Gordon- Some days I go along with your reasoning, but often I have to bow to my " too stupid to be true " theories. That behind the seeming incompetence the real agenda is being more efficiently served. Like this crap in the news about how surprised the guvmint is at the down-right spunkiness of the Taliban. It's fun to imagine a bummed out, furious Shrub-boy realizing that his grand response to Sept 11 is not going as planned, but to me it makes much more sense that after years of relationships with the Afghan "freedom fighters" the US knew very well that fighting on Afghan soil is extremely difficult for outsiders. That fits in more with the early and repeated warnings that this would be a long, long war. Dr. Strange Dick(Cheney) is no clown. And I'm convinced that he's running this show. Then you can add to this the various narratives that just natural blend in with some main theme. Like Secord sitting in a five-star hotel in Uzbekistan coordinating the heroin traffic.
Speaking of efficiency, there was certainly no bumbling uncertainty, even immediately following the blasts in NY and DC, when the "talking heads" were deployed to inform the people of the way the Church Commission had destroyed the intelligence apparatus. In the midst of chaos no longed-for tax giveaway was forgotten. Much more effort was put into grabbing unconstitutional power, both police and spending, than was devoted to actually securing the public. The govmint forgot that anthrax mail might infect postal workers but it didn't forget to confiscate all high-resolution satelite photos of the battle area. It even remembered to negotiate not the usual deal, but paid extra to control those photos forever.
Where do ideas come from? The peace movement spit on returning Vietnam vets. Feminists hate stay at home mothers. Twenty somethings are convinced Social Security won't be there when they retire. When billions of dollars are at stake do you really think Big Cigars devote no resources to R&D and planning?
Aren't you suspicious when there's an economic summit and a press release makes specific mention that currency issues were NOT discussed? What's up wit dat?
Why is every skit involving blacks on Sat Night Live about some stereotype like The Ladies Man? Except last week when I noticed 3 sorta anti-gay cracks.Wasn't there a time when the US guv funded certain painters and writers and made sure they were in the public view? How come for awhile, you saw working people on television. Families like the Bunkers and the Connors who had money problems, but they're invisible now?
Do you really believe that the people with real power believed in that anti-Communist bull? Then why were US banks lending money to the Soviet Union at 3% back when it was the Evil Empire. I had never read Marx or even spoken to an actual person on the left at the time I read a small article in the Biz section mentioning this info but my conspiratorial inclination took this info to support my developing ideas about how the whole anti-commie, free-market thing was just a show to make sure the people didn't get their cut of the booty.
In fact, isn't RealPolitik and the spin-control that surrounds it a conspiracy? Please keep in mind that when I say these things it's not that I'm sure I believe them 100% all the time. It's more that they seem to make more sense when explained in a different context, assuming a different agenda. And that these assumptions deserve at least as much consideration as the picture being feed to us.
Is it an accident that op-ed columns in the NYTimes are still talking about 7000 dead in the WTC, when it's becoming increasingly apparent that the death-toll was less than half that number? WTC Memorial Service, 7000 victims. Anthrax. The military consults Hollywood and low and behold the news reads like a bad movie. Last night on CNN I repeatedly heard announcements concerning the fact that the refined grade of anthrax had been identified as something possessed by only three countries, meaning of course IRAQ had it! The story concerning domestic right-wing terror I see at Common Dreams.com was not repeated in every segment as the story implying Iraqi involvement was. Ya know, or not. But isn't it a mistake to under-estimate the enemy.
Oh yeah. And what about the large number of conveniently empty judicial seats that the Repugs now get to fill now? Won't those judges come in handy when the left is trying to explain economic options to busted, ageing, unemployed, uninsured workers in 2010.
I suspect the coup d'etat has, and continues to happen. I suspect the pace and intensity are accelerated by the state of capital and technological development. Broadly the fix the US got from the destruction of WWII has worn off so American workers are screwed. They've got enough junk and real financial security costs too much. The Big Cigars have been preparing for a two-tiered America for a long time. They're all moving to Tuscany. Sorry. I have a hard time with linear thought, er, whatever. Please excuse my unedikated gibberish.