Rectification of Names

Confucius:
“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.”

So, what does an ancient Chinese philosopher have to teach us about our post-Modern world?

Quite a bit, actually.

Since the 2000 Election, we've seen our national language deteriorate into Orwellian NewSpeak, into transpositions of black for white and into lies parading around as fanciful conventional wisdoms. Propaganda and truth, until Katrina came and washed away the media's veneer of compliant patriotism, were fed to the American public, from the Administration by way of the news media, like MREs--a great Pentagon acronym for Meals Ready to Eat. Incidentally, the professional association of military reporters and editors is also called "MRE."

Isn't funny how sometimes people give us the truth unintentionally?

Anyway....

Confucius would marvel at just how completely we, the American people, have proven his axiom on "incorrect language." But even his genius couldn't foresee the power of the Corporate-American media. Still, he knew that a people who are propagandized cannot make judgments and, as we've seen for six years, "stand about in helpless confusion."

Now, it is true that Team Bush had to steal the first election and that there is plenty of evidence that the Team did it again in 2004. You can't fool all of the people...or even 51% of them, I guess. And it is true that at least 1/3rd of Americans saw through much of the propaganda offered up as truth since 9/11..and that number has grown. But those people also tend to hold their American brethren in contempt...for not being able to see through the often paper-thin tissue of lies that have been peddled by our Fearless Leaders and our Cowering Media. The Informed need to read Confucius. It is not so easy to stay informed when there is so much disinformation clogging the informational arteries...and for those who are struggling to stay afloat in this debt-ridden, fear-factored environment there is very little time to read all of the alternative news sources out there.

One of the great advantages Team Bush has is that it takes time and effort...and a serious dose distrust and cynicism...to wade through it all and make sense of it. They've cynically used cynicism to drive a wedge through the electorate.

It is true that the media is now more likely to ask questions, but it is still woefully inadequate to the Confucian task at hand. Team Bush is a disinformation machine...a prolific propagandizer and language engineer.

The Rectification of Names is a 24/7 job these days, and the confusion...along with the obvious deterioration of our morals and our art...is six years in the making (if not more, but let's do this one presidency at a time!).

Here are some examples that need Rectification:

War on Terror: If it is indeed a war on "Terror"--meaning terrorism (it's already imprecise language)--why do we support terrorism? We are supporting, through advisors in Pakistan and funding from Saudis like Prince Bandar, Sunni terrorists operating in Iran and Lebanon. And why didn't we identify the source of the money and personnel behind 9/11--Saudi Arabia--as a State Sponsor of Terrorism?

State Sponsor of Terrorism: As we see above, this is a name needing major Rectification. Iran is a SST, but isn't the US also a SST for supporting Sunni terrorist conducting a bombing campaign in Iran?

Terrorist: Anyone killing "innocent life" is considered a terrorist. How many innocents--women and children--have we killed in Iraq? What about Israel, which has killed dozens of children with indiscriminant bombs in the Occupied Territories since 9/11? Heck, they even helped to found Hamas, an organization labeled "terrorist" and who we are countering through Prince Bandar's initiative to fund Sunni terrorists in Lebanon. Well, Al Qaeda wouldn't even exist if the CIA hadn't helped to create it in 1979 to, according to Zbigniew Brzezinski, to goad the Soviets into invading Afghanistan. So confusing.

Hostages: The just-released British sailors were hostages. Their confessions were coerced. So what does that make the hundreds of Muslims held for years in secret and not-so-secret prisons? What about their confessions? What's the difference between British sailors and the five Iranians we took and are still hold in Iraq? Or the confession of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to every plot imaginable?

Syria: Speaker Nancy Pelosi goes to Syria and sends the wrong signal. So, what was the signal sent to Syria by Team Bush when the CIA shipped "enemy combatant" Maher Arar (since cleared of all charges) on a private jet to Syria to be tortured?

Torture: We don't even know what this is anymore. No agreed upon definition. This has led to the kind of moral decay Confucius predicted, hasn't it? From Gitmo to Abu Ghraib, the US tortures because the language and definition of what torture is has been brought into question.

And on and on and on....

The "People" depend upon leaders, reporters and editors...upon the news media...to use language judiciously and accurately. They have an inherent need to trust those in power. A need that was multiplied by 3000 on 9/11, and magnified by the Anthrax Attacks and the continual drumbeats of war...on Terror, on Iraq...that followed.

The "Informed" should show some patience and spend more of their time attacking the purveyors of incorrect language and less time occupying an elitist perch above the "People." We are all in this sinking ship of state together and there are few lifeboats left. Those bobbing on the waves of propaganda should throw a line to those sinking into the depths of it. Don't blame the victim. Be Confucian and Rectify the Names under which all of this is being done.

