GOOOH NOW!

GOOOH NOW!
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Thursday, July 21, 2011

The Press Who Cried, “Duck!” Instead of, “Wolf!”

     Watching the news lately, I am frustrated with the dramatic crescendo building about the debt ceiling limit agreement “in progress.”  Those of us who have an inkling about how important this issue is certainly hopes a good debt-reducing plan will be approved. It is due by August 2nd. Tick-tock, tick-tock.

     Meanwhile, poll results are brandished about which show that the President’s approval rating (45%) is not nearly as low as one would think it would be, Fox News opines, considering how bad the economy is. For instance, President Bush's huge $700 billion federal budget expansion in 2008 blackened his name across the mainstream press. But Bush’s spending habits did not even touch President Obama's first year of spending, which added another $1 trillion, reports Conn Carroll of The Foundry. All those jobs Obama promised are nowehere. Companies who are making money are holding tight to every penny and not reinvesting for fear of what the future holds. So the Fox News pundits quip that Obama’s approval rating “defies gravity”. Ask Chriss Angel or any other illusionist, and they will tell you that gravity-defying stunts simply have strings attached. And Fox knows it. They are cut from the same fabric woven with all those little strings.

     Another poll by Fox News shows that “over half of voters think those who predict a financial catastrophe if the limit isn’t raised are exaggerating (55 percent), and most think those who suggest Social Security checks might not be sent are just trying to scare people (63 percent).” In other words, the American people are jaded by misplaced hype of the press (misdirection, as it is also known), and are consequently unable sense and recognize a true catastrophe, like this debt ceiling deadline, when it is looming right in front of them.  I think that is a pretty fair assessment. The press has done all they could to create this environment of distrust.

     This blog, GOOOH-NOW.blogspot.com, is about addressing the corruption of politicians, and presents the GOOOH plan to provide a systemic remedy for political corruption. In my article submission today, my intention is to make the case that corrupt politics has bred corrupt news sources. Corrupt news sources imply that the present political election system is rigged against the people, since the press' ability to dispense reliable information about candidates is unduly influenced by political agendas. When it comes to information about candidate prospects, then, we should beware the bearer of mainstream news. I apply that warning to both sides of the political fence.

     The case in point that underscores how seriously I believe the current crisis in our country is the fault of both political sides and by the spin doctors of the press can be seen in the current debt ceiling crisis example. About two decades’ worth of administrations, both Republicans and Democrats, have done the incremental damage that has brought us to our current point. The press has vacillated between demonizing and excusing this problem all along the way. Thank goodness the press keeps telling us what to think about all this…

     Hey, does anyone remember when the press used to be all about just reporting the facts and not telling us what to think? Yeah, me neither.

     So now consider why Obama’s approval rating, reportedly, “defies gravity.” Because the majority of the mainstream press, for whatever reason, refuses to be very critical of this administration, the news being pumped to the masses fails to attach this administration with responsibility for much of anything. Same goes for the “Republican” side of the fence. I have a bet to make: We have a bunch of presidential candidates taking the field for the upcoming 2012 election, and I’ll bet the farm that the one who comes out on top will undoubtedly be the one who can garner the most amount of positive influence with the press. Just based on what I saw in the last gubernatorial race here in Texas, I will place my bet on Rick Perry getting the bid (You may say that he has not conceded to run yet. I say he has lived for this day all his life-long political career. He’ll run.). The way things are between the typical politician and the world of reporters, the hand that rocks the press is the hand the rules the world. Rick Perry rocks the press.

     We currently have a system where we are given limited choices for whom we can vote. It's good to have select choices, but who is making those choices for us? The candidates chosen for us by the political parties are the ones who have the money behind them -- these candidates have the corruption behind them, too. It goes with the money. The last election proved that rare was the grassroots candidate who could survive. The odds are against us, and the odds are in favor of the political class who would rule us.

     GOOOH offers a way to break that corrupted system.

     So what would it be like if we actually applied the GOOOH system? What would happen if we were able to truly vet candidates, and got to vote for candidates because we got to know them, personally, face-to-face, rather than merely trusting what the press or the local party has to tell us about them? What if, after a candidate is finally selected by his peers, he or she was made to sign a legal document pledging to follow through with political commitments on issues under penalty of losing their office? And, what if the candidate did not have to worry about how to use political powers and influences to gain re-election because term limits is systematically enforced? Might that lead to a beautiful reduction in corruption?

     If that were to happen, well, I am sure there would be HUGE backlash from certain corners of the press. I would suppose that some press members would denigrate political candidates selected in such a “localized” way. A homegrown candidate selection process could only produce an unsophisticated nominee for a political position, they would say. That's what they said about many of those 2010 grassroots candidates. After all, that's a candidate not vetted in the usual way – by the press.

     Please understand that I am not anti-press, and I love our constitutional amendment guaranteeing freedom of the press. Thomas Jefferson states in one of his letters, “Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.” My point is that our press is no longer free. They are enslaved and obligated by alliances steeped deep in corruption. In an effort to protect their political darling, whether that darling be a president, senator, or congressman, if a bad event compromises a political friend then the press tends to tell us to simply duck when they should be crying wolf. Or the opposite can be true too: instead of informing Americans of a situation that might simply need to be ducked, the press will reliably use it as an opportunity to demonize a foe, usually the opponent of their darling.  We all know this is how politics and press operate. It is insane and it needs to stop.

     The American people have an opportunity to circumvent this politics/press corruption game and restore an honest and enforceable selection/election system. It’s called GOOOH, and it’s the best notion for promoting involvement of the people in political issues and helping them to make informed election decisions since the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858, which sparked the tradition of candidate debates that we value to the present day.

     Please check out GOOOH. Let’s start with applying this system to the House of Congress. Representative candidates vetted district by district. Candidates selected by neighbors coming together to ascertain and choose together who is the person who best represents local interests. (Is that not, in fact, what a representative is supposed to be?)

     Consider how we the American people can be a collective influence to re-adjust our political destiny and put the USA back into accord with the intentions of the Founding Fathers. What do we have to lose? Come August 2nd our country may lose its credit rating, with all the horrible economic implications that implies. How bad does it have to get before we are willing to do something grounded in common sense to take our country back?

     Thomas Jefferson states in another letter, “And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?” I propose the peaceful resistance of GOOOH. Let’s refresh the Tree of Liberty together. We might just be able to liberate the press while we're at it.

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