Real Thought

Well, it seemed like it was a pretty busy day for terrorists.  MSNBC leads off with this headline, “Iraq attacks surge despite curfew”.  Reuters leads off with, “Al Qaeda says it carried out Saudi oil plant attack”.  Yahoo leads off with another Reuters story, “Iraq officials warn of endless civil war”.  CNN leads off with, “Iraq curfew falls to stop fresh wave of bloodshed.”  The BBC leads off with the somewhat more pithy, “Curfew fails to halt Iraq killing.”  AP leads off with, “Iraq rocked by more sectarian violence”.  ABC leads off with the previous AP story.  CBS News leads off with, “Iraq Curfew Fails to End Violence”.  NPR leads off with, “Iraq Boils Despite Curfew”.  Fox News leads off with, “Iraqi Clerics Reach Peace Agreement”. UPI leads off with, “UAE terminal takeover extends to 21 ports.”  Finally, Radio Switzerland leads off with, “Four man bob team wins bronze”.

OK, with the exception of Reuters, Fox, UPI and Radio Switzerland I am beginning to detect a pattern here.  All three major networks; NBC, CBS and ABC lead off with the same story as does BBC, CNN, NPR and AP.  All of these sources lead by telling us how horrible it is in Iraq.  Clearly this is no sign of anti-war bias.  Only Fox leads with any positive story about Iraq today and Radio Switzerland ignores Iraq in its lead.  Now I ask you, is the American public getting the whole truth or are they being spoon fed a version of the truth by the media?  I believe it is the latter.  We are supposed to have a free press in the United States in order to foster public awareness and debate.  Instead, we have seven major news outlets, supposedly in competition, all leading with virtually identical stories about the same event.  This is not freedom of the press, gentle readers, this is monopoly and distortion of the truth.  How are a free people supposed to remain free if they are not given the entire story?  How are we supposed to make up our minds if the major media outlets in this country engage in de facto censorship because of their own political agenda?  I would argue that we cannot remain free.  Instead, we will fall into a benevolent dictatorship with the trappings of a republic and go the way of the Roman Republic before us and slide into an imperial morass.  Some say that this has already occurred.  In some ways, I agree.  Getting elected to Congress has become a lifetime sinecure and petty unelected officials make decisions which effect people’s lives and national security without reference to the electorate which they supposedly serve.

Can this slide toward imperialist policies be stopped?  Yes, it can.  We need to make sure that we elect servants who understand the founding documents of this country.  They need to be strict constructionists and refuse to immorally and unconstitutionally assume more power than they have been granted.  We need public servants who will begin to dismantle the imperial bureaucracy which has become entrenched at the state and Federal levels and return liberty and responsibility to the people, where it rightfully belongs.