Play the game, it’s fun!  Fox Business or Porn Star?  It’s harder than you think. . .

Much is being made of Martin Bashir’s comments at the UNITY Conference.  It seems like people are taking his comments as racism.  But if you watch the video, it’s pretty clear that his words are commentary on the American media’s inability to get off the race issue where Obama is concerned.  He’s not suggesting helpful hints for the media, he’s openly ridculing them - and to some extent, all of us - for the naked racism that dominates the coverage of Obama’s candidacy.  There’s even pundits out there - like Pat Buchanan, master of racist politics - who are openly trying to paint Barack Obama as “foreign,” “exotic,” and in any way they can, “other.”

But we’re pissed at Bashir for pointing this out at a diversity conference?  And if it keeps up, he’ll likely lose his job for having the balls to speak the truth.  How typically American.

John McCain is an exceptional candidate.  He’s great in interviews, except when he’s not.  He’s a Conservative, except when he’s not.  He’s a maverick, except when he’s not. . . .

He’s for nuclear energy, except when he’s voting against parking the waste in his back yard.  He’s got the foreign policy experience to lead the nation, except when he can’t tell the difference between Sunni and Shia.  He’s knowledgable about affairs of state, except when he misses the fact that Czechoslovakia has not been a state in about twenty years.  He runs a clean campaign, except when he’s running nothing but negative ads for three weeks in a row.

And best of all, whenever he slips up, the media is there to make an exception for him.

Dana Millbank has been a regular contributor to the Countdown with Keith Olbermann show for a number of years.  But after a sadly sloppy bit of reporting that has become fodder for the Republicans, however untrue, Millbank appears to be cracking under the pressure of criticism.  Countdown wanted an explanation for the gaff, not having him on the show till it was corrected, and Millbank decided to go elsewhere.

I’m not too sure how I feel about any of that, it’s just a fact.  It seems a little strong-armed and partisan to demand an explanation from a reporter before allowing him back on the air.  But then, if Fox News can insist on it’s own reality, I think it’s fair for Olbermann to insist on actual reality.  Its good to have a show that insists on some journalistic integrity.

Anyway, just putting it out there for those of you who’ve missed it till now.

Much has been made (surprise!) about Obama’s assertion that, if it helped get a measure passed that moved in the right direction towards energy independence, relenting on the drilling plans of Republicans might be an OK compromise.  You would have thought he’d come out and said, “Uncle!  You win!!!”  In fact, the media’s still spinning it that way.  Check out, for example, the headline of this article compared to its content:

Obama calls for tapping into strategic oil reserves - CNN.com

“You won’t hear me say this too often, but I couldn’t agree more with the explanation that Sen. McCain offered a few weeks ago. He said, ‘Our dangerous dependence on foreign oil has been 30 years in the making, and was caused by the failure of politicians in Washington to think long term about the future of the country,’ ” Obama said.

“What Sen. McCain neglected to mention was that during those 30 years, he was in Washington for 26 of them. And in all that time, he did little to reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” Obama said.

If Barack Obama’s trip to the Mid East - and the sudden injection of Iraq’s Prime Minister Maliki’s plans into the U.S. political mix - have done anything, they’ve definitely flipped the entire conversation in unexpected ways.  But while many are viewing this as a positive for Barack Obama, there is one highly important question on which the media has jumped the shark entirely, even those dying to be supportive of the presumptive Democratic nominee: we’re now operating under the assumption that The Surge Is Working.

How did we arrive at that?  Is that even true?

What’s even more frustrating is the fact that media icons of the Left are struggling to find ways to continue arguing against a McCain presidency, insisting for example that the “Sunni Awakening” happened before The Surge, tacitly admitting that not only do they believe The Surge is working, but that they refuse to admit this “fact.”  It’s even getting “Digged” as I type.

