Two media outrages, one rejection of bipartisanship that the media doesn’t seem to mind and an entry in the “obvious things to be done quickly” department make up today’s offering.
Last week, the Los Angeles Times cornered the market for absurd editorials with its “New, Nuanced Patriotism” howler. Stung, perhaps, by the ridicule, the Times comes back this week with a rant by novelist Barbara Kingsolver – titled by the Times “No Glory in Unjust War on the Weak” – that argues America “has answered one terrorist act with another. …” The editors of the Times must have worked with Kingsolver because she managed to work into her piece the line that “the last time we got to elect somebody, the majority of us, by a straight popular vote count, did not ask for the guy who is currently telling us we will win this war. …”
Kingsolver is entitled to her wooly-headed nonsense, but what possesses the Times to run this as the lead – and only above-the-fold – article in the Opinion section? Long-time readers of the paper are used to economic advice direct from Sesame Street (see Sunday’s editorial “No Stimulus in Tax Cuts”), but the paper’s bizarre opinions, combined with choices and placements like Kingsolver, are taking the entire organization into a strange corner of American journalism reserved for The Spotlight and “political” weeklies supported by phone-sex ads. As a public service, I again suggest a call or e-mail to the big guy at The Tribune Company that owns the Times, John Madigan. His phone number is (312) 222-9100, x-3123, and his e-mail is [email protected]. Of course, his paper has the right to run Kingsolver in the middle of a war that has already claimed more than 5,000 American lives. But is he proud to elevate such voices under his banner? What, you have to wonder, would they have done with a “Hitler’s Not So Bad” piece by a Kingsolver type in December 1941?
The second collapse of judgment belonged to Chris Matthews. On the morning after the president’s press conference, Matthews appeared on the Imus radio program. Though everyone else in elite media hailed the president’s demeanor and the substance of his remarks, Matthews reverted to the pre-Sept. 11 partisan hack that has always lurked behind the smiling, spittle-generating egomaniac-in-residence at CNBC: “Bush was interesting last night because he was very good in the beginning and then you realized he ran out of vocabulary words at about 8:20. And the ‘evil ones’ – I was waiting for the ‘evil eye’ at some point last night. I mean everything was the ‘evil-doers.’ It’s cartoon talk, it’s for 8-year-old kids reading books. … Imagine telling our grandkids 30 years from now, ‘Oh, the evil-doers did it.’ They’d think we were nitwits.”
Matthews would never say such things directly into the camera while hosting Hardball – that would require courage and could endanger his income. But the fact that he went on this rant just hours before a fellow employee at NBC was revealed to have contracted anthrax from a terror attack aimed at NBC host Tom Brokaw spoke volumes about the substance of Matthews’ analysis, which was thin as always. Do you suppose Brokaw’s assistant thinks “evildoers” is inappropriate? Do you think Brokaw shares Matthews’ opinion that this is “cartoon talk” and the clear implication that the president is a nitwit? Or is Matthews simply tolerated as the clown who’s good for a laugh? Matthews can be e-mailed at [email protected], and you can share your view of the “cartoon talk” with the president of NBC, Andrew Lack, at NBC News, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112. The mail is moving very slowly at NBC because of the “evildoers,” however, so you may want to call Lack at (212) 664-4444.
Next up on the “can you believe this” list, is Tom Daschle. Senator Daschle pulled the energy bill from the Senate Committee last week where bipartisan support guaranteed that the proposal to drill the Artic National Wildlife Refuge would pass. So much for the successor to Vandenberg stuff. Daschle made it worse when he allowed his colleague, Democrat Jeff Bingaman who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, to explain that Daschle acted “to avoid divisive votes in committee.” Evidently Daschle believes that it is better to lie to the public in the middle of a national emergency than to upset the special interest groups that fund your candidates. The media has barely stopped to take note of this assault on bipartisanship and the deceit which clothes it.
There is really only one response – write a check to John Thune. Thune is the South Dakota congressman who is running against Tom Daschle’s best friend and seat-mate in the Senate, Tim Johnson. Johnson is a colorless extension of Daschle best known for hiding out in South Dakota when Democrats worked to exclude the military absentee ballots in Florida last year. Johnson’s son is an officer in the Army, so the irony was a little much for him and he put out a press release saying all votes should be counted. This did not exactly meet the objections of his constituents, so he was already in trouble when the popular Thune entered the race. So, send a check made out to John Thune for Senate, P.O. Box 516, Sioux Falls, SD, 57101. Individuals cannot give more than $1,000 but even $25 gets the point across. Be sure to send a copy to Daschle if you can, with a note explaining your motives. Send a copy to Johnson as well.
Finally, I have been waiting for the obvious suggestion about airport travel – and I haven’t seen it – so I’ll make it here. Millions of Americans have the sort of credentials that should allow them to pass through screening and check bags quickly. Others would be willing to submit to the background checks necessary to get those credentials – say a local law-enforcement review of residence/voting record/lack of arrest record/years as an altar boy etc. There is a lot of resistance to a national identity card, but a voluntary application for fast-travel credentials should not raise any civil-liberty concerns, and the more of us that apply for and receive such credentials, the shorter the lines all around.
This “fast-track” concept is used on toll rolls and at the border. Although some will criticize it as “elitist,” I’ll put up with the usual suspects screaming about privileges in order to see the frequent-flying and highly reliable American business community checking their bags at the curb and sailing past the checkpoints. The Kansas grown family of six on a trip to see grandma in Florida should not have to be subjected to the same sort of restrictions as the foreign-born traveling on a student visa. I suppose it is possible for some bad guy to stuff some dangerous commodity in Joey from DesMoines’ backpack, but if we are going to return to a semblance of normalcy, we are going to have to embrace some common sense on threat identification and analysis. I boldly submit that it is safe to re-open the parking structures at Los Angeles International to drivers showing a California drivers license, a U.S. Passport, and a certified birth certificate. If it’s safe enough to open the papers to Kingsolver, the airwaves to Matthews and the Senate to Daschle, then it’s safe enough to allow homegrown and pre-cleared taxpayers to park within a mile of the terminal.
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