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Showing posts with label Occupy Wall Street. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Occupy Wall Street. Show all posts
View Larger Map ----- The Weekly Standard Washington Loses Power And not just from a storm. By Fred Barnes July 16, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 41
For Washington, this is definitely not the best of times. The town is suffering from a power outage.
The evidence is hard to miss, from Washington’s weeklong struggle to cope with storm damage that knocked out electricity across the region to President Obama’s inability to awaken the economy, as reflected once again in June’s pathetic jobs report.
To make matters worse, Washing-ton is out of sync with the country, at least with the noncoastal parts. The usual response is to unleash the president so he can rally America to Washington’s purposes. But the bully pulpit hasn’t been effective since Ronald Reagan was in the White House. And Obama has failed to revive it.
Wall Street Journal video: Florida Tea Party to Vote Against Mitt Romney. January 31, 2012. http://youtu.be/6V1muYp0bGU
Contrary to MSM's contention, while I'm neither an Undecided, Early, Hispanic or I-4 voter, it looks like I "may hold key" to the 2012 Florida GOP Presidential Primary. I am definitely NOT undecided.
Before I leave to go cast my ballot in today's Florida primary, can I please make two quick points about ALL the very bad reporting that I've seen the past year, nationally and in Florida, along the lines of "What's new with the Tea Party?"
First, in a large grass-roots movement that is intentionally decentralized, in large part because so many of its supporters have regular lives, jobs and family responsibilities, and do NOT have a taxpayer-paid PR flack like members of Congress to arrange sit-downs with reporters, the news media's insistence that any story about the Tea Party, esp. one that is filmed, involve a conversation with a purported "leader" is especially problematic.
Problematic since 99.9% of the people within that particular state who support the movement in a general way, likely have neverheard of this person interviewed.
And frankly, in many cases, it makes them wonder why if this bottom-up point is so well understood by them, and is actually part of its appeal to them and many others, i.e. effort over ego, why does this person in the news video -any video- seem so unaware of the central tenet of the movement and unwilling to say so during the interview.
Is it simply the way the piece is edited they wonder?
And so it is today in this Wall Street Journal video at the top of the post.
Why does the MSM persist in expending so much time and energy looking for someone that is simply not there?
There's no Tea Party Oz behind the curtain.
Certainly many liberals want to believe that there is, despite all the evidence to the contrary, because this fits into their mindset that,
a.) people who think differently than they do are clearly sheep being led around by someone else that the sheep are too stupid to see for themselves,
b.) they'll have a face in particular to hate and a person to write snarky comments about in newspaper and blog reader comments at 2 a.m., when they can't get their venom out of their system and fall asleep.
You see this more and more frequently all over the blogosphere and on YouTube, when you see the time stamp next to their remarks, that is to say, when they aren't posting meet-up times and locales for their local Occupy Wall Street protests, on news stories that have nothing to do with it.
Second, Tea Party supporters are the main reason that the GOP took over the U.S. House of Representatives in the election of November 2010, NOT some grass roots movement that desperately wanted to see much more of uninspiring, charisma-challenged, Cincinnati tear-jerker John Boehner appearing on Sunday morning TV chat shows.
In the process, they defeated many of the few remaining moderate House Democratic incumbents -some of whom I'd met- and elected many conservative Republicans in districts that weren't necessarily leaning GOP, but had gotten past the goal line because of a larger-than-expected Tea Party turnout.
This, of course, also had the practical effect of making the Democratic Party in Washington MUCHmore liberal and less able to keep itself tethered to reality, given that the most liberal Democratic members of Congress also have long had the advantage of being able to run from gerrymandered districts.
Unlike most of the Dems who lost, who'd previously won elections in either Neutral or Leans GOP districts, but had somehow found a way to win, either personality, experience or campaign fundraising.
But that momentous election was just 15 months ago, not 15 years ago, yet judging by many of the news stories I've seen and read, there's literally an army of reporters and columnists who have been waiting to declare the Tea Party moment dead or dying, because...
Well, they can't point to anything specifically, but they keep telling us that they 'feel' it.
They were especially keen on mentioning this during the Fifteen Minutes of Occupy Wall Street a few months ago.
The problem is that there is not a national election for Tea Party supporters to weigh-in on for another nine months, and it's as predictable as hurricane warnings in late August down here that lots of well-known liberal columnists and Beltway pundits will be talking about the Tea Party being dead without any tangible evidence, other than them simply wanting it so.
But don't you actually need elections first before you do post-election analysis?
Above, the Tom the Turkey balloon in the flower section of the Publix grocery store on Hallandale Beach Boulevard & S.E. 14th Avenue, Hallandale Beach, FL. November 24, 2009 photo by South Beach Hoosier.
My prescience is priceless: In days, Americans will show their overwhelming disdain for Occupy Wall Street by leaving their families at home to get to stores by Midnight to buy Corporate America's must-haves.
Or, put another way, welcome to "A Very Vegan Thanksgiving in Ft. Lauderdale" -with French faux-Turkey recipes collected by Ron Gunzburger, noted Francophile and Vive-le-Jet-Set member! http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=34136590@N02&q=France
How the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel , the business/legal newspapers and all the local Miami-area TV stations have managed to hold off on doing articles, columns or news broadcast about his seeming hypocrisy on this issue, on the one hand, comporting himself every bit the Broward establishment figure from his position as a government attorney for the Broward County Appraiser's office, while at the same time, having been the very picture of the savvy PR flack for the Blame America First branch of the Democratic Party in Broward, that's so universally laudatory about the Occupy Wall Street protesters, is really quite something.
