Governing Hollywood Style

November 28, 2003

George W. Bush has performed another one of his Hollywood stunts, this time, on the tarmac of Baghdad International Airport, to give thanks to the troops on Thanksgiving.

According to the NY Times, ìNow, in a single day, Mr. Bush may have managed to supplant what has become the single most problematic image of him in this war: The picture of him swaggering across an aircraft carrier in front of a banner reading ëMission Accomplished.íî

The first stunt was a real bomb (no pun intended), but has George W. finally delivered a performance that will bring acclaim from the critics?

It was a moment fraught with imagery. Ronald Reaganís role as US President during the 1980s is beginning to pale in comparison to the artistry and sheer audacity of George W. Bush. Fortunately, too many people see through these laughable attempts to stage empty theatrics designed for political gain. When you have nothing of substance to say to the world, when you must lie to cover up failed policy, you turn to the tricks of media and illusion to deliver your message.

Governing Hollywood style can only go so far. Yet, with the Terminator now fully installed in Sacramento, is Americaís view of reality numbed if not entirely eradicated by the political suspension of disbelief?

Randall M. Packer
Secretary, US Department of Art & Technology

Fear Incorporated

November 24, 2003

How can we win the war on terror? Isnít terror an indelible part of the human condition? Does anyone really think it can be eliminated? The Bush Administration, in its religious fervor to stamp out terror, is bent on stamping out terror (and winning the next election) by terrorizing its own constituency into submission. Strike three for reason.

Yesterday, the Republican Party released its first ad that drives the nail of 9-11 deep into the hearts of unsuspecting Americans who still operate under the media-influenced opinion that the Bush Men are busy protecting us from their bunker in Washington, DC. The fact is, as I stated in my ìSpeech for the End of Timeî last April, ìthe gravest danger facing America and the world, [is] the existential darkness that has possessed our government, that grips its soul.

In the ad, Bush chimes, ì”It would take one vial, one canister, one crate slipped into this country to bring a day of horror like none we have ever known.î

Clearly, the US government is intent on instilling a deep fear in the American psyche for political gain. Maureen Dowd, in her recent op-ed column in the New York Times, entitled ìScaring up Votes,î warned, ìInstead of a shining city [referring to Ronald Reaganís famous statement], we have a dark bunker. But the only thing we really have to fear is fearmongering itself.î

Homeland insecurity is on the rise and the real terrorists who have the capability of carrying out the most lethal damage with their weapons of mass destruction (real, not virtual) are the Crusaders and Fanatics who inhabit the White House.

Through this political ad, they continue to accuse those who dissent of not being patriotic. The ad continues: ìSome are now attacking the president for attacking the terrorists.” In the 2004 presidential campaign, which has now fully descended upon us, we must combat this deadly reign of terror by openly expressing our views, and acting on them.

As I stated last spring, ìNo mental infection, no derangement, will divert us from our mission. They [Bush Men] are blind to the fact that, with all their rationality and efficiency, they are possessed by “powers” that are beyond control. We will not stop until their hidden desires and dark fantasies are revealed.î

It is only reason that can win the war on terror, and they are trying desperately to take even that away from us.

Randall Packer
Secretary, US Department of Art & Technology

The Ethic Pulse of Telharmonics

November 14, 2003

We must recast the civic function of organized sound in terms of telephonic connectivity. This is the direction for a new politics of pantopic dispersal, antidote to panoptic DARPA icons and all other triangular control systems of the Illumination. We bring out our cassettes and replay for the first time in almost thirty years warbling, half-melted echoes of “Requiem for the Media”, thinking that the time is now for that Baudrillard tribute album, the sonic endeavour of a shifting, networked band of improvisational broadcasters called Various Artists. This Telharmonic Choir attains a harmony of points distributed along telephone and cable lines, then darts across the invisible zones of wireless like sferic whistlers. Strange soundtrack to the Philip K. Dick novel we inhabit, tuned always to Radio Free Albemuth.

The War of the Words

November 03, 2003

Trying to eliminate Saddam…would have incurred incalculable human and political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible… We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq…. there was no viable “exit strategy” we could see, violating another of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set a pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world. Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United Nations’ mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the United States could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land.

George Herbert Walker Bush
From his memoir, A World Transformed (1998)
(via Disinformation)

Friday, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz spoke at Georgetown University. He also took questions from an audience that questioned his good sense. Melanie M. summarizes the Q & A in War. What is it Good For? (via brushstroke.tv).