MSNBC as Democratic Party Shill

I hate to admit it, but as a liberal, I like to watch the Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC. I watch Olberman and Maddow because their programs are entertaining and their news reporting can be insightful. I became a fan of both these programs during the run-up to the 2008 election. I didn't like the Bush Administration and Olbermann and Maddow's programs ran stories that reflected my prejudice.

Recently my fanaticism for Countdown has begun to wane. I've noticed that Olbermann isn't too much different from his chief competitors Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Glen Beck. I thought this opinion reflected a new trend in the way Countdown presents the news. I discovered I was wrong. I became aware of my error after I read Olbermann's biography on Wikipedia, I discovered that Countdown was not a "traditional newscast," even though it started out that way. "Although it began as a traditional newscast, Countdown with Keith Olbermann has adopted an opinion-oriented format. Much of the program has featured harsh criticism of prominent Republicans and right-leaning figures, including those working for or supporting the Bush Administration."

Last night, I had to come to terms with the sad fact that watching Countdown or the Rachel Maddow Show was like watching the liberal version of Fox News. My epiphany came as I watched Gov. Howard Dean, former head of the Democratic Party was guest host for Keith Olberman last night. The transcript of the program is here.

I didn't bother to watch the whole program. Gov. Dean needs a lot of work as a newscaster.I was also vexed by the idea that a former official in the Democratic was hosting a network news program and was thus given an hour to spout the talking points of the Democratic Party. Okay, I'm a registered Democrat and I would probably agree with most of those talking points, but still I have some illusions that a new work news program would have some balance.

I don't have to watch MSNBC, I could watch the News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS, which still offers informative and balanced news reporting. There is one problem with watching the News Hour, it tries to have balanced reporting, which can be kinda of boring and I'd also have spend a half an hour listening to people who have views I don't agree with. Why should I have to do that?

There is an answer to that question and it is a good one. The problems of this country are so great right now that no one political party can really solve them. The problems we face are not red-state or blue state problems, their American problems and their solution requires compromise and also shared sacrifice. Compromise and agreement to sacrifice won't come if all we do is spend our time blaming each other for the country's problems. I know the country is very polarized right now, but if we can get past name-calling and actually start talking, people might be able come to some agreement on national problems and then start taking action.

Wow, I can't believe I actually think something like that. As for Gov. Dean, he'll be hosting Countdown again tonight (July 29).

Capitano Tedeschi

30

Walter Cronkite and Network

Walter Cronkite, The movie Network

Walter Cronkite died July 17th, 2009. He was 92. He was an American icon, a great newsman and television pioneer. What struck me was the reaction to his death. On the night his death was announced, Rachel Maddow spent most of her program paying tribute to the CBS anchorman. My impression as I was that the coverage mirrored the reaction to Michael Jackson's death except that it had more gravitas. Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw, were interviewed by phone, both men gave moving tributes. The intensity was the same, but the tenor was different. Instead of pictures of Michael with Bubbles the Chimp, there was a clip of Cronkite in an Air Force transport reporting on prospective astronauts experiencing the effects of weightlessness, along with other clips of Cronkite's reporting such as political convention, space launches, and narrating the nightly news.

While I watched Maddow's reporting, I was reminded of the 1976 movie Network. Cronkite's daughter Kathy, was in the movie. Network was directed by Sidney Lumet, worked with Cronkite. When Network was released in 2006, Walter Cronkite was interviewed about the film as one of the dvd's extra segments. That was how I got started comparing Maddow's show to Network, and its faux news program which is refered to by Wikipedia as

The Network News Hour (referred to as The Howard Beale Show): The retooled news show featuring segments with "Sybil the Soothsayer", "Jim Webbing and his It's-the-Honest-Truth-department", "Miss Mata Hari and her skeletons in the closet" as well as "Vox Populi." The show also opens with editorial by Howard who goes on ranting and raving until he passes out.
As I watched Rachel Maddow, (whose program, I enjoy by the way,) I was wondering if it was that dissimilar from the Howard Beale Hour. The answer is probably very similar the Howard Beale Hour. Times change and the world has changed since Network was in theaters in 1976. Network news has changed dramatically since Cronkite retired in 1981.

I watch MSNBC because it is entertaining and it also has news. But there is a problem with mixing news and entertainment. As Howard Beale points out,

You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here, you're beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal. You do. Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube. This is mass madness, you maniacs. source: The Internet Movie Database

Dan Heaton in a 2006 review of the Dvd, on digitallyobsessed, mentions that Cronkite was interviewed about the film.

Legendary television newsman Walter Cronkite worked with Lumet on the You Are There series in the '50s. He shares his opinions about the film in this final segment, and while he admires the movie considerably, he regards it as a comedy. Cronkite does recognize the dangers of media consolidation and offers interesting comments on the subject.

