ABlairican Pie
01-28-2006, 06:40 PM
January 21, 2006
Wag the Osama
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
Isn't it a mighty big coincidence that Osama returns for a bizarre appearance just as Bush is on the ropes for illegal spying on Americans -- and as Karl Rove announces that he is going to use fear again to maintain one-party dictatorial control over America in the fall elections?
Not that we are skeptical or anything, but on top of that, the White House media echo chamber used the alleged and ludicrous "negotiate or I will attack" video to vilify Dems for being weak in the war on terror and "aiding" the "enemy."
Of course, it was Bush who said a few years ago, he would get Osama dead or alive -- and then after failing to do so said that Osama didn't matter. It wasn't long after that that he told NBC's Matt Lauer that he didn't think we could win the war on terror. (We're not sure if he was talking about the bad guys or his war of terrorizing Americans, but we think he meant the war against the bad guys.)
But the Republicans are all attack and no truth. Something the Democratic leadership just can't absorb, so the GOP junkyard dogs project George's short fallings (too numerous to count) on the dreaded "liberal enemy." This is called scapegoating.
It is the eternal tool of the demagogue. Ann Coulter is both the caricature and the real epitome of the strategy. In essence, it relies on making anyone who disagrees with our Il Duce as the enemy.
The Jews in Europe experienced this, and yes the comparison is appropriate. We don't apologize for it. Just read Mein Kampf. You make your opposition (or a "perceived" opposition) into something to be so dreaded that they pose a threat to the national interest and need to be suppressed.
Yes, the Jews in Germany thought, "It can't happen to us, not here in a civilized nation." But what is civilized about the gulag of torture centers that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have set up? It's a short leap from "them" being tortured to anyone who opposes the "supreme ruler."
So paid propagandists like Sean Hannity employ the Goebbels techniques of equating terrorism with Republican political opponents. The very title of a recent Hannity propaganda tome reveals this strategy: "Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism." Because evil, in the right wing extremist world, is both terrorism and liberalism.
As a blurb for "Deliver Us from Evil" claims, "he [Hannity] reveals why the Democrats imploded and the president prevailed-while urging Americans to stay the course and remain vigilant about the twin dangers of terrorism abroad and liberalism at home."
Hannity is employing the "mirroring" linguistic techniques that George Bush's handlers had him use to sell the Iraq War by placing the phrase "9/11" and Saddam Hussein together in as many sentences and contexts as possible. In Hannity's case, the goal is to put terrorism and liberalism in the same category of evil. Liberals are the enemy because they endanger America, he argues.
This is very dangerous territory, which the Democrats are intimidated by, just as the Weimar Republic fell to the bullying and emotional demagoguery of the brown shirts. Liberals and Democrats who think that this is just some sort of passing lowbrow phenomena are making a critical error. Liberals are being "mirrored" with terrorists as the source of "evil" in America.
You ignore such demagoguery at your peril.
That is what Bush was doing when he said that there are "appropriate forms" of debate on the war -- and "other" forms that aid the terrorists. The latter are any criticisms of his actions. If you say he is committing an illegal act, you are aiding the enemy.
And so it was time to roll out Osama again. To continue his march toward dictatorship, Bush requires Osama . They are, in a way, two adversaries who need each other for political survival among their constituents.
If Bush didn't have Osama, Rove would have invented him.
You can do a lot of things to create great videotape "B" roll, just watch the movie "Wag the Dog."
It's the Bush game plan in a nutshell.
Just repeat after us: Fear, Distraction, Fear, Distraction, Fear, Distraction...
Yes, there's a terrorist threat to our way of life. But there's also a more immediate threat to our Constitution, our democracy and our liberties coming from the White House. In the name of preventing the terrorists from attacking us for our freedoms, Bush is taking them away from us one by one. He is letting the terrorists win. He is betraying America.
Osama has checkmated him.
The real enablers of helping the terrorists achieve their goals of bringing democracy to its knees are in the White House.
And, although memory in a time of 6-hour news cycles is fleeting, it might be worth a little jog of the brain to remember that an alleged Osama tape showed up the Friday before the 2004 presidential election, widely credited with helping George W. Bush gain votes based on the subconscious "fear factor."
Such coincidences have a way of continuing to occur at vitally important moments for the Bush Administration, don't they?
Either Osama wants Bush to stay in power -- and, therefore, Bush is the real choice of the terrorists -- Osama is working in cahoots with the Bush Administration in a sort of a wink and a nod "understanding between enemies" sort of way, or the video was fabricated.
It's one of the three, folks, because Osama is not dumb -- and he knows that the release of any video or audiotape at such times only strengthens Bush's hand to clamp down on freedom and the Constitution domestically (a goal of Al Qaeda according to Bush himself), strengthen the consolidation of Imperial presidential powers, and continue the war in Iraq and the torturing and killing of anyone Bush's crew considers a "non-combatant threat."
And this videotape will be used by the Busheviks to try and bolster their right to illegally wiretap Americans -- and then use that precedent to further break the law and violate the Constitution.
So why would Osama release videos and taperecordings at moments that only help Bush when he is in political need?
Ah, now you understand.
