Fearmongering and the Wingnut Obsession With TV Shows

Let's start the morning off with something so deranged and full of the fantastic that it reads like, well, every other doomsday scenario plot line ever conceived. Playing the part of the rugged, crusty, cynical and morally supreme scientist who warns the government--but, dammit! the government won't listen because it's full of liberals!--is Dr. William Graham.

The United States “would quickly revert to an early 19th century type of country.” except that we would have 10 times as many people with ten times fewer resources, he said.

“Most of the things we depend upon would be gone, and we would literally be depending on our own assets and those we could reach by walking to them,” Graham said.

America would begin to resemble the 2002 TV series, “Jeremiah,” which depicts a world bereft of law, infrastructure, and memory.

In the TV series, an unspecified virus wipes out the entire adult population of the planet. In an EMP attack, the casualties would be caused by our almost total dependence on technology for everything from food and water, to hospital care.

Within a week or two of the attack, people would start dying, Graham says.

“People in hospitals would be dying faster than that, because they depend on power to stay alive. But then it would go to water, food, civil authority, emergency services. And we would end up with a country with many, many people not surviving the event.”

You don't say...

Asked just how many Americans would die if Iran were to launch the EMP attack it appears to be preparing, Graham gave a chilling reply.

“You have to go back into the 1800s to look at the size of population” that could survive in a nation deprived of mechanized agriculture, transportation, power, water, and communication.

“I’d have to say that 70 to 90 percent of the population would not be sustainable after this kind of attack,” he said.

America would be reduced to a core of around 30 million people — about the number that existed in the decades after America’s independence from Great Britain.

The modern electronic economy would shut down, and America would most likely revert to “an earlier economy based on barter,” the EMP commission’s report on Critical National Infrastructure concluded earlier this year.

Barter system? Jeremiah? The 1880s? My, goodness. The wingnut fantasy of the future world they wish to create is this--no one is allowed to rule but the wingnuts and the swimsuit models, and the swimsuit models have to barter sex with the wingnuts for the food that the wingnut slaves--you and me--have to grow for them. Now that's a TV show no one would watch.

In May 2007, then Undersecretary of State John Rood told Congress that the U.S. intelligence community estimates that Iran could develop an ICBM capable of hitting the continental United States by 2015.

But Iran could put a Scud missile on board a cargo ship and launch from the commercial sea lanes off America’s coasts well before then.

The only thing Iran is lacking for an effective EMP attack is a nuclear warhead, and no one knows with any certainty when that will occur. The latest U.S. intelligence estimate states that Iran could acquire the fissile material for a nuclear weapon as early as 2009, or as late as 2015, or possibly later.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld first detailed the “Scud-in-a-bucket” threat during a briefing in Huntsville, Ala., on Aug. 18, 2004.

Never mind the fact that, during the last test of missiles, Iran seemed more like a pretender than a player, but why rain on the fearmongering parade? Never mind the fact that America stood against a far deadlier enemy for decades and won without shredding the Constitution (President Reagan had a guy or two that tried, but half-assing your way through life never gets you anywhere).

The simple fact is this--these weapons have been around for a very long time, and people with the motive, the reason, the capability, and the inclination to use them against us have had them for as long as these weapons have been around. We are peeing down our legs in fear over nearly-dead mullahs and cash-poor aging revolutionaries who can't control much past a pretty good intelligence gathering network and a secret police apparatus that can't quite tamp down dissent throughout Iran as they would like. They are watching the world oil market run away from them and their crumbling oil producing infrastructure. Their only hope of having any hold on their own destiny is to pray that a handful of terrified American politicians will take them more seriously than the rest of the world does and turn them into the next Powerful, Menacing, Sworn Enemy of American Liberty. When Iran is posturing, the wingnuts take two conflicting positions: they paint Iran as a massive threat, but they downplay Iran's capability to withstand a sustained attack from Israel and the US. Which is it then? Are they a threat, or are they a joke?

I suspect that if someone had just laughed at the Iranians, none of this would be happening right now.

--WS

Is the World Really Running Out of Oil?

Stories like this break your heart. It's a good idea to be "self-sufficient." It's another thing to be stampeded into that kind of a lifestyle out of fear and ignorance.

A few years ago, Kathleen Breault was just another suburban grandma, driving countless hours every week, stopping for lunch at McDonald's, buying clothes at the mall, watching TV in the evenings.

That was before Breault heard an author talk about the bleak future of the world's oil supply. Now, she's preparing for the world as we know it to disappear.

Breault cut her driving time in half. She switched to a diet of locally grown foods near her upstate New York home and lost 70 pounds. She sliced up her credit cards, banished her television and swore off plane travel. She began relying on a wood-burning stove.

"I was panic-stricken," the 50-year-old recalled, her voice shaking. "Devastated. Depressed. Afraid. Vulnerable. Weak. Alone. Just terrible."

Convinced the planet's oil supply is dwindling and the world's economies are heading for a crash, some people around the country are moving onto homesteads, learning to live off their land, conserving fuel and, in some cases, stocking up on guns they expect to use to defend themselves and their supplies from desperate crowds of people who didn't prepare.

[SNIP]

The couple have gotten rid of their TV and instead have been reading dusty old books published in their grandparents' era, books that explain the simpler lifestyle they are trying to revive. Lynn-Marie has been teaching herself how to make soap. Her husband, concerned about one day being unable to get medications, has been training to become an herbalist.

