I heard a pathetic military wife stammering desperately

[homelandpunk]

yesterday on NPR...they were doing a segment about Bush's favorability and the war. The sound of desperation was agonizing as she kept stammering "I HAVE to believe there is a good reason...it would just kill me if I thought all this was for no good reason...for my husband's sake...I have to believe, I have to." In other words, her mind is terrorized by thoughts this is bogus, and worse, criminal and possibly sinful. You could hear it in her voice. She was in anguish, and out of that anguish she tortures her mind into "believing" Bush and the reasons for the invasion/occupation. She has to believe....if not, she will feel like a bad person. It was pathetic, sad, and makes me angrier.
On the same segment, they interviewed a zombie who gushed about Bush: "He's just real. Y'know, I can just see him on his ranch, riding a horse, out in the Texas sun..."
Oh my fucking god.
They had one woman who made a remark about feeling betrayed, but it was mild. I am pretty certain had the woman said "Bush lied" it would not have made it in this particular segment. They are hiring Tucker Carlson. NPR is zombified. Regardless of the recent O'Reilly interview flap, NPR should not be considered a voice for us.

[michaelbmoore]

1. I know

its just sad.

Think, damn it, THINK!

[The Zanti Regent]

41. NPR = Nothing but Propaganda for Republicans

Wake up, folks.

NPR is just another piece of KKKarl's Propaganda machine.

If you want to hear the truth, listen to the last Free-Independent Network in America:

http://www.pacfica.org/

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. Guess the zombie doesn't know that the Windshield Cowboy

is afraid of horses.

[Nailzberg]

6. That's cause horses don't run on oil

[htuttle]

3. It's mostly the Right...

...that accuses NPR of being 'leftist'.

I've never seen it that way. At their best, they are moderate or centrist. At their worst, they are center-right or right.

[proud patriot]

4. Emotions conflicting with logic

it must be terribly difficult for her.

really sad .

[boilerbabe]

5. There's an article in the Nation as regards this...

November 10 issue...I don't have the link, but it's by Karen Houppert
Check it out!

[pnorman]

11. This may be that Nation link

(although the date is a few days off): http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=19991025&c=1&s=houppert I skimmed through it; it's an excellent article, but doesn't seem to apply to the topic under discussion, (other than she's the "air force brat" author of a book on this topic).

I've been a subscriber to Nation for many years, but I was a little irked because selected articles on their web-page were available ONLY by subscription ... a SEPARATE subscription. Recently, they changed that, and my mail subscription now includes both. What a BARGAIN!!

[QC]

7. Sometimes we all have to rationalize things to keep going.

This woman obviously cannot bear, at least right now, to believe that the sacrifices her family is making are all for nothing.

But in time she will probably see what is going on, and she will know who is to blame. Give her time.

Also, you might want to edit the obscenity out of your header before it gets the thread locked.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[QC]

27. Just trying to help you out.

2. The subject line of a discussion thread and the entire text of the message which starts the thread may not include profanity, excessive capitalization, or excessive punctuation. Inflammatory rhetoric should also be avoided.

Why are you so hostile toward people who agree with you and want to keep the discussion from getting locked?

[homelandpunk]

29. sorry, but my header did not contain profanity...

didn't mean to be hostile...I was meaning to say "rub your eyes...I think you are seeing things." Sorry. Thanks.

[Barad Simith]

8. ya gotta admit

"He's just real. Y'know, I can just see him on his ranch, riding a horse, out in the Texas sun..."

ya gotta admit, even if you're not gay ... when he's standin there, all presidential-like, and his mouth gets all small n shit, and his eyes start to wander, like he's tryin to think ... ah, yeah

[homelandpunk]

16. yes I know what you mean.

Sometimes during a speech when he is in mid-sentence, and he starts getting glassy-eyed and his mouth contorts as his brain struggles to find the next word, and he smiles with those little baby teeth that peek out as he spits out "9/11!", and then smirks at how clever he just was...well...I must say...I get in a Chris Matthews mood and just swoon.

