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Banned
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Is Al Gore Giving Dianne Sawyer a Prescription to Revive this Dead Forum & US Focus?
Quote:
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/21/...yer-interview/
Sawyer’s Interview Focuses On Media’s Obsessions With Gore, Reaffirms Thesis Of His Book
In his new book, The Assault on Reason, which will be released tomorrow, Al Gore explains “why logic and reason and the best evidence available and the scientific discoveries do not have more force in changing the way we all think about the reality we are now facing.” Gore explains that part of the explanation lies in how much television viewing time is devoted to coverage of “serial obsessions,” such as the Anna Nicole Smith and JonBenet Ramsey.
In her interview with Al Gore this morning, ABC’s Diane Sawyer displayed the media’s propensity to focus on their “serial obsessions” rather than substantive issues that currently affect the country.
Sawyer’s first question to Gore was “You’re not going to tell me again that you have no plans to run, are you?” Gore quickly disposed of the question, saying, “Well, I’m not a candidate and this book is not a political book, it’s not a candidate book at all.” That answer didn’t prevent Sawyer from re-asking the question three more times, consuming airtime that could instead have demonstrated how to raise the level of debate.
Some lowlights:
SAWYER: Again, not to come back to this and fall into your thesis that the press only wants the horserace of the political campaign, but one way…
GORE: But back to the horserace.
[…]
SAWYER: And what will it be that causes you to make that decision, if you’re waiting and watching?
GORE: Well, you know, I’m not pondering it, I’m not focused on that.
[…]
SAWYER: I just want to say, Donna Brazile, your former campaign manager, has said, If he drops 25 to 30 pounds he’s running. Lost any weight?
<b>Watch it:</b>
At the conclusion of the interview, Gore mocked Sawyer’s line of questioning. “Listen to your questions,” he said. “You know, the horserace, the cosmetic parts of this — and, look, that’s all understandable and natural. But while we’re focused on, you know, Britney and K-Fed and Anna Nicole Smith and all this stuff, meanwhile, <h3>very quietly, our country has been making some very serious mistakes that could be avoided if we, the people, including the news media, are involved in a full and vigorous discussion of what our choices are.”</h3>
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....and....isn't "the problem" in this country, and on this forum, that "the gulf" between Gore's mindset and the following, is so "wide"......coupled with the "disconnect" of the news/infotainment "coverage" on display in Gore's exchange with Sawyer, that <b>it precludes discussion?:</b>
Quote:
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/p...8/1311/48HOURS
Gingrich: Fight 'radical secularism'
At Liberty graduation, a tribute to Falwell
By BOB LEWIS
The Associated Press
May 20, 2007
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich told Liberty University's graduating class yesterday to honor the spirit of school founder Jerry Falwell by confronting "the growing culture of radical secularism" with Christian ideals.
Gingrich, who is considering a 2008 presidential run, quoted Bible passages to a mournful crowd of about 17,000 packed into the university's football stadium in Lynchburg, Va., four days after Falwell's death.
Despite the somber tone of the day, graduates who covered the football field chanted "Jerry! Jerry!" in tribute to Falwell.
<b>"A growing culture of radical secularism</b> declares that the nation cannot profess the truths on which it was founded," Gingrich said. "We are told that our public schools can no longer invoke the creator, nor proclaim the natural law nor profess the God-given quality of human rights.
"In hostility to American history, the radical secularists insist that religious belief is inherently divisive and that public debate can only proceed on secular terms," he said.
Liberty's commencement <b>has become a forum for conservative politicians. Last year's address came from Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who made amends with Falwell</b> after attacking him by name during McCain's failed 2000 White House bid.
<b>Gingrich said he won't decide until October whether to run for president.</b>
It was the first commencement without Falwell, the Baptist preacher who established the church-based university in 1971, before he founded the Moral Majority that helped elect Ronald Reagan president in 1980.
On Tuesday morning, the 73-year-old Falwell was discovered without a pulse in his office at Liberty and pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later. His physician said Falwell had a heart condition and presumably died of a heart rhythm abnormality.
His funeral was set for Tuesday.
His son, Jerry Falwell Jr., addressed Liberty's students as the school's new chancellor.
Gingrich said after his speech that Falwell's death would not slow the Christian right's efforts.
<h3>"Anybody on the left who hopes that when people like Reverend Falwell disappear that the opportunity to convert all of America has gone with them fundamentally misunderstands why institutions like this were created," Gingrich said.</h3>
------ End of article
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Although I can certainly see an opportunity for republicans with a more politically moderate and secular POV than the ones exhibited by the pandering former house speaker Newt Gingrich and last year, by US senator and presidential candidate John McCain, I don't see how folks with similar views to mine....to the left of Al Gore, can find common ground to engage in discussion with more moderate....but largely compliant (I don't see anything unusual going on here on the American political front...) republicans, especially in view of the post 9/11 political "message of fear" that allegedly justified the invasion and continuing occupation of Iraq, and of course, "things" like this:
Quote:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwash...hington_nation
Posted on Sun, May. 20, 2007
U. S. ATTORNEYS
Efforts to stop `voter fraud' may have curbed legitimate voting
By Greg Gordon
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - During four years as a Justice Department civil rights lawyer, Hans von Spakovsky went so far in a crusade against voter fraud as to warn of its dangers under a pseudonym in a law journal article.
Writing as "Publius," von Spakovsky contended that every voter should be required to produce a photo-identification card and that there was "no evidence" that such restrictions burden minority voters disproportionately.
Now, amid a scandal over politicization of the Justice Department, Congress is beginning to examine allegations that von Spakovsky was a key player in a Republican campaign to hang onto power in Washington by suppressing the votes of minority voters.
"Mr. von Spakovsky was central to the administration's pursuit of strategies that had the effect of suppressing the minority vote," charged Joseph Rich, a former Justice Department voting rights chief who worked under him. ......
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So, knowing what "I know"....and with Gore's demonstration today of "the problem" with the media, and with a "war on terror" that seems guaranteed to "mint" new terrorists, a DOJ civil rights division transformed into an agency that reverses the protections that justified the division's existence, and "mainstream" republican politicians openly backing a "conversion drive" by christian fundamentalists, while providing justification for a DOJ operating in reverse mode, because of a non-existent <b>"growing culture of radical secularism"</b> (translated to mean white fundamentalist christian republicans must dominate the DOJ and all other federal branches of government, for their own safety....)... <b>I invite input as to how I should go about moderating my mindset (and that of likeminded folks), my "attitude", to invite/promote "in depth" political discussion?</b> |