Despicable right-wing media

Blaming the victims
I am outraged at the despicable campaign of blaming that right-wing political pundits have waged in the last week against the students at Virginia Tech for what one called "awful corrosive passivity" when a crazed gunman was shooting them.

I can think of no more heinous commentary this week than to victimize the victims, such as has occurred by the following:

In a National Review column, Mark Steyn, wrote that the passivity of the Virginia Tech students was a "threat to a functioning society."

Right-wing radio host Neal Bortz on Wednesday called the students behavior the result of "wussification" of America.

Right-wing radio host Michael Graham said on MSNBC the students just let the gunman have his way with them.

National Review's Neal Derbyshire wrote this: "[W]hy didn't anyone rush the guy? It's not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness' sake -- one of them reportedly a .22."

They apprently weren't reading the newspapers' accounts of the attempts, some successful, in which the students and faculty fought back and defended themselves. Or they chose to ignore these factual accounts because it did not fit their propaganda.

It is bad enough that these media people distort the truth. But to distort it at the expense of victims so they can preach their near xenophobic hatred of liberals is inexcusable. It is amazing anyone in media authority permits this to be printed or aired.

I'm sure Imus is sitting on his ranch in New Mexico wondering how he could get fired for trying to be funny, but the mean-spirited and callous commentary like this is allowed to continue.

Good and bad journalism

Reporting on the shooting

The Good: In a story headlined, "That was the desk I chose to die under," David Maraniss and a team of 10 Washington Post reporters compiled a riveting minute by minute account of the Virginia Tech massacre that is at the pennacle of good news reporting. The information gathering was supurb; the writing crisp and at times eloquent:

"Life is mundane until it is not, and then the mundane can look serene," the story goes, summing up how the world changed Monday morning for those in Blacksburg, Virginia.

See Post article here.

The Bad: MSNBC's Chris Matthews, interviewing Karan Grewal, the killer's dormitory suite mate, chided the Virginia Tech student for not reporting to police Cho's "really weird" behavior of not talking to fellow students. Matthews said: "I’ve never heard of anybody like this in my life…he walked around without aspect, like a zombie, and you guys didn’t talk about him, you never told anybody about him…you never thought this was really weird . . . you never thought this was really weird, this guy was incommunicato with his suite mates?"

I guess the thought of someone not running off at the mouth is incomprehensible to a loud mouth like Matthews.

Then, apparently seeing that he was berating a victim, Matthews took a different tack, over-making the point that Virginia Tech authorities did not warn Grewal or other students about Cho's prior psychiatric evaluation. How can someone in Matthews' national network position be so ignorant of privacy laws (can you say "HIPPA"?) that are now common knowledge to the public? In addition, how can Matthews be so insensitive as to blame victims for what a crazed murderer did?

This is why cable "news" programs like his are junk.

The Virginia Tech massacre

Pro-security advocates miss point
It is not surprising that the pro-gun lobby and the anti-gun advocates are crawling out of the woodwork to use the Virginia Tech massacre as verbal ammunition for their respective viewpoints. Frankly, I think hand guns ought to be outlawed, but under our Constitution they probably cannot. Unfortunately, guns are one of those harmful and scary things we have to live with in a free society without gun-proof walls to protect us.

Just like Ann Coulter, who is also loud and destructive, but guns are more dangerous.

Likewise we have to live with the risk that some disconnected-from-society psychopath may gun down innocent people. Or with the risk one such person may build a weapon, legally or illegally, and blow himself up on the campus of a university in Norman or load up a Rider truck with fertilizer and kill scores of people in a building in Oklahoma City. Yes. We know this, don’t we?

In the news coverage this week CNN had a police/security guest who made the unsupported and outlandish statement that this horrible event showed Virginia Tech University “had no security”, contending that more police were necessary – and that soon individual searches of suspicious backpacks would and should become commonplace on every American campus. Similarly, some of the pro-gun advocates have already argued that if students were allowed to carry side arms or concealed weapons, then the crazy-man would not have killed as many.

Neither contention can be made with any certainty. Both contentions presume that Americans want a police officer at every corner, a metal detector at every public building entrance, security cameras in every hallway and bag searches at every classroom. Others apparently want a return to the days of the Wild West, with people packing side arms. Having grown up in a small town that more than once has had a shoot-out on its main street, I can tell you it’s not an environment conducive to feeling safe. It also hasn’t worked in east L.A.

I wonder if these advocates get out into the world that much. If they think backpacks are going to be searched before every class, they live on another planet. America is a place where we have freedom NOT to be watched by Big Brother or patted down by Barney Fife. And we kind of like that. If they think that common folks carrying pistols will make us safer, then they haven’t read many Louis L’Amour books or watched a Clint Eastwood movie.

