Left In Lowell

I know it was official a long time ago, and I’m saying nothing new here, but the media just…sucks. They don’t know their you-know-what from their elbow. In fact, I bet they try to poop with their elbows all the time. There’s no other explanation for their atrocious behavior.

Case in point, this Wesley Clark statement where he questions whether or not McCain’s military service actually qualifies him more than Obama to be CiC. The media has completely, I mean really totally, ignored all context in chasing down Clark in a McCain-butt-kissing witch hunt. When the context was actually a couple of sentences said right before the sound bited clip, and in the question asked by the interviewer, you know the McCain-Brownosing Media have just lost it. It’s not like it wasn’t so plain to anyone who actually saw the entire (and not just the one-sentence) clip. You can’t even claim “laziness” with the context on this one being so easy to understand and to find.

From Media Matters, who says it best (bold mine):

Many in the media have cropped Clark’s June 29 Face the Nation interview to the short soundbite: “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president.” Those cropping the interview make two serious errors. First, they ignore that Clark was repeating Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer’s words in response to Schieffer’s statement that, unlike McCain, Obama has not “ridden in a fighter plane and gotten shot down.” Second, they ignore that shortly before that part of Clark’s exchange with Schieffer, Clark praised McCain’s service: “I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands of millions of others in the Armed Forces as a prisoner of war. He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and he has traveled all over the world.” Clark continued: “But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in Air — in the Navy that he commanded, it wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn’t seen what it’s like when diplomats come in and say, ‘I don’t know whether we’re going to be able to get this point through or not. Do you want to take the risk? What about your reputation? How do we handle it publicly?’ He hasn’t made those calls, Bob.”

Honestly, if the MBM (McCain-Brownosing Media) get any stupider, I’m going to start chewing off my own arm in disgust. And I agree with David, and Kos, Obama shouldn’t have denounced it. Obama made the same mistake - taking a one-sentence statement that was part of a lot more context - and threw his supporter under the bus. Obama didn’t have to embrace Clark’s statement, he could have said “Of course we all honor McCain’s service to this country, and Clark said so” and left it at that. Obama, I know, is smarter than that, way smarter, he knew what Clark was trying to say (and did say, very eloquently) and so this had to be a political calculation. And since Obama is trying to run as a different politician who can take on the hard truths and not back down on them, I can tell you this sort of exercise isn’t helping to solidify that perception. Not with the Democratic base, nor with the swing voter. Bad move.

All for a statement that, basically, was a very legitimate question, especially in light of how often McCain drags out his personal military story as evidence that he’s the superior candidate. McCain brought it up. We’re not allowed to question it, apparently.

But Republicans can LIE when it comes to attacking our guys’ military service. Max Cleland and John Kerry come to mind. Both of whose service was attacked for being dishonorable, when it wasn’t. All Clark did was ask whether or not McCain’s service really shows executive experience, which McCain claims (vehemently) to have because of that very military experience. Clark went out of his way to honor McCain’s military service. He just thinks it doesn’t make him a better candidate for CiC, is all. And Clark did attain a rank of General. McCain never went near that equivalent for his branch.

The media happily spread the pile’o'crap that the Swiftboaters were peddling in 2004, for weeks. But Clark says something legitimately questioning, and they attack him with ferocity. Yeah, there’s no rightward media bias, all right. It’s the liberal media all the way. Give me a break.

Update: Let me just add, I don’t think there IS anyone qualified to be President. I think there are jobs that give you some experience - like Senator for understanding how government works, or Governor for having to make executive decisions, or maybe for some aspects of the job, CEO of a corporation or a famous Hollywood celebrity (for coping with the lack of privacy and media attention gracefully). However, NO ONE is totally prepared to be president. It is, by nature, an on-the-job learning experience. There is nothing in the nation like being US President. Ergo, anyone who claims to have enough experience to be president is an idiot. What qualifications we as voters have to look for in potential PoTUSes is good judgement, intelligence, and an ability to take in a lot of information and make really important and far-reaching decisions.

By the way, on those requirements for being PoTUS, McCain fails so miserably it’s laughable. He obviously doesn’t know his own you-know-what from his elbow on the economy (he admitted it himself), nor in our conflict in Iraq (the differences between Shia and Sunni, al Quada and Iran), nor does he show any real leadership in any of the areas we desperately need, giving us campaign promises that amount to less than half-measures (the environment, energy policy, protecting our Constitution).

The Sun reports that three of Lowell’s bridges are going to be worked on at the same time.

I am SO glad I moved down from that part of town several years ago. Yeesh!

The University Avenue bridge will likely have to be shut down to traffic entirely starting sometime later this summer …

Meanwhile, Woods said construction is expected to begin this fall on the state-funded, $10 million overhaul of the Hunts Falls bridge, which carries Route 38 over the Merrimack, connecting the Belvidere and Centralville sections of Lowell.

She said the $3.7 million repair of the Rourke Bridge, which runs from Middlesex Street to Pawtucket Boulevard, connecting the Highlands and Pawtucketville sections of the city, will begin later this summer and involve the closure of the bridge at night, between 8 p.m. and 4 a.m.

Oy. It’s all necessary (many say way overdue!) but I feel for all you folks in Pawtucketville and Centralville and such. Crossing the river is a pain even at the best of times.