(with apologies to Natalie "Seabrook" Wood and James "Boehner" Dean)
Such was Morning Edition today. How's this for a hard-hitting examination of Boehner:
- "There really seem to be two Boehners: Boehner the rebel and Boehner the compromiser."
- "Boehner was one of a few Republicans who wrote a simple, succinct document that outlined an agenda of vast reforms in Congress: the Contract with America."
- "This is Boehner the rebel: tough, conservative, ideological, uncompromising. He entered the Republican leadership ready to fight for reforms and a smaller government, regardless of the political price."
She's not joking - honestly. And as for Mr. Compromiser? Again Seabrook:
"This is where we enter the era of Boehner the compromiser. In 2001, he took over as chair of the House Education and Workforce Committee....[and] began to work with Democrats on a massive overhaul that would be dubbed No Child Left Behind....Boehner the compromiser called [it] his proudest achievement in his decades of public service."
Let's just recap that, Boehner dared to work with Democrats who willingly gave the Republicans everything they wanted in a suck piece of educational legislation that is even now noted as a failure by one of it's earliest "intellectual" champions. That's how NPR defines compromise. I guess when Obama's Catfood Commission recommends amputations for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid while spending on our Nobel Laureate's forever wars keeps rising, Compromiser John will be there to reach across the aisle (and Seabrook will be there to swoon).
6 comments:
Stealth "journalist" A. Seabrook has a degree in biology from the Quaker school, Earlham College in Indiana (a hoosier sibling of Inskeep, per chance) where the students are known to chant:
Fight, Fight, Inner Light!
Kill, Quakers, Kill!
Knock 'em Down, Beat 'em Senseless!
Do It 'til We Reach Consensus!
So, while the school was founded by Quakers, maybe they've strayed a bit afield of the whole "friends" thing...like our friend, Scott (FW) Simon.
Earlham is in Richmond, Indiana, once an area thriving with Native Americans...until the Friends arrived. Now Natives are 0.8% of the community. What do you suppose the Friends did with them? Bombed them to peace with their fancy Stealth fighters?
Like many Earlham grads, AS then spent years in Mexico City acting in a soap opera, among other things, it seems. This, no doubt, is the right stuff for NPR journalists.
By the way, if you follow Mytwd's link to the FDL article about Boner's advocating for less SS so we can export more anxiety, fear and range to impoverished Afghans...and then you follow the FDL link to the local Pittsburg Tribune Review article, it now has this note of self censorship:
Editor's note: This story has been edited from its original version. During a wide-ranging interview with the Tribune-Review, House Minority Leader John Boehner said the federal government must continue funding the war in Afghanistan to protect the nation. He also said Congress must curb spending on federal entitlements, such as Social Security to reduce the federal deficit. He did not link those issues directly.
In other words,
"I did not have congress with those dots." - Bonehor
(bunny giggles)
Hey, if Michelle Bachmann can make love to Dubya on live TV, C-brook can have her turn via the (mercifully) audio-only medium of radio. Now that she's got a fella in her life, playing hard to get can really work for a gal like her. Her 'Loving John' segments promise to be a big hit in Viv Shill-er's Fall Lineup.
(I commend Myt for choosing the most flattering pic of C-brook to accompany his apology on behalf of the late, great Natalie.)
And Boner himself? I tell you, the man is surely a drunk. Listen to the way he talks. With an increasing number of openly gay politicians, we will now have the first openly inebriated Speaker. Remember when John Tower didn't get Sec. of Defense because of his exploits with beverage alcohol? Well, times have changed! Sweeping up behind a bar is a great American achievement now, so Boner's heritage, apparently still very much with him, can now be outed. A fake tan can be a dandy mask to blown-out capillaries.
Am I too snarky? Well, I can only say that we out here in the dark have to express our disgust in SOME sort of non-violent way. Raw disgust - at the worthless way political affairs are packaged for the radio listener.
Which brings me to this: NPR has a virtual strangle-hold on 'non-commercial' (you know what I mean) media coverage. Alternatives must be promoted. Therefore, I propose that at least 2% of CPB funds be steered (WITHOUT CONDITIONS) toward Democracy Now! and other fully proven news organizations, that listeners stuck with NPR as of now would be happy to embrace if they knew about them and could access them easily.
For too long NPR has had an 'entitled' monopoly on the convenience of radio, and we all know that they are misusing their selfish entitlement.
(Personal note: I myself have done janitorial duties in several different jobs, and I officially resent Boner's castigation of that profession when he refers to it demeaningly, now that he's (temporarily) reached his little summit of power. After all, it was nepotism that got him that tavern gig, and I'll bet you he wasn't all that hot with the Janitor-In-A-Drum.)
I heard this piece and facepalmed. There are three university stations in the Lexington, KY area and one of them WRFL runs Democracy Now and Counterspin. Unhappily, these programs don't run when I could listen to them on an actual radio. Have to stream them online.
Having the NPR/PBS monopoly broken up would bring me no end of joy if programs like Democracy Now could get some real no strings attached funding.
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