It is this idea that everyone’s opinion is equally important. Inasmuch as we all get a vote it does but are all opinions equally desirable? Uninformed opinions?

OJ trial notwithstanding I see people who have watched a 5 minute thumbnail about some major court trial being asked their opinion and beaming while giving their take with apparent certainty. It is as if to say that getting all the facts just confuses people and leads to wrong thinking.

Ads for American Idol urge everyone to be counted and to vote for their choice.

Politicians play to every imaginable shortcoming, fear and prejudice just as long as it works in their favor.

The media is well aware of it’s need to SELL so it too makes few judgments involving hard facts and instead provides those of all persuasions something to consume that is agreeable to them.

Is it any wonder we are in the pickle we’re in? Such delusion practiced on an individual basis inevitably leads to a fall. Why should we think it any different when we collectively stop trying to understand the world outside of our own realm and its inherent, assuring rationalizations?

I’ve made the analogy before, but where’s a Willie Stark (All the Kings Men) when we need him? …berating miiddle America for kowtowing to those who have not a single one of their interests at heart, trying to demonstrate what their ignorance has brought them. I haven’t seen anything like this on any scale. Delusion seems to suit everyone just fine. My only question is how much worse can it get before it gets better?

Obama won’t go this route. He’s all carrot and no stick, offending no one and finding something to agree on with everyone. I sometimes wonder if that won’t be his undoing…and ours as well.

As far as people not wanting to be taken for fools (post #10), that’s very true, but it’s a double-edged sword. I know someone who lashes out quite viciously at anyone who has more education and a higher income than she does. Whatever you say to her, she perceives you as being condescending. This is commonly known as having a major chip on your shoulder. Such people consider reasonable points, reasoned argument, nuance, well-thought out analysis, etc. as nothing but being looked down upon. It’s the politics of identification and they can’t identify.

I don’t know what the answer is. Putting on a drawl and joining the NRA don’t seem feasible to me. But why isn’t Obama stressing the fact that he comes from a modest background, pulled himself up by his bootstraps, etc. as compared to the pampered life that McCain has always lived (excluding his wartime experience, of course)?

And now that the flapdoodle crowd, right-wingers, control the majority of microphones nationandmedia-wide, the rate of progression into ‘disaster’ is increasing geometrically.

Obama’s responses were thoughtful, deliberate, intelligent, and complex. McCain’s answers were crisp, clear, certain, and overly simplistic. To him, the only “wrong” appears to be a national security threat. He did not even come close to identifying the evil that exists on our own doorstep.

Although members of the audience were polite to both candidates, they seemed to prefer John McCain. I am convinced his overly simplistic answers were the reason. Why worry about Darfur, street crime, or child abuse, when you can wipe out all evil by winning the War in Iraq?

At the end of the forum, we were left with two entirely different views of the world. One is complex and real, the other is simplistic and imaginary. Obama’s world is harder to master because it is multi-dimensional, involves complicated relationships and judgments, and requires intelligent analysis and action. McCain’s world is easily contained in the palm of your hand (I could feel it). It is one-dimensional, simple to understand, and black and white.

After listening to McCain, it seems feasible to conclude that Osama bin Laden, Islamic extremists, and Vladimir Putin are responsible for all our problems (a declining economy, high energy costs, climate change, inaccessible health care, illegal immigration, terrorism, and warfare). Crank up the defense budget, destroy our enemies, and all will be well.

It is clear that John McCain has a limited perspective and vocabulary (fight, kill, destroy, win). This is not surprising since, by his own admission, he ranked 894th out of 899 at the Naval Academy and his grades were “barely passing.” Nevertheless, people like him because he does not make them think.

Your readers are smart too. One thing the “stupids” understand is how to get what they want; as you say, all they have to do is identify it. Identify and justify.

That’s what makes the following so upsetting; these folks are armed. Nuclear destruction not withstanding, there is plenty of destruction to do right here at home in small but meaningful ways.

“The ABC News Investigative Team connects Mary “McFate,” a paid mole by the NRA to spy on gun violence prevention groups, with a McCain insider.
According to ABC News on Aug. 19th:
A Republican political operative considered part of the McCain campaign’s “kitchen cabinet” oversaw a National Rifle Association lobbying campaign that allegedly hired a spy to infiltrate gun control groups, according to Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

James Jay Baker served as executive director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) in the late 1990s when it allegedly hired a woman to pose as a gun control activist and funnel information back to the NRA.

A McCain campaign spokesperson said Baker was only a “high level volunteer” for the campaign.

