As powerful as Joseph Palermo's indictment of America's "mainstream media whores" is (click our headline link) he doesn't even point out that it was only the HORRIFIC 'reporting' of the gluttonous, insatiable mainstream media whores for faux 'scandals' from the Clinton administration that made the Bush-Cheney "election win" of 2000 possible.
The New York Times relentlessly portrayed the "Whitewater Scandal!" (a routine real-estate flop in which the Clintons LOST money) as the Alpha and the Omega of Washington corruption and the Savings & Loan debacle - even though the Clintons weren't even in Washington when they lost money on the Whitewater real-estate flop. The BILLIONS upon ONE-TRILLION-DOLLARS in S&L losses that US taxpayers were forced to pay to cover the "PRIVATE INDUSTRY" losses in S&L industry and by other banks having completely escaped the Times' attention.
Madison Guarantee S&L owner and former Clinton partner JIM McDOUGAL -DIED- alone on a concrete floor in a max-security prison, in solitary confinement, denied his heart medication at the specific instructions of "Independent Counsel" partisan Republican prosecutor Ken Starr, despite McDougal's advanced age, heart condition, and complete cooperation. McDougal cooperated with his jailer/torturer to the point of committing perjury as suborned by the Republican prosecutor, Mr. Starr DESPERATE to get SOMETHING on the Clintons to justify his $70 million, subpoena-and FBI-interrogation enhanced 'Whitewater' investigation.
But the "Whitewater" scandalmongering was the least of the Times' and mainstream medias sins... at least there was a conviction of two there - of the hapless McDougal and the equally hapless Webster Hubbell, who was charged with "OVERBILLING!" his law partners and clients.
Speaking of, compare the DC media whores' treatment of Hubbell's "OVERBILLING CLIENTS & PARTNERS!" felony conviction with the JACK ABRAMOFF, 'DUKE' CUNNINGHAM, BOB NEY, and assorted other TOM DeLAY associates' BRIBERY convictions. Clearly, Mr. Hubbell's "overbilling" of clients and partners, while portrayed in the mainstream media as "FRAUD!", was just a typical way of padding one's pay as a bonus or tip for a job well done. Had either partners or clients not been happy with Hubbell's services, they would have simply contested his bill. Indeed, compare Mr. Hubbell's "OVERBILLING!" felony conviction with the news this week that the Bush administration's former number three man at the Department of Interior, J. STEVEN GRILES, pled guilty in what FOX 'news' calls "the Abramoff probe,"
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,260584,00.html
"PROBE" their buzzword for "the Abramoff Republican super-lobbyist BRIBERY/EXTORTION scandal!" that was closely allied with both the Bush White House, and the Tom DeLay dominated Republican strong-arm Congress.
Hell, the media whores can't even bring themselves to force President Bush to aknowledge that he personally knew Mr. Abramoff, who visited the White House frequently... just as the media whores allowed President Bush to pretend that he didn't know Ken Lay after Lay was tried and convicted in the ENRON FRAUD collapse.)
See how that works? The New York Times, Washington Post, Fox 'news,' and other "mainstream media" whores pound out a drumbeat, day after day, week after week, month after month, from shouted, blaring, above-the-fold headlines, "WEB HUBBLE OVERBILLED CLIENTS and PARTNERS!"; yet when confronted with real, nation-gutting crimes like the Abramoff-DeLay-Cunningham BRIBERY and EXTORTION scandals (during time of war and national emergency, at that), the MEDIA WHORES pretend innocence, "poor Mr. Griles was caught up in a partisan and vindictive PROBE."