By 2012, they expect to power their property with solar panels, and produce their own meat, milk and vegetables. When things start to fall apart, they expect their children and grandchildren will come back home and help them work the land. She envisions a day when the family may have to decide whether to turn needy people away from their door.

"People will be unprepared," she said. "And we can imagine marauding hordes."

So can Peter Laskowski. Living in a woodsy area outside of Montpelier, Vt., the 57-year-old retiree has become the local constable and a deputy sheriff for his county, as well as an emergency medical technician.

"I decided there was nothing like getting the training myself to deal with insurrections, if that's a possibility," said the former executive recruiter.

Do we really need to talk about turning away the needy and insurrection?

My favorite part of all of that is the part about "the stockpiling of guns" because that's exactly what we need to do whenever there is a crisis--succumb to fear and arm ourselves to the teeth so that every single desperate, uninformed person has a gun readily available for use without thinking.


One should always be armed in some way with a firearm. If a person feels the need to "stockpile" a gun, they don't know much about guns in the first place. Repeatedly firing a gun until it wears out, forcing someone to go their reserve gun, and then replacing that when it wears out is the scenario envisioned by the gun stockpiler. Having extra barrels helps. A supply of several hundred thousand rounds of ammunition is always a good thing as well. One can never run out of bullets when defending their home against whatever has forced them to wear out several guns.

The problem with that scenario is this--if you are firing your gun so much that it "wears out" and forces you to go to one of the guns you have "stockpiled" then you aren't in a bad situation. You are in a shooting gallery, and nothing--no amount of preparation and no amount of personal armament--is going to save you.

Instead of stockpiling guns, have a reliable firearm handy that you can use. Ensure you have enough ammunition. Enough means what it really should mean--about three or four hundred rounds is probably enough, but you can be the judge of that. If you are arming yourself for the apocalypse, or the First Battle of the Somme, then the apocalypse and the German machine gunners are going to find you.

We need to have faith in technology and the free market. Technology has gotten us out of plenty of "shortages" of oil. During World War I, it was theorized that the United States had pumped all of the oil it was ever going to pump and that we had arrived at a "peak oil" moment. Since then, we have been through countless panics and scares.

The world is not running out of oil, but it is getting more expensive to pull it out of the ground. We are not running out of it, at least not for another hundred years, if then. We need to cut our dependence on it, and make it last longer but we're not running out of it. Or natural gas. Or hydrogen. Or nitrogen. Everything has a finite supply, but we're not going to run out of these things. The world is also not running out of wind or solar or hydroelectric power. We need better technology to take advantage of these technologies to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and eliminate them altogether to slow down or reverse, if possible, global warming.

We can, calmly and rationally, work our way out of this mess. We don't need fear. We need heavy investment in technology and education. We don't need wars for scarce resources. We need a smarter way of getting what we have to work more efficiently.

For an old woman to live in fear right now is sad, however. A sad indication of just how uninformed people are, and of how a simple issue can be demagogued to death. There is "too much information" out there. Too many people screaming and getting hysterical. The world isn't going to hell in a handbasket nearly as fast as we think it is. But if we're smart, we can do things--reasonable things--to make the trip in that handbasket fairly pleasant.

Wait Til Your Boat Goes Down

I'm sorry, but this sounds nutty...

As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways.

According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success."

While the United States has so far been spared this type of strike in its own waters, terrorists have used small boats to attack in other countries.

Now, while that may be true, where's the evidence that they're going to have the means to accomplish this? Correct me if I'm wrong and I know you will, but can two dudes cross the ocean in a skiff? I would think you'd want to watch the ocean-traversing freighters and have in place a strong program of coastal patrolling and use radiological detecting devices all up and down our coasts.

But to think that Joe Blow in his boat, along with his idiot brother-in-law Bob and his buddy Skeeter from work--who are usually four sheets to the wind and barely able to handle creating a wake in the wrong area--are the first line of defense against anything other than a shortage of empty beer cans in the water is pushing it.

Ramping up the rhetoric

As the sand slips through the hourglass, the fear that aWol might not get to start another war with Iran is palpable and his rhetoric becomes increasingly shrill and disconnected from reality.

On Wednesday, Bush conducted an interview with the U.S. government run Farsi-language Radio Farda to mark the Iranian New Year. In that interview, Bush asserted that Iran has openly "declared they want a nuclear weapon to destroy people." He also insisted that the Iranian government might be hiding a secret program (in spite of a total lack of evidence to support the allegation.)

There is just one problem - it's pure unadulterated bullshit. A veritable tour de farce.

Iran has never staked any such claim, or even stated on the record a desire for nuclear weapons as a deterrent. The Iranian government has been quite adamant and insisting that the uranium enrichment program that it currently operates in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions is for civilian power plants, not warheads.

Bush repeated his position that Iran has a right to civilian nuclear power, but insists that they should get the low-enrichment fuel from Russian rather than conduct their own refinement, but Tehran has repeatedly rejected that option. "The problem is the (Iranian) government cannot be trusted to enrich uranium because one, they've hidden programs in the past and they may be hiding one now. Who knows?" said Bush. "Secondly, they've declared they want to have a nuclear weapon to destroy people, some in the Middle East. And that is unacceptable to the United States and it's unacceptable to the world." (emphasis added.)

