The sort of sentiment expressed in the rant falsely attributed to Jay Leno seems to me to be saying, fundamentally "sit down, shut up and ride."

One of the things that USAmerica USED to be about was that people could speak up when they saw something that was unfair, that wasn't working, and they could engage the process to cause change. If that change didn't turn out to be good, we could change it again.

Now, the overwhelming sentiment (primarily coming from people who are of fairer skin) is that people shouldn't EVER complain or object, and if one does, one is somehow anti-American.

American, in the position of such sentiment, means white, Christian (which, if you actually read the bible, isn't very much in keeping with what Jesus actually preached, but is more a justification from different parts of the bible for bigotry and racism) and Republican.

Just yesterday, I was wearing my t-shirt that spoofs President Bush and Dick Cheney, and my neighbor finally figured it out. Her demeanor immediately changed, and she walked away from our conversation, her words trailing off as she lost interest in me as a person.

If I'm not a Republican, then I'm not worth talking to.

Either we stand for the principles of the Constitution, as enumerated in the Bill of Rights, or we are just in favor of the corporations making as much money as possible while we numb ourselves with intoxicants and media.

So, which is it? Do we have a free press, a right to assemble, a right to free speech, a right to not have religious beliefs forced down our throats, or is the only piece of the bill of rights with validity the one that says that the population shall have the right to bear arms?

The media, when I was a younger person, tended to present views slanted toward a more "liberal" opinion; actually, they tended to show things on the exploratory side of the middle, which passes for "liberal." There are really no liberals anymore, except for a few people that are now so far from the mainstream (which has moved hard right) that they appear to be whackjobs.

"Liberal" would look like Denmark - cradle to grave health care, full government management/paid disability, free education, and a 60% functional tax rate.

"Liberal" now here in the USAmerica looks like believing in Habeas Corpus and separation of church and state. "Liberal" is in belief in the Bill of Rights, Medicaid and Social Security.

After the Watergate scandals, a group of very wealthy conservatives began to aggressively buy up media properties. ABC, CBS, NBC, the Tribune organication, Knight-Ridder, CNN all became wholly owned subsidiaries of multi-national corporations.

Part of the changes wrought by this buy-up was that news organizations had to become profitable. Prior to that, news organizations ran at a loss or at cost, based on a philosophy that news' responsibility to the public was a higher duty than was profitability. This resulted in a massive RIF of investigative journalists. For instance, the billionaire buyer of the Tribune properties recently said something to the effect of that the USAmerica only needed three investigative newspapers in the country, and the WaPost and the NYTimes were two. In connection with a MASSIVE layoff of reporters and staff at the Tribune's properties.

The other major part of the change was that the new corporate owners began to insert their own management, and began to drive news content away from progressive, moderate or even middle of the road viewpoints.

News, like most everything else in USAmerica, began to be far less locally unique and far more processed for a national, 7th grade sensationalist audience.

Have you ever noticed that the kidnapped children and raped women who are featured on the news are ALWAYS blond?

Have you noticed that CNN turns into "COPS" when there's a police chase on?

The news media is to blame in the sense that people now have no reliable information source of what's really happening with their tax dollars, and who's doing what. They do know, though, that Julio and Maria had another knock down, drag-out drunken fight, and that Julio's been deported and Maria had the shit kicked out of her before the SWAT team showed up.

I stopped watching local news more than 15 years ago when they led with a murder that they had to go to a Mississippi trailer park to get. Who cares?

I stopped reading the local paper when it was clear that they were shills for one side of the political spectrum - and not a liberal side, young man, so don't start making assumptions.

Most people's opinions of the world are formed thoroughly by their parents' views, and they do very little analytical review except to try to gather evidence that what they think is correct.

Even during the Watergate era, Republicans were people who believe in fiscal conservatism, and they respected "liberal" points of view, complained quietly that the news media didn't focus enough on the other sides of the issue and were open to voting for the best candidate.

Now, people who identify themselves as Republican believe that people who have any opposing view should leave the country.

Even during the McCarthy era when people were terrified to speak out, and the media ran fear mongering stories of Communists in the school boards, people were open to reasonable debate. At least, I think so.