A patriot must be ready to defend his country against its government.
Truth is the hope of humanity against government power and abuse.
Truth opposes power. This was never more true than in the 1960s
assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin
Luther
King. These men were advocates of change and peace. They
were opposed
by conservative war-mongers who orchestrated their political executions,
and these murders were covered up by like-minded individuals.
In 1962, JFK signed a missile treaty with Russia, was taking steps to
end the war in Viet Nam, and refused to invade Cuba. The power
and
greed gang weren't having any of it. The cover-up of JFK's assassination
was a blight on our history. No sane person believes the Warren
Commission's assertion that there was one shooter. 51 witnesses
heard shots
from the infamous grassy knoll proving unequivocally a triangulation
of
fire. Yet Arlan Spector of the Congressional Intelligence Oversight
Committee hammered home the idiotic "magic bullet theory." The
coup
d'etat orchestrated that day in Dallas was pervasive in its effect
with
nothing left to chance. The cover-up was so absurd that documents
concerning the JFK assassination have been made inaccessible to the
public
until the year 2029.
Another coup d'etat, this one involving the stealing of the presidency
in 2000, was a criminal conspiracy that denied Al Gore the office he
rightfully won. It is the biggest scandal in U.S. history since
the
1960s. A recent report by Lance deHaven-Smith, a professor of
public
administration and policy at Florida State University,
idsmith@garnet.fsu.edu., reads in part that when all votes cast in
the
2000 presidential election in the state of Florida were counted, Al
Gore received more votes than Bush. Moreover, the law requires
that all
discernable votes be counted and that rejecting ballots only because
they contain technical errors is a violation of Florida election law
(Section 101.5614(5)).
The New York Times and the Washington Post came to the bipartisan
conclusion that Florida's governor, Jeb Bush, secretary of state Katherine
Harris, and the Bush Republicans corroborated to manipulate the Florida
election by bending the rules on absentee ballots, blocking, stalling,
and discrediting manual recounts, and creating fear of a constitutional
crisis so that the U.S. Supreme Court would intervene. Virtually
every
newspaper in the country had gone along with the disturbing
anti-democratic notion that it was somehow unpatriotic for Al Gore
to demand a
fair election.
Greg Palast has written extensively about the theft of the 2000 election
and the
Florida vote for the London Observer. Thousands of Americans
flooded the
internet site www.gregpalast.com
setting a record for the number of hits from
the information-hungry hordes, blowing out the giant server computers.
The BBC ran the story and viewership increased by 10,000 as a result
of
Americans demanding to see what they were denied on their own televisions.
The concept of a liberal media bias is a myth. Most of the mainstream
media is
owned by giant corporations closely associated with the Republican
Party.
Now the GOP engages in political assassination by virtue of ridicule
and control
of the press. Lazy reporting, pack journalism, and GOP spin dominated
the press
during the 2000 presidential campaign and election. The mass
media technique
of "distort, distract, and trash" continues to enable the right-wing
agenda.
CNN's Reliable Sources August 10, 2002 was a genuine eye-opener. Guest
Josh Marshall, webmaster of Talking Points, stated, "...
I think deep down most reporters just have contempt for Al Gore.
I
don't even think it's dislike. It's more like disdain and contempt."
None of the talking heads disagreed. Guest Dana Milbank, White
House
reporter for the Washington Post offered, "You know what it is?
I think
that Gore is sanctimonious and that's sort of the worst thing in the
eyes
of the press. And he has been disliked all along and it was because
he
gives a sense that he is better than us ... as reporters."
The coverage of the 2000 presidential campaign was much more aggressive
and adversarial than ever seen before. It was at times blatantly
dishonest. The media practiced trivial "gotcha" journalism carried
to the
absurd extreme. Gore was mocked. Press releases were FAX'd
directly
from the GOP, and the press just didn't care if any of it was accurate.
Gore was misquoted, and reporters passed it on. Some corrections
were
run but in an off-handed way and after the fact.
The media focused on every insignificant misstatement or nuance by Gore
in 2000, while never delving in depth into the background of Bush or
the factual evidence of many of his shortcomings as governor of Texas.
Instead of focusing on the issues, the media focused on Al Gore's
alleged "serial exaggerations" and an armchair psychoanalysis of his
wardrobe. Despite the fact that Gore is the quintessential straight-arrow,
the
media convinced more Americans that Bush had more integrity even in
the
face of Bush's drunk-driving arrest, his insider-trading at Harken,
and
being AWOL from the Texas National Guard from 1971-1973. The
criticism
of Gore was so harsh, according to the Weekly Standard, "If Gore walked
on water, people would deride him for not being able to swim."
And now that Al Gore has re-entered the political fray, he continues
to
be dogged by the same media that stepped on his presidential campaign
in 2000.
The media did a great disservice to this country. We now are all
paying for their failure to responsibly and ethically do their jobs.
The
abusive reporting of Al Gore's campaign began with an incident known
as
"Floodgate" and continued on until the most recent incident known as
"Ticketgate." Simply put, the GOP employs a destroy and dash
maneuver,
reporting false information, spinning it, and when the truth comes
to
light the press has moved on to its next lie.
And now as midterm elections are approaching and 2004 is visible on
the
horizon, disheartened and disgusted Democrats may be tempted to stay
away from the polls. The Green Party is running candidates against
liberal candidates such as Paul Wellstone, probably the Senate's most
progressive member. Votes siphoned off by the Green Party candidates
could
result in the election of conservative Republicans. And if we
don't
find the heart to fight the prospect of a Republican-controlled Congress,
Bush's right-wing power grab will be completely unfettered.
Al Gore won the popular vote in 2000, garnering more votes for
president than anyone since Ronald Reagan, and he also garnered more
votes than
any Democratic presidential candidate in history.
It is clear from Gore's appearances that he is prepared to assume the
take-no-prisoners approach in a rematch with Bush. And he is
invoking
the name of the man with the plan, the still outrageously popular
President Clinton. And since the Bush presidency resulted from
a Supreme
Court 5:4 vote, to energize voters Gore MUST be the Democratic nominee
in
2004. Not so much as revenge but rather a reckoning, to make
right
what went so terribly wrong in Florida 2000. A major correction
is needed
in the course of our nation, first and foremost in the composition
of
the next Congress.
There is a grassroots internet movement that is being
"misunderestimated" by the media and the Bush camp. Rumor has
it a
member of an anti-Bush website received a "little visit" from the Men
in
Black after referring to Bush as "Crusader Bunnypants" in a chat room.
Another visitee was a gentleman who had too many anti-Bush bumper
stickers on his truck. And Wheaton, Maryland resident, Mike Hershdorfer,
received a visit with regard to his website www.bushoccupation.com.
Dissent thrives on-line.
Politics has become a blood sport as evidenced by the attack ads on
Tom
Daschle comparing him to Saddam Husssein for opposition to Alaska oil
drilling to John Ashcroft's suggestion that anyone who opposes his
attempts
to bypass the Constitution is on the side of terrorism. How do
liberals and
moderates effectively fight this kind of political ruthlessness without
doing
more damage to democracy? We need to call on the fighting spirit
of RFK
and the political savvy of JFK. We need a War Room similar to
that during
Clinton's first campaign to go toe-to-toe with the "scorched earth"
tactics of
the GOP. And we need to make the media Heathers accountable for
their
complicity in the Bush blitzkrieg.
"The bigger the lie, the more people will believe it."
Adolph Hitler