Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Along with the Daily Show and Colbert Report, the Onion is perhaps the best source of political news in America today. The unfortunate irony is that none of the three are actual news sources. While all three are brilliantly funny, the truths that they tell wrapped in satire reveal the true decay of the mainstream media. With the media asking ridiculous questions about Obama’s choices regarding lapel decorations instead of discussing the travesty that is the FISA bill (giving retroactive immunity to phone companies for warrantless wiretaps), we must count on the Onion to reveal the truth about the disaster that has been the shrub presidency.  It’s still not to late to impeach!

One of the greatest truth-tellers of the 20th century  died last night when George Carlin succumbed to heart failure. Carlin was perhaps of the funniest humorist of our time but he was much more than a comic.  He held up a mirror to the world to expose the hypocracy and absurdity of modern life.  While some criticised Carlin for the coarse language he often used, it was in fact a tool in his verbal arsenal.  One of the long standing topics of his monologues was the euphamism.  Carlin was an advocate of calling a spade a spade, not softening shell-shock to battle fatigue and then PTSD.  He used language to describe everything from the horror of war, to silliness of the hippy-dippy weatherman, to consumerism, to germs.  Carlin has inspired the likes of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.  The world needs more people willing to stand up speak truth to power in such an eloquent manner.

What do you suppose the chances are that the media will celebrate this truth teller in the way they fawned over Tim Russert last week.  Unfortunately that won’t happen even though it should.  Carlin provided us with far more reality than Russert ever did.  We’ll miss you George.

On Sixty Minutes tonight Scott Pelley conducted one of the most disgraceful “interviews” I’ve ever seen with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.  Pelley came off as such utterly arrogant jackass reading his questions directly from the list of White House talking points. His “questions” were nothing more than accusations of Iran’s supposed “crimes”. While Iran is definitely no angel, having supported Islamist groups in Lebanon, Palestine and elsewhere, the US government has been trying to whip up war fever against Iran. CBS should be ashamed of themselves allowing Pelley to conduct this inquisition and they should never have aired this propaganda piece. This is just another example of the utter corruption of the American mainstream media.

I’ve been saying for a long time that traditional mass media will soon be relegated to history. Now it looks like the next stage is coming. Over the last decade Clear Channel Communications has been snapping up radio stations and concert venues all over the country. They now have over 1200 radio stations including 4 of the 5 commercial radio stations in Ann Arbor (they tried to buy the other one a few years but were thwarted). After homogenizing American radio to the point that it became unlistenable and helping to drive people to other sources like mp3 players, they have now decided to put themselves up for sale. The company is heavily in debt and bleeding listeners. They’re apparently negotiating a leveraged buyout, possibly with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the company that years ago bought RJR Nabisco and then proceeded to break up the company and sell off the pieces. With any luck they’ll close the deal quickly and sell it all off. The sooner all the big media companies either split up or die the better. Media is being democratized through blogs and podcasts and companies like Clear Channel are needed or desirable.

Objects in the mirror may not be what they appear to be. It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words and also that the camera doesn’t lie. Although pictures can be worth many words, they won’t necessarily be the same words to everyone. More importantly a picture can easily be manipulated to express radically different words than what actually happened. The story told by a photo can and often does have no relationship to the event that was captured. For a prime example of why should always question everything you see and hear, especially when it comes from a politician check out these photos and more from DailyKos.

Here is the image that the mainstream media wants you to see
Here is the wider image of the same scene

Go see the page for more angles and other images.

I don’t watch TV news anymore except for the only ones that actually expose the truth like the Daily Show and Colbert Report. I also don’t get the newspaper anymore. I do read news online, from various sources. I also know that I am probably in the minority on this in the population as a whole, although maybe not among readers of this page. So if you are still being inundated by the crap from the mainstream media, I have just the thing for you. For some time now America’s Finest News Source, The Onion has been producing a daily news podcast. It is short, only 45-60 seconds typically. It is however one of the finest news broadcasts in the world. The Onion Radio News is hosted by the great Doyle Redland is far more informative than anything you will ever hear on Fox News. I urge all thinking humans to immediately go to the site and subscribe. If you only listen to one podcast, then you should listen two of them, The Onion Radio News and the MewzikCast. Your sanity depends on it. The brilliant journalistic minds of The Onion have triumphed again!