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Iran has denied repeatedly that the country seeks nuclear warheads, and in 2005, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious edict forbidding the "production, stockpiling and use of such weapons."

Shortly after the White House released the transcript of the interview on Thursday, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe was on the hotseat and spinning so furiously that he threatened to generate his own gravitational field, dismissing the presidents remarks as "shorthand" for comments allegedly made by Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at the "World Without Zionism" conference in 2005, where he supposedly, by one translation of his remarks, stated his desire to see Israel "wiped off the map." People who actually speak Farsi have said unequivocally that the comments that this administration is determined to hang their "bomb Iran" policy from are vague and should not be interpreted as a threat to use force against Israel.

As their grip slips, as they lose control of the message, their desperation grows by leaps and bounds. The thoroughly diseased, discredited and debunked Neocon/PNAC political philosophy and agenda rooted in arrogance and hubris that has brought our country to the brink of disaster is increasingly viewed as an uncomfortable embarrassment to the less stupid among the craven fucks who subscribed to it. The few die-hards remaining are the most dangerous of the lot - all that is left are the cornered animals. And the psychotic desperation - and flat-out, pathological delusions - of the worst president ever grow every day. It's time to put impeachment back on the table.

How audacious can this mendacious asshole get?

KKKarl Rove was on Fox News Sunday this morning, whipping a new fear pony in an effort to bolster support for perpetual occupation of Iraq - If we leave, oil prices will skyrocket.

If we were to give up Iraq with the third largest oil reserves in the world to the control of an Al Qaida regime or to the control of Iran, don’t you think $200 a barrel oil would have a cost to the American economy?

Seriously. He said it with a straight face, too. Never mind that he has been stunningly wrong on pretty much everything except the most effective methods of election rigging, we should believe him now!

Of course, he is still peddling the "al Qaeda could take over" meme, too. Even though everyone with two functioning neurons to rub together realizes that the notion is ridiculous. Iraq is 70% Shi'ite, and al Qaeda is a Sunni fundamentalist group. Just as there was no al Qaeda in Iraq before the US invasion, there will be no al Qaeda in Iraq after the US withdraws. They will either be slaughtered by Iraqis or they will flee for their lives.

And besides all that - the American presence in Iraq has had the exact opposite effect on oil prices. Instead of listening to the bullshit he spews, lets take a look at what the numbers say:

Now that Americans are (finally!) catching on to the terrorism fearmongering as a cause for continuing the occupation of Iraq, the GOP has been forced to come up with a new bogeyman to flog in support of perpetual war. It's in our economic interest to stay the course!

Never mind that we undoubtedly could have made great strides toward weening ourselves off the fossil fuels tit if we had spent all those billions on a Manhattan Project type alternative energy development program.

Fortunately, I think the whole "nothing to offer but fear itself" bidness is about played out. People are slowly shaking it off, pulling their No Fear t-shirts out of the bottom drawer, and telling the bastards to piss off.

Someone get a copy of the memo to Karl, because he obviously didn't read it the first time it was issued - Fear doesn't sell any more. No matter how you package it.

Weekend Roundup

[Again with the stealing of an entire post from WTWC...]

I'm posting the roundup early today, with the caveat that Pale Rider might update the post, and is indeed encouraged to do so if something else comes up on our collective radar. But mostly, I wanted to get the post up in time to remind you to Make sure to tune in to 60 Minutes tonight. They are airing the long awaited piece on the trial of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. There will certainly be a quiz, and homework will likely be assigned...

This made my skin crawl...and not just because I hate snakes on a visceral level. This is a potential ecosystem nightmare. Because of climate change, large constrictor snakes have established self-sustaining colonies in the Florida everglades. Scientists predict that the creatures could migrate as far north as Missouri as climate changes makes the areas habitable. The snakes would be considered an invasive species that could undermine entire ecosystems. Ecosystems are delicate things and any unbalance can lead to devastating consequences. The largest snakes native to North America are puny in comparison, growing to a maximum length of about nine feet, and subsisting on a diet of mostly rodents. The large constrictors can grow as long 20 feet in length, have no natural predators on this continent, and eat deer, wild hogs, even alligators. Besides all that, nothing good has EVER come from an ecosystem collapse or the introduction of an invasive species. Adding an unchecked top predator to any ecosystem would most likely signal the advent of an unmitigated ecological disaster.

Thugs. Islamist militants in Pakistan have warned incoming parliamentarians of increased brutality and violence if the new government persists with Musharref's anti-terrorist activities in the tribal areas. To underscore the threat, militants on Sunday attacked a security post, killing a policeman and two paramilitary service members and wounding six others.

The return of sectarian violence? Let's hope we aren't returning to the bad old days of 2005 and 2006, when every day we heard a horror story of entire wedding parties and funeral processions attacked and murdered for the unforgivable sin of being a follower of the wrong sect of Islam. Those dark days of sectarian murder and mayhem was where my mind went immediately when I heard the news of the suicide bomber that struck pilgrims on the way to a Shiite shrine in Karbala. Forty were killed and sixty were injured, and the approximately 12' x 65' tent where they had stopped to rest and eat was completely destroyed by the bomber, who turned himself into a human claymore with an explosives belt packed with ball bearings and metal shards.