Just LISTING the Chattering Class whoring of fake Clinton "scandals," and whitewashing of genuine Republican scandals, takes over a page of writing, for we haven't even gotten to the "LINCOLN BEDROOM SCANDAL!" or the "WHITE HOUSE TRASHING SCANDAL!" both of which Republicans and their mainstream media allies CREATED OUT OF THIN AIR! The "Lincoln bedroom scandal" managed to make the Clinton's overnight guest list into, gasp, "A CRIME!" as if the Clintons were the first to soil the nation's honor by allowing (gasp!) BLACK PEOPLE to spend the night as guests in the White House. (Didn't happen until long after the Woodrow Wilson administration, if our history is correct - the segregationist of the radical right managed to keep the White House, as well as all of the nation's capital, SEGREGATED until well into the 1950s, implying that the mere presence of Black Americans visiting the White House would "soil the honor" of the people's house - the exact same justification the atrocious media whores would make in justifying their scandalmongering "Lincoln bedroom scandal!" coverage.)
And the "WHITE HOUSE TRASHING SCANDAL!" was even worse - an ENTIRELY FABRICATED SCANDAL that smeared the names and professional reputations of departing Clinton-Gore Democratic White House staffers in January of 2001 and for weeks thereafter, with BLARING, ABOVE THE FOLD accusation HEADLINES... WITHOUT ONE SINGLE SOLITARY PHOTOGRAPH OF EVIDENCE!
Clearly, the overpaid media elite - and their narrative that ANYTHING a democratic administration does is criminal, and NOTHING that a neo-imperialist Republican administration does is illegal... is THE WORST THREAT TO AMERICA TODAY, including terrorists and terror weapons. (The media whores have helped the radical, reactionary right UNDERMINE weapons NON-PROLIFERATION treaties, just as they once helped justify segregation, as they once helped the corporate right-wing deny tobacco deaths, and as they now help oil industry behmouths (AEI, the news-media's darling think-tank, is almost entirely funded by Exxon-Mobile's billions) downplay global warming and the need for nuclear non-proliferation treaties.)
(btw, media whores, how is that investigation into the ANTHRAX MURDERS, which were clearly an attempt to TERRORIZE CONGRESS, going? "If such an investigation might step on the toes of the Holy US Military/Defense/Bioweapons industry, it must be sufocated to death!" say our overpaid chattering class whores in unison.)
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<< The Bush/Cheney regime has rammed down the nation's throat "signing statements," torture as official policy, secret prisons, illegal spying, the suspension of habeas corpus, political purges of U.S. attorneys, preventive wars, cronyism, no-bid contracts, and an utter contempt for Congressional checks on Executive power. And with all this going on the general contentedness of the chattering classes is startling.
Overpaid prognosticators like Adam Nagourney, David Sanger, Dana Milbank, Michael Kinsley, David Broder, David Gergen, and the rest, continue to serve up their bland and copious political "analyses" as if nothing is out of the ordinary. They even give the cautionary advice to members of the Legislative Branch that they better not push back against President George W. Bush too vigorously lest they be stung by voters in the next election. >>
[note: to the above short list of parasitic media whores who pretend not to notice the destruction of the American Republic under the Bush-Cheney administration, we must add the winners of the MediaWhoresOnline.com "whore of the year" awards, whose 'winners' and finalists included CHRIS MATHEWS, TIM RUSSERT, HOWARD FINEMAN, and GEORGE WILL, all of whom gained hours of media coverage cluck-clucking about the "moral values" impeachmment of President Clinton. We also must add our list of the most prominent neo-con backers of the lies-to-war and invasion of Iraq (and stolen election of 2000), starting with WILLIAM SAFIRE, ABE ROSENTHAL, and ARTHUR SULZBERGER (all three of the NEW YORK TIMES), HOWARD KURTZ, CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, and Fineman of the WASHINGTON POST, and WILLIAM KRISTOL, BRENT HUME, and the entire staff of FOX 'news' and the WASHINGTON TIMES.)
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Democracy or "Decidership?"
Joseph A. Palermo
03.26.2007
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joseph-a-palermo/democracy-or-decidership_b_44240.html
The Bush/Cheney regime has rammed down the nation's throat "signing statements," torture as official policy, secret prisons, illegal spying, the suspension of habeas corpus, political purges of U.S. attorneys, preventive wars, cronyism, no-bid contracts, and an utter contempt for Congressional checks on Executive power. And with all this going on the general contentedness of the chattering classes is startling.
