A Boston Technical Recruiters Blog

Misdirection

Misdirection is a form of deception in which the attention of an audience is focused on one thing in order to distract its attention from another.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misdirection

Misdirection #1

ACORN voter registration fraud. Millions of alleged voter registration have been sent in as fraudulent. So McCain goes around saying that the greatest voter fraud in American history is about to be perpetrated. The only problem is that is those fraudulent voters show up at the polls they face 10 years in prison for voter fraud. So if none of the millions of fraudulently registered voters show up, there is no voter fraud.

Thus the whole ACORN issue is moot.

Misdirection #2

If you are against the war you are against the troops.

The only question I have is: Do you seriously believe that if we cut the funding for the war the troops will just be left in the dessert to die without food or ammo? Exactly. Cutting funding for the war will end the war. Not only will the troops not be left without ammo and armor, but they will come home to their families alive and not in a body bag.

Misdirection #3

Obama’s birth certificate? One would have to be extremely obtuse to suppose that the democratic party would take the risk of trying to place an unvetted candidate at the head of the party. Democrats are not stupid. Whoever thinks they are is out of his mind. His birth certificate is displayed on his website, forging such a document is a felony. Do you think that the Feds would not have taken him down already? Seriously.

Misdirection #4

Obama is a socialist.

So was FDR in that case. The whole New Deal was one big socialist party. And do you know what it did? It partially got us out of the Great Depression. Americans who call Obama a Communist have no idea what they are talking about. Most have never lived in a Communist country and do not have the slightest inkling of what it’s like.

We need a good healthy humanitarian dose of socialism. Universal healthcare for example. Why not? If you are a middle class American, making your $60k a year and having 2 kids, what if you lose your job and health insurance? What if your kid goes down with cancer and the treatment costs $1,000,000? Wouldn’t it be nice to know that you will not lose your house and have to declare bankruptcy so your kid could live? Wouldn’t it be nice?

How about feeding the 2 million starving children in the United States? When I heard this statistic I almost chocked. Here we are, the richest country in the world with starving children? Here we are spending $10 billion in Iraq and we have starving children right here in the USA. Doesn’t that sound strange?

Tell me? What’s wrong with paying more taxes so those that are less fortunate can have a better life? Or at least not starve? Not everyone can have an equal piece of the pie, but there should be a baseline. Because if there is no baseline, our prisons will keep filling up, the gap between the rich and the poor will grow, and one day one of those starving children will be robbing a store and catch you in a crossfire.

We are all responsible for the society we live in. That is why a flat tax is immoral. A 10% tax for someone making $30,000 is a bigger hit then for someone making $300,000. Ask yourself:
Is it easier to live on $27,000 or is it easier to live on $270,000? Hello?

Progressive taxes are not only moral, they are fair. The only question is how high should the upper bracket go? At what point does it become unfair to tax people in the upper bracket? At the end of the day, if you are making a lot of money, chances are you figured out how to work the system and should be rewarded for your efforts. But where should we stop? 30%? 40%?70%? 70% of $10 million is still $3 mil which is very nice. But I doubt it will get that high. Those who do not like it will find legal ways to avoid the high taxes, others will endure it.

Misdirection #5

If he is elected he will do this…

He can’t do anything without the Congress. We saw how the American people can act if they don’t like something: The bailout plan failed. That was the greatest testament to the fact that our democracy works and if the people want to be heard they are heard. Nothing in American happens without the will of the people. One man cannot change America without the implicit agreement of Congress and the American people. If Obama turns this country into the Netherlands, it will be because the American people want this. If we become a very socialist country, it will be because the American people want this. We are not living in Russia or Iran. Remember that.

Misdirection #6

Paraphrasing McCain:”No, He is not an Arab, he is a good descent human being”

As thought there are no descent human Arabs? Racist. We happen to buy most of our oil from them. Oops.

Misdirection #7

Drill baby Drill!

Even if we started drilling tonight, we would not have that oil for 10-20 years. How is that going to affect gas prices in the next year? It won’t. In fact, there is not enough oil to even take of a small edge from our energy thirst. But you know what? Someone is going to get very rich from that tiny amount of oil and I bet they will somehow be related to the current administration…

Misdirection #8

Bill Ayers, The Preacher, Khalidi

Not the most savory characters, but then again, Ayers quote of “Too bad we couldn’t do more” is an out of context bit. The people killed in his actions were mostly his own operatives, so he wasn’t that good. And finally, if he was such a horrific terrorist, why is he not in jail? The United States loves the concept of innocent until proven guilty, in theory. Ayers was never convicted, but he will never be innocent. Ther’s some justice for you.

The Preacher is just angry. McCain cheated on his wife multiple times, he’s also angry.

Khalidi is a Palestinian. God knows they have had their problems with Israel. Rabin shook hands with Arafat and won a Nobel peace prize for it. Maybe Obama will get one too.

Misdirection #9

Direct diplomacy.

Israel and Egypt have a peace treaty because a a high level official sat down with two factions that hated each other and negotiated a peace without preconditions.

“Speak softly but carry a big stick” paradigm has lately become, “Carry a huge axe and shout threats”. Direct diplomacy is the only way to talk down “rogue” states. You have to make them feel important, make them dependant on us to a degree where our words will really hurt, and then take care of them.

Whatever happened to the patron client relationship? I always wondered why the US wants everyone else to lay down Nuclear arms but has a fantastic arsenal of their own. Double standard anyone?

