“BUSH HAS TIMES ON HIS HANDS”

Or, the Administration's War on a Free Press

Bush/Cheney are attacking a newspaper, the New York Times, with the level of vitriolic rhetoric they usually reserve for Clintons, Carters, Kennedys and bin Laden. The reason for the attack of course is because the Times once again has uncovered more efforts by Bushites to eliminate other fundamental Constitutional rights. And, as always, nothing generates more instant hatred by Bush/Cheney than being caught in crimes, corruption, lies, blatant hypocrisy, or gross incompetence once again.

Bush/Cheney, as always, disguise their pathology toward the press, by (a) claiming they didn’t do whatever they have been caught red-handed doing and (b) claiming everyone else did it too, and (c) claiming they absolutely had to destroy the Constitution in order to save it.

The thrust of the current emasculation of a free press is the argument, as always, that it somehow helps terrorists. There is never any specifics as to whether any terrorists were ever actually uncovered by illegal searches despite literally years of efforts, hundreds of thousands of man hours diverted and billions spent. There is never any proof offered that exposing crimes by Bush/Cheney has ever actually helped any terrorist get away with anything or that no other tactics which are legal would work. Bush/Cheney have learned that facts do not matter. Simply scare the hell out of the voter and they will acquiesce to anything.

In one sense, it comes down to who to trust. In that regard, how many times have Bush/Cheney proven themselves to be so addicted to self serving greed, pillage, aggression, arrogance, intolerance, bias, partisanship, pettiness, deceit, denial, cronyism, indifference, waste, and utter incompetence on a scale that boggles imagination? It has become almost impossible to imagine the situation being worse than if Osama himself was hiding in the West Wing?

Does the Times make mistakes? Sure, everyone does, but the difference is that the Times admits them like adults are supposed to do when they are discovered. The difference is that reporters and editors at the Times are governed by ethics and rules which they believe cannot be conveniently ignored. The difference is that when the Times makes a mistake, it knows it will likely have to pay for it in some fashion.

Frankly, less lives are likely to be lost keeping Bush/Cheney accountable for their actions by allowing the Times to function as a watchdog, then by giving Bush/Cheney the unfettered power they so fervently desire to be dictator. In this time of danger, our safety is safer with the Times.