OK this guy seems to be getting more ridiculous by the hour. I have deep sorrow for America if this guy is elected to take over USA with false accusations like these. Here we have a man who is all fight then talk later who actually might be picked for the presidency.
quote:
Last night, while Americans sat quietly expecting to watch a video 'tribute' to victims of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001--John McCain took advantage of America's good will to showed a video falsely linking Iran to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
At 9:11pm (CST), the MSNBC coverage cut to a video being projected onto the main screen at the RNC. At that point, Tom Brokaw introduced the video as follows:
Tom Brokaw: OK, let's go now, Keith, if we can, down to the floor. We want to share with our viewers the 'Tribute To The Victims of 9/11.'
So, that was the introduction the networks gave to the video--no doubt lifted from a press release given to them by the RNC. Normal practice, I suppose. But here is the astoundingly immoral thing that happened next, rather than show a video 'tribute' to the victims of 9/11, the McCain team showed a video 'history' of 9/11 that began like this:
(Fade to black as ominous slow piano music plays)
(Fade in: iconic image of Iranian revolutionaries from the late 1970s holding American hostages)
Narrator: The first attack occured in Iran.
(MSNBC feed now shows picture of Iranian hostage crisis with title '9/11 Video Tribute')
Narrator: 444 days--America held hostage.
(Cut to: image of 1998 Al Qaeda bombings of Kenya and Somalia)
Narrator: Then again.
(Cut to: second image of 1998 Al Qaeda bombing of Kenya and Somalia)
Narrator: And again.
(Cut to: image of 2000 Al Qaeda bombing of USS Cole)
Narrator: At our embassies.
(Cut to: close up image of 2000 Al Qaeda bombing of USS Cole)
Narrator: Our navy.
(Cut to: image of generic crowd of Middle Eastern men waving machine guns)
Narrator: They grew ever more bold. Their call was, 'On those who believe in God, and hopes for reward--'
(Cut to: image of Osama Bin Laden firing automatic rifle)
Narrator: 'To obey God's command to kill Americans.'
(Fade to black)
(Fade in:slow motion video of smoke rising from top of WTC.)
Narrator: And kill us they did. This time on American soil. The date was September 11th--9/11.
(Violent burst of flames slashes through Tower 2--the second plane. Crash is punctuated by high-pitched flourish of music followed by slow rising fireball)
(Cut to: video images of towers burning)
Narrator: This enemy sword to our destruction has been at war with us for decades. This we now know.
(Cut to: video of Tower 1 collapsing)
The 'tribute' continued for several more minutes, showing video of firefighters and rescue workers, other scenes of destruction.
Everyone in the United States has inevitably seen dozens of actual tribute videos to those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. In most cases, these videos overlay photographs of those individuals who died with the video of the burning towers. There is, one could argue, a familiar vocabulary for tributes to the victims of 9/11.
Rather than follow that standard and recognizable tribute format, however, McCain's video presented a political argument about Iran's links to 9/11.
Never before had a major broadcast video so blatantly attempted to connect the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 to the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Never before John McCain's night at the Republican National Convention.
Interestingly, Keith Olbermann responded to the imagery in the McCain video immediately after it was shown by apologizing to MSNBC viewers for imagery that could be construed as a political exploitation of the emotions of 9/11.
No doubt, showing a 9/11 video at a political convention was emotional exploitation. But it was also something much worse: it was blatant historical revisionism. It was a cynical attempt to claim attacks on Americans--1979 and 2001--were carried out by the same 'enemy.'
What Olbermann should have apologized for was MSNBC accidental transformation of their network into a mechanism of the most cynical kind of Orwellian propaganda.
John McCain did not make the link between 9/11 and Iran in his RNC speech, but we can be certain that the video 'tribute' is a sign of what is to come on the campaign trail between now and November.
The media's responsibility from this point forward is clear: either they can sit back and let McCain's historical revisionism stand or they can move quickly to debunk it.
Either way, it seems apparent that major broadcast outlets need to take a more proactive role in pre-screening for blatant historical inaccuracies any video a political party plans to show during a national broadcast--or at least preparing to immediately debunk politically motivated inaccuracies.
John McCain will no doubt continue to exploit the pain of 9/11 in some vain hope of political gain, and will continue to push historical revisionism about the links between Iran and 9/11. The media, if it does its job, can be a crucial counterweight that prevents false and militaristic propaganda from flowing freely on our public airwaves.
Originally posted by Lemonad
What are your thoughts?
Here we go again.
