Not my Cup of Tea

I didn't know Glenn Beck's circus was coming to DC when I booked a trip out to California for the weekend. But now that I know, I'm really (really!) glad I'm not going to be here.

I'm hoping to use my travel time wisely and finally finish the last of the Stieg Larsson trilogy. This past week, I've been reading - and watching - other stuff instead. Stuff like...

1. Matt Taibbi on the Tea Party movement and the dangerous media machinery and corporate greed fanning the flames:

In fact if you follow Fox News and the Limbaugh/Hannity afternoon radio crew, this summer’s blowout has almost seemed like an intentional echo of the notorious Radio Rwanda broadcasts “warning” Hutus that they were about to be attacked and killed by conspiring Tutsis, broadcasts that led to massacres of Tutsis by Hutus acting in “self-defense.”

He goes on to give seven terrifying examples of just how bad the rhetoric's gotten.

2. Todd Purdum in Vanity Fair on how and why Washington's dysfunctional. A snippet:

Current law requires someone to “register” as a lobbyist only if he or she spends at least 20 percent of the time lobbying. And yet much of the real work of lobbying is not done by registered lobbyists at all but by the rainmaker lawyers and former politicians, like Vernon Jordan and Tom Daschle, who “counsel” private-sector companies on how to thread the needle and achieve their objectives. If you throw in all the people doing “government outreach” and “congressional liaison” at the countless trade associations and advocacy groups, the total number of people in Washington working to influence the government in one way or another actually runs closer to 90,000.

3. Jon Stewart debunking Beck:



See why I'm psyched to be getting away from what's on its way?

Have a good weekend. I'll catch you back here Tuesday.