You Are Being Lied To About Pirates by their supporters

[Henry Musikar]

My experience of left-wing news outlets such as Democracy Now and, more generally, Pacifica, has been more a recasting of Obama's left-of-center but not Socialist or ready to disband the Fed and feed all the hungry and get out Iraq this year pragmatism as barely better than Bush.  They were still giving Nader more support than Obama as election day approached.  The right of center outlets, e.g. Fox, were and still are calling Obama all of the things that the left wishes that he were.   Obama's WPA economy is not centrist.  If it were, it wouldn't be pissing off the right so much, and Americans are slowly learning the value of helping the needy as more Americans become needy, e.g. healthcare for everyone.  Anything further to left doesn't stand a chance in current American politics.  Sorry, but the real left, as opposed to MSNBC and that hotbed of lefties, NPR, doesn't seem to get that.  After 4-8 years of Obama, some Americans will want to return to the right, but I believe that also more than ever will entertain the need to move a little more to the left.

The proof of the politics is in the pudding.  

Henry Mu
Sr. IT Consultant
http://astore.amazon.com/tdcoccamsaxe-20/  
http://tinyurl.com/342april09/    

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf Of kelber at mindspring.com
Sent: Sunday, April 19, 2009 11:24 AM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: You Are Being Lied To About Pirates by their supporters


>Henry Musikar  wrote:
>>  I find it difficult to understand how anyone
>> who is capable of approaching Pynch-Lit with the open eyes necessary for
>> appreciating it's nuanced politics

In the heat of argument, nuance gets shot to hell.  I don't think anyone here thinks that the Somalian pirates are starry-eyed do-gooders.  They're obviously in a position to become warlords, though I don't think there's any evidence to date that they're using their new wealth to ravage the local population.  I (over)reacted to Henry's contemptuous dismissal of alternate news sources and to the people who give them credence because it seemed, well, un-nuanced.  Personally, I try to read between the lines as much as possible.  I was pretty pissed off at the lefty press's coverage of the presidential elections, for example, finding their starry eyed recasting of centrist Obama as an idealistic progressive just plain stupid and naive.  The article about the Somali pirates gave me some information that I was unaware of and has since been confirmed by other articles I've read.  Sure, the initial dumping and illegal fishing wasn't their main motivation for piracy, but It's a piece!
  of the puzzle that ought to be part of any analysis of the situation.

Laura