I'm no fan of the media.
And I've had a hell of a week with these damn teabaggers. They stole my Healthcare for America Now yard sign and smeared dog crap all over my garage door.
Then they physically attacked our group as we stood with our signs during their stop in Scranton.
So it is good to know that for the most part, my daily newspaper has got my back. On a regular basis lately.
I know, doesn't that sound funny? It almost crashed my computer to type that.
This morning I woke up and found this newspaper smacked down the teabaggers again. I was thinking that you too, might have had a hell of a week with the teabaggers, so I thought I'd share my newspaper with you over some coffee.
The Scranton Times-Tribune, located in Northeastern PA, endorsed Barack Obama in last year's Democratic presidential primary. It endorsed George W. Bush in 2000, and no one in 2004, so it is pretty much middle of the road as far as newspapers go. It's far from perfect, for sure, but lately it's come close.
Owned for generations by the Lynett family, a well-known Irish Catholic family who tend to give a lot back to the community, the paper has been the dominant paper in the area since what locals call "The Old Tribune" folded in 1990.
We'll open to my favorite section of the paper this morning, where we find one of the best writers I've seen in quite a while, except for here on DKOS of course...
His name is Chris Kelly.
Oh look, he's written about Thursday's visit to Scranton by the Tea Party Express. Bang the Drum Slowly. He's calling it an alternate reality. Hmm. This should be good.
In this alternate reality, history is malleable. If the record doesn't match the Mob's memory or support its agenda, it must be hammered into shape. Nothing is what it seems, anyway, except of course those things that really are what they seem.
In either case, expect the worst. The End has never been more nigh. Everyone really is out to get you, especially the president, a closet communist who would rather install czars than overthrow them. He is Not Like You. His God is Not Your God. He is an evil genius bent on stamping out freedom, brainwashing your kids, killing off the elderly and unborn and giving your hard-earned money to lazy, godless leeches who are Not Like You.
The Evil Genius is also a pseudo-intellectual who couldn't order a veggie burger without aid of a Teleprompter, a puppet of powerful international interests who will stop at nothing to establish a New World Order that would make Orwell's darkest nightmare seem like a bright, blue dream.
How the hell did Kelly pack the teabaggers' entire manifesto into three paragraphs? This guy's good.
Oh, and look at these letters to the editor. One of them is from a doctor - and he's supporting the public option? Wow. That's cool.
I imagine the opinion page editor has a tough job lately, like we see in hatemail-apalooza, he gets them too. Imagine trying to balance someone's freedom of speech vs. the facts in the letters to the editor that must be coming in every day.
Maybe they've been inspired to write after reading Friday's front page article on the rally, when one of their neighbors shouted:
Kill them! Get your guns out! Communist bastards!
while standing unknowingly next to a reporter.
I have a couple of past editions of the newspaper over here in the recycling bin. Let's take a look.
Oh, in Thursday's paper there was an editorial calling for censure of Joe "you lie" Wilson.
Mr. Wilson later apologized, saying that his emotions had gotten the better of him. Apparently, he hadn't read the copy of the speech that was given to every member of Congress prior to the president's appearance, or had failed to use the intervening time to calm himself.
Actually, his pathetic comment points to something much deeper and much worse.
It was a particularly disgraceful example of the extent to which civic ignorance has displaced civil discourse. And it was a glaring illustration of deep-seated far right-wing hatred for Barack Obama, and the changing America that he represents, that has nothing to do with policy.
It was an extension of the ridiculous outcry over Mr. Obama's earlier address this week, to the nation's schoolchildren. The notion that the leader of the free world, the elected president of the United States, is not suited to talking to schoolkids about education is something new in this country. That's because it is driven by fear and loathing of Barack Obama. If public expressions of that attitude must result in disrespect, as well, for the office of president of the United States, those so inclined consider it acceptable collateral damage.
Speaking of that address to the nation's school children, The Times-Tribune slammed some area school board directors when they showed just how stupid they are.
Board member Rob McCauley said last week that he fears Mr. Obama might have a political agenda in addressing students. He said he doesn't know what the president is going to say.
Forget that neither Constitution nor law requires the president to vet his comments through local school boards. Censorship is in itself the worst political agenda. The willingness of Mr. McCauley and some of his colleagues to exercise it constitutes a far worse message than anything that Mr. Obama could say.
