Changing course a bit from Part 1 - I wanted to take just a little time to talk about one more thing that bounced around my head while I was off the grid. Some things that burned through from the few minutes of news I saw on background TV.
Let's review a bit though. The Democrat Party has the Executive Branch. They have the House and the Senate. They have the majority of State Governors. The 4th Estate is designed, by their definition, to keep the politicians honest and provide a check on power - I guess.
That isn't what I saw.
I was reminded how I got to where I am now; where I now get almost all my news from the internet and/or newspapers/magazines. It didn't start that way - I was raised a news junkie.
I grew up watching CBS News. 6pm local followed by national, every night. What a geek I was at 12, yelling at the TV with my Dad. That ended in '88 when Dan Rather ambushed Bush 41. I shifted my flag to ABC until about halfway through the Clinton Administration when they just would not engage. I then shifted to NBC until, well, they just lost my interest. By '98 I was watching, no longer at 6pm, NewsHour on PBS of all places and as I did through all this time - I always checked in with CNN Headline News. By the time 2000 came by though - I couldn't take that anymore there either. I left CNN and PBS. I just could not find something that would give me both sides of the story.
So there I was watching the TV in the background earlier this month when this goofy ABC news show is on and all they want to talk was Carl Rove and his response to the VP. Zip, zero, nada discussion of the validity of the VP's statement or the issue at hand - just attacking Carl Rove for being there absorbing O2.
Next time MSNBC is on and they are talking about the federal spending orgy and all they can do is attack SC Gov. Mark Sanford. No discussion of the issues at hand, just attacking the man non-stop. That is what bloggers, ahem, do - not what our betters in the MSM are supposed to do.
Then there was the whole teabagg'n thing. Pathetic. The only thing that made watching the mindless partisanship worthwhile was seeing Anderson Cooper kind-of come out of the closet. How do you know it is hard to talk Andy? Not that there is anything wrong with that.
Seriously. Here we are - where is the check on power?
Judging from the adds, Hollywood isn't much better. The only political adds I saw - in an incredibly short time nonetheless, were for Frost Nixon and W.
It was just plain other-worldly to see such a non-stop stream from one side.
President Obama has no excuse for not getting done what he wants to get done. I don't think we have ever seen a President and his Party have such a tailwind before.
The intertubes are about it to get alternative opinions and ideas out there - and to check power - I guess.
Get involved.
Get out your checkbook. Vote. No one is going to watch out for you but you.
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