>This nasty performance does indeed raise the question of the reason for
>the widespread attacks on Chomsky (including SNL) in the last month. --CGE
I think it's pretty simple: the U.S. elite can't stand any kind of significant critique of the imperatives of empire. Chomsky is a man of excellent reputation (with prestige carried over from the field of linguistics, his MIT chair, etc., making him more than just another oddly dressed poorly socialized dissident) with a sizeable popular following. He's dispassionate, rational, and seriously well-informed. All these things make him hard to marginalize. Thus the high volume of hysterical attacks.
Doug