Psychopolitik 2.0

Why do shows like Late Edition, Meet the Press & the like, after statements from recently retired or resigned military personnel — which tend to be skeptical of the war in Iraq — invite on current military personnel, who are barred as a term of their service from publicly criticizing official policy?

CNN did a poll recently, angling for views re: the use of water-boarding.  The result was, well…awkward:

A majority of Americans consider waterboarding a form of torture, but some of those say it’s OK for the U.S. government to use the technique, according to a poll released Tuesday.

Asked whether they think waterboarding is a form of torture, more than two-thirds of respondents, or 69 percent, said yes; 29 percent said no.

Asked whether they think the U.S. government should be allowed to use the procedure to try to get information from terrorists, 58 percent said no; 40 percent said yes.

So, with the overlap in responses, that means some people acknowledge that water-boarding is torture AND think it should be embraced as a tactic.  They’re willing for the US to toss any claim whatsoever to moral high ground, radicalize even more people, and probably end up being fed false info just so the agony would stop.  I disagree about as strongly as one can, but at least they’re honest.

Oh, wait a minute, I forgot something.   Here’s that last line of the excerpt again:

Asked whether they think the U.S. government should be allowed to use the procedure to try to get information from suspected terrorists, 58 percent said no; 40 percent said yes. (emphasis mine)

“Suspected”.  That means they’re thought to be terrorists, which they may or may not be.  The possibility of innocence is fast becoming a quaint concept these days, as if simply being held by the government means you’re guilty and deserve everything you get.  Who do we have to thank for that?  Clearly the overlap group in the poll, the reactionary nutjobs with delusions of “hippie unamerican commie libruls” in their head, believing anyone who’s anti water-boarding thinks if Bin Laden himself were captured he should be given a cup of coffee & a comfortable chair to sit in for a cozy little chat.

If you need a poll to tell you that people in the US are generally pissed off about politics at the moment, then you should contemplate suicide.

Consider WHY the anger.  Such a hard change of course is being expected within a system that inherently discourages it, if you kept being led into a brick wall you’d be pissed too.   What exactly do these polls tells us that anyone capable of thinking for themselves didn’t already know?

Re: the upcoming cutoff of analog TV:

Now here’s a great Christmas gift idea: a cute-as-a-bug 5-inch TV. As the Circuit City ad says, the TV “makes it easy to take entertainment on the road.”

But it will be cute only until Feb. 17, 2009, when its little screen will go blank.

To make the set work after that, the owner will need a digital converter box and a place to plug it in, making entertainment on the road not so easy.

Circuit City does warn consumers that the set’s analog tuner will stop working after that date, when federal law requires broadcasters to send only digital signals in order to free up electromagnetic spectrum for use by emergency responders and other interests. (emphasis mine)

Ok, so this was a decision imposed from above.  The government wanted that analog spectrum, so they simply took it.  Typical example of the confusion about the definition of “public” — civilians hear the word & think “we own it”, and politicians say no.  Whatever, that’s how they’ve approached it from day one.  But check out the responses to the inevitable confusion…

Already this month, hearings on DTV have been held in both the House and Senate, and another is scheduled in the House on Wednesday.

Lawmakers are trying to determine whether industry and government are doing enough to inform TV viewers about how to handle the transition.

To help, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration will offer each U.S. household up to two coupons, worth $40 each, to be used toward the purchase of two converter boxes. The boxes will become available in 2008, probably for about $50 each. The National Cable & Telecommunications Association, a cable-industry trade group, has unveiled a $200 million public-service announcement campaign.

But some lawmakers fear many viewers will forget to redeem the coupon until after its 90-day life expires. Also, people in rural areas may not be able to get to a retail electronics outlet in time to use the coupons.

Some groups suggest that government create a DTV Task Force, similar to the Y2K Task Force, which oversaw the fixing of a widespread software problem in the late 1990s that threatened to shut down computers at the turn of the millennium.

Many Republicans argue that the free market will solve most of the problems as Americans upgrade to new televisions and cable service over the next year. (emphasis mine)

So to deal with an issue created by political impatience with transitioning technology, one group proposes subsidizing converter boxes — and by extension, the companies making those boxes.  Another responds to that by basically saying “nah, people are too stupid to use coupons right”.  Yet another wants to repeat the Y2k panic.  As for the GOP response, if they were seriously convinced the market could sort this out, they wouldn’t have agreed to the spectrum grab in the first place.