EDIT: I hope people really aren't this inanely self destructive.
pkcRAISTLIN
quote:
Originally posted by shaolin_Z
EDIT: I hope people really aren't this inanely self destructive.
well, you're doing him favours by not voting against him, so when mcain is elected don't forget to give yourself a long hard look in the mirror.
shaolin_Z
quote:
Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN
well, you're doing him favours by not voting against him, so when mcain is elected don't forget to give yourself a long hard look in the mirror.
I see your point, and thought along those lines myself at one point... and got awefuly close to voting for Bush's distant cousin and bonesman fraternal brother, John Kerry... at least he's not "as bad" as Bush. Then I realized I'm not responsible for the outcome of a system that doesn't give me a choice, and I don't have to choose options that everyone else has rammed down their throats. Yeah, it's true that my participation could tip things in favour of the lesser evil, but at the end of the day I'm still choosing "evil." Which is why I wouldn't be able to live with myself, because I would be participating in the same system that makes me sick. I would be voting in a lesser , thus accountable for what he does still, because I supported the prick by voting for him / her / it. So no, I wouldn't be able to look myself in the mirror if I did vote. Rationalizing away ethics in favor of 'pragmatism' is something that also makes me sick, or at least leaves a bad taste in my mouth ;).
EDIT: Plus, in the long run, all I would be doing is perpetuating an already collapsing system. Why prolong the misery? I'd rather it collapse and go to utter so future generations don't have our bull pushed in to their time slot. Peace.
pkcRAISTLIN
i definitely understand your point, and at some time in the distant past i would've agreed with you (and in some ways i still do). but despite out mutual apathy for the liberal democratic system, i think the most recent regime has shown us what can happen when the apathetic do nothing, and i think we both agree that 8 bush years have been the worst in living memory.
quote:
Originally posted by shaolin_Z
all I would be doing is perpetuating an already collapsing system. Why prolong the misery? I'd rather it collapse and go to utter so future generations don't have our bull pushed in to their time slot. Peace.
i really hate to point out that marx is LONG dead and we still can't see even the hint of a collapse of the modern system. i tend to believe that a "collapse" of this empire is (more or less) impossible/implausible so i must work within what i have.
at the end of the day i would prefer to vote for the douche over the turd sandwich because we've just had 8 years of sandwiches and im ing fed up with it (and i dont even ing live there).
shaolin_Z
I see your point, but apathy and willful ignorance brought us to this point in the first place... not this regime. We love blaming the leaders and absolving ourselves of all responsibility. That's wrong, collectively, we're just as ed up as them... and we let them get away with it, passively or consciously... by being apathetic and willfully ignorant. The Bush administration is a reflection of our own fears, insecurities, incompetence, inaction and misery. It's a vicious circle that is hard to break, and historically, I can't think of many examples where it does. Revolutions, real revolutions, are bloody, violent, and not pleasant. No one wants to rock the boat, and if you attempt to rock it alone, chances are L. Ron Hubert will lock you up like he locked up the little girlies on his weird cruise, and chances are you'll be screaming like a little girlie to when you're locked up :p. Or you could just pushed off the boat all together by the crew and / or the captain. So all you did is effectively throw your life away and in most probability, leave your memory tainted as being a either a fool or a lunatic.
You only have so many options:
Rock the boat.
Participate in the madness.
Remove yourself from it as much as possible.
Either way, you'll have to deal with the consequences, regardless of which option you pick. It's up to you to decide which one you can live with ;). P(k)[P]eace :D.
LazFX
quote:
Originally posted by Lemonad
What are your thoughts?
The GOP is a major tool this election cycle...
them and how they used this tragic event to gain.
a bunch of rednecks and ignorant lazy s.
or people like LatinLover
hardcore trancer
This shouldnt be a surprise to anyone.The Necons arent really done with their dirty agenda just yet,they need a douchebag like McCain to finsh the job.Looks like the Republicans are about to play the fear game once again to get elected and this time IRAN IS THE BOOGIE MAN.:rolleyes:
paulandrews
quote:
Neville Chamberlain once called the nation of which this city was the capital in 1938, "a faraway country" with "people of whom we know nothing." With those words, he reneged on Britain's alliance with Czechoslovakia, abandoning it to Adolf Hitler's quest for "breathing room" for the German people and the rest, as they say, is history.
In recent months, the United States has undertaken important new security commitments with the Czech Republic and Poland in the face of emerging threats to those countries, the rest of Europe and indeed the Free World more generally from a regime whose aspirations are arguably even more ominous than those of the Nazis: the Islamic Republic of Iran.
I suppose anyone who doesn't really like the US should vote for the republicans and support yet another war. The two that are going on right now already seem enough to up economy big time, one more just might cause a big-time recession.
