This is news?

Is anyone as tired as I am of having the concept of "superdelegates" explained to you? I swear, if I hear one more sotto voce definition of that term on NPR, I'm going to toss my fucking radio right out the window. Enough! I know what they are, already. Enough with the profiles and interviews of superdelegates that invariably devolve into questions about whom they secretly support and whether or not they will change their minds. Knock it off, for chrissake, and report on something that's actually happening in the world. Not so long ago, primary seasons routinely ran into the early summer months, but this year's heavily front-loaded process put the news media into an early feeding frenzy. Now, with an insufferable three whole weeks left before the next primary, they're behaving like a five-year-old in the back seat on a cross-country trip... or heroin addicts groping for a fix. Let's face it, friends - you're not going to call this one ahead of time. You'll just have to wait for people to vote... like the rest of us. (And if I have to come back there again....!)

Idle hands do the devil's work, I guess... and it seems the press will do anything to keep from talking about actual issues... like, if most of us want single-payer health insurance, why don't our politicians advocate for it? And if most of us want out of Iraq, why are we still there? And if 70% of Iraqis want us to leave, what justification is there for ignoring that? This week we got to hear all about how Obama sucks at bowling. Now, there's a useful piece of information. It took Amy Goodman to ask the freaking guy whether he thought we should comply with that 70% of Iraqis and pull out. Loaded question? Maybe, but at least it produces some useful information with respect to the presidential election. (His answer was cautious and evasive, so that's good to know.) Hey, mainstream media: let's put the question to the other two yo-yo's as well. That will give you something to do... something more useful than yakking about how well (or how lame) each one came off on late night talk shows. (W.T.F., are they competing to replace Jay Leno or George Bush?)

As all this nuthin' has been happening, Admiral McCain (retired) has been firing regular salvos at some pretty distant targets. I heard one ad tonight - a lift of Clinton's asinine 3:00a.m. phone call commercial - that tries to position McCain as someone who will save our economy through free-market principles... like the ones we've been pursuing lo these past 20 years or more. This from a man who admits to knowing little about economic matters (objectively verifiable). Here's a little free advice, admiral: if you're going to hit them with something, don't reach for "more of the same", because that may not do the trick. Your good friend Dubya has very seriously bungled the economy (as he has every other aspect of his constitutional responsibility), so you might want to make sure that manly embrace is an exceedingly brisk one. Of course, the admiral is free to troll these waters undisturbed, because the press is really only interested in his biographical bus tour. Let's hear his life story, one more time.... from the beginning. Jesus - they are just fundamentally incapable of focusing on the hard questions. It's like PBS Frontline's recent review of the Iraq war, talking about how Cheney was ordering shoot-downs on 9/11. Do you have to be Jim Ridgeway to ask why Cheney was giving orders in the first place when he had no constitutional authority to do so?

Never mind, PBS. Just stick to Obama's gutter ball - that's more your speed.

luv u,

jp