Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Dear Fox: Three times is a spanking

My father had a saying. Once is a mistake, twice is on purpose, and three times is a spanking. So based on that, can we see a pattern here?

Ted Stevens of Alaska brought up on corruption - and Fox converts him from Democrat to Republican.

Then there was the time that when Mark Foley was caught up in the "hitting on young male pages" scandal, amazingly Fox turns Foley from a Republican to a Democrat.



So, now that Governor Sandford has admitted that he's cheated on his wife, any guesses on which political party Fox is going to label him? If you said Democrat, give yourself a cookie!



Fox News likes to portray itself as being "fair and balanced". Personally, I'd much rather go for "correct and accurate".

Monday, June 15, 2009

Iran election results: when patience is best

If you're like me, you've been keeping one eye on what may be the most important events in Iran in decades. An election that, by most accounts *should* have been close, has turned into a suspicious win for Mr. Ahmadinejad over his rival Mr. Mosavi. So far, Mr. Mosavi has been under house arrest, telephone and internet connections have been shut down. Doesn't exactly make you feel confident in election results when the powers that be move in to shut down any dissent.

So far, however, there has been little to no word from the Obama administration. And, in a way, that may be a good thing.

I heard a quote this morning from a gentleman on MSNBC: "Ahmadinejad has a problem in that he doesn't have an enemy in America, but an administration reaching out to him." Right now, if the Obama administration were to speak out in favor of the student protests, Mr. Ahmadinejad would have his enemy.

"Look, the evil Americans are getting involved in our internal politics, just like with the Shah of Iran!" Mr. Ahmadinejad could shout, and turn the debate between him and his potential corruption, into one of American intervention.

Ahmadinejad, and most of Iran's greatest political power, has stemmed from having an enemy to point to, someone for their people to fear and hate. With that, a government can do a lot of things without question (see also, post-911 Bush administration and warrantless wiretaps, torture, etc).

There are many people in America, myself included, cheering and hoping to spread the message in Iran that there should be investigations into the Iranian election results. And the Obama administration for now doesn't need to say anything. Don't give the Iranian government an excuse to paint this election as being supported by the "evil Satanic American government" or some such.

Right now, the people in Iran, and the individual people, and the media, can and should be working to keep a spotlight on this as long as possible. And the Obama administration should continue not to validate the election results, but not endorse one party or another. As with all things from this administration, the best course is patience until all the details are facts are in, then speak with moral and political authority.