Categorical Aperitif

Well, here it is Thursday and my uncle is still not going home. I've been spending the day wrestling with the mysteries of what I can only call the corporate "health care" "system" and wondering why it's so hard even to get the so-called doctor who's so-called superintending my uncle's so-called care on the ****ing phone. Gaaaaaah.

Meanwhile, if the judicious John Amato is to be believed, I ain't missin' much by not watching the Democratic Convention on cable teevee:

Every time I turn on the TV and watch CNN and FOX (my hotel doesn’t get MSNBC) every Republican operative controls the dialog and direction of the panel discussion and it’s disgusting. Just one example—Hillary Clinton gave a brilliant speech last night, but every Amy Holmes-type talking head throws as much cold water on the speech as he or she can. The result is that the Dem talkers spend the rest of the time disputing the outrageous claims made and thus the GOP controls the entire framing and the entire segment. It’s shameful that the networks are allowing this to happen. I saw Jeffrey Toobin tell Amy that she was out of her mind with some of her comments and the discussion continues to that end. Soledad O’Brien comes back and says “well, that was a lively discussion.” Oh, no it was not. It’s a calculated ratf&@k. This is going on all day and all night.

Atrios seconds:

Cable News Hell

It really is just a neverending parade of RNC talking points. Even Drudge behaves better these days.

I wonder if the cable nets covered "Operation First Casualty" or Dennis Kucinich's rousing "Wake Up, America!" speech.

No, actually, I don't wonder all that much.