Attention all liberals who imagined that the country was going through some new progressive revolution after the last election: wake up and smell the Blue Dogs! These conservative Democrats (in name, if not deed) have House-broken the House of Representatives (get it? hilarious) by forcing mad-hat liberals like Speaker Nancy Pelosi to accept a Republican-driven amendment to curtail funding to abortion in the House health care reform bill. In today's Wilshire & Washington, we talk the politics of getting reform done as well as how the media has covered the effort. Is this all proof that we're not so progressive as many of us dream in this country? Or is it just the nuts in Congress? It's also very hard to understand all the issues at the heart of this bill, right? And that's with six months of solid coverage, too!
We talk the Ft. Hood shooting, specifically the media's coverage of the shooter's religious beliefs. Americans really have a lot of trouble talking about terrorism, don't we? While the country has been largely shielded from international terrorism, our history is full of attacks of domestic terrorism, school shootings, presidential assassinations, attacks on doctors, and the like. We don't talk much about the religious beliefs of the people involved in these tragedies. So why do we need to talk about how the Ft. Hood shooter is a Muslim? How relevant is it, and are we just being too PC, too sensitive if we don't bring it up?
There's also the issue of where the fight for gay marriage is headed in the future. With its loss in Maine last week, ballot initiatives to legalize gay marriage are now 0 for 30. Check that stat again, friends. Are these initiatives worth the money for the gay community if they fail every time? Does the community need its own MLK? (Sadly, Dan Savage doesn't seem interested.) Are the courts the right place to target at this point, with an unsympathetic president and a questionable Supreme Court? A national awareness campaign might be appropriate, too. We also discuss Rupert Murdoch's amusing interview in which he agrees with Glenn Beck that Obama is a racist. Why is Murdoch even bringing this up? Was it just a little misstep?
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Wilshire & Washington, the weekly Blog Talk Radio program that explores the intersection of politics, entertainment, and new media, features co-hosts Ted Johnson, Managing Editor of Variety; conservative blogger Teresa Valdez Klein (www.teresacentric.com), and liberal blogger Maegan Carberry (www.maegancarberry.com). The show airs every Wednesday at 7:30am PST on BlogTalkRadio.com.