Cutting Through The Politics

"For those who stubbornly seek freedom, there can be no more urgent task than to come to understand the mechanisms and practices of indoctrination. These are easy to perceive in the totalitarian societies, much less so in the system of 'brainwashing under freedom' to which we are subjected and in which all too often we serve as unwilling instruments." -- Noam Chomsky

• Ignore the Youth Vote at Your Own Peril | Election 2008 | AlterNet:

  "Mike Connery on why progressive leaders should stop lamenting 'youth apathy' and start engaging the most diverse, tolerant, generation in history."

• Hillary Struggles Against Sexism But Regularly Plays Race Card | AlterNet:

  "In the face of raw, media-driven misogyny, Clinton resorts to playing the race card and loses some women's support in the process."

• Why John McCain Wants You To Give Up Your Health Insurance | The American Prospect:

  "The McCain Agenda: McCain believes that Americans use too much health care, and he has created a plan that will make care less affordable so millions of Americans will use less."

• Bloggingheads: The Obama Promise | New York Times Video


• "We Can't have Acquittals" | AlterNet:

  "A former Defense Department prosecutor tells us what we already know - terrorism cases were juked for political gain."

• McCain's Elitism and the New GI Bill | AlterNet:

  "John McCain is supporting a watered-down version of the new GI Bill that will primarily benefit career officers."

• Things Americans Don't Want To Talk About | AlterNet:

  "Dave Neiwert digs in to the deeper meaning of the Reverend Wright 'scandal.'"

• Americans Selling Possessions to Stay Afloat | AlterNet: "

  In the wake of the housing crash and rising food and energy prices, Americans are pawning their clothes, furniture and more."

• Is Senator Clinton Beholden to an Anti-Gay Demographic? | AlterNet:

  "Looks like Clinton is courting supporters on the wrong side of the culture war."

• Dyncorp Used Armored Car To Transport Prostitutes in Iraq | AlterNet:

  "Whistleblowers report on the outrageous misuse of resources by contractors in Iraq."

• No Country for Old Men | Election 2008 | AlterNet:

  "McCain's age matters; especially if he picks his running mate from the crazy wing of the Republican Party."

• Why You Shouldn't Spend that 'Stimulus' Check | AlterNet:

  "If we refused to cash our checks, the value of the dollars in our pockets would go up by more than the face value of the stimulus refund."

• The McCain Health Plan: Millions Lose Coverage, Health Costs Worsen, and Insurance and Drug Industries Win | OurFuture.org:

  ...McCain’s plan is a dangerous fraud.
  
  He wants voters to think he is going after health care cost inflation. In reality, he wants to dismantle the employer-provided system that now covers over 60 percent (or about 158 million) of non-elderly Americans, forcing millions of us who now get fairly decent health insurance on the job to instead buy whatever they can find on the individual market controlled by unregulated and predatory insurance companies. And he would drive health care costs upward, not downward....

• Which Is Worse: the Pentagon or the Media? | AlterNet:

  "The Pentagon says it's halting its propaganda program, but the news media is still quite about its role in leading us to war."

• Bush Made Permanent | New York Times | Paul Krugman

  "...if truth be told, the McCain tax plan doesn't seem to embody any coherent policy agenda. Instead, it looks like a giant exercise in pandering - an attempt to mollify the GOP's right wing, and never mind if it makes any sense. The impression that Mr. McCain's tax talk is all about pandering is reinforced by his proposal for a summer gas tax holiday - a measure that would, in fact, do little to help consumers, although it would boost oil industry profits.
  
  More and more, Mr. McCain sounds like a man who will say anything to become president."

• As Election Nears, Supreme Court Upholds Repressive Voter ID Law | AlterNet:

  "It is more important now than ever for lawmakers across the country to pass laws protecting the right to vote."

• The News Media: Watchdog or Lap Dog? | AlterNet

  "I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the fact that we're being psyoped by our own government...."

• Media Matters | CNN's Bash, Roberts, and Phillips ignored Hagee's comments linking Hurricane Katrina to gay pride parade:

  "Reporting on a New Orleans campaign event at which Sen. John McCain's 'carefully scripted imagery was interrupted by a voter's question about Pastor John Hagee,' CNN's Dana Bash aired a clip of Hagee -- who has endorsed McCain -- saying of Hurricane Katrina, 'What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God.' But Bash did not air the portion of Hagee's comments in which he reaffirmed his previous assertion that Hurricane Katrina was at least in part the result of 'sin' that Hagee identified as 'a massive homosexual rally.' CNN's John Roberts and Kyra Phillips similarly noted that Hagee said that 'Katrina was God's punishment for sinful behavior in New Orleans' without mentioning that among the 'sinful behavior' Hagee referenced was the gay pride parade."

• Media Matters | MSNBC hosted Obama smear-purveyor to discuss the impact of Obama's connections to Wright in North Carolina:

  "MSNBC's Tamron Hall held a discussion with North Carolina radio host Jeff Katz about the effect Sen. Barack Obama former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, is having on North Carolina voters without disclosing that Katz's website prominently encourages visitors to 'Help the N.C. GOP keep their ad on the air,' referring to an ad that attacks Obama for his connections to Wright, and contains the false claim that Obama 'won't pledge to the flag.'"

• How McCain Lost in Pennsylvania | New York Times | Frank Rich:

  "IT’S a nightmare. It’s the Bataan Death March. It’s mutually assured Armageddon. 'Both of them are already losing the general to John McCain,' declared a Newsweek columnist last month, predicting that the election 'may already be over' by the time the Democrats anoint a nominee.
  
  Not so fast. If we’ve learned any new rule in the 2008 campaign, it’s this: Once our news culture sets a story in stone, chances are it will crumble. But first it must be recycled louder and louder 24/7, as if sheer repetition will transmute conventional wisdom into reality...."

• American Thinker: The Oil Connection:

  "A recent piece of news has shed new light on what could be another storm for both the Clintons...."