At one point in October I became so tired of reading and writing about the White House and mass media I sat down, drank heavily and tapped out 1,000 words of liquor-induced madness. Like a man coping poorly with the death of a loved one, I turned to the bottle to ease the pain of reporting on lies dumped on United States citizens.

Since January, I've devoted more than half of Canon Fodder this year to either the Bush Administration or the press. It's fair to say I don't think much of either party; Bush has eroded the world's image of our country in ways I didn't even think possible, while the Fourth Estate ambles alongside him, ringing their bell and touting his message. It's a nauseating symbiosis, and sometimes the only cure for the political bile working its way up your throat is satire... not that painting Bush as a manic-depressive, video game-obsessed drunk is really stretching it.

I was looking forward to writing a piece this week about the pending Chistmastime holidays (or, today being the 21st, the winter solstice). A refreshing change of pace, and a reflection on the positives religion can play in all our lives with a charge to respect differences, embrace love and espouse tolerance of others. Frankly, it's a message that works any time of year, one we should hear a little more often regardless of one's religious affiliation. So many people profess to believe an ideology of acceptance yet seethe with hatred and ignorance. That's no way to live.

But then the President and the New York Times had to go and trump my message of peace by confirming the existence of illegal wiretaps on American citizens by the White House... one year after the fact.

Damn it!

. . . . .

I'm not surprised that the Bush Administration would illegally monitor the communications of American citizens. They've broken hundreds of rules with zero accountability, after all; what's one more cigarette burn on the Constitution?

Nor am I surprised that the New York Times — the nation's "newspaper of record" — would appease the government by holding this story for over a year. The Times is the rag that helped discredit former ambassador Joseph Wilson by outting his wife Valerie Plame as a CIA agent. Its Editor Bill Keller has promised to "set the record straight" on the host of reporting gaffes it's made since it helped convince the United States to wage war on Iraq, but all he's managed to do is give reporter Judith Miller a sword and told her to fall on it.

Throughout the past few days, I've loved the rationales put forth over the secrecy of the wiretaps (aside from the obvious fact that it's a crime). Yeah, it's really damaging to national security to release evidence of a conspiracy. Considering the only tangible lead the warrantless taps produced was a trucker who wanted to bring down the Brooklyn Bridge with blowtorches, I'm not too worried.

I similarly like how those who leaked Bush's authorization of the wiretaps were accused of aiding the enemy. "It was a shameful act for someone to disclose this important program in a time of war," Bush barked out, once again drawing complex foreign policy with black and white crayons. Because instigating war should immediately quell dissent and shut up any criticisms of the government, and illegal clandestine operations always deserve priority over truth.

President Bush actually believes this stuff.

Meanwhile, the only thing we've tipped off to the terrorists is that our own government is so willing and capable of stripping us of the freedom and quality of life we're used to that running a plane into another building isn't even necessary any longer.

What's shocked me most about this whole ordeal is how little I've come to care about it. A friend alerted me to the story on Friday and I've read dozens of pieces about how Bush and the Times have dismantled another core American liberty but it's hard to get worked up over it. Even though Bush is counting on that kind of apathy, I just can't work myself into a lather.

Why? Because it is just another criminal enterprise. I've become so jaded over the past few years that nothing surprises me anymore. The usual suspects — myself included — express disdain and indignation but nothing happens. Nothing happens.

When will we as a nation reach a point where we will punish a President that commits a crime? When will the vast readership and intelligentsia boycott publications that schill for our corrupt dictatorship? Since 2003 we've committed over 2,000 of our own men and women to death over a lie. We've killed tens of thousands of Iraqis in pursuit of a lie. Our elections have been commandeered by crooked vote tabulators. Our papers are nothing more than propaganda.

The hopelessness of watching all of these things happen and nothing — not even an impeachment charge — coming of it is maddening. This wiretap fiasco should have dominated the headlines last November instead of another phony Osama bin Laden tape. This story would have crippled Bush's re-election bid. Shocking that it didn't.

Do you get it? Sitting on our hands with a look of shock on our face accomplishes nothing. Feel helpless? Start with vocalizing the strong undercurrent of outrage that's within us all. I'm sharing this with you in the hopes that you'll share with others. We need to start talking about it to friends and coworkers.

Trust me, you're not alone. Something needs to change. Soon.

In the meantime, somebody pass me a bottle. I need to write me some funny.