About Us
Mission Statement
Rules of Conduct
 
Name:
Pswd:
Remember Me
Register
 

Driven to Distraction
Author: BobR    Date: 03/12/2008 12:11:56

I was reminded last night about the art of distraction by a boorish drunk at the bar. He performed a simple trick that confounded my companion. It was simple enough - he merely had to distract from what his right hand was doing for a brief second while he focused our attention on something less important. Since I was an observer and not the participant, I noticed it right away. In the world of magic, it's a vital skill.

If there's one thing we've learned about this administration, it's that they seem to use this trick all of the time. Whenever there's a terror alert, whenever there's a scandal, it seems certain that there's something else going on that they want kept out of the news cycle. Could this be the motivation for the timing this time? Lori Price over at CLG thinks so. Some of the items she mentions we've seen here at this blog.

Perhaps the biggest news not covered: The House failed to override the Bush veto on torture. Yes, they were 51 votes short. So whatever you do, don't get picked up by the CIA because Bush has ensured that they are allowed to torture you.

Some other great news: The NSA has essentially ressurected the TIA program. Remember Total Information Awareness with the 1984-ish all-seeing eye?
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/tialogo.png

Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans' privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

But the data-sifting effort didn't disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system.

The central role the NSA has come to occupy in domestic intelligence gathering has never been publicly disclosed. But an inquiry reveals that its efforts have evolved to reach more broadly into data about people's communications, travel and finances in the U.S. than the domestic surveillance programs brought to light since the 2001 terrorist attacks.
There's more there. A lot. Go read it. Now.

Along these same lines, The UK top cop who led probe into CIA rendering found dead:
A city police chief who led an investigation into charges that Britain cooperated with secret CIA flights to transport terrorism suspects without formal proceedings has been found dead, his deputy said Tuesday.

Manchester Chief Constable Michael Todd, 50, was found dead in Snowdonia, about 240 miles northwest of London, Deputy Chief Constable Dave Whatton said. He had been missing since going out for a walk Monday during his day off.

Whatton said the body, which was found Tuesday afternoon, had not yet been formally identified but he believed it was Todd.

He said a coroner's inquest would investigate the cause of death and did not give any further details.

Natural causes? Not likely.

Torture, spying on civilians, mysterious deaths of corruption investigators... It sounds like we're part of a repressive regime, not a beacon of freedom. Perhaps that's why the U.S. dropped China from its list of human rights abusers. I'm sure the fact that they own our asses has nothing to do with it. :rolleyes2:

Meanwhile, the U.S. continues to be a hypocrit in other areas as well, including the nuclear arms race. As we step on other countries and insist they not develop nuclear weapons, do we stop development? Of course not:
Not only do we retain several thousand warheads, we've modernized our nuclear arsenal with modulated, dialed-down "tactical" nukes. Why, they're almost like conventional bombs. Look ma, no nuclear stigma!

Apparently the nuclear taboo has been shattered as well. The nuclear posture review drawn up by the administration in 2001 provides for first use of nukes (albeit the new tacticals) -- hitherto unthinkable -- in awkward tasks like bunker busting.

Then there's our NATO strategy: Eastward ho! Stopping just long enough in the Czech Republic and Poland to set up missile defense installations. Equally frightening, five of the west's distinguished (until now, anyway) military officers and strategists composed a manifesto calling on NATO to reserve the right to use nukes preemptively.

I suppose I could go on, but I've made the point pretty clearly. At its most innocent, this is yet another "missing white woman" story that inadvertently distracts the media from more important stories. However, given this Administration's propensity for using the Justice Dept. towards its own goals, the timing of this IS suspicious. You have to wonder how long they've been sitting on this and why they chose this particular time to nail Spitzer. What other stories are out there hiding like vampires from the light of day?

Have the master prestidigitators in DC done it again? Only time will tell.

 

209 comments (Latest Comment: 03/13/2008 04:11:59 by Raine)
   Perma Link

Share This!

Furl it!
Spurl
NewsVine
Reddit
Technorati