Sidney Lumet was interviewed by the Associated Press on Feb. 22, 2006, the article's author mentioned Lumet, Cronkite and Network

Lumet’s career began in television, notably directing CBS’ “You Are There,” anchored by Walter Cronkite. (The show, offered re-enactments of historical events, thus blending show-biz with news.) On the “Network” DVD, Cronkite, a good friend of Lumet’s, remembers first watching the film with his CBS cohorts.

“We howled with laughter, rolled over on the floor with the depiction of [TV news],” he says.
But Cronkite says he considered “Network” an exaggeration and recalls being concerned people would think it represented the truth about TV news.

In another interview, published in the May 2003 issue of DGA Monthly Lumet says,

"Once [Network] it opened, everybody kept saying, 'Oh, what a brilliant satire.' But Paddy [Chayefsky, screenwriter] and I always said, 'This isn't satire, it's sheer reportage.' We were both brought up in television, so we knew what we were dealing with. But I've got to tell you — I don't think I've seen it in 20 years (I don't usually like to look at my work) — I'm stunned at how prescient it is. A lot of what was hilarious 25 years ago got no laughter tonight because it has all come true. So it hits you with a kind of impact that was not originally intended."

Glen Abel, in his review of the Network Dvd, for the blog DVD Spin Doctor also commented on Network's prescience.

Writer Chayefsky, equally mad as hell, used his black comedy about a raggedy fourth TV network to denounce the hypocrisies of 1976 and warn of media evils to come.
Like his creation Sybil the Soothsayer, "Paddy was capable of seeing the future," director Sidney Lumet says. Chayefsky warned of entertainment masquerading as news, corporate meddling, violent reality shows, the tyranny of ratings, foreign ownership of U.S. media -- essentially the strip-mining of what already was a vast wasteland.

The vision that the movie displayed so eloquently is alive today," producer Howard Gottfried maintains. Adds Lumet, "TV today has become its own satire."

There is one current television personality who apparently does not see the satire or the sadness of Network. That personality is Fox News Glen Beck, who according to an article in the March 29, 2009 New York Times, identifies with Network's deranged protagonist, Howard Beale. According to the article,

In an interview, Mr. Beck, who recently rewatched the 1976 film “Network,” said he identified with the character of Howard Beale, the unhinged TV news anchorman who declares on the air that he is “mad as hell.”

“I think that’s the way people feel,” Mr. Beck said. “That’s the way I feel.” In part because of Mr. Beck, Fox News — long identified as the favored channel for conservatives and Republican leaders — is enjoying a resurgence just two months into Mr. Obama’s term. While always top-rated among cable news channels, Fox’s ratings slipped during the long Democratic primary season last year. Now it is back on firm footing as the presumptive network of the opposition, with more than 1.2 million viewers watching at any given time, about twice as many as CNN or MSNBC.

Sadly Beck, misses an important point, the in the movie Network, newsman Howard Beale is mentally deranged. Hal Broedecker in his The TV Guy and More Blog for Orlando Sentinel wrote on March 31, 2009 that, Beck's comment about Beale might make some people go back and review the movie in a different, light.

Maybe that comment will send more people back to the movie to see Peter Finch's brilliant, Oscar-winning performance as Beale. Beale becomes a public favorite with his "mad as hell" rant, but here are some points to remember:
1. He goes off his rocker.
2. He becomes a pawn in the story.
3. He is used and discarded with harrowing results. Bad ratings can kill you.
Beale is in no way a hero. He is a fad. His madness destroys his career. And he is a dead end.
Being "mad as hell" will take you only so far, writer Paddy Chayefsky explained. Does Beck understand that?

Probably not. Cronkite saw Network and was afraid people would take it as a depiction of current network news. I didn't see it that way. I loved the movie for its powerful, theatrical language, its satire and its cynicism. In 1976, I never really had any inkling that The Howard Beale Hour would become a template for many network and cable television shows. But when I see the movie now, I marvel that life has imitated satire.

I mourn the passing Walter Cronkite. As I watched news coverage of his death, I wondered about his relationship and reaction to Sidney Lumet's masterpiece Network. There is a connection. Cronkite knew Lumet, his daughter had a role in the movie. His original impressions as he and perhaps some of his CBS colleagues watched the movie was that it was outrageous satire, a comedy. But what I'd like to imagine Cronkite actually got was a glimpse of the a future. He was connected to an artwork that not only played in movie theaters and won Oscars, but was also a prediction or prophecy that seemed so fantastic that it could never come true. But then over the next 33 years satire became the model for many television news programs. Glen Beck, Keith Olberman, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert, could all perhaps trace their roots to the ruminations of Howard Beale.

What would Howard Beale have to say about the passing Cronkite? In his eulogy of UBS Chairman Edward Ruddy, there is a clue perhaps.

