Am I the only person who can remember how the Democrats were decrying the unfair and unbalanced coverage of the Fox News Network? The outcry was so vociferous that few if any Democrats (except Joe Lieberman) would even appear on the network. In another example of how today’s MSM does not report the news but tries to generate the news, the Fox Network has suddenly become Democratic central. The MSM has convinced the Democratic candidates that they now need the network to reach those “bitter” white voters. The campaigns have become so desperate to court the white vote that they have bought into the Fox narrative that they are the only way to reach these voters.

The lead story in April was the raid on the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints compound in Texas. The story was that a woman (in this case a sixteen year old girl), called the authorities and claimed that she was being held against her will and was being forced to have sex with older men. The details from that point on are a little bit confusing. The truth is that this entire saga is, and continues to be, so confusing that the mainstream media has seemingly dropped it.

At the time of the first news reports, I received a call from a colleague in Texas. He stated at the time that he believed that the entire story was a hoax. He went on to say that he believed that there was no phone call from this “mystery woman” because she didn’t exist. That wasn’t all, he went on to say that the warrant wasn’t legal, and that the government had broken the law by allowing members of another religion to take custody of the church members (remember the buses with “First Baptist Church” on the sides?) and illegally searching the FLDS compound.

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Jimmy Carter. This is a man that has consistently tried to do what others in the political arena seem unable to do, and that is to live up to their own expectations, regardless of the political costs. His recent trip to the Middle-East was Carter at his finest. While he understood all to well that the compromised, immoral regimes of both Israel and Washington did not support his mission and were unlikely to approve anything that came out of his meetings with Hamas, he chose to go in order to illustrate to the world what these two governments are really about. I believe Carter was successful in illustrating that neither America nor Israel want to pursue a realistic solution for peace. If anything, his visit proved once again, that Israel seeks not peace, but capitulation.

The last few weeks have been extraordinary in ways that I could not have imagined, let alone forecasted. The American people, at least those that look past the mainstream media, seem to be rejecting the status quo and have begun to voice their opinions in a way that can’t be misinterpreted. I’m not just talking about the liberal/progressive wing of the political dynamic; I’m talking about centrist Democrats and Republicans, as well. The issues that people are bring up in forums and in articles, bring up the same issues; the war, our tax structure, the economy and the destruction of the Middle-Class, the weakening of our fundamental rights under the Constitution, special interest influence and the refusal of politicians on a Federal level to listen to their constituents.

Not a day goes by without mention of the phrase “tipping point”, and with good reason. Different variations of this phrase include “critical mass”, “precipice” and the ever popular “day of reckoning”. The truth is alarming when one considers how many times these phrases are used, and used correctly. Our nation and the World are facing challenges that need to be addressed, and addressed as swiftly as possible. The human race can no longer pass off the responsibility of meeting challenges by doing nothing while we put the onus of problem solving onto our children and grandchildren. The time of band-aids and temporary short term fixes in regard to our most pressing problems is just about over. This planet is poised to reap the rewards that have come about from choosing half measures and politically acceptable “solutions” that are not solutions at all, but rather compromises expressly designed to placate the people, while protecting political, economic or religious interests.

And the folks who keep calling me to renew my subscription to the Wall Street Journal wonder why I keep saying no?

Here's one reason:

Mr. Brauchli, 46, will announce his resignation soon, according to friends and current and former colleagues, all of whom requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. They differed as to whether he was being forced out as managing editor of The Journal, one of the most coveted posts in journalism, or leaving out of frustration.

Look for one of the Editorial Page editors to take over, if you ask me.

It’s amazing how ideas that were rejected just a year ago are flying through cyberspace as well as real-space, at the speed of light. I’m talking about two things here. The first I’ll mention is the idea that both the Democrats and the Republicans’ are pawns of the corporate power structure in this country. It will probably seem hard to believe now, but just a short time ago I was called all sorts of things for bringing that up. Since 2004, I have been writing about campaign financing and the need for reform. This one issue is the basis of corporate control along with the “good folks” on K-Street that staff 70 lobbyist’s for every legislator we have on Capitol Hill. Gee, what a great system we have up there (for the legislators and the lobbyists). I can’t wait to run for office myself so I can get in on those goodies they’re passing out (only kidding), this can’t last forever…or can it?

