Thursday, March 1, 2007

Uncle Dick's Dickensian Declaration

When it comes to following Uncle Dick around the world, nobody does it like Stewart and his roving reporter, John Oliver. Click the graphic and watch.

Meanwhile, the once-compliant lapdog mass media are suddenly starting to bark a little (or at least yip) over the White House's insistence on the "anonymity" of an "unnamed official" in Cheney's traveling party who referred to himself in the first person. Check out this quote:


"I've seen some reporting that says, `Cheney went in to beat up on them, threaten them.' That's not the way I work," the "senior administration official" said. "I don't know who writes that, or maybe somebody gets it from some source who doesn't know what I'm doing or isn't involved in it. But the idea that I'd go in and threaten someone is an invalid reading of the way I do business."

The media, of course, are up in arms over the fact that Dick clearly identified himself as the source by talking about himself. Fine, that's very insightful of you, reporters. But what you missed while your panties were in a twist over the obvious is that the man also revealed plenty about himself and this administration's operations in Iraq and elsewhere these past six years.

Note, for example, the last sentence from that quote: "...an invalid reading of the way I do business." Replace "I" with "Halliburton" and you've pretty much got the idea of how Dick and his assistant from Crawford, TX have been operating throughout the dark dawn of the 21st century. It's all about business. Not government, not democracy, and certainly not diplomacy: it's about business. That is, mergers, takeovers, corporate occupations, and above all, profit at any human or environmental cost. That's been the story of this Halliburton administration. The "unnamed official's" comment is a Dickensian declaration: "I am a man of business..."

But to every Scrooge there comes a Jacob Marley. Once again, this is the dawn of the 21st century; and every dawning begins with darkness. Tomorrow, we'll come back to the discussion of the burgeoning light, and from what direction it is coming. Fear not, however: the light is there.

No comments: