Pat Buchanan out at MSNBC

Pat Buchanan has been fired from MSNBC. I am a Democrat a moderate but still firmly a Democrat. I think this firing is a poor choice.

One of the things that separated MSNBC from Fox news was their willingness to have strong viewpoints from the other side. Does that mean that it is not a left leaning network, of course not, but the fact that articulate right leaning individuals were on their network made them look stronger not weaker.

I do not agree with much of what Pat Buchanan says. I very much enjoyed hearing him say it. Phil Griffin the head of MSNBC said statements and opinions in the commentators most recent book were not worthy of discussion and expression. Really? Is that where we are in this country?

There is no question Buchanan was persecuted and fired because of his opinions. There is also no doubt that in the wake of his firing many from the left have protested his firing as short sighted and discriminatory.

Andrew Sullivan the openly gay conservative commentator has said that while not agreeing with much of what Pat said that he felt daylight was the best disinfectant to wrong opinion. He also shared a story about Buchanan's personal kindness to him when Sullivan announced his being positive for HIV.

What were Buchanan's crimes. He was polarizing and often stated opinions that were anti gay rights and made minorities feel uncomfortable. Still anyone who saw his 1992 Republican National Convention speech should have known this. MSNBC has had him on the payroll for ten years and now they are uncomfortable?

In his most recent book, Suicide of a Superpower Pat had chapters called The End of Christian America and The End of White America. These chapters are inflammatory. They are meant to be

Buchanan decried the end of both. As he says " he is a white christian why should he not. " In today's world however, to do so, is to be wrong. I am not sure why? African Americans voted for the President in large numbers, some due to his race. Are they racist.

Look if everyone is going to celebrate the coming minority majority culture of America why is it wrong to state that you do not agree. Buchanan was not speaking anything many do not feel and a legitimate debate over the feelings and fear many Middle class White Americans feel about their future is not a bad thing.

Griffin is spineless. Had Fox News ejected a liberal commentator under the same circumstances they would have been crucified and rightly so. To say that after Buchanan wrote that book that he had no place on the network is false, if that was so he would have been fired upon publication. Instead as the witch hunt grew over the last few months from extreme left wing groups Griffin finally capitulated.

The Network can have on who they want. They have however taken one further step to making themselves the left wing mirror of Fox News. Perhaps Buchanan was only a token, such as Alan Colmes on Fox, but it did not feel that way to me. It felt like was respected if not agreed with.

Certainly the admirable dissenting opinion in regards to his release issued by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brezinski leads one to believe so.

Instead now Pat will ienvitably find himself on a right wing channel preaching to the faithful. What a loss of credible, articulate and differing opinions. In his book Buchanan writes about his fears of a Balkanization of America, with a country with limited shared experience and no viewpoint being accepted by any group except that which they agree with. Unfortunately he was more correct than he knew.

Pat Buchanan was called Uncle Pat by his cohorts on MSNBC. He was articulate and respectful all the time, wrong most of the time and generous to those who disagreed with him constantly. He will be missed.

What I Learned When I Almost Died by Chris Licht

I saw this book on Amazon and the title is a grabber. It is a short 160 page book but I was interested. Primarily my interest was grabbed because Licht is the executive producer of my morning favorite Morning Joe. Hearing the backstory of how he came to be producer on this show and of his relationship with Joe Scarborough and Mika, two of my favorite people in the world to watch.

In the book Licht describes a day that as he finished a show one morning, he was checking his voicemail and he felt a pop in his head and soon was suffering from an excruciating headache.

We follow him through the emergency department of George Washington hospital in D C. We see his father, a physician himself, tell him as he is being driven to the hospital to tell them that he never gets headaches and his head hurts worse than it ever has and he needs a catscan. This is a code doctors understand that they may be dealing with something life threatening.

Licht over the course of the day and then the weeks after goes through a multitude of tests. As happens in a small amount of cases he suffers no long term damage but they also never find the cause of the bleed. If it was an anuerysm they never find it and assume it repaired itself.

It is good news of course but also leaves one feeling vulnerable in the future. Licht admits freely to being a Type A personality and being an ass much of the time in his work progression. He states he cannot see himself moving to the beach and being all peace, love and happiness but admits the incident gives him pause.

I must say that though we are pleased to see him doing well the books title is a bit misleading. Licht talks about slowing down and letting go of anger over what happened, he does learn to not sweat things that in the end mean nothing compared to almost dieing but those looking for him to have a revalation of epic proportions will not find it.

Still an interesting book, a small investment in time. It is nice to see his good friends and the involvement of Joe Biden who is clearly one of the nicest men in politics you will find.

And we learned the code, if struck with an intense pain out of nowhere it might be good to know what to say to make sure you are taken seriously.