A line is put out there and a hundred thousand voices, including some here, pick it up and repeat repeat repeat until it appears to be true because "everyone's saying it".

The next target on the agenda was academia, with a long run-up that one would have to be blind and deaf to miss. But the Schaivo case has given new life to the attack on the judiciary, which I believe has been going on since the Clinton administration, during which many many many judge nominees were delayed or denied by Republicans who now want to do away with the filibuster that can be used to the same effect against their nominees.

You can call me what you want. You can even call me a parrot of Michael Moore. You will not be able to support it. But if someone is spouting the party line, a line that can be heard played with predictable regularity on known organs, one is part of the choir.

Oh, and also:

It is YOU who characterizes an opposing viewpoint as the "noise machine", thereby impugning the value of the statements.

To which I reply with another phrase of yours:

Oh, that liberal media

Blanket "impugning the value of the statements" by characterizing the source in a particular way is a tactic of the noise machine. It's about time that tactic was used on said noise machine, because noise often has little intrinsic value anyway, except in decibels and as an embodiment of the spirit of self-expression. Prove it with something other than repetition (a kind of erosion of the critical intellect), and we'll talk.

I'm sorry that Massachusetts's practice of appointing its judges produces results that the people of MA don't like. But I have a solution! Amend your state constitution. You can start drafting petitions today. If the people are truly distressed, you will get a lot of support. If only a few of you are, less. That too will be the voice of the people.