Peggy Noonan not a "you must vote" person

This is a pretty interesting piece of vid from MSNBC last week, when Peggy Noonan (of Ronald Reagan sycophant fame) appeared on Morning Joe. The reason for her appearance is inconsequential (talented actor David Strathairn was promoting something), but her comments were pretty telling. (Strathairn narrated the video that introduced Barack Obama in Denver during the Democratic National Convention.)

First, she's not so sure that 18-year olds should have the same right to vote as a 70-year old businessman who has been paying taxes and running a business for years? Welcome to Democracy, Peggy. I'd like to know what she would like to do to "adjudicate" this "problem." And of course Noonan had to bitch and complain about the supposed "liberal bias" in higher education - more red meat for the neocon base. Whatever.

Also pretty telling that she's not one of those "you must vote people," coming from a career politico. That was borderline elitist. If I had to guess, I'd say she's referring to the people who are allegedly voting for Obama just because he's black. As a progressive liberal, I could have the same point of view about people who want to vote for McCain just because he was a POW, or people who want to vote against Obama just because he's black. But, I don't feel that way - everyone citizen has the right to vote in this country who is of age, and our democracy should do all it can to make it easy to vote. Tragically, there are much too many roadblocks being thrown in the way of people who simply want to vote.

More on that in a bit.

Former US Attny Iglesias on Rove's refusal to testify before Congress

David Iglesias, one of eight former U.S. attorneys forced out of their jobs by the Bush administration for failing to pursue and indict Democrats, appeared last Friday on "Morning Joe," MSNBC's morning program hosted by Joe Scarborough. Iglesias was on to promote his new book, In Justice, and offered some insight into why he thinks Karl Rove is willfully ignoring a Congressional subpoena by skipping town and refusing to testify. (Remember this U.S. Attorney scandal? Hey, if you don't, you're not alone; neither does the Democratically controlled U.S. Congress.)

The politically motivated firings were unprecedented in recent U.S. political history, and in my opinion is one of the most under reported stories crimes of the Bush administration. Hey, this story has many other crimes to compete with - there's only so much time during our corporate media-run newscasts; after all, we need to know what Madonna, Brittney Spears and Lindsay Lohan are doing! But, I digress.

Anyway, Iglesias had this to say about Rove:

[Rove] has information that I believe would show illegal activity, interfering with ongoing federal criminal investigations. So Rove is not testifying I think basically to keep himself from being indicted.

Remember to sign the petition to have Rove held accountable for his defiance of a Congressional subpoena. Better yet, write your elected legislators and tell them to hold Rove accountable.

Also, support Iglesias if you can by picking up a copy of his book, which promises to be an interesting read. This guy has a very important story to tell and he deserves our support.

h/t Crooks & Liars for the video

Mika Brzezinski must be mixing medications

When I saw the footage above, my first thought was that Mika Brzezinski must have done some morning blow* before appearing on Morning Joe.

C&L covered this pretty extensively yesterday, and I don't have much to add, other than to say that Brzezinski's observations are, to be charitable, a wild departure from reality, and the truth. Yesterday, while reading viewer e-mail regarding Obama's resignation from the Trinity Unity Church of Christ (and most of the letters were not happy with the media's coverage), Brzezinski let loose with this whopper:

"Okay, umm... first of all, I think we covered the Hagee story as much, umm... the Reverend Wright situation injected itself into the news cycle for sure, but having said that, don't you think that there is a difference or is there not, especially given the fact that he resigned from his church."

She should have said, "Excuse me," for passing all of that hot air.

Not only MSNBC (Keith Olbermann aside), but all the spokes in our corporate media wheel treated the Jeremiah Wright story like it was a national emergency for weeks on end. Anyone who thinks otherwise (including Brzezinski) is either lying, has Alzheimer's (or a horrific memory), or is a rabid Republican. It's also a good time to remember just how badly distorted Wright's sermons were, too, and how those distortions got started - the uneducated Sean Hannity and the GOP shill himself, troll Matt Drudge.

Anyway, you don't even have to be an avid viewer and reader of news to know that McCain's ties to controversial people in the clergy like John Hagee and Rod Parsley has received passing mentions at best in most instances.

Quite frankly, I'm bored and sick to death with these insipid "minister stories" - they don't affect me in any way, nor do they affect the American electorate. They merely serve as a distraction to bigger and much more significant issues - the war(s), the economy and just how badly many people are suffering in this country (and in Iraq!) right now.

* - It's a joke, people. Calm down. I don't know if Brzezinski does blow, but I'm pretty sure she's a moron.