Members' opposition also is based on a false premise. They might not have the text of the president's address, but they do know the subject. It's about education. According to the White House, Mr. Obama will urge students to work hard and stay in school.
Board members' opposition to the opportunity for students to hear directly from the president of the United States is part of a pathetic trend that tears at the fabric of our democracy.
And the paper took another shot with its Indoctrination for Dummies
Part of the outcry over the impending Obama presentation is that the Education Department has distributed kits to teachers that include suggestions for student activities during the speech. They include note-taking, identifying themes, and answering questions such as: "What is the president asking us to do?" "Can we do it?"
If the "indoctrination" is meant to produce a zombie-like army of crypto-fascists, as some panicky conservative commentators imply, let's hope the students can't do it. But, since the president will encourage students to work hard and graduate, let's hope they can do it, because - as illustrated by people who find something sinister in the president of the United States talking to school students - the future of the nation depends on it.
Now I get to post this video again...hilarious if you haven't seen it..
Over the past several years, the newspaper has exposed the sometimes hateful antics of the leader of the Scranton Diocese, Bishop Joseph Martino. Martino was the one who was using the eucharist to punish those who didn't follow his conservative politics, and forcing other priests to do so too.
Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Robert Casey, and anyone else who disagreed with Martino were threatened with no communion if they dared to attend a Catholic church within the diocese. Martino forced priests to blow the dog whistle and use the threat of eternal damnation to force Catholics to vote for John McCain last November.
Anyway, despite the publishers' devotion to the Catholic faith, the newsapaper hammered Martino with story after story on his demand for obedience to him, finally culminating in Martino's early resignation a few weeks ago.
Bishop Martino also had a flair for political controversy. He waded deeper into political waters than any of his predecessors, especially by suggesting that Catholic political candidates who did not adhere strictly to church policy in advocating public policy, especially on abortion, should be denied Communion. That pleased conservative local Catholics while offending others who viewed abortion as one of many social justice issues, and put him at odds even with a majority of his peers in the United States.
And just at the time Martino's rule was coming to an end, there was this latest breach of the line between church and state
A letter from a local anti-abortion organization was circulated in parish bulletins at a Honesdale Roman Catholic church over the weekend, warning that proposed health care reform bills "will limit or ration the kind of coverage Americans are allowed." The letter also encouraged readers to attend a town-hall meeting held by U.S. Rep. Chris Carney on Monday.
The letter from Susan Cirba, education director of the Scranton chapter of Pennsylvanians for Human Life, was distributed in bulletins at St. John the Evangelist during weekend Masses. In it, she claimed that health care bills being considered by the House and Senate will force taxpayers to pay for abortion and "mandatory end-of-life counseling."
Whatever happened to that "not bearing false witness" thing?
So there is just a sampling of the work I see this newspaper doing to report the truth, and I sure appreciate it. It is handling these stories while hammering Pennsylvania's lawmakers on their failure to pass a budget almost 75 days past the required deadline. I read this on Day 67:
Just a day after several lawmakers assured readers of The Times-Tribune that the Legislature is considering the budget with a sense of urgency, lawmakers urgently left Harrisburg for a five-day Labor Day recess.
And it's hammering the whole Luzerne County Court system too. Maybe you've heard of the whole vile Kids for Cash scandal that seems to involve so many people in NEPA that I worry that I'm involved and don't know it yet.
Even after all that has transpired in this case, it still is jarring to see in black and white that the corrupt enterprise identified in the indictment is the Common Please Court of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
Plus the newspaper recently added a special section just for GANG news after a couple of Scranton High School bangers shot a man to death and left him on a dark back road.
Law enforcement officials said in recent years they have become increasingly familiar with gang activity - drug deals, criminal mischief, home invasions. But nothing quite like this. The youth of the shooters and their local roots have been cause for alarm. So has the violence - Mr. Fernandez was shot five times in the head and seven times in the body.
"I don't want to put a scare in people," said Bob Maguire, one of the founders in 2005 of a county gang intelligence task force, "but I'm kind of surprised it got to this level."
So, this morning, I raise my coffee mug to The Times-Tribune and its editorial positions in favor of truth. And while I would prefer not to be reading about scandals after they've happened for years, I am happy to see a newspaper working to catch up to the truth, even when it has passed by unnoticed.
Keep it up.
Now, do you want sports or the funnies? I'll warm that coffee up for you.