Full disclosure: I have cable & a relatively new model TV, so this more than likely will not affect me.  It just pisses me off that even on such a comparatively trivial issue, the usual suspects come out.

Oh yeah, one more thing.  My insistence on NEVER asking for help at any “big box” electronics store proves justified yet again:

In August, U.S. PIRG sent surveyors to major electronics retail stores in the Washington area to see whether clear information was being dispensed.  It found clerks often gave out inaccurate or misleading information, such as suggesting everyone must upgrade to expensive high-definition television sets.

Unless you’re into video games something hardcore, HD is a waste of money IMO.  I mean, I see a difference, it does look better, but nowhere near enough to justify the price difference.  Even the low-end, smaller HDTV sets are around 500 bucks, c’mon now.

The spin on Iraq still isn’t working, another section of the Patriot Act gets rightly struck down as unconstitutional, and people are basically writing off Bush entirely.  Gee, look who shows up among all this:

Ending a nearly three-year absence from public view, a dark-bearded Osama bin Laden surfaced yesterday in a new video in which he repeatedly taunted the Bush administration but made no overt threats of renewed terrorist attacks.

The al-Qaeda leader appeared visibly older and spoke in somber tones as he delivered a rambling, 25-minute monologue that included a lengthy tirade against Western capitalism sprinkled with references to recent news events and cultural and political figures.

Addressing his message to “the people of America,” bin Laden predicted failure for U.S. forces in Iraq and warned against what he described as the continued oppression and humiliation of Muslims by the West. […]

In Sydney, President Bush told reporters: “The tape is a reminder about the dangerous world in which we live. And it is a reminder that we must work together to protect . . . against these extremists who murder the innocent in order to achieve their political objectives.”

“I found it interesting that on the tape Iraq was mentioned, which is a reminder that Iraq is a part of this war against extremists,” Bush continued. “If al-Qaeda bothers to mention Iraq, it is because they want to achieve their objectives in Iraq, which is to drive us out and to develop a safe haven.”

Give it a few days and check those poll numbers.  By now, Bin Laden is really Bush’s only friend, ironic since him still being out there is glaring indication of failure to reasonable people.
What REALLY amuses me though is some of what was said…

He chides not only Bush — a leader who he says “harvests nothing but failure” — but also the Democratic leadership of Congress. “Why have the Democrats failed to stop this war, despite them being the majority?” he asks, according to the translation provided by the SITE group. Later, answering his own question, he argues that the failure of Americans to stop the Iraq war was attributable to the political dominance of large corporations that “benefit from this continuation.” (emphasis mine)

Rants about “capitalism”?  Criticism of Democrats for not ending the war in Iraq?   Pointing out how a few actually benefit from this clusterfuck?  Either “Adam the American” — who is already being talked about as having wrote part of this — knows jack squat about how politics works here (these kind of critiques coming from Bin Laden makes irrational stubbornness seem like strength), or the whole reason this was released at all was to attempt to discredit any argument that could be twisted to sound like this.  Next time you point out to one of the dead-enders how much of a total waste invading Iraq was and will continue to be, watch how much quicker they say “oh, so you agree with the terrorists?”.

If Osama didn’t exist, they’d create him.

In a section of an MSNBC article about Massachusetts’ mandatory health insurance system, found the following from an owner of a seafood restaurant, who had already been offering insurance before the new rules:

“I think that’s basically how liberal government works — liberals in the government work,” [Nathan Nickerson, owner of Arnold’s] said. “They force-feed you things that they feel are good for you, like it or not. And that’s the way it is. … There’s so many regulations on every level now, to try to run a business, it’s very, very difficult. Having said that, I’d like to see everyone with health insurance.”

Who was governor of Massachusetts at the time again?  Oh yeah, a republican.

As anyone who thinks about these kinds of things knows, there’s a rather striking difference between the media in the U.S. & how news is done abroad.  For example, take the following: Manuel Noriega (remember him?  Thought not…) is up for release from prison soon, and there’s dispute over where he goes from there.

Here’s the Associated Press’ take:

Former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega wants U.S. officials to send him back to his home country when he finishes his drug trafficking and racketeering sentence next month, but American prosecutors are pushing for him to be extradited to France to face another trial.