Overpaid prognosticators like Adam Nagourney, David Sanger, Dana Milbank, Michael Kinsley, David Broder, David Gergen, and the rest, continue to serve up their bland and copious political "analyses" as if nothing is out of the ordinary. They even give the cautionary advice to members of the Legislative Branch that they better not push back against President George W. Bush too vigorously lest they be stung by voters in the next election.
Americans are divided at home and reviled abroad. Our reputation overseas is the worst it has been in our history. And our political commentators warn us against the "over-reaching" of the Democrats in Congress? A Congress that can only muster 218 votes in the House to put limits on an illegal war that was based on a pack of lies? Remember the "mushroom clouds" and the yellow cake from Niger?
At this juncture, we might be just one large terrorist attack away from a form of military dictatorship. If you think I'm kidding, read Chalmers Johnson's new book, "Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic." Just as Gore Vidal and other prescient thinkers have warned, Johnson shows that the "imperial presidency" is overwhelming the system of "checks and balances," and leading us toward authoritarianism.
Since the end of World War Two, with the creation of the CIA, the NSA, the NSC, and the DoD, there has been a real tension between whether the United States is going to be a republic or an empire. Johnson argues convincingly the decision has already been made, like earlier empires, most notably the Roman and the British empires, the United States has reached a turning point: either we abandon our imperial ambitions or we will surrender our republic to the voracious appetite of servicing the empire. Johnson remains hopeful "that Americans can still rouse themselves to save our democracy," but he warns "the time in which to head off financial and moral bankruptcy is growing short."
Contrast the mainstream political "commentators" with the consistent remarks of Bill Moyers over the past few years, and it really drives home the extent of their detachment. Moyers has been sounding alarm bells, and he sees the magnitude of the catastrophe Bush has wrought.
Bush and Cheney have brought the crisis to a head with their largely successful expansion of executive power. They control a global military and intelligence network, a multi-billion dollar secret budget, front companies, "cut outs," secret prisons, and mercenary armies. Unless the Congress and the Courts assert themselves now and with vigor, we're in big trouble. It is painful to witness the corporate media's gatekeepers of our political discourse miss what is right in front of their faces.
In a speech last February entitled, "A Time for Anger, A Call to Action," Bill Moyers said: "Looking backwards, it all seems so clear that we wonder how we could have ignored the warning signs at the time. What has been happening to working people is not the result of Adam Smith's invisible hand but the direct consequence of corporate activism, intellectual propaganda, the rise of religious literalism opposed to any civil or human right that threaten its paternalism, and a string of political decisions favoring the interests of wealthy elites who bought the political system right out from under us."
And, as always, the problem boils down to the decrepitude of the corporate news media. Tony Snow and the other right-wing spin-meisters know that any story, no matter how shocking or horrific, whether it is Abu Ghraib or Hurricane Katrina, can be spun and twisted and fragmented and de-contextualized in a couple of 24-hour "news cycles" to the point where it become meaningless, or "yesterday's news." They know the news media will jump to the next big story, and all they have to do is wait it out. Remember the Downing Street Memo? It is the smoking gun for the impeachment of George Bush, and commentators like Michael Kinsley declared it "old news" the second it hit the Internet.
Big questions like the ones Johnson and Moyers pose relating to whether we want to live in an empire or a republic cannot begin to be explored in this abhorrent media environment. If you don't think we're moving in an authoritarian direction, then ask the N.Y.P.D. why it spent a year infiltrating non-violent peace groups all over the country prior to the 2004 Republican National Convention.
In 2000, amidst the presidential campaign, The Nation magazine ran a cover with a caricature of Bush as Alfred E. Newman wearing a button that instead of saying the usual, "What, Me Worry?" it read simply: "Worry." In 2007, now is the time to worry. Bush has plenty of time to make things much worse, (like hatching a pretext to attack Iran). Unless something powerful and decisive comes out of the 110th Congress, no election will be able to provide the nation with the democratic corrective it so desperately needs. All of the pundits should do a little homework; take an afternoon off and read Johnson and Moyers.
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