Cheney and Iran

Juan Cole, a Middle East authority, has a new post on his blog, Informed Comment, entitled

Cheney & Iran; Here we go again?

He cites sources he respects as telling him that Cheney has issued instructions that a media blitz supporting attacking Iran is to be rolled out in early September. The propaganda channels of choice include The Wall Street Journal, Fox, The American Enterprise Institute and The Weekly Standard. No surprises there.

His post cites other news pieces which indicate Cheney/Bush are beating the drums for war, just as they did before invading Iraq.

Is there no way to stop this madness? Impeach Cheney and Bush on charges of violating their oaths to uphold the Constitution.

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

Fred Thompson and the Image Game

The more I happen to come across appearances of Fred Thompson on TV, the more my view of him compares more realistically with a former President than a current candidate for the 2008 nomination.

This afternoon I watched a clip of Mr. Thompson on TV, in which he talked about having two young children, and how energized that makes him feel.

For weeks now his handlers have been successful in getting the main stream media to feature his wife as a strong influence on him; smart, savvy and strong minded to be sure, but the underlying, if not intentionally subconscious message put out there is that he is a stud, by virtue of his late-in-life fathering of children, and the youth and good looks of his wife, the mother of his children. He seems to enjoy telling the papparozzial behaviors of the so-called Main Stream Media that she is both his wife and his campaign manager.

One wonders what psychologically conscious and unconscious responses his handlers have indentified and targeted as easily subject to being swayed by their propaganda.

I spot here all the earmarks of an advertising, propaganda and spin campaign which his handlers believe is necessary to create an image of candidate who embodies the best of the wise old man and the virulent stud.

They also try to make him out to be today's Ronald Reagan. The only similarity I see is that both men made a good living as an actor, but at different times in their lives.

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

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The Blogosphere and the Fifth Estate

The generally accepted definition of the Fourth Estate is that it is comprised of a community of journalists; a rather broad definition which takes in all levels of the media, from the so-called Main Stream Media to the writings of individuals. This definition says nothing about quality, ownership, editorial views, agendas, sources of revenues and impact or influence.

The phrase "Main Stream Media" has become common in today's parlance and seems to connote institutions with aspects and qualities of power, continuity, influence, availability, acceptance and impact.

For purposes of this essay, I include as elements of the Main Stream Media, in addition to the major print media institutions, the major TV networks and the major Cable news companies. All qualify by virtue of their reputation for power and influence, ratings and as readily available to a mass audience.

What brought about the need to differentiate between the so-called Main Stream Media(MSM) and other media institutions, and why is it important to discuss it?

One example can be found on Alternet,org; Norman Solomon's piece about the news director of CNN, and his complicity with the Pentagon to sell the war in Iraq in return for their imprimatur for employing retired generals. The obvious purpose was to promote and enhance CNN's appearance of credibility. It was a hidden agenda in that there was no public disclosure to the viewers of CNN of any deal with the Pentagon.

It's unlikely that one would find accounts of such complicity in the MSM, at least not on the front page, let alone above the fold, nor in the pre-break hooks of the TV media, Network or Cable. The story of huge sums of taxpayer money spent by the Bush administration on contracts with PR firms to provide pre-packaged, administration -friendly propaganda to that same MSM is more likely to be found on Internet Sites like Alternet.org, Truthdig.com, Truthout.org., and in the writings of those who are publishing their own independent views on the Internet.

Fortunately, Nature abhors a vacuum, and in this case the vacuum is comprised of an absence in the MSM of honesty. Hidden agendas and quid/pro deals sacrifice credibility, to which consumers of news are awakening.

Nature is filling that vacuum by what we might call the re-emergence of the Fifth Estate, the expressions and writings of those who understand and appeal to the market of honest and outraged citizens who have had it, will no longer buy the spin and who are looking for authors of knowledge, honesty and credibility. They want to read and hear commentators who are willing to hold to account those who cloak a suspect agenda in the guise of familiarity and previous reputations of respectability; but no longer deserved.

