Sic Semper Rags and Demagogues

I've always had my bete noire columnist in whatever the local rag might have been at that point in my life. When we were in Loganport, Indiana under the sufferance of the Pharos-Tribune it was one Charlie Reese. Don't hear of him anymore: don't think he was distinguished, just annoying as hell.

Michael Reagan is it now. He is a Third Base Republican (born on third, thought he hit a triple) who happens to have the Great Distinction of being the Son of Ronald Reagan. He writes inflammatory columns, which the Madison Birdcage Liner sees fit to publish.

Michael's latest tirade accuses the New York Times of treason -- treason, mind you -- for its story disclosing that the Bush administration has been operating another secret dragnet program, this one to sift bank data in hopes of finding transactions related to terrorism.

Well, whenever the supposed free press -- (and by the way, why is a free press important in a democracy? That, in my experience, has proven to be too hard a question for the majority of citizens of this nation, which fact is scary in this supposed democracy) -- whenever the press decides to print information, the responsible members of it take certain criteria into consideration: Is it the truth, unvarnished and unbiased? Is it in the public interest? Is it dedicated to the principle that a democracy --a government of the people, by the people, and for the people -- is at its best when the press is free of coercion from its government, or from big corporations, or organized crime. Is it not merely propaganda?

The New York Times has taken the position that its publication of the story on the government's surveillance of bank data (as well as illegal NSA eavesdropping recently, for which it won a Pulitzer prize) was in the public interest. We need to know what our government is doing to us. We cannot take their word for it. Certainly not this Potemkin village, this government-paid stooges-posing-as-reporters, this post-1984, this fascist government.

As for this disclosure's endangering us because it gives something away to the terrorists, that is so much arrant horse shit. The Wall Street Journal, so much in the pocket of the Bushies, has published the same thing. The Fox (FNN, Fascist News Network) boys have been ranting about the story ever since it happened. Why not accuse them of treason too for making such a big fuss? They're reminding the terrorists that we're on to them. (The terrorists are of course as stupid as the motorsickle gang in "Any Which Way but Loose," right?) No WTC/Pentagon tragedies will occur because the Times did their bounden duty to inform the American public of what clandestine things their government is doing to them.

Whenever the Bush-Cheney-Rove axis gets het up about an issue, think of playing to their base and thinking of their next election. Cherchez les Novembre 2006. Why is it always fundraisers with the country-club fat cats and undemocratically goon-screened "town meetings" for Our Beloved President at which entities such as the Communistic New York Times and other Enemies of America are denounced? Go figure.

As for Michael Reagan, if he can accuse the NYT of "treason," then I accuse him of "libel." He is an Enemy of America. And full of it too, come to think of it.