hogwash

The daily criticism and insults of collective media of this country is total Hogwash, and quite frankly, an affront to our Constitution.  Yes, it is true that the media is slow to do their jobs at times, and many times it is too late, but I believe that in the long-run, the press ultimately gets it right.

Basically, we are not giving the media enough credit.  I agree with the media criticisms in one sense, that all the main stream media is ultimately concerned in the long run with its bottom line.  This is only a major problem with consolidated media.  Before mainstream media was so consolidated, different media outlets would compete ruthlessly for the truth.  If a paper had a history of not telling the truth, people would not buy it and that would be the end of it, thanks to the plethora of independent alternatives.  That is one reason why the average, every day American citizen, is the fifth check and balance of this great country.

Now, there are not very many alternatives as it relates to mainstream media, although the playing field has been leveled a bit with the Internet.  All a mainstream media company is interested in is selling advertising and promoting their other businesses, not the reporters necessarily, but the parachutist at the top of the media companies.  Ultimately, the big wigs are only concerned that they are telling just enough of the truth on both sides, without any real depth for either side, so that they do not have to be all that concerned about aggravating anyone other than the extremes of both sides so bad that they will not come back in the future.

The democratic Internet media, on the other-hand is full of all types of media, from flat out fabrications to breaking stories about stains on blue dresses.  Credible bloggers blog and write out of passion.  They value their credibility.  They are in it for the truth, and for the passion of it.

The emergence of these blogs, many of whom do have a particular level of credibility, have forced some of these mass media outlets into doing their homework a little better, and for that, we should be thankful.

Mass media does not like to be out-scooped, especially by pesky little computer dorks.

In the end, the media (all of it), love them or hate them, are essential to the long term success of our democracy.  In history class we always learn about how we have a system of three checks and balances…the legislative, the judicial, and the executive.

What they always leave out in the lesson, is the fourth and a fifth check and balance…the press, and the American people.  The press is the only industry specifically protected by the constitution, and the people…well, we are the Constitution.

The press is mentioned for a reason.  Whether it has a liberal or conservative bias, the press has the protected right to report as it pleases.  If the press as a whole reports falsehoods, they will lose credibility, and that is just not good for business.  Bias comes from the very idea to decide to cover a story or not, but what matters is if the story is the truth, or The Maverick Truth, or a flat out lie.

For instance, if a particular media outlet thought John McCain was a reincarnation of Herbert Hoover, they would find all kinds of examples of parallels between John McCain and Herbert Hoover to prove their point.  The parallels would most likely be true, while the main idea itself may be a little subjective, but the point is, it was liberal bias to decide to cover the story to begin with.  If Fox News wanted to put it in peoples minds that Obama was a Muslim, even if it wasn’t true, they would lead the story with, “Is Obama a muslim?  Some say that he is…”  Well, is it true that Obama is a Muslim?  Absolutely not, but is it true that some people say that he is?  Sure.  (Mostly people on Fox News about two years ago, but true none-the-less).  And that would be conservative bias.

The press plays an important role, and we should not be so quick to demean and demonize them.  I think in the long run, the media as a whole gets the big stories right.  It is like one big case of “Crowd Wisdom.”  It’s just on a day to day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second basis that individual writers and media outlets are trying to get your individual, undivided attention, and a great deal of the time, they will feed you hogwash in the process.

But do not let that get you down.  Don’t let it get you angry.  Have faith in the press.  Have faith in our Constitution. Even if it is not the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, because, you have to ask yourself, where would this country be right now without Silence Dogood?  Would we even be here…or would we all be calling each other bloody fools, sitting around with our powdered faces eating crumpets, drinking tea, and playing cricket?

This is the brainchild of Patriot John, and I put it together for Hogwash - Thanks again for your input Patriot John.

I have no idea how Republican politicians ever became synonymous with the idea values.”  It must have been one hell of a marketing/manufactured consent campaign.  Day after day after day, they hypocrisy of Republican values is exposed.  Everything from being against the “Bridge to nowhere,” after you were for it, to sexual misconduct.  What a disgrace!  What Hogwash!

