(Note to literalists: the Watched column presently contains only a smattering of 'warblogs' because the facilitator of the template-change--Dr. Menlo--is not very familiar with them, and will be adding more as they are sent to him. Also, this blog may contain areas of allusion, satire, subtext, context and possibly even a dash of the surreal: wannabe lit-crits beware.)
Control
[Watch this space for: Pentagon and Petroleum, The Media is only as Liberal as the Corporations Who Own Them, Wash Down With, and Recalcify]
The Reynolds Rap: It's not just enough to dislike Glenn Reynolds personal blog style, one also has to take the time to deplore and condemn his corporate media work for Microsoft. For the record, when Glenn wasn't employed by Microsoft, he wrote more critical things about them. Who knew that Glenn would be such a living witness to the Chomsky propaganda model, the first and fourth filters. Who knew.
He wrote something quietly disturbing today over at Glenn Reynolds com about what he thinks winning and losing would be. It's interesting that he considers any casualties above 5000 to be somewhat on the losing side of things. (We're going to hold you to that Glenn.) Of course, going by his dubious past as a self appointed propagandist for the corporate theocratic state, he will only consider those 5000 who die quickly. Sanctions and occupation murders will barely appear on the man's radar. Or if they do they will be bracketed by the Reynolds Rules, most likely 1 More Nuanced Pro RNC Propaganda, 4 The Patented Glenn Reynolds "My Forces of Dark Evil Are Winning...Indeed!" Post and 7 Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid or My Personal False Counter Propaganda or "The Glennuendo".
I guess the most astonishing thing about this particular piece is how he talks about a democratic Iraq. Here's a guy who loses no sleep over our puppet government in Afghanistan, where we pay off our "allies" with record opium profits. He's also rooted openly for an insurrection against a democratically elected president in Venezuela, where if American protesters had used the same tactics Glenn would be calling for Ashcroft martial law, buttressed by an articulate supporting post by Volokh no doubt about how subsection 4 of article 2 makes summary execution look, you know, "legal"...
Glenn also thinks we should do our best to undermine France and the European Union. (Rule 6 for those of you playing at home.) You remember the European Union, right? They're the only hope not only for a more compassionate human capitalism, but the only thing that stands in the way of a Hegemonic Bullying U S of A. No wonder the EU and France gets so much of his FUD.
I have a more frightening proposition for Glenn, however. No way you can maintain a war for oil with a one term president. Perhaps the Bush crowd wants to stick around a bit longer without all the bother of these annoying elections that we have to steal anyway. I've read optimistic reports of at least a 10 year occupation. And of course, you can't create a real democracy or you get these Venezuelan and Turkish tragedies where the will of the people is actually expressed. We wouldn't want that to happen. There is a more optimistic view: President Edwards or Dean is allowed to win the election, who knows, and we build a real democracy in Iraq (based on proportional representation like in Lani Guinier's influenced South Africa) and we move toward alt fuels. I'll take my fictional wet dreams over Glenn's any day of the week..
