The Fortnightly Rant

The Fortnightly Rant for October 21, 2011, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 256, No. 2, posted online Monday, December 12, 2011. Two weeks ago we reported on the absence of mainstream news coverage of Occupy Wall Street. Things have changed a bit since then. On Sunday evening, ABC News’ Cecelia Vega reported that “the movement to occupy Wall Street is now occupying street corners in more than 250 cities across the country — and it doesn’t end there. There are now protests on every continent except Antarctica.” Then, on Monday, this photo made the rounds: The Occupation has conquered both time and space — …

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The Fortnightly Rant for September 23, 2011, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 256, No. 1, posted on Saturday, October 15, 2011. [Note: When we originally posted this Rant we gave the wrong Volume, Number, and date. It is now correct. — The Ed., 10/17/11] More than a thousand protestors assembled at Liberty Plaza in New York City on Saturday, September 17th, vowing to Occupy Wall Street indefinitely. To the extent that the nation’s corporate news media covered the event at all, typically they noted the Occupation’s alleged lack of focus. The news directors, for all they ended up seeing, might as well have sent …

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The Fortnightly Rant for Friday, September 23, 2011, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 255, No. 26, posted on Monday, October 17, 2011. Time and time again the President has tried to solve the nation’s budgetary problems and get the economy moving again by using his signature strategy, pre-emptive compromise. He seems to think that starting negotiations by giving the Republicans some major concessions they would eventually demand anyway, means they would eventually grant him some minor concessions to solve a couple of the intractable problems that the GOP saddled him with in the first place. And each time the GOP rejected his proposals out …

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The Fortnightly Rant for September 9, 2011, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 255, No. 25, posted on Monday, September 26, 2011. Let us begin by stating the all-too-obvious: the tenth anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001 is just two days away. Whatever our wishes might be, newspapers, magazines, and television all are determined to recreate that day for us. Anyone wanting to opt out should have retreated to a cave or remote island at least a week ago. Oh, dear — does our lack of enthusiasm show already? It is altogether fitting and proper to mourn those who were lost and honor …

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The Fortnightly Rant for August 26, 2011, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 255, No. 24, posted on Monday, September 26, 2011. The 2012 Presidential campaign has now begun in earnest. Or semi-earnest, anyway. And it’s about time, too. We have, at most, twelve more fortnights in which to catalog all the inanity, fatuousness, and deception coming our way.* The curtain for this quadrennial executive Gong Show rose on August 13th in Ames, Iowa. Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann won the Iowa Straw Poll with 4,823 votes. At the going rate of $30 per vote — seriously, that’s how they do it out there — her …

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The Fortnightly Rant for August 12, 2011, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 255, No. 23, posted on Monday, September 26, 2011. Well, we certainly have to hand it to Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH). We weren’t sure he could do it, but in the end, with hours to spare, he convinced his cadre of storm troopers to put down their political crack pipes and vote not to trigger their explosive vests on the floor of the House. What leadership! Before the deal passed, Boehner’s unruly mob had been threatening to destroy the economy in order to save it. “Wall Street hates uncertainty,” …

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