Sheikh Your Booty

It's an elegant dance, the Texas Two-Step Side-Step. So far, DubbaYou's Administration has danced around some of the most pernicious scandals in presidential history.

Enron. WMDgate. Abramoff. The Department of Interior. Plamegate.
And can you believe Halliburton is still the largest contractor in Iraq? It's sorta impressive when you think about the things they've gotten away with.

They keep on dancing, sliding around these and other impeachable and firing offenses like a young John Travolta at Gilley's. But, although they don't ride the mechanical bull...they do produce the bull mechanically. Like a factory.

The cleanest getaway may be 9/11. The unanswered questions are legion. The 9/11 Commission was the most compliant of dance partners, following the Administration's lead like a Texas Debutante.

Is it possible that they'd refuse to hear testimony that Prince Bandar, as in Bandar Bush, and his wife were funding Al Qaeda? Yes.

That they'd use that famous Texas Two-Step Side-Step to justify not telling us who put those pesky put options on American and United Airlines? Yes.

But putting aside fact that the 9/11 Commission's version of that fateful day is one of the most fanciful conspiracy theories ever concocted, the real boon to the Administration has been the dance partner they've embraced over and over again: Al Qaeda Evildoers--the Terrorism Two-Steppers they whirl out onto the public dancefloor every time they need a little misdirection.

The Miami Terror Plot, the Re-Killing of Al-Zarqawi, The NY Tunnel Plot, those exquisitely timed internet video releases from Bin Laden on servers we just can't seem to find...and don't forget that Terror Alert "Thermometer" they used to stick up our collective ass just to remind us to be scared. Hey, John Ashcroft and Tom Ridge coming at you with a rectal thermometer is enough to scare anyone.

This "Nexus of Terror and Politics," as it's been called, stretches the definition of coincidence. But it has, until recently, worked quite well. The White House danced around scandal after scandal by trotting out their latest terror jig and keeping us all off balance. So, is it surprising that just as US Attorney Firing-Gate was leading right into the White House and the email trail left by Rove that they'd hit the dancefloor with the Grand Confessor, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed? It's been three years since they took him into their torturous bosom and now they got him confessing to everything but kidnapping the Lindbergh baby.

When the story begins to terrorize the White House, they turn the story to terrorism.

It looks like the Sheikh was the best dance partner they've had yet...following their lead like a fawning Texas Debutante. The question is what would you confess to after three years of torture, sensory depravation and humiliation? Of course, the parts of the transcript where the Sheikh was asked about his being tortured are blacked out. So is much of the information he gave about the killing of Daniel Pearl. Which is strange, because you'd think they'd want this hot-button example of Evildoing exposed in full...getting the maximum effect. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Pearl was in India working on another, very damaging story when he got the "out of the blue" call to meet with Al Qaeda's braintrust. He was digging into a huge Enron scandal in India...a multi-billion dollar boondoggle Kenny Boy had perpetrated on the Indians.

Another misdirection, perhaps?

It's hard to tell anymore. The Two-Step Side-Stepping has had the media in such a whirl for so long that reality and perception management became indistinguishable. And the media was, for years, paying the piper while they did his dance. Can't risk coddling terrorists by asking our leaders hard questions. Can't risk losing access to the propaganda. To the Bull Mechanism.

However, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's confession, which includes a bombing plot on a bank that had not even been founded when he was captured, is not working the same dancefloor magic of previous fleet footed flurries. This time the media is not dazzled, which is refreshing. Not that they are asking questions about the impact of torture, or why it has become so tacitly acceptable to so many. Or why we didn't get anything that would lead us to bin Laden. But it's a long-overdue start.

Now, the question that hangs out there like the Hindenburg over New Jersey is whether or not people will begin to look back and see if we've all been swung around since these Unitary Executives came into office. It seems like an eternity ago, but the questions--about Bandar, about Bin Laden investments in the Carlyle Group and DubbaYou's first company Arbusto, the money funneled by the Head of Pakistani Intelligence to Mohammed Atta, Marvin Bush's role in the company handling security for the World Trade Center, Dulles and the airlines in question--they are a pertinent as ever. There is quite a bit of Terrorism Two-Stepping we need to retrace. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is, for the purposes of mis-directing us from another potentially impeachable and certainly firing-able offense against the US Constitutional and judicial systems, a perfect follower of Karl's lead. Can Karl dance his way out of this? Perhaps.

There is a glimmer, though, reflecting off the great Disco Ball...mirroring back to us a faint image of what's happened: false terror alerts, torture and extraordinary rendition...and the false flags under which so much has been done.