Energy is easy to generate, but not so easy to store. Batteries haven't come that far, really, and carry their own environmental baggage. I have been called a wet blanket for bringing up the challenge of storage when renewables are the topic because it isn't sexy and the science is dull. This hasn't really shut me up, of course, since I am right. The reality is we have to solve the storage problem before we advance much beyond where we are right now. Fossil fuels store their energy in chemical bonds, and when those bonds are broken, most frequently by combustion, energy is released, no batteries required. That convenience factor is hard to overcome.

Germany continues to bear left. Local elections in Hamburg confirmed the shift to the left that has occurred all across Germany when the party that emerged from the old East German communists secured legislative representation in elections on Sunday. Even though it is a tiny part of the political landscape, Hamburg has taken on the mantle of a bellwether in the wake of state elections in January that signaled the leftward shift by Germans who are tired of belt tightening and economic restructuring.

Perennial political pedant Ralph Nader announced on "Press the Meat" this morning that he was launching yet another spoiler campaign. I'm sure he'll just garner tons of support, what with the way he saved us from the horrors of a Gore administration in 2000. Ralph...please...Go. The. Fuck. Away. Thank you.

Bush has gone past fearmongering and threatening inuendo to schoolyard taunts. Now he is flapping his wings and clucking that on the intelligence bill and telecom immunity, Democrats are siding with trial lawyers. To which I want to add an observation...the trial lawyers seem to be the only ones who are sticking up for American citizens and defending our civil liberties on Constitutional grounds in the judicial and political arenas, so...Good on 'em! (Damn. That's three times in a week that I've stuck up for lawyers...What's happening to me?)

Digby sure can cut through the crap and point out the forest other people can't see for all the damned trees. I am certainly glad she's on our side.

Jane at FireDogLake thinks McCain and Lieberman are two Wild and Crazy Guys out on the shag circuit like in one of those manly "buddy movies." My question (and I was kind of proud of it) is which one is Butch and which one is Scumdance?

And in Cuba, the National Assembly has sent the island reeling with the news that they have, in a stunning upset, settled on Fidel's kid brother Raul as the next president. [/snark]

And that's the weekend. What new developments will the coming week bring? I tingle at the prospects... And hey! One thing is for sure - no matter what blows our hair back in the week ahead, you can read about it, and a whole bunch of other stuff, too, right here!

Now, I am going to cook. Which means that there is about a 50% chance that later tonight there will be kitchenblogging...

UPDATE I - PALE RIDER

Fearmongering: get some.

Kristol: ‘I Recommend The Politics Of Fear’
This morning on Fox News Sunday, New York Times columnist Bill Kristol recommended that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) employ the “politics of fear” to attack Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL):

KRISTOL: [Obama’s] riding a wave of euphoria. She [Clinton] needs to puncture it. The way you puncture euphoria is reality, or to be more blunt, fear. I recommend to Senator Clinton the politics of fear.

Kristol explained that his fear-mongering political strategy would focus on Iran. He recommended that Clinton say the following about Obama: “He wants to negotiate on January 21st with Ahmadinejad. Here’s what Ahmadinejad has said about blowing up Israel.”

I don't think we need any more fearmongering. Fear is not exactly a great emotion to stir up in voters. The definition of leadership is to have someone who alleviates fear and puts people in the right frame of mind to face adversity. We haven't had that in a good long while. I guess if you're a pampered elitist who knows nothing bad is going to happen, your best "political" advice is to tell someone to use "fear" to motivate, stir, or agitate the larger electorate in this country.

The problem is, fear leads to revolutions. Fear leads to wanton killings and riotings. Fear leads to people suspecting their neighbors--hence, you have that whole secret police thing working for you without so much as a warrant because there's no shortage of busybodies who will turn in their neighbors.

Fear? Nah, don't need any, thanks.

Just Another Day in a Terrified Land

Imagine what would have happened if someone had sung a song about puppies and love and cotton candy...

------------------------------

ROXBURY, Conn. (AP) ― A scary threat to a teacher at a Roxbury school turned out to be nothing more than some bad singing.

State police say a teacher at Booth Free School barricaded herself in a classroom Wednesday when she mistook someone singing a Guns N' Roses song over the public address system for a threat.

Her 911 call brought in troopers and police dogs who detained three men until an investigation at the scene cleared up the misunderstanding.

Troopers discovered that the three teens, one of them a custodian at the school, had been playing with the public address system.

Police say one of them sang "Welcome to the Jungle" into the microphone. The song contains the lyrics "You're in the jungle baby; you're gonna die."

------------------------------

Now, is this because Americans are subjected to endless stories about violence in school, terror threats at home, and racially charged hate mongering from Presidential candidates? Is this typical of a country gone mad with fear and paralyzed with stupidity?

Fire that idiot and don't let her near children. She does not have the "judgement" to teach anyone anything. "Judgement" is defined as the ability to question what you hear and use some common sense to assess whether there really might be a "threat." And if you can't tell a threat from someone screwing around, who's problem is that? It's your problem.

It reminds me of this incident:

The January 31, 2007 Boston Mooninite scare (also known as the Boston advertising security scare, Aqua-Gate, Boston Mooninite Massacre or Boston bomb scare) occurred when Boston police officers mistakenly identified small electronic devices found throughout Boston and the surrounding cities of Cambridge and Somerville as improvised explosive devices. The devices turned out to be battery-powered LED placards with an image of a cartoon character called a "mooninite". The placards were part of a guerrilla marketing campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, a film based on the animated TV series Aqua Teen Hunger Force (ATHF) on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim late-night programming block.

