I’ve been thinking about semantics. Actually I’ve been thinking about books, hypothetical contingencies, our financial messes, election 2008, and USA - the United Spinning(s) of America. Semantics are word games. Semantics involve choosing/ using “loaded words and phrases” to bias opinions in favor of your agenda, your objective, and your side. In the alternative, careful word choices undercut your opponent’s position, strategy, and objectives. Accentuate the positive(s) and mitigate the negative(s) are first and foremost the game plan in economics, finance, marketing, and politics!
You see the forthcoming “tell-all” by former Presidential Press Secretary, Scott McClellan, that the American Public was mislead to war in Iraq by the Bush Administration and that the American Press/ media dropped the ball in the reporting of the events/ justifications leading up to the invasion on March 19th, 2003 got a great deal of media brouhaha last week. The snips and snibbets leaked during the book’s pre-release condemning the Administration (and the media) for the “non-truths” divulge nothing new. (McClellan doesn’t use the word “lies” behind the justifications for war or outing of Valerie Plame by Veep Chief of Staff Libby.) Most of US/us already “knew” or at least suspected as much. No smoking guns are revealed here. If there were… we’d have heard about them! The White House and the “speaking” friends have been amazingly silent in their direct denials – choosing rather to discredit the book as merely the disgruntled musings of a frustrated former employee seeking to cash in on his Executive Branch tenure. This also is nothing new. Truth, or true “reality,” lies somewhere in between.
Famed prosecutor and New York Times best selling author of
Helter Skelter (the Tate- LaBianca murders by the Charles Manson cult),
Vincent Bugliosi, has only just penned a “fictional” work – The
Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. The McClellan book’s
premises/ speculations pale in comparison to the implications of this
Bugliosi work. While pre-distribution/ marketing presents “Prosecution”
as a tight, meticulously researched legal case putting George W. Bush
on trial in an American courtroom for the murder of nearly 4,000
American soldiers fighting in Iraq, there is already festering
speculation abroad that future actions could be brought against Bush,
Cheney, Powell, Rice, and/or Rumsfeld in ex-patriot jurisdictions for
atrocities of war and crimes against humanity. While such may have been
ultimate the fate of Noriega, Pinochet, Saddam, and Hussein’s co-horts;
any extradition of Bush poobahs to face the music at some international
tribunal just isn’t going to happen – trust me!
There will undoubtedly be more leaked disclosures of concerted
“non-truth” telling justifying the war. I’m certain there were “good”
reasons for this war, we just haven’t been made privy to them. It is
not the rich, the well-born, and the powerful who pay the price of
major conflicts with their blood, their injuries, their sacrifices, and
their deaths. Wars for economic benefit of corporations, financial
moguls, or vested interests just “don’t play well in Peoria” – you need
to fire up the patriotism and the intangible beliefs of the masses to
garner the necessary support as the casus belli – the justification for
acts of war. The post-election Congress will undoubtedly convene more
hearing investigations “to put the matter to rest” (as in bury it for a
generation or more). There will be the obligatory: “Mr./Miss/Ms… what
did the President know, and when did he know it?” Like Watergate of
some 30 years ago, not much will come of the costly Congressional
hearings, and not much will really change – cynical yes, but ultimately
true.
The public was not only left out of the loop regarding the real
justifications for war, we are still being kept in the dark regarding
the severity and duration of our looming financial messes. Things are
far from well in Mudville. Uncle $ugar is stepping up to the plate like
the mighty Casey to turn the game around, but despite the $70+ plus
BILLION “invested” in the US by foreign sovereign wealth funds since
last August and a MUCH larger amount of freshly printed bail-out bucks
from the FED; things are NOT improving. We the people… don’t as yet
have a clue what will be the ultimate costs in write-offs/ write-downs
for ALL that looming exposure out there. Those who might be in the
know, aren’t talking.
This week should finalize the Democans and Republicrats candidates for
this Presidential run in 2008. Will they fess up to the American public
in their campaign messages of “change” and “straight talk” with
truthful and honest disclosures of where we are, and where “they” plan
to take US/us in their administrations? After all… there is tradition
at stake, the USA prevails - the United Spinning(s) of America is as
American as apple pie. I’m Fred Cederholm and I’ve been thinking. You
should be thinking, too.
Writings 
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