daBlog by goddess101

Civilian Casualties

cilibrar turned me onto this documentary about Mara Salvatrucha, aka MS13, considered to be the largest and most dangerous gang in the world growing fast.

MS13 apparently started out on the streets of Los Angeles, by a bunch of immigrant kids who needed to protect themselves from established gangs in the area. They got into trouble, went to prison, and returned to society wiser but badder than ever. Those who were illegally in the states were deported back to El Salvador, where they started a following there too. Now MS13 is 100,000 members strong, terrorizing locals and rival gangs all across the Americas.

Beginning with an image of MS13 members flashing their gang sign, here is a collection of other images that came to mind after watching the documentary. They may at first seem unrelated but have an underlying connection.

Devils horns, gang sign of MS13

Black Power fists from 1978 Olympics

Nazi gathering

Klu Klux Klan pledge ceremony

Children pledging to the flag

American Military Salute

8-year old Afghan girl

Are we seeing images of unity or divisiveness?

Colbert Roasting Bush

There’s a great video on the internet, which cilibrar and I just viewed, featuring Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert totally laying into President Bush at the recent White House Correspondents Association dinner. Definitely worth taking a look. Here’s a good place to start for more info and links to view the video.

There are a couple of interesting things worth noting about this event. First of all, the audience’s reaction. The crowd consisted mostly of White House reporters and celebrities, who, although the speech was filled with rather scathing jokes about the guest of honor, laughed uncomfortably the entire time. Reminds me of the very last line of the book I finished a few days ago, Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death:

For in the end, he was trying to tell us that what afflicted people in Brave New World was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking.

Secondly, media coverage of Colbert’s speech was barely touched on. Most news reports talked about Bush’s lampooning of himself with a Bush impersonator (I need to check out the video myself!), and only mentioned Colbert in passing or described him as “not funny” or that he “bombed badly.”

I could go on about their (non)reaction to the speech, but I think Salon’s Joan Walsh put it more eloquently:

Intimidated, coddled, fearful of violating propriety, the press corps that for years dutifully repeated Bush talking points was stunned and horrified when someone dared to reveal that the media emperor had no clothes.

Media Blitzkrieg

Wow, what a great political scandal happening right now. A few years ago, the identity of a CIA operative was leaked to the press, which of course compromised her personal security as well as her husband’s. Interesting thing is this: her husband, Joseph Wilson, who was a director of Afican affairs at the National Security Council late in the Clinton administration, investigated allegations that Iraq was trying to purchase uranium from the African country Niger and eventually found no evidence to prove the connection. This of course meant bad news for the Bush administration, which was trying desperately to justify its going to war against Iraq by claiming Iraq and Saddam Hussein were going to blow up the world with their Weapons of Mass Destruction. Wilson said he believed the leak was meant “to discourage others from coming forward.” More details in this CNN article.

So, what’s happening now is Karl Rove, whom Bush himself called “the Architect” of both his successful presidential campaigns, is being implicated in the leak, although 20 months ago, the White House claimed that Rove wasn’t involved in the leak at all and whoever was involved was going to be immediately “taken care of.”

Funny how Rove is still the country’s House Deputy Chief of Staff, but the press sure isn’t going to let the White House try to sweep this issue under the rug. In a surprising move, reporters ganged up on Press Secretary Scott McClellan, who usually deftly dodges such attacks, and displayed a rare emotion in their questioning. Though McClellan mainly addressed the press with non-answers, it sure was a pleasure to watch this guy squirm. You can see the video here in Real Player at the White House homepage or in Quicktime here thanks to good ‘ol Michael Moore.

And while ultra-conservative CNN is now keeping this story a hard-to-find item on their website, it’s great to see the normally bland San Francisco Chronicle grace their front page with the uncharacteristicly bold headline Rove Under Fire.

The press finally growing a backbone? It’ll be very interesting to see where all this will lead….