That "something" is called being asleep-at-the-wheel.
Seriously, is there anyone around in South Florida political life who more consistently imbues the average American's (outside of South Florida) mental image of the prototypical liberal, wine-sipping, self-loathing American Bohemian who must escape to France en vacances once in a while to get in touch with himself than Ron Gunzburger?
Mon dieu, non!
(Of course, once he's over there, he can see all over again what real pretentious hipsters are like first-hand by simply looking around, and trying not to be drawn into un-necessary internecine French political arguments over party purity or the merits of a fusion ticket.)
That Ron Gunzburger is well-known, gay and in a position to actually either compliment or scold well-known reporters, columnists and media personalities thru his popular political website, is, of course, only the liberal gravy if you will, speaking of upcoming Thanksgiving.
And yet because of one thing or another, even the thing I don't mention here, the local Miami and Ft. Lauderdale news media haven't even bothered to lift their fingers in an attempt to put him on the spot for a bit and have him try to explain himself, chiefly his seeming bi-polarity of both having his cake and eating it, too.
The local media haven't made any serious attempt to give South Florida residents an idea of why someone who is in many ways the very picture of a govt. bureaucrat -and image-conscious to boot- hasn't seen even a single negative news vibe since the whole Occupy PR machinery went into high gear? Not one.
The next time you see a professional reporter or columnist or editor hereabouts skulking about at some news event or public meeting take a moment to walk up to him or her and ask them about that supreme and jaw-dropping lack of effort.
And if they actually respond civily, take the opportunity to ask who else is on that Untouchable list of theirs, write it down and let me know.
We'd all like to know, though some are givens, like all the Dem congresspeople from South Florida, who hardly need press secretaries given the job the local media does of playing stenographer.
Broward Clean Sweep video: How Broward reporters cover Broward politicians
For the record, I don't personally dislike Ron Gunzburger, I'm just genuinely mystified how and why in the year 2011, given what is known about him -his political sympathies, his various efforts locally, et al, plus, the ease of technology that makes it easier for the news media to do their job than ever before- that the South Florida news media is SO completely frozen in place that they are unable to see a NEWS STORY when it is staring right in front of their face waving a red cape like a matador.
Frankly, I don't doubt that he has wondered the same thing.
It's media myopia plus dollops of disconnectedness, a very bad combination for newspaper readers and TV news viewers if ever there were any, and that won't be helped any by Tryptophan Thursday, as next weekend's newspaper stories and columns are almost guaranteed to be the worst of the year, as happens every year like clockwork.
In fact, even as we speak, someone's column for next weekend is either being written or edited right now, so that column will on some large 'theme' instead of a particular news story.
Unfortunately, many of those columns will be written by the very same Mainstream Media folks like E.J. Dionne, Leonard Pitts, Jr. or Kathleen Parker -who can't help herself from mentioning Sarah Palin, even when nobody else is- all of whom, so consistently mis-fire and continually draw the wrong conclusions about what is actually happening in our country, good or bad, regardless of what the subject is, and, consequently always seem to prescribe a cure that may well hasten the demise of the system we enjoy, however imperfect and galling at times.
Yes, in the very same newspapers all over the country that have, does have and will have front page stories all week about the confounding trend of holiday consumerism intruding on family time together, and instead heading for Ye Olde Galleria or Target or Best Buy at Midnight, après le third NFL football game du jour is finit, to indulge in some consumer theory first-hand, are the very same people will say that the Occupy forces have really taught us all a valuable lesson.
Aand that their message will linger longer than anything the Tea Party does.
In my opinion, that conclusion, common in the blogosphere among self-styled 'progressives' is not only untrue, but unprovable, but that hardly seems to matter now, despite the fact that these same folks say the intentionally loose amalgam of people supporting the Tea Party's economic and limited government principles are the power within the GOP.
(How can it be both the power and a negligible force that will soon be eclipsed, they never quite explain.)
It's like saying if Don Shula had finally traded for an elite NFL running back, the Dolphins of the 1990's would've won a Super Bowl with Dan Marino at quarterback.
BOBBY KNIGHT OF INDIANA
A Profile by Frank Deford, January 28, 1981
Like if you gave former IU coach Bobby Knight control of North Carolina's perpetual mother-lode of crazy incoming talent that Dean Smith had all those years, and ask how many MORE NCAA basketball titles he would have won before Coach Smith finally won his first -years after Coach Knight had already won two titles at IU, including my sophomore year in Bloomington?
THE CHAMPS!
Hoosier Hero Isiah Thomas, April 4, 1981
That's speculation of the worst sort because in the end, you only end up chasing your tail.
But I've heard those very questions posed before.
Sometimes, all in the same long drive to South Florida from Bloomington at the holidays or Spring Break.
Imponderables.
Like what if political candidates said out-loud in a prologue before debates, forums and speeches, what particular reporters & columnists they sincerely believed were stupid, biased, incompetent or unethical -and had to give examples; would that be a positive to society to get it all out in the open and have some genuine transparency?
I say yes, but how can that be proven true unless everyone does it?
Stores that once closed their doors in deference to the holiday are now touting Turkey Day deals starting as early as 9 p.m. Workers who should be on vacation are answering office e-mails on their smartphones. And those who plan on celebrating with a traditional dinner are finding that the cost of a bird is near its 30-year high, according to government data.
