Debt Ceiling Not Ballyhooed

(Conspiracy Nation, 09/30/07) – The news “they” do not report is the real news. Not being ballyhooed by Mainstream Media (MSM) is how H.R. 430, which increased the United State's debt limit by $850 billion to $9.815 trillion, was passed without a roll call vote, marking the fifth time since 2002 that Congress has opted to raise the debt ceiling while the national debt has grown by $3 trillion during that time. (“Smoke and Mirrors: So-Called 'Earmark Reforms'; CAGW Irate,” by Brant McLaughlin. Associated Content, September 29, 2007).

To “ballyhoo” means, “to flamboyantly exaggerate, to sensationally advertise, to propagandize.” If O.J. Simpson possibly strays outside the law, that is invariably ballyhooed. But furtive attempts by the Senate to raise the debt ceiling are hardly ballyhooed. In fact, there is almost nothing reported!

Further muddying the waters is the timing of the debt ceiling rise, coinciding with annual government budget approval. In his weekly radio address yesterday, George W. Bush criticized Congress as to the spending bill. But “mum's the word” as to the rising debt ceiling. Supposed conservative Dubya Bush is expected to sign into law the debt ceiling hike. To be fair, at this late point if the ceiling were not raised the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government could collapse, causing disaster. The Senate Finance Committee Chairman said: "We have no choice but to approve it. If we fail to raise the debt ceiling soon, the U.S. Treasury will default for the first time in its history." (qtd. in “The Mood of the Nation,” by Alan Hall. http://www.elliottwave.com/features/default.aspx?cat=mw*aid=3374*time=pm)

Yet the MSM does not report, let alone ballyhoo, the debt hike. Again, we have the dog that did not bark, which is the real news.

In a news search covering the past 48 hours, with approval of the new debt ceiling imminent, nothing on the subject was found, except a letter from Fargo, North Dakota. Justin P. Ertelt notes incidentally that although doubling of average income since 1967 is ballyhooed, in that same time-frame the price of goods has risen more than 500 percent, which is not ballyhooed.

The late Sherman H. Skolnick used to insist to this editor that market collapses always happen in October. Conspiracy Nation had wondered one summer whether a market collapse was underway. Skolnick assured this editor such was not the case. “They always happen in October,” stated the citizen gadfly. Going back exactly 100 years, we find the Panic Of 1907 culminated in October. Market crashes of 1929 and 1987 also occurred in October.

A Zogby poll of September 19, 2007 summarizes, "'The public mood is not just dark. What's darker than dark?' Zogby said. 'The mood is getting ugly.'" (qtd. in Hall, op. cit.) Hall equates this to a paradox of the stock market as “social barometer.” Thanks to boatloads of paper from printing presses (over $200 billion since August 2007) and a dramatic rate cut by the “Federal” Reserve, the stock market “barometer” has inflated. However a Gallup poll reveals, “The public attitude toward the Federal government is dismal.” (Hall, op. cit.)

Newt Gingrich has pioneered a group called “American Solutions.” Yesterday, Conspiracy Nation reported that Gingrich seemed about to enter the presidential race. (“Newt Ponders Election Bid,” http://www.shout.net/~bigred/NewtPonders.html). Only hours later, “The Newt” decided not to run.

Also brave enough to concede we are in a mess is William Greider. In “The Soul Of Capitalism” Greider, a veteran reporter who has worked for Washington Post, Rolling Stone, and The Nation, offers his own American Solutions. “The solution, Greider contends, will not come from the politics of the past, or from more government regulation, but from a fundamental realignment of power that is already underway on many fronts.” (http://www.williamgreider.com/books/soul/release.php)

What will MSM ballyhoo this week? Whatever is not ballyhooed will be the real news. For this reason, Conspiracy Nation proposes its own American Solution: Turn off the television. Get your news elsewhere than the boob tube.

Conspiracy Nation

http://www.shout.net/~bigred/cn.html