Houston- Democrats are running scared after losing the late Senator Ted Kennedy's seat in Massachusetts. So what do they do? Abandon healthcare reform and shift to the economy and jobs. This maybe good for mid term elections, but it is bad for the country. My perspective is personal. My wife just completed a 7 hour brain surgery by a skilled surgical team. She has been afforded the best of healthcare in the world at the renown Houston Medical Center. I wonder if she would have been sentenced to a slow death like 45,000 others a year who lack healthcare in America? I am greatful to have good health insurance, but what about others?
I am so angry at the Democrats, I could scream! Why are they so concerned about "bluedog" Democrats. These Republicans in Democrats clothing are the creation of Dr. Howard Yee-Haw Dean. The former DNC Chair's monster, just like Dr. Frankenstein's, has turned on its master. Howard Dean should shut his pie hole and go away. It is time for the party to purge itself just like the Republicans are doing. Let Democrats be liberal to moderate and Republicans conservative to moderate. We independents will keep ourselves were we are - ahead of both of them.The Supreme Court recently gave big money the open door, window and everything else to take what little sense of democracy there is away from the people. If you think politicans are puppets of special interest now, just wait until the next election. For the most part, the people are screwed. Stand up now and tell the Democrats to do what we independents put them in office to do: make a change. Forget Wall Street and K Street. Do the people's work.
As the United States continues to tout itself as the world’s only remaining superpower, a casual observer might at the same time expect Americans to be counted among the world’s most informed and enlightened people. However, with the advent of the 24-hour news cycle and the expansion of on-line communications, the supply of the trivial and inconsequential has unfortunately surpassed the intellectual edge mass media has made available to most Americans.
ReplyDeleteProportionate to its growth and development, an escalating trend among commercial mass media emphasizes that which is superfluous to the edification of the American electorate. Deflecting attention away from the corporate interests that seek to influence the legislative process and by media outlets that beat the drums of war through pseudo-patriotic packaging, the ability of the American people to sustain a cogent response to continuous media stimuli is increasingly doubtful.
During his farewell address from office in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the public to be wary of what he called ‘the military industrial complex.’ He warned in part that: “Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals….” Although the peacefulness of American policy objectives since that time has been at best questionable, Eisenhower’s late call for Americans to remain ‘alert and knowledgeable’ was nevertheless an important appeal to reason.
While nearly 49 years have passed since that historic Oval Office speech, today, the average American has difficulty defining and becoming fully aware of what is truly in his or her own best interests. With an emphasis on sport and play, and through the melding of news and entertainment into one package, consumers of American based media are being herded away from the cerebral experience. Placing emotional stimulation and shortened attention spans over the intellect, commercial media has become more of a self-serving tool for public relations than it has for educating and informing the public at large.