[Austin-ghetto-list] new yorker - ??

[Wayne Johnson]

Whew!   Boy, Jim, I am really glad to hear that you agree that this would be
a really stupid conspiracy nut type thing.  Imagine, the government of a
company conspiring with foreigners and thugs to kill its own President!
Glad it could never happen here.


B.

-----Original Message-----
From: JIM BALDAUF [mailto:jfbaldauf@prodigy.net]
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 11:08 AM
To: Wayne Johnson; austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net
Subject: Re: [Austin-ghetto-list] new yorker - ??



Yes, Wayne:
One would have to be a Mad Conspiracy Nut to think,
as some do, that the government and CIA knew something
was coming, welcomed it, but got much more than they
bargained for! You'd have to be nuts to think, as some do,
that if foreigners didn't do something, the government would
have had to do something, in order to justify a mid-east oil
grab. One would be nuts, indeed, to base such belief on mere
decades of proven mis- and dis-information as well as proven
self-inflicted or fabricated attacks such as The Maine, The Gulf
of Tonkin, The McCarthy Era, The Contras and Opertion Monica
to help "our" government justify attacks on "them" simply to help
corporate America and its political henchmen.
Nawww!! 'Never happen!!
jb



----- Original Message -----
From: Wayne Johnson <cadaobh2@brgnet.com>
To: <austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net>
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 7:32 AM
Subject: RE: [Austin-ghetto-list] new yorker - ??


> If one was to think "extremely paranoid conspiracy" thoughts, one might be
> lead to ponder how beautifully this atrocity would fit in with a  "Bush
> Plan" for turning the US into a semi-military state.  Sandra Day O'Connor
> says this is a "miliatary" not a "judicial" problem.  Ashcroft is nibbling
> away at the first ten amendments like a demented lemming, absolutely
> everyone is "standing tall" behind the Prez in their best John Wayne
> imitations...notably hard for Barbara Boxer.   Soon we will have "ID"
cards,
> just like the USSR/et al used to do.   We will have the army guarding
major
> buildings.  People who "look strange" will be held for indefinite periods
of
> time.   Anti-aircraft weaponry...and those what man/person them...at
nuclear
> plants.  ANY kind of privacy will be a thing of the past and one may soon
be
> considered un-American for even wanting same.
>
> This can be the turning point in this country's slow slide into the
> Industrial-Military-Imperial Presidency (neo-Facist) morass.  Real
> "democratic" participation in our government, perhaps in our own lives,
will
> become more of a fiction than it already is.   With a continued emphasis
on
> "testing" our schools will SORT and not EDUCATE.  Perhaps I should say
they
> will become even worse at this than they already are.  Creative expression
> may become a sign of "dissatisfaction" and this "liberal" approach to life
> will be suppressed.  People will be assigned a number at birth, their
> "files=lives" fully available to anyone (read:business/government)
> interested, the movements tracked across time and space, enormous data
banks
> brimming with credit history, school records, job records, dental records,
> sunday school attendance records and anything else anyone might
> want...weight, height, sexual orientation, voting history, "attitude" and
on
> and on.
>
> We saw this kind of crap happening while Hoover was in charge of the FBI,
> virtually EVERYONE in the entertainment industry had a file/dossier.  (He
> was much more interested in Frank Sinatra's sex life then investigating
the
> assissination of JFK.)  So...we know this can happen.  Multiply this by,
> say, a factor of ten and see what you get.   This couldn't have happened
at
> a better time...if this is what you think some people...like the
> famous/infamous Bohemian Grove crowd...want to help them "manage" this
> country/the world.
>
> The covert manipulation of the American consciousness as well as the
actual
> leadership has just been given an enormous boost.  We have found a "new
> enemy" in keeping with the Republican Party's basic need for something to
> whine about.   Well, I guess it is better to have Ben Laden...the CIA
> trained and supported operative in our "Holy War against Communism" to
kick
> around than, say, American gays, lesbians, atheists, druids, jews,
artists,
> intellectuals and so forth.
>
> No, one wouldn't want to be considered a Mad Conspiracy Nut for thinking
the
> Utterly Unthinkable: this is not an accident, but part of an overall
> plan...beginning with JFK, MLK, Bobby, Evars murders.  Notice how only the
> "liberals" get killed.  Notice how quickly these get "resolved"?  How
> "simple" the explanations are?   How "evidence" can disappear and records
be
> buried and/or lost? (Incidentally, what nationality is Sirhan Sirhan?  If
> Lebanese, he was most likely a hired gun, possibly hired by the same cabal
> that killed his brother.)  What are these people afraid of?  Democracy?
>
> But since I surely don't want to be considered an MCN or even think of
> challenging others for the Most Cynical Seat in the Ghetto Hall of
Worries,
> these thoughts must be considered...speculation.
>
> Wayne
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: austin-ghetto-list-admin@pairlist.net
> [mailto:austin-ghetto-list-admin@pairlist.net]On Behalf Of
> StepCher@aol.com
> Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2001 6:51 PM
> To: austin-ghetto-list@pairlist.net; Peter.Grace@bakernet.com
> Subject: [Austin-ghetto-list] new yorker
>
>
> The New Yorker, September 24, 2001
> The Talk of the Town:  (Susan Sontag)
>
> The disconnect between last Tuesday's monstrous dose of reality and the
> self-righteous drivel and outright deceptions being peddled by public
> figures and TV commentators is startling, depressing. The voices licensed
to
> follow the event seem to have joined together in a campaign to infantilize
> the public. Where is the acknowledgment that this was not a "cowardly"
> attack on "civilization" or "liberty" or "humanity" or "the free world"
but
> an attack on the world's self-proclaimed superpower, undertaken as a
> consequence of specific American alliances and actions? How many citizens
> are aware of the ongoing American bombing of Iraq? And if the word
> "cowardly" is to be used, it might be more aptly applied to those who kill
> from beyond the range of retaliation, high in the sky, than to those
willing
> to die themselves in order to kill others. In the matter of courage (a
> morally neutral virtue): whatever may be said of the perpetrators of
> Tuesday's slaughter, they were not cowards.
>
> Our leaders are bent on convincing us that everything is O.K. America
> is not afraid. Our spirit is unbroken, although this was a day that will
> live in infamy and America is now at war. But everything is not O.K. And
> this was not Pearl Harbor. We have a robotic President who assures us that
> America still stands tall. A wide spectrum of public figures, in and out
of
> office, who are strongly opposed to the policies being pursued abroad by
> this Administration apparently feel free to say nothing more than that
they
> stand united behind President Bush. A lot of thinking needs to be done,
and
> perhaps is being done in Washington and elsewhere, about the ineptitude of
> American intelligence and counter-intelligence, about options available to
> American foreign policy, particularly in the Middle East, and about what
> constitutes a smart program of military defense. But the public is not
being
> asked to bear much of the burden of reality. The unanimously applauded,
> self-congratulatory bromides of a Soviet Party Congress seemed
contemptible.
> The unanimity of the sanctimonious, reality-concealing rhetoric spouted by
> American officials and media commentators in recent days seems, well,
> unworthy of a mature democracy.
>
> Those in public office have let us know that they consider their task
> to be a manipulative one: confidence-building and grief management.
> Politics, the politics of a democracy -- which entails disagreement, which
> promotes candor -- has been replaced by psychotherapy. Let's by all means
> grieve together. But let's not be stupid together. A few shreds of
> historical awareness might help us understand what has just happened, and
> what may continue to happen. "Our country is strong," we are told again
and
> again. I for one don't find this entirely consoling. Who doubts that
America
> is strong? But that's not all America has to be.
>
> -Susan Sontag
>
>