Great Jonik cartoon.

Free Association: Serving Their President

By Sheldon Richman

The news media pride themselves on their objective detachment from the stories they cover, but when the chips are down they are apologists for the state's worst crimes. They carry this off in many subtle ways. Example: television reporters frequently characterize what the U.S. troops are doing in Iraq as "serving their country." Fighting in Iraq can be service to the country only if the war is good for the country. But the allegedly detached media can't say the war is good (or bad) for the country without losing their detachment. So how can they say that Americans fighting the war are serving their country -- assuming that phrase has any meaning at all?

The troops are serving something, but it's not their country. They're serving the dull zealous aspiring autocrat who calls himself President of the United States and the agenda of the Empire lobby. That's what going to war amounts to: serving whatever hack politician happens to occupy the White House.

If Paddy Chayefsky was right when he had protagonist in The Americanization of Emily say, "We ... perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices," then the news media helps to perpetuate war.

Hillary's Baggage

Ron Paul 0wnz the Federal Reserve

Ron Paul Video

God speed Dr. Paul!

We're the Government -- and You're Not

The Real Purpose of US Mid-East Policies

As a general rule for understanding public policies, I insist that there are no persistent "failed" policies. Policies that do not achieve their desired outcomes for the actual powers-that-be are quickly changed. If you want to know why the U.S. policies have been what they have been for the past sixty years, you need only comply with that invaluable rule of inquiry in politics: follow the money.

When you do so, I believe you will find U.S. policies in the Middle East to have been wildly successful, so successful that the gains they have produced for the movers and shakers in the petrochemical, financial, and weapons industries (which is approximately to say, for those who have the greatest influence in determining U.S. foreign policies) must surely be counted in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

read more | digg story

Andy Griffith vs. PATRIOT Act (Bush & Congress) - READ NOTE!