One year ago, in an interminable week of 24 hour news coverage, we watched in horror as tens of thousands of our compatriots suffered and died needlessly while our corrupt, self-serving, incompetent national "leaders" sat around making up excuses for their failure. Twelve months later, with national attention suddenly illuminating the ghost town that New Orleans has been abandoned to, those same incompetent, yet unaccountable miscreants are doing more of the same. Lest we forget how cruelly and inhumanly the wretched survivors of the broken levees (it wasn't the storm, it was the
design flaw) were treated by their government, please watch
this clip where Geraldo Rivera and Shepard Smith both lose their composure on live TV, dropping the pretense of journalistic objectivity in the face of monstrous pain and injustice. Corporate media these days are constantly manufacturing illusory drama to entice viewers, but true human feelings don't follow the script. If you haven't seen this clip before, I strongly recommend it.
I was moved at the time to make a
little slideshow of my own. I don't know if I'm allowed to use any of the copyrighted material that's in it, so I never called attention to it. I added a link to
dailykos.com because it's the main place where I go for an alternative perspective on the news and organizing resistance. I actually have a lot of respect for our Constitution and faith in democracy, but not enough people realize that a democracy of, by, and for the people must constantly be vigilant against the undermining influence of powerful elites, such as the ultra-rich corporate
fascists comprising the Bush Regime. More and more people are waking up to this reality, or at least the reality that Republican rule has been an unmitigated disaster for the country, and a change is coming. But it won't come unless every citizen does their civic duty by voting and demanding accountability from their elected officials. You see, they are not our leaders. They are our
representatives. We lead through them. If we fall asleep on the job, they are free to screw us over as they have been. Enough is enough. It's time to put some grown ups in charge, and we need your help to make it happen. Without the active participation of the electorate, there is no democracy, just a musical chairs game of self-serving snake-oil salesmen. We can do better, and it starts with educating ourselves.
Daily Kos
Truthout.org
Crooks and Liars
