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Sunday, June 27, 2004

Slampaign

Fahrenheit 9/11 is propaganda. But that’s okay. It definitely propagates a view. Propaganda is centuries old. For one powerful group to accuse another powerful group of using propaganda is a non sequitor. It is logically inconsistent for one group to accuse another of something it also does. That would be to invite scrutiny of its own faults. Not smart. It is unfortunate that such divisiveness has become de rigor, but left leaning propaganda is a most pragmatic approach for the Democratic supporters to employ.

There does seem to be a group of people including the likes of Kenneth Starr and Donald Rumsfeld who have an ideological agenda that is orthogonal to essential ideals within The Constitution of the United States and The Bill of Rights. That ideology happens to mesh with certain international corporate agendas. Push ahead with the agenda at all costs, no matter whether it is supported by the people, consistent with our governmental and justice system, or even a viable agenda. In this approach, these “leaders” waged an intense propaganda battle and the US media supported these men by widely and repetitively disseminating their views. Unfortunately… success of such behaviors tends to escalate those same behaviors. Essentially “The Right” is getting a taste of its own medicine from the Moore movie.

Moore spins like mad, but he spins from fact, he insinuates from a stable groundwork to a very specific viewpoint that has an agenda: get Bush out of office before he destroys America and everything we Americans still believe it stands for. Welcome to the Democratic version of propaganda. Call off your Rumsfelds, Starr’s and Buchanan’s and stop Bush and Cheney from lying and employing liars, and the left will then consider reigning in Mike.

Had the media been more journalistic and less pabulum-spewing in the last few years, Moore’s movies would have received little attention. But Moore is a very talented film-maker and an effective counterpoint in the point / counterpoint argument that began long ago… “Jane, you ignorant….”

But this isn’t Saturday Night Live and the laughter is ending… there have been more than enough “anomalies” pointing to:

lies
disinformation
misinformation
covert agendas
illegal activities
cover-ups

and

massive conflicts of interest

made by or within the Bush administration to warrant independent council and congressional investigations.

I personally can’t stand the divisive partisan crap that has become business as usual… but I understand why various groups have arisen to do the dirty work that the namby pamby Democratic Party would not do. The slander machine that the Republican Party has employed for well over a decade is reaping its reward. Its technique is now ubiquitous.

I personally am neither Right, Left, nor Centrist. My views don't map onto the normative models. In my view, escalation in hostility, violence, and propaganda is not the answer. I personally don’t think any extant strategy will solve the problem. Intelligent, compassionate people are so drawn into this particular mode of thinking that they forget there are other equally valid world views that we could construct. So… all I can say is that we need to work from entirely different perspective. I still encourage moving toward an ethically (not religiously) grounded egalitarian transformation. Mr. Moore isn’t helping us directly move toward such a place. But we need to live long enough to begin this transformative process. We have a better chance of do that if we get Bush out and begin dismantling his works.

We people who were kids who grew up to the background music of the Age of Aquarius might have enough people with an alternative view of what could be, to make a difference and nudge the trajectory off its current truly DEADend path.
So, I encourage you to act: Vote -- that is essential. Figure out how to motivate others to vote. Don’t let elected officials get away with business as usual. Demand an inquiry into the charges made in Fahrenheit 9/11. Refuse to be quiet.
Ask questions. Demand answers. Asking questions is patriotic. Being timid isn’t.

What conflicts of interest exist in the President's Family's relationship with the Saudi Royal Family,
as well as in the Vice President's continuing relationship with Haliburtan.
Has the Bush administration consciously and maliciously lied to the American people?
Did the administration obstruct justice or allow obstruction of justice when they spirited the Bin Laden family out of the United States before they could be questioned?
And just for good measure... how about an investigation of the Jim Crow activity in Florida?

We aren’t sheep. We’re primates. Primates sling dung.

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