This harmless marketing prank caused the city of Boston to collectively lose its fucking mind:

During the preliminary investigation at the site, the police found that the device shared some characteristics with improvised explosive devices, except the actual explosive. These characteristics included an identifiable power source, circuit board with exposed wiring, and electrical tape. After the initial assessment, the Boston police shut down the northbound side of I-93 and parts of the public transportation system. Just after 10 a.m. the bomb squad used a small explosive filled with water to destroy it as a precaution. MBTA Transit police Lieutenant Salvatore Venturelli told the media at the scene, "This is a perfect example of our passengers taking part in Homeland Security." He refused to describe the object in detail because of the ongoing investigation responding that "It's not consistent with equipment that would be there normally," Investigators were trying to determine "if it was a hoax or something else entirely" according to Venturelli.

Oh, to live in a country where people are savvy enough to walk down to the room where the intercom is located and yell, "you suck" or maybe "you want some of this?"

"Judgement" is a precious commodity, and this country seems to lose more and more of it every single day.

About that NIE...

[Cross-posted at WTWC, and from there it was linked at the Salon Blog Report on 18 July 2007]

“The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself” --FDR

That is a far cry from the current occupant, who might as well just come right out and say

“The only thing I have to offer you, is fear itself.”

Pardon me for getting more than just a little bit annoyed with the banging of the fear drum.

Reading a lede like this (NY Times)…

The United States will face “a persistent and evolving terrorist threat” over the next three years, as Al Qaeda continues to plot attacks comparable in scale to those of Sept. 11, 2001, the nation’s intelligence agencies said today.

or this (WaPo)...

The terrorist network Al-Qaida will likely leverage its contacts and capabilities in Iraq to mount an attack on U.S. soil, according to a new National Intelligence Estimate on threats to the United States.

…annoys the piss out of me.

Especially when the whole thing is a mere 800 words in length, and if you read it carefully, the conclusion is, this administration has done everything wrong and allowed the Al Qaeda terror network to regroup.

This is coming from the administration that rebuffed President Clinton’s warning that terrorism would be the main issue they faced. This is the president who, on 06 August 2001 dismissed the Presidential Daily Briefing with “bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.” in bold across the top with a flippant “Okay, you’ve covered your ass now.” This is the administration that, when 15 Saudi suicide bombers hijacked some planes in a jihad that was ordered by a Saudi extremist…Attacked Iraq. A secular country that had no connection to the attacks, and had the added advantage of providing a check against Iran. (Stupid, stupid, stupid.)

Now, faced with the revolt of some Senators and Representatives of their own party who have hopes that their political careers will outlive this administration; they are trekking once more to the well of fear.

Look – it’s a dangerous world. Terrorism is real. People do die. I realize this in ways you probably don’t. I was a globe-trotting Brat in the 70’s. I was a military wife in the 80’s. Back then it was pretty damned dangerous just to pass through the airport in Rome. It was par for the course for the active duty spouse to take a different flight than his or her family when relocating to an overseas billet because the active duty spouse was required to fly in uniform, and service personnel were targeted by terrorist hijackers.

I “get it” in ways that most people can not possibly even begin to imagine.

I understand that you do not fight a war against an ideology, a tactic, a transitive adverb* for fucks sake, with a big shiny military. You investigate, you gather intelligence, and you operate in the shadows. You infiltrate, prosecute and incarcerate. You know…Police type work. Remember that concept? (Sure you do.) It's what we used to do, back when our counter-terrorism efforts were not prepackaged by Acme™.

I do not need lectures. I do not need color-coded alerts. I have been aware of the dangers that lurk out there for my entire life.

I know that there is a wolf in the woods.

So what are you? Are you a sheep? Or are you a Kangal?

(*h/t TOFUBO)

It was obviously the work of Emmanuel Goldstein

Yesterday on ABC’s This Week, Joe “Uncle Schmendrick” Lieberman used the flaccid attempt at terrorism in the UK to push for greater domestic surveillance in the United States. “I hope these terrorist attacks in London wake us up here in America to stop the petty partisan fighting going on about…electronic surveillance.” Holy Joe intoned. “We’re at a partisan gridlock over the question of whether the American government can listen into conversations or follow email trails of non-American citizens.”

This is a falsehood, or as we learned in kindergarten, a lie. Which makes Lieberman a LIAR. The NSA program illegally spied on American citizens, and the FBI is in hot water for abusing the National Security Letters loophole to seize information about American citizens. The “Gridlock” that Joe “Sore Loser” Lieberman bemoans is the result of a criminally corrupt White House that claims to be above the law, and refuses to explain itself.

Lieberman’s fear mongering grew tiresome some time ago. And boy do I have a bone to pick with the people of Connecticut. WTF, mates? You turned him out in the primary, then you elected the sore-loser sonofabitch as an independent? The Senator does not represent you, Connecticut. He represents AIPAC and the worst elements of Zionism. But he certainly no longer represents any American ideals.

Feh.

I turn my face away from him in disgust.

And what do you know…my tongue didn’t cleave to the roof of my mouth.

Calm down, everyone

Okay everyone. Let's take a deep breath and step back and calm down. Pour a stiff drink. Might I recommend two fingers of Glenmorangie 18 with a splash of water, and a club soda back?
Tends to mellow me right the hell out. And if there is one thing we need right now, it is to mellow right the hell out.

