Bush's latest henchman Feeding Fire to the Furnace of Fear was Rep. Peter King, Republican of New York, during a recent television appearance in which he questioned the New York Times for what, he said, was,the Times, "...putting its own arrogant elitist left wing agenda before the interests of the American people."
His voice, gruff with indignation, the Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, looked and sounded the part of a hellfire, damnation and brimstone god of old, spewing acrid volcanic lava against a newspaper for merely doing its job-that is, ratting err, excuse me, for reporting, as it ought to, and bringing into broad daylight one more of Bush's crimes against the American people: secretly snooping into their financial records.
King said he would call on our Machiavellian attorney general, Alberto Gonzalez, to launch a full fledged criminal investigation and prosecution into the New York Time's leaking and reporting of the government's secret mining of thousands of American's bank accounts and financial records.
King may have been hoping to stoke some anxiety and the fires of fear in any other reporter, or news organization, or even private citizen, who would dare to speak truth to power about the Bush criminal administration. (Whoa there Chairman King, your outfit is beginning to look like that of Chairman Mao's. Or, are you stealing a page from the politicians of Ancient Greece who had Socrates drink from the cup of hemlock for merely stating truth to power? Would you also have put Jesus Christ to death for speaking humble truth to power?)
Spewing something about how the time has come for the New York Times to realize that we are at war (excuse me, please, Chairman King, but Bush launched an illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq which is what he is still conducting; we were never at war with Iraq and we are currently not at war in Iraq-and isn't pursuing "terrorists" more of a policing effort than a war effort?) an indignant King went on to talk about how little the newspaper cares about saving innocent lives against terrorists' attacks.
Spewing all his volcanic ash, King looked more like Big Bad Wolf intent on doing away with Little Red Riding Hood, than a chairman truly concerned with safeguarding an America which always trusted its right to privacy.
So, the latest Bush god of damnation, hellfire and brimstone, Peter King, aided and abetted by a request to Bush's Machiavellian attorney general, wants to do-in, in one swoop of his hands the freedom and sweet innocence of an entire nation which, up until the 2000 Bush coup d'etat, has had, as one of its symbols, a statue representing liberty right there at the entrance to New York harbor, right in front of Mr. King's eyes.
Perhaps Chairman King never bothered to visit the Statue of Liberty, or perhaps he wore blinders when he visited it, or perhaps he failed to comprehend its symbolism, or perhaps he never bothered to read the Constitution of the United States of America which states that congress shall make no law prohibiting the free exercise of speech nor shall it make any laws abridging the freedom of the press...and while he is not proposing any laws prohibiting freedom of the press, he certainly is going after the freedom of the press to inform its citizens of the sins and crimes committed by its government.
To wash his hands of the guilt of conspiracy against the people, Chairman King wraps his gruff, thunderous voice in what appears to be moral indignation and bellows that he will go after the New York Times, the reporters, the editors who worked on the report, and the publisher of the Times for what Mr. King calls The New York Times' crime against his government. Then he adds, referring to the Times, "they're the ones who gave Fidel Castro his job in Cuba." (Whoa there, again, Chairman King. I thought it was the people of Cuba, who, because of Batista's corrupt and repressive regime, gave Fidel Castro his job in Cuba. I thought it was all of the blood shed by Cubans, fighting against the Batista regime and in support of Castro's revolution the ones who gave Castro his job in Cuba. I thought it was the Cuban people seeking freedom from the Batista dictatorship the ones who gave Castro his job in Cuba. Are you, as honorable and as morally indignant as you want to make yourself sound, grasping at straws to feed fire to Bush's furnace of fear? O, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy!).
One has to wonder at this point, whether Chairman King is governed by the use of reason and a clear vision, or whether he is governed by the panic process. A process which, as Andrea Malone-Schara states, is based on fear and denial-two emotions which run counter to rational thinking and rational problem-solving based on facts.
Chairman King seems to be in a reactive mode-to protect the Bush administration against any truth that may broadside it, or hit it head-on, or in any way strive to uncover its criminal and dictatorial powers-so, the Chairman feeds fire to Bush's furnace of fear.
And, America once again buys a Chairman's lies and furnace of fear, just like it bought Colin Powell's lies before the United Nations.
The Bushes score and seal another link on the repressive chain with which they have been slowly chaining the American people since the 2000 Bush coup d'etat, while Lady Liberty cries and her torch is made more and more opaque not by the 911 crew which broadsided the twin towers, but by the likes of Bush, Colin Powell, and Peter King who know how to lie and push the panic buttons which keep people in reactive modes of their own and away from being able to look at the facts of the Bush administration rationally and come up with a thought through conclusion of their own regarding what to do about the Bush administration or how to get Poppy's son off one's back.
When America finally and completely wakes up to the betrayal perpetrated upon it by Bush, his Poppy, and the likes of Peter King, we will find our tears joining those of Lady Liberty over the loss of our freedom and the dismantling of our democracy.
Teresa Simon-Noble is a computer activist for peace. She is a former mental health clinician. A poet and a freelance writer. Her work has been published in several online publications.
