Rise like lions after slumber

In unvanquishable number.

Shake your chains to earth, like dew

Which in sleep had fallen on you--

Ye are many, they are few.

~Percy Bysshe Shelley

My friend Bernie says he can't believe the American people haven't figured out what it's all about. "The whole damn political scene is nothing but a corporate media freak show," he said. "There's no breathing room between elections -- no time nor interest in investigating, or even addressing, issues that are critical to our survival as a nation. The minute every last dollar is sucked out of the competition, the candidate who bought the most attack ads -- the most face time -- wins, and the election is over. Then," Bernie said with disgust, "it's time to start raising money for the next election, because the media is already out there campaigning."

"I hadn't thought of it that way," I said. "But, surely electing a president is more important than the media, or who can raise the most money --"

"It doesn't matter what you think," Bernie said flatly. The mainstream media, both print and electronic, are as important as the American people allow them to be. And we've allowed them total control over our thoughts, our beliefs. They're freaks -- actors whose role is to divert national attention, manipulate public opinion, and keep the public in a state of suspended paralysis. They're bullhorns for corporate Boss Hogs and administration creeps who are determined to seize power and keep the military industrial complex rolling in dough."

Bernie's right. With each presidential campaign, the list of candidates -- serious candidates -- grows shorter, and the media grow more brazen in either trashing or ostracizing those who pose a threat to the corporate status quo. The media is determined to choose the president no matter what voters want. Little by little, the media has inserted itself into the process until elections are no longer about candidates or issues. They're about the media and what the media thinks about candidates and issues.

If you doubt that, check out CNN's 24/7 "Ballot Bowl 08" with Wolf Blitzer and "the best political team in television," stumble into America's Election Headquarters over at the Foxhole's "Strategy Room," spend a rollicking evening in MSNBC, "The Place for Politics," where you can watch Chris Matthews throw his hard balls at Hillary, listen to Keith Olbermann scold all those who disagree with him, or just relax and let M.C. Rove's dancing partner, David Gregory, decide the winner in his new "Race for the White House" show...

The One World Order criminals who seized power in the 2000 election coup will not exit peacefully if defeated in November. They have ruled through brutality and fear and, with the eager help of the media, stoked that fear into seven long years of shameful "patriotic" panic. Their eyes are on the prize -- total US dominion and control of the world and its resources. They're in too deep to back off now, and will not willingly accept defeat. The person taking over the reins of leadership from Bush must be one of their own, regardless of party. That is why the media relentlessly ambushed, weeded out, and tossed six of the eight Democratic presidential wannabes unceremoniously aside.

From the outset, the only two Democratic candidates in the media race were Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. The media and their corporate masters knew the hokey soap opera between a white woman and a black man would keep the masses panting for more "American Idol" drama and their attention diverted from more pressing matters, such as a landscape strewn with body parts, a desert stained red with innocent blood, dead and suffering children, grieving, horror-shocked parents on the one side -- and a smirking idiot madman on the other who chants mindlessly about "completing the mission...spreading freedom throughout the world..."

In their critical "George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography," Webster Tarpley and Anton Chaitkin warned that we are immersed in times of moral and cultural degradation wherein "rulers of great evil have inflicted incalculable suffering on humanity."

The book is less about Bush 41 or the Bush family than it is "an unveiling of the abuse and misuse of power, the shenanigans of egotism running rampant in high places." The authors strip aside the "curtain of secrecy, myopic journalism, and the illusion of a 'free' press," and stress that we must be "fully aware of the propaganda of the 'spin doctors' and the manipulations that benefit a few at the expense of the many." Tarpley and Chaitkin say we "are not to condone or advance this egoistic behavior, but to stand tall and say no to those who claim power."

Many more of us than the media will admit are doing just that -- from the courageous "Winter Soldiers" who stood up against the war machine last week, to the masses whose protests and arrests are blacked out by the media, to the growing numbers who speak truth to power on the Internet and on progressive radio. Fortunately, there are far too many to list, but if you're just waking up, and it's sheer, raw truth you're after, check out Chris Floyd anytime, or listen to Nova M Radio's Mike Malloy week nights from 9-midnight (EST).

Nebraska's Republican Senator Chuck Hagel says in his new book, "America: Our Next Chapter," that it's time for independent leadership and, perhaps, even for another political party. I agree. Those like Dick Cheney who have a death grip on power, and who will only tighten that grip if they remain in power, do not care what the American people think. White House press secretary Dana Perino echoed Cheney's sentiments last week when she told a reporter the American people have a right to speak only once every four years. After that, they can just shut up and follow the leader...

The current election is possibly the most important in US history. Yet, ironically, thanks to the media, few of us in either party have a horse in this race. We have one last chance to change that. We must stand together and support a candidate whose love for country overshadows party loyalty and media sound bites -- a candidate who will fight for the freedoms and rights bestowed upon us by the founding fathers -- who will work to restore our infrastructure and our environment. That candidate is former Vice President Al Gore, the man legally elected President of the United States in 2000. It's time to heal the wound and move on to the Inauguration.

Together, we must ask Al Gore to answer the call one last time. If it takes a new party, so be it. Because saving our republic, repairing our Constitution, and returning the power to the people is what it's all about.

_______

Sheila Samples



About author Sheila Samples is an Oklahoma writer and a former civilian US Army Public Information Officer. She is a regular contributor for a variety of Internet sites.