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Hard Rain Journal: 7 More Nails that the US Mainstream News Media Won't Pound into GOP's Coffin; False "Daddy" Meme Must Be Perpetuated At All Cost
By Richard Power
You have heard, ad nauseam, the false meme that the US electorate feels "safer" under the leadership of the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party, and the Bush-Cheney regime in particular.
I say it is a false meme for two reasons: 1) the US electorate did not choose Bush-Cheney in 2000 or 2004, and 2) US national security has been shredded and smoke (from within) since this illegitimate regime was installed in 2000, and the overwhelming evidence is not lost on the man and woman in the streets.
Of course, the US mainstream news media will divert your attention as best it can; after all, the meme has to stay alive in order to attempt to shoe horn Giuliani, or Romney, or whoever, into the Oval Office.
One of the US mainstream news media's most effective ways to avoid debunking this and other false memes (like the one that says "the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party stands for fiscal responsibility and less government") is by simply not providing context or continuity. If you can just report a damning story and then drop it, you do less damage than if you are compelled to aggregate such stories when they relate to the same subject matter, e.g., US national security.
Here are seven nails that the US mainstream news media refuses to pound into the political coffin of the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party (and its most exemplary expression, i.e., the Bush-Cheney regime) -- as if it isn't enough that Bin Laden and Zawahiri are still alive, and nuclear-tipped Pakistan could fall into the hands of their allies.
Nail #1: For the sake of domestic political damage control, Bush-Cheney hurt US intelligence efforts to thwart the Iranian quest for nuclear weapons:
In one of his recent (and increasingly delusional) sound-bytes, Bush claims that the danger of Iran developing nuclear weapons is so great that it could lead to WW III. And yet, he allowed his political hit-men to take out one of this country's secret agents -- a woman assigned to thwart that very danger -- in retribution for her husband's outspoken dissent on the false premises with which Bush launched the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
In her first interview since Bush administration officials outed her as a covert CIA agent, Valerie Plame Wilson reveals to CBS 60 Minutes that she was involved in preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapon. In the interview to be aired this Sunday, CBS reports that she was “involved in one highly classified mission to deliver fake nuclear weapons blueprints to Tehran.” Think Progress, 10-20-07
Nail #2: Even the military-industrial complex itself is moving away from these people, afraid that their delusional policies will end up doing irreparable harm to the conduct of business:
The US arms industry is backing Hillary Clinton for President and has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party. Mrs Clinton has also emerged as Wall Street’s favourite. Investment bankers have opened their wallets in unprecedented numbers for the New York senator over the past three months ... An analysis of campaign contributions shows senior defence industry employees are pouring money into her war chest in the belief that their generosity will be repaid many times over with future defence contracts. Independent, 10-19-07
Nail #3: US Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez (Ret.), who preceded Casey and Petraeus as the leader of "coalition forces" has joined the swelling ranks of those commanders who both served on the ground in Iraq and have spoken out -- in clear and damning terms -- against what is going on there:
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded U.S. forces in Iraq for the first year of the occupation, blamed “incompetence” by President George W. Bush’s national security team for creating a “nightmare” that could last far into the future. ...
“There has been a glaring, unfortunate display of incompetence in strategic leadership among our national leaders,” Sanchez said. “They have unquestionably been derelict in the performance of their duty. In my profession, these types of leaders would be immediately relieved or court-martialed.” ...
“The administration, Congress and the entire inter-agency [structure], especially the State Department, must shoulder the responsibility for this catastrophic failure and the American people must hold them accountable. …
“There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight.” Robert Parry, Consortium News, 10-12-07
Nail #4: In what should be a devastating blow to the Bush-Cheney regime and the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party, the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has banned the phrase "Global War on Terror" from Pentagon communications:
In May, former senator John Edwards (D-NC) said that “war on terrorism” is a “slogan designed only for politics, not a strategy to make America safe.” During a press conference, Bush attacked critics of the phrase, calling them “naive“... Al Kamen reports today that incoming Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike McMullen is also opposed to the use of the words “global war on terror“: Seems the incoming chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Adm. Michael Mullen, has banned the use of the phrase “Global War on Terror” (GWOT) and has prohibited using it “in any future correspondence,” according to a Sept. 27 e-mail from a Mullen aide. Think Progress, 10-5-07
Nail #5: Just as in the lead-up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the US intelligence community is speaking with clarity and urging caution. And, just as in the lead-up to the attack on Iraq, if Bush-Cheney and the Cult formerly known as the Republican Party gets its way, the US intelligence community will be ignored now, and blamed later:
...NBC’s Howard Fineman revealed that the intelligence community will release “three different reports” in upcoming weeks to “slow down” the administration’s current drumbeat for war with Iran:
The intelligence community over the next few months is going to come out with three different reports on Iran about internal political problems of Iran, about the economy, and about their nuclear capability.
Those are going to be key to decide what the Bush administration is going to do, and it’s the intelligence community I think trying to slow down what the president, most particularly the vice president, want to do in Iran. Think Progress, 10-7-07
Nail #6: In the lead-up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, many dissenters said that oil was at or near the top of the hidden agenda, and they were mocked for it. Now, after the deaths of thousands of US military personnel and hundreds of thousands Iraqis (if not over a million Iraqis), some of the high and mighty nonchalantly acknowledge that it was indeed about oil. And yet, incredibly, we are supposed to believe that the penchance for attacking Iran has nothing to do with oil:
In recent weeks, two key players have confessed that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was indeed about oil: at a Stanford University conference, Gen. John Abizaid (Ret.), the former CENTCOM Commander, remarked, “Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that" (Think Progress, 10-15-07), and in his memoirs, Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, wrote: “the Iraq War is largely about oil" (Washington Post, 9-17-07)
Nail #7: At the very least, the USA's own nuclear weapons safeguards have broken down under the stress that the Bush-Cheney regime has placed on the military; and arguably, worst case, something weird, unprecedented and potentially catastrophic has been thwarted:
The Air Force said Friday it has punished 70 airmen involved in the accidental, cross-country flight of a nuclear-armed B-52 bomber following an investigation that found widespread disregard for the rules on handling such munitions.
"There has been an erosion of adherence to weapons-handling standards at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base," said Maj. Gen. Richard Newton, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations.
Newton was announcing the results of a six-week probe into the Aug. 29-30 incident in which the B-52 was inadvertently armed with six nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and flown from Minot in North Dakota to Barksdale in Louisiana without anyone noticing the mistake for more than a day. Associated Press, 10-19-07
For an archive of Words of Power posts on 9/11, Terrorism, etc., click here.
For an archive of Words of Power posts on Corporate News Media Complicity, Power of Alternative Media, Propaganda & Freedom of Press, click here.
John Abizaid, Ricardo Sanchez, Valerie Plame, Alan Greenspan, Hillary Clinton,Iran,Richard Power, Words of Power
