Reads Frank Rich...

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Prairie pokes her head out.

Reads Frank Rich's Sunday column

Could She Reach the Top in 2012? You Betcha

Decides Rich stopped one step before the real top she can reach.

Pukes.

Goes back into hiding.

Rich Raging

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Frank Rich opines on the sorry reaction to the smearing of Shirley Sherrod.

Maybe Frank gets together with these guys for tea and crumpets from time to time. But it's long past time to recognize that this situation, this evil, persists because too many in the media, too many in the political elite, treat the Breitbarts and Limbaughs and Drudges as some amusing little theatre.

Yet incidents of violence are on the rise, threats of danger are on the rise. Who will own the tragedy now foreshadowing?

Who will look in the mirror honestly and admit the false equivalencies, the ginning-up, the "it's out there" level of danger growing within? Beck? O'Reilly? Ailes? Murdoch? Armey? McConnell? Bachmann? Angle? Palin? Erickson? The numbers are legion.

The willful blinders shamefully obvious. The enabling media equally so.

The Breitbarts never change. The evil oozes out of them like fetid slime, spreading fear, hate, division. The wonder is that so many, still, whitewash the full depth of what they do.

White sheets...too easy to crawl between 'em and close your eyes.
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crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal

Bogged Down

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Don't worry, small people, your troubles are few.
The BP oil execs care about you. Truly. They do.

They said so at the White House. They said so on the Hill.
They said so at the microphone. What's this? There is a bill?

They think about you day by day
While they wile away

Their hours on their yachts
Contemplating neither nail nor cog.

Yachts named Bob that sail around the Wight
Leaving deepwater thoughts to another's plight

They lap up apologia from Joe and from Michele.
They jet deluxe not hike you know, pip pip and whatthehell.

For who would begrudge poor Tony's life
Doubtless with a charming wife.

Yet for all their naughts
The Gulf becomes the Bog.
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Crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal
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UPDATE: More on the matter of the burgeoning bog from Frank Rich. Another 9/11 demands action.
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'Randslide'

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For now, it's the gimmicky word o'the day.

And the focus of plenty of media punditobabble. Frank Rich offers his take.

But the question is, will Randslide avalanche over the Dems? Or backfire on the Republicans and bury their corporatocracy once and for all?

Seems to me, if you can't even answer a straight question from Rachel Maddow, then the real Randslide is right into obscurity. Dr. Paul, your fifteen minutes are ticking....
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Rich.

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Taking a poke at the eminently pokeworthy Washington press corps' preening selves.
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While Times Square played out virtually unreported.
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Maybe if they'd turned on the New Year's Eve balldrop....
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They R all Faux Snooze now.
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The 70% Solution

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Frank Rich cuts through the economist apologist bullpucky with the finesse of a ginsu knife.

"Mistakes were made..." "everyone believed...."

Maybe the denialist crowd Rich weaves together, including Rubin and Greenspan and the whole WMD platoon, can gather where East meets West and spare us all further spewings of their self-serving sludge.

I believe the word is seppuku.
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Prairie Recommends: Frank Rich

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Just in case you didn't notice that the choleric rage from the right was about more than healthcare reform.
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Prairie's Reading: Rich on Econ-terrorism

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Oh, he doesn't call it that—econ-terrorism—in his column, The Other Plot to Wreck America. But in fact, Frank Rich lays out a compelling commentary on the destructive economic tactics titans of Wall Street have wreaked, unchecked, on all of the rest of us. And fully expect to keep on doing. Unless.

This could be, should be, the most important news of coming days — initial hearings of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, its chairman former California treasurer Phil Angelides.

One presumes that a public official from the state arguably hardest hit by the Enron corruption would bring his own compelling case to the destructive chaos that is the current state of the economy. (and one would hope the willfully myopic malfeasant Larry Summers would step out into the real country where the economy matches the weather and stop with the bullshit that everything is rosy-dosy once again.)

But wait, first we have to be fearmongered about Underpants Bomber; titillated by the penises of Tiger and John Edwards; toss in a few flashes of the gams and cleavage of Gretchen and Erin and Mika for the boobs rabble and pretty soon you have more of the same ol'.....

Unless we say, "enough."

So I'm saying it. Enough. Report on what matters. Report facts. Farm out the pundits and the partisans to the pasture.

Enough.
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crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal

UPDATE QUESTION: So... anybody hear a word about this hearing on the Sunday gasbag shows or evening news cycle? Nope. Me neither.

Prairie Recommends: Frank Rich Rides the Tiger

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NYT columnist Frank Rich reminds us we've been here before: bamboozled by our leaders, led into willfully reckless disregard of what's right before our eyes if we'd only pull down our fingers to see.

Oh, he's talking about Tiger Woods, and the Iraq War, and Enron, and Ben Bernanke.

But really, aren't we seeing yet another past is prologue in the healthcare reform?

