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God is a construction of peoples’ need to have an organizing influence in their lives, standards to live by, and some reason to carry on. In all of those ways, God and everything that comes with it – the afterlife, sense of well being and spiritual comfort, and purpose in all things – is truly helpful to people, as various studies have seemed to indicate. Belief is powerful, almost regardless of its details.

That God, and the belief therein, is a signal for help is endemic to the genesis of the subject, if you will pardon the pun.
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Letter to Conservatives: The Party of Wealth – Theirs

Sam Broussard - Writer, Songwriter, Musician, member of Steve Reilly and the Mamou Playboys

www.sambroussard .com

Three of the front runners for the Republican nomination are now just memories, pundit fodder: Huckabee and Trump, and Palin recedes into political tinnitus. But the retiring of all three has one thing in common, and it’s money. Huckabee just bought a huge house in Florida and is enjoying his status and salary at Fox News. Trump is more at home on his reality show. And Palin is enjoying both Fox money and reality TV and will probably be the next Oprah Winfrey, although she’ll never get more than twenty percent of the viewers because only that percentage of Americans can identify with her spunky pride in her ignorance. And yes, she’s pretty.

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We Need A New Party!

Kenny Lee Lewis - Member of The Steve Miller Band, Guitarist/singer/songwriter, Novelist/screenwriter' www.kennyleelewis.com, www.stevemillerband.com

I am a rock star. Ok, ok, I am in a band with a rock star. I am also a husband, father of three daughters, and a small business owner who pays his taxes like anyone else. I never got into politics until the last election and wrote and produced a non-partisan PSA video for Comcast called “Get Out and Vote” to help assuage voter apathy throughout this ailing nation. I didn’t vote for either one of the major candidates in 2008. I am all about trying to rally everyone to start voting again so we can possibly support a third political party that makes sense. If we can educate and get people out to the polls again, I believe that there could be a groundswell of voters who could turn the tides in future elections.
We need a party “by the people and for the people”. As corny as that sounds, it is a precept that our nation was founded upon and if we are to lift up and resuscitate this
suffocating political system, we are going to need a leader who actually leads rather than folds like a cheap stroller just to please his parties’ special interests.

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The RCJ Posts Issues Questionnaire on Obama - Obama 2012 – Where Do You Stand?

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher of RARWRITER.com and the Revolution Culture Journal. He is also proprietor of A&E/IT Consulting firm Rick A Rice Consulting.

The Revolution Culture Journal (RCJ) invites you to participate in a little experiment to help us understand public perception of President Barack Obama, particularly as it relates to enthusiasm for his re-election in 2012.

We have identified 34 issues in U.S. foreign and domestic policy and devised a scale to determine how well respondents feel President Obama is doing with each. Use this link to go to the questionnaire.

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Bechtel’s Long-Term Commitment to Nuclear Disaster

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher of RARWRITER.com and the Revolution Culture Journal. He is also proprietor of A&E/IT Consulting firm Rick A Rice Consulting.

Somehow the idea of using nuclear fission, and eventually nuclear fusion, to boil water, produce steam, drive turbines and produce direct current electricity has found its way back into the list of acceptable alternatives as an environmentally friendly solution. This bit of Houdini depends entirely on comparison to power generation through the burning of coal, which produces carbon emissions and is a primary contributor to rising levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) in our choking environment.

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Applying Grover Norquist to Corporation Intellectual Starvation

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher of RARWRITER.com and the Revolution Culture Journal. He is also proprietor of A&E/IT Consulting firm Rick A Rice Consulting.

In my career as a consultant, I have all kinds of opportunities to interact with different personality types at different levels of organizations. Some of these are of the kind that might make others feel that life is not worth living, but the advantage of consultancy is that my involvements are focused, short, and generally sweet, and then I leave the office dramas behind for a quick dip into the next kiln of opportunity. I am like a merry mercenary in that way, unexposed to the daily grind of the organizations with which I work.

Staff people, on the other hand, are subject to hierarchical structures and personality profiles, and their critical path issue is: a) whether or not to stay in the roles they are in, given the odds of rising up to a more satisfying position within the organization; or b) to cast their fates to wind, which is the job market.

So much of life happens at the initial sell-in.

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Appointment with Disaster - Republican Domestic Policy

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher of RARWRITER.com and the Revolution Culture Journal.

While the rich are enjoying tax breaks they have no need for and U.S. corporations are holding on to record profits, padding their accounts to ensure that this is not their rainy day, but doing little to further the employment and domestic security needs of United States citizens, word comes that we are running out of money to provide help for a growing population of homeless (see the Huffington Post on this date).
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Welcoming the Arab Street to U.S. Foreign Policy

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher of RARWRITER.com and the Revolution Culture Journal.