Howard Beale: [arms outstretched to the heavens] Edward George Ruddy died today! Edward George Ruddy was the Chairman of the Board of the Union Broadcasting Systems, and he died at eleven o'clock this morning of a heart condition, and woe is us! We're in a lot of trouble! So. A rich little man with white hair died. What has that got to do with the price of rice, right? And *why* is that woe to us? Because you people, and sixty-two million other Americans, are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books! Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers! Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube! This tube is the Gospel, the ultimate revelation. This tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers... This tube is the most awesome God-damned force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls in to the hands of the wrong people, and that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA -- the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new Chairman of the Board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the twentieth floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome God-damned propoganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network? Network (1976) source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/quotes

With Cronkite, we didn't get hysterics or entertainment, we got something better. Daniel Schorr, in an op-ed piece in the Los Angeles Times, wrote the following,

The tremendous amount of ink and airtime expended on the Cronkite legend since he died Friday might seem odd given that he was a figure of a generation ago in a career that now generates deep skepticism. But during much of the period he anchored the CBS Evening News, Cronkite represented something deep in the psyche of America, embodied in the word trust.

With Cronkite you got news that was considered verifiable truth. With the our current 21st Century Howard Beales, you get news and you can be sure that it will be entertaining. Who knows, in some cases it might actually be true.

Capitano Tedeschi

30

Carter's Crisis of Confidence Speech 30 years later

Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. Jonah 1:17

I sometimes think about the biblical story of Jonah. I believe that a couple of decades ago, I was called to change the course of my life. Whether it was the march of events or an act of God is depends upon your point of view. I believe I was called by God to change, and this was an instance where I heard the call and answered it.

So when I see someone who his called, I think of the old testament prophet Jonah. God commanded Jonah to rail against sin in the ancient city of Nineveh. Fearing for his life, Jonah fled and tried to escape by going overseas. God sent a storm, the sailors threw Jonah overboard and Jonah was swallowed by a great fish. After three days in the belly of the fish, Jonah was vomitted up on shore and finally obeyed God's original command to preach to the sinful of Nineveh.

Over the years, I have been called to make other changes in my life, sometimes I have and sometimes I haven't. When I have refused to answer the call, the consequences have been hard to bear. What is really vexing, ignoring the call to change my life usually means that the situation reappears and is worse because the problems I have needed to change have become progressively worse. For example, refuse to pay your credit debt one month, the next month another bill arrives with added penalties and interests. Ignore a pain in your leg and the next thing you know you spending a week in the hospital. Ignoring warning signs is not just an individual failing, it is a failing of nations and cultures as well.

American is a country that has been ignoring the warning signs of imminent national catastrophe. July 15, is a good day to reflect on it. Why July 15th? Because July 15, 2009 was the 30th anniversary of President Jimmy Carter's famous "Malaise Speech." There was an excellent editorial about the making of the speech by Gordon Stewart's New York Times. Stewart was one of Carter's speech writers and was involved the process of creating Carter's Speech. Carter's Speech Therapy, gives an inside look at history of how the speech was created. Today it known as the Malaise Speech, and it was derided by many American Conservatives, including Ronald Reagan.

I was first led to reconsider Carter's speech when I was listening to Andrew Bacevich on Bill Moyer's journal. Bacevich was interviewed by Moyers on Sept. 26, 2008, just five weeks before the 2008 election. Bacevich considered Carter's speech astute and prophetic,

Well, this is the so-called Malaise Speech, even though he never used the word "malaise" in the text to the address. It's a very powerful speech, I think, because President Carter says in that speech, oil, our dependence on oil, poses a looming threat to the country. If we act now, we may be able to fix this problem. If we don't act now, we're headed down a path in which not only will we become increasingly dependent upon foreign oil, but we will have opted for a false model of freedom. A freedom of materialism, a freedom of self-indulgence, a freedom of collective recklessness. And what the President was saying at the time was, we need to think about what we mean by freedom. We need to choose a definition of freedom which is anchored in truth, and the way to manifest that choice, is by addressing our energy problem.

He had a profound understanding of the dilemma facing the country in the post Vietnam period. And of course, he was completely hooted, derided, disregarded.

The actual title of the Malaise Speech was Crisis of Confidence. In that speech President Carter addressed the American people and urged the neation to wean itself from its dependence on foreign oil. In his speech Carter said,



Looking for a way out of this crisis, our people have turned to the Federal Government and found it isolated from the mainstream of our Nation's life. Washington, D.C., has become an island. The gap between our citizens and our Government has never been so wide. The people are looking for honest answers, not easy answers; clear leadership, not false claims and evasiveness and politics as usual.


What you see too often in Washington and elsewhere around the country is a system of government that seems incapable of action. You see a Congress twisted and pulled in every direction by hundreds of well-financed and powerful special interests. You see every extreme position defended to the last vote, almost to the last breath by one unyielding group or another. You often see a balanced and a fair approach that demands sacrifice, a little sacrifice from everyone, abandoned like an orphan without support and without friends. Often you see paralysis and stagnation and drift. You don't like it, and neither do I. What can we do?



