When Will Americans Realize They’ve Been Had?

[Q]

Maureen Farrell at BuzzFlash.com

September 16, 2003
When Will Americans Realize They’ve Been Had?

by Maureen Farrell

Excerpts:

It’s been nearly three years now, and almost as many since we were told to just "get over it." And honestly, without Sept. 11 inconsistencies or Bush's pre-planned wars or assaults on civil liberties or the hubris and arrogance and embarrassing treatment of long-held allies, many of us would have accepted the Supreme Court’s decision and learned to live with the temporary hand we’d been dealt. Instead, however, the red flags raised three years ago foretold more ominous developments. The 2000 election wasn't merely a Constitutional crisis, it was an all-American coup designed to change the United States forever. And let's not delude ourselves. While Bill Clinton's impeachment was a prequel to this takeover, voting machine snafus, the California recall and Texas redistricting are all part of a plan to usurp democracy yet again.

Even before Sept. 11, the Florida fiasco was a wake-up call. If the election had not unraveled the way it did, many of us would have never comprehended the gravity of the situation. We would have thought of Clinton’s impeachment as just insane partisan politics and would most likely not have discovered how, in the wee hours of that Wednesday morning, Jeb assured George that Florida was in the bag. "Let me explain something," Al Gore reportedly said. "Your younger brother is not the ultimate authority on this." But alas, America’s preferred candidate didn't realize that Katherine Harris had hired Database Technologies to scrub 90,000 folks from Florida’s voter rolls.

Of course, this is what used to be known as crazy talk, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that the reality presented to us by the media and government officials is far removed from reality. Pundits repeatedly invoke the term "conspiracy theory" to rebuff truths that bubble to the surface, but just to make things clear: Talk of the Illuminati enslaving humanity in some sort of Satanic master plan is an example of conspiracy theory. Saying that the Bush gang manipulated the election, fumbled the ball on 911 < LINK > and waged a war that’s been planned since 1992 is merely stating well-documented and easily researched facts.

But, of course, that’s just the introduction to this story. We’re also in the throes of a radical movement to alter America as we know it. Ironically, those who defend and depict the war as a mission to protect our way of life are victims of the cruelest abuse of patriotism and trust. Not only did Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the other folks at the Project for a New American Century hijack foreign policy, but, as early as 2000, drafted a decidedly un-American wish list -- and George Bush delivered. Preventative war and a permanent military presence in Iraq? No problem. Multiple wars on multiple fronts? They got it. A heftier defense budget? Their wish was Bush’s command. The Pearl Harbor type attack they deemed necessary for these changes occurred on Sept. 11, with subsequent secret detentions, a shadow bunker government, and draconian legislation making a mockery of the Land of the Free. - http://www.buzzflash.com/farrell/03/09/16.html

[HereSince1628]

1. Glad I didn't hold that in my hand...I'd have had 3rd degree burns!

You go girl! Roast that pork butt.

[Minstrel Boy]

2. Don't miss this one

Farrell says it all right here. Send this to everyone who doesn't appreciate the gravity of the crisis.

[nolabels]

3. Some know, some don't want to know, and others could care less

In that fact there may be solace, It's hard to pull a fast one unless you can get people excited and not thinking about the consquences. They keep on putting out that terra, terra, terra, but it is begining to sound like they cried wolf a few too many times.

The more one looks into the more one finds of the conplicity or out right instigations that the people yelling fire are the ones starting them.

[Mandate My Ass]

4. Farrell is excellent, only I hope Krugman is wrong

Three short years ago, we had a budget surplus and "America was a well-run, solid place." Presently, however, the government is being run by irresponsible ideologues who could be paving the way for an Argentina style "spiral of fiscal collapse." In Krugman’s mind, there is definitely going to be "some sort of crash," and one of three things will definitely happen. There will be either: 1) A major tax increase 2) Medicare and Social Security will have to be cut drastically or 3) The U.S. will go bankrupt and we'll have a "banana republic style budget crisis."