I was all set to thank the progressive Arab world, or at least the 25 percent of it that is situated in Egypt, for taking charge of U.S. foreign policy and forcing it to make sense. Then those pro-Mubarak thugs showed up and shocked the global community back to reality.
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Why Your College Student Can't Read, Write or Even Think

Rick Alan Rice - Publisher, Writer, A&E / IT Consultant

Back a hundred years ago, when I was in college, all the guys who were doing the best in the classes I took all seemed to be Viet Nam veterans going to school on government grants. They tended to stand out because they were older and far more experienced than their classmates. It seems unlikely that they were brighter, but they were fundamentally different in terms of focus and perspective in ways that seemed obviously helpful to them.
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GOOD VISITS: Sites

Cracked.com

MEDIA

What Keeps NBC's Chuck Todd Up at Night?

IS STEPHEN COLBERT DAMAGING OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM?

Satirists need to be held accountable when their political agenda seeps into the real

RATING THE NEWS READERS

The RCJ takes a critical look at the panorama of news readers and reporters, rating them with regard to the weight their opinion and reporting carries with decision makers, how bright they appear to be, and how informed. The last two categories take into account the reporters' personal appeal - we do tend to place greater stock in the information we gain from people we admire - and the extent to which their personal biases seem to be reflected in their interpretation of the news. See the legend below for information on the ratings icons. (Compiled September 11, 2011)

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NAME	WITH	RATING	WEIGHT	SMART	INFORMED	APPEAL	BIAS	PTS	DESCRIPTION
Brian Williams	NBC	êêê	1	1	1.2	1	1	4.2	Host
Suzanne Malveaux	CNN	êê	1	1.1	1.3	1.1	0.1	3.6	Host - National News
John King	CNN	êê	1	1.2	1.3	0.9	0.2	3.6	Host - Politics
Dr. Sanjay Gupta	CNN	êê	1	1.3	1.2	1.2	-0.1	3.6	Host - Medical
Ann Curry	Today	ê	1	1	1	0.9	0.5	3.4	News Anchor
Natalie Morales	Today	ê	1	1	1	0.8	0.5	3.3	National Correspondent
Amy Robach	Today	ê	0.9	1	1	0.5	0.5	3.2	National Correspondent
Candy Crowley	CNN	ê	1	1.1	1.3	0.7	0	3.1	Host
Thomas Roberts	MSNBC	ê	1	1	1	1	0.1	3.1	Anchor
David Gregory	NBC	ê	0.9	1.2	1.2	0.9	0.1	3.1	Host - Meet the Press
Charles Hodson	CNN	ê	1	1	1	1	0	3.0	Host - Business News
Robin Roberts	ABC	ê	1	1	1	1	0	3.0	Host - Good Morning America
Chris Matthews	MSNBC	ê	0.9	1	1.3	0.8	0.2	3.0	Host
Diane Sawyer	ABC	ê	0.9	1	1	1	0.3	3.0	Host - ABC Nightly News
Andrea Mitchell	MSNBC	u	1	1	1	0.9	0	2.9	Host - Reporter
Wolf Blitzer	CNN	u	0.9	1	1.2	1	0	2.9	Host
George Stephanopolous	ABC	u	1	1	1	0.9	-0.1	2.8	Host - Good Morning America
Savannah Guthrie	NBC	u	0.8	1	1	1	0.3	2.6	Host - Reporter - Politics
Andrew Stevens	CNN	u	1	1	1	0.6	0	2.6	Host - Business News
Josh Elliott	ABC	u	0.9	0.9	0.9	1	0	2.5	Host - Good Morning America
Chuck Todd	NBC	√	0.8	0.9	1.3	0.7	0.1	2.4	Host - Reporter - Politics
Anderson Cooper	CNN	√	0.8	0.8	1	1	0.1	2.3	Host
Bret Baier	FOX	√	1	0.8	0.8	0.8	-0.3	2.1	Host
Fareed Zakaria	CNN	√	1	1.1	1.2	0.3	-0.5	2.1	Host - International Issues
Bill O'Reilly	FOX	√	1.3	0.9	0.7	0.6	-0.7	2.0	Host
Joe Scarborough	MSNBC	K	0.5	0.9	0.9	1	1	1.9	Host
Meredith Viera	Today	K	0.7	1	0.8	0.4	0.2	1.9	Co-Anchor
Matt Lauer	Today	K	0.8	0.8	0.7	0.6	0.1	1.8	Co-Anchor
Scott Pelley	CBS	K	0.6	0.8	1	0.8	0	1.6	Host - CBS Evening News
Sean Hannity	FOX	K	1.1	0.8	0.6	0.8	-0.8	1.5	Host
Rachel Maddow	MSNBC	K	0.7	1.1	1.4	0.4	-0.7	1.5	Host
Lawrence O'Donnell	MSNBC	K	0.5	1.2	1.3	0.8	-0.4	1.5	Host
Ali Velshi	CNN	K	0.5	1	1	0.5	0	1.3	Host
Piers Morgan	CNN	K	0.5	0.8	0.7	0.8	0	1.2	Host
Ed Schultz	MSNBC	K	0.7	0.8	1.1	0.4	-0.8	1.1	Host
Mika Brzezinski	MSNBC	M	0.3	0.7	0.7	0.7	1	0.9	Host
Christine Romans	CNN	M	0.3	1	1	0.8	0	0.8	Host
Lisa Napoli	MSNBC	M	0.3	0.5	1	0.7	0.1	0.7	Correspondent
Jeannie Ohm	MSNBC	M	0.3	0.5	1	0.7	0.1	0.7	Anchor
Bill Hemmer	FOX	M	0.3	0.9	0.7	0.8	-0.1	0.7	Host
Greta Van Susteren	FOX	M	0.3	1	1	0.2	0	0.7	Host
Brooke Baldwin	CNN	M	0.3	0.6	0.5	0.8	0	0.6	Host
Al Sharpton	MSNBC	M	0.4	0.7	1.1	0.3	-0.8	0.5	Host
Willie Geist	MSNBC	M	0.2	1	0.8	0.7	0	0.5	Host
Neil Cavuto	FOX	M	0.5	0.7	0.6	0.3	-0.7	0.5	Host
Shepard Smith	FOX	M	0.3	0.3	0.5	0.5	-0.2	0.3	Host
Megyn Kelly	FOX	M	0.4	0.3	0.3	1	-1	0.2	Host
Kyra Phillilps	CNN	M	0.1	0.5	0.5	0.8	-0.3	0.2	Host
Jenna Lee	FOX	M	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.8	-1	0.2	Host
Gretchen Carlson	FOX	MM	0.4	0.3	0.3	0.6	-1	0.1	Host
Steve Doocy	FOX	MM	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.5	-1	0.1	Host
Brian Kilmeade	FOX	MM	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.5	-1	0.1	Host
Jon Scott	FOX	MM	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.5	-1	0.1	Host

