The Twenty Four Hour All Anxiety News Cycle

The other day on the way home from work I was passed by a car sporting the old "I Don't Believe The Liberal Media" bumper sticker. I chuckled to myself at the cluelessness of this driver for believing that the corporate media is liberal or, with the exception of FOX NEWS, conservative. What we have is the All-Anxiety American Media, all anxiety, all the time, designed not to enlighten and inform, but rather to keep viewers in a constant state of anxiety, crying wolf, as it were, about things they are ultimately powerless to end.
A prime recent example of this is the "ground zero" mosque controversy, manufactured, for sure, but in the end neither opponents nor defenders have any real power to make a difference. The die has been cast and while people browbeat each other over religious freedom and security issues, I'm sure somewhere they have already forgotten all the other things they threw at you to keep you reaching for your Xanax.
As an example, we were warned of the imminent end of the world when Iran acquired nuclear power, yet they launched their first nuclear power plant, and everybody's okay, except for this guy.
Today I caught a glimpse of a story on the Internet Bin Laden, the next in a long line of Boogeymen that the Anxiety News Cycle has to shake at you once you realize that the real Osama Bin Laden is dead. Once you have nothing to fear, there is nothing to keep you tuned into the news to see how to protect your family and yourself, and every viewer lost is a loss of revenue for them. The meat on that dead horse must be really tender they way they've been flogging it. It's no wonder alleged 'patriots' across the country are protesting the building of new mosques, or that in a desperate move, the RNC sent a tweet saying Obama has confessed to being a Muslim. Fear sells, but what's really scare is the type of people who are buying it.

Evil Never Goes Away, It Just Assumes A New Shape

Back in March when Sy Hersh broke the news aboutDick Cheney's executive assassination ring, I suggested in the comments section at another blog that perhaps one of the victims of said squad might have been Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. Always the one to tell you "I told you so", I told you so! It seems Ms. Bhutto spilled the beans about Osama Bin Laden being dead before the appropriate political mileage could be garnered from it by Mr. Cheney. Not that the compliant corporate media would spoil the party their defense contractor owners/sponsors were having with all the billions they were making from the war in Afghanistan.
Speaking of making billions from scare mongering and ghost fighting, the PNAC is back, albeit, with a new name and some new faces to replace the ones that already have cashed in from the last "New Pearl Harbor". I wonder if their cause to "protect democracies from terrorism" extends to the Palestinians?

Where's Osama?

Republicans are funny people. During the Bush administration, they didn't have a problem spending money to fight the eternal boogeyman, Osama bin Laden. They didn't flinch as billions of dollars were laundered through the war in Iraq into the pockets of Halliburton, Blackwater, and other defense contractors. They never took to the streets in protest even after it was proven that the war in Iraq was based on lies. Why?
Al Qaeda never existed. It was a complete fabrication of the CIA, used to justify a war that the politicians those Republicans at tea parties voted into office wanted for the sole purpose of looting the country. And al Qaeda's leader, Osama Bin Laden? He's been dead for some time now (Although it hasn't prevented him from releasing audiotapes when he's conveniently needed to scare the Americans)
Now we have the president of Pakistan admitting Bin Laden is dead, and what does the US government say? You know, the change people? Nobody knows Osama'a status. Do they intend on keeping him his memory around, just in case they need to invade Pakistan?
So please, Mr. President, don't start using old Bush administration tactics. Osama is dead, and most people these days are too concerned about making it through the economic crisis to worry about some dead guy anymore. Osama is as dead as Pontiac these days, so don't try to tell us otherwise.

Ozombie BinLaden

I've decided that if I were to convert to any religion, it would have to be Islam. Why? because even tough he's been dead for six years now ,Osama BinLaden keeps making audiotapes How kick ass is that? I mean, the best Jesus Christ can do is appear in a burnt tortilla in Mexico, but Osama keeps making tapes! And, while Jesus was the Son of God, Osama was merely a follower of the prophet Mohammed.
Is it coincidental that Osama keeps making tapes whenever the Bush administration needs a boogey man to shake at the television watchers? Here it was yesterday, the five year anniversary of the bungled invasion of Iraq under dubious reasons, and a majority of people saying the war's not worth it (to a response of "So?" from Dick Cheney), all of a sudden Osama makes an audio tape (easier to clone a voice than find a look alike) sounding an awful lot like John Hagee (I mean, without all that love for Israel Hagee wears).
So if this guy can keep making tapes long after he's worm food, than Islam is the bestest religion of all, the rest of them are weak little girly religions compared.