STLtoday - Muschany quits House, will fight sex charge
Rep. Scott Muschany resigned from the Missouri House Tuesday, the same day he pleaded not guilty to a charge he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old Jefferson City girl.

Muschany, R-Huntleigh, had already announced he did not intend to run for re-election but had resisted calls from top state Republicans to resign. On Tuesday, he pleaded not guilty in Cole County Circuit Court to a felony charge of deviate sexual intercourse, then told Speaker of the House Rod Jetton he was resigning, Muschany’s attorney said.

Now CNNMoney.com has gotten in on the Intrade betting that now has Palin withdrawing from the race at $14.7 a share.

Betting on a Palin withdrawal - Sep. 2, 2008
NEW YORK (Fortune) — Now the Democrats aren’t the only ones who can try to capitalize on the negative buzz growing around Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the prospective Republican VP candidate.

Intrade, an online prediction market based in Dublin, created a contract Tuesday morning on the likelihood that John McCain will drop Palin as his running mate. After opening at a probability of just 3%, the odds on Palin being cut from the ticket climbed to 18% around 9 a.m. and have since settled at around 12%.

Intrade is a place for betting enthusiasts to turn a small profit on everything from the latest auction of works by controversial British artist Damien Hirst to Britney Spears’ chances of landing in rehab. Contracts on a possible future event are bought and sold by users of the site, like a stock on the NYSE.

Tuesdays with Rupert: Entertainment & Culture: vanityfair.com
Here’s the headline: Rupert Murdoch is becoming a liberal—sort of.

Or, anyway, his purchase of The W.S.J., and his covetousness of the Times, is also about wanting to trade the illiberal—the belligerent, the vulgar, the loud, the menacing, the unsubtle—for the better-heeled, the more magnanimous, the further nuanced. He’s looking for better company.

This most unsocialized of men is becoming socialized—sort of.

This is, in part, the Wendi transformation. The woman from Shandong Province, 38 years his junior, whom he married after breaking up his 32-year marriage to his second wife, Anna, has brought him into the liberal world. The angry outsider, the anti-elitist, the foe of airs and pretension (“Ole Grumpy,” as he’s known by various of his employees), has become part of the achieving, glamorous, clever, socially promiscuous set. Davos, Cannes, Sun Valley, Barry Diller’s yacht—this is now Rupert Murdoch’s world.

Obama on Gustav - Swampland - TIME
Obama spent today giving curtailed speeches in respect to Hurricane Gustav. But tonight, in front of a Milwaukee audience of 14,000, invoking both the Bible and Thoreau, he was as good as I’ve ever heard him. He spoke for just over 14 minutes but he left the audience roaring. Here are excerpts of the last five minutes. I will endeavor to post the audio.

Commentary: Is McCain out of his mind? - CNN.com
(CNN) — John McCain needs what Kinky Friedman calls “a checkup from the neck up.”

In choosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate he is not thinking “outside the box,” as some have said. More like out of his mind.

Palin a first-term governor of a state with more reindeer than people, will have to put on a few pounds just to be a lightweight. Her personal story is impressive: former fisherman, mother of five. But that hardly qualifies her to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

For a man who is 72 years old and has had four bouts with cancer to have chosen someone so completely unqualified to become president is shockingly irresponsible. Suddenly, McCain’s age and health become central issues in the

Can you imagine Sarah Palin in the White House on September 11?  This was a terrible pick by McCain strategically.  If McCain was going to pick a woman to run, he should have picked Hutchison, or a female corporate CEO.  This will be a disaster for the McCain campaign and the final nail in his coffin.

Once the “shock and awe” wears off of the announcement, people will see that her family makes their money off of oil as well.  Just what we need, more oil in the White House.  I am surprised that there isn’t a moat of oil surrounding the white house now.  I thought McCain was about change.

Don’t get me wrong, I am glad he picked Palin.  In 67 days, it will be the event that sealed the deal for Obama.  McCain is having a hard enough time with conservatives anyway, a group which is more chauvinist than even racist, especially a large portion of elderly men.

