Say it isn’t so, our bullshit government has engaged in propaganda activity directly on US soil? The New York Times had a very interesting article yesterday titled: “Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand“. No, the hidden hand wasn’t up Bush’s mostly retarded ass as I had originally guessed, it is actually in your pocket and mine, as well as up the skirts of school girls (the Pentagon is a dirty dirty place full of creepy pederasts). The article is a great read and goes into detail how the Bush Administration uses former military officials, who are now mostly tied up with the private sector defense industry, as embedded puppets at the major TV news outlets. Big surprise, FoxNews had the highest number of these ass-clowns followed by NBC, CNN, CBS and ABC. One warning, the article is fucking 11 pages long, most of us don’t have the attention span or time to dedicate to an article that long, but it was worth the extra minutes for me.

We all know suspect that the information flowing from the Bush Administration is bullshit, but now there is solid evidence of an information tampering program initiated by the assholes in charge of the country. They brought these “independent” analysts in and held private briefings with them with the exact message points the administration wanted to get out and then deployed them to the networks. And this shit works.

Hidden behind that appearance of objectivity, though, is a Pentagon information apparatus that has used those analysts in a campaign to generate favorable news coverage of the administration’s wartime performance, an examination by The New York Times has found.

The effort, which began with the buildup to the Iraq war and continues to this day, has sought to exploit ideological and military allegiances, and also a powerful financial dynamic: Most of the analysts have ties to military contractors vested in the very war policies they are asked to assess on air.

I really fucking hate this administration. And, I’m not sure if our government is realistically fixable.

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The wife and I saw the film Stop-Loss this past weekend.  I had never heard of the term stop-loss before I saw the movie, it is basically the ability of the US Army to involuntarily extend a soldier’s enlistment contract past the initial end of service date in the time of war.  That is where the rub is, we haven’t declared war on Iraq, we have a nebulous war on terror (it might as well be a war on cockroaches or martians).  Overall it was a decent movie, it won’t win any awards, but it definitely gets the message across that our soldiers are getting fucked in the ass on this one.  When I say fucked in the ass, that isn’t just with the stop-loss, it goes for the whole nasty mess the assholes in charge of our country have gotten them into.  There is a decent comment thread about stop-loss on the movies blog site here, comments are mostly from military men and women.  I will leave you with a poignant comment from a soldier that is currently being stop-lossed:

I am grateful a film is out about the Stop-Loss issue. Many of us have been “Stop-Lossed” and sent back to Iraq after our contracts with the Army have been fulfilled. Some of us never came home. After having served my country for 11 years, it is shameful that we, as soldiers, are subject to imprisonment if we fail to uphold our end of our contracts with the US Government, yet it is perfectly legal for the US Government to not uphold its end of the bargain. We all accept and do what is required of us while serving our country. But when our “time is up” and “duty fulfilled” they force us back and demand more. Personally, I believe that President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and former Secretary of Defense Rumsfield, should be held personally accountable and legally charged for the death of every soldier that was deployed under Stop-Loss. We did our duty, now let us go.

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Here at Total Diatribe, we strive to be “fair and balanced” (unlike those fucking choads at Fox News) therefore simply stating that “Republicans are Assholes” conveys the message that I’m an objective hater of our current two party system. Right? … Right? … (*** crickets***)… Listen motherfuckers, if I say I’m objective, then I’m fucking objective, it’s kinda like when Bush says that he’s “conservative” or “conscious” or “human”. Anyway, a wise man/doll once said:

See, there’s three kinds of people: dicks, pussies, and assholes. Pussies think everyone can get along, and dicks just want to fuck all the time without thinking it through. But then you got your assholes…. And all the assholes want us to shit all over everything! So, pussies may get mad at dicks once in a while, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes…. And if they didn’t fuck the assholes, you know what you’d get? You’d get your dick and your pussy all covered in shit!