I refer to those authors who wish to use the Internet to make respectable, high road contributions, regardless of their point of view, on politics, culture, religion, science and such. By contrast, there are those who use the Internet to make ugly, sleazy, low life contributions of pornography, hate, racism, xenophobic and homophobic rants and the like. I understand that such labels are subjective, but as it is said about pornography, you know it when you see it.

Many of us who are interested enough to be involved and have opinions will wait to express them by voting in November, 2008. That's the provision provided to objectors by the writers of the Constitution. Unlike Parlimentarian governments, which can be ousted by votes of no confidence most anytime, our Constitution provides for ousting a government, or supporting it, by a public vote on a scheduled basis.

Unfortunately and sadly, many of us will not be able to vote in 2008 due to difficult and understandable circumstances; overwhelming problems of daily survival due to health, physical, mental and emotional problems.

Then there are those of us who just don't bother, don't respond to any kind of overture or appeal, and are seemingly unreachable. They will always be with us.

Even with such discounting, the number of citizens who can vote but don't is about half of those who could. One wonders how the world might look today if that half of voters who didn't bother, did.

I believe that some don't bother to vote in part because they have lost respect for politicians as a whole, and also because they have come to distrust the MSM to publish facts, be independent of political pressure and not engage in quid/pro deals to enhance their appearance of credibility by agreeing to support the agendas of those with whom they make the deals.

Some of us have decided to write about what we believe, not influenced by pressures to be profitable, nor by a need to maintain good relations with politicians in order to insure access to them.

We post essays to our blogs on the Internet blogosphere, what, to me, is the modern manifestation of the Fifth Estate, the voice of the people. Some respected journalists have likened it to the pamphleteers of our Founding Fathers era; Ben Franklin's "Poor Richards' Almanac" and the writings of James Madison, for example.

Contributions such as Norman Solomon's mentioned above, and those of other authors, are published on professionally designed and managed Internet sites like Truthdig, Truthout and Alternet. In my view they are also examples of the Fifth Estate. Though more institutionalized than individual bloggers, they don't seem to pull their punches when it comes to the need to be critical publicly of politicians. The ones I've cited lean toward left of center, but are critical, especially lately, of the feckless Democratic majority.

Total objectivity is an abstract concept. The very fact that a human being expresses a view, that view is, by definition, subjective; it represents the subject's view. In this essay I have tried to make the case that the Fifth Estate, as represented by independent bloggers and authors published on Internet sites, are less likely to be influenced by pressure of profitability and access than the Main Stream Media. Being for or against the Iraq war for example is not what I'm talking about. Making quid/pro deals with anyone, for or against anything, is what I am warning against.

Leanderthal

Lighthouse Keeper

Deja Vu All Over Again?

Is it politics or policy that is behind today's reports that Bush is about to label the Iran Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist body? Is it both?

Is the Cheney/Bush group trying to go to the well one more time to set up a scenario that puts us in a new war, and so wants to be able to say, as they did in 2004, that you shouldn't change horses in the middle of the stream?

Why haven't we heard from the Main Stream Media much about Sec. Rice lately? Has Cheney succeeded in marginalizing her as he did with Sec Powell? Why are we reading the name Petraous more frequently than Gates?

Is the Main Stream Media still cooperating with the administration in what they publish, so as not to lose access to sources of power and news ? Did you read how much money the administration has spent on disseminating manufactured news?

George I got high marks for his Gulf War, but it was over too soon to save him from defeat in his bid for a second term. The economy sunk him. George II, always looking for ways to upstage his old man, sees Wall Street in a dither, usually a six month advanced indicator of the economy, and figures he has to go back to being a war president to distract the public from the "Homeland" problems. But he needs a new war to do that, and the only way he can get that done is to attack Iran, by declaring them the source of his problems in Iraq.

