Oh, I know it’s petulant, but when I was looking through YouTube last night, and I saw the huge number of people who had posted videos because they were upset on account of the Dallas Cowboys losing a playoff football game, I felt the urgent need to rant.
The recent decision by Judge Karen Lecraft Henderson, just two days before the Dallas Cowboys lost their game, that people taken prisoner as suspects by the American government are A) no longer persons and B) should expect to be tortured, was on my mind. I wonder how many Dallas Cowboys fans even bothered to read about Judge Henderson’s legal decision.
American liberty is being ripped and trampled, and these people are despondent because a bunch of professional game players didn’t put in the performance they wanted?
Cry me a freakin’ river, Dallas.
Yep. I’m there with you on this one – it’s unbelievable how ignorant the American public is of politics with uber-distractions like professional sports to talk about! Sometimes I get the feeling that these types will not pay attention until they are denied the right to sit in front of their HDTV for 5 hours a day, eating potato chips and drinking Budweiser products that maybe they’d start to care. Sad, sorry situation… an apathetic, ignorant public that is exactly what is needed for this hoodwinking to continue.
Sports are the new opiate of the masses, and with ESPN sports talk shows, it’s 24/7. Sitting around, talking about sports… is there anything of less value to the common good?
On a side note, I’d like to congratulate the admins/directors etc. of irregular times for reaching their goal of 2,008 reasons to vote progressive.
Nice work ethic.
Thanks. Book version out by the end of this month. Oh, sleep comes in 2009.
i’ve noticed that even speaking with college students, most don’t know what’s going on. They have little idea how messed up the financial markets are, or why, for that matter. It’s going to be interesting to see how the Republicans “play” this election (i expect the usual “swift boat” smear campaigns, mudslinging, and outright lies, but i’m sure they have some new obfuscational tools in their kit bags to WIN AT ALL COSTS). If the American public doesn’t react to the Bush debacle by voting a significant percentage of the Republicans out of their congressional seats, it will largely indicate that America as we used to know it (before Bush) will probably never even come close to returning. i still think, however, that even with a solid Democratic majority and either Hillary (a staunch corporatist), Obama (untested, largely unknown with respect to corporate control) or Edwards (iffy, but talks a good game), until K street is kicked out of politics (which will require the overturning of the judicial pronouncement that corporations are “citizens with a voice”) not much will change for the better with the middle and lower classes, as well as many domestic policy issues after the next election. Again, i’m hopeful that i’m wrong on all counts.
Also, bringing jobs (not just service related ones – ones that pay a real wage that you can do something with, like save for retirement or put someone through college) back will require the repeal of NAFTA and GATT that Clinton got us into.
I agree, Tom. This election will be a test. Are the American people willing to take responsibility for their democracy, or are they just willing to go along with the ride, wherever that ride leads, because they’re too lazy to act as true citizens?
Why do you single out NAFTA and GAT, Tom? What do you see as their impact?