Why I vote for Democrats?

There are several reasons. I am not 100% democrat as some issues I am very right wing, so let’s see why I am voting for Obama, and Kerry, and Frank.

First, my right wing positions:



Immigration:

I’m 100% against illegal immigration. I am against issuing licenses to illegal immigrants, I am against providing healthcare, education, social services, and even prison beds to illegal immigrants. I am an immigrant myself. My family went through the legal immigration process, we waited for 10 years to get permission to come to the USA and when we came we did everything legally and because American citizens legally. It is an insult to me to give a pass to illegal immigrants. I don’t want to pay for them, I don’t want have their language be the language of instruction, I don’t want Spanish to become the second language of the US.

I think it is very natural to feel accomplishment and pride about coming to this country and to watch your parents through tremendous effort and sacrifice climb the latter of the American Dream. I think giving services and passes to people who come to this country illegally is an insult to the very spirit of American immigration history.

There is nothing bigoted or mean spirited about wanting to enforce the laws that the American people have passed about immigration. This is my huge split with some in the Democratic party and if this was my most serious issue I would vote against the Democrats.

Estate Tax:

It’s not fair. It should not be law. There is no reason to levy a 50% tax on money and property already taxed. This is a crazy idea and one that should never be enacted.

That’s about it… I’m sure there are some other ideas that I am a right winger but those come to mind first.

My Left Wing positions:

The issue that I am voting on is really the most important issue that no one will ever sway me on. This issue is close to me because I am a student of History and because I served in the US Armed forces for a short time.

The war in Iraq and Afghanistan must end. I don’t know if Obama will be able to end it in his term, but I know that McCain will never end it since he seeks victory and victory is impossible. I hope I am wrong, but everything in my being tells me that I am right. Either the neo-cons have accomplished their vision of an imperial USA dominating the Middle East for oil or 1000’s of years of history will overrun the American military.

No Western power has been able to hold on in the Middle East, nor has anyone ever conquered Afghanistan. The British tried to rule Iraq, Syria, and Egypt and the Russian tried to hold Afghanistan and they failed. They failed not for lack of trying but because these lands are not conquerable.

Do we really think we want to bring democracy to these countries? The only democracy in the Middle East is Israel and only because it has Western roots. The Arab elite look at democracy with horror as they perceive the Taliban for that is what Arab democracy will lead to.

Mark my words. As soon as the US pulls out of Iraq, a bloody and horrific civil war will break out. There is no way to avoid this civil war as Saddam had repressed ethnic hatreds for 30 years through brutal repression. If there is a lull it is only allow the Americans to leave with dignity before Iraq blows up. Syria will want a piece as will Iran and possible even the Saudi’s.

In Afghanistan, the Russian left after 10 years. They also built schools and modernized infrastructure. They attempted to bring woman rights and education and yet, all after they pulled out the country deteriorated into a horrific civil war that led to the rise of the Teliban and Al-Queda.

And at the bottom of each of these conflicts who do we find? USA staring at us. We supplied the Mujadeen in Afganistan to fight the proxy war against USSR and we supplied Saddam with his chemical weapons to use in the Iran –Iraq war which he later used on his own people. We are reaping the seeds we sowed in the cold war.

How to deal with terrorists? The same way Israel dealt with the murderers of the Munich 12. Find them, and bring them to justice or kill them. There must be surgical operational strikes with intelligence on the ground. It will take years, but if the Mossad and Shin Bet could do it, why can’t the CIA?

Hunting terrorists should be like hunting rabid dogs. The best of the best must be deployed after them and we must stop at nothing. No border, no sovereignty, no safe harbor or leniency. Not only will we deprive the terrorist ideologues of training battle fields in Iraq and Afghanistan, but they will know that we will come after them.

Terrorism is an affect sport. It aims to terrorize as many people as possible with relatively small acts of violence. By invading Iraq and Afghanistan we have played right into the ideological war of Bin Laden. We have lost over 35,000 Americans death and savage wounds in addition to the 3000 we lost on 9/11. Bin Laden has caused us almost 40,000 casualties! Yet 35,000 of those we have only ourselves to blame for not having a coherent anti terrorism strike plan.

We have blacked out the war. How many have heard of Section 60 in Arlington Nation Cemetery? Who really cares?
I care. And that is why I am against this bloodletting. We are not safer. We are missing 35,000 American soldiers who can no longer defend us. We are missing $1 trillion dollars that we can no longer pump into the economy to create new jobs. We are no longer the moral light on the hill.
The mothers and sons and brothers may put on a brave face and look in the camera for CNN and FOX and say how proud they are of their soldiers and proud they should be, but inside they are dying because no War, no Iraqi democracy, no Oil, and no Honor is worth the life of the son lost in combat or the leg torn off by an IED. No posthumous Medal of Honor will return the father who will never see his young child and no Victory will ever vindicate the loss of a brother or sister.
I can’t watch war movies were soldiers die anymore. It makes me shudder and cry, when the mother’s voice begins to break as she describes her 19 year old son killed in Iraq. I trained with these young Americans at Ft. Jackson and Ft. Knox, I know who they are. I know how loyal and brave these guys and gals are and to throw their lives away on a neo-con experiment is the greatest crime ever committed against the American people.
This war must end. It should never have started. Victory is meaningless when the price is so high.