www.nationalview.org and Note From a Madman brought to you by
for your Information Technology needs
owned and operated by Noah "The Madman" Greenberg
This Is What Democracy Looks Like
Today's Note From a Madman
December 28, 2008
The Environment: Not Just for Crazy,
Tree-Huggin' Liberals Anymore
Lost in the mix of new, lower gas prices and their relationship to V-8 engines
and SUV's is the one topic which should be center-stage in the Big Three auto
bailout scenario: The environment.
While the Bush White House, with the help and support of K-Street lobbyists and
a GOP majority in the House and Senate for most of its time in office, has
helped allow polluters to police themselves with such policies as the "Clean
Water Act" and the Clear Skies Initiative", the Big Three US auto makers haven't
done a thing to change themselves. General Motors, Ford and Chrysler haven't put
out a car that gets fifty miles per gallon, nor have they reduced their reliance
on big, gas guzzling trucks and SUV's for profit. Sure SUV's make a guy feel
"bigger", but no one could believe that they are the future...
Could they?
The Big Three haven't addressed the environment either. Their lust for profit
have helped make the planet - our planet - less livable with the amounts of
carbon being put into the air and loss of our natural resources.
The term "Peak Oil" (the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum
extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal
decline -Wikipedia) has taken a front seat in the conversation on the
environment, ecology and energy. We talk about energy as it relates to our
national security ("our" oil is still under "their" sand) but hardly speak about
it as it relates to saving The Earth anymore.
And it does need to be saved.
Somewhere along the line the cries of "Save the Whales" and "plant a tree" have
made those who speak those phrases crazy, tree-huggin' Liberals. Shouldn't we
all be crazy, tree-huggin' Liberals these days?
When gas prices soared to near-five dollar per gallon figures we were all
thinking about conservation. Too bad it was only as it related to our
pocketbooks and wallets. While we all care about our own "personal environment"
we seem to care little for the environment as a whole. You can see it as smokers
roll down the road tossing their cigarette butts out of the window of their
Cadillac Escalades, then pull their gas guzzler into their driveway surrounded
by their perfectly manicured lawns.
Even the White House, not surprisingly, looks at the environment as "our" issue
alone. The White House web sites's Environment page's title reads this way:
"Protecting Our Nation's Environment"
-http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/environment/
What about the rest of the planet?
Hopefully President-Elect Obama will reverse the "live for today" environmental
policies of the Bush years. Hopefully the Religious Right - a group so enamored
with the Bushies that they allowed them to get away with whatever they and their
lobbyists wanted to - will stay on the course of helping to protect our world's
environment and help make it an issue for all of us and not just the crazy,
tree-huggin' Liberals.
Go on... say it... Al Gore was right. Consider it therapy.
Hopefully the environment won't just be offered lip-service (at best) from here
on in.
Obama and the Democratic Congress will have to reverse the "free trade" of
pollution rights which the Bushies laid upon us. They're going to have to make
the US auto industry apply real CAFE standards to their new vehicles. And our
new government is going to have to address our "friends" in China and elsewhere
around the planet. We're going to have to say to our allies, "Stop polluting or
stop sending us your goods." In short, we're going to need a big change.
All of that talk about leaving the planet in a better way then when we got here;
and all of that fuss about "our children's and grandchildren's futures" being at
stake are no longer just for us "Liberals". You "Conservative" are going to have
to figure our a way to help all of us "Conserve" in a whole new way.
-Noah Greenberg
THE LAVENDER TUBE: BEST AND WORST
OF 2008
by Victoria A. Brownworth
copyright c 2008 San Francisco Bay Area Reporter, Inc.
The best and worst of any given year tends to turn up first on TV and 2008 was
no exception. Fraught with natural and unnatural disasters–earthquakes in China,
floods in India and the Midwest, terrorism in Mumbai, rape and torture in Congo,
the continuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq–all of the most awful aspects 2008
were presented on the tube in immediate and grisly detail. Unavoidable, as they
should be.
Nevertheless, the omnipresent TV theme of 2008 for Americans was the election,
which was played out as an extended and often exasperating mini-series on the
tube. Election coverage, particularly during the primary, provided some of the
best and worst TV moments of the year. Punditry was practically an Olympic-level
sport, despite not having been on the roster at Beijing. The jousting, however,
was often brutal and in the end, only one candidate was left standing.
