I would like you to read a post from Glenn Greenwalds blog. Here are (2) lengthy quotes from the article to get you started…..
In the past two weeks, the following events transpired. A Department of Justice memo, authored by John Yoo, was released which authorized torture and presidential lawbreaking. It was revealed that the Bush administration declared the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights to be inapplicable to “domestic military operations” within the U.S. The U.S. Attorney General appears to have fabricated a key event leading to the 9/11 attacks and made patently false statements about surveillance laws and related lawsuits. Barack Obama went bowling in Pennsylvania and had a low score.
Here are the number of times, according to NEXIS, that various topics have been mentioned in the media over the past thirty days:
“Yoo and torture” – 102
“Mukasey and 9/11″ — 73
“Yoo and Fourth Amendment” — 16
“Obama and bowling” — 1,043
“Obama and Wright” — More than 3,000 (too many to be counted)
“Obama and patriotism” – 1,607
“Clinton and Lewinsky” — 1,079
Every day, it becomes more difficult to blame George Bush, Dick Cheney and comrades for their seven years (and counting) of crimes, corruption and destruction of our political values. Think about it this way: if you were a high government official and watched as — all in a couple of weeks time — it is revealed, right out in the open, that you suspended the Fourth Amendment, authorized torture, proclaimed yourself empowered to break the law, and sent the nation’s top law enforcement officer to lie blatantly about how and why the 9/11 attacks happened so that you could acquire still more unchecked spying power and get rid of lawsuits that would expose what you did, and the political press in this country basically ignored all of that and blathered on about Obama’s bowling score and how he eats chocolate, wouldn’t you also conclude that you could do anything you want, without limits, and know there will be no consequences? What would be the incentive to stop doing all of that?
It is a sad state of affairs when Britney Spears and Obama’s bowling score is what the media thinks is important for Americans to hear.
Here is a cartoon that might cheer you up..
Well, that just goes and shows you what Americans really care about.
But to be honest, a lot of people really do not care that much about politics. Sure they may vote, but they vote on what the media says is the front runner, or who their friends and family are voting for, and they just don’t care.
But then again those are the same people most likely to complain.
If they are more interested in bowling scores of presidential candidate and Britney Spears, so be it. The media only shows what the people want to see (which is why they repeat so many bad stories).
I don’t have a problem with spending some time of political process questions (Wright, etc) but the amount of time dedicated to it and the way some of the questions were proposed was completely ridiculous. I speak particularly about the “does Wright love American as much as you” and about the woman asking Obama about a flag pin. Beyond that, spending half of the debate on such issues is clearly too much.