What are we gonna do now?
When Osama bin Laden's tape was broadcast on Friday on CNN, my wife told me that the blurb running underneath this mass murderer's latest video was "Osama bin Talking." Hmmm...it's nice that they're not trying to scare the poop out of us, like usual, but doesn't it seem like things are gettin' a tad too casual around the old "newsroom?" I mean, after all, Osama was finally copping to killing over 3,000 people in the 9/11 attacks, and taunted Bush for his bumbling indecisiveness ("My Pet Goat") that gave his al Qaeda goons all the time they needed to complete their mission...
How telling is it that the public discussion is not over the Bush administration's failure to nail Public Enemy #1 for 9/11, or whether outsourcing the Tora Bora operation to Afghan warlords instead of using our Special Forces units was a good idea (would we have captured OBL and many of his accomplices?), or if it was prudent to divert our intelligence and military resources to Iraq (which, according to the 9/11 Commission, for those of you living in the red states, did not have any connection whatsoever with the 9/11 terrorist attacks) while al Qaeda was regrouping after the Afghan war. Instead, we head to spin alley with all of its bluster and posturing about which political camp will reap the benefits of Osama's cameo appearance in our tawdry drama.
On the flip side, a friend mentioned a rumor that Bill Clinton may be in the running to replace Kofi Annan, when he steps down as United Nations Secretary-General in 2006 (this is based on a report in United Press International -- owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his Moonies -- which is widely circulating on right-wing internet sites and surely meant to conjure up paranoid visions of blue helmeted troops marching down Main Street, Everytown, USA). If true, I think Bill could do a lot of good in the world (and, boy, would it just boil the blood of all the wacko Clinton haters out there...).
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On Saturday night, Channel 13 aired "The Candidate," the 1972 political campaign satire with Robert Redford. Great movie, but quite depressing to realize how little things have changed: style trumps substance/ad men shape the message and product; polls dictate public policies; winning is valued far more than maintaining one's ideals and principles; and all the key issues -- poverty, racism, unemployment, public education, health care, the environment -- remain pretty much unaddressed 30 years later.
How telling is it that the public discussion is not over the Bush administration's failure to nail Public Enemy #1 for 9/11, or whether outsourcing the Tora Bora operation to Afghan warlords instead of using our Special Forces units was a good idea (would we have captured OBL and many of his accomplices?), or if it was prudent to divert our intelligence and military resources to Iraq (which, according to the 9/11 Commission, for those of you living in the red states, did not have any connection whatsoever with the 9/11 terrorist attacks) while al Qaeda was regrouping after the Afghan war. Instead, we head to spin alley with all of its bluster and posturing about which political camp will reap the benefits of Osama's cameo appearance in our tawdry drama.
On the flip side, a friend mentioned a rumor that Bill Clinton may be in the running to replace Kofi Annan, when he steps down as United Nations Secretary-General in 2006 (this is based on a report in United Press International -- owned by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his Moonies -- which is widely circulating on right-wing internet sites and surely meant to conjure up paranoid visions of blue helmeted troops marching down Main Street, Everytown, USA). If true, I think Bill could do a lot of good in the world (and, boy, would it just boil the blood of all the wacko Clinton haters out there...).
****
On Saturday night, Channel 13 aired "The Candidate," the 1972 political campaign satire with Robert Redford. Great movie, but quite depressing to realize how little things have changed: style trumps substance/ad men shape the message and product; polls dictate public policies; winning is valued far more than maintaining one's ideals and principles; and all the key issues -- poverty, racism, unemployment, public education, health care, the environment -- remain pretty much unaddressed 30 years later.
posted by Steve from Moon | 7:20 PM
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