Noriega, 72, appeared in federal court Monday as attorneys debated the ongoing question of where he will be sent when he finishes his sentence in a Miami prison on Sept. 9.

During the hearing, Noriega wore a military uniform and his dark hair slicked back, pausing at points to put on glasses and read documents, and conferring with an attorney. He used a headset to follow a Spanish translation.

His lawyers say because he is a prisoner of war, he should be sent to Panama, where he wants to fight a conviction in the slayings of two political opponents. U.S. prosecutors, meanwhile, are pushing for him to be extradited to France, where he was convicted in absentia in 1999 on money-laundering charges.

Sounds pretty bog-standard really.  Note that they found what he was wearing to be relevant to the story.  Onward, as the AP throws in a short history lesson…

U.S. forces captured Noriega after a 1989 military invasion ordered by then-President George H.W. Bush in part because of the Panamanian’s links to drug traffickers. It later emerged that Noriega had been on the CIA payroll for years, assisting U.S. interests throughout Latin America, including acting as liaison to Cuban President Fidel Castro.

“Assisting U.S. interests”?  Rather ambiguous term there, wonder what he was doing?

Britain’s Daily Telegraph at least fills in the blank somewhat:

The US invaded Panama in 1989 after sanctions and local opposition forces failed to oust Gen Noriega. From the late 1950s to 1986 he had been a key US ally in the region and had worked for the CIA while also dealing in drugs and mixing with Colombian cartel bosses.

As his military regime tightened its grip and Gen Noriega became increasingly critical of Washington, the US took action to remove him.  Panama’s government is under pressure to secure his return to face allegations that he ordered several murders, including that of the opposition leader Hugo Spadafora, who was tortured and decapitated in 1985. (emphasis mine)

Oh, that’s what he did.  Torture & murder people, and sell drugs off our tax dollars for decades before the charade of arresting him — which itself made no sense even if he wasn’t on the payroll, since he was, um, not in the fucking US at the time — even came about.  Need I mention where he learned such techniques in the first place?

It’s obvious what’s going on here.  If he stands trial in Panama, the reasons for his crimes are going to be discussed, and since there’s no Operation Panamanian Freedom going on at the moment, there’s no microphone to shut off when he goes into detail. From the perspective of our current rulers, the LAST thing the world needs is yet another airing of our dirty laundry, another reminder of how long we’ve been utter hypocrites.  With a track record like ours, where we’re going to be trying frantically to sweep it back under the rug for years to come, can you really blame the rest of the world for rolling their eyes when we claim to want to help them somehow?

I’m offline for a few days, and warrantless surveillance gets LEGALIZED??  Gawd forbid I break my wrist, water-boarding’d become the punishment for marijuana possession, yeesh…

Spines.  You have them.  Acknowledge that.

…is what the headline should’ve been for this:

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly has all but declared war against the DailyKos website, writing about a “vicious far-left web site called the DailyKos, one of the worst examples of hatred America has to offer.”

O’Reilly also said of some of the postings on DailyKos: “this is hate of the worst order. It’s like the Ku Klux Klan. It’s like the Nazi party. There’s no difference here. People should die.” (emphasis mine)

Now, I have my disagreements with the Kos crew. Personally I think an alarming amount of them are closed-minded, and they tend to treat partisan politics — which is pretty much a sham anyway — waaaaay too seriously. On top of that, most buy into the pop-politics concept that corporate dominance is the inevitable result of a free market & government dominance is the solution (my shot at thoroughly debunking that would be here), and shout down anyone who dares challenge that view. A few brave souls (Adam & Logan from FreedomDemocrats, & Jay Silas) post there & actively question that pseudo-wisdom; I myself have enough scars from fruitless internet shouting matches elsewhere to where I’ve retired from going into the fray like that. So, it’s clear that me & Kos ain’t exactly friends. But equating their comments with Nazis & the Klan?

Y’know, last time I checked, Kos wasn’t going around bombing black churches, murdering civil rights activists, & rounding up Jews to be executed…

I flipped through channels a moment ago to find out ESPN is showing ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS.  What the fuck, people…

Poker took awhile for me to understand as a sport, but I got the idea.  It at least takes a decent amount of skill.  But this is ridiculous.  If you’re going to try to sport-ize absolutely anything no matter how inane, at least keep it entertaining — I for one propose Synchronized Stripping be televised.