No public option. No true competition. Trust us, say the leaders. Trust us, say the insurance companies. Trust us, say the big pharma companies. Trust us, say Ben, and Olympia, and Joe and all the rest.

When will they ever learn?

When will we ever learn?
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Prairie Recommends: Frank Rich Balloons

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Actually, the most resonant part was the commenter to Rich's column who noted:

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mhughes

Grasshopper Junction, AZ

October 25th, 2009

8:51 am

“They put on a very good show for us, and we bought it,” the local sheriff, Jim Alderden, said ...”

Rich: “His words could stand as the epitaph for an era.“

Or a nation.

True that.
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Sadly those who should most read Rich's column are likely staring in their mirrors, posing.
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Prairie Recommends: Rich Rabbit Ragu

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After reading Frank Rich's take on the rabbit raguicizing of Washington under Democratic domain, all that's left is to barf.

Next required reading: Animal Farm.
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Prairie Recommends: Frank Rich on Obama's Afghan Decision

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Will Obama bow to the will of the General reading his McChrystal ball?

Or will he find common ground with conservative columnist George Will?

Frank Rich deconstructs the options facing President Obama going forward in--or out of--Afghanistan. And traces the parallels to the decision facing another President, an earlier time, about Vietnam. What's that ol' saw about lessons of history again?

And in Rich's comparison, conspiracy theorists can now add a new posit to bloody November 22. A military sharpshooter eliminating the obstacle to their drumbeat for expanded war in SE Asia?

But this time, the vice president would not bend to their sturm und drang. So they're back to pressuring the president to yield to their will. Bush would. Will Obama?
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crossposted at firedoglake's The Seminal

Prairie Recommends: Frank Rich

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As Frank Rich reminds us, Cronkite was a helluva lot more than pulling off his glasses that dark November day.

And the "journalists" of today are too often a helluva lot less.
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Frank Rich Carries the Baton forward from Krugman

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Friday I steered you to Krugman. Tonight, add Frank Rich to the mix. Finally, we are seeing the opinion writers of trad med take a long overdue stand against the media which not only enable, they egg-on their rightwing followers into violent acts.

The examples are legion of how the establishment media have played along with the hatemongering tactics, giving the cover of their brand [MSNBC-Buchanan, anyone?] to the vilest of hate speech.

Oh, and as long as we're doing examples, Frank Rich ably takes on Fox, Limbaugh and the rest of the Usual Suspects, but how about stuff like NBC and Matt Lauer? I thought Letterman's joke was a stupid joke, too. But I also spoke out about Limbaugh's jokes about Chelsea Clinton back in the day. But in their $$$$-focused eyes, giving Sarah Palin a platform to shovel her insinuations against Letterman was probably some convoluted way to tear down Conan's competition at a critical time. Never mind that it tears down public discourse.

Meanwhile, you have hatemongers like Jon Voight with the seal of approval of Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Confederacy of ReTHUGS making not so subtle comparisons to assassinated historic leaders.

Frank Rich applauds Shep Smith, but the rest of the Fox screeders continue

Enough Blame to Go Around?

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Frank Rich poses a question for his Sunday column: Who is to blame for the next attack against us? And goes on to posit that the Republicans will seize on such a happening--nay, are hoping for it in some quarters--as the only chance they have to gain ground against President Obama.

The column makes for strong food for thought, and I recommend you read it. [I'll wait....]

For me, the column edged around a strong truth--the Bush Administration, the Republicans could not have operated as they did without the collaboration / collusion / cooperation -- call it what you will, of the very self-important traditional media.

And just in case the NYT mod decides not to publish my comment, here it is:

The underpinning of too much of the mess we were left by "the bums" is the media that turned a willful blind eye to facts, cosied up to fearmongers and enabled their drumbeat to War in Iraq and torture.

The McClatchy reporters are [the] best example of a dying breed: journalists who dig out the truth and refuse to pass along spin as fact...they are to be saluted, and cherished, for their like in mainstream media is rarely seen.

Instead we are treated to tabloidized everything--from the singing Scotswoman to the new Supreme Court Justice. All coverage dumbed down and manipulated for "Mortal Combat" controversy.

No wonder people are turning away from traditional media. You are "the bums," too.

Craven, cowardly Democrats who routinely cave to the least little pressure from Repuglican spinmeisters [see any comment by Lanny Davis] deserve the scorn Rich gives them.

"I would hope" that we will see better from the Dems...but also from those who purport to be journalists yet do little more than regurgitate the spin o'the day.
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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

The DeeCee Disconnect

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Frank Rich cuts through the punditization and fetishization of inside-the-Beltway thinking and, well, basically, the rest of the immediate world's reality.

Smokin'!
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Are "We" Up to the Challenge?

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For the last four days we've watched the methodical and sweeping changes President Obama has delivered. We've made much of executive orders on closing Gitmo and restoring funding for family planning global programs and....