Imbalanced media attention favoring Barack Obama took up a good deal of air time
and also became such a source of contention among Hillary Clinton’s supporters
during the primary that when “Saturday Night Live” began doing political skits
about it, Clinton herself felt freed to discuss the issue publicly, even
referencing the skits in a debate.
Sexism in TV news coverage became a point of discourse for cable and network
pundits, although some were prime offenders.
The most egregious anti-Clinton commentary came from MSNBC. Chris Matthews,
previously known for his man-crush on George Bush, couldn’t keep his man-crush
on Obama in check. His sexist slams at Clinton ranged from his contention that
she had only gotten votes because people felt sorry for her due to her husband’s
adulterous affair to saying that she wanted to suck the breath out of Obama in
his cradle.
Keith Olbermann also lost his head during the primary. In his
anti-Clinton/pro-Obama zeal, he told Howard Fineman that a male super-delegate
should take Hillary Clinton into a back room and only the super-delegate should
come out.
The rape imagery outraged feminists and Clinton supporters.
Olbermann redeemed himself after the election with his impassioned Special
Comment supporting same-sex marriage and excoriating Prop 8. But Ben Affleck’s
portrayal of an over-the-top, frothing-at-the-mouth Olbermann on “SNL” was the
image most viewers were left with post-election.
Political satire found a strong voice in 2008 with Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert
and Craig Ferguson taking the lead in political comedy.
But “SNL” was also one of the bests of 2008. Tina Fey, guest hosting the first
show after the writer’s strike ended, declared her support for Hillary Clinton
in a “bitch is the new black” commentary.
Then Fey almost single-handedly ruined Sarah Palin’s political future with her
over-the-top impression of the VP contender. Many credit Fey’s impersonation
with making it more difficult for voters to take Palin seriously as a political
choice.
Regardless, Fey’s satirical take on Palin made “I can see Russia from my house”
one of the most quoted lines of the entire election season.
One of the bests of 2008 was the new and improved Katie Couric. The perennial
number three in the evening anchor division, CBS’s Couric also seemed to find
her voice with Palin. Her interviews with the Alaskan governor were
journalistically strong, subtly damning and had none of the paternalistic
bashing quality that ABC’S Charlie Gibson interviews had.
Fox News once again gets the award for worst news coverage, most skewed news
coverage and this year, new worsts: most racist and most sexist news coverage.
Matthews and Olbermann might have been pushing the sexism envelope really far,
but Fox made the envelope to begin with.
Media Matters declared Sean Hannity its 2008 “winner” for Misinformer of the
Year, and we are loathe to disagree, but we *do* wonder how MM was able to
choose just *one* of the Fox News folks for that accolade. It would seem that
Brit Hume should at least have been runner-up.
Another of the worsts of 2008 was the non-coverage of Prop 8 by network and
cable TV news. If you didn’t live in California, you had no idea that there were
endless protests going on in California and across the country, because other
than local news, the revoking of same-sex marriage rights was a non-issue (the
news you’re not seeing) on anything but local California TV.
And if it weren’t for MSNBC’s lesbian talk show host Rachel Maddow, one of the
bests of 2008, and a few other pundits, would anyone even know that there was
controversy over Barack Obama’s choice of Pastor Rick Warren--a strong supporter
of Prop 8 who equates same-sex marriage with incest, bestiality and polygamy–to
give the invocation at his inauguration?
On her Dec. 17 show, Maddow noted, correctly, that Obama’s excuse for choosing
Warren–reciprocity for having been invited to Warren’s church a few years
back–was not reciprocity at all.
Maddow went on to note that Obama wasn’t inviting Warren to his church or to his
home, but to “convene the swearing in of the next president of the United
States.” She also reminded her audience that Obama and Warren share the same
view on same-sex marriage: that it’s wrong.
Maddow, whose support of Obama during the primary was perceived by many to be
positively rabid, called the choice of Warren a “lose-lose” for Obama and “the
first big mistake of his post-election politicking....When human rights
activists look back on the inauguration of the first African-American president
they will say ‘Boy, what a great moment–but what was that guy who compared
homosexuality to incest doing there?’”
Thus, Maddow is our pick for best pundit of 2008 for consistently reminding her
viewers of the news they aren’t seeing.
