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?

Japanese teevee

FU

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

Scalia thinks 24 is a documentary

Is it any wonder our Supreme Court makes such fucked up decisions?

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.

the media elite

When it comes to the big Sunday morning political talk shows it's nothing but crackers as far as the eye can see.

meanwhile, over there...

The Surge continues to not work:

Nationwide, the number of people killed or found dead on Wednesday was 233, which equaled the highest death toll since The Associated Press began recording daily nationwide deaths in May 2005.

In the US, 32 people get killed and the media becomes obsessed. 32 dead is a good day in Baghdad. Iraq is a like the Massacre at Virginia Tech™ every single day. No one gives a shit. Even when it's Americans dying.

reach out touch faith

Why is it that crazy wingnut Christian theofascists are always on teevee?

As pointed out in the article linked above, these people represent a narrow segment of America:

Polls have shown the moral concerns of the American people do not mirror those of the religious right. Asked to name the most serious moral crisis in America today, 22 percent said “corruption in government/business” and 17 percent said “greed and materialism” or “people too focused on themselves”; only 3 percent cited “abortion and homosexuality.”

Most people don't give a shit and will generally just do what the teevee tells them. Putting shitheads like these guys on teevee is part of what gives the theofascists such disproportionate power. I'd rather watch Dutch prostate milking.

Dutch TV

More of the funny:



Uncensored teevee for the win!

those wacky dutch people

TV in The Netherlands sounds like it is awesome.

My favorite quote from the CNN article:

The program, which claims to have an educational purpose, caused a scandal even before its first episode. One of the presenters experiments onscreen with all kinds of soft and hard drugs. The program also features the exploration of sexual activities, including S&M, swingers clubs, squirting female orgasms and prostate milking (shown in full detail), leading to a flurry of political disapproval.

Sounds educational to me! It's reading things like this which really hammer home just how completely censored the teevee is in the US. You can't even say shit. Everyone says shit. An even better example, when someone saying fuck is newsworthy the news can't report that they said fuck. Dick Cheney told a Senator to "go fuck himself" on the Senate floor. You can't put that on the news because you know, little kids might hear a bad word. Fuck that shit. The news is full of people being murdered and raped every single day, the word fuck isn't what we should be worried about.

As totally fucking insane Dutch teevee sounds from the article, I salute those crazy motherfuckers. If we had more people smoking pot and demonstrating whatever the fuck prostate milking is on our teevee we would all be a lot better off. At the very least it would finally give the Focus on the Family theofascist-types something genuine to complain about.