You've no doubt read by now in the "real" news how Obama suffered a big defeat last night, or how this election is a sign the GOP is on the rise, or how Health Care Reform is now in danger...
Judge them by their words - pay attention who spins things this way. For, while no doubt the Democratic party lost two Governor elections to their Republican opponents, and that can be spun as "good" news, it's not critically important either. Rather, Democrats picked up 2 seats in Congress last night, including the highly contested seat in NY-23 which, get this, had not voted Democratic since 1871. 1871! And yet now, because of the TeaBaggers, they have a newly minted D representing them. Fun fact: North of Pennsylvania (i.e. NY and New England) there are 57 congressional seats, 55 of whom are Democrats.
And so, the Teabaggers were able to force out a moderate GOP rep who probably would have won and replaced her with a Glenn Back Teabaggin acolyte who lost. But they are claiming it as a victory! And maybe it is, from their insane perspective, since news just broke that the NRSC - the National Republican club which backs Republicans in primaries and elections with money and support, will no longer back candidates in primaries. This is an amazing deveolpment and essentially gives the Teabagger (Via the "Club for Growth) a blank check to attack everyone they deem "moderate".
So the purity purges will continue. The next super fun election will be Florida senate race, specifically the Republican primary. Watch to see if the somewhat reasonable Charlie Crist (current Gov of FL) can defeat raging wingnut Marc Rubio. It will be a harbinger.
To wit: Expect more craziness in the short to mid term, with possible long term positive resolution (that is, the GOP has been destroyed, or so reformed that they no longer resemble today's party).
Against Fox News, by the forces of sanity and logic. And it's about damn time. Fox news, of course, will not take this lying down -- indeed, since Ms. Dunn et all have made their official comments about Fox News, the Foxies have made it their lead story, day and night. And this will continue, to their detriment.
Because, at last, the spell has been broken, and people are talking about it. The News organizations specifically. Now, there's a lot of ignorance that has to be burned through first. Witness this quote by a hapless Washington Post writer:
Where the White House has gone way overboard is in its decision to treat Fox as an outright enemy and to go public with the assault. Imagine the outcry if the Bush administration had pulled a similar hissy fit with MSNBC. - Ruth Marcus
Just imagine! Oh wait, no need to imagine: The Bush Admin repeatedly stated that MSNBC and NBC were paying the price for their "viewpoint". That was straight up payback; The Obama Admin has stated they will continue to go on Fox news, there just not pretending its a news station, but rather an opinion/partisan media outlet. Which is fine -- that's the whole point. There are plenty of partisan news groups out there on both sides. However, none of them, except for Fox news and its allies, pretend they are "Fair And Balanced". Which is Doubelspeak at it's finest.
Regardless, this is gonna shake things up. And it's going to further expose the rest of the absolutely terrible and corrupted Washington media corp. Watch morans Jake Tapper and Mark Halperin (and others) rush to Fox's defense; witness the hyperbole of the Becks and Hannitys; observe how this "debate" plays out in the Newscorp media world (WSJ for example).
It's a mess out there. But, like with most things so far, I believe Obama has maneuvered his opponents into a lose-lose position.
One of the most amazing things the modern Republican party (or at least a subset of it) has done over the past 30 years (see, credit where credit is due!) is to completely dominate the framing of issues to the public.
We don't debate reality, the facts, or the truth; we debate versions of these things, slanted towards the Republican's viewpoint.
This leads to ever greater heights of absurdity, and with our boy Bush generally trashing everything they've worked so hard to build over the past 30 years, the absurdity becomes more apparent.
For example, this cartoon, which aptly sums up the reality of the past 30 years, and puts that reality into the context of today:
That the Republicans bank -- literally, a foundation - on the mantra of attacking their Democratic opponents as "Tax and Spend" liberals. Forget the truth, reality, facts, all of that: They'll say this whether it's true or not, and they will repeat it ad inifinitum.
The truth is of course the Repugs are Spend and Spend politicians, and no average American household could operate this way.
So, the question is: Why does this falsehood continue to live? Why does it still have currency.
Search your feelings, and you will find the answer.
Oh, isn't this special? Straight from the RNC website (no link, would not want to send anyone there). They're making fun of Obama's vacation!
Classy, huh? A campaign run on mockery and lies.
That's your modern Republican party, people!
