBODY read the blogs!), and was intrigued not only by the medium but by my particular 'blog voice,' if you will.

And he wanted to write a piece about me. For the Style section, no doubt, I guessed.

Nope. Front page, baby.

Anytime the president of the United States, even one as unpopular as George W. Bush, arrives in a small town it is big news.

However, the ethically challenged Ogden newspaper chain in West Virginia stepped so over the line from covering the news to being a Bush cheerleader that GOP water carrier and alleged Washington Post media critic Howie Kurtz called it a blunder (albeit in rather tepid criticism).

From the Wheeling Intelligencer:

Bush will be in Wheeling on Wednesday, March 22, to conduct a town hall meeting on the War on Terror. No time for the event has been released, though the visit is tentatively scheduled to take place at the Capitol Music Hall.

A number of local businesses are underwriting the event. Among them are The Ogden Newspapers Inc., Valley National Gases Inc., Paull Associates Insurance/Real Estate, EPS Industries Inc., Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corp., Wheeling Island Racetrack and Gaming Center and Beyond Marketing.

We have all seen countless examples of the relentless GOP talking points making their way into the news media.  And yet each time we who follow politics closely are confronted with another instance of this phenomenon, it never ceases to be noteworthy.

Take, for example, this Reuters article on several towns in Vermont that have passed resolutions calling for Bush's impeachment.  Although any coverage of impeachment efforts is, in a sense, good publicity, the reporter makes every effort to make clear, just as Hannity or O'Reilly would, that these are fringe lunatics.  These "sleepy" Vermont communities, it notes, are gaining a "renegade" image.

Read a bit further, and the Republican talking point leaps off the page at you.  "OUTSIDE POLITICAL MAINSTREAM" reads the section heading midway down the page.  And then, just to make this a bit more clear, the reporter writes, "The idea of impeaching Bush resides firmly outside the political mainstream."  (No, they haven't pasted in a GOP Press Release, though you could be forgiven for thinking so.)  It goes on to say that given that Democrats have been loathe to approach Feingold's censure reolution (for all of TWO DAYS), and that therefore these nutcases (okay, unlike a Hannity that word is implied rather than stated here) are, yes, Outside the Political Mainstream.  They use, of course, exactly zero polls to back this up, but it's oh so Truthy just the same.  Firmly! Outside! Political Mainstream!

Brought to you by the So-Called Liberal Media.

-- Stu

There are more and more efforts out there to lobby the companies that advertise on right-wing talk shows to get them to pull their ads. This is an approach that I have advocated for some time based on the fact that this is how groups like the NRA and moral majority have been so successful in dictating the national dialogue. Their constant lobbying not just of politicians but of businesses and advertisers mean that they get listened to and we don't. I am urging you to join me and dozens of others in the blogsphere to fight back and use your consumer and investor muscle to pressure companies to avoid right wing talk shows when they are considering where to spend their advertising dollars. This particular push is about a week old and already we are seeing some signs that we are being noticed. But we need more numbers!

cross posted from skippy.

Reddhedd at firedoglake has an excellent post detailing the many ways Dick Cheney violated all kinds of gun safety rules in his shooting of a 78-year-old Harry Whittington during a quail hunt.

Progressive Americans, particularly progressive African-Americans, can't be allowed a single day to express themselves.  No, it's the role of Americans to act as prop for the establishment of Right Wing ideals, and should anyone dare speak even a dash of truth to power, that's just... rude.

President Bubble Boy emerged from hiding yesterday just long enough to encounter actual Americans at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, and in doing so, got his ears burned by the words of people who had known and worked with Mrs. King for decades.  Of course, from the undented smirk on his face, it wasn't clear the president understood, or even heard, the comments.

That didn't stop the right from being outraged.  Outraged, I say! By the political statements at the funeral of someone who was involved in political actions all her life.

Unbeknownst to one another, Father Richard Rohr (a wonderfully progressive Franciscan of the New Mexico province and founder of the Center for Action and Contemplation) and former Vice President Al Gore were having an incredible conversation this past weekend. Coming from what many consider to be opposite worlds - the spiritual and the political - I couldn't help but notice how precisely their voices converged.

They talked about two modern cultural realities which are doing our democracy in: 1) the need to be constantly entertained rather than educated and 2) television as communication's zenith, broadcasting what many believe is All They Need to Know.

Stats, thoughtful quotes, and ruminations of the Rohr & Gore Show below the fold....