.NYT article LINK
The New York Times reported today that the White House is quietly conceding that they are losing control of the Health Care Reform debate. So......in response......? A march? Rapid Fire TV ads? Formal debates moderated by NPR, PBS, ABC, NBC? Nope....a website.........That's it....a website..
The WH released a myth busters website.......What Obama should do is concede he needs a little help from his friends.....Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Howard Dean, Mike Bloomberg, Warren Buffet and other Business Leaders and even the Kennedys to get the word out and deal with the fires.
I’ve finally found a positive quality Sarah Palin might bring to the vice presidency: She would be the first veep guaranteed to be witchcraft-free, thanks to Rev. Thomas Muthee.
This would be a refreshing change from Dick Cheney who clearly is a warlock; it’s one of the few things that can explain adequately his darker-than-the-night eight years in office.
A video went up on YouTube yesterday showing Muthee “laying hands” on Palin, imploring Jesus to protect her from "the spirit of witchcraft." It would be hysterically funny if it weren’t so scary.
Best of all, Palin gave her own personal testimony to the power of Muthee’s prayers, saying publicly after she was elected governor what a dramatic effect he had on her election.
While maybe it’s time we have a vice president we know is free of witches and witchcraft, there’s a serious point being made here.
After the broadcast and cable network newscasts pelted us for days with the same 14 second clip of Rev. Jeremiah Wright giving a vitriolic sermon when Barack Obama wasn’t even in the church, why is it that we’ve barely seen Rev. Muthee laying his hands on Palin to protect her from witches – or her “testimony” in the Wasilla church to his purported power?
Why isn’t the footage leading every cable news segment, the way the Wright video did? Where are the bloviators speculating that this might end her chance of being elected, as they did with Obama? Why isn’t she giving a major speech to discuss witchcraft in American politics the way Obama responded to the Wright controversy by talking about race in America? How come no one is calling the video a “bombshell,” and wondering “what might come next?”
When the Rev. Wright controversy broke, somber publications such as The New York Times and The Washington Post gave it front page prominence. I’ve yet to see any coverage of the Muthee-Palin nonsense anywhere in either paper, not even a few column inches way in the back, wedged between wedding announcements and the obits.
Maybe it’s because the Muthee business is so ridiculous the video almost comes across like a Saturday Night Live sketch. Or a parody of an SNL bit. Maybe it’s because the news media doesn’t poke fun at the mentally unbalanced.
But, still, this is noteworthy stuff.
It can’t be that newspapers, magazines and networks “got religion” – pardon the expression – and turned serious in the months since the Wright tempest in a teapot bubbled and boiled. Rather, I suspect it’s because we’re seeing a prime time, front page, living, breathing, spell-casting example of just how frightened much of the media is of the right, and the religious right in particular. We’re also seeing the myth of the “liberal media bias” laid bare.
Mary Todd Lincoln and Nancy Reagan communed with the spirit world when their husbands were president, but neither woman ever ran for office. Sarah Palin wants to be Vice President of the United States.
Come to think of it, if she and McCain happen to win it might just be because there are witches and warlocks flying around on broomsticks after all. Still, I can’t help but wonder if religious "re-education" centers are waiting in the wings.
As a person who has used too many video recorders since 1980 (VHS thank God), I have a major collection of more than 5,000 recordings of poltical programs, events and breaking news. Most of my recordings are from the Washington, D.C. region where I lived.
I have watched (and burned to DVD) with wonder the events of this campaign. I find that it's not until some time after I've made a recording, the news junkie that I am, that I understand the context the event had when it happened. It's puzzle piece in the larger historic picture.
Having ADD, I'm able to listen to a number of broadcasts at the same time and can instantly catch those little elements that seem to get overlooked byt the "professionals" and this is often frustrating.
I'd like to touch base with other newsies who watch and read the news as I do ... in a present day context and in the wider historic context.
The Barack Obama era is without question is heaven sent to us news junkies.
A few days ago, I posted an excerpt from an editorial by two Yale students (David Manners-Weber and Justin Kosslyn) who, inspired by the Obama campaign rhetoric, put out a challenge to their peers to take action in their own neighborhoods. (Incidentally, there's a new site called The Point, which is designed to help people issue challenges, to others. I'll do X if 10 other people do Y.)
The Yale article intrigued Princeton graduate student Arvind Murugan, who wrote about the article on a few listservs which were, in turn, read by Philadelphia area residents who started collaborating through emails and impromptu meetings to launch a grassroots movement dubbed Obama Works. ObamaWorks is a means to create visible public service projects and inspire collective action.
On March 1, Philly residents will hold a "Philly Sweep" and it is expected that other neighborhood clean-ups will take place around NYU and Yale, too. As one of the authors wrote me, "I couldn't be more thrilled to let you know that, with the help of people I've never even met, words are getting turned into action."
Manners-Weber goes on to say in his email about my earlier blog posting: "In your post, you wrote of "people collaborating to improve their own social conditions." Well it looks like folks are starting to do just that - within 24 hours, 100 people signed up to participate in the "Obama Philly Sweep," where volunteers will be cleaning up the streets around the Graduate Hospital area."
Here is their press release:
Philadelphia, March 1, 2008... Within only 24 hours, 100 supporters of Barack Obama signed up for the first Obama Philly Sweep, which kicks off at 2227 Christian St. in the Graduate Hospital area on Saturday, March 1st, at 1:00 pm. Street cleaning tops the agenda for this community service event - signaling the start of a new breed of political campaign that brings volunteers together around a constructive purpose. The Obama Philly Sweep is the first local event hosted by Obama Works, a grassroots organization currently taking shape in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Obama Works intends to implement Barack Obama’s message of change through community service projects. According to organizer Amirah Naim, the group is “working to transcend our differences and transform our country.” Obama Works will sponsor additional clean-up efforts in other Philadelphia neighborhoods prior to March 24th, the voter registration deadline for the Pennsylvania primary election. After the primary, Obama Works will continue to develop and organize a variety of community service outreach projects.
Philadelphia, March 1, 2008... Within only 24 hours, 100 supporters of Barack Obama signed up for the first Obama Philly Sweep, which kicks off at 2227 Christian St. in the Graduate Hospital area on Saturday, March 1st, at 1:00 pm. Street cleaning tops the agenda for this community service event - signaling the start of a new breed of political campaign that brings volunteers together around a constructive purpose. The Obama Philly Sweep is the first local event hosted by Obama Works, a grassroots organization currently taking shape in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Obama Works intends to implement Barack Obama’s message of change through community service projects. According to organizer Amirah Naim, the group is “working to transcend our differences and transform our country.”
Obama Works will sponsor additional clean-up efforts in other Philadelphia neighborhoods prior to March 24th, the voter registration deadline for the Pennsylvania primary election. After the primary, Obama Works will continue to develop and organize a variety of community service outreach projects.
