Who Is Rielle Hunter?

Good morning folks. It is Saturday and this week has been a long one. Some friends have complained that I am not keeping up the blogs like I should. I have to admit that recently in the mornings and evenings, the times when I used to take a break and work on the blogs, I find I am still working on computer work and politics instead. My blogs are the most fun thing I do so missing them is not because I want to. Work is simply piling up, usually work on the campaign for congress.

One thing that is clear is that some things have happened in the world recently that I am just catching up on today. I have been reading constantly for two hours and there is much to think about going on in the world. As I go through the process of deciding what to blog about on these early mornings I usually have seen one story to focus on by now. It will usually have a common attribute, both the liberal and conservative blogs I read, as well as the major Internet news sites I visit, will be focusing on it. Or it will be an important analysis by one of my favorite writers. Today an article caught my attention by a writer I don't usually follow, but which fit into my concern that I have not been keeping up with the world since I have not had time to read the Internet news sites lately.

Mickey Kaus wrote an article entitled "News and Undernews" on the Internet news site "Slate". The article is all about the revelation that I had around the start of the new millennium. That revelation? The New York Times and the Washington Post are pathological liars. People who rely on these two papers for their news do not have a clue what is happening in the world. People who read these are people who think of themselves as our intellectual leaders, but today they are totally ignorant and refuse to admit it. They are simply in denial. Even worse are the people who get their news from one of the prime time TV news programs, arguing that they just don't have time to read a major newspaper from cover to cover, but that TV news will keep them informed. (Can there really be any credible argument the MSM, especially TV, is not lying to them? The proof has been offered so many times they have to have heard it at some point.)

The proof offered in Mickey Kaus' article is the name "Rielle Hunter". Haven't heard of her? Then you probably are not a regular reader of the Internet, nor get your news from talk radio. John Edward's purported mistress and who made her pregnant has been a major topic this last few days. It is not directly an article that I think important. My problem is that though I am a conservative, I am simply not surprised that democrats would cheat on their wives. Even a wife that has proved her dedication the way Edwards wife has supposedly done.

Some wives are not married to these men for the usual reasons of love and loyalty, but are themselves enamored of the power that politics can confer. They don't care if their husbands cheat as long as they are powerful. My personal opinion is that Hillary Clinton shares this indifference to a husband who cheats as long as she gets to be a part of the governing process.

However this is really off the point of Kaus' article. His key point is that today, there are two Americas. One America gets its news from the Internet, where articles are exhaustively analyzed and dissected, and one America still gets its news from the MSM, where lies and omissions are standard. One America knows what the DailyKos is, and reads it (as I do) even when the political slant is anathema, just to know what the other side is saying. The other America may agree politically with the DailyKos but not have a clue what they are covering. They are therefore uninformed.

Both ends of the political spectrum, liberal and conservative, are represented on the Internet, but only liberals are represented in the MSM. The Internet started off overwhelmingly libertarian. Then conservatives joined in. Now liberals are represented. The only discussions that are worthwhile are going on there. It is wide open and many views are expressed. Conversely, the MSM is so cloistered and controlled that listening to them is a waste of time. However a question that concerns me is where are the moderates?

Moderates unfortunately primarily listen to and read the MSM and therefor only get the liberal view. That is actually the concern I have about Mickey Kaus' point. The political spectrum is more complicated than liberals (democrats) and conservatives (Republicans). That is proved by the fact that though most people self identify as conservatives (36%), self identified moderates (35%) out number liberals (26%) and some refuse to say or don't have a position at all (3%).

Moderates are mostly democrats or independents. However they are led by liberals since the democrat party leadership is overwhelmingly liberal and they get their news from a liberal dominated media.

Where does that leave a party that is mostly conservative of some flavor? The Republican Party is said to be composed of three main groupings; fiscal conservatives, social conservatives and libertarians. Even that can be misleading as people have opinions on different issues that are rarely consistent with a single group. Ronald Reagan himself, a man who really studied politics and understood the definitions well, called himself a libertarian-conservative. He recognized the complexity of the breakdowns even as he used the process to push an agenda that crossed many of the groupings. Some people today who call themselves Ronald Reagan Republicans are far from Reagan on some of the issues he supported.

This gets us back to Rielle Hunter. Without any concern for what the parties stand for, her situation will affect the election outcome of someone who has to understand our nation to govern. If you are getting your news from the MSM, you have not heard of her, and yet the decision of which candidate the democrats will put up will be impacted by the truth or falsity of the accusations about her.

How can our nation make rational decisions when a major portion of the electorate does not even know what is happening?

You can help with this today. Ask a friend if they know who Rielle Hunter is. If they don't, tell them to stop watching TV and catch up with the world's true information source. Read the Internet news sites instead. It is critical to any nation where elections are decided by a hypothetically literate populace.