Udall, Coffman, the 4th Amendment & the Media
Udall told members of the White House Advisory Board on Radiation and Worker Health last Thursday that the way the federal government treats sick nuclear weapons workers and their families “speaks volumes about us as a society.” It’s pretty typical stuff for our current administration and Republicanism in general: workers get screwed as those in charge change the rules mid-stream. It once again boils down to: Republicans don’t believe government works. So why elect them and let them prove their ideology stinks?
By the way, what is Bob Schaffer’s (Rep. Udall’s opponent for CO’s 2008 Senate race) take on this issue?
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From Colorado Ethics Watch:
Through open records requests and other research, Colorado Ethics Watch has identified significant blocks of time on the official calendar of [Republican] Secretary of State Mike Coffman that were either used for meetings with potential funders of his congressional campaign, or are unaccounted for as private appointments and meetings. In the meantime, it is unclear whether Secretary Coffman is meeting critical goals and deadlines required of him as Colorado Secretary of State.
Coffman was elected to this office in 2006, despite the horrid performance of his Republican predecessor. It was unfortunately an under-the-radar kind of race. Coloradans, in their search for a type of bipartisanship that simply doesn’t exist with today’s Republican Party, elected Coffman in the hopes he would “balance” Gov. Bill Ritter. The balance that has been put on display: unethical Republican activities and ethical Democratic activities. You know Republicans would make this the headline-du-jour for weeks if a Democratic Secretary of State did the same thing.
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The corporate stenographers working at major media outlets are serving the country well, don’t you think? I sure do: In the past 30 days (from Apr 5th backwards), 65 times more Obama-bowling articles showed up on a NEXIS search than Yoo-4th Amerndment articles. What’s the significance? John Yoo, while at the U.S. Department of Justice, wrote a memo which authorized torture and presidential lawbreaking. The Bush administration has declared the Fourth Amendment to be inapplicable to “domestic military operations” within the U.S. Barack Obama went bowling.
Which story did the corporate stenographers decide to report on? The bowling story. Why? Well, according to Republicans, because the media is too liberal. It seems to me that if liberals ran the corporate media outlets, they would raise a red flag about the 4th Amendment being declared inapplicable. No, the media has been led around by right-wing extremists who want Americans to believe liberals want to take their guns away. Liars and fear-mongers: today’s Republican Party.
