"Tom Parker sits at a desk in front of an upside down American flag. It’s hung that way deliberately. “This country is in dire distress,” he says. Parker wears a camouflage jacket and reads out loud from The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History. His desk is covered in piles of papers, books, newspaper clippings, a telephone and a display that depicts stone tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments that reads: “WE BELIEVE IN GOD’S LAWS!” His King James version of the Bible stands next to the placard; a small American flag is affixed to the cover, with a reference to 2 Chronicles 7:14 and the words “America Bless God.” On the television on the other side of the room, the American flag waves in the wind, and in the background a man sings “The Star-Spangled Banner.” It’s the beginning of Parker’s two-hour weekly television program, Freedom Forum. Parker’s worldview can’t be pigeonholed as either Democrat or Republican. Off camera, he says, “I don’t equate any difference between the two. We don’t have a two-party system. We have two wings of the same party. I call them the Welfare-Fascist party.” Parker says it’s his duty to act as the people’s watchman, as set forth in the Old Testament words of Ezekiel 33:6: “But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.” Cameraman Hartwell Broussard sheds further light on the show’s primary objective. “It’s because we’ve turned away from God that we’re losing all of our rights from God,” he says. To illustrate his point, he cites Internet pornography, Jerry Springer and beer drinking at sporting events. People don’t read the Constitution or the Bible anymore, he adds. Parker chimes in, “The Constitution won’t work unless we’re both moral and educated.” Parker’s two-man crew consists of Broussard and producer Richard Phelps. Broussard has a hard time hearing, and Phelps is legally blind. “We have the only physically-impaired crew — a producer who can’t see and a cameraman who can’t hear. That’s what AOC stands for — Amateurs on Camera,” Parker says with a laugh. But when Parker is on camera, live on the air, the jokes stop. He welcomes his viewers to the program and leads the show off with a prayer. Parker began airing his show on AOC after the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City. “When they started calling militia-types right-wing racists and swine, I got incensed,” he says. The show’s mission, he says, is to inform viewers about issues distorted by the media or ignored completely. “But the overall goal is to restore the constitutional government to this country.” Every week, live on Wednesday nights from 9 p.m.-11 p.m., Parker ticks off a list of reasons why the United States of America is headed to hell in a hand basket — including abortion, Lafayette city-parish government and council, judges as “federal dictators in black robes,” 501c3 non- profit corporations, faith-based initiatives, no-bid federal contracts and “so-called evangelical Christians.” He also believes that on Sept. 11, 2001, a cruise missile, not an airplane, struck the Pentagon, and two Air Force tanker planes, not passenger planes, collided with the World Trade Center. As he does with all of his shows, Parker spends a good deal of this program making his worldview known. He then takes calls from viewers, most of whom agree with him. He eventually turns his attention to Lafayette Utilities System’s proposed fiber optics plan. “That rankles my libertarian bones to the marrow,” he says. And when viewer “Emile” calls in, arguing with Parker and claiming that he’s distorting the truth about the fiber plan, the discussion becomes heated, and Parker makes his basic opposition known. “The point is that government has no business in business … I don’t trust government. I don’t trust them at any level.” As the first hour of the show winds down and then goes off the air, Emile and the watchman continue their heated phone conversation off-camera." (Story by: R. Reese Fuller)