Actually, this dovetails rather nicely with The Secret Government, don’t you think?
News of the Restless A door at the end of a dead-end street…
The Secret Government
September 30, 2007 — Sabina BeckerA 1987 documentary by Bill Moyers, in two parts:
Part I explores the Cold War mentality and the beginnings of the CIA. It also examines the CIA’s role in the toppling of the popular, elected Iranian leader, Mohammed Mossadegh (the Chavecito of his time and place) and his replacement with a brutal dictator-monarch, the Shah. Also looks at the CIA-engineered demise of Jacobo Arbenz, the popular president of Guatemala, because he wasn’t tame enough to certain US corporate interests, namely the United Fruit Company. Democracy was replaced with dictatorship and death–all in the name of corporate profit.
Part II explores the role of death squads in Guatemala, and the failed Bay of Pigs invasion (an attempt to turn Cuba into another Guatemala with a second “Operation Success”, no doubt.) Also shows that JFK was at first for, and later against, dirty trickery. Guess he learned his lesson–which made him a marked man, particularly when he began putting out feelers toward a peace process. Moyers doesn’t explicitly endorse the popular belief that the CIA’s kill-Castro plan became a kill-Kennedy plan, but he does acknowledge that its adherents have a point: the CIA is indeed a dirty-tricks machine, even now.
Moyers makes the point that the Cold War mentality was extremely dangerous–it made seductive an otherwise repulsive national condition, that of the police state. It is especially instructive now, as the US government is once more making noises about “regime change” in Iran, Venezuela and other places, and is pushing for “free trade” agreements that the citizens of the Central American countries don’t want. The grave danger of CIA dirty tricks has not abated, but expanded; the CIA and other national security agencies are looking to drum up support and stifle dissent more broadly than ever before. And they are doing so in the name of–you guessed it–the new Cold War, the War on Terra.
A pretty boy with an ugly history
September 30, 2007 — Sabina BeckerAwww, aren’t boy crushes just so darn cute?
Just a pity that Steve Huntley’s hagiography of the CIA’s latest little plaster saint is all holus-bolus, unquestioning bullshit. Here’s the real poop on Leopoldo Lopez, the not gutsy, but gusty (as in full of wind) mayor of Chacao. First, from George Ciccariello-Maher at Counterpunch:
In response to the Venezuelan governments non-renewal of RCTV’s broadcasting license, a concession which expired on May 27th at midnight, a new student movement emerged that has since grabbed headlines domestically and internationally. Thousands took to the streets, some marching peacefully and some squaring off against the police with rocks and bullets, all in the name of “freedom of expression.” But it’s worth asking: who are “the students,” and what do they represent? In recent days, it has become clear that these student mobilizations have been, in fact, largely directed and supported by sectors of the opposition, all in an effort to provoke, in Chávez’s own words, a “soft coup” against the revolutionary government. The opposition’s strategy vis-à-vis this student movement has consisted of two fundamental elements, both of which could only be executed mediatically. But now, after being revealed and discredited, that strategy is rapidly disintegrating.
Firstly, opposition parties made a clear decision to stay out of the spotlight, emphasizing the “independent” and “spontaneous” nature of the student protests. Beyond anything else, this gesture proves the degree to which the opposition has been discredited, garnering a reverse Midas touch through years of poor decisionmaking and supporting coups. From the beginning, the government was arguing that opposition politicians were behind the student mobilizations, and so when government-run channel 8 covered one of the early student demonstrations in Plaza Brion in Chacaito, the headline read “opposition demonstration disguised as a student demonstration.”
This claim was perhaps justified by the appearance at the demonstration of Leopoldo López, mayor of opposition stronghold Chacao, formerly of far-right party Primero Justicia, which he more recently abandoned in favor of Manuel Rosales’ nominally social democratic Un Nuevo Tiempo. Opposition news channel Globovisión countered with the thoroughly unconvincing claim that López, 36 years old and an established politician, was a “youth leader.” López himself wouldn’t help the situation when at a press conference he “accidentally” called for the students to employ “non-peaceful” tactics (he later claimed that he had meant to call for “non-violent” forms of protest).