Conservatives essentially have to pick between four liberals which isn’t going to motivate many of them.  At least Obama has over 12 years of demonstrated elected judgment and temperament, and no one is more experienced than Joe Biden on foriegn policy.  Which two do you want in office when America is attacked again, which will ultimately happen, regardless of who is in office.  And which one do you want to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency?  Biden, or Palin.

This was purely a reactionary pick by McCain and his staff and proves once and for all that they do not have the strategic sense of a pineapple.  McCain has gone way to far to prove he is a maverick and has done himself in.  The wolf hath removed his sheep costume.

I can’t wait until that cold January day when Obama takes his oath on the bible.  What a great day for America that will be.

YouTube - Chet Edwards

He is also a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Texas A&M in economics with an MBA from Harvard.  -  Interesting.

Wow.  This was really refreshing.  Gov. Schweitzer really turned the concept of red states and blue states on its ass.  His comments during the last 2-3 minutes really hammer it home.

YouTube - Remarks from Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D-MT)

It is amazing to me how terribly uninformed people are about how not like them John McCain is.  He was born into the family of two successive Naval Admirals.  His father was commander of the entire Vietnam operation at one point.  Then, he married a major beer baron to add to his portfolio and conveniently solidify his ultimate aspiration, the white house.

His complete lack of intellectual curiosity and simple statements must resonate with those who take comfort from Regressive politics.  They must like living in fear.  They must like living in greed.  They must like devious power mongers controlling every aspect of their lives.

I have to ask, whatever happened to Roosevelts Four Essential Freedoms:

1. Freedom of speech and expression
2. Freedom of religion
3. Freedom from want
4. Freedom from fear

The regressives of the Republican party have taken those Four Freedoms that so inspired Americans and turned them in to American blasphemies.  Apparently, if you are not scared, if you do not have needs, if you are not a specific kind of Christian, and if you dare say something that they deem “unpatriotic” (I guess they get to decide what is and isn’t patriotic) then you are not an American.  What a bunch of hogwash!

So while almost half of this country is sitting around picking their noses with their so called free will, the regressives are out there right now convincing them that they need more of the last eight years, more of the same failed policies of George Bush, more of this hogwash.  The regressives tell them it’s good for them, that thinking for yourself (liberally) is a sin, that this is what America is all about - the elimination of the middle class.

Well, I have news for the regressives, as the middle class goes, so goes this country.

Here is the video evidence of John McCain’s steady diet of silver spoonism:

And here is the Barack Obama ad that hammers it home:

Any ideas?  I have opened up the comments section for suggestions.

Are you a conservative or a Regressive? Take the Quiz

I found this posted on sodahead.com.  Some interesting discussion on Regressive politics.

Are you really a conservative?  Not likely.  A regressive…well, here is how to tell:

Regressive:

1. Tending to return or revert.
2. Characterized by regression or a tendency to regress.

Or in other words, moving this country, and humanity, backwards instead of forward - and wanting to take the rest of us down with them!

So, how do you tell if you are a Regressive?  Here are 22 good ways:
1.  If it is 2008, and you are still proud to call yourself a conservative, you are a Regressive.

2.  If you think Ann Coulter is hot, you are a Regressive.

3.  If you pee your pants, or if your face turns red every time you hear someone whisper, “Muhammad” you are a Regressive.

4.  If you would gladly turn over your freedoms guaranteed by our constitution for a little “safety,” not only would you be a coward, you would be a Regressive.

5.  If you think it is manly to keep a gun on your hip like you’re Wyatt Earp or something, you would be a Regressive.

6.  If you think Jesus Christ would agree with your hatred of black people and gays, you would be a Regressive.

7.  If capital gains tax cuts are more important to you than education, health care, justice, falsifying CIA intelligence on White House letterhead about uranium in Niger, you are a Regressive.

8.  If you mispronounce the name of the country Niger, you are a Regressive.

9.  If you still believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim, not only would you be in fairyland, you would be a Regressive.

