Never mind that support for the Senate's healthcare bill has dropped to a dismal 32%. Never mind that most progressives and former supporters, including Howard Dean, have called for scrapping it. Never mind that it leaves the Democratic base demoralized and makes a mockery of a key progressive goal for the past 40+ years. Never mind that it could inflame public sentiment to include a public mandate to buy insurance from an industry they loathe. What is so glaring is that this healthcare bill, as it stands, is so offensive and odious that it lost Keith Olbermann. And in a special comment this week on his show, he took the Democratic Senate to task, Democrats in general, and even President Obama for what is increasingly becoming something between a nightmare and a joke.
The "liberal media" is one of the most enduring myths in political Americana. Despite all evidence to the contrary, which actually shows a mainstream media that constantly tilts right of center, conservatives have managed to say this disinformation enough times that some mistake it for truth. Taking an advantage of mock outrage from Bill O' Reilly and Glen Beck over a Law & Order SVU episode, Keith Olbermann manages to destroy the fabrication of the "liberal media" so utterly, we should never hear mention of it again.
Keeping an eye on the failing Fourth Estate and looking for some TRUTH in journalism.
Media follows GOP talking point on Libby commutation furor being a partisan issue, failing to make connection to larger factors. Media under reports UN study showing more Afghans killed by NATO forces than Taliban. Bright spot of the week: Keith Olbermann at MSNBC speaks out strongly about Libby commutation and the White House administration.
Media Misses the Importance of the Libby Case and Commutation
President Bush's decision to commute the sentence of Vice President Cheney's former top aide I. "Scooter" Libby made a great deal of news this week, but fell shy of offering any context. Reducing the incident to merely "partisan" bickering, media pundits and journalists followed the White House and GOP talking point claiming Libby had only been charged with "lying." In reality, Libby was deeply embroiled in the question of who leaked CIA agent Valerie Plame's undercover status. The reason that he was charged with perjury and not any other charges, was because his very act of lying and obstruction of justice hindered the investigation of Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. Whatever else Libby, and by extension his boss Vice President Dick Cheney were involved with, was impossible to uncover in full--and thus prosecute--because Libby continually lied. *That* was why he was charged with perjury and sent to jail. Furthermore, the entire matter of the outting of Valerie Plame as a CIA agent was the result of her husbands' (former Iraq ambassador Joseph Wilson) challenge of the White House's WMD claim involving now debunked claims of Saddam Hussein receiving uranium from Niger. This is the missing context that too many journalists seem willing to let fall to the wayside, thus denying their audiences from fully understanding the full meaning of these events.
Media Silence on UN Report: NATO Strikes Kill More Civilians Than Taliban
Buried far beneath the headlines, a UN report released this past Friday summarized that NATO air strikes--which have stepped up in the past year--have killed more Afghans than the Taliban insurgents they were intended to target. Over 500 Afghan civilians have been reported killed this year, and the rate has dramatically increased in the last month. Other accounts by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and the Associated Press offered different counts, but agreed that more civilians were killed by NATO troops than by Taliban militants thus far in 2007. The climbing death toll has inflamed tensions among regular Afghans, forcing even the NATO installed President Karzai to speak out. On June 23, in response to the deaths of more than 100 civilians in a single week at the hands of U.S. and NATO forces, President Karzai called for investigations. "Afghan life is not cheap," he stated angrily, "and it should not be treated as such." Other than a few online news sources, the story has gotten little traction in the larger American press.
Keith Olbermann at MSNBC Speaks Out Strongly About Libby and the White House Administration
Olbermann gives a refreshing reminder of the important role journalism should be playing in our social and political system:
At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001]... and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country.
--Dennis Milligan, Chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party in an interview to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. "
June 4 2007: From bizarre remarks like that above, to the far-fetched idea that four guys dressed as pizza delivery men were going to overpower and outgun all the soldiers at Fort Dix, NJ, to the "aspirational" plan by several Caribbean nationals to blow up JFK Airport--Keith Olbermann takes time out to update his "Nexus of Politics and Terror." He examines thirteen alleged terror alerts and plots, tying them to the political landscape of the time. In each case there is a startling intersection of when these incidents occur, and the relative political convenience they offer to the Bush White House. Coincidence? Or is fear mongering now a normal part of American policy? Watch and be your own judge. Part 1 above. Part 2 below...
Transcript of Video
OLBERMANN: Since last August, there had been a period of calm. The screaming hair-on-fire pronouncements about terror plots that may have had real plotters but no real conceivable chance of actually happening had ceased. That that period spanned the time between the 2006 midterm elections and the week we reached exactly 18 months until the 2008 presidential election, just a coincidence.