Wag the Osama
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
Isn't it a mighty big coincidence that Osama returns for a bizarre appearance just as Bush is on the ropes for illegal spying on Americans -- and as Karl Rove announces that he is going to use fear again to maintain one-party dictatorial control over America in the fall elections?
Not that we are skeptical or anything, but on top of that, the White House media echo chamber used the alleged and ludicrous "negotiate or I will attack" video to vilify Dems for being weak in the war on terror and "aiding" the "enemy."
Of course, it was Bush who said a few years ago, he would get Osama dead or alive -- and then after failing to do so said that Osama didn't matter. It wasn't long after that that he told NBC's Matt Lauer that he didn't think we could win the war on terror. (We're not sure if he was talking about the bad guys or his war of terrorizing Americans, but we think he meant the war against the bad guys.)
But the Republicans are all attack and no truth. Something the Democratic leadership just can't absorb, so the GOP junkyard dogs project George's short fallings (too numerous to count) on the dreaded "liberal enemy." This is called scapegoating.
It is the eternal tool of the demagogue. Ann Coulter is both the caricature and the real epitome of the strategy. In essence, it relies on making anyone who disagrees with our Il Duce as the enemy.
The Jews in Europe experienced this, and yes the comparison is appropriate. We don't apologize for it. Just read Mein Kampf. You make your opposition (or a "perceived" opposition) into something to be so dreaded that they pose a threat to the national interest and need to be suppressed.
Yes, the Jews in Germany thought, "It can't happen to us, not here in a civilized nation." But what is civilized about the gulag of torture centers that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld have set up? It's a short leap from "them" being tortured to anyone who opposes the "supreme ruler."
So paid propagandists like Sean Hannity employ the Goebbels techniques of equating terrorism with Republican political opponents. The very title of a recent Hannity propaganda tome reveals this strategy: "Deliver Us from Evil: Defeating Terrorism, Despotism, and Liberalism." Because evil, in the right wing extremist world, is both terrorism and liberalism.
As a blurb for "Deliver Us from Evil" claims, "he [Hannity] reveals why the Democrats imploded and the president prevailed-while urging Americans to stay the course and remain vigilant about the twin dangers of terrorism abroad and liberalism at home."
Hannity is employing the "mirroring" linguistic techniques that George Bush's handlers had him use to sell the Iraq War by placing the phrase "9/11" and Saddam Hussein together in as many sentences and contexts as possible. In Hannity's case, the goal is to put terrorism and liberalism in the same category of evil. Liberals are the enemy because they endanger America, he argues.
This is very dangerous territory, which the Democrats are intimidated by, just as the Weimar Republic fell to the bullying and emotional demagoguery of the brown shirts. Liberals and Democrats who think that this is just some sort of passing lowbrow phenomena are making a critical error. Liberals are being "mirrored" with terrorists as the source of "evil" in America.
You ignore such demagoguery at your peril.
That is what Bush was doing when he said that there are "appropriate forms" of debate on the war -- and "other" forms that aid the terrorists. The latter are any criticisms of his actions. If you say he is committing an illegal act, you are aiding the enemy.
And so it was time to roll out Osama again. To continue his march toward dictatorship, Bush requires Osama . They are, in a way, two adversaries who need each other for political survival among their constituents.
If Bush didn't have Osama, Rove would have invented him.
You can do a lot of things to create great videotape "B" roll, just watch the movie "Wag the Dog."
It's the Bush game plan in a nutshell.
Just repeat after us: Fear, Distraction, Fear, Distraction, Fear, Distraction...
Yes, there's a terrorist threat to our way of life. But there's also a more immediate threat to our Constitution, our democracy and our liberties coming from the White House. In the name of preventing the terrorists from attacking us for our freedoms, Bush is taking them away from us one by one. He is letting the terrorists win. He is betraying America.
Osama has checkmated him.
The real enablers of helping the terrorists achieve their goals of bringing democracy to its knees are in the White House.
And, although memory in a time of 6-hour news cycles is fleeting, it might be worth a little jog of the brain to remember that an alleged Osama tape showed up the Friday before the 2004 presidential election, widely credited with helping George W. Bush gain votes based on the subconscious "fear factor."
Such coincidences have a way of continuing to occur at vitally important moments for the Bush Administration, don't they?
Either Osama wants Bush to stay in power -- and, therefore, Bush is the real choice of the terrorists -- Osama is working in cahoots with the Bush Administration in a sort of a wink and a nod "understanding between enemies" sort of way, or the video was fabricated.
It's one of the three, folks, because Osama is not dumb -- and he knows that the release of any video or audiotape at such times only strengthens Bush's hand to clamp down on freedom and the Constitution domestically (a goal of Al Qaeda according to Bush himself), strengthen the consolidation of Imperial presidential powers, and continue the war in Iraq and the torturing and killing of anyone Bush's crew considers a "non-combatant threat."
And this videotape will be used by the Busheviks to try and bolster their right to illegally wiretap Americans -- and then use that precedent to further break the law and violate the Constitution.
So why would Osama release videos and taperecordings at moments that only help Bush when he is in political need?
Ah, now you understand.