The Wisdom of the People - the Populist Rationale
By Michael Collins
The citizens of the United States have excellent judgment. They have shown it consistently over time. When that judgment shifts briefly allowing a failed policy, it is a result of the vilest forms of propaganda by a small clique of liars. (Image: PS-OV-ART)
The people were right about the invasion of Iraq
We know that the plan to invade Iraq began just days after Inauguration Day, 2001. The opportunity to launch the most disastrous and costly military effort in our history came on 9/11. The destruction of the World Trade Center towers and attack on the Pentagon became the pretext for war. The manipulators launched their fraudulent storyline in earnest with confidence that they would get their war.
But in December of 2002, the public wasn't buying it. The people didn't have access to all of the information. They knew one thing for sure -- the invasion was a very bad idea unless Iraq posed an imminent threat to the country with weapons of mass destruction. An in depth Los Angeles Times public opinion poll asked this question:
PermalinkGlobal Blossoms from Arab Spring
Rick Dickinson
Revolutions rippling across the Arab World have left earth's elites trembling in their gilded Crocs. They've seen just how easily populism can pierce their thin veneer of permanence, and they know what's in store: in the age old battle of oligarchs vs. oppressed, the underdogs have been growing new teeth.
Undercurrents of discontent can brew for lifetimes, like in Egypt or Tunisia, until social media ultimately brings it to a boil. Instant interconnection - knowing that huge numbers of fellow humans feel the same way at the same time - provides the empowerment needed to break the barrier of fear binding the hegemonic house of cards.
The Bipartisan Citizen Beat Down and the End of Democracy
Both political parties are manifestly hostile to citizens. This hostility reduces electoral participation to just over 50% of the voting age population for presidential elections and less than 40% for off-year congressional elections. The absence of 50% to 60% of those eligible to vote creates minority rule and threatens the legitimacy of any ruling party. Truly, every election ratifies the rejection of both parties.
Death Panels, Palin's Targets, and Political Assassination
Michael Collins
The attempted assassination of Representative Gabrielle Giffords raises the bar for political lies and hate to a new level. Previously, incendiary political lies stopped just short violent imagery. Sarah Palin's Take Back 20 campaign presented a violent threat in the form of rifle site crosshairs placed over the congressional districts of 20 Democratic supporters of health care reform.
Ironically, Giffords sent Palin a clear message to end the violent allusion in the ads. In this brief video, she warns:
"… we're on Sarah Palin's targeted list but the thing is that the way she's had it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun site over our district. When people do that, they've got to realize that there [are] consequences to that action." Rep. Giffords
Whom Does the State Represent?
By Numerian
“Where are Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan when you need them?” So lamented CNBC business commentator Larry Kudlow yesterday in response to riots in Greece over proposed financial cutbacks. Greek protesters, numbering over 10,000, shut down commerce, took over the Acropolis – Athens’ ancient birthplace of democracy - and firebombed office buildings and police stations. Three employees died of smoke inhalation in a fire at a bank – the first deaths in a Greek protest since 1991.
Kudlow asserted that these riots were the work of the unions, and what Greece needed was a tough guy in the mold of Thatcher or Reagan who would stand up to the unions. Public sector unions are certainly at the forefront in organizing these protests, but Greek authorities say that the violence is being perpetrated by “anarchists” – youth in their 20s who show up at a protest scene dressed all in black, with black hoods or masks, and who then begin to throw stones at the police and Molotov cocktails at bank buildings.
US Democracy, Progressivism , and Brand Building
By Joaquin Posted by Michael Collins
Analysts for the political parties create segmentation labels like NASCAR Dads, progressivism, liberal, green, fiscal conservatism, etc for purposes having to do with the party's brand building and marketing campaigns. This process is very similar to that on which Corporate America spends so much time and money. An institution's brand and its knowledge of its customers are the Corporate family jewels. So it is with political parties.
It is important to understand that public labels of marketing segments are, in and of themselves, marketing messages; a kind of voice. It is unlikely that sophisticated political analysts segment their market with these terms; that is a statistical process that involves correlation of reactions to messages. The correlation around the messages enables the analysts to refine the party's voice to a particular segment. It is a sophisticated process that requires a solid knowledge of statistics and modern marketing techniques.
The Silence of Freedom
Link: http://ddjango.blogspot.com/2009/09/silence-of-freedom.html
I know I'm not the only one, but I have to ask ...
Who's watching the store? Who is leading the Cabinet? Who is corralling the Democrats? Where does the buck stop? Instead of a presidency, we've bought into nothing more than a traveling wild west variety show, complete with gunslingers and the Snake Oil Salesman-in-Chief. The deluge of words over the weekend was simply over the top. For once, Faux Noose had the right idea in snubbing the guy.
Maybe it just ain't so great that we got ourselves a president that can string a few intelligible words together. At least Dubbleduh tended to be hilarious on the podium from time to time and we really didn't have to listen to him very much. This Obama cat just won't shut up. Nothing more than a cheerleader, but it remains to be seen just where the team is and where the game plan is supposed to get us.
It's not just the volume of words in his grand speechification tour. It's that the content still means no more than "hope" and "change". This man brings nothing to the table but thousands of vague generalities.
Crimes of Conscience
Link: http://ddjango.blogspot.com/2009/07/crimes-of-conscience.html
By ddjango
Somewhere, somehow, during the past few months, we passed a final "point of no return".
If there truly was hope in the certain prospect of regime change, from the Bush/Neocon travesty to the Obama/Neoprogressive administration, it lay in the promise of confession, reconciliation, and redemption. It lay in the chance that the new presidency and a changed Congress would fully repudiate the self-destructive sins of at least two thirds of a century of dishonor, disinformation, and dissolution committed in the name and for the purposes of empire, capitalism, consumerism, and questionable "national security".
The mantra of "Change", repeated mercilessly during the presidential campaign, but in the absence of any concrete examples of what form that change would take, was no less Rovian than The Dubbleduh-Chainey Gang's invocation of "weapons of mass destruction" and "terrorism". The endless repetition had its desired effect. It played not to the head, but to the gut; was not about thought, but about emotions. It was, in fact, more religious than it was political; more about fantasy than reality. It was a prayer, nothing more, nothing less.
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