This guy is my ideal of a political independent.  This is why Red Eye is the best show on TV.  It’s hard to hear, but it is worth the effort.

Trackposted to Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Woman Honor Thyself, Right Truth, The World According to Carl, DragonLady’s World, The Pink Flamingo, and Stageleft, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

_{Reposting this from 2006.}

The world of politics is never pretty and often very ugly.

One of the most ugly features is how the politicians switch facts around to protect their argument.  They determine a conclusion that fits their needs, and then find the facts that support their conclusion, almost an intellectual reverse engineering.

It’s not all that hard, we teach it in every school that has a debate team.  You are assigned a topic, and have to develop an argument to support it.  The validity or accuracy of the facts you present is unimportant unless they are challenged by your opponent.  Preparation becomes the driving factor: are you able to anticipate the challenges and overcome them?  The bottom line is that in the end, the facts don’t matter.  Just the Feel.  Can you offer convincing sincerity?  Confidence?  Can you sway them with an emotional plea?  All powerful weapons.

Now consider that in relation to politics.  Politicians often present information based on how they want us to Feel, without regard to the facts.  The sell us on the emotional appeal.

I saw this noted on Sister Toldjahs Blog, and honestly, that is the best I can do to summarize it.

Apparently the facts were wrong, making it a lie, except that the essence was correct making it Clintonian truth.  Kinda. I can’t sort it out really.  And really, it doesn’t matter.

What this boils down to is Clinton heard a sob story and ran with it.

That’s what politicians do.  They latch on to a story they figure can be sympathetic, and they tell ti over and over to make their point.

What made this such a gross debacle is that Clinton didn’t bother to have her staff do a bitty little thing called fact checking.  So the family got run through the wringer, as did the hospital, all so she can make a few points.

Here is the real truth.  She doesn’t care about this woman or her family, except where it intersects her desire to get votes.  She doesn’t care about you or me and our lives except where we can be manipulated to cede her more power, fame and wealth.

  You have heard probably about Haditha.  Heard of the massacre.  Heard Sen Murtha accuse Marines of cold blooded deliberate murder.

But do you really know what happened?

Opinion Journal lays it out.

What Happened at Haditha: The massacre that wasn’t, and its political exploitation.

The incident at Haditha–or the massacre, as it is often called–is due for a wholesale rethinking. The allegations are that in 2005 U.S. Marines went on a killing spree and deliberately executed 24 Iraqi civilians. The casualties have drawn an extraordinary amount of political attention, becoming an emblem for everything critics say is wrong with the Iraq war–in the common telling, another My Lai.

Thus Congressman Jack Murtha, a decorated combat veteran, made accusations of war crimes and said the Marines had killed “in cold blood.” These are serious charges; and military justice continues to deal with them seriously, though thankfully at a slower pace than politics. Now the prosecutions have mostly unraveled. It seems Haditha, though tragic, was exploited politically, and the allegations were exaggerated, if not unfounded.

UPDATED BELOW:

It is a serious issue and a serious accusation.

At issue is this campaign ad for Democrat Claire McCaskill against Republican Jim Talent:

Fox is clearly suffering from the effects of Parkinson’s.  The question raised by many was "how come on Boston Legal and at other appearances, he doesn’t seem as bad?"

It is on the surface a cynical and mean question.  Would he really do something as exploitive like stop taking his meds to appear more symptomatic and therefore sympathetic?

Sadly, yes…or at least he has in the past.  From his own site:

I had made a deliberate choice to appear before the subcommittee without medication. It seemed to me that this occasion demanded that my testimony about the effects of the disease, and the urgency we as a community were feeling, be seen as well as heard. For people who had never observed me in this kind of shape, the transformation must have been startling. 

So yes, Fox has done that, and may have this time as well.

Ok, I am not about to start making some moralistic point here.  Rest your minds at ease. 

It’s just a TV commercial for coffee.  And that really is one of the lines, "Get up, get out of bed, you can sleep when you are dead…" as only some golden hued sadistic happy happy joy joy morning loving zombies can sing it.

I gotta tell ya, it is one of the creepiest commercials I have ever seen.  This is hell for the night owl/non-morning person.

http://www.boardsmag.com/screeningroom/commercials/2971/

Or go to the Folgers site http://toleratemornings.com/ and have a look around.

And enjoy that morning cup of coffee….

And if tonight my soul may find her peace
in sleep, and sink in good oblivion,
and in the morning wake like a new-opened flower
then I have been dipped again in God, and new-created.
~D.H. Lawrence

The voodoo priest and all his powders were as nothing compared to espresso, cappuccino, and mocha, which are stronger than all the religions of the world combined, and perhaps stronger than the human soul itself. 
~Mark Helprin, Memoir from Antproof Case, 1995

Seen also at The Daily Brief and The Anchoress

The world of politics is never pretty and often very ugly.

One of the most ugly features is how the politicians switch facts around to protect their argument.  They determine a conclusion that fits their needs, and then find the facts that support their conclusion, almost an intellectual reverse engineering.

It’s not all that hard, we teach it in every school that has a debate team.  You are assigned a topic, and have to develop an argument to support it.  The validity or accuracy of the facts you present is unimportant unless they are challenge by your opponent.  Preparation becomes the driving factor, are you able to anticipate the challenges and overcome them?  The bottom line is that in the end, the facts don’t matter.  Just the Feel.  Can you offer convincing sincerity?  Confidence?  Can you sway them with an emotional plea?  All powerful weapons.

Now consider that in relation to politics.  Politicians often present information based on how they want us to Feel, without regard to the facts.  The sell us on the emotional appeal.