Gyroscope

A newsletter for those unmoved by spin.
No. 9, September 22, 2003

Subscribe

Change Address

Unsubscribe

Comment

President Bush and the boys had no use for France, but those who want useful analysis of current events should include the French paper Le Monde diplomatique among their regular reading. A monthly, the latest issue has, in addition to expected pieces such as one on the breakdown of the Mid East roadmap, an article on the "air conditioned Islam" of Egypt. It's just the sort of article you will never find in US media: an in depth look at a brand of "prosperity" preachers of Islam in Egypt that have an odd resemblance to the Protestant version we're used to from American TV's religious channels.

Nor do they just cover international news. The August issue had a disturbing story on the rising fraction of U.S. prisoners with infectious diseases, arguing that a serious public health crisis is being caused by prisons as incubators of hepatitis C, HIV and tuberculosis. In the latter case, prisoners represent 35% of all Americans with TB.

Republicans must be worried about Gen. Wesley Clark, because the media is already after him for the usual goofy "reasons:" no one knows who he is (unlike Liberman, who the media takes seriously?), his campaign is "disorganized" (after three days?). One national TV outlet, on the day Clark announced composed its entire story on him by going around to people and asking if they had heard of him. Funny, you might have thought that presenting his biography or his positions might be useful or even required by the rules of objective journalism.

The deeply stupid Ann Coulter has spawned several websites devoted to refuting her alleged facts. One of the more systematic demolishing of her first rant, Slander, can be found here.

If you'd like to lash out in full rant yourself, try Evil GOP Bastards. Check out the "Caught on Film" archive for a nice paring of Bush rhetoric and actual policy at total variance from the rhetoric.(Thanks Terry, for this reference.)

Another loud-mouth who for some reason is on national TV is Bill O'Riley with his improbably named "No-Spin Zone." A good placed devoted to deconstructing him is here. Check out the transcript listings for examples of his rudeness, slander, double standards and general lying..

The American Politics Journal has a wonderful collection of pity quotes.

One of my favorite things is to find the most respectable sources for left-wing views, or rather views that our far-right wing press calls left-wing. The Financial Times, all pinstriped British upper-class, has some of the most biting attacks on US Mideast policy as does The Economist Magazine.. And then there is the U. S. Army. Their Strategic Studies Institute regularly puts out analysis of world events that the talk show hosts would just sputter over as "liberal."

"The Department of Homeland Security advises that 'sturdy shoes' be included in the survival kits we have all been urged to assemble." Editorial, New York Times, Sept. 20th.

"Undercover agents were able to sneak box cutters past screener at about half a dozen airports over the summer." Wall Street Journal, Sept. 12, p.a4

Forcing people who have experienced a traumatic experience to 'debrief' by talking about their feelings may not in fact promote healing at all, but may make things worse, especially if done too soon after the event. Wall Street Journal, Sept. 12th, p. B4, reporting on a study done by a panel of psychologists.

Spam is 50% of all email and 18% of all spam comes from blue-chip companies, reports Business Week, Aug. 11th, p. 54

Each person in the US uses twice as much water as a person in Australia does, reports the Economist, July 19th, (Survey section, p. 4) US consumption is actually declining both in absolute terms and per capita.

"Since the New Deal, Republicans have been on the wrong side of every issue of concern to ordinary Americans; Social Security, the war in Vietnam, equal rights, civil liberties, church- state separation, consumer issues, public education, reproductive freedom, national health care, labor issues, gun policy, campaign-finance reform, the environment
and tax fairness. No political party could remain so consistently wrong by accident.
The only rational conclusion is that, despite their cynical "family values" propaganda, the Republican Party is a criminal conspiracy to betray the interests of the American people
in favor of plutocratic and corporate interests, and absolutist religious groups."
-- from the Evil GOP Bastards home page.

It's hard on the families. It's hard on the soldiers, and it's especially hard to know that you put your faith and trust into a president, and they continue to lie to you. They break promises, and it's hard to fight for somebody like that.
-- Jenna Hamilton, fiancée of a soldier in Iraq whose tour of duty has been extended, to Bill Hemmer on CNN, July 16, 2003, quoted on American Politics Journal website

In one way or another, this is the oldest story in America: the struggle to determine whether "we, the people" is a spiritual idea embedded in a political reality -- one nation, indivisible -- or merely a charade masquerading as piety and manipulated by the powerful and privileged to sustain their own way of life at the expense of others. Let me make it clear that I don't harbor any idealized notion of politics and democracy; I worked for Lyndon Johnson, remember? But there is nothing idealized or romantic about the difference between a society whose arrangements roughly serve all its citizens and one whose institutions have been converted into a stupendous fraud. That difference can be the difference between democracy and oligarchy.
-- Bill Moyers, speaking to the Take Back America conference, June 2003, quoted on American Politics Journal website