U.S. TV viewers concerned MSM is over-promising Hurricane Irene's possible damage to NYC area -fear it will be disappointing and not spectacular mess

U.S. TV viewers concerned that Mainstream Media is over-promising Hurricane Irene's possible damage to NYC area -fear it will be disappointing blah and not spectacular mess that the hipster reporters promised us.

The media hype, the horror, the human suffering... and that's just among the reporters forced to stand on the beach and think of something original to say when there IS nothing original that can be said.

I'm already starting to think that instead of the quality Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Grade A film that shows you on-screen where every dollar was spent, the type that the U.S. media is gabbing about expecting this weekend, what's more likely is that we'll get one of those terrible Grade C, Made-in-Canada films that air on Syfy Channel with a largely unknown cast that you come across late at night.

The kind where after watching only one segment you say, "Ugh!!! This is un-watchable."

Meanwhile, if parts of Anthony Weiner's former CD, NY-9, are about to go "blub, blub" under water, who will they have in D.C. looking out for them?

Right, nobody.

Just like Gabrielle Gifford's AZ-8 -un-elected staff with no vote or influence.

And supposedly, if you haven't already heard the latest, Rep. Giffords supporters in the Arizona Democratic Party have stated that she won't even publicly announce for another 10 months whether she will seek re-election.

That is to say, in May of 2012.

In my opinion, she should've already resigned -months ago.

Regardless of the circumstances, all Americans are entitled to congressional representation in Washington that can do the job - RIGHT NOW.

Their rights are more important than hers.

If nobody has thought about it already, it might be time to put up some time-lapse cameras around New York right about now so we can see how Battery Park looks as the Hudson River reclaims it.

Compare to how the Dutch saw it the first time almost 400 years ago:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Amsterdam

New York Times headline on Monday?

"Irene strikes NYC area with savage fury; poor & minorities especially hard hit"

While her opponents are busy trying to brainstorm and reinvent themselves to thwart her, like the Mississippi River, Sarah Palin keeps rolling along..

See my response to this story at TheWrap amongst their reader comments.

Brand Palin Takes a Hit With 'Blood Libel' Video

By Brent Lang
Published: January 12, 2011 @ 7:21 pm

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/after-giffords-shooting-brand-palin-takes-hit-23857


I must admit that I make a mistake in responsing to this post in such haste, as I was wrong about there being only one person quoted, as I forgot about Laurence Barton's comments and...

Then again, I also neglected to attack the asinine 'remain a punching-bag' remarks by John Feehery

“She should let others defend her and keep quiet for a while,” John Feehery, a Republican political consultant and the president of Quinn Gillespie Communications, wrote in an email message to TheWrap.

His comments may be the single dumbest thing I read all year.

Consider this:

In the 2008 Democratic primary -you know, the one that the MSM said was already Hillary's in 2007- if Obama's media acolytes and union pals at SEIU kept attacking Hillary with untrue info and she let it stand for nearly a week, the media would've said that she showed weakness, correct?
Yes, he said in answering his own rhetorical question.

Palin waits five days after being hammered for something she didn't do and is promptly attacked for "inserting" herself into the situation by ABC News.
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenote/2011/01/the-note-obama-palin-and-arizona-a-tale-of-two-speeches.html?cid=6a00d8341c4df253ef0148c78e402e970c

You don't have to want Sarah Palin to be either the face of the GOP or president -and I don't- to know that this was a 'high-tech lynching.' and a probable preview of what the MSM has in store for the GOP this year.

Go ahead, explain the difference in media sentiment.

Welcome to the American mainstream media's 2011 version of civility: They'll attack you and say things that are clearly absurd, then attack you for defending yourself, and when you finally respond, they'll selectively run stories featuring people who never liked you, who then further attack you.
Afterwards, they'll attack you for needlessly "inserting" yourself.

And after it's all over, and the lack of evidence is even more stark, and there are recriminations for the lynch mob, they'll say, "Well, even if it's not true this time..."


My favorite version of Ol' Man River, from the 1936 film starring the amazing Irene Dunne, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028249/



Paul Robeson - Ol' Man River (Showboat - 1936) J.Kern O. Hammerstein II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh9WayN7R-s

The National Journal's Yochi Dreazen on the new garrison state of Washington, D.C.: “Walled Off Washington"

Commemorative plaque located by the Document Door in the United States Capitol
IN HONOR AND REMEMBRANCE OF THE HEROISM DISPLAYED BY OFFICER JACOB JOSEPH CHESTNUT AND DETECTIVE JOHN MICHAEL GIBSON UNITED STATES CAPITOL POLICE WHO, ON JULY 24, 1998, HERE BRAVELY GAVE THEIR LIVES DEFENDING THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL
DEDICATED BY THE HONORABLE J. DENNIS HASTERT, SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND THE HONORABLE STROM THURMOND, PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol_shooting_incident_%281998%29

At the exact time of the 1998 incident above -near Tom Delay's office- I was over in the Rayburn Building across the street.


