On Wednesday night I got home from work and went to the gym. Running on the treadmill, I noticed that MSNBC was on the big screen TV with closed captioning. I almost never watch television at all-- and especially not PMSNBC so I decided to tune in.
What a treat!
Adolf Hitler ( Who I later determined was actually Rachel Maddow) was on television and I suddenly found myself oblivious to the 5 mile run after an entire day of work and 3 hours of sleep the night before.
I felt a strange combination of laughter and disbelief.
So the show began with outrage over Pennsylvania implementing voter ID laws. Maddow actually made the argument that elderly African American grandmothers would suffer disenfranchisement. According to Maddow, showing photo identification in order to vote, is basically like lynching minorities. And... are you ready for this.... She didn't think that PA has the governmental capacity to enforce the law. I never thought I'd see the day where an extremist liberal would complain about the government implementing an additional program-- or its incapacity to do so. Social security, medicaid, welfare, foodstamps, the department of motor vehicles, FEMA, whatever the governmental or quasi governmental agency, liberals love it as long as it doesn't involve adherence to constitutional principles or preserving the republic. So in this case, a government program designed to ensure election results are accurate= A waste of money and resources.
Then she interviewed an extremely ugly woman representing some ultra left wing outfit that tried to sue the state to prevent the law from being enforced. They stood united as the hairs covering both of their upper lips glistened with saliva. They went on and on blaming the decision on racist republicans, the redistricting of the state, and tobacco companies causing second hand smoke to kill endangered seals trying to attend gay marriage ceremonies on land that were being picketed by Tea Party members, etc.
After a commercial break, Maddow spent the next segment attacking Mitt Romney for job creation while he was Mass. Governor. Graphics, and clips from old episodes of meet the press and Newt Gingrich attacking Romney during the GOP Prez debates and then.... she promised that after the break, one of the great unsung hero's of job creation in the private sector was coming up NEXT! Coincidentally, her guest was also a former Governor of Massachusetts. She sang this man's praises for nearly 5 minutes-- showing campaign video clips from the 80's and hailing him a an economic genius.
To be honest, I didn't have a clue who she was talking about. And then she introduced him. Michael Dukakis.
I was actually alive when he ran for President and I remember being forced to stay up and watch him debate Bush 1. My parents ( both registered dems) thought he was the biggest moron who ever won the democratic nomination and that it was a sad joke that the best the democrats could muster was a shrimpy, inarticulate, walking hairpiece with an ugly sounding last name. After living through the nightmare of Jimmy Carter and the turnaround under Reagan both of my parents voted Bush.
But in terms of non-nondescript, unimpressive, forgettable, embarrassing, presidential losers-- I don't think that you can do much worse than Michael Dukakis-- unless you dust off Bob Dole and put him on TV. Actually, scratch that. I can't shake the irony in that John Kerry was Dukakis' lieutenant governor.
So Dukakis goes on television and bashes Romney for the entire segment. He calls Romney's job creation skills pathetic. He touts Obama's economic success and then actually comments on Romney not releasing his old tax returns-- by agreeing with Harry Reid.
Maddow does everything except fist herself with a catchers mitt in approval. Maddow went on to bash Romney for imposing high taxes on MASS residents-- Dukakis agreed. The two of them practically squealed with glee as the interview concluded and another commercial break began.
The last thing I saw before finishing my workout was one of the most surreal examples of media bias I have ever witnessed-- at least on live television. Maddow took pause to mention the shooting outside of the Family Research Counsel. An armed black male went to the FRC holding chick a filet sandwiches and anti chick a fliet literature, announced he didn't like the politics of the FRC and then shot a security guard. Basically, Maddow's response can be paraphrased as follows: There was a shooting at the FRC. We don't know the details-- but we will update you as soon as we learn more.
Good thing the main stream media came to the rescue to make sure that I wasn't misinformed. Thank heavens that Maddow didn't jump to any conclusions in this case. I mean, after falsely implying that members of the conservative movement shot Congresswoman Giffords, were involved in the batman massacre and want to reinstate slavery--- a rush to judgement in this case would have been inappropriate. It's a good thing that shooter Floyd Lee Corkins wasn't identified as being actively involved in the OWS movement. If that had been the case, Maddow and the rest of the MSNBC staff would have used their personal funds to hire Steven Spielberg to produce a doctored surveillance video of the crime which depicting Sarah Palin's downe syndrome stricken son as the perpetrator.
All kidding aside. MSNBC is wholly unwatchable garbage. Rachel Maddow, Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz, Chris Matthews? Say what you will about Fox News-- but at least there is some capacity for open debate and intellectual honesty on that network. MSNBC is like watching a political pundit SNL skit-- only 50x funnier.
