Letters to the Editor
Cocktailhag
Published Letters: 483
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But Wait, There's more!
[Read the article: The worst, sleaziest press corps possible]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What this "investigative" story really reminds us of and therein drags forth a grim reminder, is that, when the Clintons were in power, no story was too invasive, irrelevant, or utterly divorced from the First Amendment's intended purpose of an informed electorate to be relentlessly flogged, whether or not it had anything to do with governance or the President's performance in office. The most pointless and inconsequential garbage served the same purpose then as it does now; to swallow the airtime and distract the public from the fact that somehow, the people had accidentally elected Democrats (!) who might, even incidentally, throw a bone or two to the long-suffering masses in between the usual relinquishing of national treasure and priorities to the powers that be.
Clearly, the media ownership recognizes that the disasters they helped create by their universal adulation of Bush and acquiescence to his bizarre and failed agenda, with the favorable deregulation, false but palatable storylines, and short-term gain, has left them as despised and mistrusted as the administration they championed. Like Bush himself and his authoritarian followers, they know that the only way to avoid accountability and to avert electoral catastrophe, is to maniacally and mendaciously throw everything they have, regardless of its merit, at the Democrats, however they can.
It's classic heads we win, tails you lose. Slams on Obama create doubts about him, but engender sympathy, along with resentment of Hillary. Slams on her, same thing. Meanwhile McCain, no matter how psychotic, corrupt, or plainly incompetent is rendered "boring," since there is no competition there, and the newfound reverence for Viet Nam service takes care of the rest. When the facts and the history are against you, sling mud.
Good work, if you can get it, but how these people will be able to face their children, knowing the world they've helped create, for nothing more than their stock options and careers, is beyond me.
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1984, Today
[Read the article: The Obama passport snooping and the unchecked surveillance state]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]At least as disturbing as this latest assault on our privacy is the way that corporations, government, and media, have all joined forces to "normalize" it.
I can already hear the right-wing troll dismissing our concerns, declaring that since corporations gather all kinds of personal information anyway, we ought to "grow up" and get used to it. I'm sure that television news will bring on "experts" to parrot similarly un-American themes as well.
Of course, what such fatuous rationalizing fails to grasp is that, because of our 4th amendment, telecoms, doctors, financial institutions, and others all operate under quite restrictive privacy guidelines, and only recently, under one-party government, have these protections started to fall away.
Because government officials had been deeply embarassed in the past by their flagrant abuses of spying power and technology, they have learned that outsourcing such dirty work, in exchange for "immunity" or perhaps further derugulation and hefty contracts, cements their relationship with corporations who also find the constitution inconvenient.
Worse, a whole new "industry" devoted to police-state activities, has grown up alongside these other forces, and operates in a newly-created gray area where "old" laws like the Telecommunications Act of 1934 and FISA don't apply.
Finally, throw in a news media compromised by defense contractor and telecom corporate ties, willing propagandists in the right wing, and clueless mainstream blatherers like Joe Klein, and you have the current situation.
The only part that amazes me is that we've somehow found out about it.
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Going Forward, Off a Cliff
[Read the article: War advocates like Anne-Marie Slaughter demand that you forget the past]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Because of the vapidity and rank lack of grasp of the English language so prevalent in or media, and the pernicious way its stupefying roteness infects the culture, deliberately deceptive little slogans continue to confuse the public, even though their manipulative purposes are plain to anyone with two brain cells to rub together.
Anyone who laments the inutility of "looking back," does so only to deflect attention from his/her egregious errors back then. When mendacious nincompoops like Slaughter say "going forward" it is a pathetically transparent way to link realism and old-fashioned optimism with not noticing how often she's made an ass of herself. And she knows it.
Similarly, refusal to discuss one's despicable crimes because the "investigation is ongoing" somehow links avoidance of flagrant culpability with a reverent respect for impartial justice.
Other horseshit like "defending America," "defeating the terrorists," and, "giving the tools we need," all fall into the same category; poll-tested slogans that justify unconscionable conduct and foreclose rational debate.
The very idea that the unheard, slandered, and silenced opinions of those who were right about this war, in the face of near-universal denunciation and accusations of treason, are unworthy compared to the self-serving claptrap of the warmongers is simply beneath contempt.
As PDA said, these contemptible and stupid hawks can't "unshit the bed" they leapt into so eagerly.
They used every filthy, mandacious, and manipulative tactic to get us into a war that could never honestly be justified to a thinking, moral human being.
If they are even pretending to be honest in their risible and nauseating self-absolutions, they could show it by, just for once, setting aside their Goebbelsian sloganeering.