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Stewart nails the White House "War on Fox"

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The continuing death of irony

Poor Cal Thomas. In trying to argue a conservative Christianist case this week against the Iowa Supreme Court's wise decision on gay marriage, he wound up satirizing himself yet again.

When Meredith Willson wrote the wildly popular musical "The Music Man" half a century ago, Harold Hill proclaimed trouble had come to River City, Iowa in the form of a pool hall, which he claimed would corrupt young people unless the local citizens bought the musical instruments he was selling and got their kids into a marching band. He promised that playing music would keep kids from "fritterin' away their mealtime, suppertime, chore time, too" ...

Neither Willson, nor his mythical character Hill, could have foreseen what "trouble" the Iowa Supreme Court has brought on the state (and potentially the nation) when it unanimously ruled that denying same-sex couples the right to marry "does not substantially further any important government objective"...

(snip)

The battle over same-sex marriage is on the way to being lost. For conservatives who still have faith in the political system to reverse the momentum, you are — to recall Harold Hill — "closing your eyes to a situation you do not wish to acknowledge."

Thomas' problem? If you'll recall your Broadway history, The Music Man is a story about a con man. That "trouble" they had right there in River City? There wasn't any. Just a con man trying to sell musical instruments by manipulating a bunch of rubes via drummed-up fears of a corrupting influence.

What's going on at Fox?

I'm on the record as believing a pretty simple premise: Fox News is the TV propaganda wing of the Republican Party. I don't put it in the same category as the other TV news outlets.

I know others believe that innate liberalism among the press in general makes all news organizations except Fox de facto organs of the Democratic Party, and after years of arguing about that premise, I just don't bother anymore. If you believe that, go ahead and believe it.

Anyway, having been a vocal critic of Fox, I feel some responsibility to post clips that argue against my belief that the channel is purely right-wing propaganda. Here's a clip of Shep Smith committing actual, responsible journalism in an interview with the bizarre political figure "Joe the Plumber."

This could go several ways. I could be fundamentally wrong (it's happened before -- more times than I'd like to admit). This could be a rogue act by a journalist who is fed up with the pretend journalism at his network. This could be an ideological division within Fox. Or maybe it represents pushback within the conservative movement, which is having some fascinating internal debates about identity, direction and responsibility right now.

Two ads

On the day of Obama's 30-minute infomercial, I post these two ads because I think they demonstrate the state of play in this election better than any longwinded analysis.

First, here's McCain's ad, which will run before Obama's 30-minute long-form pitch:

And then there's this Obama ad, which goes negative on McCain:

Amy Goodman arrested in St. Paul

Journalist Amy Goodman of Democracy Now is an honest, sensible, principled journalist and American.

What the hell is going on in Minnesota?

An energy plan we can believe in

There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger. In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment.

“Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years. This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans – in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen.”

Well. There's a simple, visionary plan from a guy whose life has earned him the credibility and stature to propose it: Reverse the trend in carbon emissions, end our dependency on foreign oil (thereby changing our relationship to the Middle East) and kick start our economy with new industries, new products, new services, new public works projects.

We rallied around Kennedy's call to put a man on the moon in 10 years and to do other grand things, "because they are hard." Well, we've got a better reason to do this: Because it's going to save our sorry asses.

Sure, we'll have the usual people telling us this is just more stupid libtard stuff. And to put it bluntly, screw 'em. They've had their time, and they blew it.

Anyway, I've just started a group at MyBarackObama.com to encourage the explicit adoption of this challenge. I'll post the URL as soon as it gets processed.

Obama needs to hear from us

To put things in Army vernacular, Obama stepped on his dick last week. And no, I'm not talking about his reversal on fund-raising, which was hypocritical  but tactical.

No, I'm talking about the FISA bill. It was Obama's first true test as the leader of both a party and a movement, and let's be blunt: He flunked it. Badly. 

Lessig: The flaw in our OS

Reforming our corrupted and corrupting political system is Job No. 1 for Americans during the coming political era, and here's video of Xark hero Larry Lessig laying out the case for his Change Congress movement during his keynote address a week ago at the National Media Reform Conference.

If you haven't donated to Change Congress yet, please do. If you haven't taken the Change Congress pledge, please do that, too. And if you haven't taken the time yet to introduce yourself to these simple but transformative ideas, please watch this video (28 minutes) and wrap your brain around Lessig's clear, profound ideas.

Media sexism

I'm not a Hillary Clinton fan, and my estimation of her has diminished geometrically since April. But when Clinton supporters say that they're mad about sexism in the news media, don't dismiss it as sour grapes. They've got a legit beef.

Americans should demand better.