Bernard–
What’s important here is that you’ve gotten to the fifth W of journalism on this thing.
And by that I mean the ‘why’.
This is not just some prank.
There was intent, as made plain by the follow-up, and that’s why the liars and lying liars who help them should not be let off the hook this time around.

Posted by: RossK | Oct 2 2004 22:20 utc | 3

This is the challenge at hand. To get the truth out about the war against the everyday people by the elite. Murdoch isn’t the only media outlet that is giving Bushie a pass. Its the “big media” against the people. A groundswell must be created to overthrow the class warfare of the elite against the middle and lower classes.
On Whiskey Annex there is loathing about the loss of Billmon. While it is my belief someone got to him, others can say he copped out. I don’t know, and really, I did well without Billmon and the force of the blogosphere can continue without him. I enjoyed his great writing and biting critiques, but, we have change to make. We must get the Bushies out of the WH.
I heard Bill Moyers speech at the Inequality Conference on Link TV again tonight and I was in the amen corner and frightened by what our country is becoming. As Moyers said, there is a concious effort to lay waste to the middle class.
We are quickly becoming a country of nobles and serfs. If Billmon cannot bring himself to engage in this fight for the soul of the US, we must go on without him. I have not read the LA Times article, but Billmon, from the bits on Whiskey Annex and the comments, he is giving a great warning. The elite believe the internet is letting people have to much democracy. That means wanting to control content. This country was not created to give people to much democracy. It is a democratic republic. The founders believed democracy led to tyranny.
The constitution was always meant to protect the elites from the sheeple. But what happened? Unions gave the workers more power. States passed new constitutions that allowed direct votes on issues. Direct election of senators.
Now what has happened. Unions have been co-opted. Media is concentrated to give fewer views as the elite like. Senators and representatives all have gone to elite schools. Many move from other states to run and have elite backing because of the connections made in college. Do the research people. The monied interest have won. But we need to restart the fight. After we get Bushie out then we need someone more progressive than Kerry. It took since the early 1970s to create this mess, it will take a while to clean it up.
There my rant for tonight.

Posted by: jdp | Oct 3 2004 3:53 utc | 5

Seeing as the above shows what lows these fucks will stoop to, would it suprize you to find out this: Rumor of Bush earpiece worn during debate
since I did see that “bump” in the middle of Bush’s back during the debate and my instinct was tapping me on the shoulder saying “Heyyyy… what the–?”
Here’s the deets from NYC Indymedia:
In the middle of an answer last night bush said, “now let me finish” as if someone was interrupting him- yet nobody did- he was talking to the person in his earpiece.
here-s the video link- ffwd to 40 min 30 sec:
rtsp://cspanrm.fplive.net/cspan/project/c04/c04093004_debate1.rm
Also, it looks like the right size for the newest model of Patrick Flanagan’s Neurophone. For those that don’t know the Neurophone is a electronic invention that can enable us to hear by a completely new information channel to the brain. … you hear through your skin. And what you hear is inside your head. This is no joke. I own one. It’s the freakyist thing I have ever experinced.

Posted by: Uncle $cam | Oct 3 2004 8:41 utc | 7

deanander
strong & clear post
still steel

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 3 2004 12:45 utc | 9

@Uncle Scam
Sound is just vibrations in the air that sets of vibrations in the ear. So it goes to reason that the air is elimitable. I saw in a engineering paper that a japanese company has developed a cellphone where the sound is emitted through vibrations to your wrist. Then you just have to put a digit to bone close to your ear.
Won´t it look funny when people put a finger in their ear to answer the phone? 🙂

Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Oct 3 2004 13:30 utc | 11

Allegations that Bu**sh** wore a secret earpiece in the debate.
Check it out and decide for yourself if Augustus C Minus is the new Milli Vanilli.

