I really want to hate the new Bush economic plan, but I can't. I just don't understand it. I don't understand any of it. Economics are just totally beyond me. Ask me the name of James T. Kirk's brother and I can tell you (Sam) or ask me the meaning of Socrate's Allegory of the Cave (the shadows in the cave don't exist but that's what we see, which is a metaphor for the nature of existence and how we only see material things, not their true nature) and I can do that. But tax cuts, dividends, and trickle-down economics are beyond me.

I do know that I should probably hate it. Considering the source of the plan, I'm guessing that it really is weighted to super-rich and that all the claims of helping out the average Joe is complete shite. But I just can't make sense of it to really know. And yes, I do try and understand issues before I make a full decision. Knee-jerking just makes you plain ignorant.

In a time like this, it would be nice if we could turn to the news people and have them make sense of it all. They won't, however, be of any use. They hate economic stories. It's boring and is the kind of thing that makes viewers turn to Friends reruns faster than you can say "double-taxation on the dividend." Plus, some girls missing in California and who cares about economic policy when there's a missing white person out there.

The other problem is that even if the media were to report it, they wouldn't really help. The news media needs to appear balanced and objective about everything. As a result, they're unable to actually tell you what the what is (except of course, for Fox News, which convienantly tells you what to think). See, here's how the media works. Otherwise known as Why Nobody Watches the News Anymore

1) The White House Announces that 2 +2 = 5
2) The Democrats don’t say anything until they check the polls. Some will automatically say it's 4 and be attacked as "liberals". A few read the popularity of Bush's poll numbers and say that it's 5. A few others, again checking the poll numbers, say that it could be 4, but it could also be 5.
3) The news reports both
4) The news then interviews a bunch of experts. Everyone, of course, says that it's 4, but since the media has to show that they're balanced, they have to find an equal amount of people to say that it's really 5. Except for Fox News, though, who will only bring in experts who say it's five and then bring on Anne Coulter to denounce all the people who say it's 4 as evil, Commie, unpatriotic, Bin Laden lovers.
5) The news will then air out a bunch of pundits yelling at each other over what 2+2 equals. It will, of course, be equally divided between people who say four and five because they have to show that they're "balanced". Chris Mathews will brings on people who say it's 4, but you'll never know because he's too busy talking over them to hear what the expert says. Bill O'Reilly might interview someone who says it's 4, but will spend all of his time talking about how he grew up poor and how much smarter he is than anyone else. Howard Stern will interview a few lesbian porn-stars.
6)The Uber-left will say that it's 3 because all the global corporations say it's 4. They will then hold a bunch of teach-in's about how the media saying 2+2=4 impacts Mumia.
6) If afterwards the polls come out and say that most people think it's 4, Bush will threaten Iraq and issue another High Security Alert.

In other words, despite the plain fact that somewhere out there, there's a real answer and that 2 +2 =4, the press is completely functionally ill-equipped to let everyone know what the truth is. And as a result, the winner of any political fight basically boils down to whoever screams the most.

And you gotta give the Republicans a lot of credit on this one because they really know how to scream about things.