So if Democrats are Pussies, and Republicans are Assholes, who are the Dicks? I propose a third party for the Dicks in America, and not one of those fringe parties like the Green Party or the Libertarian Party, they are not really Dicks (maybe wussies or cock-rings). A good candidate for the Dick party would be the Nihilists, they could put on a good show and fuck some shit up. I would love to help form this party, I nominate Bill Clinton to head it up… he’ll fuck anything.

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GOP Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee made a controversial statement last night regarding the Pakistan/Bhutto assassination (please see full ABCNews.com article here):

…have an immediate, very clear monitoring of our border, and particularly to make sure, if there’s any unusual activity of Pakistanis coming into the country.  We just need to be very very thorough in looking at every aspect of our own security internally

This small minded fear-mongering is one of the core problems in our great country.  Did we declare war on white trash or rednecks after the Oklahoma City bombing or the church burnings in the South?  Hell no.  Most of these GOP war and fear mongers prey on uncertainty and manipulate the media to paint this picture of risk and danger at every turn.  The ironic thing is, much of the risk was created by our clandestine activities around the globe and has manifested itself in blowback.  I’m more frightened of what our own politicians will do than Islamic Extremists.  I think I’m going to go outside and puke now.

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Former Atlantic City Mayor Robert Levy has plead guilty to bilking the Veteran’s Affairs department of nearly $25K.  More from a story posted on CNN.com:

The 60-year-old Democrat claimed he was awarded the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Parachutists Badge and successfully completed the Airborne School with more than 100 jumps.

He claimed that he had twice been abandoned in the jungle by his troops for several weeks, which he cited as the basis for suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

It turns out that Levy claimed he was in the Green Berets in Vietnam when he was actually enlisted only.  I guess he was dreaming big after watching First Blood and Rambo First Blood Part II, hell I pretended to be a Ninja after all of the ’80’s Ninja movies, but then again, I wasn’t elected mayor of AC.

What is really surprising (so far) is that this is the only corruption reported on this clown.

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As I discussed a couple of days ago in my post “Iran as a threat… et tu Blair”the current administration and the military industrial complex (MIC) is ramping up its pre-war rhetoric which has an end-game of aggressive action against Iran.  Cheney has been the latest to deliver the solemn news and a firm warning to Iran as reported by CNN.com:

“Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions,” Cheney said in a speech to the Washington Institute for Near East Studies.

He said Iran’s efforts to pursue technology that would allow them to build a nuclear weapon are obvious and that “the regime continues to practice delay and deceit in an obvious effort to buy time.”

If Iran continues on its current course, Cheney said the U.S. and other nations are “prepared to impose serious consequences.” The vice president made no specific reference to military action.

“We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Cheney’s words seemed to only escalate the U.S. rhetoric against Iran over the past several days, including President Bush’s warning that a nuclear Iran could lead to World War III.

Please take a moment to let those strong words from Cheney and Bush sink in.  Is this the legacy that Bush is looking for in his lame duck years to capstone his Presidency?  World War III?  I can’t imagine why else they (the Bush administration) are pushing this agenda.  The Bush administration must really have no respect for the collective intelligence of the American people if they feel they can continue to deceive and manipulate information toward a goal of further war.  They must be completely convinced the American people are idiots and won’t recognize the pattern.  This is pathetic and it makes me sick to my stomach.

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We’ve seen this before with Iraq, it is a pattern (an algorithm if you will), it starts with “intelligence” about how somebody somewhere else is to blame for something (or our problems) and it ends with the US attacking that somebody.  In the Iraq example, it started with the “intelligence” regarding WMD’s, it turned into Iraq is a terrorist sympathizer, and finally into Iraq is a terrorist state and is somehow responsible for 9/11.  If that past (and very much present) mistake wasn’t enough, now we’re worrying about Iran?  You’ve got to be shitting me.  The military industrial complex and its “think tanks” are ramping up for another aggressive mistakewar.  And as a part of this pre-war propaganda and media hype, Blair has decided to reaffirm he is a solid “Bush-man” and make his opinion on the subject known.  Below are a few blurbs from a BBC news story:

But on a more serious note he spoke of what he called an extremist Islamic ideology.

