Tuesday, January 08, 2008

PEOPLE OR SHEEPLE?

The people vote today in New Hampshire presidential primary.

The media is pushing Barack Obama for president. They are saying Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, and Ron Paul basically do not exist, obviously because they are the most vocal about ending the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Now that John Edwards has begun talking strongly about poverty and corporate domination of our government the media says he is "too angry". The message to the voter - stay away from him.

I saw an article in the Washington Post two weeks ago about how Edwards is always late for each campaign event. They trashed him. Yesterday I heard that Obama had shown up two hours late for a campaign event, but it was framed as an example of how busy he is being the "front runner." All the candidates are likely late for these events. The Post story on Edwards though was to create more negatives on him. This is how the media does it.....drip, drip, drip.

Another example, I just heard a BBC report on National Public Radio from New Hampshire. They were interviewing Granny D, the elderly activist who walked all the way across the country advocating campaign finance reform a few years back. Granny D has endorsed John Edwards but all the reporter wanted to talk about was what did Granny think about Obama. Granny D fell right for the trick and went on about how "cute" he is and how all the women love him. Granny said Obama reminded her of JFK. But never did the reporter ask her why she was supporting Edwards - that was not the reason for the story. It's shameless.

It is quite amazing how people are led by the corporate dominated media. Obama is the latest version of the "unifier". But in truth he voted for the Patriot Act, has voted in favor of all the funding for the Iraq occupation, and supports many of the legislative requests of the insurance companies and banks. Thus he becomes acceptable to the big media boys.

When right-wing columnist George Will starts leading the charge for Obama then you know something smells fishy.

Respected black journalist Glen Ford has the following to say about Obama: "A Black presidential candidate who spends much of his time denying the significance of race in U.S. society, cozying up to Big Business, and assuring imperial interests that he will expand U.S. military capabilities, captured the often diametrically opposed imaginations of millions of Blacks and whites."

The people have to stop being led to the slaughter.....will they ever?

(Question on Wednesday morning after the "surprise comeback" by Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. On Tuesday the N.H. polls were showing Obama with a significant lead and Edwards with 17%, Richardson 5%, and Kucinich 2%. Then the vote happens and in one day's time Hillary wins and Edwards still comes up with 17%, Richardson 5%, and Kucinich 2%. So with all that volatility it is hard to imagine that only the top two candidates, Hillary and Obama, see any change from the poll predictions the day before. The presence of controversial Diebold voting machines makes alarm bells go off in my already cynical mind. It appears that others have had the same reaction and the group called Citizens for Legitimate Government have already done some research on this and published their findings.)

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