Today is the 7th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Bet you won’t hear the Tea Tantrum people raving about how many trillions and trillions of dollars have been spent there. Well, at least in Iraq and Afghanistan they have free, universal health care paid for by US tax payer dollars. The irony is, there it is called ‘Democracy’ here the right condemns it as ‘Socialism’ (without understanding what either of those words mean).
For all the right wing idiots who keep banging on about how the snow storms of late are ‘proof’ that Global Warming doesn’t exist, here is a bit of science.
All this frenzied pointing to snowfall as proof that global warming is a hoax has only, if anything, demonstrated the slight, one-dimensional thinking being done by the parties who are desperate to discredit climate change and/or exploit for political gain its apparent nonexistence in the face of cold weather events.
I have been reflecting recently on all of the manufactured outrage, fanned on by the right wing press and shout radio: gun toting jackasses at town hall meetings, scripted shouting at same, the ‘controversy’ over the President of the United States addressing school children and impressing on them the value of getting an education and working hard (subversive, I know).
Friday was the eighth anniversary of 9/11 and I remember where I was and what I was doing when that horror unfolded (a cliche I know, but true, nonetheless). The intersection of these two thoughts jarred me to a frightening realization — what if Obama had been President when the 9/11 attacks happened?
I don’t think I can fully comprehend or imagine the overdrive that the media hate machine would shift into – however, I am confident that these would be the foundations of the ‘coverage’:
Accusations that ‘obviously’ the closet Muslim/Socialist/Communist/etc was in cahoots with the terrorists and allowed this to happen. I mean, his middle hame is Hussein after all!
The searing depths that racist extremist would go to blame all minorities and hold this up as proof of their ‘inferiority’ (‘cuz it never would have happened with a white man in office’).
The howls from the roof tops that this is proof that Democrats can’t protect the country and that they are to blame for the attack. Contrast this with the free pass that the chickenhawk Republicans received.
The cries that would accompany any follow up action he would take: if he acted aggressively, it would be labeled as a ‘wag the dog’ effort to deflect attention; if he chose a diplomatic response, ha!, further proof that he is just protecting his ‘friends’ the terrorists. And it would just spiral down from there.
I am sickened just thinking of how divisive an issue this would be hyped into; I am fairly confident that there would be open violence and destruction as the right wing hate machine would fan and even encourage that people take to the street and do their thuggish bidding for them.
So, yes, I am fairly confident that the softball whitewash that Bush got from the media would be turned on it’s head and amplified beyond control had a Democrat been in office. Even more so, if it was the first mixed-race president. Sad that this is the state of the ‘media’ in the US.
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dubious, history, news, politics, predictions, racism
What a brilliant article. Someone is finally pointing out that, in America, the rich are more wealthy that they have ever been, and paying less taxes on top of it. And all of this over the top spin that the richest one percent are unduly having to support health care is just a load of bollocks — the figure in question is not even nine tenths of one percent of the Bush tax cuts. And we have all witnessed the job (mythical) job creation that goes on when you give more money to the ultra wealthy during the Bush regime (ie NONE).
According to government figures, 1-percenters’ share of America’s total income is the highest it’s been since 1929, and their tax rates are the lowest they’ve faced in two decades. Through bonuses, many 1-percenters will profit from the $23 trillion in bailout largesse the Treasury Department now says could be headed to financial firms. And, most of them benefit from IRS decisions to reduce millionaire audits and collect zero taxes from the majority of major corporations.
[Emphasis added]
The article concludes with a simple message that I have found is completely lost on the right (particularly those who profess to be very religious):
For his part, Obama has responded with characteristic coolness — and a powerful counterstrike. “No, it’s not punishing the rich,” he said. “If I can afford to do a little bit more so that a whole bunch of families out there have a little more security, when I already have security, that’s part of being a community.”
Why would any reputable company put an easily accessible button to delete audit logs from an electronic voting machine? I think I just answered my own question by assuming that they are reputable.
I am fairly certain that this function doesn’t exist on the ATM machines that they manufacture. It would seem that Diebold considers cash more important than votes. I guess it also helped the head of Diebold, Walden O’Dell, deliver on his (in)famous promise to “helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president [Bush] next year.”
“Deletion of the records in either log would make it impossible to monitor operator access to GEMS or to reconstruct the sequence of operator access, defeating the purpose of [federal guidelines] that GEMS version 1.18.19 was required to adhere to.”
Under guidelines established by the Federal Election Commission in 1990, tabulation software used in all US elections must automatically create and permanently retain electronic audit logs of important system events while tallying votes. The guidelines state they are intended to provide a “concrete, indestructible archival record of all system activity” and are “essential for public confidence in the accuracy of the tally.”
I think that the proposed truth and reconciliation commission has a lot of work ahead of it.
Trying to keep these forays into politics to a minimum but this is one that really struck me last night watching McCain and Obama debate:
Someone needs to sit John McCain down and explain to him that no matter what he does, he can’t ‘win’ the Vietnam War by fighting in Iraq/Iran. It just isn’t going to happen.
Who is surprised that the Bush Regime was feeding political talking points to Fox News? No one who was paying the least bit of attention.
And thanks to our impotent press in the US, they are only now (7+ years after the fact) starting to report on the growing, festering pit of scandal and illegal activity of the W regime.
Still to come: the swift-boating of Barack Obama and whatever October surprise the republicans have planned (martial law? attack on Iran?).
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dubious, politics, press, propaganda, suckage
