Monday, January 31, 2005

 

The Coming Wars

A must read in the New Yorker by Seymour Hersh. As usual, when someone tells the truth, the slime machine cranks up into full character assassination mode. You can tell just how accurate the story is by the level of nastiness coming from the administration and their press lackeys.

Sunday, January 30, 2005

 

Destroy The Propaganda Machine

Why am I harping on media reform? Robert Parry at Consortium News draws a chilling picture of the corruption of our information sources. It didn't start with Armstrong Williams accepting Bush administration payola to hype their programs. It certainly doesn't end there. There has been a systematic disinformation campaign underway to push the right wing agenda for a long time now. These techniques were developed during the cold war, and are now being used on the American public. Anyone who grew up during the cold war period in the U.S. remembers hearing about the communist propaganda machine, Pravda, Tass, etc. "Those poor Russians, the only news they get has been edited and sanitized to support the government viewpoint." Hmm, sounds familiar doesn't it? The difference is, the Soviets were clumsy and amateurish compared to the modern day propagandists in corporate ruled America. The people in the Eastern Bloc countries probably had a pretty good idea of just how full of crap their newscasters and journalists were. Nowadays, in our own country, people don't even feel the needle as the poison goes in. Read the article.

 

Hitting the brakes on media consolidation.

From the NY Times:
"Media companies hoping to expand their television station holdings and to own both TV stations and newspapers in the same markets suffered a setback yesterday when the Bush administration decided to abandon its challenge to a ruling that blocked the relaxation of ownership rules."

Sounds like a small victory, but they'll be back again to try and expand the grip of the media borg when public attention has drifted elsewhere. Besides, it's already gone too far and needs to be reversed.
I really love this line of bull:
[Michael Powell] "... has said that the ownership restrictions are outdated because of technological changes, like the Internet and cable and satellite television that offer viewers hundreds of channels. He maintained that the increased concentration would not hurt competition."

How many of those hundreds of channels are owned by the same handful of companies?

Friday, January 28, 2005

 

Wingnut porno

Digby tells of a lame joke letter making the rounds concerning torture, written on a blog maintained by U.S. career diplomats
(the poor, persecuted Republican variety).
It's good to know we have such diplomatic people working for us.
Meanwhile, The Crackpot Oracle has obtained a real Defense Dept. memo*, not some crass right wing liberal bashing fantasy.

INTERNAL MEMO CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET
From The Desk of Donald Rumsfeld:
We’ve been getting lots of letters from citizens whining about the fact that wounded servicemen in military hospitals are being forced to pay for their own meals, that our troops don’t have the proper equipment, the pay is too low, the death benefit too meager, etc. Lets face it, there’s not enough money for these things, and we certainly can’t raise taxes on our buddies in the corporate world, not if we want those plum boardroom gigs when we leave office. We’re also taking a lot of heat for the torture photos.
I think I’ve come up with a fundraising solution, though. Take the lemons and make lemonade!
Here’s the concept: Interrogators gone wild! Buy the videos, support the troops!
I’ve got a vault full of hidden camera torture videos. Instead of hiding them, let’s sell them on the internets!
(That pervert Bill O’Reilly has already been bugging me for a copy of “
the Dominatrix Interrogators”).
I will admit, some of these clips are pretty hot. Rev. James Dobson has agreed to post ads for them on his website. After all, our cause is righteous, and the victims are heathens anyway. No guilt, it’s a charitable cause, and the best part is, anyone who complains about these videos instead of buying them can be accused of literally "not supporting the troops" .

Let me know what you think.
Don Rumsfeld


*satire, for all you literal minded morons

Friday, January 14, 2005

 

Georgie hearts Osama

Somebody's engaging in a "sensitive" war on terror.
"I remember when I talked about Osama bin Laden, I said we're going to get him dead or alive. I guess it's not the most diplomatic of language," Bush said. (Thu Jan 13, 2005)
Remember what Cheney said?
Thursday, August 12, 2004
DAYTON, Ohio (CNN) -- Drawing derisive chuckles from the crowd, Vice President Dick Cheney Thursday blasted Sen. John Kerry for a remark the Democratic presidential candidate made last week about fighting a "more sensitive war on terror" if elected.

Friday, January 07, 2005

 

Proud Yet?

Dear Bush voters: What's that gnawing at your conscience late at night?
You know what I'm talking about, when the daily din and blather has been shut off, the echoes of Rush, Sean, Ann, etc. have faded into the background, the spoonfed outrage has been digested and your soul feels hungry still, does the doubt rumble up from your emptiness? Whispers in the dark...What if the war is really just a deadly lie? What if it really is torture they've been doing over there, not fraternity pranks like Rush said? What if it was me, just somebody out scrounging food for his family caught by mistake, forced into naked humiliation, unbearable pain and fear. Fear that he will never see his wife or children again, forced to dig his own grave, sure this is the end, then hearing the click of the empty rifle and the laughter as his insides empty out from the terror. What if they knew, those people in the White House, what if they ORDERED IT? No, it can't be. Oh well, can't sleep now, hmm, let's see what's on, I think they rerun the Scarborough report at this hour. Thank God for Joe, all you hear from libruls is the bad news anyway...
Update (1/8): My apologies for the above post. How silly of me to assume that you might have a conscience, especially when the people being abused and slaughtered don't look at all like you.

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