10.  If you believe that Jesus Christ gives a crap about whether or not December 21st through January 3rd is called Christmas Break or Winter Break, you would be a Regressive.

11.  If you believe that the government should be able to tell people who they can or can not love, you would be a Regressive.

12.  If you believe that the government should regulate whether or not a woman has to give birth when a sperm cell penetrates a vaginal egg, you would be a Regressive.

13.  If you believe that God has broken heaven in to different levels, one for Mexicans, one for Blacks, One for Chinese people, a really high level where you and 15 billion other white Americans who have lived from Adam and Eve until judgment day (2012) will be sitting at the right hand of the Lord himself, you would be a Regressive.

14.  If you still think Rush Limbaugh has any credibility left, you would be a Regressive.

15.  If you still believe that Fox News is fair and balanced, you would be a Regressive.

16.  If you believe that there are people out there actually breaking the law so that they can vacation at some imaginary Cook County Jail in Illinois, you would be a Regressive.

17.  If you still think that Extremist Wahhabi Muslim Osama Bin Laden was partnering with Sunni Iraqi Saddam Hussein, you would be a clueless dunce…and a Regressive.

18.  If you think building a fence to keep Mexicans from taking our “jobs” makes us any different that than third century B.C. Chinese people, you would be a Regressive.

19.  If you think that the Earth is only six thousand years old and that Jesus rode bareback on Tyrannosaurus Rex, you would be a Regressive.

20.  If you believe that progressive liberals somehow have no respect for tradition, you would be a Regressive.

21.  If you believe that fire is just a fad, you are a Regressive.

22.  If you have read this list and still plan to vote for John McCain in November, you would be a Regressive.

Stay tuned for more ways to tell if you are a Regressive.

 All of the empty rhetoric from the Bush Administration and the McCain camp’s manufactured consent operations has many people believing that things are going well in Iraq and that the surge is working.  Well, that is a bunch of hogwash, and by saying that, I am not making light of the situation.  It is the vilest of hogwash, a disgusting manipulation of an American population that is just trying to make ends meet.  The problem for people who know the truth, and want to communicate the truth, is that the situation is complicated and requires a very large attention span to understand.

That is exactly how the Republican Party operates.  They oversimplify very complicated topics, appealing to the worse of human nature, in order to get everyone to fall in line behind their ignorance.

The real truth about the current situation in Iraq is that it is the world’s largest segregated prison, with an entire generation of children, full of bottled up rage and anger over everything and anything American.

When I saw this video, it made me sad for our country’s future, and for the future of my four children.  At first, I was almost in tears for the boy, and then when I heard him say what he said, I wanted to wring his neck; and then the reporter said what he said, “It doesn’t matter if it is true what they believe or not.”  And he was right on the money.  It doesn’t matter why an entire generation of Iraqi’s hate us.  The fact of the matter is that they do, and it certainly will not be hard to convince them at some point to mobilize against us.

This war isn’t even close to being over.  Whether the next President pulls our troops out in 16 months or not, Bush has put us in an untenable situation of epic proportions, and that is the truth of the matter.

I was at Costco today, letting the oil companies make their record profits off of me, just minding my own business when some obnoxious ninny blew his horn like a train over an intersection.  It scared the bejesus out of me, mainly because I was off in another world.  When I looked up, there was a full-size red Chevy truck parked two or three car lengths behind me with its driver making every obscene gesture in the book at an elderly couple who were simply pulling in behind me to get in line for gas like normal people.

Something about this guy made him think that he owned all six lines for gasoline, both the front pumps and the back pumps, and the next one that would open up was all his.  Everyone else, in this idiot’s mind, was supposed to line up behind him, at the back of the lot.  After I gathered my bearings, I just shook my head and put the handle back in the pump and got in my truck.

The red Chevy was clearly wanting to keep the space between my vehicle and his because if the pump in front of me became free before I was finished, he wanted to have the option to swing around me and fit in if at all possible.  The thing is, I finished at the same time as the pump in front of me.  However, that made no difference to the jerk in the red Chevy.  After he made such a scene with his horn and butthole antics, he just had to prove his point that the reason he was keeping the thirty foot space behind me and him was to make sure he could get to that front pump.