And I can’t help but notice a critical element missing in all this. . . the facts.  The Surge isn’t failing, exactly, but it’s not working either.  Maliki is playing for his constituency, which is fine and I applaud him doing so, but that doesn’t mean anything else has changed.  What’s happened is that Barack Obama said he would stick to the 16-month timeline, then Maliki agreed to the timeline, then McCain said “but, but, but, . . he couldn’t agree to that if The Surge wasn’t working!”

… And then the media bought it, hook like and sinker without so much as a moment’s cricital inspection.  Now we’re off to the races with another line of BS that ultimately helps John McCain.

One wonders at the Herculean effort that must be required of the editing department of the Democrat and Chronicle that they’re able to have psychic space for the subject of my last post and this latest article in the same moment:

Wall Street roughs up Buffalo-based M&T | democratandchronicle.com | Democrat and Chronicle

According to M&T’s quarterly filings, the bank has an increasing amount of bad debt related to the nation’s real estate woes, with $99 million in loan charge-offs for the quarter, up from $22 million the same quarter a year ago. Those charge-offs, M&T said, in large part were loans to residential real estate developers and builders.

M&T said it also saw increased amounts of bad home equity loans and residential real estate loans.

So, the “conservative” principles that local banks rely on have kept them in good stead. . . except when that 99 million in defaulted loans becomes convenient to explain the loss of profitability.  Figure that out.

It took me a few days to find it, but I just got done reading the D&C’s latest installment of misinformation on the Subprime/ARM Mortgage crisis brewing throughout our country.  Now, it hurts to think.  I know it’s easy to criticize the media for incomplete reporting, but in this case, the Pollyanna tone of the piece and the fundamental lack of depth are just positively astounding.  Take, for example, the dismissive tone that begins the piece:

A casual observer could be forgiven for thinking the U.S. financial industry is on the brink of collapse.

Indeed.  And I’m sure a professional observer could be equally forgiven.  But according to the D&C, that’s all just silly pussy talk:

Is it cash-under-the-mattress time for those of us who don’t know a derivative from a debenture?

No.

Take a deep breath, sit back and listen to Dan Burns, president of the Rochester division of M&T Bank, explain that our local banks — the Canandaigua Nationals, the First Niagaras, the M&Ts and others — are run conservatively and are, in fact, quite healthy.

Yes, now that the irresponsible practices of banks and lending institutions have brought our economy to unbelievable pains and left thousands homeless, let’s all sit right back, take a big hit from the hukka and listen to yet another banker tell us why we needn’t worry our pretty little heads about it.  Sleep deep.  After all, these banks are run conservatively, and conservative equals good.

It is a consistent narrative within the larger D&C world view that Rochester is always exceptional in some way or the other, especially in cases of crisis.  There seems to be some “Big Daddy” complex that compels the editorial board to assure us all that, no matter what the situation, Rochester will be OK because we’re just a far away, sleepy conservative town that nobody would ever want to hurt.  We don’t need to worry about the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan; we don’t need to worry about terrorism; we don’t need to worry about the mortgage crisis.  Sleep deep.  These too shall pass.

And I would prefer not to be seen as the reactionary counterpart, but if seventy percent of the mortgages in America are being underwritten by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - yes, including some of those issued by Canandaigua National - then whether or not East Bumblefuck National Bank ever had the money to even play the subprime game, much less suffer the consequences directly, matters very little.  To the extent that this article is about local banks, it is great to know that they’ve done OK despite the problems so far.  But when the article is address to those of us who “don’t know a derivative from a debenture,” and sets a “don’t worry” tone - consistent with a common D&C theme- there is the air of irresponsibility.

Now is definitely the time to worry; now is definitely time to check the fine-print on your mortgage; now is definitely the time when you should be searching Google News for your mortgage lender’s name; now is the time to pay attention to the news about the mortgage problems and educate yourself to the extent you can.  Now is not the time to panic.  The problems of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac not only have the potential to directly affect those sleepy burgs that choose not to pay attention, but are in fact indicative of market forces that will directly affect our lives.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac certainly have their problems as institutions.  Nevertheless, the sudden near-collapse of these two lending agencies is not simply bad timing: in an effort to bail out banks and mortgage holders struggling with the ARM interest rate snap-back that’s caused this whole subprime crisis, the government encouraged people to transfer to Fannie- and Freddie-backed mortgages.  Now, those institutions are completely overwhelmed and there’s more to come.  Here in Rochester, according to one recent report which I discussed a while back (note: Empire Justice’s website appears to be down at the moment, so you can’t actually see the report, which sux), forty four percent of subprime mortgages in Monroe County are in trouble.  Even if those mortgages aren’t through local banks, the problem they present is still quite local.

