Sunday, August 01, 2004
Booga, Booga
So we finally have a non-vague terrorist threat, announced on the heels of poor Tom Ridge qutting because he can't afford to send his kids to school on $175K a year. Boo-fucking-hoo.
However, as with every single time this administration has cried "Wolf(owitz)!", I smell a rat here, and it goes like this.
1) The timing of the announcement, Sunday night, is designed to make the story dominate the first several news cycles of the week. Monday -- WARNING! Tuesday -- nothing yet. Wednesday -- no new news. Thursday -- everyone wet yourselves, it's going to be today or tomorrow. Friday -- crank up the volume to hide another after five p.m. sneak release of damaging to the Administration info.
2) I think the Admin has finally caught on to what everyone has been thinking. If there is another terrorist attack on US soil before the election, rather than propelling W into the White House, it will probably turn into a Spanish Snafu, because the blame for letting such an attack happen would fall firmly on the people in charge. Therefore, I think they have a different strategery now. Get specific to scare the shit out of the gullible. And then... thanks to all those anonymous prisoners we have in Gitmo, parade a dozen "arrested suicide bombers" before the media a week or so before the Republican Convention. It makes it look like they've done something, no one would have any idea whether the suspects were already in captivity or not, blah blah blah.
3) The mere fact that I can even contemplate scenario #2 just demonstrates how little credibility our current government has anymore.
Look on the bright side, though. W did not have a majority of votes in 2000, and he's only managed to lose people, not win them over. He's alienated the Islamic community, thanks to painting all Arabs and Muslims as the "enemy". He's blown it with the African American community, thanks to snubbing the NAACP again and again. He's dissed the gay and lesbian community quite publicly. And he's screwed things up for the batch of kids who've finished up high school during his reign of error, and are now graduated -- and brand new, first-time voters. I'm sure there are many more groups he's pissed off to no end, leaving him only with deluded rednecks and raving funamentalist lunatics. Thankfully, nowhere near a majority in this country.
Mm. How sweet would November be if Kerry & Edwards blew these douchebags out of office in a landslide of proportions never before seen in this country? 60/40 would be sweet, but 70/30 could take out the Republican party with it.
So, don't let them make you fearful. Statistically, you're far more likely to die in a car crash on your way to work than in a terrorist attack. Do the math -- an average of 50,000 deaths a year times as many years as we've had cars, vs. maybe a total of 5,000 to 10,000 deaths* (being generous there) in the past two hundred and twenty-eight odd years.
Ever been hit by lightning or win the lottery? Didn't think so.
* This figure includes things like Pearl Harbor, which technically didn't happen on American soil, and now-forgotten by most people events, like Nat Turner's rebellion, Bleeding Kansas, and not-forgotten but misunderstood events, like the Boston Tea Party which, admittedly, also did not happen on American soil, but sure did lead to it becoming American soil. I refrain from including the native casualties of the Indian Wars in this figure, despite those acts being terrorism which included weapons of mass distruction via biological warfare -- small pox.
However, as with every single time this administration has cried "Wolf(owitz)!", I smell a rat here, and it goes like this.
1) The timing of the announcement, Sunday night, is designed to make the story dominate the first several news cycles of the week. Monday -- WARNING! Tuesday -- nothing yet. Wednesday -- no new news. Thursday -- everyone wet yourselves, it's going to be today or tomorrow. Friday -- crank up the volume to hide another after five p.m. sneak release of damaging to the Administration info.
2) I think the Admin has finally caught on to what everyone has been thinking. If there is another terrorist attack on US soil before the election, rather than propelling W into the White House, it will probably turn into a Spanish Snafu, because the blame for letting such an attack happen would fall firmly on the people in charge. Therefore, I think they have a different strategery now. Get specific to scare the shit out of the gullible. And then... thanks to all those anonymous prisoners we have in Gitmo, parade a dozen "arrested suicide bombers" before the media a week or so before the Republican Convention. It makes it look like they've done something, no one would have any idea whether the suspects were already in captivity or not, blah blah blah.
3) The mere fact that I can even contemplate scenario #2 just demonstrates how little credibility our current government has anymore.
Look on the bright side, though. W did not have a majority of votes in 2000, and he's only managed to lose people, not win them over. He's alienated the Islamic community, thanks to painting all Arabs and Muslims as the "enemy". He's blown it with the African American community, thanks to snubbing the NAACP again and again. He's dissed the gay and lesbian community quite publicly. And he's screwed things up for the batch of kids who've finished up high school during his reign of error, and are now graduated -- and brand new, first-time voters. I'm sure there are many more groups he's pissed off to no end, leaving him only with deluded rednecks and raving funamentalist lunatics. Thankfully, nowhere near a majority in this country.
Mm. How sweet would November be if Kerry & Edwards blew these douchebags out of office in a landslide of proportions never before seen in this country? 60/40 would be sweet, but 70/30 could take out the Republican party with it.
So, don't let them make you fearful. Statistically, you're far more likely to die in a car crash on your way to work than in a terrorist attack. Do the math -- an average of 50,000 deaths a year times as many years as we've had cars, vs. maybe a total of 5,000 to 10,000 deaths* (being generous there) in the past two hundred and twenty-eight odd years.
Ever been hit by lightning or win the lottery? Didn't think so.
* This figure includes things like Pearl Harbor, which technically didn't happen on American soil, and now-forgotten by most people events, like Nat Turner's rebellion, Bleeding Kansas, and not-forgotten but misunderstood events, like the Boston Tea Party which, admittedly, also did not happen on American soil, but sure did lead to it becoming American soil. I refrain from including the native casualties of the Indian Wars in this figure, despite those acts being terrorism which included weapons of mass distruction via biological warfare -- small pox.
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