Our kleptocratic rulers know exactly what they are doing

i've said all along, there's nothing incompetent or unintentional about what's happening...

ismael hossein-zadeh in counterpunch via alternet...

[T]he kleptocratic rulers in the US, EU, and other debt-burdened countries know exactly what they are doing: to let the recession drag on, to take advantage of the crushing recession in order to extract “enough” concessions from the working people until welfare states are dismantled and labor costs in the more developed capitalist countries are made competitive with those of the less-developed countries. This explains why despite new signs of further global economic contraction, the reigning governments in these countries (whether they are nominally headed by Socialist, Social-Democratic, Labor, Democratic, Conservative or other parties) are maintaining their coordinated abstention from expansive or stimulating fiscal policies while continuing their brutal spending cuts on health, education, wages, pensions, and the like.

This is not to say that these governments do not want to have economic growth or job-creation—they do—but that they want them on their own (Neoliberal) terms, that is, through Neoliberal policies that would create jobs that would pay wages on a par with those of workers in less-developed countries. In other words, they prefer the kind of lopsided economic growth whose fruits would be reaped mostly by the wealthy—the so-called trickle-down or supply-side economic growth. As writer/reporter Patrick O’Connor points out, “In the US, Europe and other advanced capitalist economies, the aim is permanently reducing the living standards of working people.

It is not surprising then that, instead of calling for bold expansionary policies of growth promotion and job creation, US and European government heads, their economic policy makers and the collusive corporate media are frequently calling for “tolerance” and “endurance” in the face of economic hardship, exhorting the unemployed and economically distressed that they “need to be patient” because, as President Obama has occasionally put it, “the road to economic recovery does not follow a straight line,” and that “it's going to take some time to fix it." (The President made this statement on ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." Mr. Stephanopoulos obligingly spared the President the obvious question: “why is it, Mr. President, that fixing the enormously expensive problem of Wall Street gamblers did not take much time, but reviving the economy and creating jobs, which would take only a fraction of the cost of the Wall Street bailout, would take a long time?”)

yes, mr. president... why IS it...?

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Our totally "professional" and "objective" news media

ya, right...

watch this and then tell me our so-called "news" media haven't pulled out all the stops for john mccain...



jed does the deconstruction...

Of the five points, the third is the most clear cut example of bias on purely objective grounds, but I think that each demonstrate clear bias towards McCain.

1. Gibson started by setting up John McCain’s most recent Iraq surge attack on Barack Obama, parroting McCain’s attack almost verbatim, without any critical analysis. He then allowed McCain to speak unfiltered for nearly a full minute, attacking Barack Obama the entire time. Gibson did not give the Obama campaign an opportunity to respond.


• Also worth noting: In addition to not giving the Obama campaign a chance to respond, Gibson failed to report on John McCain’s stunning flip-flop (at least rhetorically) on the virtue of a 16-month timetable.
2. Gibson then jumped to Obama in France, saying the Sarkozy had lavished “effusive” praise upon Obama that “bordered on an endorsement.” By itself, this might have been a fair segment, but it was a highly suggestive way to phrase things, particularly in light of the previous story in which McCain had challenged Barack Obama on issues of war and peace.


3. Gibson then turned to George Stephanopoulos to discuss polling in the wake of Obama’s overseas trip.
   
   
   • He noted that Obama is leading in national polls, but then said that recent state polls show Obama is losing ground in key swing states. Stephanopoulos then took over, using as evidence three new Quinnipiac ("Q") polls (Colorado, Michigan, and Minnesota).
   • Stephanopoulos failed to disclose the dates that the polls were taken and curiously excluded a fourth Q poll released in the swing state of Wisconsin on the same day as the other three. (The Wisconsin poll had Obama leading by 11.)
   • Gibson asked Stephanopoulos to explain why the polls were tightening, but Stephanopoulos failed to note that these polls were outliers. (For example, while the Q poll in Minnesota does show a tightening race, Pollster.com shows Obama with a 12.5% average lead, even factoring in the Q poll.)
   • Stephanopoulos concluded his discussion of the Q polls by saying that there’s no question that Barack Obama hasn’t seen evidence of a bump in the polls after his overseas trip. The thing Stephanopoulos didn’t tell viewers was that none of the polls were conducted before his most high profile event, the speech in Germany. In fact, the polls were conducted from the 14th-22nd, so they were mostly conducted while Barack Obama was still on U.S. soil. Stephanopoulos must have been aware of that information, which leads to the conclusion that he intentionally withheld it deceive his viewing audience.
   • Stephanopoulos also failed to note that both the national tracking polls of both Gallup (+5) and Rasmussen (+4) showed Barack Obama gaining ground from before he left for the trip.
4. Gibson closed the discussion with Stephanopoulos by raising what he said the McCain campaign descrimed as a serious error: Barack Obama’s decision to not visit troops in Germany. Of course, it seems very likely that some politics was played by the DoD to screw around with Obama, and in any case, the whole issue is entirely symbolic, certainly not more important than probing McCain's flip-flop on timetables. Predictably, Stephanopoulos agreed with McCain that Obama should have gone to visit the soldiers.


5. Gibson finished by promoting Stephanopolous’ interview with McCain this Sunday from Phoenix, Arizona, and for no apparent reason, he said that he was confident that mccain would talk about the German troop visit issue again. Hmm. How does he know?

It should now be clear that ABC News cannot be trusted -- its journalistic integrity has been succesfully challenged far too many times. At this point, we have to acknowledge that ABC News is at least as pro-McCain as FOX News, and its impact is certainly far more insidious because most people don’t realize just how tilted their “news” really is.

and, of course, most folks, sitting in the comfort of their living rooms, won't have the slightest idea that they're being fed a pile of warm, steaming shit...

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The twittering of the pundits

i love this line... "what will it take to get republicans defending the white house again..."

This morning on Good Morning America, ABC’s Chief Washington Correspondent George Stephanopoulos predicted that Alberto Gonzales will resign to end the criticism of the White House coming from some Republican members of Congress.

“He’s in the fight of his life,” Stephanopoulos said. “I think it will be very, very difficult for him to survive it.” He said the “key political question for the White House right now” is, “what will it take to get Republicans defending the White House again? And from all of my reporting, I don’t believe that’s going to happen until Alberto Gonzales resigns.”

i stand by my prediction... the gonzales mess is going to open the floodgates and all KINDS of interesting trash is going to come pouring out...

(thanks to think progress...)

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