So with all of the buffoonery he could muster, just as I was pulling forward to leave, he whipped around me to the front pump, and abruptly threw it in reverse to block me in.  If he would not of been such a blowhard, he and the sweet old couple in the Lincoln could have leisurely pulled in to both pumps at the same time.

I thought, “What a load of hogwash!”  Even if you rule out common sense for this idiot, there is still a certain level of gas station etiquite that pretty much everyone knows.  Rule number one, nothing about him or any one of us makes us the king of the gas station pumps, as this web site I found below so wonderful details:

Gas Station Safety and Etiquette - Tips and Advice
The busiest stations are the ones with the lowest prices and the longest lines. When space allows and there’s no one revving their motor behind you, it’s fine to hover and wait to see which line moves fastest. But as soon as a new customer pulls onto the lot, you’ve got to cast your lot with one line—no more hovering.  (AND NO HOGWASH!)

I have a great deal of respect for Amnesty International and everyone else who fights for an uncensored internet.  After all, we are all adults.  Well, at least I am.  I also have a serious problem with communist China’s human rights violations and various restrictions on personal freedoms.

However, that is another topic for another day.  Amnesty International, and the press’s beef with China and the International Olympic Committee’s agreement to restrict internet action is complete Hogwash.  What did they expect?  After all, this is communist China.

If anyone should be protesting anything, it is that the IOC agreed to have the Olympics in China to begin with.  But here is the deal, they did.  Now China is receiving a certain amount of international pressure in regards to their human rights violations that would not have happened otherwise.  So, I get it, but this is the Olympics people, not some LAN party.

Of course, if the Chinese government was smart, they would just call it “The Patriot Act” and everyone would be fine with it.

Link
By Karolos Grohmann
BEIJING, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Saturday faced mounting questions over Internet censorship, days before the Beijing Games, despite earlier pledges that its use would be unfettered.
While China has allowed access to some websites that were blocked earlier in the week, many sites still remain inaccessible to reporters covering the Beijing Olympics that start on Aug. 8. On Friday the IOC had said the issue had been resolved.
“We would like to see the greatest degree of openness,” IOC communications director Giselle Davies told reporters.
“There has been no change in the IOC’s position. The IOC would like to see open access,” she said in response to several questions regarding the IOC’s determination to push through what it had promised.

Hogwash.  What exactly is hogwash?  Some would say it is the stuff bath water for hogs is made of.  Others would say that it is what is left in the water after the hog is washed.  If you were a child with several brothers and sisters, hogwash was what you bathed in if you were not first in line for your bath.

But enough with the technicalities.

Mostly, this is a blog about the hogwash that enters lives on a daily, hourly, second by second basis.  For instance, as most of us have seen over the last eight years or so, every sound that pours out of George W. Bush’s mouth is hogwash.  No, this is not another “bash W. blog.”  I just could not think of a better example of metaphorical hogwash.  So, be prepared.  Whether it is religion, politics, sports, technology, or your mother’s dirty underwear, it’s all Hogwash.

I was raised a Christian.  Kind of.  My parents did not go to church very often, if at all.  My mother’s side of the family has roots in the Southern Baptist tradition, while my father’s side of the family attended a United Church of Christ for some time.  My only exposure to church before my pre-teen years was a few weddings and a couple of trips to sing Amazing Grace for my grandmother’s Baptist Church of Arnold.

If you have not tried to sing Amazing Grace to the Coca-Cola theme song of the 70s, you really ought to try it.  It’s special.

Since then, I have been inundated, as we all are with religion.  My favorite, if I had to chose, would still be Christianity.  Part of the draw for me is how different Jesus Christ appears to me when I read about the things he says and does compared to the Jesus Christ that the various dogmas of Christianity force feed their congregations.

For example, is this what Jesus Christ would do? (Warning!: Very Foul Language)  — If you ask me, it’s complete Hogwash!