posted on August 20, 2004 11:42:43 AM new
We ain't seen nuthin' yet.
This is the time of desperation and anxiety. This is the time of hysterical Orange Alerts and imminent al Qaeda attacks coming from outta nowhere at any minute and violating our children and kicking our puppies and badly denting our Honda Accords. And, yes, this is the time of election-year political tactics coming from the increasingly anxious Right that will make Sun Tzu's "Art of War" look like a cupcake cookbook.
Do you feel it? Can you smell it in the air? The sensation that the Republican Party, though various tentacles, will stop at absolutely nothing to maintain power in the White House? It's true. It's the feeling that, during the next few months, it's all about to get very shrill, and very surreal, indeed.
How about another "imminent" terrorist threat? Pretty much a given, really. Followed, of course, by another. And then another. And then another and another until every other day the newscast features a thick-necked, panicky Tom Ridge saying yes, oh my God yes, we now have definitive proof that terrorists are more or less sort of maybe planning to strike the U.S. maybe very soon and disrupt our shopping and screw with our TV reception and blot out the sun. We just don't know, you know, where, or when, or how, or what the hell to do about it. P.S.: Vote Republican.
Look, times have changed. Of course politics has always been a truly ugly business, and each party's strategy to gain or regain power as election time rolls around has always become increasingly low down and nasty and mudslinging and soul cringing and borderline illegal.
But this time it all feels, somehow, different. Uglier. More sadistic.
There is a sense of lawlessness, of desperation, among the Republican Party right now. It is no longer a question of simply which party will run the show or which platform will have the most influence on policy. Rather, it's about a radically polarized worldview: Are we going to be an aggressive macho globally disrespected isolationist nation that has burned all bridges and molested all foreign relationships and mocked all global sympathy, or are we, as the GOP wants you to believe, going to become some liberal namby-pamby country where gays can marry each other and sexually deviant women can have abortions every day and everybody speaks French?
Because there is no middle ground. This is the GOP message. You are either with us, or you are a terrorist. You are either on the side of the "patriotic," pro-war party of WMD lies and homophobia and violence toward the global community, or you're a liberal hippie 'Nam protester like that jerknose Kerry.
What else could they do to guarantee a November win? What are they capable of, in the wake of 2000's stolen election and the rigging of the Florida recounts and a sneering, despoiled Supreme Court? Just about anything, really.
How about a nice October Surprise of suddenly finding Osama somewhere in a remote cave in Afghanistan, as the news media receives an "anonymous" delivery of a big glossy photo of Dubya himself standing outside said cave in a manly flight suit and lookin' all tough in his cowboy boots and confused smirk as he waves an American flag in one hand and holds Osama by a chain in the other? What, too obvious?
Well, then, maybe something a bit more devious? How about the thousands of electronic, touch-screen voting machines now installed in the nation's polling places, most every one manufactured by corporations run by staunch Bush-supporting Republicans and many of which don't allow for recounts or paper trails or any means of double checking their completely programmable results. An obvious recipe for election rigging? Is that Katherine Harris, giggling through her Botox?
Look. This much is clear: It's not merely going to be dirty politics as usual. It's not going to be mudslinging and name calling and finger pointing and policy wonking, childish little claims of "fuzzy math" and aww-shucks dumb-guy cowboy shtick to appeal to the lower intellects.
It is not going to merely be BushCo spending millions of its enormous war chest, as it already has, to launch incredibly vicious attack ads against Kerry and Edwards that dare to question the veracity and validity of Kerry's many Vietnam War medals or of Edwards' political experience, although Bush himself is the least-qualified president in U.S. history, one who ducked military service and went AWOL and makes all military service people wince in embarrassment.
No, it's going to be far worse. And more nauseating. Who, for example, isn't sighing in appalled disgust as the Pentagon suddenly discovers that, oh my goodness, Bush's own military-service records were "accidentally" destroyed? How amazing! And would you believe it, but the records in question just so happened to be the exact months of just those exact years that Bush was supposedly to have "served." What a crazy coincidence! Now we can never really know if he even bothered to show up for duty at all! Gosh, what a shame.
Another possibility: ditching nasty, wan little Dick Cheney. Rumor has it the Angry Puppeteer could be dumped from the ticket very soon, swapped for a less slimy and more human candidate. Maybe a nice, crusty war hero like John McCain? Or a strange, lonely, friendless woman like Condi Rice? A bitter, emasculated Colin Powell? Anything to galvanize the ticket -- make it, you know, less ugly and old and warmongering, more palatable and sassy and Edwards-like. This is the new rule: If it might force a victory, the GOP will consider it.
And, finally, if all else fails, well, why not just postpone the whole damn election itself?
That's right, simply invent some (nonspecific, unsubstantiated) terrorist threat of sufficient hysteria so that BushCo simply has no choice but to delay the vote. The result? Give you gullible, timid voters more time to reconsider your choices and maybe vote based on your fear instead of, you know, your heart, or your soul, or your ethics, or your brain, or your general sense of universal humanitarian progress.
Could it happen? Well, no. Most experts say such a delay is impossible, ridiculous, flagrantly antidemocratic. Doesn't matter. What matters is the fact that the GOP had the gall to float the idea in the first place.
So, then, let this be a warning: Get ready. Expect the unexpected. Watch the skies, scrutinize the headlines, dust off your stash of duct tape. Because Karl Rove and the BushCo war hawks and the corporate cronies who run the show aren't about to go down without a screaming, sickening, fiery fight.
