Chomsky Quotes About The Media

[via Bill Moyers Facebook page]

While I am not blindly loyal to the good Professor, and I have learned some of his limitations (e.g., he doesn't understand international law as well as he thinks he does) he is still among the 5 most important intellectual influences in my life, and always worth reading.

An Essay On Assholes

This makes me think of my step-mom (RIP), whose favorite word was "asshole." She had this great Mid-western (Chicago) way of saying it. Anyway, for your consideration and amusement:

How Fox News created a new culture of idiots

Your Liberal Media

Stick a fork in me. I'm done. 

Because Fuck George Will, That's Why

That someone who is so intellectually dishonest can be held up as a beacon of Conservative thought (see also Gingrich, Newt) speaks volumes. That he gets published in significant newspapers and invited on TV shows watched by more than a few dozen people is a tragedy, and a sad statement about the state of American media.

First Presidential Speech Filmed With Sound

And THIS is what Calvin Coolidge did with it. Not exactly "media savvy," eh?

We Have A Winner

Congratulations to the Wanker Of The Decade: Tom "Suck On This" Friedman. The most disturbing thing about American public discourse isn't the loonies that we all love to hate, like Limbaugh, or the politicians peddling their bullshit, like, well, pretty much every politician. The thing that is truly "sign of the Apocalypse" bad is that someone like The Mustache Of Understanding himself is considered a person worth listening to, and given a platform for his idiocy.

Check out the rest of the list here.

She Doesn't Have A Penis, Either. Does This Mean She CAnnot Really Represent Men?

Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ, is there anything more idiotic than Politico?

By the way, I told you to read Charles Pierce every day, didn't I?

WINAD, Explained

Just read this. And next time someone says the Dems are the party of the Left, try not to die laughing.

The Best Research Money Can Buy

Charles Pierce hits yet another bulls-eye. This time, he takes on the absurd notion that teachers are over-paid. That conclusion was foregone reached by a study from the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute.

Both of these outfits exist solely to put a pseudo-academic gloss on what conservative politicians choose to believe anyway. They are not "think-tanks," if that buzzy phrase ever had a real meaning. They are talking-point factories. They exist so that people like Michele Bachmann can appear to be smart. Their "research" is given mainstream credibility only because the people who run America's major communication conglomerates would cut out their own spleens rather than be called "liberal." Heritage and AEI produce "research" the way the Fox News Channel produces "journalism." It's propaganda with data points.

Read the whole post here.

Obama-Fluffers Indeed

[via Balloon Juice]
Incredible. More positive coverage of Newt Gingrich (he really is indescribably vile) than Obama. At least Newt has the highest negative percentage. Librulmedia is librul.

Fun Fact

Top 50% of Senate represents 83.65% of the population of the states.
Bottom 50% of Senate represents 16.35% of the population of the states.

This means that, in theory, about 17% of the country can block 83% of the country even if the Senate were a majority-rules body. Of course, with the evil filibuster, the numbers can be even more anti-democratic. The number of people who fail to grasp this point, including almost every headline writer in the media, is astonishing.

What should be this:

"Obama's Jobs Bill
Blocked by GOP in
Procedural Move"

Becomes this:


Damn librulmedia!

This is something to keep in mind when considering discussions of our "democracy," of "what the people want," or of which party is to blame for the gridlock in Washington. The GOP will, as a matter of course, use their minority position to block everything the Dems want to do, and then blame the Dems for the failure to get things done. When the GOP takes the Senate back, they will wail and moan if the Dems even suggest they will use the very same tactics. And because "theliberalmeida" won't tell you about it, and your schools didn't teach you about it, you'll be none the wiser. And, of course, the inept Dems won't call a spade a spade and rail against the GOP obstructionism in clear, forceful terms. Because that would be, oh, effective. And being largely ineffectual is a friggin' prerequisite for being a Dem.

[Source]