Posted by: glenstonecottage | Oct 3 2004 13:39 utc | 13

It would be inconceivable to imagine that the Media wouldn’t be a party to half-truths, misinformation, and dirty tricks at this stage in a close campaign.
The difference as far as I can see is that US voters have gone beyond acceptance of this stuff into a state where they agressively cling to a fantasy in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
The latest Tomgram has a great piece by Ira Chernus which argues that most people have gone with the Lone Ranger fantasy role that GWB projects because the alternative; that Kerry will recreate a society where all share in the benefits, has been promised too many times before and left unfulfilled. In fact he argues most Americans have fallen into a passive acceptance of their lot and are numbing themselves with the fable that they are engaged in a battle of the truly good against pernicious evil-doers.
That maybe the case although I suspect that many people just feel truly helpless in the face of overwhelming power and can’t bring themselves to fight the fable when the consequences of appearing “unpatriotic” are so bad and the benefits of espousing the contrary point of view so small. I mean no Democrat President in the past has ever kept their word about reining in the rich and powerful and sharing out the wealth. This one, a member of the aristocracy appears even less likely to keep his word. On the other hand the problems of supporting someone just like yourself are still too fresh. Clinton’s asset of being a good ol boy quickly became his albatross. Many’s the bloke that I knew wasn’t above a bit of a leer at a young woman that became Billy Boy’s most trenchant critic.
I fear it will be a while before this attitude changes. We all know that people only resort to radical alternatives when their personal situation becomes desperate and while as I humanist I wouldn’t wish the circumstances that lead to such action on anyone, the rest of the world will be hanging with baited breath waiting for the lot of ordinary americans to get so bad that they violently reject this fantasy world.
I dunno enough about how hard it is to get by in the US at the moment but with such an oil dependant energy infrastructure, won’t $50 a barrel oil make it a damned cold winter this year?
Bush’s platitudes and fables won’t seem so appealing to a population frezzing it’s ass off and battling rising interest rates. The huge deficit must make the US vulnerable to reduced money supply. If I was a Saudi or Asian looking for somewhere to park large amounts of cash the US would appear to be far too risky for the rate of return. If the Dow stagnates or slips too far investors are going to be looking at dividends rather than capital gain. That equals much higher lending rates.
Maybe investors will hold off so as not to create a downturn but with Asia and Europe offering a better return on safer investments it’s possible that investors won’t be able to stay steady.
I still see a Bush victory followed by a mind-bogglingly awful crash and burn (even worse than Nixon’s) as being the most likely outcome of this parody of the democratic process.

Posted by: Debs in ’04 | Oct 3 2004 22:41 utc | 15

Debs ’04 and Allen/Vancouver-
Your posts and the articles (also the one about global warming and leaving poor people without escape) at TomDispatch fill me with such despair that I have to cry.
I’m reminded of the quote, “Life begins on the other side of despair,” by Sartre, but wonder what that means for populations, if anything, and not only for individual consciousness.
Maybe the reality is contained in Dostoevski. “Suffering is the origin of consciousness.”
It is hard for me to understand why so many people in this country are so unwilling to open their eyes and their hearts to our situation in the world and to see that we cannot continue on this hate-filled side of fear and despair and rejection of our interconnectedness as global partners in healing ourselves and thus our world.

Posted by: fauxreal | Oct 4 2004 5:05 utc | 17

Uncle: well, actually I have no problem with mixing the cynical disgusted position that mankind is an essentially friggin stupid species with the second that assumes that it can and should evolve further. It’s been my position since a very long time that mankind will end during this new millennium and will have disappeared by 3000 AD; either it will have self-destruct, or it will have evolved into a modified and improved species, physically and mentally (which is even more important), one who is able to see the errors of the past and which can implement a better world on the ruins of the ancient (I say ruins since it’s probable a good deal of this planet and of our societies will be wrecked by the current idiots and criminals in charge, as well as by billions of complacent sheep). In both cases, I see it as a good outcome since a good deal of the current evils of the world will disappear.
I think evolution will happen, though I can’t assure you mankind will do this step. But there are many other evolved lifeforms out there in the billions of planets, and some will succeed if we fail – even if it’s better for self-esteem if mankind actually manages to survive and improve. Now, if you wonder about teleology, well, I don’t see it as a goal but just a natural process. In fact, the late Ilya Prigogine came to consider that the whole universe was a big dissipative structure – I’m not sure if he said what kind of process it was and what the final goal was, but I suspect he had his idea and I have my own suspicions.
Still, it’s not pure despair and doom and gloom to point out that indeed the situation can be (partly) saved, but that it would require juge sacrifices and massive changes of global opinions – basically, the whole planet should be run with the primary goal of ensuring the survival of life on Earth, and then of mankind, which would require the creation of some world ruling body for the main issues, the transformation of economies and societies in a way not seen before, even bigger changes overall than were whole continents were turned into war economies in WWII. Basically, it can be done; it just requires an insane amount of willpower from many, making it not very likely. What is disturbing, imho, and quite risky, is that we’re so close to the abyss that things should be done quickly, and trying to convince the whole planet that things need to change right now isn’t realistic or even technically and physically possible.

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Oct 4 2004 14:09 utc | 19

Uncle: maybe because they assume Epicurus’ position: the good is the absence of bad. The best situation is not to be afflicted by longing, depression, despair, illness, suffering. And of course, no one goes to the doctor to tell him “I’m perfectly healthy, fine, never have trouble, am not depressed, don’t need any drug, don’t even need to consult with you, in fact”; since this is unreported, of course, it usually goes under the radar – doesn’t appear in any statistics. So they don’t bother researching it. Though it may be interesting, and probably helpful, I think.
And don’t forget a doctor’s ultimate reasoning: “Healthy people are just ill people who don’t know it yet” 😉

Posted by: CluelessJoe | Oct 4 2004 15:50 utc | 21