President Bush’s hurricane continues to dominate the news bulletins in the USA. This is a disaster without any good news. No-one is being rescued or fed or sheltered and all the starving are Black and poor, at least, according to CNN, NBC, ABC, AP, REUTERS etc. The Media has given the microphone to a number of African Americans who have accused Bush of deliberately engineering the deaths of their compatriots in order to reduce the number of Black Democratic voters. In the meantime, the elected representatives of the Louisiana people (all Democrat and many Black) have enjoyed wall-to-wall coverage to point the finger at Bush for the lack of flood protection. Perhaps the most effective denunciation of Bush came from Senator Ted Kennedy. He has been quoted frequently, as befits a man who knows a thing or two about people being left to drown.
All headlines indict Bush and refer to his loss of credibilty and quite a few make links with his Supreme Court nominations. He certainly seems to have “lost credibility” with the Media people and they, after all, are the people who count. The same people describe Judges who support abortion as “moderates” and those who have reservations about abortion as “conservatives”. Abortion and Same Sex Marriage are the two pre-eminent litmus tests of who is a “moderate” and who isn’t and not far behind are the issues of Positive Discrimination, capital punishment and spending on Aids.
Those who live in coastal California may worry about State preparations for the next big earthquake. Their legislators however have had a more important thing to worry about and yesterday passed a Bill to legalize Same Sex “marriage”. This despite a proposition passed by the Californian voters 5 years ago defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Governor Schwarzenagger has announced he will veto the recent Bill because of the voters decision in that ballot. The Wall St Journal reporters’ only comment on the Governor’s decision was that “critics say he is pandering to conservatives”. Arnold is, in fact, defending the wishes of the majority, in the face of the legislators. He is being extremely brave on this issue and will probably never be able to make another film in Hollywood. You, readers, can guess why.
AIDS spending has not received much coverage recently, what with the Media Class excitement about the War in Iraq going badly, Cindy Sheean and now Bush’s hurricane. However, the Media Class’ pre-occupation with AIDS is never far below the surface, for obvious reasons. When demands are made for ever more public spending on AIDS, it is often camouflaged by being bracketed with other diseases such as TB and Malaria. Don’t be fooled! AIDS is something that seriously affects and worries the Media Class so that is where the money will go. It is a disease which continues to haunt so many in the Media and entertainment world, and as they are the new ruling class, we must all be concerned about it. Somewhere along the line you can be sure it will be blamed on Bush.