I did not watch the presidential debate which took place on national television tonight. Informative and insightful as it had the potential to be, I just could not bring myself to allow my attention to be ripped away from other important matters. Such as the fact that I find myself being more and more torn between continuing a freelance career and just doing what I think I’m good at and hoping someone foots the bill for it, or biting the bullet and continuing to apply for jobs that I lack the experience to be competitive in attaining. But none of this has anything to do with the fact that McCain/Palin and Obama/Biden went without my support tonight. Yes I could not bring myself to watch Obama attempt to reason with a political brute. McCain/Palin are political animals and they’re scared. In the next few weeks I’m sure we can expect to see them lash out in fright and terror in as many attacks as they can think of, all the time with that sense of smugness which comes from a life of always getting whatever it is you want. Some people will bring up the McCain POW experience to let me know that he has a sense of what it’s like to exist in adverse situations. Sure, and Governor Palin as well probably has some stories about… I don’t know getting attacked by wild moose or something. The fact of the matter is they really don’t know what it’s like to suffer unheroic, day to day, rambling, brutal, soulless, monotony, and hand-to-mouth subsistence which is the hallmark of the average American these days. Oh, “these days.” There I go sounding like an old man before my time. However, with the massive changes that our culture has gone through while I was growing up, I think I’m allowed a little use of the terms which have come to represent the cantankerous old man forced to live in a world he only read about in comic books, made real, by which I mean to say, made horribly boring by reality. People can now communicate at the speed of light from almost any point on the planet to any other point on the planet. Why then, is John McCain unable to run his campaign at the same time as he attends a vote in Washington, the first in a while for the venerable old maverick? No, this obvious failed attempt at a political grand stand play will be quickly forgotten. And so much the better. The last thing we need during an economic crisis is some jackass with a head full of bad wiring from being tampered with in some POW camp getting in there and patching things up just long enough to send another couple of thousand American men and women off to die in some god-forsaken patch of desert that happens to have some oil under it, and some unfriendly people on top of it.

Damn I need to clean this computer off. A “brand new” feel needs to be restored to the machine I have so derivatively named “Filthy Assistant.” The aptitude of the name, however, has just struck me. Maybe I’ll just spill some coffee on it and call it perfect. Of course this may not end up in the final so let’s get to the point.

The mainstream media gives me a gitchy feeling lately. Watching them recently I started out being thrilled, then content, and then strangely uneasy, then nervous, now I’m starting to feel down right scared. For eight years I have been watching coverage of the political battleground in this country. Particularly I’m talking about the networks; particularly CNN. CNN has been a muzzled hound for a long time. I have developed a sense of respect for their intelligence and journalistic instinct, however, it seemed like they knew about things long before they were able to actually report them. For instance, I’d see stories, and my now ex-girlfriend would see stories on fark.com days sometimes weeks and on a couple of occasions as much as a month before they would be carried by the so called mainstream media. Anything that could potentially be damaging to the Bush Administration in any material way was usually the stuff which seemed to be verboten. However, many other stories such as police violence, denial of basic rights, and the failure of the Bush Doctrine, the Department of Homeland Security, and the USAPATRIOT act to keep us “safe” from Islamic extremism also lagged noticeably. What DID get reported during these past eight years? Any time some Islamic immigrants did something other than pay a tax or buy gas it seemed like it was front and center in the news.

“Sure,” you’re saying, “The networks are owned by large corporations who are involved in the manipulation of the presidency so of course they don’t want anything which hurts the credibility of the president to come out until absolutely necessary to keep up the appearance of the ‘liberal media’ and make sure they have a constant safety net of plausible deniability for anything that their own people are forced to report.” And I’d agree with you. That’s what scares me now.

As you may have been contentedly noticing, it seems like CNN has slipped its leash. Along with NBC and CBS, they seem to be reveling in the blood lust which has been denied them so long. They are tearing such succulent targets as McCain and Palin apart. Not to mention that it seems like they’ve been given free reign to destroy the president at every opportunity. Even the conservative pundits have lost that infuriating smugness which has for so long been plastered on their faces as they backpedal and bray about “gotcha journalism.” These people haven’t had to actually use that repertoire of tactics in a while and you can see they’re rusty.

Like I said, I was pretty pleased with this apparent turn of events at first. “Finally,” I said to myself, “Anderson Cooper and that cute assistant of his have lost it and are going to go out with a blaze of glory.” I expected their reportage on the outright lies of McCain and the panicked flubs of Sara Palin to be effective but short lived. Then NBC got into the fray. Brian Williams, though he lacks the exasperated, sardonic flair of Cooper, seemed genuinely concerned with a campaign that stretched the truth as much as McCain’s. Even though they still dance around actually making a call on it, they seem duty bound to report on it. So what could be bothering me? I already stated that for the past eight years the media has been so completely repressed from engaging in such investigative and biting reports I thought it had been an insurrection at first, but it continues. It has kept up. The occasional human interest piece on what it’s like to live in Wasilla or a tired old war story from McCain’s distant past are all the positive spin we’re getting from the republican camp. So… Who let the dogs off the leash and why? Why would a constituency of arch conservative CEOs of major media corporations suddenly allow their subordinates to OK the ravaging of the Republican Party? Have they legitimately realized that the republicans are no longer capable of serving their needs? Has the recent loss of so much of their accumulated wealth in the stock market caused them to panic and blame the repubs who allowed it? Are they showing them what it means to mishandle their money? Surely they realize that it’s their own fault at the end of the day. Surely they can’t be blaming the government for giving them too much latitude. Maybe so and maybe not. But my suspicious nature has gone even further than that.

It seems to me like there is the distinct possibility that the majordomos in charge of the mainstream media know full well the elated feeling that hearing some honesty produces for the literate American people. It’s whipped them into a frenzy howling with laughter at the clumsy attempts to muddle through interviews and horrible gaffs of Sara Palin and jeering with horrible delight at the nattering lies and sneering smears of McCain against Obama during the debate. DURRING the DEBATE! During which time, Obama, in an attempt to win over the conservative base that he feels he doesn’t have a handle on, continually agreed with McCain. And the General Public is STILL convinced that Obama won. That’s how good Obama’s grip has become on the base opinion of the public. So are we being distracted? Is there something else going on in the world at large that we shouldn’t know about? What are they planning? A fall is most devastating when it is from a great height. Watch out, Barrack. All I can think is that they’re planning something for the end of the season. A big season finale is coming which will be heralded by violence and blood. Keep your eyes on the Middle East and watch the skies. Be ready for it and maybe we can survive with our wits intact. Remember, “A Paranoid is just someone with all the facts.” ~Warren Ellis.