"You have no clue what I was talking about, do you?"

By your answer it would appear you think I don't. But then you don't seem too intent on enlightening me, so I guess it wouldn't be worth my asking. But it's beyond me how you think this attitude will help your feeling that you are in an anechoic box.

What now? Is there ANYBODY in Congress who cares? -- bamage

Your comment takes for granted that Congress is at all relevant anymore. They aren't. There are probably a few (very few from what I have seen) in congress who do care but as for the congress as a whole, well, they simply no longer matter really. For the most part they simply refuse to act on their oversight responsibilities and, when they do, their subpoenas are ignored and their investigations end up nowhere, resulting in nothing. Watch what happens when they get the torture planners together... nothing will happen and no one will be detained and charged. Congress is irrelevant and they have allowed themselves to become so. Just like we the people have.

* Chut nao hay khong? I haven't read all the comments.

Retired Military Patriot. ref bucky1, ach, Jkalos, et., kitty.

I be fun to join the military. Instead of blood soaked poker chips on the table to gamble away for pay...

I'd suggest we use M&M candy pieces, over ripe country orange pumpkins, water melons, butter pop-corn, and dented tin cans of Pop-Eye spinach. Wow.

We can run for high office? Look at everybody and wave hi "kids".

Maybe to condescend @ all and to wave with a smug grin? The Tao.

The new way?

And blogging? Oh Lard!

We can pinch the jackpot winner and kiss all who enter to read...swell...

Then the face gets Rubeola and Chicken Pox. Wow. Itchy. No "touchy"...

We can scream at the rest of the human race, and act superior. f.l.o.p....

A country pumpkin? A blogger can seem the same a rotten pumpkin?

Yes. Big and round. Thump it with the mid-finger. It is unripe. Rotten.

Wait another few weeks to plant Jack-0-Lanterns, Jkalos. It too early

`

*Do you know how I love you? I best read the comments and hush.

" this would be a perfect issue for the nominee to drop into John McCain's lap, with a request to either denounce the covert use of propaganda or defend it."

I think this is an excellent idea! Who can launch it in the presumptive nominee's ear?

yes, I agree that citizens have a responsibility to be informed and to participate. but the context was a LA Times claim that the lack of coverage was due to public disinterest in this specific story.

First, based on what? Has the LA Times done a poll? a marketing study? Have 68.7% of surveyed news consumers said they don't care? Of course not--he's pulling that out of his ass. Second, since when are members of the public consulted as to what stories will be run by LA Times or any other outlet? It's a bullshit, evasive, throw-away excuse.

The arrogance of the Beltway elite astounds: Bush has seized tyrannical rule, Iraq is going to hell, and a hundred other crisis need attention, but Harry Reid has time to write, edit and promote a book.

Do any of these people actually DO their jobs?

Disgusting.

Two words:

Ghost Writer.

I made a decent amount of cash doing this once, myself, for a public figure.

Which is not to say that any of them then use the time to double-down on their responsibilities ...

Nice, that you had the chance to query Harry. We'll see. At least you raised the issue. Kudos for that.

Thanks for the clarification. I'll have to read more carefully before posting in future.

But I've got it now - you're quite right! It's a pretty class act here - I'm going to have to shine up my pennies.

Media ops. Is this not a sinister term, coined from black ops? If so, it is clear that the target of media ops (hence the enemy) is the American public, and the weapon is the complicit corporate media.

This simple, dark coinage may be the most telling aspect of these terrifying documents.

Maybe Harry can take the book profits, buy a doeskin cap, stop hurting children with his hypocritical lifestyle, take soprano lessons to enhance prestige, and buy a $3:00 latte coffee for four years olds.

O Speaker, wow.

O celebrate a bris!

It was a busy visitation Saturday.

I'm am shocked too. A nice visit?

My 27 year old daughter is tearful.

She can't save a penny. "Dad," she ask,

"can I move home and save a little money?"

`Of course. Then she reminds me of this fact.

"You did't give me a birthday present." You want a milk goat?

Her eyes roll at me. I let her sweep up the pocket change on the bureau.

Chut nao hay khong? She knows. I gave her a few pesos and a kiss. She may think? Yuck? No.

.... May all pro-war mommies,

and Pentagon news analyst staff,

have onion soup for a good cry.

Air Force Times:

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/
/02/airforce_advertising_budget_080218w/

By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Feb 18, 2008

[...] While most Air Force programs are expected to get little, if any, more money in fiscal 2009 — and the service looks to eliminate 12,600 positions — the Air Force wants to more than double its advertising budget, pumping up the spending plan to $112.5 million.

[...] The Air Force sees this “brand awareness” advertising as a complement to its traditional efforts to recruit airmen.

[...] The proposed advertising campaign’s goals are laid out like the strategic targeting plan of an air war.

The targets are 220 million adults. The goal is that each adult over a year’s span will see 30 Air Force advertisements, from ads on Web sites to full-page newspaper ads to prime-time television ads.

Success will be measured by creating a positive attitude about the Air Force. [...]

- - Air Force Times 02/18/2008

Noah Shachtman:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/05/usaf-ridiculous.html

Air Force's Scare-Mongering Space Ad Shoves Facts Out of the Airlock
By Noah Shachtman
May 07, 2008

No one expects commercials to be word-for-word accurate -- not even ads from the U.S. military. But a new Air Force commercial, about the perils of an attack in space, does more than stretch the truth, a bit. It snaps the truth into tiny little pieces, experts and former officers say -- violating the laws of physics and common sense, while flying in the face everything that's known about the world's constellation of satellites.

"What if your cell phone calls, your television, your GPS system, even your bank transactions, could be taken out with a single missile?" the military ad asks. "They can."

No, they can't.

[...] Because "while it is true that a single ASAT [anti-satellite weapon] could theoretically take out a single satellite, none of the services mentioned in the commercial rely on a single satellite," says Brian Weeden, who served nine years in the Air Force's space and missile corps. "I find it distressing that the Air Force would resort to such fear-mongering."

[...] "It is clear that the Air Force is preying on the lack of public understanding of the threat (and space in general) in an attempt to convince voters that space is important too and only the US Air Force can protect America in space,' Weeden notes. "After years of trying to convince the politicians that areas such as space situational awareness needed more funding and failing, the Air Force has turned to another method to get its message across: fear."

The anti-satellite ad is part of an $81 million marketing push to "reinvigorate America's love for fighter jets and high technology, and to highlight the service's wartime activity," as the Washington Post put it. Most of the commercials in the series make no explicit attempt to recruit new airmen. And the service is currently looking to pare back, rather than increase, its workforce.

Which leads John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, to say,

"I am at a loss to understand the statutory authority under which the US Air Force can spend my money in propagandizing to me that they are doing a great job of spending my money. This advertising initiative is without precedent, and if it is not illegal it should be."

- - John Pike

- - Noah Shachtman