Fox News och USA:s neo-cons vet hur man gör en höna av en fjäder, en skandal av en accessoars vara eller icke vara. Barack Obama har valt att inte ha USA:s flagga på kavajslaget. Han har valt detta efter någorlunda intellektuellt övervägande. En kvinnlig journalist på Fox News, E.D. Hill visade på häpnadsväckande slutledningsförmåga:
"When I heard this, actually, one of the direct quotes [av Obama] that got to me was 'I won't wear that pin.' It reminded me of the 'I didn't have sex with that woman,'
Fuckin brilliant! Hur lyckas man med det där? Hennes emfas på ordet ”that” som var det som i grund och botten var det som fick henne att göra kopplingen är helt enkelt fantastisk. För hur går man från Barack Obamas val till att inte ha en viss accessoar på sig till Bill Clintons lögn om sex? Hur hittar man den vägen? Sug på den.
Obama är nu det värsta man kan vara, det vill säga opatriotisk och vissa vill att han ska be om ursäkt till USA:s soldater i Irak. Barack Obama har råkat ut för många orimliga och hätska angrepp från Fox News. Det är en kanal som sannerligen saknar journalistisk heder. Men problemet är i regel att man får övriga kanaler med sig. Debatten om Obamas patriotiska vara eller icke vara spred sig vidare. Nu är detta knappast något som kommer att avgöra valet men det är ändå en smula komiskt. En annan politiker förklarade att det är ett val man gör. Han hade själv gjort valet att ha flaggan på kavajen. Därför att han älskade flaggan. Han älskade USA. Och tillade det som han redan sagt: att han valde att ha flaggan på kavajen.
En annan journalist, på CNN, säger så här: "Any politician of any political party who believes their words can be an adequate substitute for the symbolic power of the American flag is sadly arrogant and horribly mistaken."
En bild säger mer än tusen ord byts ut till att en ”pin” säger mer än tusen ord. Och är det något man vill dra ned på i klyschdemokratin USA är det intellektuella resonemang och analyser som innehåller för många ord. Men det gäller också att kämpa om och för orden. Att bestämma ords betydelse och innebörd. John Oliver i The Daily Show talar om att man nu måste "stödja orden". För se vad som annars händer. Det stackars ordet "progress" vet inte längre åt vilket håll han ska gå...
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Visar inlägg med etikett Patriotism. Visa alla inlägg
måndag 15 oktober 2007
fredag 3 augusti 2007
För Vi Vet Väl Hur En Skurk Ser Ut
Från London Review of Books, en recension, och ganska kritisk sådan, av Jeremy Scahills bok om Blackwater, den privatiserade "armén";Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army :
The founder and owner of Blackwater, Erik Prince, the 38-year-old heir to a fortune made by his father (a Michigan entrepreneur who invented the illuminated car sun visor), is not, legally, a villain. It doesn’t make him a villain that he is a privately educated, avowedly devout Roman Catholic, a former member of US Navy special forces and the father of six children. It doesn’t make him a villain that he has declared: ‘Our corporate goal is to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did to the postal service.’ It doesn’t make him a villain that he is part of the right-wing Republican DeVos-Prince dynasty of Michigan, which has bankrolled radical Christian evangelical movements that campaign against homosexuality, abortion and stem-cell research. The fact that he was an intern in the administration of the elder President Bush, but found him too liberal and backed the extreme right-winger Pat Buchanan to replace him, doesn’t make him a villain; nor does the fact that he has given a quarter of a million dollars in campaign contributions to Republican politicians. It doesn’t make him a villain that he donated half a million dollars to an organisation set up by Charles Colson, a felon convicted for his role in the Watergate scandal, to get prisoners to become born-again Christians in exchange for better jail conditions (in 1996, Colson floated the possibility of a Christian coup against the re-elected President Clinton). Nor does it make Prince a villain that, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when survivors were desperate for food, drinking water, shelter and medical supplies, his company flew ammunition into New Orleans to supply the groups of heavily-armed mercenaries it had rushed to the disaster zone. It is true that he helps fund campaigners against high taxation and welfare spending, while the hundreds of millions of dollars Blackwater has taken in fees since 2001 have come almost exclusively from the US taxpayer. Yet this does not make him a villain.
Nej. Sant som det är sagt. För vi vet ju vilka skurkarna är, eller hur? Och hur kan han vara skurk. Han har ju det perfekta alibit:
"In the eyes of American law, Prince has done nothing villainous; on the contrary, he is a patriot and a Christian, which is to say, a good man."
Han kunde ha tillagt: en rik entreprenör. En kapitalist. En vit man. As good as they come. (Nu googlade väl Johan Staël von Holstein fram det här inlägget. Entreprenör.)
The founder and owner of Blackwater, Erik Prince, the 38-year-old heir to a fortune made by his father (a Michigan entrepreneur who invented the illuminated car sun visor), is not, legally, a villain. It doesn’t make him a villain that he is a privately educated, avowedly devout Roman Catholic, a former member of US Navy special forces and the father of six children. It doesn’t make him a villain that he has declared: ‘Our corporate goal is to do for the national security apparatus what FedEx did to the postal service.’ It doesn’t make him a villain that he is part of the right-wing Republican DeVos-Prince dynasty of Michigan, which has bankrolled radical Christian evangelical movements that campaign against homosexuality, abortion and stem-cell research. The fact that he was an intern in the administration of the elder President Bush, but found him too liberal and backed the extreme right-winger Pat Buchanan to replace him, doesn’t make him a villain; nor does the fact that he has given a quarter of a million dollars in campaign contributions to Republican politicians. It doesn’t make him a villain that he donated half a million dollars to an organisation set up by Charles Colson, a felon convicted for his role in the Watergate scandal, to get prisoners to become born-again Christians in exchange for better jail conditions (in 1996, Colson floated the possibility of a Christian coup against the re-elected President Clinton). Nor does it make Prince a villain that, in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when survivors were desperate for food, drinking water, shelter and medical supplies, his company flew ammunition into New Orleans to supply the groups of heavily-armed mercenaries it had rushed to the disaster zone. It is true that he helps fund campaigners against high taxation and welfare spending, while the hundreds of millions of dollars Blackwater has taken in fees since 2001 have come almost exclusively from the US taxpayer. Yet this does not make him a villain.
Nej. Sant som det är sagt. För vi vet ju vilka skurkarna är, eller hur? Och hur kan han vara skurk. Han har ju det perfekta alibit:
"In the eyes of American law, Prince has done nothing villainous; on the contrary, he is a patriot and a Christian, which is to say, a good man."
Han kunde ha tillagt: en rik entreprenör. En kapitalist. En vit man. As good as they come. (Nu googlade väl Johan Staël von Holstein fram det här inlägget. Entreprenör.)
onsdag 4 juli 2007
När Flaggviftandet Skymmer Sikten
We need to assert our allegiance to the human race, and not to any one nation.
Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn
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