All The News . . .

We had to take Cooper to the less than 10 year old, state of the art children's hospital today. This new hospital was the pet philanthropy project of a young capitalist billionaire's wife. And no, I am not plagiarizing Ayn Rand or exaggerating in the smallest fraction in order to write that line. That is really just how capitalism works to benefit us all.

Cooper was running a high fever that the doctor could not diagnose earlier that day. He was as limp as a dish rag so with the doctor's recommendation we went to the E.R.

You end up having a lot of time to think about things while waiting at a hospital for tests and treatment. Hmmm, if the government is in control of health care in the same fashion that the same government uses the EPA and other regulations and agencies to prevent American companies from drilling in new oil fields or building new refineries or nuclear power plants while campaigning about an energy crisis then I wonder how many new hospitals will be built after the "reform" bill?

We had another great experience. Cooper was showing noticeable signs of improvement before we left.

As we left we exited the controlled access area of the ER and reentered the reception area. It was approaching seven o'clock on a Friday night and the scene in the lobby was approaching a Michael Cimino film. Even though we too were characters of that scene we walked through the refugee menageria tight lipped. We were the only other Caucasians along with the security guard. (But before you jerk yourself into spasms about how I am profiling or being a racist, this is merely a statement of fact and not an anecdotal one either - read Ann's piece on LIBERAL LIES ABOUT NATIONAL HEALTH CARE: BONUS JOE WILSON EDITION! for more of the statistical data supporting my observations). And even though I wouldn't say all comers were without insurance, I'd bet short odds and the screaming toddler standing on the reception desk that we weren't in the majority for having insurance. Like a Cimino film we were just looking to get through intermission and on into the final reel for a somber Thanksgiving scene where we will all sing "God Bless America."

Another minor wait to think about the day before I pay. I am already subsidizing the uninsured in this E.R. because as I paid my co-pay and my insurance company gets billed to pay the rest of my bill, the two of us (me and my insurance company) will also pay the padding in that bill that pays for all the care that was going to be provided to the uninsured in that reception area tonight. We passed more people in the parking lot going in and even though I am no doctor, none of them looked as sick as Cooper who was triaged as the lowest priority of the three levels used by the admitting nurse at that E.R. No one in this great country is not receiving care. Let me reiterate, THERE WERE NO DEAD BODIES IN THE STREETS. Everyone receives care at the E.R. Not everyone pays.

I've heard how a Health Care bill needs tort reform to be really effective. I don't disagree. I think immigration and border enforcement should be the first stage in fixing the "rising cost" of health care that Obama reasons is our call to action in so many of his major speeches. I wouldn't mind talking about a plan to cover the uninsurable once we eliminate or at least greatly reduce the untaxable inhabitants from that equation.

On the way back from the hospital I stopped to grab something to eat. I hadn't eaten since breakfast. The ubiquitous LCD TV that is now in every Austin restaurant was tuned to CNN.

I don't normally watch these other channels but occasionally I will force myself to watch one of these other "news" sources for some real entertainment a la a totally inverted perspective. I haven't quite built up the necessary immunities to the out of whack liberalism of msnbc. I try. It's a little like the stench of Cooper's diarrhea diapers in that private emergency room. I prepare myself, change the channel and then the odiousness goes beyond the ridiculous into the mind-bendingly offensive before I even stop holding my first breath. Watching Olbermann and/or Matthews is a little like watching a pair of finger puppets exploring a cardboard cutout version of a diseased colon while making @ss jokes, in other words juvenile and disturbing as well as a huge waste of my time.

CNN is pretty far down the Obama bias continuum of the total news spectrum. Not quite MessNBC but on deck to be the far left point on that diagram should they ever close down the failed cable arm of the GE/NBC propaganda machine. In this case there was enough background noise that if it became necessary I could just ignore it. But something caught my eye and I watched. That something was the Fox News logo. I guess this was one of their non-news, opinion segments run on every news network and not just Fox. I think it's called "The Big Question" and it was being hosted by Campbell "Rhinoplasty" Brown and her little team of Breakfast Club cub reporters. They were all talking faster and louder and more emphatically about the mischaracterization by Fox that CNN didn't cover the 9/12 Rally in D.C.

Yes, we did. Of course we did. Here's the footage to prove it!
They were a little too insistent about the fact that they covered it and even went as far as showing clips and congratulating each other for their journalistic prowess while covering a planned event. How'd they ever stumble across half a million people assembling in the mall of our nation's capitol I will never know. Clearly they have skills that border on superhuman and are ready to take the world by storm. At one point the Judd "Bender" Nelson amongst them got the rest to follow him into the hallway in spite of a clear threat of getting caught by the principal, aptly played by Rupert Murdoch - I think they were right on the verge of dubbing in audio of Simple Minds "Don't You (Forget About Me)" but I had finished my sub and it was time to go.

I was laughing on my way into the parking lot because I think Fox reached more non-Fox viewers tonight and got more repeat advertising by virtue of CNN spending a whole segment talking about this full page advertisement in three papers that are likely seen by far fewer eyes.

Ha, ha, suckers. You got played.

And if you replace the word "How" to mean "In What Ways" as if to ask "In What Ways Did" they "Miss This Story" they really got played. Because there are several ways they didn't get "it" starting with characterizing potential viewers as radicals and / or Astroturf but also all the time spent talking about this ad by Fox News.

My "Big Question" (other than a formal inquiry into the certifications of Campbell's cosmetic surgeon) was "Why were they being so determined in their efforts to debunk Fox's obvious false claim that their competitors didn't cover a big story; going so far as attempting to be fair and objective or at least thorough and complete, about their network's coverage of this story, even hazarding a few fair if not fully complimentary comments about those attending the rally?

Hmmm, why indeed? Could it be they weren't really talking about the thing they were talking about? Could it really be that they were trying to convince us of some larger myth like, I don't know a) we're not in the tank for Obama and we haven't really become a 24 hour infomercial for his policies, or b) we are covering all the important news and not just the stories that favor Obama and the Liberal Dems in congress?

-What are you saying?

- I am saying that they were creating a smokescreen to cover up the fact that they didn't do a single story on Van Jones until after he resigned his Czar-ship. I am saying they were a good 4 to 8 days later on their coverage of the ACORN exposé from the time that story actually broke. And this is not because these weren't major, national newsworthy stories. It's because their decimated news staffs were spending days trying to figure out how to spin stories so damaging to their supreme monarch and not having a single lead on how to spin unspinnable facts.

CNN's new logo needs to be
. . . All The News . . . Just 8 days late.

I wonder if James Earl Jones will do the voice-over.