I watched the news today, oh boy.

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I went to the gym today and spent about an hour on the treadmill (yeah, I know, good for me) and from where I was I could see the CNN-playing TV and the Fox-playing TV. I usually position myself so I can’t see Fox because I find it disturbing and annoying, but the gym was crowded so I did not have that choice.

One of the main news stories that cycled through the CNN show was this one:

Former President George W. Bush was forced to cancel a planned trip to Switzerland this week over concerns of protests linked to the Bush adminstration’s treatment of detainees.

Activists also planned to file an official criminal complaint against Bush with Swiss prosecutors, nine years after he ordered that the Geneva Conventions would not apply to “enemy combatants” arrested by the U.S. military in Afghanistan or elsewhere around the world.

source

Meanwhile Fox News cycled through a number of stories that had titles like “Breaking News” and “Murders still a mystery” and “gunman kills one, self” and “OMG” and so on and so forth, without mentioning the fact that our ex president is a suspected war criminal and won’t be able to do that presidential thing like Carter and Clinton do, going around the world and promoting peace and democracy and stuff.

The people who watch Fox News live in a world different from the rest of us. They are captives of sensationalism, tied up in loathing, guided by a ring attached to their nose that stands in for thinking. A commentator on Fox News could tell the listeners to jump off a bridge and they’d start looking for a bridge. They do what Michele Bachmann tells them to do. Seriously. I was annoyed.

Then the Indigo Girls version of All Along the Watchtower came on my iPod and I heard this:

… your hatred is rooted in your fear
And your paranoia and insecurities
Well they don’t belong here
You got to take someones hand
You got to learn to make your stand
And it’s one two three four
Look at the sky you can open the door

And I thought, “They should sing THAT at the beginning of the freakin’ Superbowl.

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29 thoughts on “I watched the news today, oh boy.

  1. Around 8am CNN aired a “Should Creationism be Taught In Public Schools” segment, which was really enlightening. Evolution vs. Creation. Yep. I had to shut it off due to incredulity and the need to leave for work, but I think the guys main argument was there are billions of people out there so more than one point of view should be taught. Or some such nonsense.

  2. The Superbowl’s pregame show had O’Reilly speaking with Obama. The bit was so bad, O’Reilly accusing Obama of being basically a communist to his face, that I ended up missing the Superbowl entirely because I got sick of leaving it on Fox.

    Thanks O’Reilly, I missed all the awesome commercials thanks to you 🙁

  3. In the break room where I work there is a tv that has news on it all of the time. One of my coworkers insists on changing it to Fox News and will go to the break room just to change it sometimes. I was making my tea this morning and Fox News was running the story about Bush not being able to go to Switzerland. They framed it completely differently though.

    In the Fox story, President Bush isn’t going because he doesn’t want to create unrest in another nation (because he is such a swell guy) and he was assured of immunity by the Swiss government. Further, they framed it as though there was some leftist conspiracy to try to keep Bush from campaigning for democracy around the world. They actually cited Carter and Clinton not receiving this sort of harassment when they go to travel. Apparently the idea that Bush did anything wrong was also due to a leftist conspiracy. The last excuse that the Fox team used was that there are so many socialists in Europe that of course they would hate a strong capitalist and would do anything to tarnish his image.

  4. I think this King Crimson song really speaks to Fox News viewers and the American war parties:

    Cat’s foot iron claw
    Neuro-surgeons scream for more
    At paranoia’s poison door.
    Twenty first century schizoid man.

    Blood rack barbed wire
    Polititians’ funeral pyre
    Innocents raped with napalm fire
    Twenty first century schizoid man

    Death seed blind man’s greed
    Poets’ starving children bleed
    Nothing he’s got he really needs
    Twenty first century schizoid man.

  5. Doesn’t it count for anything that Bush was fighting a war against the most vicious terrorists in human history?

    After all, ridding the world of terrorism is an admirable goal.

  6. Little: Bush failed in his attempt to fight the real terrorists, in Afghanistan. He attacked Iraq for no good reason. We might have more terrorism focused on the US than less given our standing in world opinion, or at least that was the case before Bush stepped down and McCain was defeated by President Obama, who has made things much better.

