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Feedback ForumNOW wants to hear from you! Send us your opinions, reactions and ideas about "2008: A Republican Reinvention?"Submissions for this question are no longer being accepted. Previously submitted comments appear below. Comments may have been edited for content or space. Poster: neera Comment: THE DANGERS OF PIT BULLS WITH OR WITHOUT LIPSTICK The Republican Convention was disconcerting for many reasons but most importantly for its pit bull imagery. While Ms Palin's demeanor and self-promotion as a pit bull with a lipstick may be amusing at a bar or stand up comedy club, it seemed in poor taste when delivered at a national convention and is less likely to cut ice with sober viewers domestic or overseas. It has justifiably also brought lipstick into the campaign rhetoric whether on pigs or elsewhere. However, that is not the point being made here. What was scary about the McPalin speeches at the convention was not how thin they were in addressing reform but how aggressively jingoistic they were in their cadence and vocabulary. The vision of those orchestrated or self-inspired (really?) to shout slogans of USA ! USA ! with the red white and blue as backdrop was disturbing and sadly evocative of Hitler days and meetings. For Republicans to chronically appropriate patriotism as their copyright is childish, but what is inexcusably naive or arrogant or both is their refusal to respect history's lessons. The eight years of Bush have cost America the world's goodwill. At home the loss of jobs, homes, and economic stability is devastating enough but it is the loss of face abroad that should really worry us. When you lose global respect and undermine the individual rights of your own citizens or the citizens of other countries, when you attack the core of the American dream and falsify the promise of liberty to all, when the dollar no longer represents American strength but its indebtedness, when other nations view your greatness as that of a fading aging giant, it is worth questioning the credentials of the existing leadership and the ruling party's legacy. With McPalin, we are sure to get more of the same. If you look like a duck, walk like a duck, you are one. The most maverick thing about these two politicians is that they continue to support and are least likely to depart from George Bush's disastrous policies and jingoistic posture in international relations. To allow four more years to the same party and ideology would show us up as unthinking and disregarding the potential for damage to our safety as a nation and world. As no less than a Republican icon (President Reagan) put it, History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. ---------------- Poster: Ron Johnson Comment: It is interesting that PBS Online is holding a poll on whether Sarah Palin is qualified to be Vice President. A better poll would be, Is Barak Obama qualified to be President? My answer is a resounding, No. He is not. Liberals know that if Sarah Palin is elected Vice President with John McCain as President in 2008, that Hillary Clinton will have very difficult time defeating her in the bid for President in 2012. Poster: charley Comment: it would have been much more effective had amy interrupted obama's speech Poster: charley Comment: dont count on pbs asking tough questions of obama..only palin...it might offend listeners to do otherwise Poster: Dorothy Miller Comment: You ask us to vote on Sarah Palin's qualifictions to be V.P. How about giving us the opportunity to vote on Obama's qualifications to be President? Or, did I miss it? Poster: Calif. Gil Comment: Amy Goodman needs to decide if she is going to be a unbaised journalist or an activist! The Police Officer was clearly telling her to turn around and go back. She was defiant and clearly not following his instructions. She should have been arrested, and OH the drama! I've been arrested, if you coooperate, it'll go easier for you! Amy was performing for the camera's that were following her moves. Leftist groups had made it known they were going to disrupt the RNC, should they not had enough Law Enforcement to handle the situation? Poster: waffle Comment: Abortion, oh sure the Republicians talk good story but you let one of them have a teenage daughter who's pregnaut and see how fast they run to the abortion clinic. Poster: Noel Leerskov Comment: I'm an old feminist fighter of the 60's in Sacramento, Calif. I was present in the group, one dark and stormy night, when we organized the first chapter of NOW in that town. I'm stil an activist, but as I grew both in age and wisdom I slowly (as did David Horowitz and Ronald Reagan) evolved into a perceptive and dedicatied Coservative. As I looked back I realized that feminism (and Liberalism in general) was totally about changing America to a more Socialist form of government. In that vein I can now see, and it is demonstrated daily, that NOW couldn't care less about ALL women, but rather they only care about LIBERALS and if some women happens to be one... then she is praised from the rooftops. Otherwise she is treated like dirt. Like this horrible treacherous lying Sarah Palin... I rest my case. Poster: Cliff Stripling Comment: I notice you are running a poll about whether Governor Palin is qualified to be V-President of the US. I thing this is fair only if you have done the same with a poll to ask the question if Sen. Obama is qualified to be President of the US. I don't know but I have a funny feeling that being PBS like the rest of the liberal media, has not ask that question - and won't. You question if the Governor of a state is qualified, yet you give a junior Senator a pass. Where do I make a donation to PBS to boost my tax money