Alan Bisbort of the Valley Advocate
writes this week about Tim Russert's new mantra for the campaign. Russ says Kerry needs to establish a 'comfort level' with the American voter. Bisbort's response? "Get your thumb out of your ass, Russert, and talk to us like we're grown-ups." Perhaps a good proctologist could help...
He further argues that the 'mainstream media' are hopelessly lost in their own navel gazing self-importance, and barely even connected to the real news anymore.
But help is on the way:
Without people like Josh Marshall and his Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, and Bill Scher at Liberal Oasis, we'd be sunk. Their fair and balanced coverage of the convention, and pretty much all other political events of the past three years, has trumped the combined efforts of the "professionals" in the Fourth Estate, who sit around pondering comfort levels.
Are these 'media whores' voluntarily morphing into an American version of "Pravda"?
During the Democratic convention last week, Al Jazeera, the Arab world's leading news network, offered five times more live coverage than either ABC, CBS or NBC, and twice the live coverage of all three networks combined. Think about the disgrace in that fact. Arabs are more informed about American democracy than American voters.
And why does 'Captain Codpiece' command respect when 'Lieutenant Kerry' is bashed as un-American and
weak on defense?
Back to Big Tim's "comfort level." The impeccably credentialed Black Sheep from Texas went AWOL during the Vietnam War, failed at every business venture he ever tried, mocked the search for WMDs, taunted the enemy to kill our troops, can't eat a pretzel or ride a bicycle without collapsing on the ground ... The only people who can conceivably feel a "comfort level" with that record are the inmates of a lunatic asylum.
Unfortunately, the inmates are RUNNING the asylum...for now.