John McCain, NBC, GE, the Pentagon: The Corporate Media's Junta

[McCamy Taylor]

In September, seven active duty soldiers appeared at a John McCain for president rally in full military gear.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/09/27/military_army_personnel_violated_pentagon_directive_by_attending_mccain_event/

Seven personnel from a Manchester, New Hampshire, recruiting station appeared in uniform and briefly addressed the crowd.

A Department of Defense directive signed in August 2004 by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz prohibits on-duty members of the armed forces from "speak before a partisan political gathering, including any gathering that promotes a partisan political party, candidate, or cause."

The directive was probably written in 2004 to keep military personnel from campaigning for Kerry. That is probably the same reason that Republicans had soldiers' names stripped from voting rolls in 2004. For the 2008 election, all that has changed. Although a soldier was disciplined in the summer of 2007 for attending a peace rally

Boyce said the Army has taken no disciplinary action against the seven personnel who appeared at McCain's event in Londonderry.

I think that we can take this as a sign that the military supports its war hero brother’s presidential run. This is very good news for John McCain, since it means that he can count upon the generals within the Pentagon to spend the next ten months spinning the war in Iraq to reflect kindly upon McCain. And he can count upon NBC, the propaganda organ for GE which makes money off the Pentagon, nuclear reactors and sales to military related industries, to sell him to the American public.

For those who do not follow the fortunes of General Electric, the world’s largest company, here is a handy reference link.

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?list=type&type=16

Run until 2001by “Neutron” Jack Welch, who made it a matter of principle to lay off 10% of his workers per year, the world’s biggest company churns out plastics, aircraft engines and nuclear reactors and media spin through NBC, CNBC, Telemundo, and msnbc.com.
CEO: Jeffrey R. Immelt
Military contracts 2005: $2.2 billion
Defense-related contributions in the 2004 election cycle: $220,950*

Snip

GE has designed 91 nuclear power plants in 11 countries, yet its nuclear reactors around the world have a fatal flaw. In the event of a nuclear meltdown, there is a 90 percent chance that radiation from GE-designed reactors would be discharged directly into the atmosphere. While the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is aware of the problem, it continues to license GE nuclear reactors.

There is more, about GE’s attempts to repeal Superfund laws and their problems with OSHA and their lucrative contracts with the U.S. government and the Pentagon which continue even though GE (like Halliburton) has been caught sending in fraudulent bills. Hmmm. I guess when retired military officers can count on getting a second career started at your company, your company can count of getting extra special treatment.

http://www.gijobs.net/magazine.cfm?issueId=66&id=899

Perhaps no company in Corporate America values military veterans like General Electric. It’s one of the world’s largest firms — boasting annual revenues of $150 billion and 300,000 employees in 100 countries. More than 6,000 of these employees are veterans, and General Electric hires about 400 retired military personnel each year. Named “America’s Most Admired Company” by Fortune magazine, the corporate juggernaut is also a G.I. Jobs “Top Ten Military-Friendly Employer.”

My. The Pentagon must be mighty glad that General Electric is doing so well. Their retirees count on those second careers to help them make ends meet.

Go back to the CorpWatch link for a moment. The part about the nuclear reactors would be enough to make GE favor Obama over Clinton, since Barack Obama as expressed greater flexibility about the use of nuclear energy than the Senator from New York. (No disrespect is intended to Obama. I point this out in case anyone has noticed that MSNBC seems unable or unwilling to rein in Tweety's misogynistic trash talking)

However, the Pentagon is more important than the nukes, and the folks at NBC and MSNBC have been mighty fond of McCain in recent weeks.

http://moonshinepatriot.blogspot.com/2008/01/meet-press-with-john-mccain-january-6.html

This is the “Bobblespeak translation” so it is just a joke, but check out the great “translation” of Russert’s interview with John McCain:

Russert: you're leading in New Hampshire!

McCain: yeah but most voters make up their minds at the last minute or play eeny miney moe

Russert: you used to be dead

McCain: true but that appeals to people in new hampshire

Russert: i really really, really, really like you

McCain: i know

Very funny. Just a joke, right? Here is Media Matters with some 100% authentic “Tweety” Chris Matthews GE approved shilling for McCain in New Hampshire. Note: the key word is “Maverick” as in “This man is not associated with George W. Bush nohow, noway.”

http://mediamatters.org/items/200801090007

MATTHEWS: Well, the wild thing about John McCain is, although he's a great military man who has served his country and is obviously a patriot in all the great ways you could be a patriot, both in public service and in his military career and his sacrifice, he's not popular among the regular Republicans, the people that go to meetings and organize the Republican Party victories. He's not popular among the evangelicals, right?

KEITH OLBERMANN (Countdown host): Mm-hmm.

MATTHEWS: Who does that leave? It leaves the media, and it leaves people who like mavericks. I think in New Hampshire, there are a lot of Republicans who like mavericks. They like Pat Buchanan. They like going against the grain. His challenge will be to go against the grain nationally if he wins tonight. That's a hard one. It's always going to be hard to be a successful maverick.

MSNBC has Nora O’Donnell who has been carrying water for McCain since 2006, making her a maverick of the McCain is a Maverick groupspeak.

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh062206.shtml

THE SHAPE OF THE SCRIPT: Her interview had reached its end. And so, she bowed to her cohort’s great script. It’s the law—all pundits must vouch for McCain! So Norah O’Donnell pandered:
O’DONNELL (6/21/06): All right, Senator John McCain—the maverick McCain. Up in the Senate, I know it`s been a lot of tough issues you`re debating up there, Iraq and North Korea and the headlines of certainly what`s going in Iraq. Thank you very much for your time, we appreciate it.
MCCAIN: Thank you, Norah.
It’s the law! Before you sign off with the sainted McCain, you’re required to vouch for him as a “straight-talker” (see THE DAILY HOWLER, 2/9/05, for example). Or you can vouch for him as a “maverick,” the route O’Donnell took last night in her stint as Hardball guest host.