  7. Anyone notice the talented athletes pointing at the sky and thanking god for their hard-earned skills during the Stupor Bowl? WTF?

  8. Honestly all you liberal democratic fucks should really stop talkin so much shit. I mean its just really getting old. “Bush, a war criminal”? My ass just because Bush had the balls to do what clinton clearly didn’t and made sure to make all those terrorists suffer as much as the families of the victims on 911 at the hands of interigators, and you call him a war criminal? Have some back bone, but i forget half of you are probobly FAGGOTS anyway and youv’e had another guys dick so dar up your ass that you cant feel you back anymore. And A little common sense poster liberal democrat faggots dont have common sense they want Big Government to be in control of everyrthing so the working man doesn’t have a say anymore. Unfortunatly, they no longer have common sense. And poster Erin your obviously not a true football fan because if you were you would have just changed the channel at the commercials but i think you just made uo the excuse that Bill O’rielly “made” you turn off yopur TV, because fox didn’t play any political propoganda at all. So im sure you’re just one of the faggots i was talking bout earlier that likes to take it in the butt. How can anyone say Bush is a war criminal? When he actually did something after 911. Unlike that pussy clinton who did nothing after The USS Cole was attacked by suicide bombers who were apart of Al-Queida. Yeah thats right That happened 08/12/2000 look it up. And all clinton did was shake his head and said “well lets hope they dont do it again”. And less than a year later on September 11, 2001 we were attacked again but thank God we had a Republican President in office who had the balls to declare war on the muslim terrorists. Then shit while we are over there lets take down sadom and now you belittle him for that. Well i pray that someday you will see the light. And if my religion offends you then you can SHOVE IT YOUR ASS!!! And we definately should teach Creationalism in schools because darwin was on something when he “discovered” that man was once an ape. We need to bring this nation back to God.

  9. Reply to Greg:

    Little: Bush failed in his attempt to fight the real terrorists, in Afghanistan. He attacked Iraq for no good reason. We might have more terrorism focused on the US than less given our standing in world opinion, or at least that was the case before Bush stepped down and McCain was defeated by President Obama, who has made things much better.

    Who are “the real terrorists in Afghanistan”?

    “Might” have more terrorism? There have been how many successful attacks since 2001?

    What has Obama done to make things better?

  10. Yeah Republican, you really represent republicans well…name calling, rageful, ignorant tool. Bush did something all right…the wrong thing. What was it Bush said…oh yeah, Mission Accomplished! What an Asshat!

  11. Reply to #15

    That “Mission Accomplished” nonsense has become a cliche even though it’s not true.

    The “Mission Accomplished” banner was in reference to a ten-month-long deployment by the USS Abraham Lincoln, the carrier aboard which Bush gave his speech.

    It’s worth noting that Bush specifically stated in that speech IIRC, that there was much work to be done to create “a Democracy in Iraq.”

  12. Like WTF did they warn him …………….. stupid …they should have waited until he got off the plane in Switzerland and slapped cuffs on him on the spot. 🙂 (I know impractical ans an SS agent would likely have blown someone away)

  13. They actually cited Carter and Clinton not receiving this sort of harassment when they go to travel. Apparently the idea that Bush did anything wrong was also due to a leftist conspiracy.

    In fairness, Clinton is also a war criminal, albeit not on quite the same scale. Not sure about Carter…

  14. R. Schauer: “Bush did something all right…”

    Bush accomplished something that possibly no other president could do. He made his dad look good.

    Little, Bush said he went to war in Iraq because they wouldn’t let the weapons inspectors inspect (only they were allowed). Then we went in to clear out the WMD (which didn’t exist). Then we went to war against Iraq because “that man tried to kill my Dad”. Then we went to war because we wanted to establish democracy. Then a regime change. All the while ignoring the man and organization who actually attacked us – remember Bin Laden, the man that Bush wouldn’t stop hunting down, no matter how long it takes? *That* only lasted a couple of months.

