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Sunday 8 May 2011

The Fourth Estate of the Image Nation

Back on the Sunday prior to the aught-nine inauguration I ranted about the role the entertainment industry plays in supporting the war-making industry. And they do a brilliant job at it.

Liberals love Iron Man because it takes a dashing, young death merchant like that story's Tony Stark and makes him into a man worthy of redemption. How can a death merchant be worthy of redemption, you ask? Because he sees the error of his ways, and redesigns his death machinery so that it only kills the bad guys. Sound familiar?

No? Okay, so even if you don't buy my argument that Bo Rama is the embodiment of the Cruise Missile Liberal (that is, if you're clinging to his Liberal status), perhaps you might be able to recognize the mainstream media's job in all of this? In case you don't feel like clickin', here's this from the LA Times' Ken Dilanian:
What a difference a decade makes.
Thanks to U.S. intelligence, the Navy SEALs who killed Bin Laden last Monday swept into Pakistan on nearly silent, secret stealth helicopters. The assault team had practiced in Afghanistan on a full-scale mock-up of the maze-like compound.
So that's from the "we're gettin' so much better at it that we should just keep on keepin' on" part of the deal. For the Lib who needs more moral support, there's this from east coast rapper, Maureen Dowd, printin' to fit with:
I don’t want closure. There is no closure after tragedy.
I want memory, and justice, and revenge.
When you’re dealing with a mass murderer who bragged about incinerating thousands of Americans and planned to kill countless more, that seems like the only civilized and morally sound response.
Yeah, that memory sure is better when the mass-murderer is a bragger. And if the video of the alleged confession of O' Satan bin Lama is not enough to convince twelve impartial jurors, it is sure enough to persuade Mo Dowd to scribble her post mortem absolution of the good guys. Fair enough. She wants revenge!

And not to be out-scooped by the left-coasters, as if drinking from the same Panetta-Punchbowl:
In June 2009, President Obama stepped up the hunt. In a memo to CIA chief Leon E. Panetta, he wrote: "In order to ensure that we have expended every effort, I direct you to provide me within 30 days a detailed operation plan for locating and bringing to justice Osama bin Laden."
But Mo, darling, if it is revenge for murder you want, the CIA has loads of info on themselves. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of presidents worthy of your ex post facto invective.

I'll skip the current Occupant-in-Chief, since I know he's just "cleaning up the mess left for him" (it's tempting to link that quote of irony to photos of dead children or Bo Rama's Jonas Bros drone joke, but I'm not the kind to spike footballs either).

Let's go in reverse order, shall we?

Case Number 1
The most obvious choice, which would be "Dubya" Walker Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, and everyone else on the strategery payroll including the Taliban, who only became Enemy Number 1B post 9/11. I don't include any links here, because as of yet, Libs don't dispute these facts. What they dispute is that Bo Rama might have misused power and obstructed justice by "looking forward" past their sundry war crimes (murder) and human rights violations (torture and murder).

Case Number 2
"Bubba" Jefferson Clinton, whose difference in policy on Iraq could best be described as one of nuance:
According to Ritter, inspectors acted covertly on behalf of the United States to deliberately provoke Iraq into non-compliance, thus providing US war planners with a justification for war.
Sound familiar? Death toll: 600-2000, depending on who you believe. But two planes into a building is so much more dramatic! And we want revenge!

Case Number 3
This is a funny one, because it's against the guy that Bubba has been barnstorming with almost as long as he's been raking in speaking fees, showing the nation that "we are all one" in our efforts to spread worldwide goodness:

"Wimpy" HW Bush is a chip of the ol' block. Just like his dad Prescott, George Senior liked to trade with the enemy. Or at the very least, the enemy's "family". Oh, but it's just a small world, right? They're bound to be doing business with one another. Who else is there?

If this (or the fact that the Bushes have an eerie history of meeting with the bros o' perps on or about when the notorious crimes are carried out) is not at least as rock-solid as the evidence Maureen Dowd has against Al Qaeda, then I would say that she is not doing her job. But in fairness to the New York Times, if they had been doing there jobs, we never would have gone to Iraq in 2003, right Liberals? Won't get fooled again, indeed. And we want revenge!

All those nifty links aside, the innocent blood and death toll on Poppy's hands is as long as the coast of the Americas from Kennebunkport, Maine, all the way down past Cuba and along South America and back up the other side, up- but not limited to Panama and El Salvador. If you don't know the history of these territories as they relate to American intelligence serving at the commander's pleasure, then you don't know the Internets.

Would you believe me if I told you that the number of unprovoked civilian death string-pulling done in the 20th century by American president number 41 far-exceeded that of not only Osama bin Laden, but every one of his number twos to have been killed in the 21st century so far?

There's a reason why they don't do trials. If they tried all of them - even American kangaroo-tribunal style - it would only show how much stronger the case is against those doing the prosecution.

Maybe not to Rachel Maddow. But she's too busy metaphorically fellatiating the Navy Seals to spend too much time with the details of how they might have violated international law.

That's so last president! And we want revenge!!

Case Number 4
I'm gonna skip past "Daddy" Wilson Reagan* and spare Jimmy Carter's horrifying record on foreign policy (read this if you still don't know and are remotely interested) and go straight for a different brand of American Nobel Peace Prize winner, "Doctor" Henry Kissinger, who is rumored to be alive and provided safe-haven by various governments around the globe.

The most fair and balanced account of the mass murder of innocent civilians carried out by the former secretary of state is laid out in Mike McGlothlin's summary of an account by Christopher Hitchens, in which the former concludes: "Secretary Kissinger is no less than a murder conspirator and war criminal."

Note the observation that Hitchens "professes no other loyalty than to the facts".

Whatever you think about that, it is still more than you can say about Dowd, the New York Times, or anyone still alive at the LA Times. It is also more than you can say about anyone who is going to vote for Bo Rama 2.0 based on his having been "dealt a crappy hand". He is playing that hand as ruthlessly as the last guy, and on behalf of the House, not the people wandering through it. I almost can't wait to read the New York Times' endorsement of him.

So when you read the American Perspective - what with its liberty & democracy and justice & revenge - keep in mind that with each passing day, there are more and more folks in other parts of the world who want revenge as well. Call them the Nation of Blowbackistan.** Can the Navy Seals and Iron Man kill them all before it's too late?


*Tricky Dick can't be taken alive due to pardon and death
**Or is it a feature?