The only ones at MSNBC not supporting McCain seem to be KO (for obvious reasons) and conservatives Pat Buchanan and Joe Scarborough (see the link below about how Buchanan says McCain would mean a war with Iran)

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Buchanan_McCain_win_means_war_with_0128.html

However, McCain and Co. know that a recommendation from an old bigot Nixon dirty trickster like Buchanan will not help them one iota in the general election, so they are not crying any tears over Buchanan, I think. Stuff like this from Buchanan just keeps his (undeserved ) reputation as a straight talker, truth teller alive.

OK, so McCain has the guys and gals at MSNBC on board, including that cute red headed Kelly O’Donnell (Yes, she calls her man a “maverick”, too.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0ziqCNeYFc

But NBC/GE can not do it alone. They need material. This is where the military comes back in. Remember those seven soldiers in New Hampshire? What if McCain could command the respect of officers ? Generals ?

http://www.zimbio.com/Major+General+Rick+Lynch

Major General Rick Lynch.

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch warned that drawing down U.S. troops in Iraq too soon could leave Iraq "a mess." He's entered into the political debate just as GOP Senators are beginning to break with party line and call for troop withdrawals.

http://www.zimbio.com/Major+General+Rick+Lynch/articles/7/Iraq+Surge+Citizen+Participation+Security

Iraqis Continue to Move Forward, General Says

By Seaman William Selby, USN

Special to American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Jan. 15, 2008 – With more than 31,000 citizens now providing security assistance to coalition forces in southern belts of Baghdad and the southern provinces of Iraq, the Iraqi people continue to move forward, a U.S. commander said yesterday.

Oh yes. The surge that John McCain supported is working. Any Democrat that wants to take our troops out now is a cut and run coward who will doom the Iraqi people to death and chaos.

And from today:

General believes U.S. will prevail in fight

Sometimes it takes a change of mission to change the battlefield equation, Maj. Green Rick Lynch Says.

By CHRIS TOMLINSON
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD -- Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch has spent years thinking about the war in Iraq, both as a senior strategist in 2005 and now as a division commander for multinational forces in the central part of the country.
He has seen strategies, missions and buzzwords come and go, but he now believes that U.S. commanders finally have a feel for the battlefield and how to defeat the insurgency.
Two years ago, U.S. forces thought the best way to help Iraq was to hand over the country as soon as possible, he said. From 2005 to 2006 Lynch was in charge of communications and persuading Sunni leaders to support the new government.

snip

Then came the February 2006 destruction of the Golden Mosque, a site revered by Shiites, which set off weeks of horrific sectarian violence. "Everything changed," Lynch said. "The mission changed from transition to securing the population."
When Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, decided he needed more troops, Lynch's 3rd Infantry Division was the first to send soldiers in early 2007 as part of a surge of 30,000 additional troops sent to Iraq by President Bush.
"The surge gave us the combat power to take the fight to the enemy," Lynch said. Security gains since then have been promising although tenuous, he said.

That extra line in bold, above the writer’s byline, it is in the print edition of today’s paper. Someone at the Star-Telegram probably noticed it was McCain propaganda and took it down from the internet site. I have re-inserted it so that you can see the article in its full pro-McCain glory.

Let me repeat the most important line in this piece of Pentagon generated propaganda. Sometimes it takes a change of mission to change the battlefield equation, Maj. Green Rick Lynch Says.

In other words, change from W., who wants a war without end for oil to McCain who wants to win this war, says Lynch, and it can be done. And, once again, the surge is working.

MSNBC has the latest Lynch spin.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22962423/

Lynch said while there are still Iraqi political problems at the national level, at the grass roots there is a growing movement to end the fighting and get on with life. His division has recorded a 74 percent drop in monthly attacks, an 81 percent drop in civilian casualties and an 85 percent drop in coalition casualties since May 2007.

He said that the recent progress could still be lost, but that U.S. commanders finally had a good feel for the battlefield and how to defeat the insurgency.

"We've always said that the only way we are going to win this counterinsurgency fight in Iraq is through the people of Iraq," he said. "If they perceive security, they are going to continue to move in the right direction."

The implied subtext? Go McCain!

http://race42008.com/2007/12/15/mccains-military-support/

ARLINGTON, VA — Today over 100 retired admirals and generals endorsed John McCain for President of the United States at a press conference in Columbia, South Carolina. These distinguished leaders supporting John McCain come from all branches of the armed services and include former POWs, Medal of Honor recipients and former members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Snip

“This nation is at war and we’d better damn well understand that fact,” said Admiral Leighton “Snuffy” Smith, USN (Ret.). “John McCain understands it, and he is the only candidate that has not wavered one bit in his position regarding the importance of victory in the war against Islamic extremism or in his commitment to the troops who are doing the fighting. He has consistently demonstrated the kind and style of leadership that we believe is essential in our next Commander in Chief. Our nation faces a growing array of serious foreign policy challenges. John McCain is the ONE candidate who, in our view, truly understands the strategic landscape and is fully prepared to deal decisively and effectively with those who wish to be our friends and, importantly, those who wish us harm.”

Junta. n A group of military officers ruling a country after seizing power.

Now I am off to find a new copy the Costa-Gavras classic Z.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film)