... and it has all the earmarks of political pressure, per Lisa de Moraes of the Washington Post (always wondered whether she was related to Vinicius de Moraes, the great Brazilian playwright and songwriter who created both Black Orpheus and the lyrics of "The Girl from Ipanema"):

<<At 5 p.m. yesterday, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced that "after implementing the findings of the McKinsey study" (say what?), CPB President Kathleen Cox feels that it's a natural time for her to step aside and let the board conduct a search for her successor.

Check it out here:

Media Matters

They weren't close to fair and balanced, of course, but they did better than CNN or MSNBC by a wide margin.

Harper's Index had a recent item like this, too ... sad, sad, sad. It all feeds into my growing conviction that Fox News isn't quite the problem it's often made out to be. They're biased, of course, but some of their success has happened because their production values are closer to the sounds and sights that contemporary people expect than those of the old network news shows. It was only a matter of time before someone came along and did what they do.

No, the problem we face is that the members of the "mainstream" media aren't doing their jobs. Elisabeth Bumiller is a bigger problem than Bill O'Reilly, who has always been around in one bullying form or another.

Please consider writing a letter to the editor of your local paper that asks whether Wal-Mart's slumping sales might possibly be due to people deciding not to patronize a company that treats its employees poorly. Mention that workers faced threats of being fired if they used emergency exits. The official media line is that Wal-Mart had a poor advertising strategy over Thanksgiving. Who knows? But we're missing a big opportunity to make an important point here.

Michigan's Macomb County, north of Detroit, is a classic election bellwether. Home to many European ethnic factory workers, it was a Democratic bastion for years. Then it became the original home of the "Reagan Democrats," and it's been close ever since. Gore won in 2000 by a whisker. The area has been hit by outsourcing and factory closings.

I bought a truck there right before the election and of course counted yard signs. It's like Chicago; people are politics-crazy, and there were numerous signs for candidates from drain commissioner on up. But I saw very few for either Bush or Kerry. People didn't particularly like either one of them, it seemed.

In 2004 Bush won Macomb by a 54-to-46 percent margin. But a funny thing happened in the lower-level races: the Democrats scored a breakthrough. They dominate the Macomb County Commission for the first time in years.

Meanwhile, big-money Oakland County next door went for Gore by a nose in 2000 and by a larger margin this time.

The moral? I don't know. But nominating candidates who carry that "friend of working people" aura is something we need to be thinking seriously about.

Everybody feels bad today, and there's been a lot of talk about building a movement, about creeping fascism, about leaving the country. But somehow the quantitatively most important reason we lost isn't quite getting its due IMHO:

<<But despite all the efforts, an Associated Press exit poll survey found that fewer than 1 in 10 voters Tuesday were 18 to 24, about the same proportion of the electorate as in 2000.>>

Proportional turnout of those ages 24 to 30 actually dropped, I believe.

Do the math. If these people had gotten off their duffs and quit snickering at "South Park" long enough to vote, we'd be celebrating today. We can turn out our voters, and the fundamentalists will match us step for step. But as long as youth is content to sit in its little iPod cocoon, the right will rush in and fill the void. They're really good at that.

How to change this state of affairs?

L'ambassadeur d'Arabie Saoudite vient de terminer son discours; il sort de la salle et va dans un salon où il rencontre Bush. Poignées de mains chaleureuses, etc.

L'ambassadeur demande à Bush:- "Dites-moi, j'ai une question concernant quelque chose que j'ai vu en Amérique."

-"Votre Éminence, si je peux vous aider..."

-"Mon fils a vu cette série Star Trek où il y a des Russes, des  Noirs et des Asiatiques mais pas d'Arabes. Il ne comprend pas pourquoi il n'y a pas d'Arabes..."

Bush éclate de rire, s'approche delui et lui murmure à l'oreille :- "C'est parce que ça se passe dans le futur..."
*****
Déjeuner à la Maison Blanche avec Bush, Blair et d'autres invités. L'un d'eux demande au président:

-"Mais au fait, de quoi parlez-vous toute la journée ?

Bush répond:-"Nous planifions la 3ème guerre mondiale."

-"Et elle sera comment ?"

- Nous tuerons 4 millions de musulmans et un dentiste..."

L'invité est perplexe :-"Un dentiste? Comment ça ?"

Blair tape alors sur l'épaule de Bush et lui dit :- Qu'est ce que je t'avais dit George, personne ne s'inquiétera des musulmans!"
*****
À la question de savoir ce qu'il fera après la guerre d'Irak, Bush répond :-"Nous partagerons l'Irak en 3 parties : Super, Super Plus et Sans Plomb."
--------------------------------------------------------------

The Saudi ambassador is finishing up a discussion; he leaves a room and goes into a hallway where he meets Bush. There are handshakes, etc.

The ambassador says, "Tell me ... I've got a question about something I've seen in America."

--"Your Eminence, I'll help however I can."

--"My son was watching Star Trek on television, and they have Russians, blacks, and Asians, but there aren't any Arabs. He doesn't understand why there aren't any Arabs."

--Bush flashes a smile, approaches, and whispers in his ear, "That's because it takes place in the future."
**
Lunch at the White House with Bush, Blair, and other guests. One of them asks the President, "So, what do you talk about all day?"

Bush answers: "We are planning World War III."

--"And how's that going to happen?"

--"We're going to kill four million Muslims and one dentist."

--The guest is puzzled. "A dentist? "What's up with that?"

And Blair taps Bush on the shoulder and says, "What did I tell you, George? Nobody will worry about the Muslims!"
***
To the question of what will happen to Iraq after the war, Bush answered: "We are going to divide Iraq into three sectors: Regular, Super, and Unleaded."

I think everyone should participate anyhow.

Slap the Candidate

... focusing on skyrocketing gas prices in the home stretch. It's a bread-and-butter issue for everyone, and they're easy to lay directly at Bush's feet; the global instability he so recklessly fomented is the primary cause. Kerry needs to be on the attack in the last days, especially to lay to rest the bogus Mary Cheney thing, and I'm puzzled as to why he has had so little to say about this major economic threat. Just my $.02!

... has Kerry running away with the debate. Several "rounds" go to Kerry by wide margins. Here's hoping for a KO.

I think the New Yorker this week has a pretty good summary of Bush's appeal, and a pretty good handle on what's gone wrong lately. The link is here:

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040913fa_fact1

Plainly Bush stumbles badly when he is forced to actually think about something rather than just intoning refrains. How to structure the dialogue so that he has to think on his feet?