[oneighty]

21. Never sure if that tight

little mouth goona speak or poop.
180

[Demobrat]

40. I can see him on his ranch too.

Locked in his room. Downing prescription drugs and guzzling god-knows-what, and treating everybody who has the sad misfortune of having to help clean him up and prep him for outside appearances like absolute shit. Yeah. I can see that.

[Kinkistyle]

9. Cognitive Dissonance

I see a lot of that going around the military folk. They see how terrible and wrong the war is, yet they need to believe that somehow this was all for the best. Because if it isn't, all the horror, the dead friends, the sacrifices will be for naught, and that would just be too difficult to accept. The ends justify the means. All the dead innocents, the destruction was for a "greater good". The keystone of religion.

Denial: the first stage of grief. How far away is acceptance?

[dbt]

10. Yeah, she was (and is) desperate.

That poor woman is on the ragged edge of having to accept what the rest of us figured out three years ago: The (alleged) President of the United States of America is lying with every breath he takes. And her husband is, indeed, in Iraq for no good reason.

She is about to undergo a trauma that is equivalent to finding out that God does not exist. "I have to believe," she says. Because if she does NOT believe, her entire frame of reference will disappear. She will be lucky if she only suffers a nervous breakdown.

She is in very deep denial--and it's cruel to see her in such a condition. Supporting the president in times of war or crisis used to be very safe bet. Of course, that would have been back in the days when presidents were elected.

Ma'am, I am SO sorry for the fear that you are living in. I wish I could make it go away--but both of us need to deal with the fact that your husband may very well die for nothing. George W. Bush sent troops into Iraq so a few of his friends could make money. If your husband comes home in a transfer tube, that's just a cost of doing business.

Nothing personal.

:freak:
dbt

[Solomon]

47. The point that's being missed unfortunately is that the whole country

is going through what this woman is going through. Some of us caught it early on, and a lot of people are still struggling with it.

[Robin Hood]

12. It's called denial

Eventually it will turn to anger. It may take years, as it did the victims of Vietnam, but it will come.

[leesa]

13. They make book on that fear and conflict

Bush, riding horses?? The ignorance is simply too painful. Do you think these people have EVER read a book?

[John_H]

15. great post.

NPR is whoring for government funding. Compare their coverage to even a couple of years ago.

[Robin Hood]

17. Do you have a link for this?

I'm trying to find it on NPR but need a name.

[homelandpunk]

30. I don't have a link. I was listening

to this around 5:45 p.m. CT on Friday.

[tom_paine]

18. "riding a horse, out there in the Texas sun"

My God, sounds like someone talking about Hitler.

Our God-Sent Fuhrer, noble and strong, riding a horse out there in the sun...

(never mind that both Hitler and Bunnypants* never rode a lick, what does that have to do with anything?)

We don't need Leni Reifenstahl, we have hundreds of them. They are Legion.

[homelandpunk]

22. Yes. They are Legion.

I wrote in a differnt post:
<<When the State has so many fascists in the general population, the State does not need to "run" it's propaganda arm. They just let their numerous rich zealots sing their praises. It works more efficiently and more deceptively than the classic government control.
It is neo-Orwellian, rather than classic Orwellian...they have adapted. Evolved. And it is scarier.>>

[Cocoa]

19. NPR is not supposed to be a "voice for us"

it's not supposed to be partisan.

I didn't hear that report you're talking about, but it sounds like you found it interesting, and it sounds like something you wouldn't hear anywhere else. C-span maybe, but nowhere else.

[tom_paine]

23. That's the problem. We HAVE no Liberal Media.

(at least not in the way Faux and the rest are shameless propagandists for the Busheviks)

In normal times, I would not wish ANY Party-Loyal Sub-Media to exist at all but now it's clear we desperately nered a countervailing force, especially since Corporate TV Pravda has been so thoroughly infiltrated and parasitized by the Right-Wing Sub-Media and can be cowed or diverted from a story very easily (or focused incesantly on a non-story) that there is no lie, no matter how factually disprovable, that cannot be laundered into "conventional wisdom", no truth so ironclad that it cannot be shouted and ink-sprayed into confusion and obfuscation.

