One of Governor Pat Quinn's favorite lines is "I speak truth to power." He uses it almost all the time, and has for years.

It appears to be a verbal tic. Quinn has grown so accustomed to saying it for so long that he can't stop himself. He said it once while explaining how he would pitch his income-tax-hike plan to average voters.

The governor has several of these verbal tics. He talks about the "chirpers on the sidelines," and how there is always "more than one way to get to Heaven." His favorite little phrase for his Democratic primary opponent Dan Hynes is "ankle biter."

Quinn's constant use of those little phrases, but particularly his "truth to power" line, gives us a window into how he thinks. It's no surprise. He's been a populist forever.

The "truth to power" phrase also defines how the media has covered Quinn throughout his career. The unwavering story line is that Quinn is the outsider, the rock thrower, the lone voice in the wilderness shouting for the common man.

1. Former FBI Translator and Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds has exposed, among many other disturbing revelations, that Osama bin Laden and "Al Qaeda" (which simply means "the base") were working with government intelligence operatives right up until the morning of 9/11 (and perhaps beyond):

http://amconmag.com/article/2009/nov/01/00006/

2. The 9/11 Commission Report has been exposed as almost entirely untrue by John Farmer, the Dean of Rutgers School of Law--Newark who served as Senior Counsel to the Commission:

http://media-newswire.com/release_1098894.html

3. No reasonably intelligent and rational individual could possibly watch the full two hours of this video and still honestly believe everything the American government has told its citizens about the events of 11 September 2001:

http://www.ae911truth.org/flashmov11.htm

4. The 9/11 Truth Movement ebbs and flows ... losing credibility with each Alex Fox media stunt and every (planted?) Icke-ish nut claiming alien lizard people or Apocalyptic demons are to blame ... then regaining momentum whenever one more brave citizen opens their mind to the harsh facts and horrible ramifications of what the truth might be, and demands an unbridled investigation knowing they will be called "kook" or "communist" by scared Sheeple seeking to maintain the bliss of ignorance. This will go on, ad nauseam and forever, until the Truth of 9/11 is fully investigated and openly exposed.

So again I ask, why is the mainstream media not demanding the truth about 9/11?

Whatever happened to investigative journalism?

Bruce Arnold
Miami Beach, Florida

The scandal surrounding the Iowa's film-tax-credit program was a hot topic at a meeting this week of the legislature's Government Oversight Committee, with lawmakers and the media eager to get answers but leadership saying committee discussion now could impede the investigation.

"If the leadership was different, we'd be taking it up today," said Representative Ralph Watts (R-Adel).

Representative Vicki Lensing (D-Iowa City), co-chair of the Government Oversight Committee, said this isn't a political issue and agreed that the panel has a responsibility to taxpayers and the legislature to find out what happened.

America is starting to pay too great a price for the increased security since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and anger has become too much a part of public life, retired General Colin Powell said at a motivational seminar Thursday attended by approximately 15,000 people in downtown Des Moines.

"We are starting to pay too much for our security," said Powell, a four-star general, former U.S. secretary of state, and former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "Foreign students who normally come to our universities are not coming. It's too hard to get a visa ... so we are losing this contact with the rest of the world. We are losing money, also."