Monday, September 13, 2010

Is the Media Adding Gasoline to the Anti-Muslim/Anti-immigrant "Fire"?

So nice to see so many stories in the media on and after 09/11 about how anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant we are as a nation.

Caught two such articles on MSN.com this morning:

"Muslims face growing bias in the workplace"    and    "Americans' suspicions frustrate Muslims"

and it made me wonder if the media is to blame for perpetuating this myth that America is an anti-Muslim/ anti-immigrant nation?

Now I don't doubt some bias and discrimination happens to them, but somehow I don't think it occurs as wide-scale as they would like us to believe. So this "anti-Muslim" attitude the media attributes to the opponents of the Ground Zero Mosque and the one yahoo down in Florida with a 50 member church. Can you REALLY use those two examples to charge the United States as a whole with an anti-Muslim sentiment? NO!

First, the Mosque at Ground Zero - I don't care if people wanted to build a Mc Donald's there; I'd still be offended and think it didn't belong. The only things that should be built there are the two towers again and a memorial for the victims. Nothing else. No nightclubs, no churches, no restaurants - NOTHING ELSE.

And secondly, the creepy mustached dude from Florida, threatening to burn the Quran - the media created that freak show. All the needed to do was ignore his nonsense and it would have gone away, but they had to give him attention and give it to him again, so his story blew up on the national stage. There was no reason for that to get that far. The media blew it up more than they needed to because they hoped to link him with Tea Partiers.

As for the media claiming "anti-immigrant feelings are on the rise" - the majority of us ARE immigrants ourselves, children of immigrants or (great) grandchildren of immigrants. Doubtful we'd be anti-ourselves or anti-family. I have yet to hear someone say "I don't like immigrants. They all need to go home and don't belong here". Now I know A LOT Of us immigrants, children of immigrants and (great) grandchildren of immigrants are anti - ILLEGAL immigration. We're not mad at the fact they are immigrants - we're mad at the fact that they chose to ignore rules that the rest of us had to follow and are getting rewarded for it. That's all. Nothing to do with race, culture, home country origin or mother tongue. It's like if I stood in line for 8 hours to get into a concert and someone cut in the front of the line. Not only did they let him in, but gave him a front row seat and a free drink. And then on top of everything, I was called names for objecting to his 5-star treatment when I bought an expensive ticket for my last-row seat and paid $10 for a sip of soda. I don't care if he's white, black, tan, orange or a woman - that's not going to change the reason why I'm mad.

Now I may be blinded by my whiteness (as my liberal friends like to say), but personally, I don't see ANY anti-Muslim or anti-immigrant sentiments, aside from what I see on the news. Again, I don't doubt it happens - as it does to ALL of us at one point or another. I just feel that the media blows it out of proportion, as they do with all things, like with "racism". It's unfortunate that for awhile now, perhaps even before I was born,  the news doesn't report the news, but chooses to perpetuate their own news.And it's sad they use those people to further their own agenda. It's even sadder that those people don't even realize it.

The media, like the Obama Administration, is working hard to pit us against one another. It's harder to hold them accountable if we're all distracted with squabbling over petty things like children and unfortunately, it's working. The media knows how to play us well and we're falling for it.

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Doggone It!

Well, we complain about Obowma being too dependant on TelePromtors, but then when he goes off-script, we hear gems like this: "They talk about me like a dog".



I think he's been hanging around his loose cannon VP friend too long. Sorry, Barry, you are wrong - I LIKE dogs. They are loyal, a good judge of character and protect those they love - can't say that about you or your cronies. Now I do talk about you like a snake, but if the snake skin fits... All I see those liberals doing is slithering through Washington, hiding under rocks when we are looking for them, barring their fangs and spewing venom.

I like what the Republican Strategist said in this article: "The president thinks he's been treated like a dog by Republicans and Congress. He should probably stop treating them like a fire hydrant".

But I have a problem with his "scripted words" as well - "Building our economy on a new foundation" just rings of communism to me. Tearing down our old economy, saying it doesn't work and using it as an excuse to shove a whole new structure in there. Any economist will tell you that you can't "strengthen the middle class" by destroying the upper class. And "taking on some powerful interests" - gotta love his code words. He never comes out and says it directly, but everyone knows who he's talking about. He indicates those "powerful interests" aren't happy with him just because they've been in power for a long time and they don't want him challenging them. "They aren't always happy with me. They talk about me like a dog. That's not in my prepared remarks, it's just - but it's true". Gawd, is every "speech" going to be about how he's getting picked on??  I'd almost rather he DID play golf all the time... I'm sick of his whining. And you don't have no right to regulate Wall Street. "They aren't happy about it, but it was the right thing to do" - isn't that what he said about Obamacare? And did he really say "ending tax payer bailouts for Bush... er... for Wall Street once and for all"?

By the way, it was less than a week ago that Obama said he wanted to renew the Bush Tax Cuts, but it seems that wasn't exactly true....

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Just Some Thoughts...

So all of this fuss about Obama's "true" religion is a complete waste of time. I don't care if the man worships the moldy piece of cheese in his fridge. However, I DO care if he lies about it and uses his stance to punish those who are lactose-intolerant. And I don't care about his personal views about the Ground Zero Mosque; he has no right to butt in about it. By backing it, or at least expressing support of it, he only further polarizes the issue.

And I don't care just how many times the President chooses to go on vacation, unless he uses our tax dollars to do so. Better for him to go off to Camp David or something than bowing to foreign leaders and embarrassing us in other countries. I know the man is an utter disaster, but we have to pick out battles.

Chris Matthews said what???



Guess Chris Matthews isn't getting "tingles up his leg" anymore from the President...  'Bout time this was said by a member of the "Professional Left". But he's right... and I can't believe I'm saying that about Chris Matthews - it seems wrong somehow. I seriously thought I must have fallen over and died to hear those words coming out of his mouth.(And for the record, I kinda felt the same way with the "thrill up the leg" comment... although a different kind of disbelief for that one)

But Obama seriously has a problem with those TelePromptors. It's beyond an addiction now. Does he REALLY use those to talk to people in his office? C'mon now... that CAN'T be true.... If a right-wing talk show host said that, I'd think he was joking. And at least the President put the TelePromptor in front of him, so his head didn't bounce side to side, like he was watching a tennis match this time...

So Chris Matthews, way to go, buddy! I first clicked on the video out of morbid curiosity, but I was floored by those comments. I seriously hit the "replay" button 5 more times after watching it the first time. Wish I could have heard those comments from the other people on the show. Wow... just wow...