Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Turning Off The News

I had a modicum of interest in the news this morning, a real part of it was to see if the theme would be as stupid as I expected. My expectations have not been disappointed.

The Republican approach was never in any doubt and the media has given a near meaningless Party a soapbox considerably larger than their representation. Senate rules do mean that a Party with 41 members can do damage, that 41% representation in the body means nothing can be done if they don't approve. If that is taken by the media to mean that they are the new ruling class the media's head is stuck in its butt. House Republicans might as well be Martians for all their real impact.

The media keeps making Brown a representation of national sentiment. This was a MA election in the first place and in the second place there was Coakley. I am quite sure that HCR has done damage, for pete's sake how could this mess not do that? The right Republicans were not going to approve of anything they didn't write and jam down Obama's throat - that gets you an automatic 27% and about the time you alienate another 20+% who are Democrats by writing a Republican bill you've achieved a real problem.

The media is hard on the scent of Obama failure and I do agree there have been some short comings. But Congress is the outfit that writes the legislation, despite other opinions. HCR is supposed to be dead. I can't think of a larger load of horse poop. People have been running around acting as though the House would fix the Senate version and LIEberman would vote for it. That is exactly laughable and since we've seen him and Nelson in operation already and there's a question?

The media is again on the scent of excessive liberalism treating the 27% party as though it had really high approval ratings and was a majority of some sort. There is no actual center in American politics, it veers all over the place depending on whose ox is getting gored at any particular moment. The fact that Republicans love to talk about a center-right nation doesn't make it so. Taking a look at the make up of the House ought to be instructive and it hasn't been. The idea that reality might be featured in the political news is apparently vain. The fact that 58%-41% (if you think I'll count Joe Ho you're crazy) representation in the Senate may mean the New Republican Dominance to FauxNews really ought to be given a miss by actual news organizations ... guess again.

Now that I've subjected myself to stupidity in excess of my tolerance level; I'll turn the news off.

4 comments:

Zakariah Johnson said...

The 40% turnout is what amazes me. How 3 out of 5 registered voters could manage to sit out such an obviously important election is beyond my comprehension. "People get the government they deserve...etc."

Chuck Butcher said...

Actually "we get the govt they deserve" would be more accurate.

Conchscooter said...

Too bad Obama hasn't yet figured out how to lead. Blame who you like but a sitting president with a critical agenda (we thought) who can't win massachusetts for democrats is a waste of space. We live in world where we have to choose between do-nothing democrats or raving religious republicans. And the nutters on the right get away with calling day night and not one democrat fights back! All it will take is 41 republican senators plus LIEberman to run rings around the white house and congress.

Zakariah Johnson said...

Interesting polls showing about 18% of the Brown voters had voted for Obama. Of those, 4 out of 5 thought the health care bill wasn't going far enough. The protest vote was a clear case of cutting off your nose to spite your face, but when people feel otherwise powerless to be heard they do things they appear pointlessly self-destructive. I wouldn't have voted for Brown, but certainly the anger at the foot-dragging and double-talk coming out of the Democrats is Washington is more than understandable. I also agree the whole sorry spectacle might have been avoided if the president had at any time last year expressed on opinion on anything relating to what he wanted or thought the party needed to deliver in the final health bill. The Senate bill as it stands is a steaming pile, no ifs, ands or buts.