Monday, September 6, 2010

Let's Focus On Irrelevance Some More, Shall We?

This is classic:

"Some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time. And they're not always happy with me. They talk about me like a dog," [President Obama] said, to cheers. "That's not in my prepared remarks, but it's true."

Obama: Special Interests 'Talk About Me Like A Dog'

Give me a freakin' break. Something north of 17 percent of the country is unemployed or underemployed right now thanks to the special interests Obama was referring to, and he and Congress haven't done jack to prevent the same thing happening again that happened in 2008.

And, of course, the press are covering it. No doubt the week will be spent discussing whether it's OK to talk about the President as though he were a dog, or examining all the ins and outs of how that happens, and how we can avoid this calamity in the future.

A few weeks ago, Glenn Greenwald wrote what may be the most cogent summary of what's been going on the last decade or so in mainstream political discourse:

If you read and write about politics full-time and are thus forced to subject yourself to the political media -- as I am -- what's most striking aren't the outrages and corruptions, but the overwhelming, suffocating, numbing stream of stupidity and triviality that floods the brain. One has to battle the temptation to just turn away and ignore it all. Every day, day after day, is consumed by some totally irrelevant though distracting melodrama[.]

The Real U.S. Government

Greenwald was writing about our secret security apparatus that has gradually become beyond any outside control or observation. Sad though that state of affairs may be, all most politicians have to do to avoid a topic being noticed by the DC press is to just avoid discussing it. The press there seems to prefer discussing nonsense anyway.


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