Shut Out & Locked Down: Latest News From The Front~GOP War On Real News Reporters

Demon Princess doesn't know whether to laugh (stupid electioneering stunt) or cry (those rabid Republicons might succeed, after all), but this is the most dismal news for a so-called free country that I think I've ever seen, in my lifetime, anyway--which does extend over the term of the second worst President in American history--Richard Nixon, another paranoid fear-&-war-proselytizer.

However, even Nixon didn't dare take his war on the free press public.

Today's news is that Republicons have floated a bill & resolution that would ban the New York Times (& other members of a "treasonous" liberal media who refuse to get the message) from the press corps which reports on Congress's doings. (Title bar to read further).

Demon Princess only wishes she was making it up, as with so many other things that were, & are, unfortunately, true.

Alright: who in the audience can tell me what's wrong with this picture? Even if we don't exactly pay attention to all the bullshit & hubris emanating from those quarters these days, it's another matter to have our own Congress presuming to legislate what sources we can & cannot hear it from. (Hint: dictatorship.)

(And an interesting sidenote & double-whammy: they don't want to hear us bitching about it, via e-mail from non-profit activist organizations, both right & left, anyway, so they've made moves to block constituent access to them that way. )

Elsewhere in this blog I've already addressed what is so wrong with the Republicons' misguided attacks on the New York Times. About the NYT's editor's response to critics charging that he irresponsibly & unpatriotically reported on the Swift spying program:

"He goes on to recap the fact that numerous spying programs have been put in place since 911 without public knowledge, and we citizens can't very well participate in a debate knowledgeably--nor can Congress, as our elected representatives, if those programs are so secret no one knows they exist. And that's a recipe for totalitarianism.

"He also points out, too mildly, that it's not as if Bushco themselves didn't broadcast the bank-spying program themselves, long ago (!)--so what are they bitching about so loudly, if that's the case, Demon Princess wants to know?

"What they're screaming their heads off about, good Americans, is not that the NYT printed something they already hadn't told the terrorists themselves, but the fact that the spying has been conducted without any sort of oversight at all. That's what they don't want you to know about.

"The reason they're shouting so loudly & belligerently is to convince you it's all for your own good.

"Oh, that & the fact that there are elections coming up which may turn the tide against them, & they're counting on winning again based on the exaggerated threats posed by the War on Terror.."

And, oh, by the way, I believe it was the WaPo that recently reported that domestic sying programs we didn't previously know about have been in place since before 911.