By Mike
Whitney
fergiewhitney@msn.com
-- A great deal of print has been wasted on President Bush's
inability to tell the truth. In fact, it really makes little
difference whether Bush is a pathological liar or not. What
is meaningful however is that deception is the primary tool
for the maintenance of the state.
Transparency
and candor are now seen as direct threats to the preservation
of the status quo.This
suggests that Bush's lying is not simply a matter of human frailty
or corruption, but a clear statement of administration policy.
This may
seem like a minor point, but in fact the conduct of the Bush
administration cannot be seriously evaluated without understanding
that deceit is the cornerstone of their class-based world view.
Evidence
of this is everywhere, right down to the language that is painstakingly
minted in right-wing think tanks to conceal the real meaning
of administration policy.
"The
war on terror", "preemption", and "enemy
combatant"
are just three expressions that are intentionally designed to
mislead the public.
The real
purpose of this language is to elicit support for unpopular
policies that serve the exclusive interests of elites.
Administration
policy is normally reduced to snappy sound-bytes that charm
the public and keep the main players "on message".
They are released as "talking points"
to their political and media surrogates and disseminated from
every newsroom and radio-station across the country.
This is
the true meaning of propaganda; "to propagate"
one's ideas from many vantage points. No one has succeeded at
this better than the Bush administration.
As many
commentators have already noted, the lead up to the war in Iraq
was perhaps the "high-water mark"
for state propaganda. Dissenting, anti-war voices were excluded
from all the major media and the false, uncorroborated charges
against Saddam were highlighted in a way to make war inevitable.
Reflecting
on the imagery and theatrics that went into marketing unprovoked
aggression, the media-coup was carried out with astonishing
precision. Since then, however, media credibility has steadily
declined; leaving the public increasingly disenchanted with
the ongoing occupation and distrustful of the coverage.
The
"privately" owned media is only capable of
producing a narrative that is compatible with the goals of ownership.
Curtailing civil liberties (Patriot Act, National ID
etc) and waging war are never in the public interest;
they only serve the narrow objectives of the few who stand to
gain from them directly.
It is critical that the propaganda-system be progressively exposed
so the public can see its destructiveness and work to create
a different model.
At present,
the American system of governance is so inherently corrupted
that there is very little worth salvaging. The electoral system
has been clumsily rigged with voting technology that maintains
the appearance of democracy, but eliminates the real possibility
of majority rule.
Similarly,
the US Military, now deeply imbedded into domestic affairs is
directly involved in "Strategic Intelligence"
operations that are almost exclusively designed to deceive the
American people to sustain support for foreign interventions.
Pat Tillman
and Jessica Lynch are classic examples of intentionally misleading
Military information, but there are countless others related
to the use of banned weapons, bombed wedding parties and fabricated
civilian casualty-rates.
Similar
to the Bush administration, Pentagon deception is a matter of
policy not simply a "cover-up". Nothing
they say should be taken at face value.
In Iraq,
we have seen the military insert friendly journalists into their
operational structure; ensuring that the message they produce
corresponds with their overall strategic goals.
The "embedded"
journalist-phenomenon establishes news organizations as a front-line
part of the military apparatus. The media is now a fully integrated
part of the armed services. The American people have seemingly
accepted this transparent absurdity without question.
On the
other hand, we've seen journalists, who prefer to stay beyond
the reach of the military's control, directly targeted and sometimes
killed. This gives us a good idea of how serious the civilian
leadership takes its role of making sure that the "facts
fit the policy".
In all
areas of American life, information is being manipulated to
manage public perceptions. Most TV programming is intentionally
designed to make sure that the public is removed from the economic
and political facts that may either inform them of what is really
going on, or inspire them to get directly involved in the process.
The goal
of media is to create a reliable base of consumers, not to cultivate
informed citizens in a participatory democracy. Julius Caesar
recommended "Bread and circuses"
to keep the people amused and uninvolved. The American media
has faithfully honored that counsel.
With Bush
the information-war has entered a new and more aggressive phase.