By the way, are you as nervous as I about the resurrection of the term "Homeland"? That is so "Old Europe", to quote Rumsfeld, and carries with it a frightening connotation of nationalistic, emotional militarism, reminiscent of the 1930's and 1940's.

Rove v Bush and The Art of Spin

Spin, the modern euphemism for the selling of lies, formally known as propaganda, has it that Bush feels bereft by Karl Rove's resignation. For those who are tempted to believe that,

"Abandon all Hope ye who enter here."

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

An Ironic Force for Unity in Iraq

Joshua Holland has a piece on Alternet.org about the so-called Oil Law which Washington and Big Oil want passed in Iraq.

I've written about this several times.

The interesting part of Holland's contribution is his view, backed up by some polls, that Iraqis of all stripes are coming together against this law.

Unity?


Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

Talking with Grampa

Richard Cohen has a wonderful piece in today's Washington Post. He makes terrific use of a great literary device.

Grampa comes back to ask boychik what's happened to the Democratic Party?

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

Playing the Other's Game; Dangerous

Anyone who has participated in organized sports is likely to have learned one of the toughest lessons of competition; the danger of getting sucked into playing your opponent's game. It usually happens when your opponent knows he is unlikely to beat you at your own game, and has nothing to lose by trying to take you out of it, hoping to strip you of your advantage. I learned a lot of life's lessons in the process of playing basketball up through college at the NCAA level. Thus my use of the game of basketball as a metaphor to illustrate a point.

The classic case is a short but fast team up against a tall and disciplined team. When the disciplined team starts playing the run and gun game of the short fast team they forsake their strength, begin to worry and lose confidence in themselves. Sometimes the game can actually get away from the "better" team. The wise coach spots it and often can avoid a bad outcome by getting his players' attention that they need to trust themselves, and their own game plan, and not get sucked into playing the other's game.

It's becoming distressingly evident to me that Barack Obama, who, among the current candidates running for the office. I hope will become President, is starting to play the other's game. People have been attracted to him because he seems to see the big picture, has taken the high road, is smart and articulate, and has come across as a statesman, not just another politician competing for a job.

However, his handlers, not to be confused with coaches, like Kerry's before him, seem to be pushing him to come across as the testosterone candidate, the micro tactician, the tough on terrorism image. Recently he said that he would take military action in Pakistan, even though Pakistan publicly warned us away from that course. Pakistan was warning Bush away, knowing that Bush is weak at home and vulnerable to criticism. With that comment he essentially, though hopefully inadvertently, aligned himself with Bush, the vulnerable. And Barack's the one who called Hillary Bush Lite. What was he thinking? Or, more importantly, what happened to his thinking? He's playing his opponent's' games.

Hillary, in the last debate, ironically, made the more testosterone response to the viewer's question about talking to our enemies. She began with "No". Obama's response has been characterized by the media as soft on terrorism.

He was guilty of making a classic rookie mistake, not seeing the trap until it was too late. He answered the question from his conviction that we must try to establish dialogue with those who oppose us, a major recommendation of the Iraq Study Commission. But he fell into the trap of answering a Yes or No question, used by lawyers to entrap witnesses, with his honest belief that, Yes, of course we need to talk to those who oppose us, rather than preceding his yes or no response with the sensible caveats his response needed, and which he mentioned, but too late in the game.

I hold the view that we have a social obligation to respond, but not to answer.

What disappoints me most is that after his opponent ran the floor and scored on a steal and fast break, he fell into playing the opponent's game, trying to make a quick score, in retaliation, and playing catch up. But playing catch up is rarely successful, relying on tactics more than strategy.

The sports metaphor breaks down here. Unlike that simplistic example in which the coach is the source of wisdom, Obama must rely on his own wisdom and his ability to articulate it. Roles should be reversed here. Obama is the player/coach and he must tell his advisers that he knows best, and that he sees them as being in support roles, like assistant coaches, chart keepers and trainers.

Problem is sometimes a player/coach can become confused and ineffective by trying to handle both roles. It's rare in the world of sports that it works. I suspect that it won't work well with Barack either.

