Keep in mind, as we dance to the joyous success of Iraq elections...

[Atman]

We are only seeing government footage of the happy, peaceful voters. Any pool reporter or M$M reporter is still sequestered at the hotel in Baghdad, doing their remotes in front of a peaceful backdrop of trees amidst the hotel compound. One of the news outlets -- I didn't think to save the source -- reported exactly this about a week ago; that the violence and bombings and kidnappings have made it too dangerous to leave the hotel. They are working behind iron gates constantly, and have not actually seen the streets of Baghdad in weeks. The military tells them it is unsafe, and has them under lock-down.

So, you can be sure a handfull (or truckfull) of them have been escorted out to the safest locations to grab shots of the long queues of burka'd women waiting solemnly to cast their votes. But don't for a moment believe that BushCo has suddenly mixed a shot of truth serum in with W's NyQuil. The reasons Bush was "resolute" and "determined" are the same reasons he was similarly resolute and determined before the invasion -- because he already knew what the results would be. A central part of the plan all along was just to lie their way through this. Just stay on message, as it is now quaintly called. After all, they control the images we see. They learned their lesson in Viet Nam.

Realize this, as it casts a shadow on every move BushCo makes... as promised, Bush is running America like a business. And over and over again, throughout the history of modern consumerism, and likely to the dawn of trade itself, man has sought ways to rip off his fellow man in as efficient a manor as possible. Through serepticious privitization of the voting process itself, to unprecendented manipulation of the media, BushCO is defining and refining its market. BushCo is just doing business as usual in corporate America.

The trouble is, we've relied on the government to reign in the evil excesses of predatory capitalism throughout much of history. But now, the regulator is also the regulatee, and we all know how concientious big business is when freed from the constraints of pesky watchdog do-gooders.

Relax, America. It's only business. BushCo will milk it dry to the financial benefit of his family and his contributors, then simply file Chapter 11 and walk away from it all, unscathed.

It's the way they work. It's only business.