The has good advice for any politician: "Try not to make the front page of two major papers over two separate sets of ethical questions in the same week."
Unfortunately, House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) isn't listening.
"On Friday, he was on the front page of the New York Times in a story about his occupying four rent-controlled apartments in Harlem, three for his residence and one for a campaign office. Today, he was on the front page of the Washington Post for having solicited contributions from interests with business before his committee for a foundation named after him."
"With commanding leads among women and young voters and near unanimous support from black voters," Sen. Barack Obama has a 50% to 41% lead over Sen. John McCain, according to a new of likely voters released today.
Independent voters split 44% to 44%. McCain has a slight 47% to 44% edge among men voters and a larger 49% to 42% lead among white voters. But black voters back Obama 94% to 1%, while women support him 55% to 36%.
Interesting: Obama gets 44% to McCain's 47% in red states, which went Republican by more than 5 percent in 2004, and leads 50% to 39% in purple or swing states.
The for the ISSEI conference picks up where Edward Pessen left off in his book . Pessen covers Washington through Reagan. I'm picking up with Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.
The focus of my essay is how this myth operates in autobiography after the political usefulness of claiming a humble origin no longer matters. (George H. W. Bush is a fascinating anomaly. He just tossed aside the idea of writing an autobiography as unnecessary and instead published a . No claims of humble origin for this guy.)
What I wanted to share with you today is a quote by Pessen that will be of particular interest to Rhetorica readers. Pessen says that, among other things, his research into the social backgrounds of the presidents
suggests that the [news] media, which play so great a role in shaping the public’s consciousness, are perfectly willing to propagate myths likely to have a stabilizing effect on our political life, no matter how slight the factual basis of these myths.
[Ed. Note: Pessen confines his remarks to political "consciousness," which is not indicated by this truncated quote. With that qualification in mind, I agree with his statement. I have claimed before -- and I'm sticking by it as unremarkable -- that most Americans experience presidential politics through the news media.]
Recall from my work on the primary instability paradox ( and ) that a stable political system is an undemocratic political system, i.e. a stable system gives the illusion of choice and the illusion of unpredictability. When journalists' reporting helps stabilize a political system they are harming democracy.
Call it mythology. Call it master narrative. Call it bad journalism.
The cure: Journalists must be and operate with a . That means questioning EVERYTHING (including the system itself).
On July 7, Savva Terentyev, 22, a Russian and from , received for (RUS) he posted on Feb. 15, 2007, on the blog of a local journalist Boris Suranov.
Here is a rough translation of the comment:
I hate cops [menty], [swear word omitted]
I don't agree with the thesis that “policemen still have the mentality of a repressive stick in the hands of the powers that be.” First, they are cops [menty, not militsionery, a less respectful way to refer to police]. Second, their mentality isn't still here. It's simply ineradicable. Once a musor [a synonym for ment; non-slang meaning of the word is “trash”], always a musor, even in Africa. Those who become cops [menty] - rednecks and thugs - are the dumbest and least educated representatives of the live/animal world. Would be great if there was an oven, similar to those in Auschwitz, in the center of every Russian city, at the main square (in Syktyvkar, right in the center of Stefanovskaya, where the New Year's tree stands, so that everyone could see), and there'd be a daily ceremony - or, even better, twice a day (at noon and midnight, for example) - of burning a dishonest cop [ment] there. The people would be doing the burning. This would be the first step towards cleansing the society of the dirt that the thuggish cops are.
The court found Terentyev guilty of inciting enmity and publicly humiliating representatives of a social group ( of the Russian Federation's Criminal Code).
Here is a rough translation of a tiny part of (RUS), posted by one of the defense witnesses, LJ user mezak, on his blog (the original of the passage below is on p. 11; the post also has photos of Terentyev, his defense team, and the judge reading the verdict; there are 376 comments to the post so far):
[…] Defendant Terentyev S.S. [Savva Sergeyevich], by means of the language, by having a negative impact on the public opinion and mood, and by aiming to incite social enmity and hatred, to escalate social conflict, to sharpen social contradictions, to awaken base instincts in people, contrasted the people and police officers, calling to [their] physical annihilation by the people. The text does not allow for ambiguous understanding and interpretation of [its] content and meaning, because it should be understandable to any average native speaker of Russian who has basic oral and written language skills. […]
LJ user sholademi re-posted the verdict on his blog and added (RUS) at the end of his entry:
Hmm, it has to be noted that the court's verdict contains many orthographic mistakes. This, in addition to the legal side of the case (namely, the questionable linguistic analysis). In short, it's getting crazier and crazier.