So someone needs to get his attention that he is playing his opponent's game, and remind him of, and get him back to playing, his own game. I'll phrase my response in the form of a question.

Who is Mrs. Obama?

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

The Main Stream Media Then and Now

Norman Solomon writes today about his take on the Pollock/O'Hanlon piece in the Times.

I have personal knowledge that supporters of the War, who call it laudable and winnable, are pointing to the Pollock/O'Hanlon piece with great delight, including the association of the authors with the claimed liberal Brookings Institution, and that, up to now, the two authors have been critical of the way Bush has waged this war.

Solomon points out what he sees as the apparent repeat of the Bush Administration/New York Times collaboration before the war, and the appearance on the talk shows of admin types then and now,. pointing to the Times support for the war, and being sure to include that the Times is not especially friendly to the right.

Sometimes the truth is in the middle, but I must admit that I can't find comfort there on this.

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

Would You Talk To---Part 3

Obama's sense of vision got him in trouble in a recent debate when asked if he would talk with those who are said to be our enemies? He said he would. That response was pounced on by those who see the world and its threats as issues they can ride to get elected.

Obama sees those issues as opportunities. He wants to separate himself from the Cheney/Bu$h/Rice approach of not talking to opponents because it gives them air time, propaganda time, which they claim provides our enemies with an advantage.

Obama gets it.

Lighthouse Keeper

Would you talk to---part 2?

The Main Stream Media has set up the game between Clinton and Obama as being between the veteran and the rookie. Consequently they will be looking for examples which support their view.


I just published a post a few minutes ago about how Clinton's response has been portrayed as an example of a veteran response. The tough guy or gal, the seasoned one, the one who's been there and approaches those who oppose us with cynicism. Hard to argue with that, though that approach, or rather that non-approach, is tantamount to accepting the lousy and bleak view of the future of our relationships with other countries and peoples, some who actively oppose us, and some who simply disagree with us.


"No" is considered the safe position, at least in the short run. One can always move up from that toward a compromise. It's often the position of choice of those who take a negative view of the future, and also of those who run for office as a politician, not a stateman, focused on first things first; getting nominated, then getting elected, and then using the connections and realtionships established over the last several years to consider how to use them to their advantage, which too often means doing what is necessary to continue in power, whether or not that is in the best interest of the country.


Here's the rub. To Whose Advantage? Yours as the President, your political party, or the Constitution you hope to take an oath to uphold, and by extension, the citizens of the country you have been elected to lead; all of them, not just those whom you think are on your side. If you think the way of whose side are you on, you are no different than George W. who said you are either for us or with the terroists. Terrorists, opposition party senators and representatives, disagreeing journalists, opposing lobbyists.

Would You Talk to -----?

This is about the responses of Obama and Clinton to a debate question regarding talking or not to our enemies; which became le sujet de jour of today's talk shows.

Clinton seems to be getting the positive nod. Was it because she gave the testosterone response to the delight of her supporters who are worried that she'll be seen as not tough enough, being a woman, to deal with the nasties of the world?

The testosterone crowd is conveniently ignoring how frightening a female of most any species can be when what she holds dear is threatened; and I'm not just talking about mama bears.
Where did the saying, "If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy" come from? I submit from the experiences of the testosterone crowd who ran into Mama.

Here's a poem from my 2001 collection, The Poet and the Pendulum.

A Man's Lament

If Mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy;
A truism most of us men know well.
It frightens and freezes us, leaves us quite helpless
About what we can do to avoid living hell.

In desperation we might opt out of marriage,
Or other arrangements which we thought had such promise
Of partnerships comfortable, from our point of view;
Only to learn we're much less than a novice

In terms of her needs, desires and wishes.
We're apt to confront or avoid them it seems.
But neither approach is ever much help,
And we find that we need to let go of the means

Which we've often relied on to get what we want.
They often can lead to undiagnosed traumas.
We still haven't learned how to please and appease
That woman in life, like the needs of our Mamas?

