Who ya' gonna' call?

While both cable networks seem intent on broadcasting all  46,000 people in a baseball stadium taking communion, in wallowing, voice over, faux reverence...

While we, and most of the international media, dissect the abysmal "debate" performance on ABC...

While all of our FP'er decry the state of media in this democracy...

While we all celebrate the importance and "new found relevance" of the Net and Blogs...

A dangerous idea has occurred to me.

Back in the old days, there was a cooking utensil called a Pressure Cooker.  A heavy aluminum pot, with a rubber gasket and a lid that could be screwed down, it was designed to turn everything inside into a semi-palatable mush.  Very popular during, and just after, the Second World War as more and more women entered the work place, the pressure cooker could turn a piece of meat that was traditionally cooked for 3 hours into something edible in under a half hour.  

The problem, of course, was that the steam and pressure would build to such a degree that the lid could be explosively discharged, damaging the kitchen, and any curious children in the vicinity.  The solution was the attachment of a pressure release valve, mounted on the top of the lid, that kept the pressure from mounting too high.  Thus, was a safe method to cook hunks of tough meat into a meal quickly, devised.

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Poor Pope What-Ever-His-Name-Is.  He is now getting the level of pressure cooker build up that is usually reserved for Missing White Girls.

Poor Charlie and George.  They are getting the same level of "cooking" usually reserved for Polygamist Sects.

Poor Traditional Media.  CNBC is wailing over the "troubles" of the New York Times and it's failure to compete with the Net.

And...

Poor Us.  As we congratulate ourselves on our perspicuity and energetic battle for Truth, Justice, and the American Way the Average American is still mulling the disaster that is the News Organizations that constitute their major source of information.  

Are we just the pressure valve on the pot of evil sludge that shapes political and economic discourse?

Do we draw the informed, the articulate, and the involved into a small and easily monitored group that is permitted to "blow off steam" letting the rape of democracy continue, unabated?

It is not enough to mutter and wail, bitch and moan.

What have you done today to make sure the message we share among ourselves is spread beyond the cloud of steam raised by our anger?

Have you printed one of the diaries, or FP articles to give to your neighbors?

Have you written that LTE, today?

Are you willing to give up something, time, effort, paper, to make sure we do not become little more than a small (Yes, in terms of the over 300,000,000 folks in this country, and billions around the world, we are a very small pea under the mattress.) but necessary pressure valve for the educated, the Progressive, and informed in this country, who imagine ourselves fighting for The Good?