Deanna Spingola -- A Free Press, A Free Pass

A FREE PRESS, A FREE PASS

Deanna Spingola
March 4, 2006
NewsWithViews.com

Our current administration, as well as previous administrations, has received a free pass from the big business, government complicit mass media. There have been times when it actually appeared that the media was exposing a presidential faux pas. But their disclosures, such as Clinton�s sleazy antics, merely distracted the masses from other concurrent questionable events. Whenever Americans feel they are getting a real account of the actions or inactions of our installed officials we must understand that we are being manipulated by the Republican/Democrat globalist party line.

�Media manipulation in the U.S. today is more efficient than it was in Nazi Germany, because here we have the pretense that we are getting all the information we want. That misconception prevents people from even looking for the truth.� Mark Crispin Miller

Americans don�t read and are not well informed despite well stocked inventories in mega sized chain bookstores and community libraries. The average instant gratification, pleasure seeking American does not read. Or their reading amounts to well publicized fiction promoting a particular objective or self help books wherein they may discover the source of their unhappiness or dissatisfaction. For current news they are satisfied with snippets from their local newspapers, news magazines or they watch specially selected events unfold via their favorite channel if they can tear themselves away from a favorite televised sports event or sitcom wherein the participants make enough money to feed a small country for a year.

The idea that we have an opposing liberal and conservative media is a farce. This is a myth and an effort to further push us into a bipolar culture � into a divisive mentality meant to create conflict and population division. The media, especially the talk radio shills, does not report anything that would cast negative opinions on the administration, any administration. They currently paint Bush as a principled, ethical individual.

However, others see him differently. As if his suspiciously seditious actions did not already reveal George W. Bush�s regard for the Constitution he allegedly swore to uphold he profanely professed his opinion to a few Republican minions in the Oval Office in November 2005. I waited, without any real expectations to see if the �fair and balanced� Fox News or the so-called opposition liberal press would reveal his attitude that the Constitution was �nothing but a G-D piece of paper.�[1] I certainly would have perished had I been holding my breath. However, members of the alternative media, often the only conduit of reality and accurate perception, consistently and courageously exposes information Americans have a right to know.

�Bush's 2000 acceptance speech was widely seen as having successfully introduced the nation to a leader with strong principles, clear policies and a determination to return dignity to the Oval Office after President Bill Clinton's scandals.�[2] Party affiliation notwithstanding the Oval Office is apparently going to be defined in one way or another by the true character of the resident. If not for the alternative media Bush�s power grabbing egomaniacal outburst would have remained hidden. Bush allegedly also stated: �I don't give a G-D; I�m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.�[3] This outburst is incompatible with his acceptance speech. Bush�s campaign trail Christian claims and his purported reverence of Jesus Christ as his role model is dubious considering his regularly unreported irreligious explosions. Genuine Christians wince at such blasphemies. How would the exploited Religious Right react or would they rationalize?

If dependant on the mass media, the Religious Right will never hear about his profane outbursts or his Daf Yomi Shiur excursions with his former spokesman and recently ordained Rabbi, Ari Fleischer. Daf Yomi is the daily study of the Talmud (2711 pages). Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with the daily study of the Talmud or any other religious book if he is in fact doing this on a daily basis. But I find it highly unusual that this activity has not come to the attention of the media. If the media boldly revealed Clinton�s private soap-opera sexual escapades then certainly we would actually be interested in Bush�s more dignified religious activities. Bush received a great deal of support from the Orthodox Jewish community in the 2004 elections.[4] So perhaps Bush merely wishes to be all things to all people � please the Christian constituency and the Orthodox Jewish community as well.

Jeff (Yehoshua) Ballabon (an orthodox Jew) visited George Bush in Austin, Texas in 1999. Ballabon felt confident that Bush�s �personal commitment to faith and values was profound, as was his feeling of respect, even affinity, towards the Jewish people and faith.�[5] Ballabon worked on the Bush campaign in 2000. Soon after he was elected (with on 19% of the Jewish vote) Bush �began to prove his friendship.�[6]

Perhaps this ongoing friendship included granting Sharon�s request for the U.S. Treasury underwriting for the handover of 25 Israeli communities in the Gaza Strip. The U.S. taxpayer�s tab was over a billion dollars or about $350,000 per settler. We read about this in the media and were stunned by the apparent policy reversal regarding Israel and Palestine.[7] Interestingly, Sharon is unavailable for questioning. We are left to wonder how this all fits into the globalist plan considering Bush�s previous actions and his remarks to the American Jewish Committee: �We will speak up for our principles and we will stand up for our friends in the world. And one of our most important friends in the world is the State of Israel. Israel is a small country that has lived under threat throughout its existence. At the first meeting of my National Security Council, I told them a top foreign policy priority is the safety and security of Israel. My administration will be steadfast in supporting Israel against terrorism and violence, and in seeking the peace for which all Israelis pray.�[8]

This reversal did not alter the warm and fuzzy friendship that probably precipitated the special event in Washington on 6 Dec 2005 when the White House kitchen became kosher. There is nothing wrong with eating kosher � only the most devoted of the faith abide by this ancient practice. Although the announcement and photo is on the White House web site, I must have missed it in the media.