  15. Fredgys Ansord – you’re just mad because reality is a liberal.

    Really – birth certificate? You’re suggesting that 50 years ago a small conspiracy faked a birth certificate, bribed newspapers and hospital staff, to fake the location of a child whom they knew was going to be president, (even though he would have been an American citizen anyway, since his mother was). How did they know he would be elected 46 years later? Why would they bother? If it was important that he be born on American soil, why not just keep the mom-to-be in the US?

    It’s not just that these kind of conspiracies are believed when there’s no supporting evidence. It’s that they are so frackin’ *stupid!

  16. “Might” have more terrorism? There have been how many successful attacks since 2001?

    -9/11 itself happened on Bush’s watch after he’d spent the entire previous month on vacation, because he was a lazy no-talent surrounded by a team of lazy no-talents. Note that Bush has recently said that being criticized by Kanye West made him feel worse than 9/11 did–but I digress.

    -Richard Reid successfully got his shoe-bomb onto an airplane. Reid himself damaged the bomb so it couldn’t fully detonate, so no one can take credit for stopping him.

    -The anthrax mailer was never even identified, let alone stopped.

    -The Beltway snipers, Fort Hood massacre, and Virginia Tech massacre were all major post-9/11 security breaches that all involved individuals who had previously been reported to authorities for violent threatening behavior.

    Neither Bush nor his War on Terra ever kept us safe.

  17. Dear Fredgys,

    I stopped reading after you said Islam was at war with America… I think you need to look up the definition of “religion”, read up on Islam (wikipedia will do), and then think of all the possible implications of your sentence.

    And also, I’m not sure what the founding of “America” was (so I lied, I read your last three sentences). Are you referring to when nomads first entered the Americas via the Bering Strait? Or maybe when the Vikings landed in the area around Newfoundland?

    The US was founded on principles set out in a large part by a group of Freemasons who considered their group and ideals as independent of religion. You could argue that the US was founded on theistic principles, but to argue for a certain religion is incorrect.

    Regardless, if the founding fathers were brought to the present day, I doubt they’d have much of an opinion on socialist principles. They’d instead be paralyzed for fear of our shiny, sleek, effortlessly fast Ford F-150’s, America’s number one selling pick-up truck.
    “SO MUCH TORQUE!!”

    Sincerely yours,
    Rob

  18. Republican all the way(no 13) wrote “And if my religion offends you then you can SHOVE IT YOUR ASS!!!” AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH, Gentle Jesus, don’t you just love him? What happened to the radical idea that xtians should “Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind and with all thy soul, and thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”? Just curious… Actually, your religion might offend the founder. Your assault on the English language offends everyone.

    Fredgys Ansord(no 17) wrote, among a lot of utterly ignorant and incoherent rubbish, “Scenario: Bush and Secret Service gets off the plane. AmNASTY International attempts to arrest him”. Emm, first, Amnesty International is a non-governmental organisation, which lobbies for the release of prisoners of conscience. It does not now, nor never had, any powers of arrest.

    Second, if you go to war with Islam, how do you win? You put yourself up against over a billion people, you confirm every negative idea they have about your country, and you will have to kill every one of them. The American idea and genocide are such a natural fit, no?

  19. No, no, Fredgys. It’s the Republicans (particularly of the “all the way” variety) who turn out to have been hanging out in the closet. As obsessed as you are with gay sex, you really ought to know that by now.

    And if we’re at war with Islam, we’ve been at war with Christianity since the founding of this country.

  20. Dear MacTurk the only reason why I said that “If my religion offends you” it is because that every where i go all i hear is Christians like my self are being prosecuted for our beliefs. And i how would my religion offend the founder? God himself? You are obviously ignorant of the FACT that God loves everyone no matter what because they are his creation. However when you go and fuck with his chosen people the Isrealites and their protectors Christians he cant help but turn his head. You wanna know why America is going down hill right now? It’s because when peole start to believe that they are better than God and dont need him in their lives and go against his word he turns his back on them because they violate the one thing he put us here for. Which is to love him and worship him. Food for thought.

  21. The one thing that he put is here for was to worship and love him? That’s it? That is the purpose of life? Wow!

    No wonder people are “turning away” from him! What a boring, meaningless existence that would be.

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