Misrepresenting the facts. Asking G-d to help legislate. This is American?

by CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.), Staff Writer 

The following story from Friday’s Washington Post is chilling in a way that I cannot quite describe.  It needs to be read.  What in the hell is going on in Congress?  Is it a legislative body or a seminary?  Please read the article "The Political Enclave That Dare Not Speak Its Name".

To make matters even worse, Aol.com which is normally a fairly conservative online news outlet posted two video articles this morning showing that both Governor Sanford of S.C. and Senator Ensign of Nevada were deliberately misidentified as Democrats on Fox News when it was revealed that they had committed adultery in the past two weeks.  They are both prominent Republicans and either man could have easily garnered tremendous support for a Presidential run in 2012 before this past week.  Why would Fox News identify them as Democrats?  Is it a news organization or a GOP outlet?  If it is a lobbying outfit then it needs to lose its Federal license to act as a news organization. 

Now, why is this important?  You all know that I am a left wing Democrat.  I make that clear in most of my posts.  This is important because we cannot have good government if we do not say exactly what we think when we talk in this country.  The time for euphemisms and double talk and hidden messages over the public airwaves is over.  We need open government if we are ever going to heal from the previous eight years of fascism. 

I am not so much upset at all this, as I am saddened.  I did not serve almost 25 years on active duty for this nonsense to be accepted as good government and good news reporting.  It is neither.  I do not want religious fanatics of any ilk in Congress.  I want professional politicians of either Party.  I also do not want a major news outlet to openly lie when "their" men are caught in an inappropriate act.  This is blatant political lobbying which is fine for a Party operative, but not for a news organization that has been licensed to inform the public over the airwaves.  This is actually quite dangerous. If this is allowed to stand as normal, that is the misrepresentation of basic facts in a critical news item, then we have already lost the battle for "the minds and hearts of the people". 

The American people are neither Democrats nor Republicans.  They are not left or right, they neither support "this" way or "that" way of governing.  They are presently involved in trying to keep their homes and jobs, raise their kids and be in the lives of their grandchildren in a meaningful way. They trust the government to actually be the government.  They trust news organizations to portray the news, not slanted propaganda.  This is a lot more dangerous than one might think initially.  This is mind control at a deliberate and almost obscene level in both cases.  This is dangerous.

As a veteran, I have to tell you, I did not serve in uniform to support either of these extreme views of America.  This is actually quite scary and reminds of me at a lower level of what is going on in Iran right now.  We don’t need a theocracy here.  We don’t need controlled news. Veterans need to take a stand on this.  Is this what we all served to support?

CWO3 Tom Barnes, USCG (Ret.)