World News Korner

This may have seemed like a controversial episode of the Newsroom last year, but I imagine that the majority of Americans would now agree with it 100%.

I imagine that most of us here at IM were cheering when the Jeff Daniels character, Will McAvoy, made those statements, however there was still an angry and energized minority of Americans who thought the comparison to the Taliban seemed unfair.

Somehow I have to imagine that that minority is even smaller in light of what is happening right now in Washington.

Eric Zuesse. an investigative historian has written a long and incredibly detailed explanation for how this American Taliban was able to take control over our government, as well as who funded them over at HuffPo.

Here is a portion I thought you might find interesting:

Sarah Palin had resigned her Governorship of Alaska, in order to become rich quickly via speaking tours and book deals; and on August 7th at her Facebook page she issued her "Statement on the Current Health Care Debate," and said that if Obama's health plan were to pass, people "will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil." (The phrases 'death panel' and 'level of productivity in society,' weren't in any proposed legislation, but came from Palin's own imagination.) The extremely conservative audience at aol.com was online-polled about this, "Do you agree with Palin's characterization of Obama's health plan as 'evil'?" and within a few days 200,000 respondents entered their opinions, 59% saying "Yes," and 41% "No." When asked "In general, what's your impression of Palin?" 50% said "Mostly positive," and 42% said "Mostly negative." Newt Gingrich on ABC TV's "This Week," on August 9th, was asked his opinion of Palin's Facebook statement, and Gingrich said he agreed with it, because Obama and the Democrats were planning "euthanasia" for old people. Despite ABC's strong Republican tilt, their George Stephanopoulos pointed out that there was nothing of that kind in any proposed legislation, but Gingrich went right on charging that this was the Democrats' intent. The thrust of Republicans and of the healthcare lobbyists and their "grass-roots" fronts was unmistakable: Obama's plan was to euthanize old people, and it was evil. Sometimes, major media were even compelled to correct misrepresentations of their own news reporting that was spread by Koch-allies.

The article of course is much more detailed, and I think everybody needs to read it. However I want to remind all of you that during the time mentioned above Sarah Palin was NOT the bedraggled used up skeletal harpy that we see today, Back then she was the Queen of the Tea Party and had tons of media attention paid to her every ridiculous utterance.

It was citizen journalists who eventually turned her into a laughingstock and rendered her all but impotent. And it is that same kind of grass roots reporting, and dissemination of information, that will ultimately prove to be the downfall of the Tea Party.

We can do this, but we have to be diligent, aggressive, and tireless.

Don't forget the other side, Breitbart, The Blaze, The Daily Caller, and others, all have the backing of big business to pay their bills and to help them push their agenda.

All I have is you.

(Oh, and coffee. I have coffee too.)

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