Silence is Consent

If you don't speak up you accept what is happening. This site was born out of the mainstream media's inability to cover the news. I am just an American cititzen trying to spread the word in the era of FCC consolidation, post 9/11 Patriot Act hysteria, hackable voting machines and war without end. I rant and post news items I perceive to be relevant to our current situation.

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
- Thomas Jefferson

Social Security is not broken and therefore does not need to be fixed

So Called Social Security Crisis (SCSSC)

Comments, questions, corrections, rebuttals are always welcome.

Friday, September 17, 2004
 

There is no connection between Saddam Hussein and 911.

There is no connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda.



Are these statements true or false? Do you even know? Read on and you'll find out.

Earlier in the week I linked and article on "framing": a communication tool that creates a "frame" for a message that defines the terms of the debate. As long as this administration and the Republicans are allowed to get away with framing the two true statements listed above as false people will continue to believe it. Last night I saw one way they do it. When Bush/Cheney campaign manager Ken Mehlman was asked about how Kerry can criticize Bush on the war in Iraq and not get attacked as unpatriotic Mehlman had a long rambling answer but the main point was something to the effect of, and once again Charlie has no free transcripts, If John Kerry is going to attact Bush for attacking the terrorists he going to lose. It's subtle but he shifted from a question about Iraq and turned it into terrorism, therefore linking Iraq to the WoT. Which we know the war in Iraq and the WoT are not the same. But don't expect Charlie to make that distinction for you.

Knowing this it becomes clear why 42 percent of Americans still think this:
Do you think Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was DIRECTLY involved
in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of
September 11th, 2001, or not?


BASED ON REGISTERED VOTERS

Yes No DK
Current Total 42 44 14 =100
Republicans 55 32 13 =100
Democrats 32 54 14 =100
Independents 37 48 15 =100

Trends
(1/29-30/04) 49 39 12 =100
(9/18-19/03) 47 37 16 =100
How do the American People wind up this stupid you ask? Well Frank Rich tells us here, Bush vs. Kerry: TV's nonreality show
What much of the other news media have offered as an alternative (to FOX) has not been an alternative at all. At some point after 9/$ 11, the news business started relaying unchallenged administration propaganda - though with less zeal and showbiz pizazz than Fox. The notorious March 2003 presidential news conference at which not a single probing question was asked by the entire White House press corps heralded the broader Foxification to come. As Michael Massing, a frequent critic of The New York Times and others, put it on PBS's "NewsHour," the failure of the American news media to apply proper skepticism to the administration's stated rationale for war in Iraq is "one of the most serious institutional failures of the press" since our slide into Vietnam. Massing attributes some of this to the fear of challenging a president then at the height of his popularity. Whatever the explanation, the net effect was that the entire press came off as Fox Lite. The motive to parrot the administration line may not have been ideological, as it was at Fox, but since the misinformation was the same, news consumers can't be blamed for finding that a distinction without a difference.
Whether it's WMD, SBLfB (Swift Boat Liars for Bush), or Bush/TANG (aka his guard service), the issue is used to keep everyone (the media) from talking about the issues that really matter. Like before the war when everyone is focused on "the deadliest weapons ever created", no one cares the administration has no plan for Iraq after the war or that the plan is for chaos so Halliburton, Bechtel, et al., can steal taxpayer reconstruction money and Iraqi oil.

Now it's SBLfB and Bush/TANG and we are all caught up in Vietnam again. Iraq is a disaster, so is Afghanistan, we are going into Iran and places beyond in a second Bush term, poverty is up, those without healthcare is rising, the jobless rate is up. But instead let's focus on what happened 35 years ago. In other words you've been "framed" again, just like you were about WMD.

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