Thus, these are not normal times. This is the Fall of the American Republic, and it is clear that without a Democratic Party-Loyal Sub-Media to at least get the other side out there then our steep descent into Orwellian madness will continue.

And God help us all.

[lostnfound]

38. We have Pacifica! Underfunded but awesome. But not in every city.

[homelandpunk]

26. Do you disagree that had the woman said "Bush lied" that they

would have allowed that? Please.
And when i say "us" I mean concerned citizens. NPR used to be a voice for us. Now they will take issues of concern, but if the truth of the issue comes down to an exposure of republican bullshit being the problem, they will edit that...
so Rush or Hannity won't call them NAMES. I guess 10 years of being called names was just TOO big a sacrifice for their delicate frames. So yes, you hear about issues of concern now, but they will NEVER get to the crux of the matter...

[loudnclear]

20. OK, what is the "good reason?"

Since Iraq posed no threat of any kind to the US, what is the good reason? Saddam was virtually a prisoner in his own country and more than two thirds of his country was covered by an illegal no-fly zone. What the hell is the good reason for our children to be killed while the fat-cat neocons sit in Washington and collect huge tax breaks that will eventually result in more of our children dying from lack of health, social, and educational care in the future?

All the billions and billions spent on weapons and war over the past 50 years certainly has not resulted in our being safer, more secure, more respected, or more at peace. So just tell me what is the "good reason" for this carnage?

[Hubert Flottz]

35. Some people get rich off of wars and reconstruction!

They think that's good! We think it's Greed!

[WillyBrandt]

24. PBS, not NPR

PBS is hiring Tucker, not NPR.

NPR isn't supposed to be liberal or progressive. It's supposed to be a good news source that discusses American culture and politics. Despite the presence of a few media whores on it, I think it does an admirable job.

If there's anything that keeps it from sliding into total wingnuttery, it's that it's constituency is pretty liberal

[homelandpunk]

28. Oops. Sorry about that mistake.

I still think NPR is dumbed down considerably.
...............Wa-wait!! PBS is hiring the snot-nosed bow-tie boy?? What the hell for??

[SemperEadem]

37. They probably felt sorry for him when he and Al Franken went at it

on Russert's show not long ago and offered him a show so he can cry about what a bad man Franken is.

[eleny]

25. This is why I believe they'll help try to vote him out

In the quiet of the voting booth or with the paper mail-in ballot in the privacy of their homes, I believe with all my heart, that military families will vote Dem. In public, they speak positivily for the administration's policies. But when the rubber finally meets the road, they'll vote for a change to bring their loved ones home.

My heart breaks for families who, in the deep darkness of night, lay awake worrying that this is all for oil and power.

[LeahMira]

31. Everyone makes mistakes...

She was in anguish, and out of that anguish she tortures her mind into "believing" Bush and the reasons for the invasion/occupation. She has to believe....if not, she will feel like a bad person.

You know, I have a problem. There were people speaking out against an invasion and occupation of Iraq before it started. A person would have had to be deaf not to have heard them. So why did these men go to Iraq in the first place? Now, they and their wives and families have to face the awful truth about what they chose to support.

I do actually feel sorry for this woman, though. She put her trust in a mad man's statements and now she feels that she has to keep on believing in the mad man. Really, we all do the best we can with the information we have at the time and we choose how to evaluate and weigh it. She chose wrongly, but there's no shame in an honest decision made as honestly as possible. There is shame, though, in refusing to admit a mistake.

Sadly, the U.S. has never admitted that it made a mistake, even after years have passed. Sadly, a lot of its people are infected with the same malady. Sad woman... the truth really could set her free.