The political situation in the United States is different at this particular time than in any other time that I have witnessed in my 57 years on this planet. This is the only time in my life that I can ever remember when the right and the left agree more with each other than the so-called “centrists’” of the GOP and the Democratic Party. Those that lean left, like myself, are afraid of losing their civil liberties, afraid of the corporate control of the mainstream media, afraid of the government’s surveillance of our personal activities, afraid of violations of the second amendment when it comes to gun ownership and are thoroughly disgusted with the governments clampdown on our 1st Amendment rights on free speech. When we see protesters tasered and sprayed with tear gas, hit by rubber bullets and clubbed, as in what happened at the G8 meetings in Washington, something is definitely wrong in this republic.

I have been writing about the same things for years now. I have been writing against the loss of our freedoms, the draconian laws that have been enacted in order to “protect” us from people that “hate us for our freedom”, I have written about the corporations that have tied this nation to war and more war. Even though my message has been the same, I find that my writing has fallen on deaf ears as of late. In fact, my writing, because of my criticism of this phony two-party system that has led us to where we are now, I have been banned from OpEdNews.com, DailyKos.com.TPMMuckracker.com, and left me with a small sidebar on SmirkingChimp.com.

This has been coming for a long time. I’ve been watching the politicians in Washington very closely to see exactly how they intended to manage an administration that is so extremely neo-conservative that they are dangerous to this country and the world. I’ve seen heroic stances by some like Dennis Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy, Russ Feingold and even Ron Paul. However, this is not enough. We’ve seen Cynthia McKinney disenfranchised as well as others that have stood up to tyranny and war. Meanwhile, while all of this has taken place, the Democratic Party has been split down the middle and has offered no protection or support to any that oppose the horrendous regime in Washington.

Stephen Khan | April 13

Independent - When is a lesbian not a lesbian? When the person in question is a gay, Catholic, conservative blogger by the name of Andrew Sullivan, it would seem.

For when Sullivan was stuck for words on an American news discussion programme last week, he was confronted by the acerbic polemicist Christopher Hitchens. "Don't be such a lesbian," intervened Mr Hitchens. "Get on with it."

Mr Sullivan paused. Mr Hitchens looked to the floor. And the MSNBC Tim Russert Show merrily continued with its analysis of the role religion and the preacher Jeremiah Wright have played in Barack Obama's election campaign.

I’ve been doing much thinking about the different things that are occurring on our planet and in this country. I’m not a former military tactician although I did spend 21 years in the Army. I’m not an economist and I really don’t know the difference between a deficit and spending money you don’t have (which I think may be the same thing), all I know is that what’s going on in the world doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ignorant. I believe that I read about everything that happens in the world from every source I can access. I rarely listen to the Mainstream Media because anyone that has half a brain realizes that they are owned by the same entities that wish to keep the American people fat, dumb and happy. These comprise the military defense contractors, GE and Westinghouse, as well as the banking interests that wish to keep things exactly as they are until the time is right to pull the rug out from everyone save them so as to buy up everything on Wall Street for pennies on the dollar.

He's one of the most recognizable — and controversial — personalities in political news. But the "Hardball" host is also increasingly out of step with cable TV's wry, cynical tone. Is this his last election in the spotlight?

By MARK LEIBOVICH
Published: April 13, 2008

NYT - Whenever Chris Matthews says something he likes, which happens a lot, he repeats it often and at volumes suggesting a speaker who feels insufficiently listened to at times. “Tim Russert finally reeled the big marlin into the boat tonight,” Matthews yelled — nine times, on and off the air, after a Democratic debate that Russert moderated with Brian Williams in late February at Cleveland State University. Matthews believed that Russert (the fisherman) had finally succeeded in getting Hillary Clinton (the marlin) to admit that she was wrong to vote in favor of the Iraq war resolution in 2002. “We’ve been trolling for that marlin for what, a year now?” Matthews said to Russert.

