Farce The Nation

Gates and Clinton on CNNI accidentally stumbled onto CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour’s new show “Power & Persuasion” yesterday while flipping through the TV channels after work. I’ve always been a fan of Amanpour for several reasons; the foremost being her clear cut straight forward interview style and lack of melodramatics during reporting. It’s rare in a modern journalist you find someone just giving you the news and avoiding trying to narrate the events. I find it very annoying when journalists who are doing a news story decide to become an editor or even worse– a fiction writer complete with over pronounced descriptive paragraphs that would fit right into a Stephen King novel. I’ve always been adverse to new journalism styling that evokes such writing style. I’d rather hear the story through the information and not the other way around.

So I stopped on the show to see how Amanpour in the spotlight would fair. This particular edition had on as guests Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates. I will tell you up front despite my sometime left wing leanings I absolutely despise Hillary Clinton. When she won the Senate seat in NY I gave serious thought to leaving the state. I rue her that much. I find her artificial, arrogant, and clearly out for herself when she should be looking out for the rest of us. In short, I hate Hillary Clinton and literally list her number one on my list of US politicians who I could do without. On the other hand, I rather like Robert Gates. I think Gates did an excellent job under George W. Bush’s administration and was one of the bright second term highlights of that team. His succeeding of Donal Rumsfeld in 2006 was nothing short of a welcome change in the Secretary of Defense position. Gates was everything Rumsfeld was not. Gates is a seasoned CIA and Intelligence Director with clear ability to address complex statements and communicate the importance of issues to the general public. Rumsfeld always looked annoyed when questioned by the media and was quick to throw fits in public. Gates was calm, cool, and collected. He seemingly welcomed the questions as if he was dying to speak on any given subject as it was clearly near and dear to his heart. When Barrack Obama appointed him as Secretary of Defense again it was a surprise. Gates had always been considered a core Republican (Gates goes as far back as a Reagan era insider and you cannot get more GOP than that) leader and was by no means some liberal pansy looking to pull out of either Iraq or Afghanistan. Nevertheless it was one more thing that made me appreciate the bipartisan efforts of Obama and understand that even “the other side” viewed Gates’ value as a head of our country’s defensive military strategies in a time of war.

So I decided to watch a few minutes of the program. I was not surprised by Hillary’s terse manner (she’s Rumsfeld in a skirt), but I was surprised how cohesive Gates and her were together. They did work well even though clearly Gates was still a Conservative and Hillary was still a carpet bagging psycho. Nevertheless it does seem strange that two such diverse people are able to work so well, but there it was– working well.

I walked away with one idea brought forward by Gates during the interview. The question was something along the lines of “What would the US pulling out of Afghanistan in a state of retreat send as a message to the Taliban and Al Qaeda ?” Gates didn’t flinch or hesitate and answered adamant, “Pulling out of Afghanistan in that state would send a message to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, as well as, other extremists worldwide that they had beaten a second super power. In the 1980s when the Mujaheddin beat the Soviets it was seen as a smaller force being able to beat up a world power. This would give them their second victory.” Gates then went on, “Al Qaeda doesn’t run like other terrorist organizations. It’s not a unified structure. Their ability to motivate other extremists is central to the reputation they garner from their acts. It’s not about actually winning; it’s about what their victories mean as a statement.” Gates then answered questions on information as a weapon and the use of next generation services such as mobile to web services as Twitter. Hillary Clinton chimed in, “When Twitter was going to shut down for eight hours to do software upgrades and I found out that the Iranians in the  streets protesting were using that as their main vehicle of information decimation I immediately called them and told them you cannot shut down today. They stayed up.”

It was interesting to hear how modern national defense had evolved. How next generation technologies such as cell phones, web blogs, and Twitter were allowing coordination of dissidents within another country to mobilize. How that  could be both a benefit to our allies and huge problem when dealing with our enemies. So it appears clearly that from a national stand point the US government is placing more value on information warfare and adapting its communication capabilities to keep up with our opponents. Said Gates on the subject “It’s the young men and women of our service who bring these ideas to the table. Who keep us informed about these things. When Al Qaeda was driving around with a FM radio transmitter on a motorcycle broadcasting names of people they’d behead if the village supported our efforts and we found out, we located and eliminated that threat. The young people brought that to our attention. As a result, we were able to turn support for the US in that village by showing those villagers we are watching out for them.”

Brilliant. Simply brilliant.

