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watching the Terri Schiavo case with
a great sense of uneasiness. What
a sad and personal decision it is to
deal with a loved one in such a
condition. It is unseemly how some
are exploiting the case for political
gain.
Two years into the Iraq war and
protesters around the world marked
the event. The photos above are
some of the best I saw. It may seem
odd to some that protests continue.
Things are getting better, they
argue, freedom is on the march.
What is not understood by these
freedom marchers is that 'lying',
'intentionally misleading' or even
'providing wrong information' in order
justify bombing, invading and nation
building is honestly an unforgivable
offense.
The United States has lost more than
1,500 young people and have tens
of thousands more severely injured.
We also have to expect a wave of
mental illness that afflicts all solders
from all wars. For a generation to
come, American solders, American
families and American culture are
scarred for a mission that was
shamelessly misrepresented. Some
say the cost of war is so great that to
criticize it serves only to further
wound yourself. But, like many, I
believe that ignoring the truth
prevents learning from our mistakes.
But that is pretty obvious by now
isn't it?
================
Protesters also remember the
thousands of innocent Iraqis
who lost their life in this
military action.
Unwilling Martyrs
in a cause they did not choose.
ESTIMATED IRAQI CIVILIAN DEAD
MIN. 17,061 MAX. 19,432
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"It is incomprehensible that a
government can walk all over
somebody's private judicial matter
because of their own personal
feelings. It is just horrible the way the
government is acting. This is what
Terri wanted. It is her wish."
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Cost of the War in Iraq
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FRANK RICH
read commentary in it's entirety
The enduring legacy of Enron can be summed up in one word: propaganda. Here was a corporate house of cards
whose business few could explain and whose source of profits was an utter mystery - and yet it thrived,
unquestioned, for years. How? As the narrator says in "The Smartest Guys in the Room," Enron "was fixated on its
public relations campaigns." It churned out slick PR videos as if it were a Hollywood studio. It browbeat the press (until
a young Fortune reporter, Bethany McLean, asked one question too many). In a typical ruse in 1998, a gaggle of
employees was rushed onto an empty trading floor at the company's Houston headquarters to put on a fictional show
of busy trading for visiting Wall Street analysts being escorted by Mr. Lay. "We brought some of our personal stuff,
like pictures, to make it look like the area was lived in," a laid-off Enron employee told The Wall Street Journal in
2002. "We had to make believe we were on the phone buying and selling" even though "some of the computers didn't
even work."
If this Potemkin village sounds familiar, take a look at the ongoing 60-stop "presidential roadshow" in which Mr. Bush
has "conversations on Social Security" with "ordinary citizens" for the consumption of local and national newscasts.
As in the president's "town meeting" campaign appearances last year, the audiences are stacked with prescreened
fans; any dissenters who somehow get in are quickly hustled away by security goons. But as The Washington Post
reported last weekend, the preparations are even more elaborate than the finished product suggests; the seeming
reality of the event is tweaked as elaborately as that of a television reality show. Not only are the panelists for these
conversations recruited from administration supporters, but they are rehearsed the night before, with a White House
official playing Mr. Bush. One participant told The Post, "We ran through it five times before the president got there."
Finalists who vary just slightly from the administration's pitch are banished from the cast at the last minute, "American
Idol"-style.
Like Enron's stockholders, American taxpayers pay for the production of such propaganda, even if its message, like
that of the Enron show put on for visiting analysts, misrepresents and distorts the bottom line of the scheme that is
being sold. We paid for last year's phony television news reports in which the faux reporter Karen Ryan "interviewed"
administration officials who gave partially deceptive information hyping the Medicare prescription-drug program. We
paid Armstrong Williams his $240,000 for delivering faux-journalistic analysis of the No Child Left Behind act.
The administration cycled the Ryan and Williams paychecks through the PR giant Ketchum Communications.
Ketchum was also one of the companies hired to flack for Andersen, the now-defunct Enron accounting firm that
shredded a ton of documents. We don't know what, if any, role Ketchum is playing in the White House's Social
Security propaganda push, though we do know the company has received at least $97 million from the government,
according to a Congressional report.
That $97 million may yet prove a mere down payment. The Times reported last weekend that the administration told
executive-branch agencies simply to ignore a stern directive by the Congressional Government Accountability Office
discouraging the use of "covert propaganda" like the Karen Ryan "news reports." In other words, the brakes are off,
and before long, the government could have a larger budget for fake news than actual television news divisions have
for real news. At last weekend's Gridiron dinner, Mr. Bush made a joke about how "most" of his good press on Social
Security came from Armstrong Williams, and the Washington press corps yukked it up. The joke, however, is on them
- and us.
USA Today reported this month that the Department of Homeland Security, having failed miserably to secure
American ports and air transportation from potential Al Qaeda attacks, has nonetheless shelled out $100,000-plus to
hire "a Hollywood liaison": Bobbie Faye Ferguson, an actress whose credits include the movie "The Bermuda
Triangle" and guest shots on television schlock like "Designing Women" and "The Dukes of Hazzard." She will "work
with moviemakers and scriptwriters" to give us homeland security infotainment - which is to actual homeland security
what the movie "Independence Day" is to an actual terrorist attack.
Another propagandist with a rising profile is Susan Molinari, the onetime CBS News personality who appears regularly
on news shows like "Hardball" and "Capitol Report." As she bloviates from the right about Social Security or the fake
newsman Jeff Gannon, she is invariably described as "a former Republican Congresswoman" or a "CNBC political
analyst." But her actual current jobs remain mysteriously unmentioned: C.E.O. of the Washington Group, Ketchum's
lobbying firm, and president of Ketchum Public Affairs. Were the Ketchum link disclosed, perhaps some real NBC
reporter might find the nerve to ask her what other Karen Ryans and Armstrong Williamses might be on the Ketchum
payroll. Or not.
The Bush propagandists have been successful at many tasks, from fomenting the canard that Iraqis attacked on 9/11
to deflecting moral outrage from Abu Ghraib and toward indecency as defined by its Federal Communications
Commission. But Social Security may be a bridge too far even for propaganda machinery of this heft. Polls find that
an ever-increasing majority of the country rejects the idea of letting Wall Street get its hands on its retirement savings.
Americans do have short memories, but it's the administration's bad luck that not just Kenny Boy but a whole brigade
of bubble plutocrats have lately been yanked back into the spotlight by their legal travails: WorldCom's Bernard J.
Ebbers, Tyco's L. Dennis Kozlowski, HealthSouth's Richard M. Scrushy, Global Crossing's Gary Winnick. No one is
glad to see them. The public knows that the economy has not fully mended, and that there remain different economic
rules for insiders than for the panelists drafted for the presidential Social Security roadshow. The new bankruptcy bill
embraced this month by Republicans and Democrats alike throws Americans paying usurious credit-card interest to
the wolves even as wealthy debtors remain protected.
