I Have to Go, I'm Due Back on the Planet Earth

In the movie Annie Hall, Woody Allen famously tells Christopher Walken, "I have to go now, because I'm due back on the planet Earth." That's exactly how those of us in the real world feel when we read the news reports from Washington, D.C. these days.

What am I talking about? Look at the Washington Post's latest piece about the filibuster fight, where it says there is a "nuclear cloud over the Senate." You see, lately out here on planet Earth (aka. the real world, not the Beltway echo chamber) we're worried about the adverse effects of real nuclear clouds that have harmed or killed thousands of Americans - not sensationalist, self-important bloviating from out-of-touch GOP politicians and media pundits in Washington, D.C.

Rational, serious people who care about real issues might consider devoting some real resources to covering life-and-death stories from the planet Earth like this. Ah, but I forgot - GOP politicians and the Beltway media/punditocracy have long ago stopped pretending to be serious people who care about anything other than their own breathless hyperventilation and ultra-insider storylines. Earth, shmirth, they say. War in the Mideast, a health care crisis, stagnating wages, poverty on the rise, actual radioactive nuclear fallout that has killed/maimed Americans - screw all that, we're told. What's important, they tell us, is a bunch of GOP politicians yelling, screaming, whining and crying that they need to change the rules of the game because they can't get their ultra-extremist agenda through Congress.

Seriously folks - is there any question as to why Americans have such a low opinion of Congress's leadership and the media?