“This ideology now has a state - Iran - that is prepared to back and finance terror in the pursuit of destabilising countries whose people wish to live in peace.”

“There is a tendency even now, even in some of our own circles, to believe that they are as they are because we have provoked them and if we left them alone they would leave us alone.

“I fear this is mistaken. They have no intention of leaving us alone.”

They have no intention of leaving us alone?  Hold the phone pal, what exactly have they done to the US, or the UK for that matter?  Since 1979, they’ve pretty much kept out of Western  affairs.  AND, if they are involved in Iraq now, it is exactly because we have provoked them.  I’m not defending Iran, I think we should just get the hell out of the region and let them sort it out for themselves.  Look at Vietnam, we are trading with them again, hell they are the new India in terms of high-tech off-shoring.  Blair, please do us a favor and shut the fuck up, when do you start working for Halliburton anyway?

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It gets worse and worse, the TSA confirmed today that MOST fake bombs made it through screeners at LAX and Chicago’s O’Hare airports over the past couple of years.  According to a CNN.com article:

Screeners failed to find most of the fake bombs smuggled by plainclothes investigators through checkpoints at two major airports from late 2005 until last fall, the Transportation Security Administration said Thursday.

Investigators successfully smuggled 75 percent of the fake bombs through checkpoints at Los Angeles International Airport in California, and 60 percent through Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in Illinois, according to a report obtained by USA Today. In tests at California’s San Francisco International Airport, where a private company conducts inspections, 20 percent of the contraband made it through security.

I work in an industry where anything below a 99% success rate is a major problem, and I just can’t wrap my head around how ineffective the TSA really is.  To put this in perspective, LAX screener were effective 25% of the time while screeners at O’Hare were effective 40% of the time.  It is interesting that a private company had a much greater success rate at 20% failure/80% success.  It is clear that the federal government is over-matched, and privatisation is something that should be seriously looked at.  I’m not sure if everybody remembers but prior to 9/11 the screeners were private and the TSA was brought in with the wonderful Patriot Act and the Dept of Total Incompetence Homeland Security because they could “do a better job”.  Great job dipshits.

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The TSA announced yesterday that it was loosening up restrictions on bulky head-wear and turbans no longer necessitating a search (unless the aforementioned head-gear sets off the metal detector).  I found a gem of a quote in an MSNBC article discussing the change:

Experts say mixing up the screening techniques is good security. “We must use security measures that are unpredictable, agile,” TSA Administrator Kip Hawley told a Senate panel Tuesday.

What a total crock of shit.  Since when has the TSA been “agile” or anything short of reactionary?  All of the current annoyances amount to nothing but gross incompetence and lack of vision, i.e., taking off your shoes, limiting your gels and liquids, taking out your laptop, no matches/lighters, taking off your bra in public (yep they have made people do it), etc etc.  None of these measures were pro-active or based off of intelligence, they were reactions to loonies. 

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Relationships with Turkey have been strained due to a House resolution to label the World War I massacre of Armenians by Turkey “genocide”.  According to a CNN.com article regarding this matter, Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the US, and Turkey has not allowed France to fly over it’s airspace since a similar resolution was passed there last year.   Turkey’s response to the resolution was:

A top Turkish official warned Thursday that consequences “won’t be pleasant” if the full House approves the resolution.

Why are we so stupid?  The US was not involved in the Armenian-Turkey conflict during WWI and Turkey is currently a NATO ally and critical access point for the US in the middle east.  There is little good to be gleaned from this resolution, why doesn’t the House of Reps just fly over to Turkey and take a big stinking shit on the Prime Minister’s lawn, it would probably be less offensive.  The issue here isn’t whether there was actual genocide or not, but rather why are we getting involved now after 90 years… we need a better foreign policy in this country.

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