When our founding fathers established the Constitution and this great country, they not only wrote that the people have the right to bear arms (not at all contemplating the media-driven frenzy toward violence of the 21st Century), but they also clearly did not have in mind America being a police state. The Constitution is a document which limits government power – not expands it. When Ronald Reagan, the Obi-Wan-Kenobi of the right wing, shouted: “Mr. Gorbachev, bring down that wall!”, and later declared victory of the cold war (albeit but not from an aircraft carrier), he did not have in mind America becoming a police state.

Big brother or not, no amount of armed guards or citizens will prevent someone like Cho Seung Hui from acting like this. Sadly, some congressional action to limit the sale of guns probably won’t either. Such actions may, temporarily, create a false sense of security.

But in the long-term there will continue to be socially retarded individuals like Cho who will decide to harm other people. Like Timothy McVeigh, who although purportedly was motivated by political cause, the fact remains his warped mental processes were no different than the Islamic-crazies of Al Qaida or the screwed up motivations of those teen-aged shooters at Columbine. Or the delusional mind-set of Mark David Chapman, who gunned down John Lennon. Or, the confused thinking of Joel Henry Hinrichs III, the engineering student who fashioned a home-made bomb to blow himself up on a bench near the South Oval during an OU football game two years ago.

All these individuals were one diagnosis away from John Hinckly, Jr., who shot President Reagan in 1981, and remains incarcerated in a mental institution.

Cho was ordered to undergo psychiatric examination in 2005 when an acquaintance reported to police he thought the Virginia Tech student might be suicidal. Two coeds complained to police about his stalking emails. His writing in one class showed a prediliction toward violence and deep hatred toward parental or elder authority. That, and his sullen demeanor, got him kicked out of one class.

In the time between the dormitory killings and the class room murders, Cho mailed a video recording and a written manifesto to NBC News. It contained his ranting about how "you" left him no choice but to do what he did. He compared his apparently then-expected death to that of Jesus Christ, "to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people." It is clear from his recording that he was a very sick person who channeled his problem into anger toward the rest of the world, particular those more affluent than him. He said "you" injected misery into his life. He also said:

"You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today. But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off."

This particular problem we face is not one of crime, but rather one of mental illness. When we start examining the causes of this, then we may develop a plan to move us toward a less risky society without foregoing our civil liberties.

In the meantime, building a wall won’t make us any safer.

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See report: Killer's package mailed to NBC.

A sad day

I was sitting down having lunch about a mile from the Edmond post office today when the news of the massacre at Virginia Tech's campus flashed on the restaurant television screens.

I don't need to tell anyone here in central Oklahoma of the significance of Edmond to killing sprees.

I had all sorts of opinions about guns in our society rushing around in my head that morning in 1986 when 14 people, including a friend, were murdered at the post office. Those ideas all came back today at lunch while watching the TV news a little ways south on Broadway Avenue.

I will wait for some more appropriate time to say anything more about those ideas. In the meantime it is enough to feel horrible that more innocent people died today and to remember those most affected by this and past tragedies.

Rear-end free speech

It’s Monday and since nothing good ever comes from Monday it is appropriate to write something that means absolutely nothing. If you read to the end you will realize you have wasted five minutes of your life looking at the written version of potato peelings. So, if you’re really busy – STOP HERE.

For the rest, this writing will be like a lot of generation Y Blogs you see on the internet. Some mindless blabbing from some obscure individual who apparently has an inflated sense of self worth, given his assumption that anyone cares what he thinks. So, in keeping with the theme of accomplishing nothing, the topic of today is …Free Speech.

Oh, not the political kind (well, it may be political), and not the kind that you see on CSPAN or written in the pages of the Economist or for that matter even the Daily Oklahoman. Not even the hurtful stupid kind from the likes of Imus or the Westport Baptist Church of Kansas (those religious punks who protested at the funeral of a soldier in Norman last week).

No, something better than that --- bumper stickers.

Nothing is more American than showing what you think on the ass of your car.

One of you e-mailed me last week, commenting on the Imus thing, expressing her joy that not all Okies have the “Bomb their ass, Take their gas” (as seen on a pickup’s bumper sticker) mentality. True. But there is indeed a sizable population of Americans who find it important to display their ignorance while dodging pylons and speeding through construction zones on I-35. Hey, it’s the new Town Hall at 65 mph.

But I like some of the stickers (and their t-shirt cousins). Please forgive me.

I especially like what I call the “heart” stickers. You know, the ones that are descendants of the original “I (drawing of a valentine heart) New York.”

I like: I (love) My Trailer Park!” It’s for those comfortable with their lot in life down by the river.

There is one which says, “I (love) obeying my husband.” But frankly, I’ve never seen that one. My favorite is really the kids t-shirt: “I (love) grandpa”. Well, of course!

