Calling all smaller party and independent candidates!

If you rely solely for your news solely on the mainstream media, the types that pontificate on the importance of media literacy, chances are you won't be too well informed. You'd probably think that the only candidates for governor of this state were the Democrat and the Republican (and maybe the other Republican). You'd probably have no idea that there are EIGHT other candidates for governor besides those from the two major parties.

The corporate media only covers the corporate parties, no surprise there. The media's infatuation with polls has its limits: it ignores the one that shows that 58 percent of Americans think a third party is needed.

Of course, there ARE 'third parties' in this country, but most people aren't aware of them because... oh wait, I already covered this.

So one thing I will do is open this blog up to publishing statements from any candidate for office in NYS from outside the Republicrats.

Obviously, this isn't a substitute for the actual journalism that professional reporters should be doing but since the corporate party candidates get tons of free air time and print in the corporate media and other candidates get virtually none, it's the best I can do.

This offer is not open to any registered Democrat or Republican who is running on a third party line, a process which I believe subvets attempts at real multipartyism. The offer is only open to candidates actually registered in a smaller party or registered independents.

If interested, please email me at: mofycbsj @ yahoo.com

Are journalists slaves to polling companies?

"At times it feels as if American politics consists largely of candidates without ideas hiring consultants without convictions to stage campaigns without content. Increasingly the result is elections without voters." –Gerald Ford

I’m a big fan of North Country Public Radio’s Brian Mann. I think he’s probably the best journalist in this area. His news stories are fair (different than neutral) as well as offering a depth and nuance pretty much unseen in this region’s journalism. But one of his weaknesses is his infatuation with the horse race of politics; this blog piece where he went on about a poll regarding the NY governor’s race is a recent example. I won’t crucify him for it because his real journalism is of such quality. But as someone who’s regularly criticized the overreliance on polls that cripples modern journalism, I wish he’d tone it down a bit.

I think journalists are infatuated by polls because they are far easier to frame than more complex (and more relevant) stories about issues. The way stories about polls are framed are remarkably similar to the way stories about sports are often framed. But ESPN's hype machine aside, most sports journalists don't pass their work off as being of epic importance.

Polls really are a a crutch of modern journalism. As I’ve said before, polls can be useful when they illuminate a story or issue. Far too often, though, they ARE the story. Polls fine as the dessert – fine in small quantities, easy to digest but with little nutritional value; instead, they are usually passed off as the main course – thus we get a malnourished civic soul.

I am convinced that this is a reason why ordinary people are tuning out of politics and why they are losing respect for journalism. Nearly all the coverage, and I mean in the state media in general not just Mann's blog, of the governor’s race is based on polls; this was exacerbated when a poll was released showing the GOP’s Carl Paladino only 6 points behind Democrat Andrew Cuomo. The small rest of the gubernatorial coverage has about Paladino’s controversial personality and emails he once sent.

I’ve seen hardly anything about the FOUR other statewide races, those for attorney general, comptroller and two US Senate seats. There was a little coverage about the Democratic attorney general primary (again mostly focused on the polls and who was 'ahead') but virtually none since.

The state is in a crisis but journalists seem to think that no one’s interested in hearing ideas about how to address the crisis and that everyone's more worried about the little parlor games of polls that ignore most of the candidates anyway.

Yes, the only people talking about issues and ideas are the smaller party candidates... this is almost always how it is. But if the media is going to blacklist those smaller party candidates and perpetuate the deceit that they don't exist, don’t they at least have a responsibility to press the major party candidates to talk about real issues, not just a candidate's crude emails or lineage?

Oh wait, I have to go. A poll shows that Paladino’s popularity has increased by 0.0441 percent since 22 minutes ago. Stop the presses! I need to write a story about this Earth-shattering development!


Update: Matt Funiciello offers his take.

Second update: Curiously, the media's infatuation with polls doesn't seem to extend to the one that shows 58% of Americans think the Republicans and Democrats so inadequate that a third party is needed. Of course, there ARE 'third parties' so this means that the majority of Americans think the media should actually cover them, like is done in the media of every other democracy.

Issues in youth sports

The Columbus [OH] Telegraph has a fascinating series on a wide variety of issues related to youth sports.

Apologies to Muslims

New York Times' columnist Nick Kristof published an apology to Muslims for all the hateful, defamataory and vitriolic generalizations directed at them by far too many citizens of the so-called 'home of the brave.'

Kristof begins: Many Americans have suggested that more moderate Muslims should stand up to extremists, speak out for tolerance, and apologize for sins committed by their brethren.