Investigative journalism magazine Mother Jones first reported the political espionage scandal last month, naming Mary Lou Sapone.
Beginning in 1998, according to the gun control group, Sapone, using her maiden name McFate, infiltrated the gun violence prevention movement and remained extremely active in a variety of gun control groups, even sitting on the boards of some, until they say she was outed two weeks ago.
“She was one of the major players in the movement,” said Helmke. “She was at every meeting possible and made you think she cared so much about the issues.”
Mother Jones reported that the NRA paid the now-defunct security firm that hired Sapone to snoop, Beckett Brown International (BBI), $80,000 in a 12-month period spanning 1999 and 2000.
Baker, who is still registered as a lobbyist for the NRA, is now Managing Director of the Washington-based lobbying firm, Ogilvy Government Relations.
Ogilvy has billed the NRA $90,000 so far for 2008, according to the company’s financial disclosure forms, and $360,000 in 2007. Congressional lobbying disclosure reports show the NRA has paid Ogilvy $2.34 million since Baker left the NRA and joined the firm.
Gun control activists who say they are “stunned” to learn about the allegations that McFate/Sapone was a spy, are calling on McCain to take a stand against Baker whom the Brady Campaign has linked to the underhanded business of spying.

“Senator McCain describes himself as a ’straight talker’ and a critic of the Washington lobbying establishment,” said Helmke. “Senator McCain and his campaign need to answer whether or not they approve of this spying on victims, and whether they will ask Mr. Baker and the NRA to explain the extent of their involvement in these activities.”

The McCain campaign today sought to distance itself from Baker.
A spokesman for McCain said that though Baker is on McCain’s Sportsman Committee and is a high level volunteer who supports the campaign, he is not one of McCain’s chief advisors.
The spokesman said that the McFate-Sapone issue has nothing to do with the candidate, adding that McCain has a stricter policy against lobbyists working on the campaign than Obama.
In March of 2007, Baker gave the maximum amount of $2,300 to McCain’s campaign, and in August of 2006, he gave $1,000 to Straight Talk America, McCain’s Leadership Political Action Committee.
The NRA did not return phone calls requesting comment. Neither did Baker, who did, however, tell Mother Jones that he was not aware of any infiltration of the gun control movement.
Baker’s deputy director at the NRA’s ILA, Patrick O’Malley, who is identified as Sapone’s contact at the NRA in BBI depositions, did not return phone calls requesting comment.
Sapone’s home telephone number has been disconnected and messages left on her cell phone were not returned.”

NOW IF THAT WAS BAD, THIS IS WORSE

Texas Gov. Rick Perry OK With Teachers, Staff Carrying Hidden and Loaded Guns At Schools – Time To Bring Back Stephen Colbert’s Take
After it was reported last week that the Harrold school district in Texas would allow teachers and staff to carry hidden and loaded guns inside its schools, Texas Governor Rick Perry has recklessly come out to say that he supports the idea.
This is hardly the first, nor the last time, these ludicrous ideas will surface.
In fact, GunGuys.com mocked Wisconsin State Rep. Frank Lasee when in, Oct. 2006 he suggested on ABC News that we should be arming teachers in our schools.
GunGuys said of Mr. Lasee:
In fact, Frank Lasee’s idea was so insane, that even his own cousin Alan Lasee– the Senate president at the time — called Frank’s proposal insane but also dead on arrival.
Last fall, Lasee was quoted on ABC News about his crazy proposal: “I want to end the turkey shoots that go on in our schools…..it’s part of the puzzle of making our schools a safer place for our children.”
That’s why we felt it necessary to bring back the hilarious and prescient Stephen Colbert and his take on arming teachers when Frank Lasee first suggested it”

NOW THAT’S STUPID

It already has. Check out these “postcards” from Dubai.. They’ll make your jaw drop.

Whoever comes into power come November, expect more sovereign wealth funds to buy up America. It wouldn’t surprise me if Ford or GM will be sold to the Chinese. There will be a cry and hue for awhile over some of these deals – recall the flap in 2005, when the Chinese wanted to buy Unocal – but in one way or another these deals will go forward, because – despite what the rightards tell you – our country has been weakened by years of mismanagment.

It will be like the Iraq war in one sense – the architects of this hostile takeover bet that they could pull it off and reap the benefits of $30/barrel oil before anyone could figure out what was going on. Of course it didn’t work out that way. The looting of America is along the same lines: a massive smokescreen while the country has been gutted before our very eyes. By the time the rubes figure it out, it will be too late.

I just “turned” 54, and realize I’m getting close to the expiration date stamped somewhere on my person. It has taken me this long to realize how corrupt things are, but I now UNDERSTAND, and can shout it from the roof tops to others….
This is what us “Champion Idealists” do.

In regards to McCain, I favor the policy of Sun Tsu, if he insists on bungee jumping, give him an extra long bungee cord.
Allow thyne enemies to hang themselves……..
I will make a prediction:
If we don’t change things drastically very soon, the world’s center of finance will shift eastward to either Singapore or Dubaii.
Wall street is corrupted beyond repair.

Further evidence that Righties are not born, but made– apparently by violently jamming icepicks up their noses.