already at work here? Poster: Tony Gonzales Comment: Thank you for reporting on the important functions of Amy Goodman and her fellow journalists and the tragedies befalling them. I have long followed David Brancaccio and the team at NOW and this kind of important coverage is a testament as to why. Keep up the outstanding work. Poster: D.R.S. missouri Comment: Compassionate conservatism was a farce and did'nt last long. Now the Republican motto might be 'Get all you can and can all you get'. Poster: Ron Marsh Comment: We got what we should have expected from PBS on the Amy Goodman story; that is, an interview with a self-rightous, self-serving, selfish protaganist who considers herself above the law with a license (press credentials) to get in the face of a police officer who was there for obvious reasons other than to hear her complaints. And, due to her lack of self-control she was arrested which gives her cause to self-idolize herself as a victim of police abuse while acting in defense of democracy as an independent journalist. Where's the journalism in this story? Poster: MC Comment: I trust that PBS will ask the genuine questions unlike the other Network TV stations, which are mainly concerned with their ratings only. Past is past. There is no point in talking about what has gone wrong. We need to talk about the issues on hand what we are going to do, and how we are going to handle. Unemployment rate in USA is 6.1% (according to the statistics showed on Bill Moyers Journal last night). I hear that Unemployment in Los Angeles alone is 8.1% More than 500,000 jobs have been lost in August. When someone is thirsty, it is too late to think about digging a well. What do the candidates have to say about the Economy in particular? Talk is cheap. Anybody can talk for hours without doing anything. I see the PBS asking for donations all the time, which is OK. It is public television and you need the support. I understand that. But who will support the economy? You (PBS Anchor) have to be really effective in asking the right questions rather than talking in generalities. Your questions should cover the current topics such as Economy, Education, Employment, Energy, and of course Health Care Issues; all other things are important but not necessarily the priorities. These are the topics I anticipate or at least hope to hear on the Debate conducted by PBS. Matters such as feminism, gender bias, same-sex marriages, Pro-choice, pro-life, conservative or liberal are not as critical as the current state of economy and unemployment. The Debate should consist of issues and how each candidate is going to address the issue and handle it. There should not be any personal accusation between the candidates. That shows up immediately that the candidate has nothing to offer. It is a waste of time and nothing is going to be accomplished by both parties. When these things are handled properly, we can some light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you Poster: Mr. Brancaccio, you was framed! Comment: Please forgive the vulgate. Less than seven minutes into the show you allowed to pass unchallenged the energy talking points of the repugnant party. Thus did Ms. T-W bound the discussion of energy to effectively eliminate all but one renewable energy resource. Then she rhetorically tainted that one by presenting a direct attack on a member of an iconic democratic family, the Kennedys. That resource? Wind. How droll. You must understand that the repugnant party does nothing for a single purpose. Every action taken by every member has at its core the purpose of increasing or consolidating power. If they cannot do it directly through the merits of argument, then they take the opportunity to defame the democratic party and `frame` the issue, or bound the discussion to their talking points. Another example occurring within the first seven minutes of the interview. Whitman's suggestion that the budget deficit is somehow `out of character` for the repugnant party, while it is expected of democrats is not only insulting, but is clearly a lie, considering that the only time this federal government balanced its budget in at least thirty years was during a democratic administration, Clinton's. Repugnants lie reflexively, please do not give them another platform to spout their untruths, it is extremely offensive. Poster: John D. Wyndham Comment: Your interview with Christine Todd Whitman was more than disgusting. This woman, by her false pronouncements about the World Trade Center dust, is responsible for the agonizing sicknesses and deaths of thousands of innocent people in New York City. This is an ongoing calamity worse than Katrina. She belongs in jail, and you are just another mouthpiece of disinformation and propaganda. God help America! And God forgive you and the rest of the mass media for your complicit silence about this horrendous crime against humanity! Poster: MB Comment: I was very glad to see your coverage of Amy Goodman's arrest aired on public tv. I Tivo Democracy Now each day and tuned in Monday night to find substitute programming and a crawl message about Amy G's arrest at the RNC. That really upset me, in view of every bad thing that's happened over the last eight years. So I went to bed with great concern. When I woke up to Morning Edition on Public Radio I expected to hear an update about Amy but was stunned that they made no mention of it all (that I could tell). But I felt better after I got to work and saw that the bloggers were on it. But even the NYT's had only blogged about the arrest but not reported on it, at least on the site's front page where that incident absolutely deserved to be covered. The violence towards the two producers (drawing blood) as revealed in the videos