Ed Garvey, former Wisconsin union leader and candidate for Governor is upset. He’s worried about the future of democracy. He believes that “action must be taken if we hope to preserve democracy”.

And what would that action be? Defeating the Islamofascist enemies of democracy and all that we hold dear? Oh no, in order to preserve democracy the media should “reform” itself to be more critical of the government. Garvey says:

Think, for example, of the incredible decision of the Bush administration to "out" Ahmad Chalabi last week. This country invaded Iraq based on intelligence that was "stove-piped" to the top from Chalabi and his ilk. Our reputation in the world irreparably damaged for generations to come, 800 dead American soldiers, 6,000 dead Iraqis, $115 billion spent thus far, thousands of injured servicemen and women, all based on the intelligence of the neo-conservatives' favorite hero.

Chalabi conned the cons. Now we find out he was a tool of the Iranians, Iraq's enemy, feeding us false intelligence to accomplish just what happened. We invaded Iraq and got rid of Iran's No. 1 enemy, Saddam Hussein.

Clever stuff but a heavy price for our young men and women in uniform to pay for the stupidity of Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.

This is a new one. So the Neocons are tools of Iran? Wow, doesn’t he really mean Israel? I also like how Garvey talks about Iraq solely in terms of loss. No mention of saving millions from the yoke of tyranny. No mention of disrupting the flow of dollars to terrorists organizations. No mention of the chance to build a functioning democracy as an shining example to the rest of the Middle East. Iran had absolutely no interest in Hussein’s overthrow. With the U.S. in Iraq, Iranians are further emboldened in their quest for reforms. If Garvey knew anything about the Neocons other than how to call them names, he’d understand that one of our goals in the Middle East is to cause instability. What 9/11 proved is that we could no longer live in the status quo, post-Cold War world. Things need to change in order to keep Americans safe.

Garvey compains about the lack of digging into this story. He questions why the media aren’t covering it more. In this specific case, I don’t know why. But the media is doing a terrible job in Iraq. There’s no news about reconstruction projects throughout the country. No news about all the children who’ve been able to go back to school. No news about the discovery of real, live weapons of mass destruction and finally, no news about the UN Oil for Food scandal which gives a simple, sickening explanation for the reluctance of some of our European “allies” and the UN to join the fight in Iraq.

So what’s the problem? For me, and many, many Americans, the problem is that our ultra-liberal media is more interesting in bringing down the Bush administration than in reporting the truth. But, in Garvey’s mind the problem is, you guessed it, media consolidation.

According to Garvey, groupthink has invaded the media and a liberal just can’t get a fair shake anymore. Of course, the recent data released by Pew Research completely refutes this idea. The media is unfailingly to the left of regular Americans. Media research has shown time and again this philosophical difference produces reporting that is biased to the left.

Accordingly, what does Garvey think is the most important thing we can do to stop monopolization of the media? Wait for it: Full public financing of political campaigns.

That’s right, good people. We, the taxpayers, should foot the entire bill for elections. John Kerry is already trying to exploit the current system. Now, I’m not a believer in slippery slopes, but I do believe that when government starts to pay for something, there’s a line of people ready to gouge them. Politicians already suck enough blood, they don’t need anymore. What we all need in some intellectual garlic to continue to fight back against stupid editorials like this one.