Once again Stuart has captured the geist of the zeit, at least for us suffering Liberals. We're really desperate, and it ain't as amusing as we make it read.

But a funny thing has happened around my house. Just today in fact. We've begun to see an unexpected regiment of cavalry out on the horizon. It's the PRESS. The MSM. The wimpy, passive, even lazy tool of the Republican smear-and-fog machine.

What form does this rescue party take in real terms? It appears as a correct framing of McCain-ian accusations against Obama. Up 'til now, when McCain asserted that Obama is actually a Martian, even the so-called neutral press carried the story this way:

"McCain says Obama is an alien with who-knows-what kind of intentions. Obama denies it. The following talking heads have this and that to say, pro and con."

Just today, though, the story reads this way:

"McCain levels factually incorrect charge at Obama. This is the fourth unsubstantiated charge in a shotgun load of similar accusations. The item of interest is not Obama's defense. It's the inferences that people are making about the Arizona Senator's motives and integrity."

Only yesterday I read an editorial on Media Matters
(http://mediamatters.org/items/200809120021?f=h_top)
that painted an unflattering picture of the press's complicity in the Republican Big Lie campaign. The author suggests that the press stop burying the lead--which is that McCain's latest blast is an out and out lie--and put the facts in the headlines. And 24 hours later it looks like the revolution is coming.

I'm still curious to hear about your form of Deus Ex Machina. If it's different from mine, that would be great. Two regiments of cavalry are better than one.

No regiment, Armond. An army of one. I can't control the press. What can I control? It's an AA prayer in action.

The level to which this post reaches into the absolutely myopic is truly mind-numbing.

The biggest criticism right now that could be leveled against the media is an almost institutional infatuation with Obama. Talk to ANY conservative and outside of some of the admittedly conservative program hosts (Limbaugh for example) and they'll tell you that the entire media is falling over themselves to promote Obama and hide or tear down McCain. It is so bad that even the otherwise generally liberal MSNBC chose to take Kieth Olberman away from Anchor duties because his bias was so overt.

It has even been postulated that the general public is so tired of the obvious love of the media for left-leaning politics that the recent bump in McCain's polling numbers is a direct result of the backlash of the public on the perceived media propagandizing of Obama.

But that would be the viewpoint of a conservative.

Talk to any extreme liberal and they will all say that the media is the tool of the conservatives. Talk to an extreme conservative and they'll say that the media is a tool of the liberals.

My perception of both groups is that they need a little perspective.

"Rove is a Death Star"? Seriously? You sound like a conspiracy theorist. Do you also think the government put bombs into the WTC towers so that they would come down thereby bilking the public to temporarily support the desire to go fight a war for OIL and American hegemony?

Admittedly you put in the caveat "or so it all seems" - but if your perspective is so skewed that even if you realize it may not be reality, the sheer fact that you feel the things you put in your "stream of consciousness" writing ought to clue you into the need for a little perspective.

Then the fact that the other who left comments also seem to have missed the fact that its all about perception is also somewhat frightening.

Both sides of the political sphere have been at each others throats for hundreds of years (the basic tenants of the argument being as old as politics in general). Yet somehow, despite the doom and gloom, hand-wringing, and general predictions of the sky falling because one party wins over another - somehow we've still managed to stay in one piece.

Amazing.

But....I sure do get tired of hearing about how the world will end as we know it if McCain/Obama gets elected.

Surely we reside in different perceptual universes and perceive different consequences of our voting actions. The past is not always prologue. Rome fell after decades of decline. Every empire or near- empire has fallen after long periods of decline. There is a tipping point (you should pardon the expression) when certain changes seem to be irreversible. I think we may be there.
Do you believe in global warming? Catastrophic climate change patterns? Will the earth stay in one piece? Man made or otherwise, it has radically transformed before, changing dominance of flora and fauna and life as each species knew it. Things can be very serious, very consequential, anticipated or unanticipated. Wrong decisions can be made and grave outcomes can flow. Just ask Lehman Bros. Too many conservative republican policies can spoil the stew, side track our nation, "unseparate" church and state and transform the Supreme Court for decades to come once the aging liberal justices are replaced.

Is this USA staying in "one piece?" Would it still with the McCain-Palin victory and the assumption of power by McCain's brain trust? Perhaps, but I'm not sure the whole that I would then know would be recognizable as the sum of its parts, at least the whole to which I used to pledge allegiance.

True, I may be a tad overwrought but I hardly think I'm off the mark. It all depends on the kind of America you want to live in or you want to see your children live in. Moreover, Jared, sometimes a little paranoia and a little hysteria are signs of reality testing while cynical, sober acceptance can be denial, because acceptance is easier than fighting.