In another post, LJ user sholademi (RUS), explaining that Terentyev's defense team was planning to appeal the blogger's sentence and, among other things, would like to “find out how Savva Terentyev's case is going to affect the discussion environment in the Russian blogosphere.” Below are the survey's results so far:
1. Before Savva Terentyev's case, were there many LJ bloggers who allowed themselves to speak harshly of law enforcement and other state institutions and officials?
a. Many bloggers made such statements - 842 (75.4%)
b. Only some bloggers made such statements - 233 (20.9%)
c. I've never encountered such statements on blogs - 41 (3.7%)
2. Before the verdict on Savva Terentyev's case, how often did you encounter harsh statements about law enforcement and other state institutions and officials on your friends feed?
а. Such statements were pretty frequent on my friends feed - 664 (59.7%)
b. Such statements were pretty rare on my friends feed - 347 (31.2%)
c. Such statements were never present on my friends feed - 102 (9.2%)
3. If the verdict on Savva Terentyev's case comes into force, how will it affect the number of bloggers who would allow themselves to make harsh statements about law enforcement and other state institutions and officials in open posts and comments?
a. Their numbers will grow significantly - 193 (17.4%)
b. Their numbers will grow, but not significantly - 239 (21.6%)
c. Their numbers will decrease, but not significantly - 550 (49.6%)
d. Their numbers will decrease significantly - 126 (11.4%)
4. If the verdict on Savva Terentyev's case comes into force, how will it affect the number of bloggers who would allow themselves to make harsh statements about law enforcement and other state institutions and officials in locked (friends-only) posts?
a. Their numbers will grow significantly - 386 (34.9%)
b. Their numbers will grow, but not significantly - 470 (42.5%)
c. Their numbers will decrease, but not significantly - 219 (19.8%)
d. Their numbers will decrease significantly - 31 (2.8%)
5. Do you consider Savva Terentyev's sentence fair?
a. I consider it fair - 73 (6.5%)
b. I consider it unfair, as it is too soft - 12 (1.1%)
c. I consider it unfair, as it is too harsh - 71 (6.3%)
d. I consider it unfair in principle, because, in my opinion, Savva did not commit a crime - 963 (86.1%)
On July 14, Savva Terentyev and his lawyer held a press conference in Moscow (see at LJ user mezak's blog). LJ user dolboeb - Anton Nossik, the self-described “,” the online media company that owns LiveJournal.com - announced the event on his blog and (RUS) at the end of his post:
[…] Each month, 10-12 million comments appear in the Cyrillic LJ (10.5 million in June, 130.5 million in the past 12 months). On the average, every post gets 3.7 comments. [The police unit that initiated Savva Terentyev's case] has plenty of work ahead (unless, of course, they've got nothing else to busy themselves with).
At the press conference, LJ user dolboeb (RUS, link to an article in Novaya Gazeta, the newspaper for which used to write):
[…] Of course, spending 15 minutes on the web and finding a criminal is a lot more convenient than running around the dark, narrow streets with a gun. As a taxpayer, I'm not satisfied with this situation. […]
Barbadian blogger comments on the controversial cover of The New Yorker: “Some people are really scared Obama is going to be the 43rd President of the United States…”
With Sen. Barack Obama scheduled to make a major speech on Iraq today -- and some accusing him of flip-flopping in recent days on his commitments to bring troops home if elected president -- finds the Illinois senator has not wavered in his statements throughout the campaign.
Despite that he would run for U.S. Senate as an independent, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura said he would not make the race, according to .
Said Ventura: "If between now and five o'clock, maybe God comes and speaks to me like
he did the president, and tells me I should run like he apparently told
to president to invade Iraq ... just understand God sent me to file."
Ventura noted that God had never spoken to him before.
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