I have still yet to read any article in any media outlet, including here at Salon, that has these core assumptions:

Terrorism is a useless term, specially when used as a military term.

America is not a real democracy.

America is not actually governed by any current administration (i.e. they are just proxies of a design and institutional structure that favors the will of real power elites.)

Our foreign policy has less to do with Israel and more to do with oil.

We fight because we have a military/ industrial/ congressional complex that makes peace near impossible.

It is not the media's innate structure or mandate to inform the public, seek the truth, or speak truth to power.

There is no such thing as evil.

Most of our recorded history, from which we gain our perspective, is a lie.

The media uses terms like "flower children" as shorthand for protester to incite an image of a 60's hippy kid putting a flower in the barrel of soldier's rifle. I, however, when conjuring an image of protest prefer to remember a picture of a fallen student at Kent state, or a protester being dragged by the hair and beaten at the democratic national convention, or the many other true images of protest.

Those who protest war are mainstream and indicative of a patriotic and non-passive citizen, not a naive one. The convention that we have "war hawks" vs. "flower children" in this discourse is a myth.

"...and know that on calendar month so and so, daddy's going to leave, and on calendar month so and so mommy's going to come home..."

Unless daddy's or mommy's tour are extended without notice, as in this very example.

This guy is more than a journalist than most journalists. He actually got his hands dirty documenting the news. Why is it that we consider a corporate paid flack who sits on his or her ass and does nothing more than rewrite the administration's press released talking points...a journalist, and not Josh Wolf? This guy has courage. He gave up the principle when he realized that the rest of America is too lazy and passive to cry for his and their freedoms. He threw in the towel when he realized that the main stream media wasn't going to fight for him either.

How easily people here kow to authority. Obstructing justice my ass. This is the same day that the prosecutor in the Duke case is on the hot seat for manufacturing a case against innocent people. Why should any citizen, journalist or not, be compelled to aid a prosecution in our troubled, broken, and unjust justice system?

Someone here asks who would want to get their news from Josh Wolf? Answer: me.

Gary,

Your additional information could be a valuable addition to Mark Benjamin's well written article(s). I would suggest referencing sources, to give your assertions more veracity and impact.

Mark,

Stay with it. This is what journalism is all about, what makes Salon a superior news source, what compels action in our congress, and what keeps me informed. Your efforts are appreciated.

"We need to fight them there so we don't have to fight them here."

Encapsulated in statements like the above, and those about supporting or caring about our troops, is the underlying notion that it is O.K. to bring war to the people of Iraq's doorstep to avoid it on our own. Implied is the lives of our troops and our civilians are more valuable. Until we can support and care about any world civilian, with the same empathy we have for our troops and for American civilians...we will be an incomplete country.

Time passes and the democrats still do not have a direct and strong response to this sort of revisionism and fear mongering. People make these statements in speeches because they work and the call voters to action. Until democrats can make it appear more dire to vote republican, this tactic will work. If Gulliani makes it as the republican candidate his team's next move will be to "swift boat" his opponents and the media will down a few for "screaming" or whatever invented foible they expose.

Where is the strategy? Where is the direct challenge to these tactics?

George Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut. Although he did move to and attend grade school in Midland Texas, the other part of his formative years are spent on the east coast. For high school he attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history at Yale and was a member of the secret/not so secret but exclusive society "scull and bones." He then attended graduate school at Harvard University, Masters of Business Administration. He is very much a product of moneyed east coast preppy elites.

His good ol' boy country cowboy image is a myth that is reinforced time and time again in the media and even in this article. See the president clear brush at his ranch. See the president wearing cowboy hat and boots. See the cowboy art in his office. The artwork is just a prop to compel the image.