[MD] One for Platt & Ham

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Ant]
A government more dangerous to our liberty than is the enemy it claims to
protect us from, says Keith Olbermann. We have accepted that the only way to
stop the terrorists is to let the government become just a little bit like the
terrorists.

[Arlo]
Greetings, Ant. Keith Olbermann is a rare voice of sanity amidst the rhetoric,
distortion and propaganda polluting our airwaves. Although I am sure the Party
Faithful, in typical Limbaugh Limbo style, will do everything they can to
discredit and smear Mr. Olbermann, or paint him out to be a villainous traitor
bent of the destruction of civilization, his words stand as a light in the
darkness of vile propagandistic rhetoric, rhetoric that offers nothing but
distortion and ridicule... and fear.

A recent editorial available off youtube
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4rwy12EH0w) says, in part of the recent
appalling campaign ads of the RNC (which for our EU and global friends consists
of a rebroadcast of "terrorist threats", ending with a reuse of Lyndon
Johnson's "These are the stakes").

"Frankly, a lot of people seeing that commercial for the first time, have
laughed out loud. But - not everyone. And therein lies the true threat to this
country. The dictionary definition of the word "terrorize" is simple and not
open to misinterpretation: "To fill or overpower with terror; terrify. To
coerce by intimidation or fear." Note please, that the words "violence" and
"death" are missing from that definition. The key to terror, the key to
terrorism, is not the act - but the fear of the act. That is why bin Laden and
his deputies and his imitators are forever putting together videotaped
statements and releasing virtual infomercials with dire threats and
heart-stopping warnings. But why is the Republican Party imitating them? Bin
Laden puts out what amounts to a commercial of fear; The Republicans put out
what is unmistakable as a commercial of fear."

I am reminded (with due thanks to Khaled for referring me to this in the first
place), of the opening passage from "The Power of Nightmares".

"In the past, politicians promised to create a better world. They had different
ways of achieving this. But their power and authority came from the optimistic
visions they offered to their people. Those dreams failed. And today, people
have lost faith in ideologies. Increasingly, politicians are seen simply as
managers of public life. But now, they have discovered a new role that restores
their power and authority. Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now
promise to protect us from nightmares. They say that they will rescue us from
dreadful dangers that we cannot see and do not understand. And the greatest
danger of all is international terrorism. A powerful and sinister network, with
sleeper cells in countries across the world. A threat that needs to be fought
by a war on terror. But much of this threat is a fantasy, which has been
exaggerated and distorted by politicians. It’s a dark illusion that has
spread unquestioned through governments around the world, the security
services, and the international media.

This is a series of films about how and why that fantasy was created, and who it
benefits. At the heart of the story are two groups: the American
neoconservatives, and the radical Islamists. Both were idealists who were born
out of the failure of the liberal dream to build a better world. And both had a
very similar explanation for what caused that failure. These two groups have
changed the world, but not in the way that either intended. Together, they
created today’s nightmare vision of a secret, organized evil that threatens
the world. A fantasy that politicians then found restored their power and
authority in a disillusioned age. And those with the darkest fears became the
most powerful."