I'm Not Paranoid

Am I?

Congressman Cox (R-CA) is now urging for a Congressional Investigation into a factually inacurrate CBS report on CBS news. Leaving aside the blatant hypocrisy of this stance ("With respect to the facts underlying all of this, there was a book published by swift boat veterans. It ought to rise or fall on its own merits, just as with "Fahrenheit 9/11," which is loaded with factual inaccuracies."), ask yourself this: Should independent news organizations face Congressional investigations for no crime greater than a bungled story? Is such a scenario compatible with "freedom of the press?" Or would it indeed be an intimidating infringement of such freedom?

OK. Maybe I'm being unreasonable.

Let's be reasonable, and try not to invest any paranoiac assumptions into the story of two citizens arrested for trespassing on public property during an event open to the public.

Let us not worry about Florida's decision to disregard an injunction from the court and place a possibly illegal contestant's name on the state ballot because an impending hurricane might delay a final verdict.

Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that there's nothing wrong with a Speaker of the House charging U.S. citizens with crimes for daring to oppose their party's candidate's re-election.

If I were an unreasonable man, I might say that a prominent Republican Congressman passing laws to retroactively exonerate himself was a scandal. I might think that Republican governors issuing "secret pardons" to their criminal kin was a scandal. If I were a wild-eyed liberal lunatic I'd think evidence a House majority leader knowingly violated several state and federal laws in an effort to rig Texas' Congressional delegation was the sign of a quiet coup. Thankfully, I strive to use reason in all my thoughts. Not for me, these silly conspiracy theories of Congressional corruption hinging on intimidation and bribery.

Who cares if the Bush Administration and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth shared a lawyer? Why would common personnel imply any kind of organizational link?

If I were a nut, I might think that our blatant disregard for the 12 Amendment reflected an unhealthy disdain for the law. But I'm not a nut. I mean, it's not like the Bush Administration is some sort of hot-bed for outright treason or espionage. The world is full of facts, and we describe their coincidence as coincedences for a darn good reason.

None of this shakes my faith in America. For God's sake, people! We put sitting U.S. Congressmen in jail for stealing postage stamps, and for getting free suits, and even for unseemly home remodelling.

Surely if something were amiss in the machinery of my government, I could trust the party in power to set it right...