First of all, we must face the truth, and then we can change our course. We simply must have faith in each other, faith in our ability to govern ourselves, and faith in the future of this Nation. Restoring that faith and that confidence to America is now the most important task we face. It is a true challenge of this generation of Americans.


What was amazing was that Carter's call for sacrifice and change well-received by the American people, but then political blunders by Carter and criticism of the speech by his political opponents, quickly drained support for this change. Carter's speech was soon being derided as the "Malaise Speech."

Carter speech writer Gordon Stewart was surprised by the American people's change in attitude.

To this day, I don’t entirely know why the speech came to be derided for a word that was in the air, but never once appeared in the text. Still, the “malaise” label stuck: maybe because President Carter’s cabinet shake-up a few days later wasted the political energy that had been focused on our energy problems; maybe because the administration’s opponents attached it to the speech relentlessly; maybe because it was just too hard to compete with Ronald Reagan and his banner of limitless American consumption.



The real reason is probably that there was never any way the Jimmy Carter we all know would avoid saying: “There is simply no way to avoid sacrifice.” Where the speeches of Reagan and Barack Obama evoke the beauty of dreams, President Carter insisted on the realities of responsibility and the need for radical change. Mr. Carter’s sense of our own accountability, his warnings about the debilitating effects of self-centered divisiveness were the speech’s true heresies. They are also the very elements that keep it relevant today.


One of the people who derided Carter's speech was Ronald Reagan, whose optimism appealed to a vast majority of American voters in 1980. Reagan's defeat of Carter, would have consequences that affect us to this day. According to Kevin Mattison's article A Politics of National Sacrifice, which appeared in the April 8, 2009 American Prospect, even liberarians and conservatives should begin to pay heed to Carter's 1979 speech.


Looking back now, the malaise speech indicates a turning point in our history, one that helps define Barack Obama's recent victory. The age of conservatism -- from Reagan's 1980 election up through the end of George W. Bush's second term -- has been framed not by Carter's tones of humility but by celebratory nationalism. In fact, the conservative game plan was laid by Ronald Reagan's direct retort to the malaise speech, made when announcing his candidacy against Carter. Reagan explained, "I find no national malaise." Instead, America stood as a "shining city on a hill," a term he used persistently throughout the campaign.



From that moment, sacrifice and civic obligation faded from presidential rhetoric. You never heard Carter's language from either of the Bushes -- not even in the wake of September 11, when W. instead told Americans to go shopping. Or consider 2008 GOP vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who suggested all was well in "real America" -- it was only Washington that had problems. Such was the end-game of right-wing populism: government bad, people good.


As Mattison points out Obama election in Nov. of 2008 is a reaction to the 30 years of right wing populism. While many would like to cling to the ideas expoused by President Reagan, the idea that the rugged individualism and free markets can solve our current national problems have been proved false. They might been acceptable in 1980, but thirty years later Reagan's ideology appears impotent and sometimes corrupt. A different perspective and a different ideology needed and it was articulated by the junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama.


On January 19, 2009 Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. While his political campaign was full of beautiful rhetoric about America's need for change and the power of the American people to affect that change. His inaugural address was sterner, a description of the crisis facing us all and also a call to action. It is very similar to Carter's Crisis of Confidence speech.


That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many -- and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable, but no less profound, is a sapping of confidence across our land; a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, that the next generation must lower its sights.

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this America: They will be met.

Three decades have passed since Carter's Crisis of Confidence speech. We have come full circle and are back to roughly where we were in 1979. Granted we aren't spending hours waiting in lines at service stations for gasoline, but we are staying up late worrying about whether we can pay our mortgage, our doctor's bills, credit card bills and still have money left to buy food.

The tough question is back before us again. Are we going to answer the call, first issued by Jimmy Carter in July of 1979 and later by Barrack Obama in January of 2009? Will we answer the call and sacrifice and work for radical economic, social and political change. Will we work to build a better future? or will we be like Jonah and try to flee from the challenge that the march of events (or God) have placed before us.

I am hoping that the health care crisis, global warming, the financial crisis, the wars in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan that have hammered this nation in the past few years, will inspire Americans to work together to change the country's direction. If we work together perhaps we can solve many of the terrible problems that face our nation. But if we stay divided and do nothing these crises may overwhelm the Republic.

If we try, we may find that our solving our problems can unite us and allow us to achieve great things. I for one am willing. Let's get together, figure out what needs to be done, roll up our sleeves and get to work. We don't have any more time to waste--Do We?

Capitano Tedeschi

30

Wing-nut Pundits love Russian Blogger's Op-Ed

As my dear old grandfather Litvak said (just before they swung the trap), he said "You can't cheat an honest man. Never give a sucker an even break or smarten up a chump." W.C.Fields You can't cheat an honest man. source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032152/quotes



This saying of W.C. Fields came to mind when a I read a post on a the political section of the company bulletin board. A couple of days ago, one of my co-workers posted an editorial American Capitalism Gone with a Whimper, by one Stanislav Mishin. The article originally appeared in the April, 27, 2009, online version of Pravda, which has the same name as the former political newspaper of the Soviet Union. According to Pravda the editorial was reprinted from Mishin's own blog Mat Rodina.


