More at therealnews.com
Pepe Escobar: Comparing foreign policy advisers of two candidates shows some differences

Friday February 15th, 2008

Your Daily Politics Video Blog: The moment had to come -- Mitt packs it in. But, as he explains in today's episode of TPMtv, he's doing it so America can win the War on Terror. Special added bonus video -- Laura Ingraham goes apes--t on John McCain.

Throughout the Bush administration media corporations have helped our government sell war. This mashup evidences just one tiny aspect of that thought control.

I didn't know much about Chris Matthews before I started working on this video for our friends at Media Matters. I don't have cable, so most of what I knew of Matthews was from clips on Crooks & Liars, which usually highlighted some ridiculous, silly, or clueless thing Matthews had said. For the most part, he seemed to me like a friendly, if sometimes goofy, newsguy with an annoying voice. Even his past and recent sexism seemed more like something you'd expect from your nice friend who sometimes makes people laugh semi-uncomfortably by being mildly offensive, especially when drunk. It's not the best thing in the world, but not that big of a deal.

But I think I might've been wrong.

I started watching clips of Matthews and I soon came to a very disturbing conclusion: Chris Matthews is the friendlier, smarter version of Bill O’Reilly.

Here me out on this. When BOR screams something outrageous, dishonest, and offensive, people get angry and want to hold him accountable and discredit FOX. But when Matthews goofily says something outrageous, dishonest, and offensive, most people just laugh and shrug it off because Matthews seems like a nice guy, not a lying, blowhard prick like BOR. If Matthews’ statements are allowed to stand without anyone vigorously challenging them, those statements are accepted as truth, or at least a reasonable interpretation.

http://representativepress.googlepages.com/
Please join for the mailing list so critical activist info can be easily shared:
http://groups.google.com/group/RepresentativePress
http://www.representativepress.org/donate.html
A Warmongering War President Catapulting the Propaganda

More at therealnews.com
Leo Panitch: Weakening of unions and global pressures on US wages a major factor (1 of 2)

Thursday January 24th, 2008

Leo Panitch is the Canada Research Chair in Comparative Political Economy and a Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto. Panitch is also the author of Global Capitalism and American Empire.