Lest we forget (on second thought, how can you forget something you never learned in the first place?)

I did write in the description of this blog that there would be possible rants so here goes the first. Does it seem strange and outrageous to anyone that New York Times reporter Judith Miller is going to jail for not revealing her sources in the uncovering of a wrongdoing by the Bush Administration? By wrongdoing I mean a major wrongdoing -- uncovering the name of CIA agent whose husband wrote an unflattering opinion piece about a cover up (image that) by the Bush administration regarding Saddam Hussein and claims that he was buying uranium from Niger. When it turned out these claims were false, as discovered by former diplomat Joseph Wilson, the Bushies ignored the truth and stuck with the original claims to support their reasons to go to war with Iraq.

Once again, and without any shock, it is obvious that the reasons to go to war were carefully crafted and "intelligence" was basically molded to fit the reasoning behind the war. The Downing Street memo ads further proof to this argument, but instead of acknowledging the truth, Bush attacks the messenger again and again.

I work in the newspaper business and have for almost 10 years. My father is a journalism dean, professor and former editor. I grew up always knowing about the power of the printed word and the importance of the truth being revealed, especially when powerful bullies were involved. They might be able to buy political power, but they can't buy the press; at least that is the way I interpreted it.

Bush's disdain for journalists and the media is disturbing, and also very telling. If there was not anything to cover up, there would be more honesty and less hesitance to talk to the media and to hold press conferences where difficult questions would have to be answered on the spot and without the uberpatriotic carefully-worded scripts that Dubyah has clearly come to rely on from his speechwriters. He thinks that journalists that don't side with him should be put in their place. Remember, don't mess with Texas! I guess the sad thing is that joke news like The Onion running headlines like "Bush declares War on criticism" and all almost all the political content on The Daily Show is true. Sure it is presented in a funny way by the kings of the smartass humor, but sadly it is true. The joke news running real stories does have its purpose. It's the spoonful of sugar helping the medicine go down, Since I work at a newspaper I get the to see the real version of the stories anyway. Jon Stewart makes it more digestable.

An example of real news that doesn't seem real was recently illustrated in a Bush press conference held earlier this year. His white house frat brothers-in-arms planted a duck decoy named Jeff Gannon in the audience full of legit, seasoned reporters to slam Democrats by asking leading questions that catered to Dubyah's inability to speak affectively when put on the spot. One of the questions asked was how Bush was able to work with Democrats in congress who had "divorced themselves from reality."

Gannon, who holds no journalism credentials, was employed by a Republican advocacy group called Talon News that disguises itself as a legitimate media outlet and in the best twist of fate, Gannon has the resume title of former internet gay male prostitute on his resume. If you want proof, see what legitimate news source the San Francisco Chronicle to say about it. This is a true story.

To get back to the original rant, one of many ironies in the case of jailed Judith Miller is that conservative columnist Robert Novak originally revealed the name of the CIA agent and he clearly got this information from someone inside the White House, but he isn't being forced to reveal his sources. Is this because he sides with the Republicans? Why jail one journalist while letting the other off for the exact same so-called breach of honesty. Is that punishment for the "liberal media" to try to teach them a lesson?

The biggest irony is that this story is happening on the heels of the revelation of Deep Throat's identity. Of course the Watergate scandal would have never been exposed without Mark Felt's anonymity protected. Does Judge Thomas Hogan, who is sending Miller to jail, feel like Washington Post reporter's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did the wrong thing by using an anonymous source to reveal the misdoings of the Nixon administration and turning the White House upside down? Does Hogan think we would be better served as a country if politicians never had to answer to anyone and the public really didn't have a right to know about the underhanded activity that undoubtedly has surrounded the war in Iraq? It reminds me of the scene in "The Wizard of Oz" when Dorothy and friends discover that Oz is just a man who says, "Pay no attention to the man behind the screen."

It sure seemed like the public had a right to know every detail down to the brand of cigar that Bill Clinton used in the Lewinsky incident. I am not saying Clinton should not have been called out on his behavior. It was wrong and an embarrassment to our country. However, no one died and was misled into war that looks unending at this point. When does the investigation into the false intelligence behind the U.S. invasion of Iraq begin and who will lead the investigation? I guess since Repulicans are running congress there will be no one. They might fear being jailed or just mysteriously "disappearing" one day.

It is scary to watch this nation be attacked in September 2001 by group of religious extremists who don't believe in open dialogue and four years later our country is run by its own version of the same type of extremists. The message the Bush administration sends out is that any naysayers better "watch their butts" or they could suffer a similar fate as Judith Miller. The "smoke 'em out" mentality of post 9/11 that was first used to find Afghan terrorists was a lot like a pre-game pep talk. It was Bush speaking without his puppetmaster and although it sounded like a line from a John Wayne western, I think we knew where he was coming from. After 9/11 we did feel scared and who didn't want to hear about immediate action. Four years later we have a scary freak ship that has changed course to instead "smoke out" those dangerous pen-wielding journalists like Judith Miller who dare reveal the truth. People like Miller are the real enemy now and it best that our Government focus on more rebel writers as a smoke screen for the mess in Iraq.

Our country was in a better situation in 1972 because at least Woodward and Bernstein were allowed to start untangling the political yarn ball that was the Nixon adminstration.

The current of this nation is much more like "1984" and Big Brother is very much watching.