Propaganda Wars

Well Rumsfeld brought up a failure of the administration today. Apperently, we lag in a propaganda war with al Qaeda. We need to modernize, and build this up.

The Pentagon chief said today's weapons of war included e-mail, Blackberries, instant messaging, digital cameras and Web logs, or blogs.

"Our enemies have skillfully adapted to fighting wars in today's media age, but ... our country has not adapted," Rumsfeld said.

But Ted Kennedy highlighted the actual problem.

"Clearly, we need to improve our public diplomacy and information age communication in the Muslim world," Kennedy said in a statement. "But nothing has done more to encourage increased Al Qaeda recruitment and made America less safe than the war in Iraq and the incompetent way it's been managed. Our greatest failure is our policy."

I think I agree more with Ted. Now put something forward so we actually can get out and clean up our image a little in the process. The first step to recovery is admitting there is a problem.

Warrently spying ending?

The warrantless domestic spying scandal may be coming to a close shortly, but not particularly well. A deal is being worked out in congress and the justice department that will end the investigation into the program, and modify FISA to include wiretapping. This is good, because it gets official regulations and records on the program, but bad because it should be illegal. Getting it on the books means that it can stay longer than just the Bush administration. Also, ending the investigation gets Bush and Gonzalez off the hook for illegal actions. Then again, if it is defined that only suspected terrorists may be looked at, and they start spying on anti-war groups again, they can be busted. I still think impeachment is the way to go. I’d rather have Cheney ineffectively lead a demoralized Republican Party, than Bush be lead like a puppet by a high and mighty Republican Party.

Note: 100th post!

Iranian Propaganda

Apparently, Condi Rice hopes to turn Iranian citizens against their government through radio and TV ads, for which she requested $75 million. This was in protest to the practices of their government. The money is officially labeled under “spreading democracy in Iran,” but it’s also called propaganda. And we all know what happen to the last nation we tried to “spread democracy” to. This is the beginning of America crumbling its relations in another critical area. We could embrace the alienated nations in the world, and bring them to a controllable distance. By this I mean one where the president would not be compelled to run on a “Death to America” platform, and would instead be grateful for the services we provide them (assuming we use the money for a benevolent cause). Unfortunately, we yield no authority for democracy in the world anymore, when we have domestic spying and indefinite holding in Guantanamo Bay, and worldwide torture.

Even Republicans are speaking out against the terrible policies of this administration in the Middle East: "I don't see, Madame Secretary, how things are getting better. I think things are getting worse. I think they're getting worse in Iraq. I think they're getting worse in Iran," Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., told Rice as she appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

A surprising victory in the warrantless domestic spying scandal. A judge ruled that the government must produce within 20 days documents about the program, demanded from civil rights groups. Hopefully, some new and good information will come out from this investigation. I’m being pessimistic, but I can always be surprised.

A UN report calls for the closing of Guantanamo Bay torture facility, citing UN violations including ban of “torture, arbitrary detention and the right to a fair trial.” The response from Scott McClellan was great.

It "appears to be a rehash of some of the allegations that have been made by lawyers for some of the detainees and we know that al Qaeda detainees are trained in trying to disseminate false allegations," said spokesman Scott McClellan.

So, al Qaeda members are liars, and we’re accusing them of being terrorists, so they must be liars! Good logic. Ironically, Republicans that bitched about needing an “up or down vote” on radical judicial nominees see no problem in not giving any due process to these detainees, who have been charged with no crimes and given no sign they will be released.

Torture at the prison included force feeding inmates on a hunger strike, stripping them, subjection to harsh temperatures, and excessive solitary confinement. There are around 500 detainees in Guantanamo Bay.

Bush’s bad policies cost more than they seem to. $1.4 Billion in tax dollars were wasted on government spin. Equally incompetent compared to the rest of the administration I suppose, when you consider it didn’t quite convince us that destroying social security is a good thing. Hopefully Bush looks to cut this part of the budget next year, and advertise for the Republicans on his own money.

So I went to the Daily Show yesterday, plus it was V Day, so there were no updates. I assure you we’ll be putting up more content at the pace you’ve come to expect.

Let me tell you about The Daily Show. You get there, and after a long wait in the cold, are seated in a nice, but small studio. Carol thought she saw Michael Moore sitting in the corner, but I said it’s probably just a fat guy. Turns out it was Michael Moore and his film crew. He didn’t talk though, but a comedian came out to teach us how to laugh on camera. I hope we did a good job, for all of you that caught the Tuesday February 14^th episode. We all got a copy of the guest’s book: “A Thousand Barrels a Second” by Peter Terzakian. Jon Stewart then comes out and takes a few questions. Then it’s right down to business. Unfortunately Jon doesn’t interact with the audience after that, but it’s a very cool experience. Apply on Comedy Central’s site and get some tickets for yourself. Just make sure you invite me!

Well, if the 06 or 08 debates focus on national security, here’s more proof that Republicans are incompetent in this field. A national report on Katrina response found huge failures at all levels of government. There were millions of dollars of waste, and what the was not reported in the article, many people remain displaced or in bad conditions. How can such a huge problem go on without a huge national response? We’ve seen money pledged, but not action. Bottom line: Republicans, in the administration, Michael Chertoff (secretary of Homeland Security), FEMA, all failed to protect our country. True; you can’t defend us from a hurricane. But you can warn, evacuate, and respond quickly and efficiently. Check out this weeks Top Ten Conservative Idiots at Democratic Underground for a little more on the response from Bush (Pictures included).

More in the news about Iran. An independent think tank, the Oxford Research Group, has said that a war between the US and Iran would result in “thousands” of US military deaths. This would appear obvious, and really vague. What I found most telling was this: "I think there is at least a 50:50 risk of some sort of real crisis, probably with military action, before the end of next year," said the report's author, Professor Paul Rogers of the University of Bradford.

Well that’s encouraging. My big problem with the Iran conflict is the hypocrisy. Sure, it would be bad if Iran had a nuclear weapon. But any nation that threatened to use one would be completely isolated from the world, without getting a chance to use it. The only way we can forcefully make Iran disarm would be if we had no weapons ourselves. Who are we to say who can and can’t have nuclear weapons? Without offering any motivation to disarm, except self preservation, we’re actually pushing them to support terrorists and want a nuclear weapon for a bargaining chip. Another good point in this report that Bush will clearly disregard: Any attack on Iran will unite the Iranian people behind the radical government. If we want a more benign government there, we need to make us a helper, not an enemy. Unfortunately, I fear we’ll never go for a peaceful resolution in this standoff.

Here are some encouraging senate poll numbers. Santorum, the ultra-conservative, ultra-corrupt senator from Pennsylvania is falling further in the polls. The Democratic challenger, Bob Casey, is leading the race 51% - 36%, from 50% to 38%. Also, Conrad Burns, deeply covered in shit from the Abramoff scandal, is finally behind in the polls. John Morrison is ahead 50% - 43%, and Jon Tester is tied with Burns at 46%. Kos attributes this rise in Democratic poll numbers to advertising the scandal early and often. The press in Montana is aggressively covering the story. A hard working media? Good job.