(no subject)
I turned on the tube, but they weren't saying anything about it. Maybe I'm just watching the wrong stations.
I looked through the newspaper. "FBI spy." "Church of the Nativity." No, nothing there either. A couple of marginally related stories on page ten but no mention of The Story.
The Moneymaker. The event that almost certainly had media executives privately jumping up and down with glee at the thought of the increased revenues it would bring.
I'll give you a hint: it happened eight months ago today. This very day.
Give up? Apparently everybody else has.
As the eight-month anniversary of what was at the time touted as the first attack on the continental United States since the War of 1812, the sun rises and sets without a peep from government officials, or the media. What was the subject of church services, political speeches and human-interest specials one month after the fact has dropped off the public radar. One could reasonably expect some hoopla on September 11, 2002, especially with the Walker Lindh and Moussaoui trials getting into full swing about that time, but probably that will be the last time the posers-that-be give it much thought.
Because, after all, it wasn't the Pearl Harbor with which many people were so quick to draw a comparison. We still have our Pacific Fleet. There's no rationing. We're not blacking out our windows at night. The draft has not been instated. Don Rumsfeld is cancelling military contracts, not asking for new ones.
It doesn't sell papers any more. It's not OJ any more. Eight months, and we still don't know where bin Laden or Mullah Omar even are. Nor do we even seem to care. Troops still remain in Afghanistan, more troops, even, than when the fighting there was at its height. These members of our armed services are fighting a rather thankless, secret war, in which media coverage is close to nil.
Could it be that we were never threatened at all? Could it be that even terrorists can occasionally hit a 21 natural at the blackjack table?
Yes, September 11 was horrific. Certainly a military response was warranted. However, it's of course reasonable to expect patriotic Americans to be a bit miffed that the primary objective of that response is still a distant glimmer.
But we don't get that. What we get instead is the administration rattling its saber to get into Iraq. Because they're a threat! They might be a-makin' nukular weapons, goldurnit!*
I call coverup. I call screwup. I see an administration heading a war effort, with the finest military in the world at its disposal, wandering around like a chicken with its head cut off. On its face it's not surprising, given that the president is a subliterate jackass who can't even chew his food properly, but isn't that why the GOP nominated him in the first place? Didn't they want an easily-manipulated goofball, like they had in the days of "pre-Alzheimer's" Ronald Reagan? Where are these people now that there's a war on, off playing golf?
This is what happens, folks, when you chew up the Constitution and spit it out in a mass of pulp paper, as the Supreme Court did in 2000. Hell if that had happened in 1900, there would have been riots in the streets. Apparently the public school system has done its job in creating a nation largely composed of Springer-watching, drooling morons.
[*Recent tensions should have been enough for Iraq to have already used its nuclear weaponry, if it had any. If Iraq has had more than ten inspector-free years and still hasn't yet developed a nuclear weapon, I respectfully submit that Iraq can't find its ass with both hands. Hardly a threatening country. But then again, when's the last time the U.S. went to war with a threatening country?]
I looked through the newspaper. "FBI spy." "Church of the Nativity." No, nothing there either. A couple of marginally related stories on page ten but no mention of The Story.
The Moneymaker. The event that almost certainly had media executives privately jumping up and down with glee at the thought of the increased revenues it would bring.
I'll give you a hint: it happened eight months ago today. This very day.
Give up? Apparently everybody else has.
As the eight-month anniversary of what was at the time touted as the first attack on the continental United States since the War of 1812, the sun rises and sets without a peep from government officials, or the media. What was the subject of church services, political speeches and human-interest specials one month after the fact has dropped off the public radar. One could reasonably expect some hoopla on September 11, 2002, especially with the Walker Lindh and Moussaoui trials getting into full swing about that time, but probably that will be the last time the posers-that-be give it much thought.
Because, after all, it wasn't the Pearl Harbor with which many people were so quick to draw a comparison. We still have our Pacific Fleet. There's no rationing. We're not blacking out our windows at night. The draft has not been instated. Don Rumsfeld is cancelling military contracts, not asking for new ones.
It doesn't sell papers any more. It's not OJ any more. Eight months, and we still don't know where bin Laden or Mullah Omar even are. Nor do we even seem to care. Troops still remain in Afghanistan, more troops, even, than when the fighting there was at its height. These members of our armed services are fighting a rather thankless, secret war, in which media coverage is close to nil.
Could it be that we were never threatened at all? Could it be that even terrorists can occasionally hit a 21 natural at the blackjack table?
Yes, September 11 was horrific. Certainly a military response was warranted. However, it's of course reasonable to expect patriotic Americans to be a bit miffed that the primary objective of that response is still a distant glimmer.
But we don't get that. What we get instead is the administration rattling its saber to get into Iraq. Because they're a threat! They might be a-makin' nukular weapons, goldurnit!*
I call coverup. I call screwup. I see an administration heading a war effort, with the finest military in the world at its disposal, wandering around like a chicken with its head cut off. On its face it's not surprising, given that the president is a subliterate jackass who can't even chew his food properly, but isn't that why the GOP nominated him in the first place? Didn't they want an easily-manipulated goofball, like they had in the days of "pre-Alzheimer's" Ronald Reagan? Where are these people now that there's a war on, off playing golf?
This is what happens, folks, when you chew up the Constitution and spit it out in a mass of pulp paper, as the Supreme Court did in 2000. Hell if that had happened in 1900, there would have been riots in the streets. Apparently the public school system has done its job in creating a nation largely composed of Springer-watching, drooling morons.
[*Recent tensions should have been enough for Iraq to have already used its nuclear weaponry, if it had any. If Iraq has had more than ten inspector-free years and still hasn't yet developed a nuclear weapon, I respectfully submit that Iraq can't find its ass with both hands. Hardly a threatening country. But then again, when's the last time the U.S. went to war with a threatening country?]