In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
An email I just sent to Tom Brokaw of NBC nightly news:
Mr. Brokaw,
Last night, at the end of the debate, you eloquently expressed the responsibility of a journalist in our great experiment in democracy. Our great republic depends on the fourth estate for an educated and informed electorate. American voters are often derided for their ignorance of the issues and their frivolous attitude towards elections. Yet if you look at our jury system and talk to the jurors you realize how seriously they take their role in our justice system. People who would rather be at work dutifully obey the instructions of the judge and follow the letter of the law. Just look at the recent Sniper trial, the death sentence was handed out by a thoughtful and meticulous jury. The decision to take a person’s life, even a murderer’s, distressed and strained these people, while our news programs interrupt coverage of dead American soldiers getting beaten in the streets of Iraq with Michael Jackson trivia.
The jurors took their role seriously and understood the importance of their duty mostly due to the informed and literate instruction of the judge. These jurors and the electorate are the same people, and yet how are they being instructed by the media as to their role and responsibility of choosing good stewards of our republic? Fox News basically gets its daily walking papers from the RNC, and CNN plants dumbed down questions in a debate. People are not choosing misleading and parochial media, they have no choice.
We may soon be caught in a downwards spiral of lies and spin from all sides of the political spectrum, because they have been given free reign to lie and mislead by an unquestioning media. The war coverage was a dramatic example of a press that has been so cowed that they no longer report at all, they only read press releases. You have a role in our democracy that is of far greater then the seriousness with which it is treated by your industry.
You have talked and written much of the great generation, and yet their work and achievements are being destroyed by their children. Do not let the events of this time be unrecorded; fear of being called unpatriotic is further proof that something has gone terribly wrong. We live in a time where criticism of dangerous and ill planned enterprises is considered tantamount to treachery. And yet our founding fathers constantly iterated the need for questioning, dissent, and distrust. That truly American ideal of criticizing those who misuse their elected office continued on into the 20th century with Teddy Roosevelt saying: "To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American people." And yet come the 21st century we are to accept undeclared wars without question?
I have searched the web and listen to televised news and I’ve barely seen mention of an incredible expansion of police powers in this nation that occurred just this past Friday. From Wired News, of all places: A provision of an intelligence spending bill will expand the power of the FBI to subpoena business documents and transactions from a broader range of businesses -- everything from libraries to travel agencies to eBay -- without first seeking approval from a judge
Under the Patriot Act, the FBI can acquire bank records and Internet or phone logs simply by issuing itself a so-called national security letter saying the records are relevant to an investigation into terrorism. The FBI doesn't need to show probable cause or consult a judge. What's more, the target institution is issued a gag order and kept from revealing the subpoena's existence to anyone, including the subject of the investigation.
The new provision in the spending bill redefines the meaning of "financial institution" and "financial transaction." The wider definition explicitly includes insurance companies, real estate agents, the U.S. Postal Service, travel agencies, casinos, pawn shops, ISPs, car dealers and any other business whose "cash transactions have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax or regulatory matters."
Justice Department officials tried earlier this year to write a bill to expand the Patriot Act. A draft -- dubbed Patriot II -- was leaked and caused such an uproar that Justice officials backed down. The new provision inserts one of the most controversial aspects of Patriot II into the spending bill.
Intelligence spending bills are considered sensitive, so they are usually drafted in secret and approved without debate or public comment.
Freedom dies behind closed doors, and that is what Congress just did, they closed the door. Doors have been closing constantly these past few years, and yet American citizens have not been told this. The role of journalist is integral to our great experiment, but if neglected it will become irrelevant.
You must work to open up the closed doors and shine a light on a government by the special interest and for the special interest.
- rob 5:47 PM - [PermaLink] -
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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the
president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is
not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the
American people."
- Teddy Roosevelt
"Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of
its citizenship. If private cooperative endeavor fails to provide work
for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering
hardship from no fault of their own have a right to call upon the
Government for aid; and a government worthy of its name must make
fitting response."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
- Thomas Jefferson
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain
degree."
- James Madison
"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."
- John F. Kennedy
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
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