According to Mishin, "It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people."


Mishin blames our "decent" into Marxism partly on the degenaracy of average American due to dumbed downed educations and television programs, their lack of Christianity, and their addiction to MacDonald's quarter pounder.


But the final straw, according to Mishin was the election of Barack Obama,


The final collapse has come with the election of Barack Obama. His speed in the past three months has been truly impressive. His spending and money printing has been a record setting, not just in America's short history but in the world. If this keeps up for more than another year, and there is no sign that it will not, America at best will resemble the Wiemar Republic and at worst Zimbabwe.


That's when the quotation from W.C. Fields came to me, an honest person would have realized that Mishin's editorial was at best written by someone who is either totally ignorant about America and its people, is totally deranged, or is being paid a substantial amount of money to publish this anti-american nonsense.


But what about the suckers and chumps? I'll talk more about them later. First, let's look at the weaknesses in the Mat Rodina blog post. After reading this "editorial" I found its premises and opinions simplistic and stupid. At the moment, anti-American sentiment is high in Russia and Capitalism Gone with a Whimper, is typical of such screeds. It reminds me of the Tsarist Okrana's anti-semitic hoax, Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Mishin's blog post was published in Pravda online, which is different from Pravda the newspaper. After looking at its web site, it looked like the Russian version of the National Enquirer.

What is irritating is that extreme right-wing media is hailing this article as some kind of foreign insight into the fall of the American Republic. First of all Mishin is just a Russian Blogger. That makes him an expert on American Affairs how? My friend Jeri has a Facebook page for her dog Truman. I trust Jeri's dog more than I trust Stanislav Mishin. I am not the only one who is totally unimpressed by Mishin's jermiad against President Obama and his alleged efforts to turn America into a Communist state. Another vexing thing was that while Mishin's anti-American rant has drawn rave reviews from various right-wing know-nothings, and paranoics, there have been very few articles countering Mishin's warped interpretation of America's political, social and economic situation. Fortunately, I was able to find a few honest people who refuse to accept the Mishin's fabrications.



Reginald Killingley in a letter to the editor of his local paper, commented upon reading Mishin's opinion piece noted the following

"On the Saturday Forum page Tom Leahy referenced an article "American Capitalism Gone With A Whimper," by "Mat Rodina" on Pravda Online . This publication is not the old Soviet-era newspaper but a web-based nationalist and sensationalist tabloid. Its compelling articles include titles such as "Men can really breasfeed [sic] and have third nipple," and "Aliens downed Tunguska meteorite to save Earth." Is Pravda Online a source you can trust?"



The media watchdog Media Matters analyzed Mishin's editorial and reported the following,

Several media figures falsely claimed an opinion piece on the Russian website PRAVDA On-line, which attacked President Obama for instigating an "American decent [sic] into Marxism," was published by the Russian newspaper Pravda, which is not related to PRAVDA On-line.

Moreover, Mishin himself has a history of inflammatory rhetoric. Mishin's piece as published on PRAVDA On-line referred to Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) as "Senator Barney Franks [sic], a social pervert basking in his homosexuality." In previous posts to his blog, Mishin has described Russian gay rights activists as "attempt[ing] to drag Holy Russia to the depth of Hell and vulgarity that they have driven the West into"; claimed that "the current resident of the White House has come to pander to the Islamics, like no other"; and the United States as "a democracy where the rights of the minority, such as the homosexuals and Muslims, routinely trumps the rights of the Christian majority, who are viewed by the elites as a vast unwashed, ignorant economic unit to be taxed as needed, bled for the right causes ... in foreign wars and socially experimented on, at the elites' whim."



Blogger Jenny Kakasulerf, was also dismissive of Mishin and the reactionary pundits who spread his so-called editoral.


Mishin is the authority on capitalism because he lived under socialism, and thus can atest to it's evils, and why we should avoid socialism at all costs. However, Mishin is arguing for the collapse of the global financial markets, including our own, and mocks our way of life. It seems the GOP, and Rush Limbaugh in particular, who unapologetically admits that he hopes the president fails, have quite a bit in common with their new socialist media darling. Except, the only capitalism he supports, is an internal capitalism that operates solely on the basis of Russian entrepreneurialism and investment, through maximum government intervention so as not to enrich the few, that is cut-off from the globalized marketplace. Isolationism to the highest degree.

