Congress, Swiftboating, Terrorism
When I opened my Sunday Miami Herald two days ago, not just Sports Authority and CVS Pharmacy fliers fell out. An 8.5-by-10-inch piece of paper with a DVD affixed to it clunked to the floor. It was “Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West,” a one-hour trailer for a two-hour “documentary.” It’s designed to scare the bejesus out of you and make you decide that John McCain is the only candidate that can save us from waves of Muslim terrorists.
The DVD sports a scary-looking jihadist and an image of the ruins of the World Trade Center with an American flag in the foreground. Of course the timing of the distribution — just a couple of days after the seventh anniversary of the September 11 attacks — was surely not accidental. But it makes it clear that this movie is not about the GOOD Muslims, it’s about the scary radical Islamists who hate you and want to kill you and your entire family.
Twenty-eight million copies of the DVD, which was first released in 2006 during the midterm elections, was distributed through 70 newspapers in battleground states over the past weekend, including Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada, Virginia and Ohio. The highest concentration was in Florida, where no less than 14 newspapers presented subscribers with the thing. And it was only distributed to subscribers because … people who subscribe to the newspaper are residents and therefore are likely voters, whereas people who buy newsstand copies of the Sunday paper just want the comics, right? It also was included in the Wall Street Journal, the World Jewish Digest and the Chronicle of Higher Education.
It is produced and distributed by the Clarion Fund, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that spends a lot of time telling anybody who will listen that it takes no money from the gubmint or special interest groups. It’s a shadowy group that does not list its principals or indeed any information about where its funding comes from.
The DVD is a very slick production, and if you were able to sit through the entire hour, it would no doubt indoctrinate you with the fear and loathing of Muslims that its creators intended. Boosting its credibility are interviews with such luminaries as Alan Dershowitz, who I would imagine had no idea how his interview would be used.
This is propaganda in its most blatant form, and it’s specifically designed to make you terrified of another terrorist attack by maniacal Muslims. It exploits the documentary genre perfectly, blending “facts” delivered in a dead-pan manner with creepy music and outrageous logic to create an atmosphere of lunatic fear. It is so psychologically effective, it’s scary, which is, I suppose, the point. Note that FOX News ran the thing in its entirety in 2006. ‘Nuff said.
If you want to watch it, go here.
Topics: Congress, Swiftboating, Terrorism
Obviously a subliminal way to scare voters who might consider voting Democratic to vote for McCain since, as the common folklore goes, Republicans are better at keeping you safe from Muslim terrorists. No doubt that is why it was distributed in swing states. The fact that’s it’s a bunch of mularkey and 8 years of Republican rule have made us much less safe than we were before eludes most.
Clarion scares me! I am sure Great Alaska Gooddess who kills moose, the big snow cow, came from one of their central casting calls. I read somewhere this casting call took place on a cruise ship? Jethrow
Ps, the terrorists scare me also. But in my heart I do not believe we are fighting this Iraq and Afghanistan Wars to win.
While this “documentary” apparently concentrates on Muslim extremists who are also terrorists it’s easy to forget the the U.S. has it’s own share of religious extremists. There are fundamentalist Christians who want to take over our government and would make, for example, homosexuality a capital offense if they did so. So they would execute homosexuals. These people walk among us. And let’s not forget that the bombing of the Oklahoma City Federal Buidling was planned and carried out by a red-blooded American with a Right Wing politcal leanings. Fanaticism of any ilk is dangerous.
Jethrow, I guess we’d have to ask Bush/Cheney & McCain/Palin to define “win” when they say they want to win in Iraq & Afghanistan. If by “win” they mean a complete subjugation of those nations complete with a compliant citizenry that will allow us to take their oil and “sell” them things, I don’t think that day will ever come. People who support these wars like to pretend that we’re doing something honorable. Invading and occupying a sovereign nation is neither honorable nor just. It never has been and it never will be.
Sorry, didn’t mean to say I supported the Bush Wars. I do not think a ‘conventional war’ such as you refer to ever has a victory. I do not now or ever will support the past eight years and the horrors they have wrought.
PS…don’t jump to conclusions so quickly about what I say. Don’t throw away a friend too quickly.
See this article in IsraeleNews:
http://www.israelenews.com/view.asp?ID=3116
Israeli Zionists Attempt to Tilt US Elections With Mass Distribution of `Obsession`
Raphael Shore is the producer of “Obsession.”
He is the brother to Ephraim Shore, both men are Canadian/Israeli citizens, both are rabbis.
Both men are “bigshots in Aish HaTorah yeshiva,” and are opening a center in Tel Aviv according to their brother, David Shore who gave an interview to Haartz July 18, 2008 titled “House Calls” (note that David is also into film making, being a former producer/screen writer for “NYPD Blue” and “Law and Order”, creator of “Dr. House”)
What is Aish Ha Torah yeshiva? According to Wikipedia (which at the top says it was written as an advertisement) Note: The government of Israel awarded it 40 percent of the land facing the Western Wall.
http://www.israelenews.com/view.asp?ID=3116
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