'wag the dog' theory

[ngant17]

Was the launch of the Shuttle on July 4th, 2006 meant to distract us from the recent civilian massacres in Iraq by our military soldiers?

I am reminded how it was once suggested that the publicity of Apollo missions were being used to divert the public's attention from the fighting in Vietnam. This is not my original assertion. A commentary of 5 February 1971 by the Washington columnist Jack W. Germond mentioned this
possibility, albeit briefly, and I quote:

"At the White House Wednesday, someone asked (Nixon) presidential press secretary Ronald Ziegler if the news of the new military operations in Laos was being delayed to coincide with the news of a successful Apollo 14 landing on the moon…the implication was that the good tidings of another space spectacular might bury the bad news of some wider involvement President Nixon was planning in Indochina…the display of journalistic cynicism wasn’t significant in itself; no one believes a widening of the war in Asia can be overshadowed even by a moon landing. But it was symptomatic of a mood of general
skepticism here about the Nixon course in Southeast Asia…the underlying cause of the skepticism is, of course, the incursion into Cambodia Nixon ordered last May…".

[whistle]

1. Everything that the Bush administration has done has been "wag the dog"

....since GW took office.

[JuniperLea]

2. Yep

And the time they tried to say that about Clinton, they should have left him alone... stupid nutjobs.

[McCamy Taylor]

3. Right theory. wrong stories. The Bush WH isnt afraid of civilain massacre.

They are afraid of Election Theft stories, because they need Election Fraud to keep Congress this fall. The major media distractions will occur everytime any news that might bring Election Fraud to the forefront occur.

Example: when RFK Jrs ROLLLING STONE article was scheduled we got 1. Pentagon briefs Congress on Haditha (a months old story), 2. Bush Flies to Iraq, 3. Congress Attacks Gay Marriage, 4. Rove Says Fitz Wont Indict Him and Calls Murtha a Coward, 5. Canada Arrests Terrorists and 6. US Bags Zarqawi all in one week. This was because the article was very, very politically danegrous.

Last week when the SCOTUS unexpectedly overturned the Texas Redistricting because it violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting hispanic votiong strength, this could have cause a major problem for the DOJ and Congressional Republicans. The DOJ politicos had rejected the career lawyers recommendation that the redistricting be rejected because it diluted hispanic voting strength. Worse, they supressed the lawyers report. Then, just recently, Texas GOP Congressmen had tried to get the Voting Rights Act ammended so that it no longer required the DOJ to oversee Southern States on the grounds that Southern states no longer violate minority rights. The SCOTUS decison was a major slap in the face to the GOP and the administration. That was why Cheney and W. suddenly decided to call for the NYT's head on a platter on the same day for no apparent reason and why all their media toadies hopped on board the "Let's Lynch the NYT's Even Though Calling for Censorship of Journalists Makes Us Look Like Dicks" bandwagon. It was just a smokescreen to keep people from noticing what at first glance appeared to be the lesser of the two SCOTUS rulings.

There are two very important election stories coming up. The League of Women Voters v. Blackwell and RFK Jr v. E- Voting Companies start this next week. The administration has already started its retaliatory pony show with the 7-7 leak of the April arrest of "muslim terrorists" who are accused of plotting to blow up a tunnel in NYC. More stories will follow, depending upon what happens in those two court cases. At least one of the stories will look like it is bad for the administration, but will really be a Lesser of Two Evils Story designed to keep administration critics from talking about Election Fraud and Election Reform.

However, Jesse Jackson and Co. appear to have their eyes focuses squarely on the Voting Rights Act and election fraud, so I think Karl Rove is going to find that his machinations are in vain.

[ngant17]

4. chaos, Lorenz and the "butterfly effect"

Interesting point. I wonder if these seemingly minor events could be considered part of a kind of political 'chaos theory', i.e., does the flap of a butterfly’s wings in Brazil set off a tornado in Texas?

[Bucky]

5. I'll say no. In theory, any news item distracts from a constant fuckup

Things go wrong and bad things are done with our tax dollars on a daily basis with this administration. So in theory anything interesting happening on the news is a distraction from Bushery. But in this case of the shuttle launch, these things are planned months in advance. They had no way of knowing when the massacres would come into the spotlight, which massacres would come into the spotlight (there's been more than one, you know), and how long each would stay prominent in any given news cycle. Any theory that presumes or requires this current administration to plan anything well is prima facia wrong.

[ngant17]

6. shuttle launches are planned and scrubbed for various reasons

True, the shuttle is planned months ahead, but the actual launch is given various windows for the "go" based on weather at the Cape, "glitches" which suddenly pop up at the last hour, minute or second, and probably other things will affect a cancellation of launch.

I was surprised NASA launched on July 4th because it was quite cloudy in the morning over here in Geneva, Florida where I was watching the parade at the time (KSC is about 30 minute drive from the highway here). However, I guess it cleared up a little that afternoon although I didn't pay any attention to the whole thing at that time.

There was no pressing need to shoot it on the 4th of July. After all, it only costs a million dollars a day for the shuttle to sit on the pad if it get scrubbed. A drop in the bucket if you look at the costs of operation of the overall Space Shuttle system. A dinosaur if there ever was one.

It just seems highly suspect that NASA decided to push the patriotism button when we all were getting pretty disgusted over the rape/massacres of Iraqi innocents. Like I posted previously, a lot of press from the Apollo moon landings served to distract us from the horrors of the war in Vietnam. Patriotism gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling that everything is OK in our little world. A false sense of security.