Choice number one can be dismissed out of hand. Numbers 2 and 3 are almost unthinkably horrible but becoming more likely every day.

[Cocoa]

5. that's only true up to a point

I think the fact that that piece appears at Buzzflash is a flaw, because I think everyone that reads Buzzflash pretty much knows all that already. I think we've passed the point where this basic outline of what's going on continues to be useful.

Where it starts getting useful is if it starts getting out into the mainstream, and that's why I love hearing dems say openly, in unison, how the California recall is a part of the overall plan to subvert democracy.

The fact that Farrell doesn't mention this, or other recent positive developments, is another flaw. There is some hopeful counterevidence that we need to start paying attention to. Instead of presenting the worst-case scenario, how about presenting models of real success.

For example, she mentions the media's role in this, but doesn't mention the successful reversal of the FCC ruling.

[Q]

8. You keep mentioning the FCC ruling....

...and no doubt that it's a 'good thing' that it was defeated. Problem is...the corporate media has already gotten 99 percent of what they wanted...which is why MOST of the media has been bought up by conservative interests.

[bpilgrim]

9. no it is all true...

sure there has been some small vicories - bush can still veto the fcc congressional ruling if he chooses - but everything else mentioned in her article is true.

repeating the message OVER and OVER is the goal btw... look how effective madison ave is with it... and often they don't have the truth on their side ;->

peace

[Ganja Ninja]

6. The American people haven’t been had and that’s the problem.

This country is still evenly split just like it was in 2000. People who supported Bush then will make any excuse or apology for his incompetence and corruption. They supported his war and were gleeful at the prospect of attacking another country and using the revenue from it’s resources to pay for it. To put it bluntly the rightwing in this country is intellectually and morally bankrupt. Their supporters are as corrupt, greedy, arrogant and incompetent as their leader. They don’t have the capacity to admit they are wrong. The idea that they are suddenly going to “wake up” would be laughable if the reality weren’t so sad.

[bpilgrim]

11. not all the american people... just his supporters.

and i know the media likes to portray us as 'split' but they need to remember that GORE WON BIG - pop vote - and would have won folorida if they didn't commit election fraud or if the dem leadership stood up to them - thats how bullies win - then and they have been running roughshood ever since.


the canidates - dean, kucinich - who realize that there is a TITLE WAVE of resentment, anger and energy for sweeping reform will ride a tidal wave of support this campaign season that will not only 'suprise' all the pundits but also has the potential to bring about a sea change of reform.

peace

[tom_paine]

7. Maybe never. But at the very least long after it is too late...

When the last vestiges of the Old Republic have been swept away.

Except of course, for the Imperial Senate, Sham "Elections" (with Stalinistically predetermined outcomes that only a Bushevik could love) and Corporate TV Pravda, which will be even more grotesque and ham-fisted by the time that happens.

I think the chances of anything else happening are a mere 10-20%. The odds are not good and the Bushevik "kinder and gentler" Corporatism/Facsism is already in place.

So are the Propagandized Automatons programmed by Goebbels v2.0 not to think just to OBEY and hear only Party-Approved Sub-Media sources.

Eventually, as in Nazi Germany (Grandpa Prescott Bush's business partners), this propaganda will turn out to be a self-fufilling prophecy and the American Character will Take a Fundamental Turn to the Right.

That's when Liberal Internet Kristallnacht will begin, I think.

And we must face fact, the Imperial Subjects of Amerika, in the absence of a National Ass Whuppin' (which I do not wish on us) will believe in their Fuehrer right up until the bitter end, just like Grandpa Prescott's Business Partners.

[Q]

10. And why? Because of the best propaganda money can buy...

"Pundits repeatedly invoke the term "conspiracy theory" to rebuff truths that bubble to the surface, but just to make things clear: Talk of the Illuminati enslaving humanity in some sort of Satanic master plan is an example of conspiracy theory. Saying that the Bush gang manipulated the election, fumbled the ball on 911 and waged a war that’s been planned since 1992 is merely stating well-documented and easily researched facts."