Wednesday, July 07, 2004
The Shell Game
Don’t you just love the press-management skills of the Bush administration? Seems every time something they don’t want you to pay attention to happens, they trot out something bogus. They’ll talk about some dire and imminent terrorist plot, raise the “terror alert” level or scream loudly about some issue that is just as quickly dropped afterwards. No matter, it has served its purpose.
This is a tactic they’ve used repeatedly in the last 3 years. Now that the election campaign is underway, expect it to be used even more often in the coming months. Note the recent predictions by Ashcroft of a terrorist attack before the elections. He’s just setting the stage for the next round. And then again this morning.
They use it because it works - here’s the unretouched front page of CNN this afternoon - not a single mention of Kerry and Edwards. The news was full of election stories yesterday. You’d never know there’s a campaign on today. It’s all terrorism, all the time…
I urge you to read this article that details an administration attempt to overshadow the upcoming Democratic convention. In it, the author talks with Pakistani officials who say that they have orders from Bush to produce Osama Bin Laden or one of his top deputies before the November election. The date suggested to do this is in late July, specifically the 26th, 27th or 28th of July, which are the first 3 days of the Democratic convention. They know that it’ll push all convention news off the front page, and deny Kerry the probable lift in the polls from the coverage. How desperate and cynical, but can you expect anything else from Bush these days?
In stage magic, this technique is called “misdirection.” The magician will do something showy with one hand, which draws your eye, while the other subtly does the actual trick, which he doesn’t want you to notice. It reminds me of something my brother did when we were teenagers. At dinner, he’d see something on my plate he’d like to have. So, he’d stare intently at some spot on the wall behind me, and then say something ridiculous like, “Look, fish tracks.” Naturally, I’d start to look and he’d snake out with his fork and nab food off my plate. Only worked once or twice.
I don’t fall for that kind of trick anymore. You shouldn’t either.
As it was so eloquently put in that clip of Bush in Fahrenheit 9/11-
“Fool me once ... shame on ... shame on you ... uhh ... um ... uhh ... fooled me, can’t get fooled again!”
WTF??? How did this imbecile get into the White House in the first place?
One good thing, however - it looks like people are wising up to these tactics.
Here’s the poll from CNN’s front page today:
- Bob Woods
The lie that killed my son
Thursday July 8, 2004
The Guardian
Lila Lipscomb believed in Bush’s case for war in Iraq. But when her son died in action, her faith in the American way was shattered. Emma Brockes meets the Michigan mother at the heart of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11
Two years ago, if you had asked Lila Lipscomb what she stood for, she would have referred you to the flag in her garden and her four grown-up children. Her priorities were, in descending order of importance, family, faith, country and a place where all three met, what she might have called “service”: two of her children were in the military and she worked in the public sector, at an employment agency designed to get people off welfare.
Read the rest of this article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1256558,00.html
Two Americas
VP candidate John Edwards
12/29/03
“Today, under George W. Bush, there are two Americas, not one: One America that does the work, another America that reaps the reward. One America that pays the taxes, another America that gets the tax breaks. One America that will do anything to leave its children a better life, another America that never has to do a thing because its children are already set for life. One America—middle-class America - whose needs Washington has long forgotten, another America - narrow-interest America - whose every wish is Washington’s command. One America that is struggling to get by, another America that can buy anything it wants, even a Congress and a President.”
“I’ve been fighting this fight my whole life. For 20 years, I have sat in courtrooms across from these people. I have been an advocate for families and their children against armies of lawyers. I’ve won most of those battles. In the Senate, I fought for the Patients’ Bill of Rights, against big HMOs, against big insurance companies. I fought to bring down prescription drug costs for every American, against big drug companies. I fought to do something about drug company advertising on TV when others weren’t willing to do it. I fought to create energy independence in this country.”
“I believe the backbone of the American economy is the hard work, determination, and ingenuity of the middle class, not the insiders. I believe the way to grow the economy is to grow and strengthen the middle class, not shrink its size and add to its burdens. I believe the way a rich nation gets richer is by giving all its citizens the chance to get richer, not by only helping those like me who’ve already succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. I believe the way to create new wealth is by rewarding work and responsibility, not coddling the privileged and going soft on executives, accountants, and analysts who squander other people’s money.”
“For every man and woman who is worried about paying their bills; for every child who needs health care and a strong school to go to, and for every American who waits for the 1st and the 15th of every month— together we will end this era of anxiety. We will replace the crass politics of greed and the current politics of rage with a new politics of opportunity.”