Our third story on the COUNTDOWN, from the mind bending idea that four guys dressed as pizza delivery men were going to outgun all the soldiers at Fort Dix to the not too thought out plan to blow up JFK airport by lighting a match 40 miles away, here we go again. Time for an update of our segment, the Nexus of Politics and Terror. The instance is now 13 in number when those two worlds have overlapped and we are reminded by our government, with or without justification, that we should always fear fear itself.
We offer two prefaces tonight, one the words of Dennis Milligan, the new state chairman of the Republican party in Arkansas, who says about Iraq, to the newspaper “the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, quote, “At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing. And I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on September 11th, 2001, and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country.”
“All we need is some attacks on American soil,” said the Republican party chairman in Arkansas, Arkansas. in the United States. that Arkansas! The other preamble, we remind you again that coincidences can happen, that the logical fallacy insists that just because event A occurs and then event B occurs, that does not automatically mean that event A caused event B. But neither does it say the opposite.
The Nexus of Politics and Terror updated through today. Please judge for yourself.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OLBERMANN: Number one, May 18th, 2002; the first details of the president‘s daily briefing of August 6th, 2001 are revealed, including its title “Bin laden determined to strike in U.S.” The same day, another memo is discovered revealing the FBI knew of men with links to al Qaeda training at an Arizona flight school. The memo was never acted upon.
Questions about 9/11 intelligence failures are swirling. May 20th, 2002.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The terror warnings from the highest level of the federal government tonight are—
OLBERMANN: Two days later, FBI Director Mueller declares that another terrorist attack is “inevitable.”
The next day, the Department of Homeland Security issues warnings of attacks against railroads nationwide, and against New York City landmarks like the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty.
Number two, Thursday, June 6th, 2002.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I never really anticipated this kind of impact.
OLBERMANN: Coleen Rowley, the FBI agent who tried to alert her superiors to the specialized flight training taken by Zacarias Moussaoui, whose information suggests the government missed the chance to break up the 9/11 plot, testifies before Congress. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Graham says Rowley‘s testimony has inspired similar pre-9/11 whistle blower.
Monday June 10th, four days later.
JOHN ASHCROFT, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have disrupted an unfolding terrorist plot.
OLBERMANN: Speaking from Russia, Attorney General John Ashcroft reveals that an American name Jose Padilla is under arrest, accused of plotting a radiation bomb attack in this country. In fact, Padilla had by this time already been detained for more than one month.
Number three, February 5th, 2003; Secretary of State Powell tells the United Nations Security Council of Iraq‘s concealment of weapon, including his 18 mobile biological weapons laboratories, justifying a U.N. or U.S. first strike. Many in the U.N. are doubtful.
Months later, much of the information proves untrue.
February 7th, 2003; Two days later. As anti-war demonstrations continue to take place around the globe.
TOM RIDGE, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY DIRECTOR: Take some time to prepare for an emergency.
OLBERMANN: Homeland Security Secretary Ridge cites credible threats by al Qaeda and raises the terror alert level to orange. Three days after that, Fire Administrator David Paulison, who would become the acting head of FEMA after the Hurricane Katrina disaster advises Americans to stock up on plastic sheeting and duct tape to protect themselves against radiological or biological attack.
Number four, July 23rd, 2003; the White House admits that the CIA, months before the president‘s State of the Union Address, expressed strong doubts about the claim that Iraq had attempt to buy uranium from Niger. On the 24th, the Congressional report on the 9/11 attacks is issued. It criticizes government at all levels. It reveals an FBI informant had been living with two of the future hijackers.
It concludes that Iraq had no link to al Qaeda. Twenty eight pages of the report are redacted. On the 26th, American troops are accused of beating Iraqi prisoners.
July 29th, 2003, three days later; amid all of the negative headline.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Word of a possible new al Qaeda attack.
OLBERMANN: Homeland Security issues warnings of further terrorist attempts to use airplanes for suicide attacks.
Number five, December 17th, 2003; 9/11 Commission co-chair Thomas Kean says the attacks were preventable. The next day, a federal appeals court says the government cannot detain suspected radiation bomber Jose Padilla indefinitely without charges, and the chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, Dr. David Kay, who has previously announced he has found no weapons of mass destruction there, announces he will resign his post.
December 21st, 2003, four days later; the Sunday before Christmas.
RIDGE: Today the United States government raised the national threat level.
