Archive for the &;war-on-terror&; Category

No Terrorist Attacks Since9-11?

December 15, 2009

No, not according to the FBI, not in the USA.  Both Republican defenders of George W. Bush and Democrats like Nancy Pelosi want to prop up this story, and for whatever reason, the press doesn&;t press them on it. Yup, move on, nothing to see here, no terrorist attacks in the U.S.  Except maybe: Naveed Haq, who shot 6 women, killing one, at the Seattle Jewish Federation in 2006 was found guilty today Major Nidal Malak Hasan, who &;allegedly&; shot 13 people to death at Fort Hood The 5 &;wholesome&; American kids arrested in Pakistan for trying to link with extremist groups to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan In June 2009, two soldiers were shot, one fatally, in Arkansas by a suspect who the FBI delicately noted had &;political and religious motives&; John Muhammad, a Muslim, the 2002 Beltway Sniper, and Boyd Malvo, who claimed they killed for jihad.  Muhammad said he was a fan of Osama Bin Ladin, but surely he was just crazy. The July 4, 2002 shooting by an Egyptian national at Los Angeles International Airport.  A young woman killed in the attack lived not far from me. In March 2006,  Mohammed Reva Taheri-azar rented an SUV and drove it into a crowd of students at the University of North Carolina.  He carried out the attack, which injured nine people, due to &;the treatment of Muslims around the world.&;  At his arraignment, he told the Judge that he was &;thankful for the opportunity to spread the will of Allah.&;  He is currently serving a 33-year sentence. You can read more about more of these non-existent attacks here.  And even leftist KCRW feels pushed to explore this issue.

Tags:9-11, KCRW.ORG, terrorism, terrorism-in-the-U.S. Posted in 9-11, war-on-terror | 2 Comments &;

Music forGuantanamo

October 22, 2009

I wonder if the Pink song the government used to torture inmates was &;Dear Mr. President.&;  Nahhh&; And which is worse torture, the Barney song or Neil Diamond? As for Bruce Springsteen, what could be a greater perversion than blasting Empty Sky, from The Rising? I want a kiss from your lips I want an eye for an eye I woke up this morning to the empty sky&;.

Tags:9-11, Bruce-Springsteen, Dear-Mr.-President, Guantanamo, music-for-torture, Pink, torture Posted in 9-11, Music, Politics, war-on-terror | Leave a Comment &;

Airlines Chaos: More BushIncompetence

April 11, 2008

Perhaps the saddest thing about the Bush administration is how little Americans have come to expect of it.  It has resulted in an orgy of incompetence that have seriously damaged first America&;s image, and now our economy and very self-confidence. The current agony of more than 200,000 American Airlines passengers stranded on more than 2500 cancelled flights at America&;s airports is just the latest example.  A competent administration would have kept the FAA on the case in the first place.  A more foresighted administration would have recognized the cost to Americans and the economy of airlines like Aloha, ATA, Skybus and now Frontier failing.  And a stronger administration would have acted in the crisis, like Truman did nationalizing the steel industry or, yes, Reagan breaking the air traffic controllers union as a &;peril to national safety&;.  &;The buck stops here,&; Truman said.  By contrast, the Bush Administration has done nothing.  Nothing.  There has been an absolute leadership vacuum. And sadly, that has come to be what we expect from it.  Consider:

The incompetent prosecution of the war in Iraq, led by my fellow Princeton alumni Donald Rumsfeld.  I originally supported the war on the bill of goods sold us by the administration, but if you&;re going to fight a war, win a war, smash the opposition and minimize casualties among U.S. troops.  In five years none of that has happened. Where&;s Osama? How&;s that war on terror going? We&;re not losing in Afghanistan, are we? Abu Ghraib.  Katrina. One word.  More than 1100 people died in New Orleans (in America!)  after the hurricane.  How many have died since or had their lives shortened by stress, disease, alcoholism, and the rest?  How&;s the rebuilding of New Orleans coming? The credit crisis, stock market crash and the foreclosure epidemic; where was government/adult supervision?  A $600 rebate to spend on Japanese electronics, vacations or, more likely, on alcohol, is supposed to help how? Four dollar a gallon gasoline.  If you make $8 an hour and commute 20 miles to work, it will take an hour (more after taxes) just to pay for your gas.  Very soon, the economy will grind to a halt.  Where&;s that Iraqi oil when we need it?  Where&;s the Manhattan Project or Apollo program to achieve energy independence?  Even &;small things&; like last summer&;s passport crisis.  Everyone needs a passport to travel now, but no additional staffing of the passport office=long lines, cancelled trips and general chaos.  Now they&;ve fully staffed the office with idiots who snoop in passport files.

And the media, distracted by its own evisceration, has done a piss-poor job of holding the administration accountable for its across-the-board failure of leadership.

Tags:American-Airlines-cancellations, Bush-disaster, passport-disaster Posted in 9-11, death-of-magazines, death-of-newspapers, Iraq-war, Iraq-war-protests, Journalism, public-relations-disaster, war-on-terror, White-House | Leave a Comment &;

FearFactor

July 17, 2007

No, not the long-lived NBC TV show with a high &;yuck&; factor (listen here for Fear Factor host Joe Rogan&;s trippy DMT hallucogenic experience.) Unfortunately this fear factor provides neither a TV- or drug-based escape. It&;s the administration&;s new and scary report, The Terrorist Threat to the U.S. Homeland report, which surprisingly enough notes that al Qaeda still want to kill us.  You can read it here, if you don&;t find it too depressing/bloodpressure raising.  But as ABC&;s Richard Clarke says, &;Given that there was no al Qaeda in Iraq until we invaded there, it&;s hard not to draw the conclusion that going to Iraq has created a further threat to the United States.&;  There&;s also no mention in the report of that Bin Ladin guy&;the one we haven&;t found yet after 7,000 U.S. deaths in the war on terror.

Posted in fear-factor, Joe-Rogan, war-on-terror | Leave a Comment &;

Fear-Mongering Advertising At ItsWorst

July 11, 2007

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new scare advertising champion.  Use your credit card now to book a parking spot at the airport, or you too may be the victim of a glaring TSA lady terrorist.



Posted in Advertising, war-on-terror | Leave a Comment &;