Mr. M. and Me, a Love Story, pt. 2

Usually, I wouldn't write anything else concerning Marcos's (yes, that's Mr. M.) replies, but it would seem he's got me between a rock and that Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Allow me to quote my friend of old:

"This doesn't change the gist of my argument. Just because something is making headlines in local papers does not mean it is, as you imply, taking the place of more important news. In fact, every single newspaper you mentioned has had recent first page news stories on the economy. (The CBS news you posted, however, is simply from their campaign blog, which by definition should cover such things.)

I am however surprised you don't find this disturbing, or worthy of telling as a story. If the head of the law enforcement for your county was saying inflammatory things, I damn well would like to see it reported.

To say this is not important is not disingenuous, perhaps, but it certainly is naïve. You and I are no strangers to issues of police corruption, given where we come from. Can you imagine how an Obama voter, or perhaps a disinterested minority in the area, would feel about this, knowing that the man in charge of your security possibly thinks you're 'palling around with terrorists'??

This goes back to your core argument about how American local democracies work. Sheriffs are elected officials. To report this is the media's job, so that the local residents can make a decision whether or not they should reward such behavior (and what it might imply) with more of their tax dollars.

To have this reported in national newspapers is to serve as curios for its readers; for it to be reported in the local media is paramount to preserving democracy in a local level.

I'm not belittling local papers; I'm saying that "this making headlines" in the local level IS important for its local citizens. And as for it being linked on Andrew Sullivan, it is because some of us of the Eastern latte-sippin' elites fear that the McCain campaign is fear-mongering.


GOOD DAY, SIR."

Indeed, it would seem -to my horror- that I've been caught conceptually red-handed. However, a few qualifiers are in order.

First off, I didn't say that the Lee County Sheriff's remarks were taking the place of more important news, and from reading papers like the New York Times online, it seems clear that the economy is front-and-center in these papers' minds. I am also glad the word "disingenuous" is no longer associated with my name. Finally, the latte-sipping liberal elite is wasting its time fearing the McCain campaign uses fear as currency: they do, as have Democrats (Johnson) and Republicans (Reagan) before the Senator from Arizona put his show on the road.

Having said all this, Marcos, it would seem, is still correct in his argument: it does indeed serve a purpose, at other times espoused by myself, to have the Sheriff's remarks covered, and it is fairly naïve on my part, considering I'm from Brazil, to think otherwise.

So yeah: oops, my bad on that one.