As Democracy Now! noted last week:
Bush Approval Rating on Iraq, Presidency At All-Time Low
In other news, a new CBS News poll has found the number of Americans who approve of President Bush's overall job performance and his handling of the Iraq war has fallen to an all-time low. 34 percent of Americans give the President a favorable job approval rating, while even less -- 30 percent -- approve of the President's handling of the Iraq war. Meanwhile, less than a third of Americans believe President Bush has adequately responded to the needs of victims of Hurricane Katrina.
So what's a Bully Boy to do but bring out the scare tactics? Osama, who's apparently not dead but still alive, is suddenly wanted by the Bully Boy again. In fact, he's sure we'll catch him now.
He and the administration are also eager to toss out 9-11 a lot more often. It happens when the polls go limp.
His non-reaction in the face of Hurricane (sort of like his non-reaction to Andrew Card telling him that the World Trade Center had been hit by a second plane) has put a dent in his media created image as the War Hero . . . (who went absent without leave?). His warrantless spying on American citizens isn't going away. And, it seems to be registering a bit more with each passing day.
So trot out 9/11. Trot out terrorism talk.
As Georgetown law professor David Cole noted recently whenBully Boy suddenly remembered " four-year-old plot" that he claimed had been prevented:
President Bush presented the details as an illustration that the "war on terror" has been successful in keeping us safe. He did not explain why new details about a four-year-old plot were being made public now, but they appeared to be part of a concerted effort to dampen the increasing criticism of the NSA spying program. (The next day, CIA Director Porter Goss published an Op-Ed article in The New York Times making broad claims about how "leaks" about government initiatives in the war on terrorism--presumably including the one that disclosed the existence of the NSA spying program--had endangered American lives.)
The President's assertions about the Library Tower plot again underscore the need for close scrutiny in assessing the administration's claims. The President described a plan in 2002 to use shoe bombs to break down the cockpit door, overpower the pilots, and then fly the hijacked plane into the tower. The alleged planners, described only as Southeast Asians, were captured in early 2002 in Asia. As far as we know, no one has been charged, much less convicted, of any crime in connection with the alleged plot. Intelligence officials told The Washington Post that there was "deep disagreement within the intelligence community over... whether it was ever much more than talk."[1] A senior FBI official said that "to take that and make it into a disrupted plot is just ludicrous."[2]
Are we really as dumb as the Bully Boy seems to think we are? Or has his incessant use of the fear card begun to make him look like Chicken Little?
Another poll came out last week, one in which 72% of the troops serving in Iraq currently want to see the US pull out within the year. On the same poll, the following was noted:
Shockingly, 85 percent of the troops questioned believe they are fighting in Iraq "to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks"-- one of the key Iraq War myths built by Bush’s frequent juxtaposition of references to Osama bin-Laden and Saddam Hussein.
This subliminal message has stuck with the vast majority of U.S. troops even though Bush eventually acknowledged publicly that there is no evidence linking Saddam to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
In other words, more than eight in 10 of the U.S. soldiers and Marines in Iraq think they are there avenging the 3,000 people killed on Sept. 11, even though the U.S. government lacks evidence of the connection.
Is that really surprising? They're getting Voice of America radio and what else? Before the Downing Street Memos last summer, the impeachment cry was a lone one. In this country, in a relatively short time, we've seen DSM, we've seen Bully Boy refuse to meet with, the camped outside his ranchette, Cindy Sheehan. We've seen Hurricane Katrina and the 'national security' Bully Boy unable to address it. Florida residents saw that Hurricane Wilma, a lesser hurricane, still resulted in many being without electricity for over a month. Now we know that there was warrantless spying on Americans and, last week, that Bully Boy's being out of the loop on Katrina wasn't quite true -- he was warned. We're not too sure that Voice of America (which carries Rush Limbaugh but not Randi Rhodes) conveys that very well to the troops.
Things have been moving very quickly in the last few months and Bully Boy's media created image has taken one hit after another. The only card he has left to play is the fear card. So we saw it pop back out last week and can probably expect to see it flashed quite a bit more.
Will we fall for the trickery? We hope not. But, as Joni Mitchell wrote in "Dog Eat Dog:"
It's a dog eat dog -- I'm just waking up
The dove is in the dungeon
And white-washed hawks pedal hate and call it love
Dog eat dog
Holy hope in the hands of
Snakebite evangelists and racketeers
And big wig financiers
Which would explain why, with all the revelations about Katrina, the port issue and more, CNN's Headlines News saw fit to go to a live feed of yet another car chase. Because that, like, really effects the way we live and stuff, you know?
We don't think so. Bully Boy can play the fear card and the media can offer up nonsense and call it news, but if you ask us, we're too deep in reality to fall for another con job right now. Play the fear card, Bully Boy, we'll call your bluff. Or as Sonny & Cher once sang, "Well sing in the sunshine . . . We'll laugh at the day . . ." Fear mongering's gone out of style. Word to the Bully.
[The illustration at the top is from Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts. This editorial was written by:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Dona, Jess, Ty, Ava and Jim;
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude;
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man;
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review;
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills);
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix;
Mike of Mikey Likes It!;
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz;
and Wally of The Daily Jot.]