As the Year Ends, Some Silver Linings

Ernest Partridge, Co-Editor
The Crisis Papers
December 20, 2005

We the People of the United States, especially those of us who cherish our freedom and our political institutions, have endured a terrible year. The compelling evidence that the 2004 Presidential election may have been stolen stands unrefuted, albeit ignored by the mainstream media. The looting of the federal treasury continues, as the nation’s wealth continues to flow from the vast majority who produce that wealth to the minuscule minority that controls and owns that wealth. Education, health care and social services are starved as still more tax cuts are given to those least in need of them: the very rich. Corruption on a scale unrivaled in all our history flourishes as legislation and regulatory relief are purchased in an open market. Our soldiers and innocent Iraqi citizens continue to die in a war that was launched, and is now sustained, on a pack of lies.

And yet, for all this, the republic survives, albeit in critical condition. Recovery is possible, though by no means assured. For at long last, a few of our battered institutions are pushing back.

The criminal justice system to the rescue. While the federal government and the Congress have failed us, the law, in the hands of a few dedicated prosecutors, may be providing what might be the final line of defense of our democracy. The GOP House leader, Tom DeLay, while undisciplined by his Congressional colleagues, has at last been indicted in his home state of Texas. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has nailed “Scooter” Libby, Dick Cheney’s top deputy. Fitzgerald’s work continues, and it is likely that Bush’s “boy genius,” Karl Rove will be the next big fish to be hauled in. Meanwhile, the GOP-lobbyist sleaze coalition is unraveling as Jack Abramoff faces trial, and still more in his criminal syndicate are exposed and indicted. The scandal involves numerous GOP members of Congress – quite possibly, enough to cost the Republicans one or both houses of Congress. These investigations and prosecutions, largely conducted on the state and municipal level, are beyond the reach of the Bushistas. Stay tuned: this could be very big.


The media stirs. The mainstream media are discovering, to their sorrow, that Lincoln was right: you can’t fool all the people all of the time. The decline of media credibility reaches to the top of the industry: the “flagship” newspapers, the New York Times and the Washington Post. At the Times, Judith Miller’s fables of Saddam’s aluminum tubes and WMDs finally caught up with her, and so the Times has cut her loose. As for the Washington Post, the public is losing patience with Bob Woodward’s Bush-promotion masquerading as “access journalism.”

Right-wing ranting still dominates AM talk radio, as Limbaugh, Hannity, O’Reilly, etc. draw up to ten times the audience of the liberal Air America Radio. However, the trend lines are encouraging; the right wingers appear to be losing their audience while the ratings for AAR increase.

The Bush/GOP lock on the corporate media is loosening as a few newspeople are beginning to act like real journalists again. Just ask Bush’s Press Secretary Scott McClellan who, at long last, is finally receiving some well-deserved harassment from the White House press corps. And just this week, newspaper editorials from around the country denounced Bush’s domestic spying with an intensity not seen since the Clinton administration.

The American media has a long distance to travel before it recovers its once-renowned independence and objectivity and with it the trust of the public. But at long last, it appears to be moving in the right direction.

The Congress Balks.



Keith’s Barbeque Central

You've been in there, pointing the way, all year long. I appreciate it.

Keith’s Barbeque Central