The liberals have done it again. We’ve offended those poor, persecuted right-wingers. This time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called the recent outbursts at health care-related town meetings “un-American.”

First of all, what a stupid thing to say. What, exactly, is un-American? Not all bad is un-American. The United States has a very seedy history. Slavery, oppression of women and minorities, all of the nonsense wars we’ve fought just to name a few. To call an interruption “un-American” is to put the blinders on and pretend that everything “American” is good. Sorry, lady. Wake up and smell the people you govern. We smell freshly of soap, but only because some third-world child slaves away in a sweatshop for pennies a day so we can have cheap clothes.

Then there is the reaction. Typical. Overdone. Just as each Christmas the right pretends they are being persecuted when someone uses “X-mas” or “Happy Holidays” instead of Christmas, the right now claims that Pelosi has crossed the line. Nevermind that the right-wing talking heads say the same thing, often times much worse, when the left makes a reasonable attack. A few years ago, O’Reilly called left-wing protestors Nazis. What they were doing paled in comparison to what is going on right now.

Therein lies the problem here. The right is not being reasonable. It is reasonable to ask questions to gather more information. It is unreasonable to disrupt a meeting just because you disagree. The right offers no proof of any harm from Obama’s proposed health care, just propaganda heard on right-wing radio and television. As per usual, the truth goes out the window with this group, and we are left with nothing more than a bunch of angry, hateful bottom-feeders who vote against their own interest because they eat every word out of talk-radio’s mouth. Who can argue against someone who pulls facts out of the air, gets angry when confronted, and always ends up yelling?

Congressman Henry Waxman was recently on The Daily Show. Jon Stewart made fun of our government, and instead of agreeing with Stewart and showing anger that such a joke could ever be made, Waxman offered some weak rebuttal. Another problem: Congressmen and women who either cannot see the problem or do not have the courage to be adamant about fixing it. Where is the outrage when these clowns invade these meetings or spew their nonsense? Fire a little anger back occasionally. Oh well, it’s not like our health care is on the line or anything.

Just tonight, I watched three guests on Lou Dobbs’ show discuss Pelosi’s comments. At the top, each agreed that her “un-American” comment was un-American in and of itself. Finally, what must have been the brightest in the bunch said he agreed with her comments. Dobbs stuttered a response as if he could not believe someone just admitted on record that he agreed with Pelosi. He asks the man if he really agrees. The man puts the comment back in context and says yes, the behavior very specifically defined by Pelosi is “un-American” and stupid. They went to commercial before Dobbs could say anything else, but it was clear he thought he nailed the guy. The only thing he did was make himself and anyone who agrees with him on this point look terribly sad and naïve.

I used to think “We the people” deserved a better government than the one we have elected. I have since come to disagree with my earlier thinking. A people who cannot separate fact from lousy, emotion-driven fiction does not deserve a working health care system. A people who vote for the same money-hungry politicians who lie to them every chance they get does not deserve a government that works for them.

A few years back, I saw George Carlin on CNN, and realized his dark-humor was not just an act. Carlin unabashedly dismissed all the things I held dear at the time, namely government and humanity. He made a living making humorous the corruption and hypocrisy associated with America and humans in general, but on CNN that day, he made it evident that he really believed those things. At the time, I wondered how anyone could be so cynical. Now I know. Hearing the rhetoric coming from the right since Obama’s election, and seeing so many people believe it has devastated my outlook on humanity.

A girl I recently tried to date said I took things too seriously. Too seriously? Oh honey. We can never be together. No reasonable person could ever take any of this seriously.

Assistant Editor

Will Bunch at the Huffington Post has written a piece praising Jon Stewart for his incisive skewering of the talking heads at CNBC for their myopic, fascile reporting and fawning interviews while the economy was starting to tank.  It’s easy to feel good about the muckracking at the Daily Show, especially since there is a singular lack of passion or intensity in most of the mainstream media.  It’s sad that it has become taboo in journalism to question the common wisdom or step outside the bubble of punditry to bring in truly alternative points of view.  There is no point to presenting, “both sides of the issue,” if both of the sides reinforce the same overall narrative.

But have no fear!  If there is one thing the media loves to do, it’s to chide itself for shoddy reporting years after it matters.  The media couldn’t do enough stories about how poor their reporting was leading up to the Iraq war, but only after it had safely become history.  They admit mistakes without the burden of having to learn anything or hold anyone accountable.

How can the media get it right the first time around?  Bunch doesn’t put it in those terms, but his suggestions for improving the media would make it more compelling and might actually help inform discussions of policy instead of reinforcing the ‘common wisdom.’