When we get this pissing-down-our-legs atwitter, they win even when they fail miserably. Some bleach-blond twit was just on the local Faux affiliate telling Kansas Citians to be aware of "erratic driving and rental trucks." Well, I guess that every single driver in the greater metro area is a terrorism suspect, because even when it isn't the Fourth of July weekend, the people around here can't drive a lick. But the rental trucks bit really made me snort. People - it is July - medical residencies start in July - Lots and lots of people - many of whom happen to be brown - are going to be traversing the country in rented moving vans - either en route to where they will do their residencies or leaving the areas where they just finished a residency. How many of them are going to be hassled by nervous nellies for the transgression of being a brown person in a moving van?

The entire fucking country needs to take two of these and chill.

Good lord people - just a couple of weeks ago, an air traffic controller scrambled Air Force fighter jets when he heard the words "hostile takeover" in the background as the pilot of a small plane cleared his airspace. After the transmission was complete, the pilot switched off his radio.

When I hear "hostile takeover" I have the sense to realize that it is a conversation about business (who flies in small planes again? Business people? Thought so.) I certainly have the common sense to realize that neither Vance nor McConnell AFB's are going to be attacked by a couple of guys in a Cessna.

Once the plane was on the ground, over a dozen armed federal agents and tactical deputies surrounded it. Federal authorities, who interviewed the pilot for two hours, said later that there was no threat to anyone and no charges would be filed.

"People should be very careful in this heightened state of security about comments they make regarding airplanes and air traffic," said FBI spokesman Jeff Lanza.

***************************************

My point is this...We live in an era where caution needs to be exercised, but full-on panic serves no one, and desensitizes the populace to the threats. When overreaction is SOP, and every day the fearmongers do something so utterly mockable, it is counterproductive to the ends they intend to achieve. Your chances of being struck by lightning are still much greater than being a victim of a terrorist attack - unless you victimize yourself by caving to fear and pissing down your leg.

Good God, y'all. What the fuck happened to my countrymen? I don't even recognize you any longer.

Rudy has Picked his Running Mate

[Crossposted at WTWC & linked @ The Salon Blog Report]

He hasn’t made the announcement yet – but every time he takes to the stump, no matter what he is there to talk about – right there at his side – is Terrorism.

In a speech in Des Moines, where he was scheduled to speak about fiscal responsibility (giggle – chortle – LMAO – snort) it took him a whole 2:14 to change the subject to terrorism and make with the fearmongering:

"I will continue to keep America on offense in the terrorist war against us, because I think that's the overriding issue of our day," he declared. Then he leaped into a detailed discussion that wound its way through earmarks and out-of-control federal budgets to the threat of Democratic tax increases and — as always — back to terrorism.

While talking tax policy, he shifted the focus to a debate of the Democratic candidates:

"They never mentioned the word 'Islamic terrorist' during the debate…. Maybe they think they're going to be insulting somebody if they say it. I'm trying to figure out who would be insulted — other than Islamic terrorists."

But the most surreal segue to terror might have been while he was pandering to Cuban voters in south Florida:

Others might "romanticize" Castro and his ilk, but Cuban Americans know better than anyone else, he said, how important it is "to be strong in the face of dictators and terrorists…. America can't show weaknesses to these Islamic terrorists. Because, if we do, we're going to be in a lot greater danger."

He inflates and overstates his record – a lot of those firefighters on September 11 didn’t have to die. If Rudy had standardized the communications system when he had the chance, instead of giving the comms contract to a buddy, maybe some of them would have been able to hear the radio messages that the police broadcast, that the buildings were going to come down. But they missed the messages and kept climbing the stairs, because the radios were not compatible.

He attacks President Clinton for his record on terrorism, saying with scorn and derision that Clinton approached terrorism like a police matter. (The 9/11 Commission agrees with President Clinton's approach.)

Newsflash, Sylvester Rudy! It worked! McVeigh was caught, convicted and executed, and the perpetrators of the first WTC bombing are sitting in prison and will never be free again. No Patriot Act, no Constitutional abrogation and no Gitmo required.

On the other hand, with all those enhancements, Osama bin Laden remains free 2118 days and two shooting wars after September 11, 2001.

But wait – there’s more. What he says now is precisely the opposite of what he was saying a year ago:

The idea of trying to cast blame on Clinton [for the 9/11 attacks] is just wrong for many, many reasons, not the least of which is I don’t think he deserves it.

Of course, there is also that bit about Clinton being the first Chief Executive to treat terrorism as a national security issue…in 1995. “[we will treat] terrorism as a potential threat to national security as well as a criminal act and will apply all appropriate means to combat it.” In every major speech he gave the last three years of his presidency, Clinton raised the issue of terrorism and national security, in conjunction.

What pisses me off about the whole deal is this: He’s like the boy who cried wolf. Terrorism is a very serious issue, one that deserves sober assessment and cogent analysis. When he works it into every answer, no matter the question, it can not possibly advance our ability to deal with a very real problem. In fact, it is bound to do just the opposite. By selecting terrorism to be his running mate, the probability of desensitizing the electorate and making a mockery of an issue we should be talking about approaches one.