More on Iraq and Oil

I recommend Ben Lando's piece on alternet.org. You can click on the link in my sidebar for alternet.org.

The author of the blog MinstrelBoy tells me via email that he has read the most recent version of the oil law and finds it to be sensible, my words, and not particularly skewed to the advantage of private big oil firms as some have journalists have asserted.

By the way http://minstrelboy.blogspot.com is a very good blog. The author has a particularly strong stake in what goes on in Iraq, which you can discover by reading the first to links he shows in his sidebar.

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

It Starts at the Top

This following is pure personal opinion. There's no way I could prove the connection I am about to assert or back it up with facts. It's one of those, "you'll know it when you see it" things.

I have, though, spent a lifetime in business, thirteen as CEO, and have seen how the behavior of the top exec affects an organization, mine and those with whom I have had close relationships.

We are reading many disturbing articles lately having to do with our own troops committing murder and various other atrocities, even the possibility that Pat Tillman was murdered by one his own team.

Over the past several years in Washington we have been witnessing lies and subterfuges coming out of the White House. Lately we're seeing the royalist behavior in Cheney/Bu$h, a level of arrogance not seen in government in a long time.

Here's my assertion.

This behavior on the part of the President and Vice President, not following the accepted rules of conduct, in fact ignoring rules, choosing what laws are convenient to obey and ignoring those inconvenient, is not lost on our troops and our citizens. Whether conscious or not, those down the line seem to be behaving as if thinking, "well if they can do it, and they're in charge -------. You can complete the thought yourself. It's the excuse and behavior of the schoolyard projected onto the stage of war.

This assertion can't be used in an Impeachment process, but nevertheless it is one of the most insidious influences one can imagine coming from the President/Commander in Chief; the guy at the top.

Garrison Keillor, The Old Scout got it right. He refers to Bu$h as the currant occupant and labeled him, "that dim, small man".


Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

Lucky Bear

Using the "View Blog" button I stumbled upon a blog I find refreshing and interesting. The author is a Vicar in a church in New Zealand. I find his views on religion to my taste, seeing the Bible as pointing us to God not as written by God, for example.

I especially enjoyed his essay on Satan and the history of Satan.

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

Iraq Media Spin

Norman Solomon has a clear and insightful piece on alternet.org about Leaving Iraq, sort of.

More Main Stream Media willing to publish the Cheney/Bush propaganda.

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

High Tech Medicine

My family doc wanted me to have two MRI's one for my head and brain stem, and one for my thoracic back.

This afternoon I spent a half hour in a tunnel, with jack hammers, horns, drums, and all number of high decibel noise makers. What an experience. I pretended that the noise makers were the percussion section of a band playing Stars and Stripes Forever. That helped.

My doc also gave me a Valium tablet to take before the tests. That helped too. The last time I had an MRI for a back operation in Maine I had some claustrophobic feelings because the tip of my nose was only 1/16 inch away from the roof of the tunnel. Today's machine was larger and less confining. All in all it wasn't that bad, though I wouldn't volunteer for one.

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

Family Ties

In early May my number four son, his lovely wife Amy and their one year old son came from Memphis for the weekend.

This was a special visit because it was our first visit with the grandson. He is named for my Father who was Henry Valentine Lindeman. I am not Junior, so my son is named Henry Valentine Lindeman II, and his son is Henry Valentine Lindeman III. He's the happiest one year old I've ever seen, so both parents are doing many things right.

When I decided to move from Brunswick, ME to the Cape in 2001 to be with Betsy, Henry II visited me there. I had to shed a lot of furnishings because Betsy's home was fully furnished. We had two trucks at the house, one for the Cape and one for Memphis. On the Memphis truck we loaded virtually all of my dad's things that he bequeathed to me in 1970. Henry II was thrilled to have them, the stuff of his namesake. And the really neat thing is Amy loves them too.