OLBERMANN: Homeland Security again raises the threat level to orange, claiming credible intelligence of further plots to crash airliner into U.S. cities. Subsequently, six international flights into this country are canceled after some passenger names purportedly produced matches on government no fly lists. The French later identified those matched names. One belongs to an insurance salesman from Wales, another to an elderly Chinese woman, a third to a five-year-old boy.
Number six, March 30th, 2004; the new chief weapons inspector in Iraq, Charles Duelfer, tells Congress we have still not found any WMD in that country. And, after weeks of having refused to appear before the 9/11 Commission, Condoleezza Rice relents and agrees to testify.
On the 31st, four Blackwater USA contractors working in Iraq are murdered. Their mutilated bodies dragged through the streets and left on public display in Fallujah. The role of civilian contractors in Iraq is now widely questioned.
April 2nd, 2004 --
BRIAN WILLIAMS, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: The FBI has issued a new warning tonight.
OLBERMANN: Homeland Security issues a bulletin warning that terrorists may try to blow up buses and trains using fertilizer and fuel bombs like the one detonate in Oklahoma City, bombs stuffed into satchels or duffel bags.
Number seven, May 16th, 2004; Secretary of State Powell appears on “Meet the Press.” Moderator Tim Russert closes by asking him about the enormous personal credibility Powell had placed before the U.N. in laying out a case against Saddam Hussein. An aide to Powell interrupts the question, saying the interview is over.
TIM RUSSERT, NBC NEWS ANCHOR: I think that was one of your staff, Mr. secretary. I don‘t think that‘s appropriate.
COLIN POWELL, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: Emily, get out of the way.
OLBERMANN: Powell finishes his answer, admitting that much of the
information he had been given about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was
POWELL: Inaccurate and wrong, and, in some cases, deliberately misleading.
OLBERMANN: On the 21st, new photos showing mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison are released. On the 24th, Associated Press video from Iraq confirms U.S. forces mistakenly bombed a wedding party, killing more than 40.
Wednesday, May 26th, 2004, two days later.
ASHCROFT: Good afternoon.
OLBERMANN: Attorney General Ashcroft and FBI Director Mueller warned that intelligence from multiple sources—
ASHCROFT: Indicates al Qaeda‘ specific intention to hit the United States hard.
OLBERMANN: And that 90 percent of the arrangements for an attack on the United States were complete. The color coded warning system is not raised. The Homeland Security secretary, Tom Ridge, does not attend the announcement.
Number eight, July 6th, 2004; Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry selects Senator John Edwards as his vice-presidential running mate, producing a small bump in the election opinion polls and producing a huge swing in media attention towards the Democratic campaign.
July 8th, 2004, two days later.
RIDGE: Credible reporting now indicates al Qaeda is moving forward with its plan to carry out a large scale attack in the United States.
OLBERMANN: Homeland Secretary Ridge warns of information about al Qaeda attacks during the summer or autumn. Four days after that, the head of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Deforest B. Soaries Jr., confirms he has written to Ridge about the prospect of postponing the upcoming presidential election in the case the event it is interrupted by terrorist attacks.
Number nine, July 29th, 2004; at their party convention in Boston, the Democrats formally nominate John Kerry as their candidate for president. As in the wake of any convention, the Democrats now dominate the media attention over the subsequent weekend.
August 1st, 2004, Monday morning, three days later.
RIDGE: It is as reliable a source—a group of sources as we‘ve ever seen before.
OLBERMANN: The Department of Homeland Security raises the alert status for financial centers in New York, New Jersey and Washington to orange. The evidence supporting the warning, reconnaissance data left in a home in Iraq; later prove to be roughly four years old and largely out of date.
Number ten, October 6th, 2005, 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time; the president addresses the National Endowment for Democracy, once again, emphasizing the importance of the war on terror and insisting his government has broken up at least 10 terrorist plots since 9/11.
At 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time, five hour after the president‘s speech has begun, the Associate Press reports that Karl Rove will testify again to the CIA leak Grand Jury and that Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald has told Rove he cannot guarantee that he will not be indicted.
CHRIS MATTHEWS, MSNBC ANCHOR: We‘re awaiting a news conference at the bottom of the hour.
OLBERMANN: At 5:17 p.m. Eastern time, seven hour after the president‘s speech has begun, New York official disclosed a bomb threat to the city‘ subway system based on information supplied by the federal government. The Homeland Security spokesman says the intelligence upon which the disclosure is based is of doubtful credibility.
