I just thought I'd take a little time to respond to the raging debate about the New Yorker magazine cover. No, this will not be another diary about who's right and who's wrong, or who will get the joke and who won't, or whether it will be used by the right or not, or anything else that's being thrown about in a diary that has so many comments my PC froze trying to respond. After observing this incident and weighing it against everything else that's occurred in this election cycle, my simple observation is this....
...its a distraction.
Just like the Jesse Jackson comments about slicing and dicing Obama's naughty bits.
Or Obama "revising" his Iraq plan.
Or "bittergate."
Or Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
Or Father Michael Pfleger.
Or terrorist fist bumps.
Or flag pins.
Or photographs in Somali garb that "looks Muslim."
Or birth certificates.
Or Arugula.
Or Hillary's debt.
Or the PUMAs.
Or angry Clinton donors.
Or Bill's temper tantrums and rumors about kissing certain parts of his anatomy.
Or William Ayres.
Or Operation Chaos.
Or "flip flopping."
Or "appeasement."
Or Obama "giving Hillary the finger."
Or "moving to the center."
Or bowling scores.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are talking about stories manufactured by a media that helped convince 75% of America that there were WMD's in Iraq. How's that working out? A media that still can't bring itself to admit it screwed the pooch and enabled an expensive and unnecessary war that's costing billions of dollars and thousands of lives. A media that still tells us that Al Gore claims he invented the internet. A media that still won't admit its part in Swift Boating a war hero in 2004 and helping a deserter and his chickenhawk accomplices retake the White House. A media that will not take the time to go to a candidate's website to research his positions on the issues but will spend days if not weeks parsing every story on the list I provided.
We are faced with a choice between a man who promises to continue the policies of the worst president in history vs. a man who wants to take America in a new direction. A choice between a man who wants to continue an occupation that 80% of Americans are against vs. a man who wants to end a dumb war and shift the military's focus to the real front in the war on terror. A choice between a man who listens to economic advisers that say that your economic plight is a figment of your imagination and a man who actually listens to the people who are struggling to survive.
But, instead of information we get innuendo.
Instead of fact checking we get salacious gossip.
Instead of seeing this as a watershed event in our country's history we get the same old identity politics.
And, to put it in context, the New Yorker magazine has been the latest bunker buster in the media's arsenal of WMD's, another weapon of mass distraction to keep us from paying attention to what really matters:
- Fixing our economy.
- Improving our education system.
- Addressing the exploitation of illegal immigrants.
- Solving the housing crisis.
- Combating global warming.
- Reducing our dependency on fossil fuels.
- Improving our nation's infrastructure.
- Improving our relationship with foreign governments so they can aid us in the war on terror.
- Securing our borders to safeguard against another terrorist attack.
- Creating new jobs and training programs to help the thousands who've lost their jobs find new employment.
In a year where the overwhelming number of Americans are calling for change we find ourselves falling for the same old thing, fed to us by a media who values titillation more than investigation. We are being misled and misinformed by media WMD's - weapons of mass distraction that are causing us to waste valuable time bickering over nontroversies that won't help Johnny learn to read or help his mom and dad pay the bills. And while we fight over insignificant matters our country sinks deeper into ruin.
But there's still time to refocus on the real issues and work to improve our country.
It has been said by Barack Obama on numerous occasions: this election is not about Obama, and its not about McCain.....its about us.
This election is about whether we the people choose to stay the course or chart a new direction for America.
Everything else is just a weapon of mass distraction.