That’s reasonable advice, and as a moderate myself, I’m going to take it. (Throat clearing.) I hereby apologize to Muslims for the wave of bigotry and simple nuttiness that has lately been directed at you. The venom on the airwaves, equating Muslims with terrorists, should embarrass us more than you. Muslims are one of the last minorities in the United States that it is still possible to demean openly, and I apologize for the slurs.

He laments that a Maine newspaper caved in to hysterical hatemongers by apologizing for an innocuous article that portrayed Muslims as... (insert menacing music)... civilized human beings. In 2010, that's apparently something to apologize for.

The Post-Star ran a similar, innocuous story earlier this month on the religious practices of a Muslim gentleman in Queensbury, which also provoked filthy invective. I'm no fan of the paper's managing editor Ken Tingley, but to his immense credit, he refused to apologize for a piece which portrayed a decent human being as a decent human being and as well as for denouncing the vile bigots.

I applaud Tingley for standing by the article and standing against the mindlessness. I also echo Kristof's apology to Muslims.

“I support unlimited war... and limited government"

"When I give food to the poor, I'm called a saint. When I ask why they are poor, I'm called a communist." -Archbishop Dom Helder Camara.

Chris Gibson is the local Tea Party-backed candidate for Congress. Gibson is the pro-war corporate Republican who claims to be a fiscal conservative running against Scott Murphy, the incumbent pro-war Democrat who claims to be a fiscal conservative.

Gibson’s campaign motto is succinct: “[Iraq] Combat Veteran. Fiscal Conservative.” I’d love to hear him rationalize this given that, their inherent immorality aside, interminable wars of choice and aggression like Iraq are pretty much the most fiscally reckless thing any elected official can support.

But I suppose coming up with such a rationalization would require him to recognize the contradiction in the first place.

Border Patrol: worse than Arizona

The state of Arizona has come under immense criticism for passing a law essentially requiring all citizens and residents to carry proof of citizenship or legal residency with them at all times.

However, this report from North Country Public Radio points out that the Border Patrol is doing very much same thing.


Basically, if you live within 100 miles of the border, you need to carry your passport or green card with you at all times or else risk being detained. Remember that next time you drive to the grocery store to get a gallon of milk.

In many ways, this is worse than the Arizona law. While the controversial situation in the southwest was implemented by the normal legislative process, the Border Patrol did this by nebulous and unaccountable "policy."

Additionally, at least the Arizona law forces authorities to fake some sort of pretext. The Border Patrol can demand proof of citizenship from anyone or search their laptops or whatever for no reason far away from the border.

This story evokes memories of my time living in West Africa, where I needed to carry my documents with me at all times in case I ran into a military checkpoint.

So you think if you're here legally, you have nothing to worry about? Not quite.
Since 90% of all New Yorkers and 2/3 of all Americans live within 100 miles of the border, the 4th Amendment apparently doesn't apply in most of the country.

Hobbling journalism's crutch kicked away while foreigners offer a glimpse at the Tea Party's vision

I’m no fan of the Tea Party-backed Carl Paladino but... I do take a little joy from the fact that the polls, the modern substitute for actual journalism, were spectacularly wrong.

The polls had this a neck-and-neck race between Alan Alda-look-alike Paladino and Rick Lazio in the race for the GOP nomination for governor of New York.

Paladino won by 24 points.

Though Larry Sabato, the resident political science expert used by pretty much every national media outlet, pointed out that anti-incumbent fury wasn't quite as lethal as you might think.

As he Tweeted: Final tally: 417 Sens. & Reps. renominated, 7 lost (98% won)

And speaking of the slash-and-burn approach advocated by Paladino and other self-proclaimed small government types, Canada's MacLean's magazine has a profile of what Tea Party's vision would look like. Collapsing bridges, street lights turned off, cuts to basic services... sounds like paradise!

Bigotry today. Bigotry tomorrow. Bigotry forever!

"There's nothing more frightening than ignorance in action." -Tom Smothers

Today’s Post-Star ran a seemingly innocuous piece on the religious practices of a Muslim gentleman in Queensbury.

But since the Park51 (the misnamed ‘Mosque at Ground Zero’) project has brought hatemongers out of the closet, there’s no such thing anymore as an ‘innocuous piece’ related to people of the Islamic faith... no matter how far away from lower Manhattan.

The comments on the article are pretty disgusting... especially considering how mild the article’s topic really was. Can you imagine the furor if defamation like this were directed at Jews or Christians?

I was raised as a Catholic. I was also raised as an American in a country founded by those fleeing religious bigotry. I can’t remember anything in my religious or civic upbringing that could possibly justify the sort of filth being spewed.

I’m not sure which fraud disgusts me more: that these bigots call themselves lovers of freedom, that they call themselves Christians or that they call themselves Americans.

Muslims around the world should know that the majority of Americans reject this barbaric hatred.