LEGEND:
ê	Star Journalist - Opinion Leader Worth Watching
u	Quality Journalist - Worth Watching
√	Second Tier Journalist - Brings Value
K	Also On - Marginal Value
M	Waste of Viewing Time

Bad Journalism

Did Ron Paul Suggest that the Uninsured Should Die?

ELECTION 2012: For the second time in the past week there was an audience response at a Republican debate that raised the hackles of progressives everywhere. Even Ronald Reagan's daughter Patti Davis was on MSNBC talking about "it", and stating "I don't like those people" referring to "it's" adherents.

"It" is a perceived spirit of viciousness on the political right, which was emphasized in the MSNBC-sponsored debate earlier in the week when the audience applauded Texas Gov. Rick Perry's record of executions in his state under his leadership. Rather like the preceding Texas Governor, former President George W. Bush, Perry doesn't pardon anybody regardless of any lingering questions about their actual guilt. Two hundred and thirty people have been put to death under Perry's 10-year watch, the most under any Governor. He is unconcerned about his record to the point of being boastful, which is what the debate audience responded to.

The leftie press has jumped all over this perception of blood lust, and last night's Tea Party-sponsored debate, hosted by CNN, provided another gauge of audience reaction when a question came up about how those who decline to pay for health coverage should be treated should they find themselves in sudden need of emergency care.

The Huffington Post headline read "Let Him Die: Tea Party Audience Cheers".

It was Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) who fielded the question, and as you can see from the video above that Huffington Post headline was a little misleading. But judge for yourself.

As a pretty far to the left "progressive", I find the right-wing hatred apparent in some audience members to be a little sick making, but equally disturbing is the wedge the "liberal press" is trying to make of this aberrant political behavior. Some have likened the spirit of meanness to that of the Roman gladiatorial games, where Christian-gnawing lions were similarly appreciated.

But did Ron Paul, who says a lot of crazy stuff, say "Let him die" as the headline would seem to imply? That was a line fed to him by debate host Wolf Blitzer, who failed to get Paul to take the bait. The über-serious Paul suggested that there might be other ways to handle such a situation other than adding to the burden of government.

This example points out how difficult it is to operate a fair and just democracy when voter involvement is so closely tied to the manipulations of the media.

The RCJ has been taking an ongoing and close look at these news readers from whom we draw our information. Use this link to see our current ratings. - RAR

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Cenk Uyger Gets Schooled

The Young Turk learns that MSNBC is the "Establishment"