Peter Caser authors a wonderful blog, "The Road to the Horizon". His work takes him all around the world, and recently he posted these photos.

It all comes down to 'Propaganda'.

On April 20, 2008 the New York Times published Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand. After the Times successfully sued the Defense Department to gain access to 8,000 pages of e-mail messages, transcripts and records, DAVID BARSTOW discovered the new term for propagandists; “message force multipliers”. And the major news sources totally ignored the most important story since the 'Pentagon Papers'.

On May 8, 2008 Politico published 'Deafening' silence on analyst story, and credited bloggers for keeping the story alive.

“We are in a time when stories can have a second life,” said Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. A few years ago, if a story did not generate attention after a week, it could be considered dead, said Rosenstiel, who cited the instance of how bloggers revived the U.S. attorney firings story.

Rosenstiel’s organization tracked the mainstream media for a week after the Times story and found that out of approximately 1,300 news stories, only two touched on the Pentagon analysts scoop — both airing on PBS’s “NewsHour.”

Representative DeLauro says, "...you have betrayed the public trust..." as she spoke to the House;

Rep. DeLauro:“This is propaganda, it is a military and industrial complex in which military analysts, many who have ties with the contractors making money off of the war and parroting DOD talking points on the air to mislead the American public and the TV networks did nothing to prevent it. And I would just tell my colleagues that if you voted for the DOD Appropriations Bill last year, you voted to prohibit this. You’ve done it since 2002. Donald Rumsfeld met with these guys 18 times, told them what to say, and then, my friends, DOD hired a company to track their remarks on the TV networks.”

This story is not going away, and will have a great influence on the up-coming Presidential Election. While the major news sources are focused on which candidate mis-spoke, which church they attend, and what pin they wear in their lapel bloggers will continue to expose would-be tyrants.

At some point, hopefully before the election, bloggers will bring 'America the Empire' to the front of public debate. A Democracy does not not need to practice propaganda, and the news-media in a Republic is not afraid to publish the truth.

I am a proud citizen of the Empire, and as such despise hypocrisy.