We've buzzed over the giant step upward from cowboyness to manhood that defines the arc from Bush to Obama.

We've kibitzed about all manner of changes, from blogs to op-eds. As Frank Rich opines for Sunday, Obama calls on us in austere terms to put aside the shallow and childish for the responsible. Rich concludes, in "No Time for Poetry": While it’s become a Beltway cliché that America’s new young president has yet to be tested, it is past time for us to realize that our own test is also about to begin.

While he may be talking about every American, every citizen, there's one group that needs singling out for special confrontation: Rich's own cohorts in the "mainstream media."

Sunday morning launches as officially as there is the new media age for the Obama years. Sure there were the preliminaries, the predictable rants of folks like O'Reilly, the riffs of Stewart and Colbert, the jockeying for questioning in the WH press room, the nightly news reporters reciting as fact the debunked "61" Gitmo detainees fighting against us.

But it's on Sunday morning that conventional wisdom takes root, that arguments are put forward, that truths are revealed...or hidden or omitted.

How will the Sunday morning gang—John King, Bob Schieffer, George Stephanopoulus, David Gregory—acquit themselves? Will they enable false framing...or confront it? Will they blithely let blatant and debunked numbers slip-slide on by...or will they clearly clarify?

Sunday morning Senators and Congresspeople and the Vice President will sit across from these hosts. Experts on finance and the challenges of the current economy.

Will we hear facts? Or spin? And will the Sunday morning gang be up to the challenge of sorting it out? We'll be watching.

No matter what Chris Matthews or others in the old media may want to tell themselves, being "journalists" is not earned by dint of having a teevee show or a newspaper column.

And the era of infotainment, like the rest of the childish things, must be put aside. Because we're all in this together. And we all are being put to the test.

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crossposted at firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette

Substance

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The other night on the Daily Show, outgoing White House press secretary Dana Perino chastised the media for not focusing on substance. No argument there...

So here's some substance.
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Prisoner of....

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More and more, John McCain is looking like a prisoner of slimeball rightwing political "consultants" and cronies and "conservative" voices of the Atwater-Rovian School of sleazeball politics. Delivering hostage tapes of lies to appease those who control him.

At least that's the only possible alternative explanation to John McCain being so desperate and covetous of winning the Presidency that he will stoop to any vile tactic of race-baiting and inciting hatred and anger in the crowds who attend rallies to hear his and, even more, Sarah Palin's scathing and disingenuous attacks on Barack Obama.

Attacks that are joined by the likes of Cindy McCain and Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Some company to keep.

Even as he calls McCain to account, though, Frank Rich like too many of his fellow reporters and opiners gives him a pass--and a benefit of the doubt that McCain no longer deserves.

The McCain campaign has crossed the line between tough negative campaigning and inciting vigilantism, and each day the mob howls louder.

Friday in Lakeville, Minnesota, McCain grudgingly responded to one of Minnesota's lesser nice [shorter: Lice] citizen's attack on Obama as an "Arab" by saying that Obama was a decent family man, a citizen, that they had disagreements.....

Now, maybe McCain had an epiphany and realized he needed to pull back from the rants and rousing of the rabble. Or maybe not.

Because just moments from that comment, McCain was attacking Obama as someone who never worked across the aisle. A flat-out bald-faced thou-shalt-bear-no-false-witness lie that would come as a surprise to Senator Dick Lugar [R-IN] and Senator Tom Coburn [R-OK]...for starters.

But then, when McCain signed on with the merchants of hate and gambled on Palin the Barbarian, he signed away his Honor Conduct.
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UPDATE: Garrison Keillor has thoughtful words for real honor conduct. And Matt Tiabbi dons his hazmat suit to delve into the world of Rove.
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[crossposted at Firedoglake's Oxdown Gazette]

What We Know

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What we know about the two presidential presumptives, thanks to Rev. Rick Warren's Faith Forum, is that:

John McCain is congenitally incapable of diverging from his stump speech talking points to the extent that he'll even alert you that he's going to ignore your question so he can bombast about his talking points.

Barack Obama is cool, measured, thoughtful, reasoned, nuanced, diplomatic and have I mentioned thoughtful? Guess that "aloha spirit" from his "foreign, exotic" vacation with his family in the state where he grew up was good for him. Maybe we should all toss in a few coin and send Chippy, erm, Cokie Roberts over there for a little attitude adjustment.

But how much more did we learn about the candidates? Did we learn where Johnny McCain got his wacky sense of humor? Did we learn why his Mommy sued his first wife after he dumped her for a younger, rich heiress blonde wife...getting his marriage license before he even had his divorce papers finalized? Did we learn about Johnny's ties to lobbyists and their ties to most all the scandals and controversies of the day?

Some say we've heard too much about Barack Obama. Some--like Frank Rich--say we haven't yet heard enough about John McCain.
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