BBC has been purged by hostile groups after David Kelley stated
that Blair had "sexed up" the information
that supported the drive to war.
Similarly,
PBS and NPR have been infiltrated by Bush-loyalists to remove
liberal elements and craft a message that pleases their corporate
constituents.
Also, Al Jazeera, which provides a uniquely Arab view of the
world to 40 million people, has been put up for sale due to
the extraordinary pressure applied by the Bush Administration.
Bush's
top lieutenants are entirely committed to creating their own
storyline and calling it news. They are not restrained by the
facts that emerge from the "reality-based"
community. They are equally zealous about seeking out conflicting
points-of-view and silencing them through their attack-dogs
in right-wing radio. We should assume that they will do whatever
it takes to eliminate the voices that compete with the one message
they want to convey.
This means
that the internet, which is perhaps the last outpost of democracy
in America today, is undoubtedly part of the broader government
strategy for controlling information. The internet is seen as
"command and control" for the disparate
leftist and liberal groups that foment resistance against the
political establishment.There
should be back-up plans to protect this vital resource. The
Bush administration has already demonstrated its penchant for
toppling regimes through "decapitation"
or removal of the leadership.
As the
nexus for leftist organization, the internet is a logical target
for this type of government disruption. Any attack on the system
would be catastrophic for the antiwar and anti-imperial movements
as well as a serious body-blow to personal freedom.
Be forewarned.
Both free
speech and its antecedent the truth are much greater threats
to the state than any bomb-wielding revolutionary.In
the New World Order only the managers are entitled to the truth,
not the managed. That way, the public can be moved sheep-like
in the direction of government policy.
This means
that hard news on any topic is the implicit enemy of the political
establishment. It is only by providing a constant stream of
diversions and fear engendering alarms that the public can be
kept in a persistent fog and deprived of the right to choose.
Information is freedom; and that freedom is destined to become
the province of the ruling class alone if the public fails to
organize resistance.
The administration
is "privatizing" information in the
same way they have privatized all of the other tangible forms
of wealth. The rest of us are left with the lies and distortions
that course through the government's ideological-filter.
This isn't
a battle that can be won without a struggle. We believe that
the truth is the birthright of every human being who will pursue
it with an open heart and an inquiring mind. And, we will fight
to preserve that right.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Mike Whitney
lives in Washington state. He can be reached at:
fergiewhitney@msn.com
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FEMA
HEAD REFUSES TO BE EVACUATED FROM OFFICE 'You'll Never Take
Me Alive,' Says Shotgun-wielding Brown
A tense
standoff continued in Washington, D.C. today as Federal Emergency
Management Agency head Michael Brown refused to be evacuated
from his office at FEMA headquarters.
The White
House made the call to evacuate Mr. Brown from his office after
it decided that his decision to remain there posed a threat
to everyone in the Gulf region.
Agents
from the Department of Homeland Security first approached Mr.
Brown's office over the weekend, urging him to evacuate and
offering to help him empty out his desk and pack up his files.
"We
offered to move him to another office far away from the FEMA
building, where he could do no harm," said Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "We told him
that he would have a nice desk, a telephone and a secretary,
and that he could spend all day rewriting his resume."
The Homeland
Security agents had hoped that the evacuation of the FEMA chief
would proceed without incident, but instead of an agreeable
team player, the Michael Brown they encountered was a shotgun-wielding
madman who doggedly refused to budge.
"You
bastards!" shrieked a visibly unhinged Mr. Brown.
"You'll never take me alive!"
As the
standoff moved into its third day, Mr. Brown told reporters
that he had enough food and water to remain in his office for
another six months and that it was unfair to evacuate him after
"only one major screw-up."
"They
would never do this to Rumsfeld," he said.
Elsewhere,
climatologists said today that President Bush's approval rating
is now below sea level and should remain there for at least
three years.
===================================================
Subscribe to his commentaries at
http://www.GregPalast.com.
