Only in America

The coming years, like those of the present and the past, will see the continued spewing of fictionalized propaganda designed to manipulate the fears, hatreds, xenophobia and nationalistic tendencies of the population. The level of control over the masses and power over the nation in the years after 9/11 by corporatists intent on hijacking the country became, to them, a rousing success, thanks to the intense levels of fear and hatred engendered by the horrific events of that day. In the span of a few infamous days the corporatists had unleashed massive psychological warfare upon us, its effects still lingering in the minds of millions. Suddenly, those in power had become the puppeteers of the citizenry, free to manage us as they saw fit, our fragile and damaged psychologies traumatized, our thinking, human minds replaced by our more primitive, mammalian instincts and behaviors. An entire nation had succumbed, thanks to television, to images and emotions no people had ever witnessed, repeated over and over and over again. The making of America’s new enemy had begun.

More on the flip.

We need to ask ourselves one essential question.  Are we really living in a Democracy that is deserving of that noble title?  

When machines are devised by corporations and used by our government that can be purposefully hacked without a trace to alter the Democratic process, are we living in a true Democracy?  The Diebold Corporation doesn't make mistakes like that by accident.  Let us not forget that they are the ones who make the ATM machines that you get your pocket money out of.  Can you imagine?

When your President begins a campaign of torture against his enemies, is he living by the principles set forth by our Founding Fathers?  You can sugar coat this one as much as you like, but the Vietnamese torturing our boys in Vietnam was wrong - even in war.  Just like it was wrong for our government to authorize and implement these evil tactics in this pseudo-war.

Ann Coulter's latest column implies that a legally-conducted New York Times investigation is equivalent to the illegal spying conducted by Bush, libels Frank Rich, advocates the use of torture and genocide, and makes racist statements about Arabs and Asians:

...I have difficulty ginning up much interest in [Bush's criminal activities] inasmuch as I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East...

There are no Japanese internment camps today. (Although the no-limit blackjack section at Caesar's Palace on a Saturday night comes pretty close.)

Someone needs to tell Coulter that Israel is in the Middle East... unless she wants Israel hit by daisy cutters, in which case we can add anti-Semitism to her ever-growing list of abhorrent character flaws.

All in all, business as usual for the immoral, intellectually bankrupt, treasonous elitist. Let's hope the next pie that hits her in the face contains anthrax.

This and other articles on propaganda are available at Mind Your Noodle

In an in-depth investigation by Andrew Buncombe this weekend, a link was discovered between the Lincoln Group and the intense propaganda smear campaign that sunk John Kerry's bid for presidential election.  

No wonder it's getting more difficult to find "facts." It's become a full-time job for many citizens, organizations, agencies, and online journalists just to record reality these days--before it turns into "re-written history."

Even our premiere media outlet, which purports to feature government officials speaking in their own words, has been Bushwhacked.  Specifically, we're talking about the Washington Journal and FAIR's recent report on the balanced coverage.

Washington Journal's guest list, tabulating all 663 guests who appeared on the show in the six-month period from November 1, 2004 to April 30, 2005. FAIR examined the guest lists and categorized the participants by gender, ethnicity, party affiliation (if any) and occupation. Interestingly enough, the study also looked at the think tanks most prominently represented on the show.

According to FAIR, here are the facts:

Of the partisan guests, Republicans outnumbered Democrats nearly two to one (134 to 70). Not a single representative of a third party appeared during the study period.

People of color made up only 15 percent of Washington Journal's guestlist (100 out of 663). People of African and Asian heritage accounted for 4 percent each, while those of Middle Eastern and Latin American descent represented 3 percent each. No Native Americans were identifiable during the six months studied.

Male guests outnumbered women by four to one, at 80 percent to 20 percent. Moreover, 69 percent of guests were white males, while just 3 percent were women of color.

Journalists accounted for nearly a third of all guests (32 percent), the largest single occupational group on the guestlist. Of opinion journalists, 32 were right-of-center while only 19 were left-of-center.

Citizen-based organizations and public interest groups accounted for just 9 percent of total guests.

President Bush has admitted to authorizing the NSA to spy on American citizens.  But many are asking why.  He already had powers to run emergency wire taps for a period of 72 hours before getting secret court authority.

Jason Galde explains why at Mind Your Noodle

This and many other articles on propaganda are available at Mind Your Noodle

Many would argue that spying on Americans is a necessary evil when faced with threats of terrorism.  However, when we dissect that theory, it becomes terrifyingly evident that we are cutting off our own nose to spite the face.  By removing the Constitutional rights we enjoy, including our right to privacy, we are essentially unraveling the fabric of our nation and everything that it stands for.

This and other articles on propaganda are available at Mind Your Noodle

On Monday, December 5th, 2005 Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave a speech at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced Studies.

