Bad Advice, A Funny Video and Great Commentary

At every turn and at the drop of almost every lip that opens to emit speech, there is bad, even horrible advice, spilling forth. Even a chronic disposition to give advice, it seems, should be regarded with suspicion, not suspicion of ill intent, but with suspicion that the person speaking is likely madly in love with the sound of his or her own voice and the authoritative tone it can take. Who besides yourself can tell you what’s best for you anyway? The only advice that I can give is to run away screaming when someone drops a hand on your shoulder in a paternalistic way or starts a conversation with, “Well, you know what I would do?”

There is this notion, that one of my disposition can not digest, that because we have access to an influx of information from all around the world that our thoughts should be at every moment locking on to and comprehending an unprocessable amount of information and then acting upon it — to invest or to form a political disposition in tune with each day’s newest revelations. Simple principles, in my opinion, serve us better than constant attention to all of the change — unfortunately, in my opinion, the baby boomer generation chucked those off the raft of reality around the same time that they started getting massive amounts of plastic surgery (or perhaps before) and thus did not have them to pass on to younger generations. (Sorry BBs, but I think your brains are trapped in artificial flesh located in undisclosed — though obvious to the naked eye — parts of your body)

I’ve always found television news unwatchable, even though I thought, upon bad advice, that I should be watching it. I always kicked myself in the shins for not understanding the DOW, but now I feel better about the fact that I haven’t spent the last ten years trying to make sense of climbing and falling numbers that didn’t really make sense in the first place. Is this all about me feeling good and watching programs and reading news that make me feel good about my place in the world? Not really. I don’t regard myself as one to emulate, but I do my best not to give horrible advice to others as some people unabashadly do.

On that note, I was highly amused by the montage video of CNBC’s financial coverage of the last few years on Wednesday night’s The Daily Show, which played the video in place of CNBC commentator Rick Santelli’s canceled interview.

Laughing is a good and great thing, as Stewart and Colbert and Maher have proven over the last few years, but what I found more compelling than the video itself was Will Bunch’s Huffington Post blog about what this video (yes, made by one of the three comedy shows that has maintained a sane perspective throughout the last several years of political and economic confusion) can tell news makers and news watchers about the effect of the disconnect between what’s really happening in our lives and what the news tells us is happening in our lives. Do we need all of the commentary and the red-faced commentators yelling at us like intolerant school teachers about what we just don’t seem to get? Or do we need simple, basic information that flows at the true pace of life and that is matter from which we can really make sensible decisions? Hmmm.

Voting “Without Illusions” for Obama – Election Blog By Evan Rowe

On election’s eve, my final note is to think of the long view in
regards to this election. While there is much talk about 2008 being a
critical election, the history has not yet been written. The politics
of democratic movements are the story of freedom and rights. Every
freedom, and every right granted by the United States government has
come from the left. They come from popular forces challenging
concentrations of power. To hear the story told by the right, freedom
comes from military expansion and it comes from dick America. Dick
America is the conceptual identity of the United States, as the
international dick. Without being the international dick, the right
wing argument implies, America cannot be great, and will lose all of
our freedoms.

The problem with this argument is that it turns reality on its head,
granting credit to the freedoms won by popular left forces AGAINST
Dick America, into freedoms created by the greatness of Dick America.
Civil rights, labor rights, and all things that pull elites down from
their perch and hold them accountable by inserting popular control
over the economy and the society are the legacy of the left. When
workers in Flint were engaged in a sit down strike against GM in the
30s, Dick America wanted to break the strike. When the workers won
their rights, part of creating a powerful middle class of ordinary
workers according middle class wages or salaries, Dick America
conceded defeat. To this day, Dick America wants to take credit for
what it opposes on principle: that people other than Dick America and
its members have rights.

With that in mind, it should be noted that Barack Obama is supported,
so far, by a very wide range of American elites. Perhaps they are
afraid of the extreme right wing creating an even more powerful
backlash against Dick America, or they may be liberals, or whatever.
The reality is that Obama will not create progress beyond what popular
forces are able to create.

And so the politics of the left should be viewed perhaps in the same
way that a football team operates. On a football team, the running
backs and quarterback, and other skilled positions do well when the
offensive line creates space from blocking. But from a cosmetic
standpoint, the skilled players take the credit for the gains. This is
a problem. The left is the offensive line. And if you build your
football team around star players, and neglect the line, the team is
always doomed. Sacks will occur, running backs will have no room to
run, quarterbacks will throw hurried interceptions, and the team will
lose. Obama clearly has the potential to politically push the country
back towards some of its democratic ideals. But the real action that
will determine how far he gets will be fought on the political
offensive line: the social movements which agitate, place demands, and
put pressure on the opposition in Dick America. You cannot tell the
offensive line, “don’t worry, Obama will get you out of any problems,
you don’t need to worry about your blocking assignment”. This is the
road to defeat. The line must believe that it determines outcomes
because that is exactly what it controls. No matter the greatness of
the skill positions, the line wins games or loses them when it stops
wanting to push.

All who vote should bear it in mind. We must be prepared to push
beyond Election Day to challenge corporate power and restore and win
more democratic freedom.

Politics Videos That We Watched On a Tuesday Night

I’ve been wondering who in the heck this “Joe the Plumber” guy was, so I finally tracked that down thanks to Mahalo, wassup? Here’s the YouTube video on the topic in case you’ve been as in the dark as I have.

Also, I very much enjoyed this little back and forth between Fox News talking head Megyn Kelly and Obama campaign spokesmen Bill Burton on Fox News about, what else?, Fox News. It’s pretty pathetic that Fox has to defend itself this hard? I don’t mean to be sexist against my own kind, but this chick is a mega “B” who looks like she should be dancing on a stripper “P”, wassup?

Finally, I’m getting addicted to Joe Biden’s sassy frankness and, honestly, it has to do with takedowns like this:

I need to stop, but Fox News coverage of Joe Biden’s interview with Barbara West needs to stop too. Really, this is moronic. It really does seem like these wackos are emitting the desperate death rattle of a political propaganda machine that survives on a radical sensationalism that isn’t appropriate for a nation of people who really, really need to understand how to participate in a democracy that produces responsible leadership.

Watch and enjoy!

Reality from Wasilla Main Street

What exactly is Wasilla Main Street all about? What does it mean to be the mayor of Wasilla? If you get your news from Comedy Central like Inkpen does, you will definitely want to check out this clip from The Daily Show.

Colin Powell Endorses Obama

It’s not necessary to post Powell’s Obama endorsement here on Moodvane. You can watch it on msnbc.com, but Inkpen wanted to repost to note the eloquence of the endorsement and Powell’s assessment of the continuing rightward movement of the Republican party.

Wonder if St. Peter will find it sufficient atonement for facilitating the 2nd Iraq War.