I am hooked on Internet news and blogs. I admit it freely. I live in a very rural area, so rural that I don't get TV reception.....
This is an unmitigated blessing, and I have never missed it. In fact, when I visit my relatives on the Mainland, I am ever more shocked and amazed by the raw squalor, displayed right in their living rooms by the ever-larger, and ever-louder, TV screens. What a miracle it has been for me, the last couple of years and especially now that I have a Mac and a high-speed connection, to get what are now my favorite "TV" shows on my computer: Democracy Now!, the Daily Show, Bill Moyer's Journal, and the Colbert Report. These are just the gravy atop the solid fare of blogs like Daily Kos, Americablog, Firedoglake, and Truthout.org.
So imagine my dismay when I received an increasing number of rightwing propaganda emails from my older brother, who just (in his 63rd year) got his first computer and internet connection. You must bear in mind that my brother, Bob, is not a reader - but he does like to watch the "news" on TV.
Here's the latest example of outrageousness that he has somehow come to espouse:
Get this - here is a portion of his latest email:
Hillary and the Cowboy
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, on an airliner bound
for Texas , finds
herself seated next to an older, weathered man in a western snap
shirt, faded jeans, and a cowboy hat. Thinking herself above the
old cowboy, she decides to make sport of him.
"You know," she says, "I've heard these flights go much more quickly
if you strike up a conversation with a fellow passenger. So, let's talk."
The cowboy looks at her wryly and says, "Well I s'pose that'd be all
right, m'am. What'd ya like to discuss?"
"Oh, I don't know," says Hillary with a slight hint of sarcasm.
"How about Iraq ?"
"Hmm," says the cowboy, sensing an attempt to perhaps belittle him,
"That could be an interesting topic. But let me ask you a question
first: Horses, cows, and deer all eat the same stuff--grass. Yet a
deer passes little pellets, a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse
makes muffins of dried poop. Why do you suppose that is?"
Dumbfounded, Senator Clinton replies, "Sir, I haven't the slightest
idea."
"So tell me, then," says the cowboy with a smile. "How is it that
you feel qualified to discuss Iraq when you don't know shit?"
I couldn't stand to let this go by, especially considering the other Hillary smears I've been reading about lately (including Dick Cheney's latest dig at Hillary today):
Cheney took a shot at Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York by saying her requests to the Defense Department for withdrawal plans for Iraq are "political."
"What we don't do is we don't get into the business of sharing operational plans -- we never have -- with the Congress," he said.
"We always have got a lot of contingencies, where we're going to start shedding those to respond to the political charges, such as those that Sen. Clinton made, I think would be unwise," Cheney continued.
Let's set aside for a moment Cheney's terrible grammar. Now, I am not a fan of Hillary for President - far from it. (I'm one of those waiting for Gore to enter; if that doesn't happen, I'm for Edwards) - but I couldn't let this parroting of right-wing smear tactics go by, especially as I feel that my brother doesn't really put much effort into getting his news (plus I think that he was actually trying to be funny). Despite the fact that I taught the first day of school today, after working 14 hours to get my class ready yesterday, I couldn't rest until I had replied to him, with references (that in the back of my mind I know he will probably not read) ....
And since I had been so rigorous with my internet references and links, I thought I would just post the whole interchange as a diary ... my second on Daily Kos. (Take that, from a stodgy old schoolteacher, Bill O'Reilly!)
Here's the text of the email I sent in reply to my brother:
Aloha Bob,
I often ignore these bizarre political emails you send, but this is too much.
I don't know where you are getting this propaganda, but I read the news - both US news and international news - via the internet - every day, and I can see that this type of email thing is a rude attempt to smear a US Senator who has, in the last few days, written a perfectly legitimate letter (Congress has that right) to the Pentagon to ask them to say what their plan is for an eventual withdrawal from Iraq. (You can't be in favor of staying in Iraq forever, can you?)
