Rep. Steve King calls Sunday's health care vote sacrilegious "to take away the liberty that we have right from God," and Glenn Beck agrees that it is the work of "a group of people that have so perverted our faith and our hope and our charity, that is a--this is an affront to God."
Just the kickoff for a foaming-at-the-mouth festival in Murdochland as Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal applauds Brett Baier's sassing of the President on Fox News, while disclosing that "Fox is owned by News Corp., which also owns this newspaper, so one should probably take pains to demonstrate that one is attempting to speak with disinterest and impartiality, in pursuit of which let me note that Glenn Beck has long appeared to be insane."
Her column accompanies another Journal piece titled "Whether or Not Congress 'Deems,' Public Is Steamed" asserting that "brawling" on health care "has fed a public unhappiness with the institution of Congress that now borders on disgust."
How strongly their master, the former Australian Rupert Murdoch, feels about fomenting revolution here is reflected in the fact that, although he recently starting charging readers for such gems online, both links were available free at the time of this writing.
The start of the decisive health care weekend promises to be a test for First Amendment purists as well, as Fox News et al pull out all the stops in what used to be called advocacy journalism but has morphed into anarchic attacks on a president and his party.
How far all this has gone can be judged from the news that Bill O'Reilly is now seen as a moderate.
"You've become in some ways the voice of sanity here," Jon Stewart noted during a recent appearance on O'Reilly's show, which is "like being the thinnest kid at fat camp."
But this weekend, the fat kids will be gorging.
I was not aware that Christians in the U.S. had organized themselves sufficiently to ensure everyone had adequate health care. This could be the only rationale for referring to the health care bill as "impious".
ReplyDeleteThe world will not end if the Health Care Bill passes and socialism and atheism will not reign triumphant over the United States of America. Get a grip, Fox pundits/viewers!
Noonan's assessment is inaccurate in the sense it fails to acknowledge the history of failed attempts to reform health care in America. She claims its "embarrassing" for the President to delay a trip to Asia over such a "trivial" matter.
ReplyDeleteFor someone, like Noonan, who's well off, well insured and probably receiving Medicare, the health care battle looks like more trouble than it's worth.
She might think differently if she worked three lousy part-time jobs with no benefits to make $20,000 a year.
The wheels aren't coming off. It's just a front end alignment.