On the political side, there is the sticker with a picture of a smirking George W. Bush that says: “I’ll bet you’ll vote THIS time!”

No s*%t!

(I’m putting my “Impeach Rove” sticker on my car now).

There is the Don’t Mess with Texas sticker. I interpret that to mean “Please leave us alone. We sent Bush to Washington to get rid of him – and if you bother us we’ll do it again”. OK. Cool.

Speaking of rednecks, probably the lamest sticker is the little Confederate flag sticker. For the record: I admit there are no damn Yankees in my ancestry, but a good number of guys who wore gray. But, what is the purpose of displaying the flag of a bunch of losers who sought to perpetuate a racist culture? Uh….well, precisely that, apparently. (I prefer the one with the slash through the Confederate flag and it says: “You lost. Get over it.”

There are the bumper stickers that encourage Free Speech in artistic expression: “I (love) Midget Porn”. That was seen on one of those little Cooper cars. I was afraid to look at the driver. Right behind it was a pickup bearing the sticker “I (love) Sheep.” It was from … yeah, Arkansas. ( Budda-bing-budda-boom.)

There is the contrarian who had the sticker with the picture of a pit bull on it. It merely read: “WRONG!”. Concise and to the point, I’d say. Although I’m not sure precisely what the point is.

There is the devotional bumper sticker on the morning drive to work. I like: “Jesus loves you – everyone else thinks you’re an asshole”. I believe that may apply to those Kansas Baptists. There is also the “Love thy neighbor – but don’t get caught”. That might be a Methodist sticker (oh, did I write that?). That actually doesn’t sound all that religious for some reason. Most of my neighbors are octogenarians who have this annoying way of mowing their lawns every day. One of them has the “I’m retired. Go around me” bumper sticker.

And this one belongs on my NRA friends’ car: “Guns don’t kill people. Drivers with cell phones do”. Well, he’s half right at least.

I saw this twist to the worn out kid-honor-student sticker: “Your kid’s an honor student. You’re a moron.” I suppose that may be a comment on the theory of evolution.

There is indeed something fitting about one’s commentary being displayed to those drivers who are already eating one’s exhaust fumes.

But, finally, the best one is probably: “I respect your opinion. But I won’t read your blog!”

Unraveling the Stipe political rope

Former state Rep. Mike Mass pleaded guilty Friday to federal mail fraud charges stemming from the FBI’s latest investigation into schemes to divert public economic development money into the pockets of legislators and their business friends. The investigation also includes looking into illegal “straw man” campaign contributions to U.S. Congressman Dan Boren and others; however, Boren is not implicated in any wrongdoing, according to federal court documents filed by the U.S. Attorney.

On the other hand, former longtime state Sen. Gene Stipe, the Huey Long-type political power boss of Little Dixie’s Democratic Party machine, is implicated in the kickback and illegal campaign contribution scheme that could land him in jail.

Stipe is already on probation for his conviction stemming from campaign finance violations in the failed Walt Roberts 1998 congressional campaign. That conviction forced Stipe from his legislative office and his lucrative law practice.

The current Stipe story has been doggedly pursued and reported by McAlester News-Capital reporter James Beatty. Beatty has reported that the corruption may have led to a loss of $3 million in public funds.

This week’s plea bargain, which could lead to a maximum 5 years in prison for Mass, marks another unraveling of the lingering Stipe political rope which has controlled McAlester-area politics for half a century. It means Mass is cooperating with federal prosecutors and will likely testify against Stipe and others about the alleged funneling of state money through local economic development organizations to Stipe's private businesses and into the pocket of Mass – a scheme outlined in the indictment papers and related search warrant documents filed in federal court in Muskogee.

During Stipe’s reign as legislator from McAlester from 1950 to 2003, the populist senator developed a political machine unprecedented in Oklahoma history. His practice of controlling and influencing local hiring by state agencies, including the Department of Human Services, the state Health Department and the state Tourism Department, and county government departments allowed him to amass significant power from those seemingly indebted to him.

In short, if you wanted a job in state or county government in Stipe’s district, you had to get his blessing. For much of Stipe’s tenure, the majority of county commissioners, mayors, city managers and law enforcement officials in his district were considered the “capos” of Stipe’s political organization. Many of those Stipe supporters are now gone, however, having jumped ship or been freed of their allegiance by Stipe’s recent disgraceful fall from senatorial authority.

One of the last ones was Mass, himself a former chairman of the state Democratic Party (a position he obtained due to the influence of Stipe).

Mass is alleged to have made $250,000 from the corruption. But at his plea hearing in federal court he asked for and obtained a court-appointed public defender.

Beatty asked prosecutors the obvious question. Where did all the money go?

“It’s in the wind . . . he blew it,” was the answer.

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Read more on the Mass plea bargain and Stipe investigation here.