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Commentary :: U.S. Government
CHERYL SEAL REPORTS: Condy Rice Plays the Race Card to Schmooze Black Journalists
That Condy Rice had the nerve to even show up in front of the members of the National Association of Black Journalists amazes me. But as the entire event appears to have been orchestrated and spun by the white media afterwards, guess she knew she had nothing to worry about.
Condy Rice is one of two things: a completely deluded fool or a completely corrupt liar. In any case, her performance at a gathering of members of the National Association of Black Journalists in Dallas on August 7 was truly a dry-heave-inducing event. The first nine-tenths of her speech, delivered in a weak, cracking, almost whining voice, was a Bush infomercial, describing just what a wonderful thing the "war on terrorism" is, how much Bush cares about "freedom and justice" and how great it is we are spreading that brand of freedom and justice to the rest of the world, how much safer the Bush folks have made the world from terrorism, and a whole collection of similar fantasy tales.
For example, you may be amazed to learn that the only way to bring freedom and justice to other countries is to invade them (she described this as 'going on the offensive" and "promoting American ideals of freedom" - she also described all people everywhere who subscribe to the Bush version of freedom and justice as "decent people," implying, of course, that if you don't like the Bush plan, you are NOT DECENT. You will also be amazed to learn that we are making "great progress in rebuilding Afghanistan" and that Team Bush has Osama Bin Laden completely on the run (how they would know this, having not seen a glimpse of evidence of his whereabouts since about October 2002, is another bit of fairytale magic).
You will also be stunned to hear that the Afghanistan/Iraq war and post war scenarios are JUST LIKE World War II and the reconstruction of Europe. She left out the little flaw in this parallel: In Bush's war, WE were the invaders, Saddam never stormed across across five countries with a giant army, Bush is as much like FDR as a poodle is like a Saint Bernard, and there has been no massive coalition of major countries invovled cooperatively in either the war or reconstruction effort.
The most disgusting thing Rice did was to try to play the race card. She had the audacity to draw a parallel between the civil rights struggles of blacks through the 1950s and 60s to Afghanistan and Iraq, claiming that the bombing of the church in Birmingham which killed those little girls, is the "same" as the outbreaks of violence in post-war Iraq and Afghanistan. I wonder if she realized that many people in the room were no doubt thinking that if there was any parallel, it is between the Bush administration and the redneck thugs who bombed the church. But instead of bombing a church and killing several children, Bush has bombed two entire countries, slaughtering several thousand children.
She prefaced her parallel with a condescending and obviously pre-schemed comment in which she referred to the black journalists in the room and herself cozily as "we," as if there was anything in common between them and herself besides skin color. But then, that was Condi's point: play the color card. In short: "I'm black...JUST LIKE YOU, so I know you are going to believe everything I tell you and that it thus be easy to get you worked up against the "evil people" in Iraq and Afghanistan by waving the red flag of Birmingham under your noses. Rice, with studied emotion, said she knew one of the girls who had died in the church. This is just a grandiose way of saying "Some of my best friends are black..and in fact, some of them died at the hands of evil white people." Too bad that song and dance can't be reconciled with her devotion to an administration filled with some of the most evil and bigoted white men to walk the US.
I am sure that 99% of the questions the black journalists sitting in the audience wanted to ask never saw the light of day. They were no doubt discarded nearly as soon as they were read by prescreeners. Instead, Rice was given three or four tediously predictable, already-oft-asked questions like (paraphrase) "Did you ever contemplate resigning over the state of the Union speech flap?" Rice was allowed to brush this entire impeachable presidential crime off as being merely an "error in process." And then, we are supposed to believe that she NEVER thinks about the future, or whether Bush will get reelected. None of them do, she implied, they are just so darn busy saving us all and the rest of the world from ourselves.
Now this morning, August 8, the day after Rice whined unconvincingly in Dallas about the greatness of Bush and Al Gore spoke out eloquently and forcibly against the dishonesty of Bush at New York University, guess who got page one coverage in the Washington Post (that Mockingbird center of spin whose content is obviously directed by the White House)? Condy Rice's whine fest, of course! The only reason Gore got any coverage at all (page three), was because of the outcry earlier in the week over the media's complete blackout of an earlier Gore speech. With corporate money and corporate media propping you up, even a Condy Rice can be pawned off as plausible.
For example, you may be amazed to learn that the only way to bring freedom and justice to other countries is to invade them (she described this as 'going on the offensive" and "promoting American ideals of freedom" - she also described all people everywhere who subscribe to the Bush version of freedom and justice as "decent people," implying, of course, that if you don't like the Bush plan, you are NOT DECENT. You will also be amazed to learn that we are making "great progress in rebuilding Afghanistan" and that Team Bush has Osama Bin Laden completely on the run (how they would know this, having not seen a glimpse of evidence of his whereabouts since about October 2002, is another bit of fairytale magic).
You will also be stunned to hear that the Afghanistan/Iraq war and post war scenarios are JUST LIKE World War II and the reconstruction of Europe. She left out the little flaw in this parallel: In Bush's war, WE were the invaders, Saddam never stormed across across five countries with a giant army, Bush is as much like FDR as a poodle is like a Saint Bernard, and there has been no massive coalition of major countries invovled cooperatively in either the war or reconstruction effort.
The most disgusting thing Rice did was to try to play the race card. She had the audacity to draw a parallel between the civil rights struggles of blacks through the 1950s and 60s to Afghanistan and Iraq, claiming that the bombing of the church in Birmingham which killed those little girls, is the "same" as the outbreaks of violence in post-war Iraq and Afghanistan. I wonder if she realized that many people in the room were no doubt thinking that if there was any parallel, it is between the Bush administration and the redneck thugs who bombed the church. But instead of bombing a church and killing several children, Bush has bombed two entire countries, slaughtering several thousand children.
She prefaced her parallel with a condescending and obviously pre-schemed comment in which she referred to the black journalists in the room and herself cozily as "we," as if there was anything in common between them and herself besides skin color. But then, that was Condi's point: play the color card. In short: "I'm black...JUST LIKE YOU, so I know you are going to believe everything I tell you and that it thus be easy to get you worked up against the "evil people" in Iraq and Afghanistan by waving the red flag of Birmingham under your noses. Rice, with studied emotion, said she knew one of the girls who had died in the church. This is just a grandiose way of saying "Some of my best friends are black..and in fact, some of them died at the hands of evil white people." Too bad that song and dance can't be reconciled with her devotion to an administration filled with some of the most evil and bigoted white men to walk the US.
I am sure that 99% of the questions the black journalists sitting in the audience wanted to ask never saw the light of day. They were no doubt discarded nearly as soon as they were read by prescreeners. Instead, Rice was given three or four tediously predictable, already-oft-asked questions like (paraphrase) "Did you ever contemplate resigning over the state of the Union speech flap?" Rice was allowed to brush this entire impeachable presidential crime off as being merely an "error in process." And then, we are supposed to believe that she NEVER thinks about the future, or whether Bush will get reelected. None of them do, she implied, they are just so darn busy saving us all and the rest of the world from ourselves.
Now this morning, August 8, the day after Rice whined unconvincingly in Dallas about the greatness of Bush and Al Gore spoke out eloquently and forcibly against the dishonesty of Bush at New York University, guess who got page one coverage in the Washington Post (that Mockingbird center of spin whose content is obviously directed by the White House)? Condy Rice's whine fest, of course! The only reason Gore got any coverage at all (page three), was because of the outcry earlier in the week over the media's complete blackout of an earlier Gore speech. With corporate money and corporate media propping you up, even a Condy Rice can be pawned off as plausible.
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