The same boogeyman, fear tactics that have been employed most notably by the conservative wing of American politics to invoke Italian Fascism, German Nazism, and Russian Socialism are, at best, disingenuous. These same intellectually dishonest commentators were certainly lackadaisical in their rhetoric when Bush initiated the TARP plan, and effectively, the largest government bailout in history. Eight years of deficit explosions, and not one single tea party. Beck is not alone in claiming to be an independent, though his hate speech, directed primarily at the left, does not fall on deaf ears and makes his political leanings more than obvious.
These claims of socialism lack admission of the fact that we already are, and have been for quite some time, a socialist country. Any time that the government redistributes wealth through taxation--that is socialism. It is not going away any time soon. FOX News' lovefest with George W. Bush did not stop him from growing the government to a larger size than it has ever been. Neither democrats, nor republicans, see value in a society completely absent of social services, and nowhere near a majority of Americans are persuaded by libertarian ideology.

Socialism is used interchangeably with fascism as an attempt by conservative pundits to confuse the mass public and invoke an irrational fear of Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini, which is why they are constantly forcing the comparison down their audiences throats. When free-speaking individuals start being “disappeared,” when protests are met by violent military action (think Tiananman Square), and when journalists start getting gunned down in our streets, like they do in Russia, then perhaps I will take claims of fascism more seriously, and the accusations from Russia that we are light on human rights.


The spread and wide acceptance of Mishin's anti-American rant is typical of type of commentary coming from "conservative media" right now. It is perhaps unfair and cruel to refer to all people who approve of or agree with Mishin's editorial as suckers and chumps. But a sucker or a chump are words I would use to describe my co-worker who posted Mishin's Pravda editorial. He accepted on face value because it agreed with some of his prejudices against President Obama's administration. There was no effort of verify or examine Mishin's statements because he had seen them posted somewhere on the internet.

Andrew Sullivan in a recent post about Sarah Palin best describes this worrisome trend.

the broader problem with American conservatism right now. It is less a movement than an industry. From Fox News to talk radio to conservative publishing houses, it has created an alternate and lucrative media reality that is worth a fortune to those able to exploit it. Alas, these alternative media thrive on paranoia, hatred of liberal elites and growing extremist rhetoric made worse by a hermetically sealed echo chamber of true believers.

It is both strange and sad that as America and the world are facing political, economic and global crises that there are Americans who read, approve and spread the works like American Capitalism Gone with a Whimper, by Stanislav Mishin. Again, as W.C. Fields observed, you can't cheat an honest man (or woman). And now is the time for honest people, people of good will, to come together and work to solve the problems facing both America and the world.

If there are those who choose to believe the sentiments expressed by Stanislav Mishin, all I can do expose the errors and encourage them to listen to the angels of their better nature. If they won't do that, then they deserve to be called suckers and chumps.

Capitano Tedeschi

30

Remind me, why do I watch the Tour de France?

Capitano Tedeschi in Italy getting ready to climb the mountain June 2004

I have been spending several hours this week watching the 96th Tour de France on Versus TV. I've watched parts of the time trials in Monaco, the first stage, from Monaco to Brignoles, and I spent Monday morning watching the third stage from Marseille to La Grande-Motte. I did the same thing Tuesday morning watching the team time trials. So as I sit in front the television I ask myself, why I am watching watching this event?

I cycle to stay fit. I enjoy cycling. On the other hand, I consider time spent watching a sporting event on TV a waste of time. I don't watch football or baseball, even though I am a die-hard fan of the Kansas Chiefs and a so-so fan of the Kansas City Royals. College sports? well I sorta care about KU basketball and Ku football but that's about it. I occasionally check the box scores on ESPN when these teams play and truth be known, if I find myself spending more than 45 seconds on that task, I feel like I am wasting precious time.

There are many reasons why I am not a big fan of sports in general and team sports in particular. It was the way I grew up. My father was an accomplished amateur bowler, which meant my Saturdays were spent having to watch bowling instead of getting to watch cartoons. So as I was growing up, I came to believe that watching cartoons was more important than watching sports. Another reason was that I was never any good at sports growing up. I was big, fat, slow and uncoordinated. (Some things never change, alas). I always got picked last and usually got picked on during and after the games. So sports for me was an ordeal, a "rite de passage,"or an "auto da fe`."

But why do I care more about the Tour de France than in red-blooded all-American sports like football, baseball and basketball? Part of the answer has to do with my development as an “athlete.” Over the years, I participated in a variety of athletic activities after I graduated from college. I was a world-class pub-crawler, but they don’t give gold medals or product endorsement deals for that. After I retired from amateur pub crawling, I tried a lot of different activities to the fill the void I felt after my early retirement from the Kansas City pub crawling scene.

I did all the trendy things like jogging and swimming, and then in 1989, I got a bicycle. So I've been cycling for 20 years. I was never really serious about cycling until I decided to go on a cycling tour in 2004. In June 0f 2004, I was part of a group of Americans that cycle from Venice to Florence. It was just before that year's Tour de France, which culminated in Lance's Armstrong's sixth win. Going on a bicycle tour was a great experience. It was physically challenging to ride 30-40 miles a day. Spending 4-5 hours on a bicycle is both lonely and painful. But it was also incredibly enjoyable.

