CNN

[RA1]

Anyone else have a problem watching this "news" channel? I tried to watch 2 minutes worth a short time ago. Blitzer on Egypt. "Both sides are angry with the US." "No one is calling it a coup." "The democratically elected government of Egypt has been deposed by the military."

What is wrong with those statements, at least according to me?

1. No Egyptian is angry with the US, only with BO.

2. The reason BO is not calling it a coup is that it is "illegal" to give "aid" to the government resulting from a military take over.

3. Was this a fair and democratic election? I seriously doubt it.

Any opposing opinions or any agreement?

Best regards,

RA1

[TampaYankee]

Fair and democratic elections are often in the eyes of the beholder.

Some countries make up the results to achieve the desired end.

Others stuff the ballot boxes to overwhelm the opponent. We have had more than a few instances of fishy voting machine failures and missing ballots in the U.S. (Subtracting ballots is effectively equivalent to stuffing ballots as far as influencing outcome.) One County Elections Supervisor in Wisconsin has presided over mysteriously missing ballots in more than one election. She is also A GOP party functionary in the state.

Others install thugs at the polls to intimidate voters. The GOP has been enjoined by the courts to prohibit poll watchers in national elections from intimidating voters arriving to vote.

Still others allow everyone, more or less, to vote and only count the 'proper' ballots. See Dade County, Florida, 2000 Presidential election for an example of the 'hanging chads'..

Then there are those cases where the courts decide the people didn't know what they were doing and decide how the count goes or if it goes. (See Dade County...) File this under democracy of the people, by the people, for the people... um, well no, democracy by the courts actually.

Then there are instances where states impose hardships on voters to discourage voters. In OH they 'under provided' voting machines in democratic leaning districts while more than sufficient machines were found in GOP leaning districts. In Florida the Governor cut back early voting and precinct voting places causing waits of up to eight hours to cast a vote. Six hours was not unusual. And this after the courts made him restore some of his cuts.

Then there are examples where states impose election security measures to guard against anarchists and imaginary fraudulent behavior by 'others', which has the impact of effectively disenfranchising major segments of the population who have the basic right to vote, with most of them having long voting histories. File this under state sponsored electorate profile shaping. The U.S. has 32 GOP controlled states undertaking such measures.

Other examples of lesser attempts to thwart democracy include robo-calls to wrong leaning districts informing people to be sure to vote on election day giving the wrong date two days after the real election day, or informing people they can register at the polls in states where registration closes days ahead of the election. These happen every four years and almost always by one party. Or registering people and then throwing in dumpsters the democratic registrations leaving those people with the impression that they are registered, that is until they show up to vote.

I have had Quebecois ask me how these things can happen in America? They always thought America to be the paragon of free and fair democracy by the people. They were mightily disillusioned to find out we too have election corruption.

Was the Egyptian election fair and democratic? Probably by the standards we seem to accept for US elections.

What the Egyptian election was not, was that it was not 'representative'. The opposition made the same mistake in Egypt that the Sunni opposition made in Iraq. In the lead up to the first election the Sunnis did not like some of how the 'democracy architecture' was shaping up. So they boycotted that first election. That left the shiites in nearly total power to call the shots and pour concrete. That is exactly what they did.

The Egyptian opposition did the same as the Sunnis did, they called for a boycott of the initial election. They stayed home in droves out of protest. Election rigging was unnecessary. The opposition had fallen on its own sword. So that election was probably as free and democratic as ours, maybe more so. Those who wanted to vote did and those who did not did not.

The first rule of winning is that you have to show up.

Regarding Obama and the word coup, what is it that you are taking exception to? That we provide aid the to the Egyptians? Or that Obama has to observe the technicalities of the law to achieve U.S. international interests?

As for Egyptians only hating Obama, I suspect a few might consider either of us an acceptable substitute if they had us by the collar. Just a guess.

As for words coming out of a cable impromptu talking heads, I'm never surprised at the low quality that is often dispensed. First, not all talking heads are that smart. Even if they are, some of the people that back them up are not all that sharp. Even if they are, add in the uncertainties of a breaking news story (if it really is breaking news) and the pressure to keep the words rolling on live air even if there isn't anything new to say. I hear dumb things all the time, some times even from smart people.

What gets me the most are reporters who ask someone who has just lost their home or a loved one to a tornado or hurricane or fire 'how they feel' or 'what they will do' . These are truly brain dead idiots with a microphone in their hand.

I do not watch CNN all that much. Don't much care for their line-up style. A little Wolf Blitzer goes a long way. I like Reliable Sources and Fareed Zarkaria GPS. The latter is must see TV if you are interested in international affairs -- politics, economics, news in general. First class guests and content you get nowhere else.

The only cable news I refuse to watch, Fox, is the only one that I feel deliberately dispenses, otherwise fosters and perpetuates untruths. That does not mean they get everything wrong or that there not any ethical and truthful people. Shep Smith comes to mind as the standout. Mostly tripe though - rank disinformation and propaganda. Nothing more than an unethical Conservative political mouth organ that dispenses some news to provide it cover as a news organization staffed by more than a few cretans. Tune in on the morning show to see three of them. They come off as the Three Stooges Lite.

[RA1]

I refuse to watch almost any so called news channel but accidentally watched CNN because I was interested in the latest Egyptian news, although I did not garner any from CNN.

There is no need to participate in any of the shenanigans you mention in the US so long as we have the wide spread use of easily "riggable" Diebold voting machines.

Obviously, BO can do what he wants to do. However, without a doubt the military take over of the government was a coup, although thankfully, a relatively bloodless one. Why not just say so? If "democratic" elections are held fairly shortly, as BO insists should happen, then aid can resume then.

I would like to think that "people to people" US citizens and most citizens of other countries have gotten along fairly well. It is only the interference of either our or their political "leaders" or both who cause the problems among us.

I quite agree with your comments about asking how a victim feels about any disaster. I partially view this as the feminization of the world and partly the over riding desire to feed the media without regard for how callous and cold it may be.

Best regards,

RA1