Former Wall Street Journal Military Correspondent Yochi Dreazen, now in his sixth month at The National Journal, http://nationaljournal.com/ has a good story on the philosophical and public policy debate on personal security among the official Washington set that's only gotten more hysterical following last week's shooting in Tucson, as that perpetual Inside the Beltway debate over ease-of-access to elected officials vs. adequate security safeguards, and the well-known arguments that underpin the two sides, are both re-evaluated.

-----

The National Journal
ANALYSIS
Walled-Off Washington

How free can a society be when its elected officials are kept further and further away from those they represent?
By Yochi J. Dreazen
Monday, January 10, 2011 | 2:55 p.m.
Updated at 3:07 p.m. on January 10.

It’s hard to remember, but Washington wasn’t always a city of walls.

Thomas Jefferson held a public reception at the White House after his second inaugural, and citizens were able to freely wander through the building to personally ask presidents like Abraham Lincoln for jobs and other favors. Harry Truman took long walks around Washington each morning protected by just a handful of Secret Service agents. Capitol Hill had no roadblocks or barricades, and cars and trucks passed directly in front of the White House as they drove down Pennsylvania Avenue, one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.

Today, those seem like postcards from a forgotten era.

Read the rest of the story at: http://nationaljournal.com/nationalsecurity/washington-not-always-a-city-of-walls-20110110

Frankly, there are some people I can think of on Capitol Hill who have long believed that the public already had TOO MUCH access to them and their staffers, yet had no problem in meeting lobbyists in questionable public places where the security was lax to say the least, and where all kinds of things could happen if someone were so inclined.

I've personally seen questionable personal behavior at the area's three main airports among well-known elected and appointed officials -and the press- that was really over-the-top, and while perhaps not exactly TMZ-worthy, was NOT at all what the constituents back home, or even the top echelons of their Dept would want to see or know anything about.

Okay for South Florida, perhaps, but not among the professional institutional set.

Plus, there are SO MANY sieves in security up there, it's ridiculous.
Anyone who has worked there for any length of time can recite all sorts of specific places and circumstances where something could be done simply and quickly with few the wiser.

After 9/11, some effort was made to change some of these places, but others, well, not as much as you'd expect.

When you live just five blocks from the U.S. Capitol, as I did for a while my first year in Washington, you think about all sorts of things, and when you see the U.S. Capitol Police and The Supreme Court Police everyday, security and safety is on that list, especially when you are walking back at night, after work, from your daily walk over to The Washington Monument and back, listening to either talk radio or NPR.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_Police

I personally believe that elected representatives who have unreasonable fears should simply hire their own security at their own expense, not ours. If you don't like the working conditions, there's always somebody happy to take your job.
You are completely replaceable.

Many new congressmen and staffers come to town under the mistaken belief that The U.S. Capitol Police are like White House-detailed Secret Service agents and are ready to take a bullet for them. They're not!
http://www.uscapitolpolice.gov/home.php

Having gotten to know many of them over the years because I tended to go to the same floors in the same House and Senate building because of my job and interests, and there are only so many places to cross the street, I can tell you that, collectively, their worst fears were very stupid congressmen -or even stupider staffers- who put themselves in harms way by their foolish personal behavior and choices, and who seem to expect the Capital Police to extricate them.

Representatives who refuse to use prudent judgment or who continually cause problems become quickly known among the police force. Then they become quickly well-known to the media and the general public.

Former Georgia Rep. Cynthia McKinney is perhaps the most obvious example I can think of, and it bears mentioning here that even among the female cops, there's a belief that, for whatever reason, the female Reps are esp. reluctant to follow the simple rules that everyone else MUST follow.

Nobody cares that you used to be the mayor of Dog Patch, ran a Fortune 500 company or were formerly the House Minority Leader in dopey Florida.
You are a dime a dozen!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,189553,00.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/20/washington/20brfs-010.html?_r=1&ref=cynthiaamckinney

Consider this: based on what we now know about the depth of his myriad problems with substance abuse and anger control, do you honestly think that Patrick Kennedy, now a former Congressman, never drove his car while not under control on the side-streets near the Capitol office buildings? Really?

http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=49033 http://www.uscapitolpolice.gov/pressreleases/2006/pr_05-05-06.php

The first thing I thought of when he was arrested was that he was very lucky that he never hit anyone at night, because a D.C. jury would have made an example out of him in a way that would simply not ever happen back in Rhode Island.

See also:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/11/sen-leahy-sees-a-downside-to-more-security/

http://nationaljournal.com/