9/14/2009 -  PKT, Los Angeles, CA writes ...
A Ring of Truth(ers)       Post to Main Thread   Reply to PKT

I try I really do try. I read the right wing websites and try to read the columnists that make up the intelligentsia of the conservative movement but as of late I shake my head in wonder and despair for the fate of the country. The president is heckled on the floor of Congress and the right cheers. A bland speech telling kids to study hard and stay is school is labeled socialist propaganda. I even saw a Stepford mom on TV crying real tears that her little Johnny or Jane would have to be subjected to the socialist agenda in the classroom. Right wing conspiracy nuts rant on the air and in print about planned concentration camps for conservatives and the red states are stockpiling guns and ammo for the day their guns are confiscated by Obama. It doesn’t matter that there is no such pending legislation and the Democrats are too spineless to buck the NRA. The perception becomes the reality.

It would be laughable if the nutcases were on the fringe howling from the sidelines but when congresspersons like Wilson and Inhofe join the fray it becomes downright scary. The left isn’t immune from silliness but it doesn’t do the public discourse much good when neither side disavows the crazies. Rather than calling the birthers and death panelists mistaken to the point of delusion the apologists for the right point out leftist conspiracy theories as justification for bizarre behavior. Sorry guys, bizarre behavior is just that regardless from which side of the political spectrum it comes from. Clean your own house first than worry about the other side.

It’s become a 21st century cliché but it’s the truth. Shouting has replaced debate. Take the health care debate. Emergency rooms are closing across the country because they can’t afford to stay open given the high cost of treating the uninsured. The big Republican bugaboo about illegals possibly being covered by a public option insurance distorts the fact that under the current system illegals are already being treated at public expense. Just ask San Diego County who sued the feds for billions in an attempt to be reimbursed for medical and legal costs associated with the illegal influx there. Doing nothing will just keep the status quo and the status quo isn’t working. That point isn’t being debated. Insurance companies take 30 percent of healthcare dollars as their profit. That’s 30 percent of several trillion dollars going to non-medical expenses. That point isn’t being debated. Bureaucrats standing between you and your doctor, death panels, denial of coverage, long waits for care, all the evils predicted for a public option plan already exist in the current system. That point isn’t being debated. All we have now is shouting, finger pointing and “spontaneous” protests planned and orchestrated by the highly paid entertainers of talk radio who care more about controversy than policy and whose patriotism is measured by ratings rather than principle.

The great lie has replaced the great debate. And, again, while neither side is immune the right has to take the trophy when it comes to distorting the facts mainly due to the high profile of Fox News and the talking heads of the right. For every Keith Olberman there are dozen Sean Hannitys. The thoughtful discourses of Bill Moyers are lost in the cacophony of babbling from the Glen Beck and Ann Coulter. Even the reasoned minds on the right like George Will and Fruhm are drowned out by bilious blatherings of the blowhards (thank you Spiro Agnew for the inspiration).

History is replete with examples of the eventual outcome of polarization. England had its Cromwell, America its Jefferson Davis although one must say Cromwell was more effective than Davis ever was. But regardless of competency the outcome was the same -- hundreds of thousands dead, chaos, destruction. Are we headed down that same path today? Before you say no remember the greatest loss of life prior to 9/11 was by a domestic terrorist. Gun sales are at all an all-time high and if you believe every rifle-toting militia type is only exercising his or hers second amendment rights I’ve got a genuine handwritten copy of the Constitution autographed by George Washington and Abraham Lincoln for sale on eBay. The die isn’t cast yet but we can either work together and condemn the extremists of both sides and deny them the center spotlight on the public stage or we can allow the lies to become the narrative and like the good Germans who watched the Brown Shirts shake our collective heads and go about our business while the country is hijacked. And, yes, I am comparing the tea party types and the birthers and the gun packing “protestors” to Nazis and to Communists and to the Taliban and to Stalinists and to the IRA and the Provos and Cromwell’s Roundheads and to every other group in history that preaches intolerance, violence and ideology over commonsense.

9/16/2009 -  TM, Chester, NJ replies to PKT 9/14/2009 ...
A Ring of Truth(ers)       Post to Main Thread   Reply to TM

Wow, talk about laughable...

The complete and utter lack of credibility in your posting is amazing.

Joe Wilson was wrong for his outburst. He admitted it and apologized. The president was not heckled - it was a single emotional outburst. Please, be fair and try to relate this to the true heckling of president Bush when the Democrats booed him continuously during his speech. Please, be fair and, while not during a speech, both Reid and Pelosi called president Bush a liar and never apologized.

Neither side disavows the crazies? Wrong. Most republicans immediately agreed that the outburst was inappropriate.

As for your comment that for every Keith Olberman there are dozen Sean Hannitys, that is too laughable. There is only one Hannity and one Limbaugh, but there are a thousand liberal bloggers contributing to the Huffington Post. Please, be fair and count all the liberal news stations, all the liberal news papers, all the liberal entertainment figures that use their podiums to support the liberal candidates. And please, be fair and do not forget the hundreds of very well funded liberal pacs and organizations, such as the now discredited Acorn and MoveOn.org. You want heckling and disrespect? Just check out the crazies at democrats.us. Please, be fair.

But your last statement takes the proverbial cake. That any of those that disagree with the president or protest the president are "Nazis". I do not seem to remember you taking such a stand when the campus of Berkeley confiscated student newspapers and tried to close down the student newspaper just because an individual ran an ad critical of slavery reparations - in response to the papers editorial in favor of reparations! Please, be fair.

As for Obama, he is a liar. He repeated on the podium that illegals would not be covered in his health care bill. Please, be fair. Are we to understand that if they are not insured, that they will be turned away from the hospital? Not in our lifetime! Nor should they be. First, they should not be here. But since they are, and we are obviously not going to send them packing, both sides should pony up to the bar and deal with the reality that the American public is going to pay for their care one way or the other.

Please, be fair!


9/16/2009 -  TM, Chester, NJ replies to PKT 9/14/2009 ...
A Ring of Truth(ers)       Post to Main Thread   Reply to TM

...oh, and please...lets not forget all the democrats that are claiming that Joe Wilson's outburst, and any other American that disagrees with the president is racist. The democrats never hesitate to whip out that trusty ol race card.

First it was Maureen Dowd saying she "heard" (in her head apparently) Joe Wilson actually say "You lie, boy!".

Now we have president Carter joining the frey:
"Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson's outburst to President Barack Obama during a speech to Congress last week was an act "based on racism" and rooted in fears of a black president."

Please, be fair - these folks are no different than the "truthers" and "birthers", except they are more dangerous. They are attempting to include everyone that has a different opinion in this new "fear of a black president" group. Oh, please, be fair!