Political Hippo Circle Jerk - America, farg YEAH!

[mpmcgraw]

I think all of us here can agree that the Dems are at least trying to work in the best interest of the public with their legislation where as you can hardly say the same for the Republicans with the same confidence.

[fansince61]

why would the dems even think about working with the republicans...they should shove every single possible piece of legislation down their zealotty throats

Now thats "fair and balanced"

[fansince61]

I think all of us here can agree that the Dems are at least trying to work in the best interest of the public with their legislation where as you can hardly say the same for the Republicans with the same confidence.

[Butchers Bill]

I think all of us here can agree that the Dems are at least trying to work in the best interest of the public with their legislation where as you can hardly say the same for the Republicans with the same confidence.

If you think that either party has the public's best interest in mind, you need some serious counseling.  "Hope and Change" was a great marketing campaign but reality is quite different.

[ice grillin you]

why would the dems even think about working with the republicans...they should shove every single possible piece of legislation down their zealotty throats

Now thats "fair and balanced"

balance would reqire that the right wing gets half of what they want...im not willing to go anywhere near that...my number would be closer to 5%

[rjs246]

Excellent article on fear and the nanny state that our population seems to be begging for...

Demands that genuinely inept government officials be held accountable are necessary and wise, but demands that political leaders ensure that we can live in womb-like Absolute Safety are delusional and destructive.  Yet this is what the citizenry screams out every time something threatening happens:  please, take more of our privacy away; monitor more of our communications; ban more of us from flying; engage in rituals to create the illusion of Strength; imprison more people without charges; take more and more control and power so you can Keep Us Safe.

And another great quote, damning the fear-driven media...

For a variety of reasons, nobody aids this process more than our establishment media, motivated by their own interests in ratcheting up fear and Terrorism melodrama as high as possible.  The result is a citizenry far more terrorized by our own institutions than foreign Terrorists could ever dream of achieving on their own.  For that reason, a risk that is completely dwarfed by numerous others -- the risk of death from Islamic Terrorism -- dominates our discourse, paralyzes us with fear, leads us to destroy our economic security and eradicate countless lives in more and more foreign wars, and causes us to beg and plead and demand that our political leaders invade more of our privacy, seize more of our freedom, and radically alter the system of government we were supposed to have.

[Sgt PSN]

there's a fine line between fear mongering and simply passing along relevant and necessary info and the media/bush administration crossed that line a long time ago. 

there's a lot of buzz going around right now about how the gov't didn't learn from 9/11 by sharing some of the intell they had prior to the attacks on the wtc.  and now it's been reported that there was solid intel about the attempt on xmas and that it could have been prevented had the information been passed along. 

there's an entire generation of young people today entering their teens who have little or no recollection of 9/11 and the impact it had on our country.  to them, "terrorism" is just some word they hear on the news from time to time.  people have essentially "forgotten" about terrorism and that's exactly what is going to make us vulnerable to another attack.  the gov't needs to keep people informed of relevant "terrorist news" but also needs to find a way to distribute that info without causing widespread panic or fear. 

we want to think that if we just sweep terrorism under a rug and don't talk about it, that it'll all go away.  we also think that anytime the media reports on terrorism that they are fear mongering and posturing for better ratings (which is probably true in most cases) and dismiss their reports and say to ourselves that they are over the top and just trying to scare us.  terrorism is the new wolf and the media has been shouting it out for nearly a decade now and americans have finally stopped listening. 

gotta find a way to balance it out so that serious matters get reported and reported matters are taken seriously. 

[rjs246]

You are 100% wrong about young people today 'forgetting' about terrorism. It is a part of the national vocabulary now as deeply ingrained in us as monday night football or the simpsons. It is such a penetrating part of our life that we all take our shoes off without being asked when we wait in line at airport security. There are perpetual 'terror level travel warnings' that we don't even think about because they have so permeated our accepted perception of the world. The only news and information that we are EVER fed is bad news, panicky news, people are trying to kill us news. Maybe we aren't actively thinking and talking about it like we were after 9/11 but that's only because this perpetual state of fear is fed to us in such large volume that we aren't even shocked by it any more. Of course people are trying to kill us. Don't you watch the news? It's nonsense. Things like this are news exactly because they are so rare and outlandish. But when news reports are designed to make people worry that they too are at risk, when mathematically and probablity-wise we absolutely are at NO RISK of dying at the hands of terrorists, things have gone too far. Fear is the state that this country lives in right now and the medis uses that to boost ratings and draw advertisers. Politicians use it to get elected and knock each other down.

Meanwhile, we're all 1000s of times more likely to die of heart disease or diabetes or a car crash or a million other things than we are to ever come into contact with an aggressive terrorist act.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking that people have forgotten 9/11. That day changed the entire landscape of this country for the long term and not for the better. We're no safer now, we're just a hell of a lot more scared.

[General_Failure]

Teenagers view 9/11 the same way someone my age sees something like Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination.

[hbionic]

Teenagers view 9/11 the same way someone my age sees something like Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination.

...as a potential video game?

[ice grillin you]

its disgusting how much play the flight 253 incident got compared to us letting someone walk into a US military installation and blow 8 cia employees to smithereens

[Sgt PSN]

You are 100% wrong about young people today 'forgetting' about terrorism.

RIF dook.  no one said anything about people forgetting about terrorism.  what i said is that young teenagers and kids entering their teens don't know what it was like to live in a pre-9/11 america.  so all of the changes that we grown up folk have dealt with over the last 10 years aren't changes to these kids.  they grew up in post 9/11 america.  as far as they know or are concerned, that's just the way life is. 

my oldest is turning 13 in february.  she was about 3 and a half when 9/11 went down.  so the feelings that you, me or anyone else had that day don't resinate with her.  it's ancient history as far as her and her friends go.  in other words....

Teenagers view 9/11 the same way someone my age sees something like Pearl Harbor or the Kennedy assassination.

[rjs246]

You are 100% wrong about young people today 'forgetting' about terrorism.

RIF dook.  no one said anything about people forgetting about terrorism. 

people have essentially "forgotten" about terrorism and that's exactly what is going to make us vulnerable to another attack.

RIF, indeed.

[Diomedes]

spell it out for me, what is RIF?

I'm having trouble keeping up with you internet savvy chaps

[General_Failure]

Reading is fundamental.