Since I was one of the slowest riders, I was usually by myself in the back of beyond in nothern Italy. After the first day, I hurt and I learned what it felt like to be impaled on a bicycle saddle. While we were in Italy, they were just getting ready to start the 2004 Tour. My leisurely travels by bicycle that summer gave me a whole new appreciation for the sport of cycling. When I am watching it on television, I can see both the beauty of the sport, and discipline and determination of those who race for the yellow, green, and polka dot jerseys. I understand their pain, the lonliness of having to peddle over long distances. I also understand the struggle of climbing a mountain and then feeling the exhilaration of going 25-30 miles an hour down a winding and dangerous mountain road.

Come the weekends, I'll be spending my mornings watching the Tour as the cyclists make their way from Monaco to Paris. Part of me is rooting for Lance Armstrong, who is cycling for the Astana Cycling Team as well as team Garmin Slipstream, who were the subject of a documentary Blood, Sweat & Gears, that is currently appearing on the Sundance Channel. Blood, Sweat & Gears really puts a human face on the sport of professional cycling and the lives of professional cyclists. It's not a glamorous life, for most pro cyclists, it's a job. But what beautiful and terrible job to have. There are 190 men competing in the 2009 Tour de France. I was them all the best of luck.


Capitano Tedeschi


30


What? Me? Watch the Tour de France? copyright text and photo July 9, 2009 by Jamie Jacks

Michael Jackson

A lot has been written about Michael Jackson's death. I've been listening to his music since I was in junior high and high school. I never bought any of his albums or attended any of his concerts. I did enjoy watching his videos on MTV. I didn't read the many tributes that have been posted.

Save for one, and that was by the British magazine The Economist. Obituaries in The Economist are beautifully written, eclectic in their profiles, poignant and insightful. The one for Michael Jackson was a very understanding tribute.

Oddness overshadowed his real, hard-won achievements: world adulation for a black pop star, the birth of video celebrity, and millions of dollars given to black causes. If the press stayed on his weird story, he believed, his records would sell. The risk was that the weirdness would multiply until he was hardly human.

His last public appearance, before his death of apparent cardiac arrest, was to announce a series of 50 sold-out concerts in London. Hours before his death he was rehearsing for them, exuding joy, energy and sharp judgment. His glitter jackets, the tabloids claimed later, hid a body that was half-starved, subsisting on painkillers. Though he was worth $1.3 billion, said the Sun, he died with debts of $300m.

But he had sold 750m albums and, from Riga to Rio, children danced like him. Source: The Economist July 2, 2009 http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13941042

After reading this tribute, I could appreciate, the beauty, the accomplishments and the sadness of Michael Jackson's life and death.

Capitano Tedeschi

30

Bizarre Republican Tricks

So, the Govenor has finally resigned. Oops! Sorry folks. Not South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, but Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

It appears that she was planning on announcing that she wasn't going to seek re-election in 2010. According to the statement she made in front of the camera, since she wanted to avoid lameduck status as a Governor. She used the basketball metaphor, saying she was the victim of "a full-court press" from the national media. So she said that passing the ball to another player so the "team" i.e. Alaskans can win. According to Gov. Palin, "I know when it's time to pass the ball for victory."

She then went on to say, "All I can ask is that you trust me with this decision, that it is no more poltics-as-usual." According to Gov. Palin, "Some are going to question the time of this, but this decision has been in the works for a while." She then contradicted that statement by saying that her resignation was like calling "an audible to pass the ball in time so the team can win." She also didn't seem to realize that her resignation was not the final act of her state political career. She praised Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell, and then said, that she will, "always be standing by, ready to assist." She concluded her statement by quoting Gen. Douglas MacArthur, "We are not retreating, we are advancing in another direction."

In the her statement, which somewhat clearer, since it was devoid, of right-wing cliches, attacks against the media, and inane sports metaphors, Palin said,

I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path," said Governor Palin after the announcement. "Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional 'Lame Duck' status in this particular climate would just be another dose of 'politics as usual,' something I campaigned against and will always oppose. It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success. I look forward to helping others - to fight for our state and our country, and campaign for those who believe in smaller government, free enterprise, strong national security, support for our troops, and energy independence.

When you decide to enter into the life of a public servant, your life becomes public, and you also commit to serve. If Gov. Palin had wanted to keep the lives of her and her family out of the public spotlight, she should have declined John McCain's offer of the second spot on the Republican Party's 2008 Presidential ticket. She also seems to think that it is unfair that she is catching a lot of media attention, i.e. heat, for her incompetence, unethical behavior, and just general unfitness for any kind of public office higher than mayor of Wasilla Alaska.

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo had an a good take on Palin's announcement,

Okay, we're getting our first indication of what happened. It seems like a colossal sulk on Palin's part, or perhaps better to say an effort on her part to ingeniously combine anti-liberal media bias agitation with Christianist politics by portraying herself as having been crucified by the liberal media.

