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Friday, October 07, 2005

CHICKEN LITTLE COMES HOME TO ROOST
I had just finished reading this post from ThinkProgress, which alleges that Bush was predictably recycling his tried-and-true tactic of fear mongering during yesterday’s ‘major speech’, when I received an e-mail from a friend saying, “be careful on the subways.” My skepticism meter was already off the charts, but the oh-so-convenient timing of the subway terror alert just about made my head explode. (not literally, thank god)

Image hosted by TinyPic.com 'Aaaaaaaaaaargh! Scary monsters!'

Let’s take a quick look at the circumstances, shall we? Bush’s approval ratings are in the tank. Rumors are swirling like mad that half the White House will be indicted within weeks. His core supporters on the Right have erupted in a cannibalistic fury as a result of this week’s SCOTUS pick of Harriet Miers. And we know that terror alerts have been politically motivated in the past. Considering all this, it doesn't take a genius to come to the conclusion that perhaps, just maybe, yesterday’s subway alert was bullshit.

Hell, the subway news came across the wire at just about the exact same time the Rove news did. I was toggling between the two stories as though the White House spinmeisters were at the switches behind my Web browser: “No, No, don’t pay attention to that! Look! Over here! You may get blowed up on your way home from work!”

Image hosted by TinyPic.com

To be clear, I try my best not to come across as some wacko conspiracy theorist. I think I’m a realist, healthily skeptical of just about everything, but not to the point of claiming that government-controlled aliens are responsible for 9/11 or some other nutty theory. But it’s damn difficult at this point in the Bush presidency, based on a deep well of misleading, deceptive jive and outright lies over the last 5 years, to trust anything they say. And this is yet one more reason these people have utterly failed us as leaders. Guess I’ll have to add it to the list.

For all I know, the subway alert could very well be real. Maybe I should be freaked the shit out about riding the subway. But how am I supposed to know what’s real and what’s not? It’s maddening as hell that at a time in our history that is so critical, tenuous, and perhaps more dangerous than ever before, our so-called 'leaders' have created such an environment of distrust and skepticism that the citizenry has no idea what to believe, what’s up and what’s down, what’s black and what’s white. And of course, that’s exactly what they want. That way we’ll all just throw up our hands and go along for ride when they scream, “We have to attack Iran now or we’ll all going to die!” Hell, it worked for Iraq, why not keep going to that well?

Image hosted by TinyPic.com (from whitehouse.org)

Speaking of that, today marks the anniversary of Bush’s infamous Cincinnati speech. This is the ‘mushroom cloud’ speech, the one that started us all on this bloody path to war. ThinkProgress has all the details and debunks. Check it out.

Lastly, there was this morning's suspiciously serendipitous development “leaked” to the press on the heels of yesterday's propaganda catapulting. In it, the details of a letter from al Qaeda’s Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi confirm just about every assertion Bush made in his little speech. Wow, pretty amazing. The president really seems to know what he’s talking about, doesn't he? But how are we supposed to believe any of this? It’s not like an al Qaeda spokesperson is going to step outside his cave, hold a press conference and say, “this letter is a fabrication!” The timing of this just reeks of bullshit.

The deception, the fear-mongering, the incompetence, the corruption, the bankrupting, the mismanagement, and everything else, MUST STOP NOW. Will someone please stand up and demand an end to this nonsense?

Fuck it, I’m taking the subway to go see Beck at the Hammerstein tonight, and no one – not Bush, not Rove, not Osama – is going to stop me.

MORE
C&L: Nice Timing
Wonk: Suspicious?
Shakes: Who Knows? Who Cares?
NYT: Doing the 9/11 Time Warp Again
Slate: Bush’s Speech Was Sad, Demoralizing
Countdown: Coincidental Terror Threat Timing



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