The goal of this speech was rather direct, especially for Rumsfeld, who often requires an interpreter so that the rest of us can understand what he's really saying most of the time.  Rumsfeld broke from character a little to ensure the public that things in Iraq are going great, despite the negative poll numbers caused by all the "pessimistic... elites in our country."

Have you ever wondered why the word 'liberal' has developed into a naughty word these days?  Find out why at "Training the Beast" by Jason Galde.

This and other articles on propaganda are available at Mind Your Noodle

George Bush gave a speech yesterday at the Park Hyatt in Pennsylvania, as part of his four part series designed to muster support for his failures in Iraq.  It was smart, well written (by someone clever) and far more subtle and persuasive than any of his previous attempts.  He gets two propaganda thumbs up for this masterpiece.

Now let us dissect some of it, in order to understand a few of the techniques he utilized to mold our minds into something that he can be proud to call his own...

Take a look at how Rumsfeld uses statistical propaganda to twist the truth.  In an essay entitled "We Can See Clearly Now", essential spin techniques are broken down so that you can understand the dynamics of Rumsfeld's unique choice of language.

www.MindYourNoodle.com

NOW!!  If you hurry, you can probably pick up your name tag and get to your seat before The Man comes in.

Oh, wait. Tickets have been sold out since December 8th.  Guess we'll have to wait for the transcript on the website.

Ah well, so many indictments, so many crimes, so little time.

Using the same PR tactics Bush is using to try to turn the tide in his falling poll numbers, Ken Lay is addressing the nonprofit (do these guys even understand that term?) group, the Houston Forum as I write this.

The web site for this group is all ready to post Lay's speech and remarks as soon as it concludes today.  While the group claims to invite famous speakers on a variety of topics, previous speakers include the following:  John McCain (who was there yesterday), Michael Chertoff, George H. W. Bush, Jim Baker, Condi Rice, Tommy Franks, Rudi Guiliani, Clarence Thomas, and, well, you get the picture.  A few others, like Jane Goodall and George Foreman also appear.

Once again, Ann (Plagiarist) Coulter, you expose yourself as a hate-filled propagandist whose physical emaciation is matched only by your intellectual anemia.

"It probably goes without saying that it is extraordinary for criminal charges to be thrown out by a judge before any jury ever hears the evidence. For the judge to dismiss an indictment before trial, it means he concluded that -- even if the jury finds everything Ronnie Earle alleges to be true -- no crime was committed."

Wow, Ann... now we know why you're so horrifically thin: You're constantly overreaching -- and burning-off way too many calories stretching the truth. The conspiracy charge wasn't thrown out because it was baseless, it was thrown out on a technicality:

...DeLay lawyer Dick DeGuerin argued that one of the charges -- conspiracy to violate the Texas election code -- did not even take effect until September 2003, a year after the alleged offenses occurred.

Prosecutors, however, said the crime of conspiracy was already on the books and could be applied to the election code even though such uses were not explicitly in state law at the time.

"Obviously, this was a huge victory for DeLay..."

Sure, it's a HUGE victory ... if you discount the fact that one charge was thrown out on a technicality while the more serious charge of money laundering stands, and the fact that the still-indicted DeLay is unable to return to his House post, and the fact that his party is looking to replace him, and the fact that he has to spend time and money to defend himself against criminal charges, and the fact that the latest legal development reminded voters that he's in trouble.

What are you waiting for, Annie? Break out the champagne!

In an effort to take everybody's mind off how crappy the actual war is going in Iraq, Bush is speechifying today about how terrific the violence-ridden country's economy is.

All riiiighty then.

If bombed-out infrastructure, a citizenry terrorized by bombs in the marketplace (and the mosque and on residential streets), and waning oil production equals a climate conducive to economic growth, I need to re-up for a course in Economics 101.

From the AP's overview of Bush's oratory, we have this:

The administration has cited increases in Iraq's gross domestic product, work to boost oil production, the creation of new businesses and an explosion of cell phones as evidence of economic progress.

(As an aside, does anyone else consider the "explosion of cell phones" a poor choice of words?)

The article goes on to point out:

According to the White House strategy report, oil production increased last year to 2.25 million barrels a day from an average of 1.58 million barrels a day the year before.

Some Iraqi analysts in Washington say, however, it's misleading to use the 2003 figure of 1.58 million barrels because Iraqi oil production was dramatically curtailed that year, which included the U.S.-led invasion and its aftermath. They favor using a baseline figure of about 2 million barrels a day, which means oil production, curbed by decaying infrastructure and frequent militant attacks on pipelines and refineries, has remained flat.

The Bush Junta goosed Dubya's poll numbers with phony terror-alerts, it paid pundits to lie, and it funded illegal propaganda videos... But would it go so far as to release stories about captures and killings of Al Qaeda leaders who aren't actually leaders in order to push stories about American fatalities off the radar?

Sure looks that way.