And oh, by the way?  Hiding cash under your mattress doesn’t matter much if the financial institutions that back that currency collapse.  No, now may not be the time to hide cash under your bed, but if we’re unlucky, it may be time to start ripping copper wire out of your house and protecting your gold fillings.

So, D&C: quit patronizing us and do your freakin’ job.  Tell us what’s happening, ask tough questions of local institutions.  Do I have to be all on my own reporting the news around here?

I’ve made this point in the recent past, but it bears mentioning again and again, since the media keeps wanting to discuss “bipartisanship” as it applies to Barack Obama’s record.

“Centrism” is the limp-dicked insistence that the middle of the road on any issue is automatically the right course to take.  As Mr. Miaggi famously said, “Left side, OK.  Right side, OK.  Middle of road, Qeeuich!  Squashed like grape.”  It can occasionally be true that finding a middle ground is a more amenable solution and softens the blow of extreme positions on either side, but that does not mean that Centrism and Bipartisanship are necessarily the same thing.

Bipartisanship is the act of bringing together a coalition around accomplishing a single goal.  Notice that there is no mention of that goal necessarily being right, left or center.  It’s possible that a Bipartisan concensus can be formed around a Centrist solution, but it is equally true that a solution largely regarded as being from one wing or the other can also gain and hold Bipartisan support if the right politicians get together.

Therefore, to look at a politician’s record, declare it “Leftist” and therefore conclude that he’s not capable of Bipartisanship is simply wrong.  Not that veracity means much to the media, but maybe it means something to the rest of us.

Perhaps not, but apparently it does leave a paper trail. Josh Marshall at TPM points out this great OpEd piece from Michael Gerson, railing against Al Franken’s brazen crudeness. Because, of course, we all know Al as the king of filthy humor. Watch in delight and mirth as he goes out of his way to look like a humorless loser by itemizing Franken’s humor:

Michael Gerson - Vulgarian at the Gate - washingtonpost.com

Franken’s “brand name” includes other highlights. In 2006, after a long monologue about a dog and its vomit, Franken impersonated the deceased Sen. Strom Thurmond as saying: “Yeah, I screwed a woman who was vomiting once.” He once proposed a television sketch about a female CBS reporter being drugged and raped. He has suggested that his next book title might be “I F — – — Hate Those Right-Wing Motherf — – — !” At an event hosted by the Feminist Majority Foundation in 1999, Franken offered this thigh-slapper: “Why don’t we focus on what Afghan women can do? They can cook, bear children and pray. As I recall, that was fine for our grandmothers.”

I’d like to think that Gerson isn’t just feigning humorlessness. I’d like to think he’s really that dumb. And best of all, he joins our own Rochester Democrat and Chronicle puditry in it’s crusade against long-dead musical trends:

Michael Gerson - Vulgarian at the Gate - washingtonpost.com

Our popular culture, of course, violates even these expansive boundaries of tastelessness with regularity. We laugh at comedies featuring the C-word and at cartoons of foul-mouthed third-graders. In the cause of relevance and realism, our common life is already decorated with excrement. Why should political discourse be any different?

For at least one reason: Because vulgarity is often the opposite of civility. . . But the vulgarity of “The Jerry Springer Show” or misogynous rap music — the cultural equivalents of Franken’s political “satire” — generally expresses contempt and cruelty.

Note how, in an attempt at humor, a Conservative columnist feigns concern over “misogyny.” Well, we can’t all be Jerry Lewis.