And later it proves that New York City had known of the threat for at least three days and had increased police presence in the subways long before making the announcement at that particular time. Local New York television station WNBC reports it had the story of the threats days in advance of the announcement, but was asked by high ranking federal officials in New York and Washington to hold off on its story.
Less than four days after having reveal the threat, Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York says, since the period of the three now seems to be passing, I think over the immediate future, we‘ll slowly be winding down the enhanced security. While news organizations, ranging from the “New York Post” to NBC New quote sources who say there was reason to believe the informant who triggered the warning simply made it up.
A senior U.S. counter terrorism official tells the “New York Times,” quote, there was no there there.
Number 11, a sequence of event in August 2006 best understood now in chronological order. As the month begins, the controversy over domestic surveillance without legal warrants in this country crests. Then on August 9th, the day after the Connecticut Democratic Senatorial Primary, Vice President Cheney says the victory of challenger Ned Lamont over incumbent Joe Lieberman is a positive for the, quote, al Qaeda types, who he says, quote, “clearly betting on the proposition that ultimately they break the will of the American people, in terms of our ability to stay in the fight.”
The next day, British authorities arrest 24 suspects in an alleged imminent plot to blow up U.S. bound aircraft using liquid explosives smuggled on board in sports drink bottles. Domestic air travel is thrown into chaos as carry-on liquids are suddenly banned.
On August 14th, British intelligence reveals it did not think the plot was imminent. Only the U.S. did. And our authorities pressed to make the arrests. Eleven of the 24 suspect are later released. And in the months to come, the carry-on liquids ban is repeatedly relaxed.
Number 12, May 7th, 2007, Greensburg, Kansas leveled by a tornado and the state‘ governor notes, more in sorrow than in anger, that the redeployment of so much of the Kansas National Guard and its equipment to Iraq might now cripple the soldiers‘ ability to respond if another disaster hits Kansas.
GOV. KATHLEEN SEBELIUS (D), KANSAS: What we‘re really missing is equipment. And that is putting a strain on recoveries like this one.
OLBERMANN: The next day, the authorities announce arrests in a far-fetched plan to attack soldiers at Fort Dix in New Jersey. The so-called terrorists planned to gain access to the base by posing as pizza delivery men. It is not a suicide mission. They state clearly, they intend to kill personnel and then retreat to safety, even though they were going to attack a closed compound, full of trained soldiers with weapons.
And though the plan is branded sophisticated, its perpetrators are not sophisticated enough to have not handed over the videotape of themselves training with weapons to a Circuit City store in order to be transferred to DVD. The Fort Dix plot not only erases from most news coverage the issue of disaster readiness in Kansas, but it also obscures the next day‘ story that in anticipation of his testimony to a House panel, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has submitted opening remarks that match, virtually word for word, the remarks he had given the previous month to a Senate committee.
ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Recognizing my limit involvement in the process, a mistake I freely acknowledge—
a mistake that I freely acknowledge, I have soberly questioned my prior decisions.
OLBERMANN: And number 13, June, 2007, the JFK plot to blow up the jet fuel pipeline feeding John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, thus causing the entire airport to be consumed in an horrific conflagration. One of the men arrested has, as past employee access, to the sprawling complex, but little knowledge of the reality of the pipeline system.
The manager of that system tells the “New York Times” that the pipeline is not some kind of fuse. Shut off valves throughout would have easily contain any damage, just as a leak in a tunnel in any city would not flood everything in that city below ground. The so called plot happens to be revealed the day before the second Democratic presidential debate.
And as the scandal continues to unfold over the firings of U.S. attorneys, and their replacements by political hacks, the so called plot is announced by the Bush appointed U.S. attorney for Brooklyn, New York, and by the police chief of New York City, the father of a correspondent for Fox News Channel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
OLBERMANN: In all fairness, we could probably construct a similar timeline of terror events and their relationship to the haircuts of popular politicians. But if merely a reasonable case can be made that any of these juxtapositions of events are more than just coincidences, if that case can be made on this, the very day that a military judge at Guantanamo Bay dismissed all terror charges that have kept Salim Hamdan jailed there for five years, it underscores the need for questions to be asked and asked continually in this country, questions about what is prudence and what is just fear mongering?
Welcome to THE CONSTRUCT, a place to upload explorations pertaining to issues of politics, society and popular culture--from global politics to issues of race to Hip Hop, and any other loose odds and ends that orbit my space. If it's not your steelo, take the blue pill, and go back to sleep. If you'd like to know more, take the red pill and stay a while. Be sure to peep the Rabbit Hole, for the archives.