Said Palin, according to a reporter at the press conference, "You are naive if you don't see a full-court press on the national level, picking apart a good point guard."

Oh, my. Her political career is essentially over. Andrew Sullivan of the Atlantic said

I guessed right, which I suppose reflects just how much time I've spent trying to figure what goes on in her head. I think the simple truth is that, as even Alaskan Republicans told us last September, she was far from able to be governor of Alaska, let alone vice-president of the United States. Once the klieglights hit, it was only a matter of time before she imploded or exploded or some gruesome combination of the two. The librul media will be blamed for everything on her inexorable path to becoming a Fox News celebrity. Maybe a reality show? Someone hire her for The View!

Mark Kleiman writing at The Reality Based Community was a little more generous than Sullivan,

I'm trying to remind all my friends that Palin, like Bush, is not stupid, and that calling her stupid offends tens of millions of Americans who know as little about public affairs as she does, or less, don't consider themselves stupid, and are in fact capable of making perfectly reasonable decisions about the things they do know and care about. But I'll certainly concede "incoherent."

If there's not a huge bombshell about to explode, then we can only conclude that that woman John McCain wanted to put one unreliable heartbeat from the Presidency is simply a total flake.

We may never know the real reason why Gov. Palin chose to resign. The Anchorage Daily News, whose reporting on Gov. Palin, has been at all times rigorous and fair, summed up the situation best,

Sarah Palin is a charismatic leader with a devoted national following and ambition to match. So there's no surprise if she sees a future for herself beyond Alaska.

But we thought she'd finish her work on the home front first. She hasn't made clear why she won't.

BOTTOM LINE: Governor's explanation for resignation doesn't make sense.

Unless there were serious health and family issues, Gov. Palin's resignation showsher continued willingness to dispose of people and supporters once they have helped her achieve her political ambitions. Her rambling media statement did not give health or family reasons for stepping down, I assume that she has decided to dispense with her committment to the people of Alaska, to either make a run for the White House or make a lot of money as a commentator on Fox News Network.

As the people of Alaska have just found out, you get what you pay for, whether it's cars, gadgets, or an aging beauty queen turned politician.

Capitano Tedeschi

30

Random thoughts on recent news

First of all, justice has been done, sorta. Bernie Madoff, was sentenced to 150 years in prison. Madoff is 71. Try to do as much of it as you can Bern!!! Some in the media hailed this sentence as a get tough warning to Wall Street. Heifer dust! No one at AIG, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs or any of the other financial corporations the United States partially owns have been indicted for frauds related to the financial meltdown. The bond rating agencies, who were accessories abetted the fraud by giving AAA ratings to all of the mortgage backed securities have not even been given a slap on the wrist.

Carolina Governor Mark Sanford continues to provide the press with more details of various infidelities, actual and mental. Gov. Sanford fib about "hiking the Appalachian Trail," is now a euphemism for sneaking of to meet your mistress. Swampland's Michael Scherer is starting to lose sympathy for the errant governor:
Every time he talks about the pain in his heart, that organ, as seen through newsprint and cable news, seems somehow to shrink. Each new round of confessed aches and longing, every Biblical allusion, all the vagaries of his non-coital betrayals, of his dance floor marriage therapy, his electronic soul mate, his South American crying, the Hamptons tryst--all of it makes him look smaller and less significant. I don't care about his private pain.

I have a funny feeling that Gov. Sanford may soon be the butt of divorce barbie type jokes. The divorced Barbie joke? Q: What comes with the new Divorced Barbie Doll? A: All of Ken's Stuff. Q: What happens if your wife finds out you've been "hiking the Appalachian Trail?" A: She might let you keep the tent.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin stated in the August 2009 issue of Runner's World Magazine that she'd beat President Obama in a Marathon race. Good for you Gov. Palin. The only reason I looked at the story was that the Huffington Post and other online media outlets had a headine saying that Palin could be Obama. The headline made you assume that Gov. Palin was referring to the 2012 election, when actually she was referring to racing Obama in a Marathon. Unfortunately Sarah Barracuda was the subject of an unflattering article in Vanity Fair, by Todd S. Purdum. Gov. Palin, is not a Wasilla hockey mom, but

a political novice with an intuitive feel for the temper of her times, a woman who saw her opportunities and coolly seized them. In every job, she surrounded herself with an insular coterie of trusted friends, took disagreements personally, discarded people who were no longer useful, and swiftly dealt vengeance on enemies, real or perceived.

Finally, I want to congradulate the California State Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for failing to pass a state budget by June 30. They should be proud this is political incompetence at the highest level. The governor and the Republicans are refusing to countenance any increase in taxes. Unfortunately, there is no way to balance the state budget without some tax increases. This idiocy and unwillingness to compromise is bringing calls for a new California Constitutional Convention, which is probably the only way that state government effectively for all the people instead of for corrupt special interests and the intellectually challenged Sacramento politicians they support.

Capitano Tedeschi

30