Marie...good work. Your final sentence seems to ask a question: why is the Bush cabal still in the drivers seat. Frankly, variations of this question arise almost daily in various Bloggs, posed by people who seem, like yourself, to be intelligent and informed. My question is: why is it no one apparently understands the power of the GOP controlled Media Machine in shaping and controlling all of the events and actions Bush and the GOP in general have perpetrated on the World for 6 plus years? Without the compliant/duplicitous Press and Broadcast/Cable Media, none, repeat, none of this would have gotten off the ground. Bush and the GOP may be in the driver's seat, but GOP Corporate Media have built the car and put the gas in it and continue to pave the road. Media Control. It worked in 1939 and it works today.
Posted by T2 at September 8, 2007 03:24 PM"It worked in 1939 and it works today."
T2, just another step in the take over of America by the ruling class. Unitary Executive is just another word for Dictatorship, and Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism, also known as the Patriot Act, is the other. Add media control, and presto, you are no longer living in a Democracy.
I just remembered something that William Kristol has been quoted as saying:
"The Liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures."
Posted by Judith at September 8, 2007 03:48 PMT2 - thanks for reading and you're right. That was poor wording on my part. Should have been more like: ..they're still obviously in the driver's seat with a now Democratic Congress and approval ratings in the toilet. One thing Clinton did manage to do was hide the fact from most Democrats that effectively there is only one party. Of course GWB has been equally effective at keeping that hidden from his fundies and dittoheads.
Posted by Marie at September 8, 2007 03:49 PMChomsky says he is less skeptical over the years, and that they're desperate.
Dick Cheney is insane, he is, and anything could happen.
Posted by paradox at September 8, 2007 04:03 PMparadox - Not anything. Still doubt that they'll use nukes. But can't see that anything will interfere with the attack on Iraq, but a Black Swan could still make an appearance.
Posted by Marie at September 8, 2007 04:25 PMAnother thing about about a "blinding flash" is that it is impervious to contradictory information or refutations. Is it delusion or real? Even those of us who on occasion barely get to the edges of the muck are treated as if our sanity is questionable. To the best of my recollection, I've only been there four times in my life.
I was 6 1/2 in Nov. 1963 and still recall that day like yesterday. Then watching TV as Oswald went down. The whole week was my 9/11.
My father was military intelligence, and he mentioned to my Mom, "They have killed him!" It was the first time I ever saw my Dad cry. He retired not long after that.
His Camelot had collapsed.
I had a history teacher in high school tell me, "Pay attention, read the paper, your living through some amazing history!"
It truly has been unforgettable.
This administration has painfully twisted whatever good I felt for my country.
Marie, who will be the MLK, Jr. for us?
Outstanding post!
Posted by Seven of Six at September 8, 2007 04:34 PM
Seven of Six - Thanks for contributing your personal story and I hope there's more to come.
Who will be our MLK, Jr? Well, lacking any psychic abilities, I wouldn't know. If he or she is out there, few if any have picked up on him or her. If history is any guide, such exceptional people are so rare that we shouldn't expect to see another one anytime soon. OTOH, under the right conditions, one can emerge. I'm struggling because I think it's a nature and nurture phenomenon. Maybe they are less rare by birth than the seem to be but few are ever plopped down in the arena to express their uniqueness.
Then there is the other problem: it's exceedingly dangerous to be a courageous sage. So, perhaps many were snuffed out before they were seen by more than a few. Nelson Mandela only had to endure decades in prison before he could lead. And for an old man he did well, but it takes a much younger person to do really well.
That's a long-winded version of my answer which is, "I haven't a freaking clue."
Posted by Marie at September 8, 2007 05:02 PMMarie,
Superb writing, exquisitely meaningful! My new favorite blogger....Thank you - Thank you!
awakening - thank you. That may be the nicest compliment I've ever received. And you were kind enough not to mention that the title seemed a bit off. It should be Slouching Towards Tehran. Have asked Mary to fix my error when she has the time.
Posted by Marie at September 8, 2007 07:14 PMWow, great stuff, Marie! This is a clip and save piece. Hopefully it's not your last.
Posted by Jeff Dinelli at September 8, 2007 07:23 PMI was 6 1/2 in Nov. 1963 and still recall that day like. Then watching TV as Oswald went down. The whole week was my 9/11.
Same here. We were given a duck-n-cover drill and told the Russians would probably nuke (attack) the miltary base close to us (were my dad worked). If we saw a flash we were to get under a table or something at home. They packed us onto school buses full of crying scared-shitless kids and sent us home. I too saw Oswald whacked.
