“A SHOENAMI OF SKEPTICISM”

Or, A Plea for Journalists to Recapture their Once Respected Integrity

Some of the Washington press corp are wistfully admitting that they wished they had done something at Bush press conferences over the years similar to the Iraqi reporter who threw his shoes to graphically demonstrate what he thought of stream of self serving misrepresentation emanating from our President.

Just think. If the White House press corp and their bosses hadn't been so cowardly, gullible, lazy, uninspired, self indulgent, mutually protective and so forgetful of their once proud heritage, we might not have had eight years of utter, unspeakable disaster after disaster. The trillions of dollars wasted, the tens or maybe hundreds of thousands dead and maimed, the lost moral high ground, the damaged Constitution and economy, might not have taken place or been less devastating if the journalists had merely done their job, what they were trained, paid and ethically bound to do.

The public sadly expects most politicians to be revealed at some point as a predator, panderer, and/or panhandler. We have become accustomed to it. We expect something better though from those who proclaim they are professional journalists. From them, we still expected the truth or at least diligent effort to find it regardless of the personal consequences.

What should be more important? A journalist’s pride, perks and continued "access" which is all that the senior corp seems to desire? Or, should it be protecting fellow citizens who cannot protect themselves. One thing is sure, the lengthy failure of US journalists to reveal what should have been obvious from the beginning as massive frauds of this Administration despite years of opportunity to uncover it has resulted in journalism as a whole stupidly squandering something ultimately more important in the long run.... Trust.

I am confident the fed up shoe thrower, al-Zaidi, would distain the weak late and ultimately meaningless accolades of reporters in this country. He more likely would want US journalists to just do their [expletive deleted] job. The only one they had in fact.

REGRETS? REALLY?

Or, What We Regret Is That Bush Was Ever Born

Bush told CNN he “regrets” some wild overstatements like “Mission Accomplished” and utterly juvenile utterances like “Bring it on!” Of course, it is only a few regrets, tiny ones, but that at least is up from earlier responses to reporters that he essentially had none except for a personnel decision or two.

I wonder if the 5 Republican Justices who intervened in the Florida election in 2000 have any regrets for the hell they caused this country.

I wonder if the families of the 3000 killed on 9/11 have any regrets cheering Bush’s flag waving on the rubble since we now know the event was due in significant part to his ignoring overt warnings.

I wonder if the 96% of the country who said they favored the President and his policies when polled shortly after 9/11 are now embarrassed and regret ever having been so mislead, often by deliberate lies.

I wonder if the 4500 soldiers killed and tens of thousands maimed mentally and physically in trumped up wars started basically for Bush’s ego regret his catastrophes committed while pretending to be warrior-in-chief of the armed forces, especially knowing he hid out during every opportunity he had to participate personally in a shooting war.

I wonder if the families of future terrorist attacks will regret all the thousands of new terrorists created by primarily Bush’s indiscriminate bombings, pre-emptive invasions, torturings, impoverishments, and emasculations.

I wonder if the millions here and abroad who have lost their jobs, their savings, and their homes to his disastrous financial policies and greed have any regrets.

I wonder if our children and grandchildren who will have to pay the enormous debt he created while doing without adequate health care and education will have regrets about their forebearers who so foolishly voted for Bush.

It is sad that child of privilege and entitlement seems to have learned nothing at all despite his minuscule number of admitted “regrets.” As evidenced by his comments, he is obviously blind or indifferent to the astonishingly massive destruction he has wrought directly as well as indirectly. Unfortunately, he still seems incapable of ever growing up or gaining wisdom. Even more worrisome, the most prominent among his followers like Palin, Romney, Huckabee, and Giuliani, who hope someday to replace him, seem to have no regrets about what has happened over the last eight years other than they lost an election. As the sages say, you can never cure a problem until you finally admit you have one.