28%? Time to whip up some Iran frenzy, I guess

Once more, Iran makes some noises and the chattering classes are setting up a hell of a squawk. Ahmadinejad is coming! He is making nukes and he is an existential threat to Israel! Bomb! Bomb! Bomb!...Bomb! Bomb Iran!!! We must, or the American way of life is dooooooooomed!!!

Seriously – all I can do is roll my eyes when one of the “papers of record” commences with the hand-wringing over the little guy. I mean, c’mon, you lose all right to be taken seriously when you seriously print something so patently absurd as “Ahmidenijad’s policies.” Right there, you lose everyone who has so much as a hint of a scintilla of a clue.

"The current crackdown is a way to instill fear in the population in order to discourage them from future political agitation as the economic situation begins to deteriorate," said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. "You're going to think twice about taking to the streets to protest the hike in gasoline prices if you know the regime's paramilitary forces have been on a head-cracking spree the last few weeks."

Despite promises to use Iran's oil revenue to aid the poor, Ahmadinejad's economic policies have backfired, triggering 20 percent inflation over the past year, increased poverty and a 25 percent rise in the price of gas last month. More than 50 of the country's leading economists wrote an open letter to Ahmadinejad this week warning that he is ignoring basic economics and endangering the country's future.

Who are they writing this for? Certainly no one who understands the dynamics of the Middle East. Perhaps they are writing for the audience that thinks Alladin was a documentary?

Ahmadinejad? Policies? Oh good Ford, pass me a hanky. I’m in need of dabbing tears I am laughing so hard.

Ahmadinejad has no policies. He was the obscure crackpot mayor of Tehran when Bush made his now-infamous "Axis of Evil" crack, and the Mullahs decided they needed a thumb to stick in his eye in retaliation. Mahmood was it. Hell, I doubt he orders lunch without a Mullah vetting the menu.

He might be making noises and acting tough, that that is all it is…an act. And the Mullahs will let him for the moment. But the Mullahs are not stupid men. They came to power because of a revolution that was in retaliation against the Shah’s head-cracking secret police.

They will rein him in before too long. Look at it this way – their identity is tied up in the revolution of 1979 – nearly 28 years ago. When the average age of the population of a country is younger than the revolution, the revolution is over. The median age in Iran is currently 25.8 years.

Iran has a monolithic energy economy. It is not in good shape, and in about a decade, give or take a year or two, economics will bring about the end of rule by the Mullahs and the rule they enjoy. If a western power tries to stir things up and bring about regime change by force, they are in power for 50-100 years…however long the oil lasts.

And just for the record – the Iranian regime would not fall as long as a single Mullah remained alive. The real power in Iran rests with the Assembly of Experts, 86 Mullahs, and with the highest ranking official in the country, the Vali-e-Faghih, or Supreme Leader. Ahmadinejad is a mere figurehead, and the conservatives in both Iran and the United States find him a most useful little idiot.

Everyone needs to stop with the holding him up as some grave threat. In doing so, the agenda of the Mullahs is advanced. The leaders of the culture that invented Chess are making a monkey of the checkers-playin’ chimperor.

The Shrub Addresses the CGA Graduating Class

The fearmonger-in-chief went to the Coast Guard Academy in New London Connecticut to deliver the commencement address today. (All the parts I listened to received tepid applause at best.)

Let’s just cut to the chase and fisk this fucker, shall we? (Without the happy-chatter and Bush one-liners – I just ate.)

Americans rely on the Coast Guard in times of disaster. When Hurricane Katrina hit our nation's Gulf Coast, the men and women of the Coast Guard swung into action, hanging from helicopters, pulling people off rooftops and out of trees, and rescuing more than 33,000 people. (Applause.) When storms and floods and tragedy strike, Americans know that they can count on the United States Coast Guard.

Yes they did. The Coast Guard stood head and shoulders above everyone else at that moment in our history, and one particular Coast Guard Officer risked his career to save lives, because the orders authorizing intervention were not forthcoming. So yes, the Hurricane survivors owe a debt of gratitude to the Coast Guard, but it is in spite of your punk ass.

You'll need all this training to help keep your fellow citizens safe. In this war, we face a brutal enemy that has already killed thousands in our midst, and is determined to bring even greater destruction to our shores. We're blessed that there has not been another terrorist attack on our homeland in the past five-and-a-half years. This is not for lack of effort on the part of the enemy. Since 9/11, al Qaeda and its allies have succeeded in carrying out horrific attacks across the world; al Qaeda leaders have repeatedly made clear they intend to strike our country again.

So where is Osama “to tell you the truth I just don’t think about him that much” bin Laden these days, anyway?

In January of last year, Osama bin Laden warned the American people: "Operations are under preparation and you will see them on your own ground once they are finished." Seven months later, British authorities broke up the most ambitious known al Qaeda threat to the homeland since the 9/11 attacks: a plot to blow up passenger airplanes flying to America. Our intelligence community believes that this plot was just two or three weeks away from execution. If it had been carried out, it could have rivaled 9/11 in death and destruction.

Just yesterday the Resident declassified this information, expressly so he could use it in his fear-mongering diatribe in New London. (How conveeenyent.) Declassify yesterday and flog today before any proper scrutiny can be applied to determine if he is lying his ass off again.

You remember his reaction to the August 6 Presidential Daily Briefing titled bin Laden determined to strike within U.S. – he smirked and said “Okay. You’ve covered your ass now.” And resumed clearing brush. (No one could have imagined….)