Speaking of which, no TV news outlet reported this little tidbit (courtesy of
John Aravosis): Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church website *expressly* notes that
homosexuals are not allowed to be members unless they repent their “lifestyle.”
Crossing the aisle is one thing. Burning a cross to get there is quite another.
That’s the news you’re not seeing.
Meanwhile, another worst for TV in 2008 was the writers’ strike. The timing and
duration damaged existing programming which was largely replaced with
unwatchably tedious reality shows requiring no scripts and non-actors. The
strike inadvertantly destroyed some excellent new shows like “Pushing Daisies,”
“Dirty Sexy Money” and the remake of “Bionic Woman,” which were among those that
never recovered from the truncated season. All three shows had serious queer
content, which makes the loss all the more sad.
A small screen best included queer storylines on “All My Children” and “As the
World Turns.” Both shows presented realistic gay and lesbian couples with
real-life problems like the struggle to be out, the homophobic responses of
family and friends and maintaining a queer relationship in a straight culture.
Stellar actors made the roles of Bianca and Reese on “All My Children,” whose
lesbian relationship is highly realistic, and Luke, Noah and Brian on “As the
World Turns, ” who are involved in a ground-breaking gay male love triangle,
believable and moving.
One of the worst queer storylines of the 2008 season was the lesbian affair
between Erica and Callie on “Grey’s Anatomy.” During her brief (due to Brooke
Smith being fired from the show and Erica being written out of the script
entirely) affair with Erica, Callie spent more time having sex with Dr. Mark
Sloan than she did with the woman she was allegedly in love with. (No safe sex
in evidence, either, making it doubly bad as she moved from bed to bed.)
Another worst was Thirteen’s alleged bisexuality on “House.” After learning that
she had an incurable terminal illness, Thirteen began having recreational sex
with women–portrayed on the show in all its titillating pornographic detail. But
the end of the season found Thirteen falling in love with her doctor/colleague–a
man.
The show’s message was clear: sex with other women is explicative of weakness
and out-of-control behavior while sex with a man is grown up and real.
“Dirty Sexy Money,” “Dexter,” “The Wire,” “Brothers & Sisters,” “Desperate
Housewives” and “True Blood” had some of the best queer characters on prime
time, but “Brothers & Sisters” consistently failed to bring its queer couple,
Kevin and Scotty, together as a real couple.
“Boston Legal” had the best bromance as well as the best same-sex marriage. Who
could beat Alan and Denny being married by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
for sheer outrageous camp?
“Project Runway” offered queer reality–a best. “A Shot at Love with Tila
Tequila” offered the smarmy underside of bisexual pandering.
Logo continued to present great queer programming, but remained inaccessible to
many markets.
In the end, 2008 was neither the worst nor the best year on the tube, but one
that saw a wild fluctuation depending on what month it was and if the strike was
on or off. The Olympics were endless, but Michael Phelps was amazing. The
election was endless, but the last few weeks were enthralling. The best TV shows
were truly superb, the worst galling for the air space they took up.
In the end, the best TV moment of the year was Election Night 2008. John McCain
was gracious in defeat and Barack Obama sober in victory. The election of
America’s first African-American president and the view of Chicago’s Grant Park
with people as far as the eye could see was as uplifting a political and social
moment as many Americans will ever get to see.
The New Year will start as it always does with the TV countdown by Dick Clark
and the ball dropping on Times Square. Then on Jan. 20, the world will be
watching as Obama is sworn in–alas, with hatemonger Rick Warren by his side.
Whether the inauguration augurs in a new era or not remains to be seen. But the
moment in November in Grant Park will live forever as Americans saw it that
night from their TV screens. That was reality TV worth watching and it was, for
many Americans, the best TV they’ll ever see, because promise is always better
than reality, history in the making always more powerful than history revisited.
Happy New Year and stay tuned!
In response to Rev. Rick Warren giving the invocation at Barack Obama's
inauguration, Ginger writes:
It wouldn't matter who Barack Obama chose to give the invocation. Some group is
always going to protest. I wonder who the gays and lesbians would choose that
somebody else wouldn't protest, or who the Conservatives could choose, same
situation. There are many more pressing issues than this one, and protesting
someone giving an invocation is hardly of earth-shattering importance.
Send your comments to: NationalView@aol.com
-Noah Greenberg