I'm apparently a glutton for punishment because every now and then I feel the need to turn on the "Mainstream Media" for a glimpse at the brainwashing de jour. My allergic reaction to "cable news poison" usually ranges somewhere between a mild rash and all-out frothing at the mouth. Today, I was in full froth; spitting, hissing and fantasizing about the day I'll be able to reach through the TV and physically assault the paid propagandist on the other end.

Chris Matthews (MSNBC - HardBall) nonchalantly informed his viewers today that EVERYONE just LOVES the military occupation in New Orleans. He then backs his assertion by saying a bartender told him so. Now, I've got nothing against bartenders (Hell, I used to be one), but I'm far from certain a bartender is qualified to speak on behalf of the entire civilian population of New Orleans (let alone the rest of America). I can't help but wonder, if the bartender had said "This military occupation sucks," would Matthews have concluded differently or simply discounted the credentials of the source?

Now maybe I'm just too sensitive. Maybe I'm just reading too much into how Matthews chose and arranged his words. Better yet, maybe I should let you decide. Today on Hardball, Chris Matthews didn't mention the ongoing gun confiscations, but he did say:

"We're going to spend a lot of time today with the military. Everybody in the United States has come to adore the American military because they've come through. Even in wars that have been debated about at home and will be debated, in Afghanistan and especially in Iraq, and all the debates about who did what in this town, everybody gives credit here to the arrival. Its almost like an old cowboy movie when the cavalry arrives, uh, they really love the deployment here. I talked to, we'll be seeing it later in this show, a bartender over here in this quarter saying he never felt safe to sleep at night until the military got here." (Audio Here)

Now in case you're wondering whether or not Matthews really understands what is going on in New Orleans, he closes with:

"So we have a city basically under military occupation. As you go down the streets of the poor neighborhoods, the residential areas, as you walk through the famous French Quarter; Same thing: You turn a corner, camouflage, M-16s, military presence." (Audio Here)

Is ANYBODY so ignorant as to not see through this "in our face" whitewash of yet ANOTHER power grab; this precedent-setting violation of our country's founding principles? Who do they think they're kidding? What will they tell us next? Will they claim people are dancing in the streets because they've been forcibly disarmed? . . . Or maybe that they're thrilled to be getting shipped off to the "safety" of a concentration camp? I can hear the announcer now:

"Everybody just loves Camp Freedom. It's got shiny barbed wire fences and each new visitor gets their own implantable microchip free of charge. And with the microchip, nobody has to worry about having their money stolen because there is no money! Food credits are added on arrival and automatically debited when prisoners, uh, I mean visitors, take their food from the chow line."

At this point, all I can say to the mainstream media is: Keep it up. Keep affirming your role as co-conspirators in the destruction of this country. Keep proving you're nothing more than shameless shills for the State. In the end, it is YOU who are creating the market for Alternative Media, establishing it as a legitimate/more reliable source, and cutting your own ties to the minds of the masses. Bravo.

We know you'll never state the obvious, which is FEMA WANTED a total breakdown, they wanted chaos and bedlam; they wanted an excuse to send in the military, disarm law-abiding citizens, and test the efficacy of withholding food and water to control the civilian population. No, that's just a little too ugly to discuss. Let's just pretend (yet again) that it was all a big accident; one that conveniently led to a situation where they could (in a "live exercise") test their ability to do EXACTLY what they've been training for years to do: TAKE OVER AMERICAN CITIES AND DISARM THE PUBLIC! No, you can't touch on any of that because it's WAY beyond the acceptable range of discourse. Well I say cheer and spin all you want. We don't need you any more and we're just not buying it.