To help stop new attacks on our country, we have undertaken the most sweeping reorganization of the federal government since the start of the Cold War. We created the new Department of Homeland Security, merging 22 different government organizations, including the Coast Guard, into a single Department with a clear mission: to protect America from future attacks.

Ask the residents of New Orleans what they think of this “restructuring” and I bet you’ll get your hat knocked in the creek.

All these steps are making our country safer, but we're not yet safe. To strike our country, the terrorists only have to be right once; to protect our country, we have to be right 100% of the time. That means the best way to protect our people is to take the fight to the enemy. So after 9/11, I vowed to America that we would go on the offense against the terrorists, fighting them across the world so we do not have to face them here at home. And since 9/11, that is precisely what that United States of America has done.

Backing off at Tora Bora and letting bin Laden abscond a part of that brilliant plan?

In Afghanistan, we removed a regime that gave sanctuary and support to al Qaeda as they planned the 9/11 attacks. Today, because we acted, the terrorist camps in Afghanistan have been shut down, 25 million people have been liberated, and the Afghan people have an elected government that is fighting terrorists, instead of harboring them.

The Taliban and al Qaeda are seeking to roll back Afghanistan's democratic progress -- but forces from 40 nations, including every member of NATO, are helping the Afghan people defend their democratic gains. Earlier this month, Afghan, American, and NATO forces tracked down and killed a top Taliban commander in Afghanistan. His death has sent a clear message to all who would challenge Afghanistan's young democracy: We drove al Qaeda and the Taliban out of power, and they're not going to be allowed to return to power.

So that’s why we are fighting in Iraq. Clears that right the fuck up…

In Iraq, we removed a cruel dictator who harbored terrorists, paid the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, invaded his neighbors, defied the United Nations Security Council, pursued and used weapons of mass destruction. Iraq, the United States and the world are better off without Saddam Hussein in power.

And was no threat to us. Not only that but anyone with a sense of world events can point to many worse offenders who haven’t been deposed by U.S. led forces. But then, those countries aren’t sitting on top of the third-largest oil reserve in the world.

And today the Iraqi people are building a young democracy on the rubble of Saddam Hussein's tyranny. In December 2005, nearly 12 million Iraqis demonstrated their desire to be free, going to the polls and choosing a new government under the most progressive, democratic constitution in the Arab world.

The Iraqi “government” is probably about to fall. The only thing the parliament can agree on is that the United States should leave.

There is a reason that bin Laden believes that if al Qaeda can drive us out, they can establish Iraq as a new terrorist sanctuary. Our intelligence community believes that, "al Qaeda leaders see victory in Iraq -- the heart of the caliphate and currently the most active front in their war -- as a religious and strategic imperative." If al Qaeda succeeds in Iraq, they would pursue their stated goals of turning that nation into a base from which to overthrow moderate governments in the region, impose their hateful ideology on millions, and launch new attacks on America and other nations. Victory in Iraq is important for Osama bin Laden -- and victory in Iraq is vital for the United States of America.

Yeah…Sunni militant al Qae’da is going to take over Shi’ite Iraq. Only in the non-functioning melon that sits atop the shrubs neck, and in the mind of a very few foam-flecked idiots who drank deep of the Raspberry Red.

(And we are all getting ponies for Christmas!!!)

The fight in Iraq is tough, but my point today to you is the fight is essential to our security -- al Qaeda's leaders inside and outside of Iraq have not given up on their objective of attacking America again. Now, many critics compare the battle in Iraq to the situation we faced in Vietnam. There are many differences between the two conflicts, but one stands out above all: The enemy in Vietnam had neither the intent nor the capability to strike our homeland. The enemy in Iraq does. Nine-eleven taught us that to protect the American people, we must fight the terrorists where they live so that we don't have to fight them where we live.

Okay, the bile is rising. What, exactly, does this pussy know about “tough fights”? He finished his hitch snorting coke off a stripper’s ass in the back of a titty-bar in Houston.

The part he leaves out is that terrorism is a tactic that has been used by the outgunned for centuries. We are always going to be a target of terrorism. That is reality. So what is this fuckwit’s solution? Make more terrorists by destabilizing the entire fucking middle east with feckless and reckless abandon! (The idiot twits aren’t over there, so what the fuck? Run amok!)

The question for our elected leaders is: Do we comprehend the danger of an al Qaeda victory in Iraq, and will we do what it takes to stop them? However difficult the fight in Iraq has become, we must win it. Al Qaeda is public enemy number one for Iraq's young democracy, and al Qaeda is public enemy number one for America, as well. And that is why we must support our troops, we must support the Iraqi government, and we must defeat al Qaeda in Iraq.

Al Qaeda is not enemy number one in the mind of anyone whose brain has not been turned to mush by years of Cocaine and alcohol abuse.. They are a scare tactic used by a petty little warmonger with Daddy issues and no skin in the game. If the U.S. left Iraq tomorrow, al Qaeda would be gone within a week – either slaughtered brutally by pissed-off Iraqi's, or fleeing with their lives.

Victory in this struggle will require valor and determination and persistence, and these qualities can be found in abundance in the Class of 2007.

Qualities that we wish our president possessed, but sadly, he wouldn’t know them if they bit him in the ass. But I digress and state the obvious. Victory in this struggle will require old-fashioned police work and dogged determination, and a reassessment of the world and out place in it. But that just doesn't sound as good, does it?