silencio

A couple of days ago the New York Times exposed a large propaganda operation run out of the Pentagon which targets the domestic media market. Normally that sort of thing is illegal in a democracy, and supposedly is illegal in the US. And in case a giant illegal domestic propaganda infrastructure wasn't fucked up enough, their pet propagandists are a bunch of war profiteers:

Those business relationships are hardly ever disclosed to the viewers, and sometimes not even to the networks themselves. But collectively, the men on the plane and several dozen other military analysts represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants. The companies include defense heavyweights, but also scores of smaller companies, all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions in military business generated by the administration’s war on terror. It is a furious competition, one in which inside information and easy access to senior officials are highly prized.

Strangely, since the New York Times published this a few days ago it has gone absolutely nowhere. No other major news outlet has taken it up or given it much more than a brief mention as far as I can tell. An illegal domestic propaganda operation run by the Pentagon and a bunch of war profiteers is not "front page" news. No political talk show has covered it as a subject of discussion that I have been able to find. It's quickly on its way down the memory hole.

What the fuck?

support the troops committing suicide

12,000 soldiers a year try to kill themselves. Too bad the VA got busted trying to cover it up.

baby dragons

The Afghanification of Iraq is progressing nicely.

Can you be gang-raped by a corporation?

It sure looks like it. If I were The Decider I would of declared Haliburton a terrorist organization, used a Predator to take out their next board meeting, and then nationalized the entire fucking company after they got busted knowingly providing rotten food to our troops, or contaminated water, or any other number of terrible things that have done.

Americans hate America

Most Americans think the government is shit, the economy sucks, and we are all doomed.

Iraqi military training

"As the Iraqis stand up, we will stand down"

We are never leaving Iraq.

fuck the troops

Republicans shaft the longest serving ground troops in Iraq. I guess they don't like them to get an education, it might make it easier for them to figure out that the Republicans and the military leadership don't give a shit about them.

Osama bin Laden tells it like it is

It's pretty sad when a terrorist leader can give a more articulate speech than the President of the United State (are you at OPEC or APEC shithead?). Assuming this is really Osama and not some lame attempt at psyops, which is certainly possible...

FU

Circa Mid-2003 - Tom Friendman, billionaire propagandist and total asshat:

truth is man-made

Stephen Baldwin is crazy as fuck!

And The Evildoers better watch out because he is going on a Military Crusade in Iraq.

the mechanical heart

this is what democracy looks like

Dead people are so funny:

We heard a few reports, in one case corroborated by photographs, that some soldiers had so lost their moral compass that they'd mocked or desecrated Iraqi corpses. One photo, among dozens turned over to The Nation during the investigation, shows an American soldier acting as if he is about to eat the spilled brains of a dead Iraqi man with his brown plastic Army-issue spoon.

"Take a picture of me and this motherfucker," a soldier who had been in Sergeant Mejía's squad said as he put his arm around the corpse. Sergeant Mejía recalls that the shroud covering the body fell away, revealing that the young man was wearing only his pants. There was a bullet hole in his chest.

"Damn, they really fucked you up, didn't they?" the soldier laughed.

The scene, Sergeant Mejía said, was witnessed by the dead man's brothers and cousins.

Gee, I wonder why they hate our freedom? I wonder how much less fucked up Iraq would be today if so many American soldiers weren't sick assholes. Certainly the insurgency wouldn't be so popular. After seeing your brother gunned down and then his killers playing with his body what would you do? Laugh along or get a gun?

Hillary Clinton hates America

Pentagon calls Hillary a traitor. To paraphrase the DOD: "You'll ask what I want, when I want, so shut the fuck up bitch!"

support the troops

Why is our government so fucking cruel? Yeah, she's an illegal immigrant. But god fucking DAMN - her husband is MIA in Iraq. He's probably already been tortured and decapitated for some fucked up snuff film propaganda. What kind of sick assholes would then deport the poor bastards wife?

It's Thanksgiving in Iraq!

Turkey just sent several thousand troops across the border into Iraqi territory.

Two senior security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the raid was limited in scope and that it did not constitute the kind of large incursion that Turkish leaders have been discussing in recent weeks.

That's really reassuring. It's just a little invasion, not a big one, nothing to be alarmed about.

fuck the military

Why would anyone sign up when all they are going to do is shit all over you? What a sick fucked up organization.

the tortured torturer

Interesting stuff:

Not long ago in Iraq, he felt "absolute power," he said, over men kept in cages. Lagouranis had forced a grandfather to kneel all night in the cold and bombarded others in metal shipping containers with the tape of the self-help parody "Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction," by comedians Ben Stiller and Janeane Garofalo. ("They hated it," Lagouranis recalled. "Like, 'Please! Just stop that voice!' ")

If you are a content producer it may be worthwhile to have your lawyer add a "no torture" clause to your copyrights so you can sue assholes like Mr. Lagouranis.

the man who disapeared

At one point the Whitehouse loved to talk about capturing al-Libi and all the great info he was sharing. Then it was revealed that they got the info by having the Egyptian security services brutally torture him. Ever since his torture was revealed it's like he stopped existing. Where the fuck is al-Libi?

I think Dickhead Cheney keeps him in a cage under his bed.

an American suicide

So the Democrats capitulated to Bush on the Iraq funding bill. No real benchmarks required. No timetables. Yet another blank check to pay for more useless deaths.

Meanwhile, the sabers continue to rattle through the Middle East. Gas prices continue to climb. Housing prices continue to fall. National debt continues to grow with no end in sight. The trade deficit continues to skyrocket. The climate continues to change. American culture continues its obsession with celebrity and vacuous entertainment. Etc. Etc. Etc...

Some academic who has studied these sorts of things once said something along the lines of " civilizations are never destroyed unless they commit suicide". We've got the bullets in the gun and the barrel in our mouth, we can watch the season finale of American Idol while we pull the trigger.