District of Bizarro: Kill the Messenger

The Senate, in another new low of spineless, cheap, and mendacious political grand standing, passed a Republican amendment criticizing the MoveOn.org grassroots organization for a pun on General Petraeus' name. An ad the group ran rhymed his name with "Betray Us". Obviously, the Senators took the expedient way out by criticizing citizens exercising their right of free speech rather than taking the politically risky road of ending the mayhem and death in Iraq. General Petraeus deserves to be criticized for his congressional testimony devoid of professional candor, and delivered solely to justify extending the occupation until the end of the current domestic Regime. Americans know that the so-called "mission" in Iraq has failed, and that the Pentagon is incapable and ill equipped to put that country back together. They also fear that in the past seven years of the domestic Regime, their own civil liberties are being eroded and curtailed. Protesters wearing message T shirts are arrested at rallies, boisterous questioners of public officials are repeatedly tasered, and dissenters are corralled in pens out of the view of the public media. The censoring of MoveOn.org is another example of this disturbing trend toward Orwellian thought control. Not since the days of CONINTELPRO has the anti war wing of the Democratic Party been subjected to such chilling treatment by its own elected representatives. Shame.