:: meanders ::

:: yet another ploy
The hard-left has long demonized President Bush in many ways, among them, characterizing him as a totalitarian leader along the lines of Hitler, with his Christian followers playing the role of the gullible sheep that are easily herded and lead. What is disconcerting is that this bash-Bush ploy is yet again making an appearance in this op-ed piece by Thom Hartman of GlobalVision.net. I wouldn't have known about it without the unintended appearance as copy-pastes at a trading site I visit. Mind you, I don't know the paster on the other end, but the site itself is pretty much a nose-down "serious" subscription site. This accidental posting was curious to me, and so off to google I went. The earlier piece, about which I wrote earlier, had its origin in a much-ballyhooed piece by Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution. The appearance of this new piece leads me to think that it is yet another move of the liberal left, so desperate to re-inflate the ranks decimated by reality hitting the failed eternal prosperity vision of an HGTV Dream Home in every pot. I believe this ploy will backfire. It may already be back-firing,. To characterize the President as Hitler is desperate. Mind you, I'm not a card-carrying Republican, but a Hitler he isn't and, more importantly, a Germany we, the USA, are not. Hitler needed the conditions in Germany as much as the impoverished and desperate Germans were ready to take on a Hitler. This ploy is being used in the hope of appealing to the loathing most civilized people have for totalitarianism. What makes it ludicrous, and failed, is that the very foil to which the comparison must be contrasted is far more Hitler-esque. I am speaking of Saddam Hussein, who in his Ba'athist Socialist view of the world held Hitler and Stalin in the highest regard. "His" people, and those particularly of Stalin, were frightened "followers", which by extension this ploy suggests Americans are, or are close to becoming. Another aspect of this ploy is the appeal to our sympathy for the hapless Iraqi people, who the big-bad-imperialist nation is crushing under the bootheel of their totalitarian leader, Hitler, errr Bush. The implication is that the Iraqi are like the innocent Poles, the first victims to fall under the tip of Hitlers warrior spear, whose fall and neglect by the rest of the world lead to a holocaust campaign of world dominion and terror. The implication here is that the world must rally to oppose Bush, or risk a conflagration of Wagnerian proportions. Further, by extension, we, the American people are falling into the same trap as the Germans of 1930, who blindly followed Hitler in his zeal to scourge the world of objectionable people andnon-conforming views. BOSH. Already we see that the "Mesopotamian Stalingrad" did not come to pass. That posited that the hapless innocent Iraqi people would stalwartly outlast the ultimately doomed seige of the totalitarian leader. I don't hear much of this Stalingrad anymore. Nevertheless, to persist in this characterization will backfire. Mostly because it is so transparently propagandistic in its use of transcendent symbolism (which even if one is ignorant they are being manipulated, their subconscious is aware of it). But it is a failure because Americans at all levels do not see themselves or their leaders in those roles. "We" may be gullible as much as any nation or people are gullible-- after all more than a few bought the Clinton line of prosperity forever, but "we" are not a desperate nation. My hope is that the Democrats and "liberal left" abandon this desperate ploy, and quickly if they don't want to further alienate bi-partisan fence straddlers. Who knows, to pursue reality may free their creative energies enough to find a cause worthy of our attention.

:: What news? Reportage locked on doling out agendas.
Victor Davis Hanson on War & Iraq on National Review Online

Rather than inquiring how an entire country was overrun in a little over three weeks at a cost of not more than a few hundred casualties, reporters instead wail at the televised scenes of a day of looting and lawlessness. Instead I had been expecting at least some interviews about bridges not blown due to the rapidity of the advance. Could someone tell us how special forces saved the oil fields? How Seals prevented the dreaded oil slicks? Whose courage and sacrifice saved the dams? And how so few missiles were launched? Exactly why and how did the Republican Guard cave? In short, would any reporter demonstrate a smidgeon of curiosity � other than condemning a plan they scarcely understood � about the mechanics of the furious battle for Iraq?

Glad someone else noticed. 250,000 plus troops, hundreds upon hundreds of reporters, upheaval of a nation and society before our very eyes. But aside from the first three days of the thrillingmilitary-history-making drive across the desert narrated with by David Bloom and Greg Kelly, Bob Arnott and Sanji Gupta, and the irrepressible Geraldo before he got booted, the 24/7 channels along with their brethren in all the national media outlets are again doing what they do best: dog piling on two or three stories, 24/7.

:: Media Intervention and Spin
By now everyone has seen the toppling of the Stalineque Saddam statue. Testament to the power of that image was evident yesterday, where it received loads of chatter at internet chat sites. In fact, it made the rounds of market chat sites so quickly on the heels of the event that it was one of the few times I suspected media-intervention on the event. One fellow felt the event was a Madison Avenue PR event, ostensibly staged by the US Marines present near the site. I don't agree with that view. What I mean by "media intervention" is the following. The version I heard from a reputedly "in" market source was that "dealers" (ie, trading desks) were selling the negative conotation of the American flag draped on the statue. The flag was placed there by an exhuberant marine but it was then replaced w/an Iraqi flag, which was also removed before the statue was toppled with the help of a tank winch. What better way to quash a late-comers war-rally party than to spin the obviously positive statue event as market negative. Kill two birds with one stone: take advantage of the fact that the war-trade had run its course once the regime fled Baghdad and throw mud at the fact that it was done is short order. I dont' "buy" the sell-the-flag story and the overly convenient liberal symbolism. The same image is getting a second wind today, this time with a more favorable spin. Parents of the marine who put the flag on the statue are appearing on MSNBC.

:: Alice in Wonderland - An Interactive Adventure!
I found Alice in Wonderland - An Interactive Adventure! a few years ago and am so pleased to see it still there with even more games, images, and fun than before. A real treat for kids and the kiddie in each of us.

:: Africa: The New Frontier of Terror
In the fever of covering the fall of Baghdad, the on-going war in the DR Congo continues as a footnote on the 24/7 news crawlers. "Crawlers" are the "ticker tape" of blurbs that "crawls" along the bottom of the screen while the talking head repeats the same "story du jour" ad nauseum. With hundreds of reports scattered globally, why is what is "reported" limited to one event, with all others getting relegated to the "around the world in 80 seconds" segment?

According to a report by the World Bank, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Sub-Saharan Africa yielded the highest returns in the world in 2002.link

Not to neglect those opposed to profiteering on the backs of adverstiy: there is ample work for human shields in the DR Congo

"3.3 million people ha[ve] died as a result of the war, making it the "tragedy of modern times'." link