Election 2012 - Perception vs. Manipulation!

At the risk of favoring one pundit over another, I thought last Friday’s (10-05-12) segment of “New Rules” on HBO’S Real Time with Bill Maher provided an excellent analysis of reality versus perception (I know many on the political right cannot stand Bill Maher). If you count yourself among the number who cannot tolerate Maher’s take on society, politics, and personal observations for more than a few minutes, I have taken the liberty of clipping the more irrelevant parts of his weekly “New Rules” monologue and posting the more relevant portion where Bill Maher gives an insightful clarification of the economy…a reality presented by one side in the current election discourse.

I’ve also taken the liberty of posting President Obama’s newest campaign ad satirizing former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s declaration that he would cut federal subsidies to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), potentially affecting the noncommercial network’s hallmark long-running children’s “Sesame Street.” Granted, Obama’s attack ad is a little over-the-top, it’s also a tragically funny-as-hell illustration in how far political campaigns go to manipulate the public perceptions to the point of the effectiveness we see in Maher’s observations (and how many people embrace the negative).

As I have reiterated so many times before on my blog, people...take the time to actually read, research, and actively think about how you perceive reality, not how your beliefs influence how you perceive it. Take the time to measure whether your beliefs and your experiences are in-synch with the way the world operates. Questions perceptions and propaganda, not embrace them.  In other words, use your heads, not your hearts or emotions!

Read More

The Chickens Come To Pakistan To Roost (Or Osama Says, "I Should Have Considered The Law Of 'Karma' Instead Of Sharia Law!")

In what has to be a combined vindication (of sorts) for former President George W. Bush, redemption (also of sorts) for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and a popularity boost for current President Barack Obama, the United States finally got its man. Public Enemy No. 1, that Master of Mid-Morning Mayhem, that status quo shaker-upper extraordinaire, leader…that is former leader of the terrorist organization Al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden was killed in a surgical military operation by US Special Forces last week.


The success of the long-awaited operation, part of the larger War on Terror began in Afghanistan by former President Bush, was the result of intelligence acquired by the CIA via the “enhanced interrogation techniques” of high value detainees of Al Qaeda, and which have often been criticized by opponents of the use of torture by the U.S. (but endorsed by Beyond The Political Spectrum in a previous posting for the sake of extracting information to prevent another potential terrorist attack on the scale of September 11th - http://beyond-the-political-spectrum.blogspot.com/2009/04/whats-wrong-with-doing-right-part-1.html). To no one’s surprise, Bin Laden and a couple of trusted cohorts were found in a reinforced compound located in an area of Pakistan known as a retirement haven for former soldiers of the Pakistani military, an arrangement which could conceivably reinforce the belief Bin Laden and Al Qaeda has/have sympathizers within elements of the Pakistani government (including the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI). Further fueling this speculation is the fact that the Pakistani government was not informed by the American government in regards to having knowledge of Bin Laden’s suspected whereabouts in its country, or that an impending strike was to be shortly underway on its soil in an effort to capture the worlds most (formerly) wanted man.



This action was a welcome (and rare) successful accomplishment by the CIA, which had been stained for years by failures, the least of which was the connecting of the intelligence clues and the sharing of information with other government law-enforcement agencies of the impending September 11th attacks. But much of this operation’s success can be directly attributed to the streamlining of intelligence gathering and sharing by America’s security apparatus initiated by the Bush Administration following the intelligence failure resulting in the success of the attacks by Al Qaeda. In addition to Bin Laden's death, the raid on the terrorist leader's hideout yielded a treasure trove of electronic and hand written notes regarding the late leader's terrorist organization and potential terrorist plots. Government officials hope that this combined eradication and information windfall will go far toward breaking the back of Al Qaeda in the long run.
The news of Bin Laden’s death touched off celebratory cheering in both Washington DC and New York Cities, both locations the sites of the 2001 attacks which Bin Laden ordered. While in certain quarters of the Middle East, Bin Laden’s death elicited threats of retaliation from among his supporters, although to date, there have been no particular threats—credible or otherwise—known to be underway as a result of the terrorist leader’s demise. Still, the specter of retaliation, especially by so-called “lone wolf” radical adherents to extremist Muslim doctrines is an issue. While Bin laden lived, he was an inspiration to such individuals such as Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be airline bomber thwarted on Christmas Day in 2009 in Detroit by both passengers and his own incompetence. As a potential martyr, he could become a rallying symbol for a greater effort on the part of America’s enemies to (potentially unrelentingly) attack American interests, including those here on American soil.
As of this writing, details of the raid are still trickling into various media outlets. It is suspected however, that execution of the raid itself was carried out by U.S. navy SEAL commandos.
With the symbolic victory of Osama Bin Laden’s death is something of a boost for America’s beleaguered military, intelligence, and current presidential administration, the true victory still lays ahead…successful vigilance against foreign foes hell-bent on bringing mass bloodshed to the shores of America.

Read More

Obama's New Tool: The Nobel Peace Prize

It’s Friday, October 9th. I had originally intended to post on another topic, I awoke this morning to the surprise announcement that America’s very own sitting president, Barack Obama, has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for what I imagine to be the promise that his administration—behind his rhetoric—holds in the area of global diplomacy. Actually, surprise is something of a criminal understatement; the assembled reporters covering the announcement could be heard letting out a collective gasp.
And as I continue to watch and listen to news coverage of the announcement, just as predictable as the astonishment of the award are the shrugs of So what?, Who cares? and No big deal from those who oppose his policies, either on purely ideological grounds, or as a reflex against his popularity in many domestic and global quarters (with regard to his popularity and the fervor by which those who support him embrace him, opponents often refer to him—mockingly so—as the “Messiah”).


President Barack Obama before the announcement (archive photo)

Indeed, the questions surrounding both his surprise nomination and his being awarded the prize are merited, especially given the immaturity of his administration and his standing on the global stage as a policy-shaper. Its questionable to be awarded such a prestigious recognition only 9 months into the administration based on presumption alone. But in the Grand Scheme, it seems that the award is a unexpected counterbalance to the relentless criticism of the administration's staunchest and most vocal critics, who unfairly charge that his policies are ineffective...after only such a short amount of time in office (again, based mostly on ideological differences rather than substance of policy. I myself gave Bush II the benefit of the doubt far longer before than that before the counter-productive nature of his policies became apparent). And although I don't pretend to find favor in every policy of the Obama Administration (especially as they relate to the soft-handed handling of terrorists), I do applaud among other endeavors, his efforts to craft a policy of universal affordable health care coverage for every American. While this accolade for peace is no halo or conferring of sainthood, in a perfect world, it should give his opponents pause for unswervingly embracing their political ideologies at the expense doing what is simply right and practical by the American people. It’s a sign that the world is watching America, and that many others actually embrace the hope that America can live up to its promise as an example of progressive global (as well as domestic) leadership…despite how we Americans often live and think inside a fishbowl.
However, I’m sure as tomorrow’s sunrise that in the coming days, opponents of health care and other much-needed people-oriented and practical legislation will spin this award as reflective of the irrelevant opinions of other nations, or some other such rhetoric. But maybe the awarding of the 2009 Nobel Peace prize to our president wouldn’t be such a shock to Americans if we would learn to see ourselves as others see us. Maybe if we could see in ourselves—both as leaders and citizens—as having as much promise in America as the Nobel Nominating Committee, maybe we finally be smart enough to craft policies, both domestic as well as global, based on the progressiveness of need, and not out of some adherence to some vision-limiting ideology.

Read More