Comparing Hillary Rodham Clinton to a big flopping fish will do nothing to stop criticism — from Clinton’s presidential campaign, among others — that Matthews and his network, MSNBC, have treated the former first lady unfairly. But this didn’t keep Matthews from bludgeoning the marlin line to death in the postdebate “spin room.” “Russert caught the marlin; he got the marlin,” Matthews shouted to a school of downcast reporters who had been hanging on every canned word of Clinton’s chief campaign strategist, Mark Penn. ...

Thank God for the Iraqis, if it were not for them the MSM would have allowed John McCain to put the Iraq War in his pocket and run with it. Fortunately the Iraqis have other thoughts and have reminded the American public that yes there is still a war going on in Iraq. Despite all the hype and the John McCain “Mission Accomplished” banners, any peace in Iraq has very little to do with us and the surge and is dependent on the Iraqi people. It is unfortunate that it takes bodies and bloodshed to get the MSM’s attention, but of course when St. John declares peace is at hand who in the MSM is going to argue.

“Clean Coal” sounds good; in fact, I saw a picture of a clean coal plant on TV this morning while watching “American Morning” on CNN. It was then when I remembered I had read an article yesterday that stated that the technology for “clean coal”, which consists of capturing the CO2 emitted from the burning of coal and trapping it deep into the Earth, hasn’t even been invented yet! Still, I saw a picture of a “clean coal” plant on the commercial. Since no plant like this currently exists, and the plans for one have been scrapped by the US Government, what I saw was probably a “rendering” of what the plant would someday look like. This made me think the coal industry is selling something that doesn’t yet exist.

The American people are waking up, slowly but surely; seems as if we manage to take two steps forward and one step back. The media has been called out on so many distortions and misinformation, you would think that the editors would think twice about “planting” government propaganda and putting right-wing “spin” on misstatements made by John McCain. Apparently, the New York Times believes that because of its reputation as an honest news broker, it can continue to sway public opinion. Why it continues to believe so is beyond my scope of understanding. I can imagine that because of its “liberal image” it is a perfect vehicle to advance the policies of the right, or that they have honestly been duped into believing what they are printing. I would like to take a small bit of your time to analyze an article that was printed by the “Gray Lady”.

This election is killing me. I have never felt quite the same way about any presidential election. There have been times when I was lukewarm toward many of the Democratic hopefuls, but that doesn’t begin to describe how I feel today. Lukewarm would be a definite improvement over the way I feel, in fact I would welcome lukewarm. It would be akin to the way a hunter would welcome a roaring fire after he came in from the artic, after falling through the ice and trudging miles through a blizzard in wet, icy garb. That picture describes the way I feel about the prospects of voting for the choices that have been offered.

I am very excited to see Mike Gravel “jump ship” and align himself with the Libertarian Party. I’m sure that anyone who that has read any of my articles knows that I too have come to the conclusion that there is basically very little difference between the Democrats and Republicans when it comes to the central core issues. We have of course, Republicans that espouse “progressive” stances as well as a good number of Democrats that could be considered liberal/progressives. The premise that the two parties have radically different ideologies when we look at their centrist bases however, belies the fact that the two parties have any real substantive differences.

The United States has become, without a doubt, the most presumptive nation on the face of the Earth. We are in the business of presuming that this country has a legitimate right to interfere with the governments of any country that does not live up to our expectations. We presume that we have a right to actively seek “regime change” toward nations that oppose our foreign or economic policies. We presume that we, above all other nations, have a right to build and control the largest nuclear arsenal on the face of the planet, while we actively seek sanctions against those that may hint about nuclear ambitions. The U.S. presumes that our concerns are justified, and under the microscope of public opinion, accepted by the majority of people that believe in “moral integrity”.

