Unknown News | Commentary by Helen & Harry Highwater

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Helen & Harry's MENTAL HEALTH MOMENT

One more catastrophically stupid war

by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News August 20, 2007

I don't gamble. Even in my one visit to a Nevada casino, my focus was on the low-price all-you-can-eat buffet.

If I was a gambler, though, I wouldn't wager against another war. It's within the grasp of Bush and Cheney -- sure, America hates them, but that hatred will evaporate as citizens, like lemmings, line up to support their alleged Commander-in-Chief in wartime. The mainstream media is corporate-controlled almost without exception and very nearly literally a part of the Bush-Cheney administration, is the only source of information for most Americans. And there would be no opposition to speak on in Congress, beyond a very few true Democrats who routinely speak the truth and are routinely mocked for it.

What matters most, and very nearly what matters only, is that Bush and Cheney clearly want another war. In our fine democracy, what these two schmucks want is all that matters. They've gotten everything they've wanted -- with the eager cooperation of media, Congress, Democrats, and the American citizenry -- from the day they secured the 2000 Republican nomination. And now they want war against Iran.

If I was a gambler, I would bet everything I own that Bush and Cheney will start at least one more catastrophically stupid war before leaving office. And even without placing any bets, of course, everything I own, everything I love, everything I give a damn about and my life itself are all already on the line.

^{* * *} Three Democrats in Congress, we're told, have introduced measures to censure Bush, Cheney and Gonzales.

These Democrats can bite my dimpled ass. Censure is nothing, and in the face of such obviously, monumentally criminal government, proposing censure is proposing nothing. Proposing nothing, as America is ripped asunder, is a little like suggesting that cops should wag their fingers and say "Tsk, tsk" instead of actually arresting criminals.

^{* * *} On the other side of this link you'll find an Associated Press article with the headline, "Bush committed to tracking al Qaeda." In the article itself, you'll find nothing to back up the headline's claim, except, of course, that President Bush said al Qaeda is bad, and Afghan Puppet Hamid Karzai said that he agrees, and blah blah blah.

Bush saying something doesn't make it so -- and based on everything in the Bush-Cheney track record of dishonesty, it's a much safer assumption that Bush saying something means it's a lie.

So the correct headline isn't "Bush committed to tracking al Qaeda," it should be "Bush says he's committed to tracking al Qaeda." The difference is subtle, but anyone who's done even the slightest reading in propaganda techniques understands that the difference is important. It's the difference between being the President's press agent and being a reporter.

And then, a long, slow sigh. Nobody pays me to be a reporter. I never even took a class in journalism. So how come I have to explain the difference between journalism and propaganda to professional reporters and editors at Associated Press?

^{* * *} John Edwards has been on a good run, far as I'm concerned. For the past few weeks, he's been making headlines for saying things that need to be said. He says he won't take lobbyists' money, says up front that the so-called Petraeus report is just White House public relations, says he would talk with Iran instead of just bombing them, he dumped his investments in Katrina profiteers and he called Ann Coulter a she-devil. Edwards remains my favorite, among the candidates taken seriously by the media, which is to say, among the candidates who have been granted the possibility of winning.

^{* * *} If you've been reading the papers lately, the "strongman dictator" (popularly elected and re-elected President) of Venezuela has declared himself dictator for life (actually, he's proposed lifting term limits so he can run for a third term -- a proposal that would need to be approved by popular referendum in Venezuela).

But oddly, you didn't hear any hysterical media shrieks as Colombian President Álvaro Uribe used a back-room process to circumvent his nation's term limits and run for a second term in 2006.

So why all the headlines and hand-wringing about Venezuela's Chavez, but hardly a whisper about Colombia's Uribe? Easy. Uribe is a thug. He has right-wing death squads roaming the countryside, and he's cooperative with U.S. policies as handed down by Bush-Cheney. Chavez, by comparison, is a popular populist, and disdainful of being told what to do by Washington DC.

Chavez is far from perfect, but he's a hell of a lot better leader and better human than Uribe, or than America's thugs, GW Bush and Dick Cheney.

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Nobody pays me to be a reporter.

I never even took a class in journalism.

So how come I have to explain the difference between journalism and propaganda to professional reporters and editors at Associated Press?

Helen and Harry Highwater have published Unknown News since 1997. We're a married couple sharing a byline à la Lennon and McCartney, and "I" can be either of us, or both of us. If you're consumed by curiosity, it's safe to assume the more boisterous and aggressive bits come from Helen, and anything ladylike or demure is probably Harry's work.

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