Prayer and Probability

The 1st Amendment R.I.P.
NY Times Secretly Concealed Bush Spying in U.S.

The New York Times quietly laid to the rest the First Amendment of the United States Constitution in October 2004. In a belated obituary published December 15, 2005 the Times admitted its complicity in the death. It confessed to bowing under pressure from the Bush Administration to withhold explosive information concerning President Bush’s, and other members of his Administration’s, blatant abuse of the Constitution. Bush was currently running for reelection and did not want knowledge of his malfeasance to be made public.

Bush’s conduct was eerily reminiscent of the 1972 reelection campaign of Richard M. Nixon in which Nixon and his cronies constantly ignored the Constitution and broke several laws concerning individual rights and privacy. Bush’s handlers even copied the standard radical right defense of placing all bad news under the protective blanket of “National Security”, a defense implemented and used often by Nixon. Unfortunately the Times was either too afraid or too ignorant to withstand the pressure. Considering all the things that have happened at the Times the past few years perhaps it is time for them to change their masthead to, "Some of the news that's fit to print."

By failing to stand up for their own rights, the Times failed all America. By failing to fulfill their obligations the Times failed America. Their thirteen month late mea culpa does not relieve them of responsibility for contributing to the harm done to America and the world by the right-wing extremists of the Bush Administration. Had they published Bush’s high crimes and misdemeaners when they first learned of them he very probably would not have been reelected. They effectively became the Supreme Court of 2004.


The First Amendment’s death was neither sudden nor accidental. It had been under constant attack by the Republican far-right for 40 years. Its condition had steadily deteriorated over that time. With the First Amendment’s passing the G.O.P. extremists have finally won. From now on all news will have to conform to their narrow-minded and strict regulations. If any news detracts from their authoritarian usurpation of power, hinders their dictatorial decrees, or inhibits the growth of corporate profits it will be censored, but only for reasons of national security. We can expect a dramatic increase in their Orwellian plan of rewriting history. For instance will it be long before all history books will declare that that FDR’s New Deal was nothing more than a communist plot to prevent America’s corporate and moneyed elite to rightfully maintain and continue their positions of privilege as expressed by Herbert Spencer and his concept of survival of the fittest?

This may seem extreme to some but then who would have thought that the New York Times would not immediately report that the President of the United States had broken the law and had broken his oath of office, "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

The Bush Credo - No Sacrifice Is Too Great For Others To
Make.