Excuse me if I offend anyone in this article, but I would like to know what happened to the Democratic Party? I always thought of Democrats as those that supported Unions, workers, the middle-class, civil liberties and silly things like that. One thing I was also taught to do was to follow the money when it comes to whom really is supporting who in things such as criminal enterprises and of course, politics. I have been around for a while now, and I believe that I’m just as aware of what’s happening in my own country as anyone else. In fact, I believe that I’m really more aware of what’s happening than most. I am a voracious reader and I have a lot of time on my hands and I actually try to dig behind the rhetoric I hear. What I have found amazes me.

By Bob Geiger

When ABC News went to press with their latest investigative earth-shaker on Wednesday, you would have thought they found D.B. Cooper or discovered Amelia Earhart's final landing place. Instead, what you got from Brian Ross and ABC's "investigative unit" was the most shocking revelation they could find so far in 17,481 pages of Senator Hillary Clinton's first-lady schedule, released this week by the National Archives: That the Democratic presidential candidate "may have been in the White House when the fateful act was committed," referring to her husband's dalliance with Monica Lewinsky.

"Hillary At White House on 'Stained Blue Dress' Day," screamed the headline on the ABC News web site Wednesday, in reference to the dress that the Starr Report would later say was proof of President Clinton having sex with Lewinsky and obviously in shock that on a given day the First Lady might actually be in the White House.

"Hillary Clinton spent the night in the White House on the day her husband had oral sex with Monica Lewinsky, and may have actually been in the White House when it happened, according to records of her schedule released today by the National Archives," people claiming to be journalists at ABC actually reported.

I have obtained through top-secret, clandestine sources a pre-release of ABC News' next major investigative report. They have high hopes that this will also rock Senator Clinton's presidential campaign to the core and I present it here in the interest of the public's right to know

It just goes to show that some people will never “get it”. The Progressive Press has whipped up a cauldron of molten ire against George W. Bush’s statement that the war in Iraq was “worth it”. My God, how could he say such a thing? The Progressive Press remarks; “Doesn’t he know that almost 4,000 Americans and untold Iraqi’s have died in a quagmire? Doesn’t he realize that the cost of this war is in the trillions? Doesn’t he realize that we are no closer to victory than we were five long years ago?”

Sure he does. He just doesn’t really care. He feels that as long as the defense contractors are making windfall profits along with Halliburton and their subsidiary KBR, and are getting gigantic no-bid contracts, and the Federal Reserve pours trillions of dollars at interest into the economy, making the bankers rich, and as long as the oil companies can get their hands on that Iraqi oil, the world is a great place. If you believe that he sees anything as wrong or right, you have a problem with your perception.

I have been at this a long time. Lately I have no desire to write about what I see happening in the world because I’ve already talked about it. I saw the Zeitgeist movie this evening and there was nothing in the movie that I have not already written about. Yes we have been taken for a ride by the people that control this country and that are the International Bankers. Yes the Federal Reserve is robbing us blind and we have known that since Woodrow Wilson told us so. Yes, our education system in this country is producing sub-par graduates without the capacity for critical thing; you know that by just talking to them. We know that the media is controlled by the corporations that are controlled by the bankers who control our government. I know all that.

The Winter Soldier is underway in Washington DC. There, brave Iraq Vets are testifying to criminal acts committed while on duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. These orders came from the top down and the rules of engagement changed from day to day, all outside the scope of International Law. These soldiers and sailors have been vetted and they are speaking “Truth to Power”, something that also happened during 1971 at the First Winter Soldier.

The Seminar is getting huge mainstream media attention, however this is mostly International attention, the US media doesn’t seem at all interested in reporting on this, which is par for the course. The facts are that the Iraq War has only 1% of the coverage of the MSM. This is different than the pre-surge level of 15%. It seems as if the perception in this country is that the US has “turned the corner” in Iraq. This is the farthest thing from the truth. This week alone was one of the most violent weeks since before the surge. 12 US soldiers were killed last week alone.