noisewar internetlainen - games, politics, and sarcasm

Forwards or backwards, it's all the same. Am I the only person with a semi-objective view of it all?

I hate being a libertarian in California. To defend the right is to invite the wrath of the entire Bay Area, and to defend the left is to look as crazy as the worst of them. My stance has always been behind the underdog, so don't misunderstand my position when I say that Republicans are not getting a fair shake... remember where I live.

But by any measure, the attack on Sarah Palin, John McCain's VP pick, has been absolutely vicious, and not wholly fair. For the record, I know she's nothing more than a political tactic, but c'mon so was Joe Biden, unless you think him and Obama have some kind of chemistry that I haven't seen. Even as a political tactic, she was a shrewd choice for a desperate candidate- NRA hockey-mom, PTA, down-syndrome kid out of 5 more, union member / snowmachine racer /fisherman husband, the list goes on. You don't hail mary if you aren't losing in the eleventh hour, and this was a hail mary. Anything else would have been a slow, agonzing death.

But the press has been very unfair in their desperate search for controversy. Granted a lot of things should be investigated more, but here a short sample of topics I saw during the RNC that are misrepresentative and often taken out of context:

- Bristol pregnancy proves Palin a hyprocrite.
- Palin calls Hillary a whiner.
- Troopergate.
- Palin raises $8 billion for the Democrats.
- Peggy Noonan calls Palin "Bullshit"
- RNC stopped riots outside with teargas and flashbangs.
- Cindy McCain's outfit estimated at $300,000.

And so forth and so on. If you've seen any of the above, read a little closer and you will find that the stories are more nuanced than their headlines suggest. I'm not complaining about the fact that the media is trying to dig up dirt, but for fuck's sake leave the sensationalism out of it! Don't liberals realize you can't fight lies with lies? I imagine Republicans would be infuriated by the media's lack of balance mentioning the RNC riots but not the DNC ones... but they're not! What's going on?

I've noticed more and more that both sides tend to be equally hypocritical, but the Republicans are much easier to thrash for a simple reason... they preach from a moral high-ground. Admit it... a conservative caught lying just look a heck of lot more arrogant than a liberal. If the Republicans want to have the kind of influence that Obama has, they need to stop praying The Message (you know what I mean) is all they need to drill (pardon the pun) into their adoring masses, and start admitting mistakes.

This campaign ain't over yet, but it's clear Palin changed the game. A week ago, Republicans were trumpeting experience and Democrats braying about change, and now they've literally flipped sides. What I do is listen to the extreme wing-nuts from each side, and research the truth in the middle. But as long as I'm in California, I can't help but laugh when someone tells me Ariana Huffington is a centrist.

Is there a liberal bias in the media? If your answer is yes, or no, then you are wrong. If you answer is "let me spend 5 minutes researching it on Google first" then you are closer to being right. Or left. Same thing.