Summer and Fall Lineup Announced: “Perpetual Fear Factor” seven nights a week

Although it’s still June, it looks like the consortium of major news outlets and Republican operatives that control what we see and hear have gotten it together, and given us a look at what we’ll be seeing between now and Election Day.
We’ll start with the announcement of the arrests of seven young men in Miami who are certainly guilty of being Moslem and of living in a warehouse in the (heavily minority) Liberty City area, and having “aspirations” but “no means” of blowing things up… let me repeat that minor point: they had absolutely no means whatsoever to carry out their plots. They have now been charged in Miami on conspiracy charges of intending to work with Al Qaeda; the nominal targets include the Sears Tower and the FBI building in Miami… but again… no means. This was , btw, a government sting– at all times, the men were dealing with government agents posing as fellow plotters. Entrapment defense to follow, but that’s not really the issue. The issue, of course, is that by 2006, we are now cynical enough (well, I am, anyway) to question whether this is an actual major law enforcement coup, seeing as it now dominates headlines, or, rather, is really just a big “buy and bust” type thing, not so big in the great scheme of things (“aspirations… but no means“), but is blasted across the headlines (via Karl’s fax machine) just to remind us to be ever paranoid… and remember which political party can best protect us from our irrational fears… You see, this is the sort of thing that law enforcement used to do all the time, rather effectively… we managed to stop terrorist attacks this way, through informants and stings and so forth, rather than through bloody ground wars… so that said, this is certainly something we should be all pleased about… perhaps we can go back to not having terrorism be the dominant focus and issue in our lives? Not if you’re watching (or reading) anything between now and the elections!!! (I see from a CNN update that at least one of the indictees told FBI agents “he believed” he was working for Al Qaeda; again… the fact that it wasn’t even remotely true is not a factor on “Perpetual Fear Factor”.)
And so we continue with the coverage of the horrible and unfortunate deaths of Privates Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker in Iraq. Although reports of their torture and beheading are now all over the headlines (and the indignant feelings that we are battling a cruel and barbarous enemy have now been resurrected from wherever they were hiding), it seems that the military itself may have told at least some of the deceased soldiers’ relatives that they were killed in a gun battle, and their bodies mutilated after they were dead. This is quite interesting, seeing as it is that same military giving accounts to the general press of the barbaric torture of these men… Absent images of their bodies being dragged through the streets a la Fallujah or Mogadishu, if they were mutilated after dead, as opposed to killed by torture and beheading… let’s just say the fear and loathing factor would be a tad higher the more gruesomely this can be played…
And, of course, Congress is playing along beautifully (thank YOU John Kerry), with the senate rejecting two measures, one specific, one vague, that “suggested” that the United States military develop “some kind of” exit plan for the Iraq conflict; Joe-mentum and 5 other Democrats voted against both… thanks guys!
So, we have our elements. Enemies plotting HERE? Check. Enemies cruel and barbaric? Check. Democrats “soft on terror” and want to “cut and run”? Check.
Your summer and fall viewing and reading, Ladies and Gentlemen. Tip the wait staff generously.