===================================================
TERROR
IN TINY TOWN
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Greg Palast reporting from Southold, New York
In the
War on Terror, we are all on the front lines. Now Southold has
apparently been targeted by Al Qaeda. I'm not surprised.
Southold,
if you look at a map, is situated at the ass end of nowhere.
We are known for our Strawberry Festival and fire truck parade.
According to the Census, this tiny place is made up almost entirely
of inbred farmers, real estate speculators and volunteer firemen.
At one
end of town is the "Brand Names Outlet Mall"
and the water-slide park. At the other end, there's a ferry
boat that takes those who feel lucky to the Indian casino in
Connecticut. And in between, there's Main Street where we hold
the Strawberry Festival. (The festival is a quaint and
annoying white-folks' ritual, an opportunity for backstabbing,
petty infighting and all-American small-mindedness. But that's
another story altogether.)
Last month,
Town Supervisor Josh, with powers granted him by the epartment
of Homeland Security, declared a "national security
emergency." (Supervisor Josh Horton is
called by his first name because he was elected at the precocious
age of 26 - - based, it seems, on his stellar qualifications:
he wears shoes.)
In light
of the clear and present threat of attack, Supervisor Josh ordered
every one taking the ferry boat to the Indian casino to park
in the dirt lot across from the Country Store and not along
Route 25.
It was
just after the London bombings and Supervisor Josh insisted
this was truly a matter of preparing for terrorist attack, though
some locals suspected it was less about Al Qaeda and more about
zoning. Supervisor Josh had been trying all year, unsuccessfully,
to change the zoning on the dirt lot next to the ferryboat launch
from "farming" to "parking"
to boost the town's take from the inebriated gambling tourists.
To scare
off both Al Qaeda and Parking Violators, Josh has posted, care
of the federal treasury, an SUV at the ferry dock armed with
two (2).50-caliber machine guns. I kid you not.
The ferry
to the Indian casino is our officially designated town "Terrorism
Vulnerability Point" (TVP). If you don't pick
a "terrorism vulnerability point,"
the town can't get its slice of Homeland Security loot from
the federal government.
All ferry
passengers are now asked for their home phone numbers, though
if they are suicide bombers, they will not, after they strike,
be able to answer the phone. No matter.
Homeland
Security assigned three guardsmen, armed and armored, to the
Vulnerability Point because the town police are a little shorthanded
since the crime wave in the hamlet of Greenport a couple years
back.
It involved
some petty theft, racial slur complaints and baggies of pot
sold. The crime wave ended when the village disbanded its minuscule
police force -
- which had committed all the crimes.
Locals
are taking the heightened security at the ferry with patriotic
stoicism.
Our local pennysaver printed a letter from John Wronowski saying,
"National
security and safety [must be] at the forefront of our efforts
…since September 11, 2001."Mr.
Wronowski owns the ferry boat and parking lot.
The paper,
The Suffolk Times, interviewed a passenger who bravely travels
to visit his inlaws twice a week. He said, with true grit, "I
am not afraid."
But I am.
What if there's a sleeper cell in Southold? All they have to
do is review the Homeland Security website for the town's Vulnerability
Point and they'll know,"Hit the water slide, Ahmad!
The casino ferry's being watched!"
And there's
more here that scares me. There's a jug out at the Lickety Splitz
Ice Cream Parlor on Route 25 for the Cennar Family. It seems
that one of the Cennar kids has been diagnosed with some terrible
disease. Undoubtedly, the doctor bills are killing the family,
could bankrupt them -- and the community jug is out.
There's
always a jug out for someone who's ill or got crippled and whose
bank account has been wiped away.
And I thought:
This is a national security threat. With the lumber yard shut
and the plastics plants gone to China, Al Qaeda could quite
easily gain a couple of recruits in our town:
All Bin
Laden has to do is offer health insurance.
**********
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller,
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
Subscribe to his commentaries at http://www.GregPalast.com.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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Information Exchange Promotion Protection and Privacy Act, Sect.50.
Also: SECTION 301. Per Section 301, paragraph (a)(2)(C) of S.
1618.
