Nbadan
05-28-2005, 12:53 PM
By Jack Jamison
YOU'VE probably heard about the videotapes disguised as actual news film that several governmental agencies have been sending to television station. In these tapes government emp-loyees play the part of news reporters who are apparently reporting actual news.
Naturally, this is nothing more than government propaganda. Most of you, however, assumed once this was exposed, the government would stop sending out these phony videotapes. Wrong!
The Lowdown newsletter reports "At least 20 federal agencies are aggressively pushing government-produced-and-distributed 'news' segments on hundreds of local television stations." And surprise, these tapes laud the president and his programs.
The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has ruled that using tax dollars "to proselytize, deceive and distort in order to influence the public amounts to government sponsored propaganda, which is illegal."
Now here's an update. The Justice Department has issued a legal opinion that declares GAO opinions are not binding on the White House, and that a memo has been sent to all agencies "telling them to ignore the GAO findings and merrily keep on propagandizing," according to Jim Hightower. <snip>
Paradise Post (http://www.paradisepost.com/Stories/0,1413,292~30286~2893151,00.html)
If we are using the past as an analogy, I would say the pace lately is a full sprint -
... and we're well past 1933.
If the events of 9/11 were Hitler's Reichstag Fire (which he used to seize the Chancellery and issue emergency orders giving him virtual control of the government), then where have we gone from there?
Hitler invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia, Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hitler began, by 1935 or 1936, putting thousands of Jews and dissidents in jail and eventually in concentration camps (well, Shrub beat him by a few years on that with his round-ups of Muslims around the world).
By the fall of 1939, Hitler had amassed enough power to invade Poland, on the pretext of Poland attacking Germany (some accounts say that began by a few German soldiers dressed in Polish uniform, running across the border, then shooting at a German radio station and running back).
Any bets on Dubya's Poland?
YOU'VE probably heard about the videotapes disguised as actual news film that several governmental agencies have been sending to television station. In these tapes government emp-loyees play the part of news reporters who are apparently reporting actual news.
Naturally, this is nothing more than government propaganda. Most of you, however, assumed once this was exposed, the government would stop sending out these phony videotapes. Wrong!
The Lowdown newsletter reports "At least 20 federal agencies are aggressively pushing government-produced-and-distributed 'news' segments on hundreds of local television stations." And surprise, these tapes laud the president and his programs.
The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has ruled that using tax dollars "to proselytize, deceive and distort in order to influence the public amounts to government sponsored propaganda, which is illegal."
Now here's an update. The Justice Department has issued a legal opinion that declares GAO opinions are not binding on the White House, and that a memo has been sent to all agencies "telling them to ignore the GAO findings and merrily keep on propagandizing," according to Jim Hightower. <snip>
Paradise Post (http://www.paradisepost.com/Stories/0,1413,292~30286~2893151,00.html)
If we are using the past as an analogy, I would say the pace lately is a full sprint -
... and we're well past 1933.
If the events of 9/11 were Hitler's Reichstag Fire (which he used to seize the Chancellery and issue emergency orders giving him virtual control of the government), then where have we gone from there?
Hitler invaded Austria and Czechoslovakia, Bush invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.
Hitler began, by 1935 or 1936, putting thousands of Jews and dissidents in jail and eventually in concentration camps (well, Shrub beat him by a few years on that with his round-ups of Muslims around the world).
By the fall of 1939, Hitler had amassed enough power to invade Poland, on the pretext of Poland attacking Germany (some accounts say that began by a few German soldiers dressed in Polish uniform, running across the border, then shooting at a German radio station and running back).
Any bets on Dubya's Poland?