That’s Evo, not evil
September 29, 2007 — Sabina BeckerToo late for FLFB, but what the hell…heeeeeeeere’s Evo, doin’ the Daily Show:
I think the audience loves him too, if all the “woooooooo”-ing is anything to go by.
Don’t tase the penguin, bro!
September 29, 2007 — Sabina Becker
Once again, I am in awe of Tom Tomorrow. He sure knows how to hit Alan “Ayn Rand’s Little Disciple” Greenspan where it counts.
One question for you, Mr. G: Why did you not say it was all about oil back when something could still be done to stop this train wreck? Oh wait, I guess that would have something to do with the evils of regulating capitalism, which should just be free to run unfettered and roughshod all over fucking everything. I guess that ideology tied your First Amendment’s tongue. In other words, a false and illusory freedom trumped a genuine one. Now it makes sense…
Actually, here’s another, just for good measure: If you’re so libertarian (and libertarians are, according to their own prattle, so individualistic), why did you sell your soul to the L. Ron Hubbard of political philosophy? Seems such a collectivist thing to do.
And, in light of the job you just left, rather dangerous to boot.
Hello, operator? I think I’ve been framed.
September 28, 2007 — Sabina BeckerCould you please put me through to Dr. George Lakoff? I have a really bad case of brainwashing I’m trying to overcome.
New research confirms that repetition of “myths” and slogans helps lodge them in the minds of the public and that refuting them often leads only to the public remembering falsehoods better. Instead, they tell us that “education campaigns with an ‘affirmative’ message,” even if it is a negative message, are far more effective in defeating an adversary’s frame.
University of Michigan social psychologist Norbert Schwarz has done experiments showing that people remember things they hear repeated often enough, regardless of its source, and even if it’s from a single source.
“Hearing the same opinion from several sources is more influential than hearing it only once from one source. This is as it should be,” he wrote in an email exchange with HarperIndex.ca. “But, as we showed in a recent paper, hearing it multiple times from the same source is nearly as influential. ‘A repetitive voice sounds like a chorus.’ So a single person or small group can create the impression of broad consensus through sheer repetition.”
Festive Left Friday Blogging: If Sharif don’t like it…
September 28, 2007 — Sabina Becker“Rock the Casbah”.
(I figured that in light of all the recent hysteria in favor of bombing Iran, a little levity and perspective were called for.)
They just never stop.
September 27, 2007 — Sabina BeckerThey’re not just out for Chavecito’s blood, but for that of anyone who forges alliances with him. Aporrea reports that a coup was plotted for Ecuador, but one very high-level intended perpetrator wouldn’t go through with it:
The former president of Ecuador, Abdala Bucaram, who received asylum in Panama, said that a millionaire offered him a large sum of money to topple the current president, Rafael Correa, according to declarations broadcast yesterday on TV channel Uno.
“Some politicians called Correa a traitor, and made me some big offers. There was a millionaire who offered me ten million dollars, not to eliminate him, but to oust him,” declared the former head of state.
Mad Mel on the Mosquito Coast
September 26, 2007 — Sabina Becker
“Now I’m hiding in Honduras;
I’m a desperate man…”
–Warren Zevon, “Lawyers, Guns and Money”
Don’t you just love this latest installment of Theocrats Gone Wild?
Hollywood star Mel Gibson has ignored safety warnings from the U.S. government and is going ahead with his move to an isolated part of Costa Rica.
The Mad Max actor, 51, plans to move his wife Robyn and seven children 300 miles away from their home in California to a $26 million ranch in a rural area that is known as “bandit territory.”
Sky falling, film at 11
September 26, 2007 — Sabina BeckerDubya really IS a uniter, not a divider…he’s making it so that even stopped clocks are trying to tell the time somewhat consistently!
OMG, even the Donald is talking sense now. Notwithstanding the bizarre blur around his comb-over, this is an interview worth watching–it’ll drop your jaw.