Mrs. Laura Bush is joined by Rabbi Binyomin Taub, Rabbi Hillel Baron and Rabbi Mendy Minkowitz as they stand with staff Tuesday, 6 Dec. 2005, during the kosherizing of the White House kitchen. White House photo is by Shealah Craighead.

Regarding the free press, the First Constitutional Amendment is a guarantee of our basic freedoms. �Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.�

Without the implementation of the First Amendment, religious minorities could easily be persecuted. The government could establish a national religion such as secularism or some other system of worship. Political protestors could be silenced.[9] The press could not criticize government actions. Citizens could not assemble to petition for social change. These basic rights have apparently been suspended under the auspices of the Patriot Act. Reporters who do know what is going on are reticent to say anything for fear of job loss. Many are just going along with the insider crowd � they are the useful idiots, to use Lenin's vernacular.

The right of free speech and the right to assemble were not granted to Cindy Sheehan, the courageous but media maligned anti-war activist. Every newspaper in the country reported her arrest which occurred just prior to Bush�s state of the nation speech on 31 January 2006.[10] She was arrested allegedly for wearing an anti-war �T� shirt. The majority of the media mistakenly reported that she was very vocal and demonstrating. The Washington Post: �She was also vocal, said U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer, and after she ignored instructions to close her jacket and quiet down, she was led out and arrested. Demonstrating in the House gallery is prohibited.�[11] I believe Cindy Sheehan�s version of what occurred wherein she states that no one asked her to zip up her jacket to cover her shirt and that she was merely sitting and waiting for the speech to begin and that she had no intentions of interrupting the speech in any way.[12]

The Sheehan arrest may be a widely publicized test case to evaluate just how tolerant the American public will be when some of the rest of us are deprived of our right to speak and assemble. What the government can do to one person, they can do to everyone. Apparently it is unlawful according to the Patriot Act to wear a garment opposing the government�s policies? �George Bush wants to create the new criminal of �disruptor� who can be jailed for the crime of �disruptive behavior.� A little-noticed provision in the latest version of the Patriot Act will empower Secret Service to charge protesters with a new crime of "disrupting major events including political conventions and the Olympics.�[13]

We heard or read the word terror, terrorist, or terrorism twenty times in Bush�s state of the union speech.[14] We are constantly reminded about how unsafe we should feel, but unsafe from whom? We constantly hear about the �war on terror� but not too much about the details � at least not in our fair and balanced media.[15] The entity that is really pushing the terror agenda is the government. We heard nothing about illegal immigration. I think many Americans are more concerned about losing their middle class lifestyles and incomes to illegals than they are about a terrorist attack.[16] We hear little in the press about the nefarious schemes to award amnesty and other taxpayer funded perks to illegals who break into the United States.

With regard to terrorism I am personally still waiting to hear or see a list of the overt anomalies regarding 9/11 addressed by the media. Again, I may perish if I were to hold my breath for that kind of information. This information should be, if the media were unconstrained or uncompromised, of primary importance. Thank goodness, the skeptic and the scholarly are making their views widely known on the internet.

While we heard about how horrible the terrorists are, we do not hear one word about the ongoing use of torture by the United States CIA and their 800 rendition flights. There are established international policies, which we long ago agreed to, concerning humane and decent treatment of our enemies.[17] Again, nationality does not matter � if the government can torture non residents or non citizens, they can torture anyone. The infamous torture scandal was swept under the media carpet and we won�t be hearing about it again. Secretary of State Condoleezza Cover-up Rice, while admitting that there are rendition flights, reassures those of us who have concerns that the government �seeks assurances on treatment from receiving nations.� These governments are known to torture prisoners. Why move prisoners at all if torture were not the objective?

�Flying detainees to countries where they may face torture or other ill-treatment is a direct and outright breach of international law with or without so called �diplomatic assurances�. These assurances are meaningless. �Countries known for systematic torture, regularly deny the existence of such practices,� said Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International's Senior Director of Regional Programs.�[18] Torture is hardly a tactic for gaining information from our enemies. An individual will say anything when someone with a power drill is aiming at his skull. The purpose of torture is torture! What has America become: we glorify war and death, including abortion. This pro-life administration is decidedly pro-war. What a dichotomy! Can we be too surprised? Skull & Bones, to which Bush belongs, was once known as The Brotherhood of Death.

Yes, the administration, any administration, gets a free pass from the press � whatever they do, minor or major mistakes. You may briefly hear about the minor travesties but understand these revelations function as distractions. The government owns the press � perhaps not literally but realistically.

�. . . There is no such thing in America as an independent press . . . We are the tools and vassals for rich men behind the scenes . . . Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.� John Swinton, former New York Times Chief of Staff.

Free pass or not: Can we completely blame our complacency on the silent, government friendly press? Some individuals do not want to acknowledge reality � they would rather remain clueless and passive. Where do you fall?

Deanna Spingola has been a quilt designer and is the author of two books. She has traveled extensively teaching and lecturing on her unique methods. She has always been an avid reader of non-fiction works designed to educate rather than entertain. She is active in family history research and lectures on that topic. Currently she is the director of the local Family History Center. She has a great interest in politics and the direction of current government policies, particularly as they relate to the Constitution.