Re: [Culture] Manipulating the Bullshit Alerts

[Benseraglio2]

It's obvious that the Bushies are manipulating the terror alerts for political advantage. The NYT editorial today said:   "The authorities in those cities did the right thing by stepping up security. But it's unfortunate that it is necessary to fight suspicions of political timing, suspicions the administration has sown by misleading the public on security. The Times reports today that much of the information that led to the heightened alert is actually three or four years old and that authorities had found no concrete evidence that a terror plot was actually under way. This news does nothing to bolster the confidence Americans need that the administration is not using intelligence for political gain."   That's putting it in the typical grey lady mealy-mouthed way. For more detail, see the Capitol Blue article:   Increased Terrorism Alert Based on Political Needs, Uses Outdated Info http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4964.shtml Dja ever read 1984?   In a message dated 8/3/2004 1:11:38 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: "Bin Ladin[sic] and Islamist terrorists mean exactly what they say: to them America is the font of all evil, the "head of the snake," and it must be converted or destroyed. It is not a position with which America can bargain or negotiate. With it there is no common ground -- not even respect for life -- on which to begin a dialog. It can only be destroyed or utterly isolated." This sounds pretty fucking terrifying. It means that for the rest of my life, and for the rest of my kid's life, if we live that long, I have to live in abject fear of an invisible, remorseless, unreasoning enemy who might attack at any time with dirty bombs, chemical weapons, mininukes, not to mention plain old car and truck bombs. And not even fallout shelters will make us any safer.   Sorry, I don't plan to live my life that way. As a Mennonite, I reject all this crap. I talk to Muslims all the time. I'm no more afraid of Osama than I am of Donald Rumsfeld, or the crazy erratic lunatic who now occupies the White House. Or of Pat Robertson, who wants to blow up the State Department with a nuclear device.   I know that John Kerry is not going to bring magical solutions, but he will bring back an America that is not utterly isolated and totally paranoid, and which doesn't view the world in the utterly Manichean terms with which the present leadership does.   Ross Bender http://rossbender.org