September 20 2006

Bush (Pot) calls Ahmadinejad (Kettle) Evil (Black)

By now you've all heard the mainstream media Bush sound byte of the day from his UN photo op:

To the people of Iran: The United States respects you; we respect your country. We admire your rich history, your vibrant culture, and your many contributions to civilization. You deserve an opportunity to determine your own future, an economy that rewards your intelligence and your talents, and a society that allows you to fulfill your tremendous potential. The greatest obstacle to this future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and to use your nation's resources to fund terrorism, and fuel extremism, and pursue nuclear weapons.

Well yes, it seems likely to be true that Iran is being led by insane idiots. 

But don't hold your breath waiting for someone in the mainstream media to point out that Americans also deserve an opportunity to determine our own future, an economy that rewards our intelligence and our talents (rather than political and corporate cronies), and a society that allows us to fulfill our tremendous potential.

Or to point out that the Bush administration has been rolling back our liberties (even to the point of now trying to legalize torture) and has been using our resources to fuel extremism (the Iraq war, SOA, etc.).  Or to mention that even though the US already has the world's largest stockpile of nuclear weapons Bush is seeking a new generation of nuclear weapons.

Predictably, rather than notice the stench of hypocrisy, the mainstream media and rightwing Bush idolaters are gushing about how smart our decider in chief was to talk directly to the Iranian people. 

I have no doubt that if Ahmadinejad said "To the people of the United States : Iran respects you; we respect your country. We admire your rich history, your vibrant yadda yadda" the media would portray the Iranian leader with the funny multi-syllabic name as an unhinged nutcase.

Stray Thoughts from Don Alejandro
who suspects that if Iranian media is anything like our own they may parse Bush's speech to portray him as a lunatic (if they bother to mention his speech at all)