Contact
: :
Our Web Sites
The Common Wheel
Collective Book on Collective Process
: :
Journal Archives
2003
|
m |
j |
j |
a |
s |
|
o |
n |
d |
2004
|
j |
f |
m |
a
|
m |
|
j |
j |
a |
s |
: :
Link to Us
: :
Book List
: :
Recommended
Web Sites
50 Years is Enough
AKPress
Anarchist Communitarian Network
Anti-Slavery
Better Times
Brazilian Landless Workers Movement
Catholic Worker
Committee to Protect Journalists
Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador
Crimethinc
East Bay Food Not Bombs
Enough
Free Free Now
Fundación Esperanza
Indymedia
Infoshop
Institute for Social Ecology
Just the Facts
Kensington Welfare Rights Union
Noam Chomsky Archive
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
Organic Consumers Association
Overcoming Consumerism
Oxfam
Pacific Environment
Path to Freedom Urban Homesteading
Peasant Movement of the Philippines
People Against Oppression and War
Peoples Global Action
Poor News Network
Reclaim the Streets
Ruckus Society
Shack/Slum Dwellers International
The View From the Ground
We the People Media
: :
Journals and Blogs
Abada Abada
Aldahlia
A Ten, a Five, and Five Ones
Authentic Congruent Evolution
The Autonomist
Baghdad Burning
Being Homeless
Beyond Brilliance, Beyond Stupidity
Bicycle Commuting Now
Bombs and Shields
The Common Man
Conflict Girl
Crazy Woman
David Grenier
Dru Blood
Ex-Lion Tamer
Experiment
Goodbye Forever
Green Gabbro
The Homeless Guy
Indigo Ocean
Jawbreaker
Kick All Agricultural Subsidies
Land Claims
Lost in Transit
Madame Insane
Margaret Cho
Mixin'Jam
Molly Moo's Milk Bar
Monumental Mistake
Mute Complications
New Cities, New
Soviets
No More Bigwheels
Oligopoly Watch
Path to Freedom
Political Graffiti
Postmodern Anarchist
Punk Rock Academy
Rebecca's Pocket
Resolute Cynic
Red Polka
Route 79
Scratchings
Shameless Agitator
Slacktivist
Squat the Planet
Subversity
Syndicalist
Thanksgiving Is Ruined
This Is Class Warfare
Treesit Blog
Wood's Lot
Zuky
[asfo_del]
I don't normally write about the election because I have nothing new to say. I still don't, but it's really pissing me off.... While I have no particular fondness for the prospect of a Kerry presidency, which I don't think will make any real difference in the fundamental conditions that drive the lives of all the world's people, including Americans, I am disgusted and horrified at the possibility that Bush could win. And it seems to be a very real possibility. After all the shameless lies, the needless deaths of tens of thousands, the torture, destruction, unmitigated arrogance, gleeful corporate boosterism, the swollen domestic deficit, increased income inequality, further loss of access to health care, the wholesale shredding of civil liberties ... how could the Bush administration enjoy the support of about half of the American public?
The very obvious -- glaringly obvious! -- answer is that the U.S. mainstream media has not only allowed the administration's lies to go unchallenged, it has reinforced and legitimized them.
From FAIR:
"Major U.S. news outlets are hardly inclined to be up in arms about Rumsfeld’s record of prewar deception when they remain so dainty about critiquing their own. What passes for soul-searching at the New York Times and the Washington Post is much more like autoeroticism than self-flagellation."
"Coverage that insists on a false even-handedness, while pretending to expose political mendacity, actually gives cover for it by neutralizing criticism."
A telling piece of news that has been published today by the UK's The Guardian is that folks in other countries, who are not subjected to the barrage of misleading reporting that floods the airwaves and print media in the U.S., have a much more sensible, it seems to me, and sane view of the Bush administration.
"A June poll conducted by the German Marshall Fund found that 76% of respondents in nine European countries disapproved of Mr Bush's handling of international affairs.... It also found that 80% of Europeans polled - compared with half of Americans - said Iraq was not worth the human and financial cost."
"A poll conducted by 10 of the world's leading newspapers, ,,, show[s] that in Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Japan, Spain and South Korea a majority of voters share a rejection of the Iraq invasion, contempt for the Bush administration, a growing hostility to the US and a not-too-strong endorsement of Mr Kerry." Respondents in eight out of the ten countries polled want to see Bush out of office, and, "on balance, world opinion does not believe that the war in Iraq has made a positive contribution to the fight against terror."
Perhaps even more significantly, "73% of British voters ... say that the US now wields an excessive influence on international affairs, a situation that 67% see as continuing for the foreseeable future. A majority in Britain also believe that US democracy is no longer a model for others. But perhaps a more startling finding from the Guardian/ICM poll is that a majority of British voters - 51% - say that they believe that American culture is threatening our own culture. This is a fear shared by the Canadians, Mexicans and South Koreans."
Meanwhile, CNN reports on anecdotal opinions offered by random voters who seem uninterested in facts but say they will vote based on their gut feelings and a nebulously defined personal comfort level: " 'I don't think [the debates] really explain a whole lot to the public one way or another. I think what will do it will be just gut feeling when we get right down to the election.' For some in this voter group, long-range concerns override debate results. 'Really, it boils down to one thing for me personally. I feel more comfortable with Bush at this particular time. Kerry scares me because of his legislative record. Kerry's got to win me over and he didn't.' "
The most frightening statement made by a voter in the CNN article goes unremarked by the reporter: " 'I listen to Rush Limbaugh when I'm in my car,' she said. 'We can only get one radio station really clear around here. It's so negative. I never heard a good thing about Kerry.' But when she tuned in to the presidential debates, she 'liked Kerry's presence. I liked the way he spoke.' " The only station this voter can hear is the one that airs Rush Limbaugh! And even though she developed a positive opinion about Kerry when she saw him on TV, it was his demeanor that impressed her. Policies just don't matter.
<|>-<|>-<|>-<|>-<|>-<|>-<|>
[Continue to September Archive]