And if BushCo has proven anything in the past four violent, budget-gutting, honor-molesting, nearly unbearable years, it's that there ain't no international law that can't be broken, no fear synapse that can't be hammered to death, no fraudulent power tactic that can't be abused. Anything is possible. You have been warned. God bless America.
posted on August 20, 2004 07:39:00 PM newThere is a sense of lawlessness, of desperation, among the Republican Party right now.
I see it so very differently now. I see it as the dems truly believe this is being used for political gain...but ignoring the true reality of the threats.
It was discussed here when the latest threat level rose....and all the dems said the same thing...'everytime Bush's poll numbers go down..we hear about another threat.'
But then look to the reality of what happened....more AQ were detained for working on bombing NY, Washington. They had been taking pictures and there WERE plans.
It's a real threat....especially as our election time draws nearer. Just look to what happened in Spain at their election time. The AQ are very serious about their threats...it's not game playing time. They've been threatening and taking hostages to work at forcing our allies in Iraq to leave.
The AQ is VERY serious....too bad the dems don't see that. And I believe that's the reason kerry will not be elected. Dems can't be trusted to defend this nation when they don't even believe the treats are real.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"One thing is for sure: the extremists have faith in our weakness. And the weaker we are, the more they will come after us." --Tony Blair
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"The War on Terror will not be won until America is united. And as long as Democrats target the Bush administration -- not the terrorists -- as the enemy, we are in trouble." --Oliver North
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Those are only two reasons why we need to:
posted on August 20, 2004 08:18:43 PM new
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Information seized from a suspected al Qaeda computer expert was largely responsible for the increased threat level for three East Coast financial districts, U.S. and Pakistani officials said Monday.
A U.S. intelligence official said the previously unannounced arrest of a 25-year-old computer expert July 13 in Pakistan yielded evidence that detailed potential attacks against New York; Newark, New Jersey; and Washington.
The U.S. official identified the man as Muhammad Naeem Moor Khan. But Pakistani authorities said the man's identity could not be confirmed because he has used multiple aliases in the past.
Khan was described as a possible "node" in al Qaeda operations, with information flowing through him, possibly by computer.
Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani -- a Tanzanian arrested last week in connection with al Qaeda's bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998 -- also provided "very important" information, Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad said Monday.
Also, a senior Pakistani intelligence official said seven more suspected al Qaeda members have been taken into custody since Ghailani's arrest -- including one who was trying to leave the country Monday morning.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge urged Americans on Monday to go about their business as usual, even though he said terrorists want to "undermine the economy of the United States."
Ridge said the intelligence suggested terrorists may be targeting the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup headquarters in New York, insurance giant Prudential Financial's headquarters in Newark, and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington. But he said nothing indicated the threat was imminent.
Ridge raised the color-coded alert level for terror threats in those areas from yellow, or elevated, to orange, or high.
"There was no mention of when an attack could occur, but we don't have the luxury of guessing," he said.
However, he said raising the threat level in specific areas will make the buildings safer and people in them more aware.
This is the first time the terror threat system has been used to raise the threat level in targeted areas, rather than nationwide.
A New York law enforcement source said reconnaissance information was so specific that it appears potential attackers may have conducted surveillance inside the buildings, perhaps over several years.
Yes, bigpeepa....deny...deny...deny...maybe stick your head in the sand and all this will just disappear.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"One thing is for sure: the extremists have faith in our weakness. And the weaker we are, the more they will come after us." --Tony Blair
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"The War on Terror will not be won until America is united. And as long as Democrats target the Bush administration -- not the terrorists -- as the enemy, we are in trouble." --Oliver North
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Those are only two reasons why we need to:
Re-elect President Bush!!!
[ edited by Linda_K on Aug 20, 2004 08:22 PM ]
posted on August 20, 2004 08:27:51 PM new
Looks like some dems must think other countries are 'faking' the threat too.
Updated Aug.18,2004 14:22 KST
Eight Charged Under British Anti-Terrorist Law
British authorities have charged eight men with conspiracy to murder, in an anti-terrorist round-up spurred by information gathered from a computer expert arrested in Pakistan last month.
The men, all of Asian-origin aged between 19 and 32, were apprehended two weeks ago in a series of coordinated raids throughout Britain.
Under British law the men had to be either charged or released.
They have been held and questioned during the past 14 days at the high-security Paddington Green police station in London.
The eight were initially detained along with five others who have since either been released or held on lesser criminal charges.
Besides murder conspiracy charges, the eight men are accused of conspiracy to commit a public nuisance by using radioactive material, toxic gas, chemicals or explosives.
One of the defendants, 32-year-old Dhiren Barot from north London, also is accused of possessing reconnaissance plans of the New York Stock Exchange, the Citicorp headquarters, and the Prudential building in New Jersey.
The men will make their first court appearance on Wednesday.
It could lead to the most high-profile terrorism trial in Britain since September 11, 2001.
British authorities have said very little about those in detention, but U.S. officials have commented that among those arrested in Britain are some key figures in the al-Qaida network.
The arrests were made on August 3, one day after the disclosure by U.S. newspapers of the name of a computer expert being held in Pakistan.
It is believed that information contained on Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan's lap-top led to the recent heightened Orange-level security alert in New York, New Jersey and Washington.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200408/200408180027.html
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"One thing is for sure: the extremists have faith in our weakness. And the weaker we are, the more they will come after us." --Tony Blair
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"The War on Terror will not be won until America is united. And as long as Democrats target the Bush administration -- not the terrorists -- as the enemy, we are in trouble." --Oliver North
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Those are only two reasons why we need to:
Re-elect President Bush!!!
[ edited by Linda_K on Aug 20, 2004 08:31 PM ]
