When Friends Attack!

There is a movie out telling everyone what a great and courageous man Edward R. Murrow was. He was the TV newsman who called a U.S. Senator a liar on live television. I remember Edward R. Murrow on television in the fifties. It's not that I would have chosen him to watch so much as there was only one tv channel in Winston Salem. there were soap operas until five oclock, a half hour of Mickey Mouse Club and cartoons and then the news. My kids don't understand the time before satelites and 150 channel mind numbing noise from talking heads with perfect hair and teeth who graduated from canned "journalism" schools as opposed to the school of World War II.

My mom and dad sat in the TV room after supper and watched Senator Joe McCarthy be dismantled by a man who felt he carried the burden of telling America the truth on his shoulders. The adolescent I was then didn't understand what was going on but I could tell which man was lying. His career was essentially over after that night because American news people stopped reporting what he said. He was a Liar, after all!

We seem to have lost the ability to be outraged at liars along about the same time as the news people lost their honor and courage.

*****

Yesterday's News.

Dick Cheney was in Knoxville yesterday and the TV said he was heckled. He was here to speak nice things about former Senator Howard Baker who was having a University School named in his honor. Here is what the U T web site says about it:

In early 2003 the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy began operations at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The mission of the Baker Center is to develop programs and promote research to further the public's knowledge of our system of governance, and also to highlight the critical importance of public service. The Baker Center will also place a special emphasis on examining the role of the media in society.

Senator Howard Baker rose time and time again above party or ideological lines to craft workable solutions to critical problems facing our country. With this center, we will strive to honor him and to carry on his service to the people of Tennessee and America.

In a speech to 400 people gathered in a public building that holds 25,000, Dick Cheney said things like this:

"Howard did as he has always done: he put the country's interest above all else," Cheney said.

There were only 400 people in the building. They were rewarded with the spectacle of seeing the grand hypocrisy of the most self serving vice president in American history praising the selfless public service of the good man, Howard Baker.

There were only 400 people there but several of them shouted at the Vice President, who, as it has become known, is most responsible for starting the Iraq war. They were taken outside by the security people. Who were they and how did they get in there?

"War! What is it good for?" they said. Security took them away.

"Peace Now!" they said. Security took them away.

"Stop the war!" they said. Security took them away.

In contrast to Howard Baker, today's Republicans do not tolerate the opinions of those who oppose them. Their events are well screened for protestors and only loyal Republicans are allowed inside. This is so that George W. Bush and dick cheney can bask in the love of their sycophants. If the arena in ahich Dick Cheney spoke had been opened to anyone who wanted to see him, I believe there would have been 24,600 more people in there and nearly every one of them would have been shouting at him.

Now here's my observation. They didn't let everyone inside...they never ever do. The people that screamed at Dick cheney must have been...

Republicans!

... at least until recently.

Dick Cheney was attacked by his own kind!

Long ago, we spoke to them but they would not listen. Perhaps they'll listen now.

It is our only hope...and theirs, too!

Peace,

Steve


*****

the evening News showed Bush saying this:

"Let me give you some quotes from (a)... Democrat leader...: First, and I quote, 'There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons.'

But they Dear President left out a few words that were also contained in that statement! Jay Rockefeller also said in that same speech:

"Preventing a war with Saddam Hussein -- whether now or later -- must be our top priority, and I believe this resolution will strengthen the president’s hand to resolve this crisis peacefully."

Sort of had a different gist compared to what the President would have you believe, doesn't it? his Rudeness does it better than I:


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