the circus

cnn has a new news segment called "...just sayin'". that's funny, i don't remember getting a paycheck from ted turner...

cnn, you filthy sons of bitches.

you know what? i'm not even going to get upset about this, for two reasons. one: it just goes to show that apparently, i already have what it takes to write for a major news network. two: it just goes to show that major news networks provide the caliber of reporting also being offered by an untrained, over opinionated, cynical, twentysomething, who is usually just fucking around to amuse himself.

so i am officially killing my segment, ...i'm just sayin'. mostly i'm doing this because one day i wish to be a respected member of society, not neccesarily because i behave in a respectable manner, but mostly because i bring something important and real to the world at large, and cnn filling a 24-hour news cycle with slanted text polls, "what do you think" segments, email responses, quoting uncompensated bloggers, and generally making up the "news" as they go, does not garner much respect from me, so how could i expect anyone else to respect it?

let me explain further. if there is no "news" to report, then i don't need some jackass pundit, or intern who sucks a mean cock, telling me their opinion, for the third time today, on michael jackson's death. this is not news. it's op-ed. if there is nothing of any great social and political import to discuss, report, or debate, then why not simply run a live feed of congress, the house, or even state government chambers in which an interesting debate is going on? or perhaps a glimpse into the supreme court, or perhaps the news, or government activity of other countries or organizations like the UN, EU, ECOWAS, OPEC, NATO, etc? or we could even show... gulp... live feeds from our military actions.

let me tell you why. it's because we as americans are not supposed to give a shit about real news. what happens in government chambers is not the concern of us rubes and peasants. let the grown ups hammer it out and they'll just tell us how they've decided we should be living our lives, or what we should be thinking about what happens within the halls of politic. nor should we be caring what other countries are up to, not, at least, until they do something that american pundits can criticize, then we hear all about it. i seem to know an awful lot about sergio berlisconi's erections, but why don't i know what is going on in italian parliament? i get up to the minute updates on castro's health, but why don't i know a goddamn thing about the state of the cuban nation?

what's even more baffling is that we essentially treat american news with the same disregard. i'll hear all about that kid in sheepfuck, connecticut who got swine flu, or how the iPhone is really going to blow my hair back, or what that fuck wad on youTube did that got so many hits, but when it comes to real events, and intelligent debate, where the fuck is it? all we ever hear about is what this network, or that dais of amateurs, or this pundit, or that a-hole who had a quirky, or obnoxious response at the last town hall meeting or whistle stop thinks about it.

are we not to be trusted? can we not comprehend and analyze for ourselves, the goings on of our own ruling bodies?

of course we're not to be trusted. if we were left to assemble our own attitudes about what goes on in our country would we buy so much useless shit? would we insist on diversifying our stock portfolios, or getting a flu shot, or buying tShirts that tell the world that we care about the sick african kids but not about the little asian kids who cut, stitched, and printed the shirt? would we really care about maintaining the "sanctity" of "opposite sex" marriage? would we be so stupid as to demand that we get raped by private insurers because we are afraid of a word, just sounds and audible vibrations, letters arbitrarily assembled into a representation of an intangible concept, (that dirty little $10billion word, "socialism")? would we be so stupid as to think that socialism is a cancer on our way of life, then collect social security, or join a labor union? i got news for you, rubes, our "democracy" is injected with socialist ideals. the fact that you pay taxes at all, transportation infrastructure, public schools, the fact that every member of a population should get equal opportunity, equal rights, and equal voice, are cornerstones of socialism.

wake up, fuckwads, we don't live in a democracy. sadly we don't live in a socialist society either. i've said it before and i'll say it again, and i'll keep saying it until everyone gets it: we live in a loosely socio-democratic, firmly aristocratic, plutocratic, capitalistic theocracy. and yes, i did add theocracy, because we cannot seem to pick a political representative that does not embrace a jesus based religion (and sadly the next step after that is not an atheist but rather a believer of some other asinine mythology).

well i'm fucking pissed off.