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Classic DF – 8/25/00

Aug 25, 2000: [•] Gulf Air Flight GF072 crashed due to an improper descent path. [•] Clinton is going to Nigeria. [•] Radiation levels around the sunken Kursk continue to read normal (Uh, what is normal?). [•] The state of Andhra Pradesh in India is being flooded. [•] World Intellectual Property Organization has ruled in 80% of cybersquatting against the squatter. [•] Several former LAPD officers are suing the department for harassment after reporting conduct violations to superiors. [•] A typhoon that hit China only caused some damaged, but fortunately no one was killed. [•] China has decided to release 3 imprisoned US citizens since they weren’t part of the Falun Gong (even though that is what they were arrested for). [•] The Mental Olympics are over. [•] A group of mountain climbers sponsored by Northface escaped rebels in Kyrgyzstan. [•] If it’s illegal to sell votes in the US why not move the deals offshore? [•] Nintendo has officially unveiled its N-Cube and Gameboy Advanced. They look very nice. [•] Prepare for AOLTV. [•] TRUSTe uses cookies on its website. Users are pissed. [•] The Duh Study of The Day: Computers are making life more stressful. Well, if you’ve ever used a computer then you know why… LOL. [•] Microsoft has developed a new CPU (Solo2) for its Web TV units. [•] Urban sprawl is ruining the view from our National Parks. [•] Population Action International thinks water supplies are getting smaller (and they are right). [•] A rare parasite has killed several dogs in New York. [•] PETA is still relying on cheap shock ads in order to get attention. (lamers) [•] A man attacked a family with a pitchfork and killed two child for no apparent reason. [•] If you find sex you can keep it. [•] PGP for Windows has a hole in it that leaves information unencrypted. [•] Battlebots is on Comedy Central. [•] Microsoft has closed a hole in Frontpage Server to prevent dOs attacks. [•] Yahoo! is going to offer encrypted e-mail. [•] Fallsburg Sgt. Melissa Freestone has been charged with stealing money. [•] The Chester Police Dummy is back. [•] Clean up that gas spill lamer! [•] The FBI attempts to catch a child molester on a tip and it ends up being the wrong person, but it also turns out that he too is a wanted felon LOL. [•] A pesticide is recalled. [•] An attacker found, a deadbeat dad is found, a disorientated senior hits another senior, Richard Castellano is going to be arraigned, a police dog finds a suspect, a cut phone line is fixed, a base jumper is arrested, Warwick is flushing its hydrants, and a man dies of a heart attack while jogging. [•] Ozzfest isn’t going to get to South America. [•] Godsmack will release Awake on Halloween. [•] Radiohead is previewing their new stuff online. [•] Live continues to work on its next album. [•] Check out SeemsLikeSalvation to find out new information on the next Nine Inch Nails album and a new Marilyn Manson song. [•] Bored? I’m not because it’s really busy! So I’m glad my vacation begins next week. All these newbies are driving me nuts! In fact, next week I will update you on my moving situation and what’s going on. Hopefully, everything will go good and I’ll get time to relax, but I doubt it 🙂 Till then… OH YEAH!

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Classic DF – 12/2/99

Dec. 2, 1999: Noteworthy News: WTO has turned into some kind of sixties style rally. Clinton has used the convention to attempt to stop child labor. Liberals are pissed. Ummm… I think the main problem is their wasn’t enough good programming this season on television to occupy time better wasted. A Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial has been proposed, which may be the only way black man in Washington next in line to a president, LOL. If DF.com has got you all ready to post your music to the net as the next big thing and a way into instant stardom, you may want to read this first 🙂 New Zealand has elected a new government… did I mention that one of the members of Parliament is transgendered… boy does that hit home. Yesterday was World AIDS Day (their is nothing funny about that). Want to feel stupid… click here. Guess what, another rap artist is in trouble... I believe it was Tupac Shukar who said, “You can’t put money in someone’s hands and expect them to act like they aren’t from a ghetto when the gutter is all they ever knew.” Brittney Spears is now legal for those pedophiles out there who are interested… I guess it’s back to obsessing about the Olsen twins for you guys. Another lovely rant essay at Suck.com. Not So Noteworthy DF News: God, say you’ll revamp and they e-mail. Okay, I get the picture, sheesh! Check out the mystery post for Dec. 1st on Marlin’s Place. I believe it is a response to my Nov. 30th post. If what you are implying Sam is that I pointed fingers… I haven’t said who it is yet. And if your wondering if I’m going to seek police action at this point with no proof of guilt (to the best of your knowledge)… all I want to know is who is guilty? What are you trying to say? Are you admitting unlawful carnal knowledge (knowing it before it be known to the public in other words)? Or are you trying to be some sort of ass kissing escape goat hero with an alibi to someone? Who? What are you talking about? Um, to put it bluntly who are you trying to save? I know what you’re saying… that’ s not what that post meant… maybe what you’re really saying is that I’m trying to be vague and mysterious. That your some kind of dark avenger of evil that can vile and degrade you without proof. That’s mature? I quote now: Note to certain individuals, immature actions beget immature actions, however, alibi’s suck, so point your fingers elsewhere. Amazing how the most mature show their true colors so easily. What immature actions? What did I do to who? Are you saying that a certain event sparked this? Are you saying that Dorothy Sharpe is to blame? Are you admitting guilt? Your web page has been saved and noted… Here is the lesson: Knowledge is power definitively, but maturity is knowing how to use that power best.

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