Disasters, Real Or Imagined

Among the things we did this past weekend, we watched, listened, and read about the multiple disasters going on in Japan over the last several days. To say things in Japan are hellish right now is an understatement of massive proportions. It began with one of the top five earthquakes ever recorded by the USGS, followed by multiple nuclear power disasters, and as some kind of cruel cosmic cherry on top, a volcanic explosion in Southern Japan.

Our hearts go out to the people there, and we recommend that if you haven't done something to help those poor folks, that you chip in now, at somewhere like the Japanese Red Cross or another aid organization.

With all of those horrors happening in Japan, you might think we'd focus our commentary today on nuclear power, or the folly of man trying stop Mother Nature.

We'll leave that for tomorrow.

Today, we wanted to point out a difference we'd noticed in the short transition between the middle and end of last week, surrounding the media coverage of so-called major events.

In case you missed the links we provided last week, there were a couple of personnel turnovers at NPR of high-level NPR staff members after a hidden camera video and editing hack job was released last week. This video was obtained by a convicted criminal, who is also a far-right wing propaganda blogger. For at least a couple of days, it was a hard story to miss, as many of our colleagues in the media fell over themselves to cover a story we felt wasn't that significant.

Some in the media covered the NPR story as though it were almost as important as the disasters in Japan. While the coverage level wasn't exactly equal, it was too often disappointingly close at some media outlets we monitor.

That, in a nutshell, is the problem.

The first thing that ANY legitimate media - and especially NEWS media - should have done when the partisans on the right first began pushing the NPR scandal story as major news was look to what the source of the video was. That it came from a young extremist right wing activist, already convicted for an attack on a Senator's office, should have raised red flags. That this guy also has been caught attempting to commit sexually oriented blackmail on a national news reporter in order to fabricate another ideologically driven media frenzy, should have set off red lights and sirens in every legitimate newsroom.

Even with all the evidence damning the creator of the video, a respectable editor would have looked over the raw video footage to see if the activist's claims were true. Shockingly, this time the activist made the raw footage available - and even right wing sources, upon seeing the footage have admitted there was no real disaster or crime committed by NPR's now-former executives.

It is sad - and stupid - that two NPR execs felt they had to dump their own careers due to the highly biased coverage engineered by right-wing propagandists. The facts prove there was no need for NPR or its leadership to hang themselves out to dry - or worse.

There was also no need for other, more legitimate media outlets to give as much coverage to the NPR non-event as they did. As the very real and very sad events in Japan sadly continue to prove, there are plenty of disasters that occur every day that deserve far more media scrutiny than an executive or two at NPR shooting off his/her mouth in private.

That some media organizations have given nearly equal time to both the NPR tape and the events in Japan - while nearly ignoring many other substantive stories - is proof that at least one of the real disasters going on right now is the state of the "news" media itself.

Funday Friday: Positive Perspective

The ground doesn't appear to be the only thing thawing out recently, both here in America and around the world.

The news stories we've been featuring here and talking about elsewhere have been catching not just our eyes and ears, but the attention of a great number of people.

There have been stories that have made our heads spin - like the Supreme Court ruling that the Westboro Baptist "Church" (or any group like them) can demonstrate at military funerals. There have also been stories that burn us up - like the continuing attack on workers by people who have no idea what the history of labor really is.

Some of these stories have gotten a number of you and more than a few other Americans riled up across the country.

That's good.

We think that some of these stories SHOULD be getting your attention, making you get off your backside, grab your coat, and getting you to become active in your community, no matter how old you are. Get involved! Be passionate! Be informed! Be educated!!

These are all blessings that Americans often take for granted that we so often forget not everyone in the world has.

In fact, most people don't have the same experience we do.

We're not saying "America is the best place in the world, for everyone!" It IS a great place - and we're all generally happy we live here. It works well for all of us.

However, things could be so much worse for our staff, our friends, our families - even you who are reading this right now.

We could live in the squalor of refugee camps in Somalia - or in the prison camps of China.

We could all be stuck in North Korea. As citizens.

We could be living in the earthquake shattered shell of Christchurch, New Zealand - or in the earthquake and tsunami affected areas of Japan.

We could be pinned down in the drug cartel battleground regions of Mexico - or we could be in the true war zones of Afghanistan or Pakistan.

But we're not. [Most of us, anyway. For those serving overseas? Thank you.]

We're not saying the stories we tell you daily through cartoons or commentaries aren't important. They are, and if they weren't, we wouldn't place so much focus on them.

That being said, things could be so much worse - for most of you reading this and for us as well. So this weekend, we hope you take a moment to count your blessings and be grateful for what you have.

Come Monday, were sure we'll have more stories of dumb people doing stupid and/or evil things. The list never seems to end.

Think of it as job security for your Daily Felltoon staff.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

"What we've got here is failure to communicate…"

There's a reason that cowardly legislators and childrens' monsters often have some of the same characteristics.

Those characteristics were on full display last night in the state of Wisconsin, as the Republican controlled Wisconsin Senate made a serious collection of grave errors. The Republicans there decided to violate the spirit, if not the letter of their own laws - as well as the will of the people of their state - and use a slimy, underhanded maneuver to jam through Gov. Scott Walker's illegal and immoral attack on the rights of workers.

In short, the Republican party in Wisconsin has now declared war on the working people in their own state.

We don't expect the working people of Wisconsin will sit idly by and quietly collect signatures for recall. Indeed, they already stormed their own capitol building last night, after the heinous vote. It would not surprise us if there is violent reaction over the next few days - or worse - aimed at the eighteen Republican state lawmakers, or anyone who supports them. We do not condone violence - but we also, in no uncertain terms, condone the actions of Scott Walker and the Wisconsin GOP followers who supported this heinous action. This standoff is fast becoming a ticking time bomb.

We're willing to bet that by the time these words reach your screens this morning, there will be legal challenges - and quite possibly more - happening all over Wisconsin. Our bet is that any serious physical violence will begin on the Scott Walker side of the trenches.

There continues to be all kinds of attacks on worker rights and union rights alike, from Idaho, to Iowa, to Ohio, and more. We thought our point last week - and the points of Wisconsin voters to their leaders - had been made clear. In fact, our original intention today was not to focus further on this subject. We were planning on continuing our discussion from yesterday, about America's addiction to oil, and letting the long, slow, safe process of negotiation work itself out in places like Wisconsin.

However, as our opening quote hints, there are some people you just can't reach.

That fact became brutally clear earlier on Wednesday, when Wisconsin Senate Majority leader Scott Fitzgerald - one member of an entire family installed into positions of political power in Wisconsin - went on Fox "News" and confirmed what everyone with sense already knew:  this battle has never been about the budget.

Fitzgerald said, "If we win this battle, and the money is not there under the auspices of the unions, certainly what you’re going to find is President Obama is going to have a much difficult, much more difficult time getting elected and winning the state of Wisconsin."

We don't think we have to say how monstrous Fitzgerald's quote is - or how completely against the spirit of democracy and justice his attitude and the attitude of those who support him are. In the light of reason and justice, neither childrens' monsters nor cowardly legislators usually survive long in their same frightful state. That's part of the reason we began our commentary as we did today.

The other reason we began as we did - with the quote we chose - may not be what some of our readers might think. We'll admit that quote is from the movie "Cool Hand Luke", about a prisoner who refuses to submit to the system. But that's not why we chose that quote today.

Those words are also the beginning lines of a rock and roll song by the band "Guns N' Roses". The title of their song?

"Civil War."