There was so much negative going on during that decade. But there was a huge message of inspiration and hope from the space program and what I could understand of the social upheaval as I matured. The Vietnam war was a fools mission, but Jesus, Johnson took 6 million people out of poverty with the stroke of a pen. All people were going to be equal. Amazing! Bush starts a war with Iraq and made the wealthy even wealthier at the expense of putting more people into poverty. Hell of a juxtaposition.
SoS, when we get together at the next TLC convention I have a hell of a story to tell you about the assassination.
Fixed the title - and Marie, I concur with Jeff. Anytime you are in the mood to post, just let me know. I love reading your stuff.
Posted by Mary at September 8, 2007 07:41 PMphid - you got me thinking about the '60s. That was the bipolar decade. LBJ was a real tragic hero. Are the oughts the shizophrenic decade?
Posted by Marie at September 8, 2007 07:43 PMPardon me for disagreeing here, but I will. Geesh, someone even threw in 1939. What a reach! A bunch of happy bs, it's your blog.
By the way Phid and Seven, well only Phid maybe. I have a little piece of the JFK Dallas appearance and shooting that may compliment your expressed story. I wouldn't mind talking with you somewhere about it.
Oh, if you're going to schedule a 'YK' type event for the TLC'ers next year. Do it like the YK people did just as Congress is going into August recess so the admin can pull some more FISA type bills out of Congress. What a ploy, waiting for the enemy(YK) to convene away from their home bases and spring this mini offensive against the Democrats in Congress. The ACLU couldn't bring together their allies to help put down this president's desire for more FISA authority. They waited till Markos was too busy with his fun in Chicago to pay any attention to the going on vacation Congress and what they were about to do.
So look to next August Steve.
Posted by peter at September 8, 2007 09:14 PMphid, I'm supposed to heading through Oklahoma next year, possibly. At least I'll be in the Dallas area for sure visiting my right wing friends and family.
Anytime you need to contact me, my e-mail is at my site. Make sure you let me know it's from you, or I'll end up deleting it. Gmail has an unbelievable amount of spam.
Seven, you're coming to Dallas. Up for that beer?
Posted by peter at September 8, 2007 09:50 PMWithout the compliant/duplicitous Press and Broadcast/Cable Media, none, repeat, none of this would have gotten off the ground.
T2, I've been trying to get this simple idea across to people for several years. Most don't want to understand, because it takes the ground out from underneath their feet. Television constitutes the eyes and ears for the vast majority in this country. For those unfortunates, to admit that their whole reality has been stolen must be terrifying. On what could they rely instead? Of course, most don't know about the blogs where we can gain at least some foothold on reality.
Posted by Ralph at September 9, 2007 01:42 AMT2 is totally correct, the korporate media have propped up Bush since the beginning. They tore down Gore, then Dean, and now Edwards.
Posted by gay veteran at September 9, 2007 09:08 AMRalph and gay vet - we might be giving TV too much credit for the role it plays as a propaganda tool. Not saying that it's not powerful nor that the TV medium may be uniquely insidious, but people have always been vulnerable to manipulated mass communications. Our founding fathers got that before forms of mass communication had progressed beyond the printing press. TV or even radio wasn't needed to convince people that the Spanish-American war was necessary for national security.
A "free press," while enshrined in our Constitution, has always been under assault by the wealthy, powerful and ambitious. The minute the barriers to entry for printing newspapers, etc. was raised, the free flow of information took a big hit. The New Deal legislation on institutional communications attempted to deal with both the older written forms and the newest form, the radio. TV was easily incorporated into that regulation. Unfortunately, even in that regulated environment, a few got wealthy and used their wealth to promote public policies that favored them. However, as bad as it was, it got a whole lot worse with deregulation in '96. And that was a bipartisan effort.
We see the same old pattern happening again with the internet. From its early years looking a lot like the old penny press to its march towards Hearst Corp. And the one that's so supposed to oversee the implementation of the first amendment guaranteeing the free flow of information and ideas is sort of like the fox guarding the hen house. The challenge isn't new, only the forms of mass communication are. Unfortunately, the powerful antidote to this, education, hasn't advanced as much as it needed to (in part because those who prefer a dumbed down populace has the megaphones to convince the people that public education sucks and is not a good use of public dollars).
Posted by Marie at September 9, 2007 10:03 AM