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

Family Weekend

Last weekend my number two son, his wife, two girls and his mother-in-law were with Betys and me.

I was a bit apprehensive of their visit because Ken had a bad time when his parents divorced some years ago. But from the minute they arrived to the minute they left I witness the happiest family I've ever known. The relationships between each parent and their kids is based on respect and friendship with no visible corrections made by either parent to a child, and none were needed. Mom-in-law is high energy, close to all and told me how proud I should be of my son as a husband, father and son-in-law.

We took a whale watch boat out of P'town and saw many whales, though not as active as I've seen before, but the girls were thrilled.

Annie, age 11 wanted to play the trumpet when she got into fourth grade last year, so I sent her my 60 year old Conn solo trumpet which my dad bought for me in Plainfield, NJ when I was in fourth grade in Westfield, NJ. They had it cleaned, polished and dents removed. Annie brought it along and had some music sheets from her fifth grade band. I've been teaching myself the Clarinet, a little quieter in the house. We performed many duets for the family. What a thrill to experience this actually happening.

Emily who is 13 years old has matured early and is lovely. She enjoys clothes and stuff. Em is in the drama club and chorus. She will be in 9th grade, first year high school this fall. She make a great leading lady.

One great blessing is that they all adore Betsy, my unlawful wedded wife. Betsy has five sons and their families. I have four sons and their families. We've been together for 20 years, and decided long ago that with all those kids and grandchildren we would not complicate things with marriage.

We hadn't seen these folks in several years, and still have a glow as a result of a wonderful experience with them.

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper

With Friends Like These ---------

Most any newspaper or blog includes today's story of Pakistan's warning to the US that any attempt to use military force against Al Qaeda and/or the Taliban in Pakistan is "unacceptable".

Musharraf is supposed to be our ally. What's that about?

What that's about is that Bush is now seen as such a joke in the international community that few take him seriously, have any respect for him, and consequently believe that they can ignore, and, in the case of Pakistan today, defy the will of the American people, thought of as represented by Bush.

The international community knows that he(and we, by extension) can huff and puff but can no longer blow any one's house down. Our military strength has been compromised, if not neutered; our reputation as a stalwart leader of freedom has become a joke due to our actions against a sovereign country, Iraq, which posed no threat to us, but which sits on the planet's second or third largest deposits of oil; our political and moral divisiveness is common knowledge around the globe; our elected politicians' bought and paid for blind allegiance to Israel enrages virtually all peoples in the Middle East and likely other peoples who resent those who want to rule by fiat (executive privilege in today's spin) and anyone who believes that their shit don't stink.

I've talked to many of my friends about Impeachment. Most of them still think it's a waste of time and focus, a diversion from attention to the fiasco of Iraq. I used to think that way too.

I have changed my mind and now believe and support those Constitutional scholars and lawyers who are saying that Impeachment is not a Constitutional Crisis but a cure for a Constitutional crisis.

The Founders of our country anticipated this, having revolted against those who wanted to rule, not govern. It's likely that earlier generations in our country were concerned about this, but I suspect that what is going on today is perhaps the closest we as a people and country have come to being faced with a challenge from those who have such a desire for control and rule that they have no qualms about riding roughshod over our Constitution and all its values and safeguards, plus the views, wishes and hopes of those who voted them into office.

Yes, Iraq is a sickness, an illness of great distress, but perhaps is a symptom of a plague which has the potential to wipe out all the progress of society's efforts of the last two centuries to provide a social and cultural system which recognizes, appreciates and values the synergistic expression of enormous numbers of individuals, as recorded by their private votes, whether well considered or not; but certainly at least self-interested, and as such were made as a personal expression of hope that the future will be better than the past.

Cheney/Bush should be brought to justice through the process of Impeachment, the legal terms and articles of which can be drawn by Constitutional lawyers and scholars, but which, in effect, represent what most citizens believe is criminal intent and inimical to the health of America and it's people.

Leanderthal
Lighthouse Keeper