[havocmom]

39. Facing the truth would set a lot of people free but many are not strong

enough to do truth. Many simply do not have the legs to stand up and walk away. It is very difficult to realize our leaders are corupt, souless vermin. To make that admission requires that people
admit they were snookered (read by their egos as: dumb) and then admit that they cannot just leave the thinking to those leaders. They have to become active, critical thinking participants in their own world. Seems most Americans just don't want to be bothered with personal involvement in the experiment of representative democracy. They want to relax and think their freedoms were won by some previous generation and they can just coast.

The big spin at the beginning of this malAdministration-from-hell about the grownups being in charge again was a psy-op ploy to tell the masses: It's OK to glide in neutral now; we'll do all your thinking for you... run along a play... go shopping! Don't you worry about a thing, daddy will take care of it all.

The sheeple have been well conditioned to just believe, but in the back of many minds, there is notice that all is not as promised. Look for many, many more cases like the desparate woman trying to still believe. It is how they will cling to the illusions and delusions that keep them calm. When the illusions become harder to maintain, it will cause great disruption for millions of people for a long time. Gonna make the social upheaval over 'Nam look like a cake walk.

[AnnabelLee]

32. Friendly reminder

Please do not use profanity in the subject line or text of the message when starting a thread in the General Discussion Forum. The discussion is going well so I won't lock this thread.

Thank you
AnnabelLee
DU Moderator

[homelandpunk]

33. I guess I just thought subject lines were off limits.

I'll try to remember the same applies to the text of the original post.

[dsc]

34. Gee your radio must have editted out

the segment directly before that which you listened to. They had several angry Bush voters saying they were unlike to vote for him for a variety of reasons.

[homelandpunk]

42. yeah...

NPR is great. Rah. Rah.
I would have liked to have heard those "angry" people they allowed on...no wait, I would like to listen to all the tapes of all the people they had to choose from and see what was on the "cutting floor" that did not make it to the segment. There were probably some real anger they just were afraid to air, and picked the mild anger....indeed the "Bush voter" is not gonna get TOO angry, are they?

[janx]

36. Public broadcasting is not supposed to be a voice for us.

I'm disgusted that they hired l'il Tucker, but public broadcasting is supposed to be a voice of reason (if I remember correctly from my childhood).

It is my refuge these days, true, but I would not like it to be biased. In our current, right-wing culture, it often seems like a voice from the left, but it is not, nor should it be.

[homelandpunk]

43. the public airwaves are indeed intended for us...Fairness Doctrine anyone?

Tht is how it was intended. For us. To serve our interests. To serve our sense of fairness and balance. To inform, educate. Not as a brow-beating tool of loudmouthed fringe fuckwits.

[mrgorth]

44. You freaking people

right before those folks they interviewed a crowd that was anti-shrub. They're balancing it out and it's GOOD that the pugs think they're left when they're really center. NPR is supposed to be center.

[homelandpunk]

45. you freaking person

Tell me what was the most hateful, angry anti-Bush statement they allowed on the segment? I bet it went something like this: "I feel betrayed" or "he's taking us in the wrong direction" ...yeah, wow, that is some real devastating anti-Bush rhetoric. Ouch! Don't get too close to that kind of vitriolic passion...whew!!
Believe me....they had people on tape with real venom, but NPR won't air those....those did not make the segment. You did not hear those.
Btw, it is not about liberal vs neo-con with NPR, it is a matter of them censoring themselves because they are sooooo scared of Rush calling them mean nasty names...waaaaa!!!
They should just report like they used to...if the reporting happens to sound anti-republican, then oh well, as long as they were accurate in just the facts... But now, if the facts bring the wrath of Hannity and Rush down on them, then they will censor that stuff....cause they are skeerd of being called NAMES. Waaaa!!!

[Scott Lee]

46. Especially after Terri Gross's disgusting war-pimping behavior

That woman was so effusively pro-war in the build up to Iraq, that it turned me off to NPR in general. I have only heard NPR by accident, since then.

Terri Gross, stop the charade and just go work for the RNC. At least that will be honest.

[not systems]

48. 100% agree.

Terri Gross has lost the plot.

I can't even stand the culture segments and I used to love that show.

Warmongering leaves a bad taste that lingers.