is gut-wrenching. Which country is this? We used to take pride in having a free press, now we have to struggle to Free the Press. So good for NOW on doing the good work of real journalism. And thanks to Democracy Now for so consistently revealing the real stories and the real issues of our time. Poster: norm jansen Comment: NOW, CONGRATS TO YOU. David, being able to see through the hype and balloons is of the utmost importance. Clearly the best PBS has to offer. thank you for the Amy Goodman uncovering, everyone else ignored it. The segment with Christine Todd Whitman was excellent, no balloons anywhere. Democracy is two wolves and a lamb arguing over whats for lunch. Ben Franklin Poster: Linda Comment: I saw your show last night about the RNC. Your interview with the reporter who got arrested. Although she may have been arrested unfairly, I think the rest of your story was very bias. I note that you said more than once in your peice that protestors broke windows.. (period). They did much more than just break a window. You failed to say they threw human feces and urine at the officers. You failed to say they threw bricks and spit at them and destroyed public property including squad cars. I would like to know what you would be saying if some innocent bystander had been killed by a protestor. Then your big headline would be, Police fail to Protect the Innocent Public. You can't have it both ways. Poster: sawyernanda@rcn.com Comment: Congratulations to you for airing the frightening and shocking behavior of the policemen in St. Paul in physically abusing and injuring unarmed people, stripping journalists of their identification, and behaving like the Storm Troopers in Nazi Germany, while motioning to the photographers to stop filming. That it happened outside of the convention to choose our next administration is particularly galling. Especially when remembering the laughter evoked by Giuliani's derisive remark about reading someone his civil rights. I hope that this outrageous attack on the journalists which was also an attack on our most basic American beliefs of free speech and the right to peaceful assembly will get the national attention it deserves. Poster: Susan Comment: I was pleasantly surprised to see Amy Goodman tonight on the show. I presume that enough mainstream journalists are alarmed that they might be next to be targeted. I'd sure like to see a NOW episode devoted to infiltration of activist groups that Democracy Now covered (9-5-08): http://www.democracynow.org/2008/9/5/ramsey_county_sheriff_admits_local_police Ramsey County Sheriff Admits Local Police Used Paid Infiltrators and Spied on Activists Including RNC Welcoming Committee This infiltration is not new: Bill Moyers covered this same issue March 5, 2004 on the original NOW: http://www.pbs.org/now/thisweek/index_030504.html How about an update for us, David, please? Four years later it looks like the infiltration has become refined and sophisticated and unchallenged. Poster: Paul Scalera Comment: Thank you for airing the segment on Amy Goodman. Her experience and the experience of similar newscasters should have received more attention from the media. I cannot help but draw a comparison between the suppression of Tibetan protest coverage in Beijing and the suppression of Government protest coverage at the RNC. It's sad. Poster: Bob Shavelson Comment: I grew up in New Jersey, and I once held Christie Whitman in high esteem. She was fiscally conservative and socially moderate, and she governed sensibly. But after watching her as EPA Administrator take the drubbing on climate change/C02 regulation from Dick Cheney, then listening to her tonight say the U.S. is the *only* country not utilizing *all* its energy resources, I can only see base political motivation in her words and actions. Then she had the audacity to refer to basic Republican ideals, such as keeping government from meddling in individuals' lives - when her party's current platform does more to intrude on the rights of women than any in history. Whitman came of age in the era of Gingrich, Delay and Cheney, and I'm saddened to hear her spouting the irrational dogma that will only lead to more of the same in Washington, DC. Poster: Mary Wilson Comment: I was disappointed that Cindy McCain made a spin about Michelles comment about 'being so proud of the US for the first time'...when knowledge of the history of the US has for black Americans, and for nonblacks too, had such a horrible history. I would have expected a more understanding response from this educated woman. Poster: mark dahlen Comment: both great pieces this week. I'd like to see the amy goodman piece video available for view on the website. Why is it not available like the other story? thanks Poster: Gerri Michalska Comment: Re Amy Goodman's presentation. Freedom of the press? What do Republicans care about the First amendment or people's rights? Vote Democrat and retain your rights! Poster: P. Ng Comment: Just finished watching David Brancaccio's interview of Amy Goodman on Friday evening, 9/5/08 about her arrest in the Republican convention. There were not much coverage either in the newspaper, TV or web (wondering why). Nevertheles, please send a copy of the video to the Chinese Government so that it knows about the human rights in the U.S. When the Chinese Government arrested the rioters in Tibet, we had a field day. It seems to me (the pot calls the kettle black). The Chinese Government did the right thing to restore law & order. After all, Tibet is always one of the provinces of China for thousands of years. Poster: willi lehner&Qui'tas McKnight Comment: congrats on airing the piece with my hero amy goodman!!!! best, willi |
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