i'm sick and tired of having to work to utilize the freedom of information act. what a crock of shit that is. first of all, freedom to obtain government held information "freely or at minimal cost [my emphasis]"? no, if the government is doing something, i demand that i be able to obtain full disclosure freely, period. and i want it all, fucking all of it, posted at one collective database, and i want it released on the "news", for isn't that what news is supposed to be? and i want it printed in the papers, and i want a published journal, at least weekly, of the most important government information, objectively expressed, and at their expense, for isn't their expense account paid by us anyway? i don't care if the health care bill is over a thousand pages long. for fuck's sake, i get a goddamn phone book on my front stoop every week, why can't i get the minutes of the senate? i'll even negotiate a bullet point here, the government and media don't have to provide this for everyone, regardless as to wether they asked for it. simply provide an easy to access place to subscribe to the journal, in fact that place should be located on the government free information database, and a lot of the lesser information could be left out of the journal by reason of assumption that it will be provided by the media, objectively. but bear this in mind, when i say the lesser information can be left out, i mean, i don't need the minutes of the debate on interstate monkey travel legislation (it happened), but i do demand every single word, punctuation, and line break of every thing that does get published. i don't want to receive a copy of the patriot act, or the torture memos with black bars all over it. fuck you. you're our government. we deserve to know every word of what goes on in our name and with our money, and especially with the military composed of our friends, family, and selves.

you know there's a theory that if you can't tell your girlfriend about it, it's probably considered cheating. well, if you can't tell the american people about it, then we probably don't want you doing it, and you fucking know that's true, because you are the ones censoring us from it.

on the subject of censoring us from it, i want live feeds, or at least uncensored footage from our military actions. i don't care how bloody, violent, unethical, or disgusting it might be. i want to know what is going on. you want us to support our troops? let them speak for themselves. let their actions garner our respect, admiration, and sympathy, and don't cut it off at the knees with reality shows about celebrities living in the jungle, or programs where r lee emrey yells at me about the new carbine armalite semi automatics that the marines are using. leave that shit to the infotainment assholes, the rupert murdochs and ted turners, the viacoms and GEs.

but until we can break through the firewall of the government censors, and the media filters, i urge you all, please, utilize what you can of the freedom of information act. find important documents like the healthcare reform bill, the torture memos, and the patriot act. watch c-span, not cnn. watch foreign news, deutsche velle, russia today, the cantonese news, multiple mexican news broadcasts, and bbc world news are all available on network tv, you don't even need cable, but if you do have cable why not c-span, or الجزيرة (al jazeera, there's an english language version), or bbc?

i know so many of us try to stay objectively informed, and i don't discount that, but let's face it, the powers that be intentionally make it as hard as possible to achieve and sustain this. so don't be afraid to turn your backs on cheesy crap posing as the news, or anyway to discount that as nothing more than extremely biased, revenue driven, entertainment, and seek things like npr, politico, pbs (and if you don't want to watch pbs, you can find all of their journalism streaming online), and smokinggun.com. the huffington post, and aclu(.org) are great places to find links to released government documents, but if you just google things, they are out there, even things like the health care reform bill. but you know what? that link is a good place to get a link to the health care reform bill, as well (pg 432 is the "death panels" page, as well as the portion of text that was debated on the daily show recently. and take it from someone who has worked in hospice care, what the text is saying is that if a patient should choose end of life care, which is hospice care, that the doctors and counselors will be monitored for quality and effectiveness by a government panel. this is to say, that if you are on your last legs, and want medical and emotional treatment for this, your doctors and counselors will be held accountable for their standard of service. it's actually the exact opposite of a death panel.).

so in light of the fact that when i'm not being an entertaining entertainer, i wish for nothing more than to be a respected informer, my ...i'm just sayin' segment is dead. in its stead, i offer this: i will do more to provide pertinent, objective information, and uncorrupted facts (though the comedy of course comes in skewing it, the facts are facts) that may be otherwise buried in the garbage gyre of the internet, or the bureaucratic red tape of the government.

so one last time, on the circus... i'm just sayin'... there's a lot more to being an informed and enlightened citizen than absorbing what cnn is just sayin...