Bush (the "old cowboy" who is not really from Texas - he's from the privileged estates of Kennebunkport, Maine, but fakes a Southern accent) has said he plans for the US to be in Iraq for the next 50 years, just like Korea, but this war has cost $4+ billion so far, not to mention all the US soldiers(2500+) and Iraqi civilians(40,000-650,000?) killed and wounded). In response, Senator Clinton has been labeled by Bush supporters, and today by VP Cheney, as a "traitor", and as "supporting the enemy." Is this true statesmanship on the Administration's part? I think not. I feel that Senator Clinton's question is legitimate and proper. A US Senator has a perfect right to ask the Pentagon about their contingency plans, since the Congress provides funding for the war.
Your last few emails are not funny, and show an ignorance of the facts of this war and of the crimes of the Bush administration. Your emails seem to show that you are a victim of a propaganda smear machine, - generated by extremists - who may prefer having a dictatorship over a democracy. I think you may be limiting yourself as to which "information" sources you choose. Think for yourself! !! Read or watch the real news (not just FOX, CBS, etc., which are controlled by big corporations in bed with big-money-funded-corrupt senators like Duke Cunningham (R), Bob Ney (R), and Ted Stevens (R), all supporters of the war since it lines their pockets, and all convicted or being investigated for bribery etc.).
Why don't you try watching, listening, or reading these legitimate, recognized, and worldwide internet sources?:
- Democracy Now! - TV news the way it used to be but rarely is nowadays: http://democracynow.org/
- Crooks and Liars - has a lot of videos and links to original sources: http://www.crooksandliars.com/
- Bill Moyers Journal via PBS - has some great interviews - http://www.pbs.org/... or you can probably get him on TV on PBS (I can't but am so grateful for the internet!)
be sure to check out his interview with Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, and John Nichols, author of The Genius of Impeachment, discussing why it is Constitutionally correct, and necessary, to impeach President Bush for his crimes against the US Constitution!: http://www.pbs.org/... .
Bob My Big Brother, you are a pretty smart guy, but I think that you are not checking your sources. You seem to be misled by the corporate propaganda machine that is generated over the corporate-run mainstream TV. Please don't become a mindless follower of these lies! Please check out these sources, or if you think I'm being too wild, try some of the international news sources, like:
- the BBC
2)Mc Clatchy (formerly Knight-Ridder) news service
3) Reuters
Or check out a really great scholar on Iraq and the Middle East - Professor Juan Cole - at Informed Comment:.
I love you, and I don't want to see you misled by this fascist propaganda. Don't shoot your mouth (or your email) off without being informed! -
Please take the time to read up on the real issues facing our country. .... we are in a worse Constitutional crisis right now than Watergate, but you won't see that on FOX "news" !! Inform yourself from some real sources, so you won't sound like a such a fool, following a snake-oil salesman. You are a Vietnam Veteran - you know what it is like to have to go to war for a lie. That is what is happening in Iraq right now, only worse because due to advances in medical technology, more soldiers are being kept alive to come home with much worse injuries...
Please take your head out of the sand! I know that if you really listen and pay attention, you will agree that Senator Clinton's question to the Pentagon is right on for what our country needs right now - other than impeachment! The last poll said 70% of Americans dissapprove of Bush. A solid majority of our citizens want to get out of Iraq ... so if you agree (or will educate yourself), you will start speaking out IN SUPPORT of anything we can do to support our troops and get them out of this illegal war. ...
Love,
I realize now that I can't just do my own political blogging and petition-signing. I am so busy right now that I can't see straight ... and then I read about teachers in Afghanistan getting murdered in front of their students. When senators are labeled as traitors, the rest of us dissidents aren't far behind. When will we start being "disappeared?" And what will our brainwashed relatives think when it happens? Will they believe what they're spoonfed by "Faux" news? That we "don't know shit?" That we're traitors? That perhaps we are better off being transported to Guantanamo as "enemy combatants" for voicing opposition to the Bush regime?
We need to educate those around us, especially the "Brother Bobs" who are just working stiffs, or retired, and who generally just go along, come home and have a beer or two, and vegetate in front of the "FOX" channel. Otherwise, we may find ourselves being turned in by these lazy "patriots" when they are brainwashed into thinking we are traitors to our country.