It's Product Rollout Time
Only This Time We Ain't Buying

By: Alan Bisbort

"Things and actions are what they are, and the consequences of them will be what they will be; why, then, should we desire to be deceived?"

- Bishop Joseph Butler (1692-1752)

Ah, for the innocent days of last September! You will recall it was one year ago that White House chief of staff Andrew Card said: "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August." Card was not referring to some innocuous national - or empire-wide - book circle presided over by Laura Bush or a pretzel-eating contest/fund-raiser hosted by the Commander-in-Chief.

No, Card was talking about the sales campaign that began last September for the war we are currently enjoying in Iraq and may soon be seeing in Iran and Syria. You will recall it was then - with the willing participation of our nation's media, most notably Judith Miller of the New York Times - that we began to be hammered, from all sides, about Saddam's nuclear capability, about his weapons of mass destruction, about his alleged ties to the Sept. 11 attacks, and so forth. All very ominous, all accompanied by multi-hued terror alerts.

It was, like most product rollout campaigns, predicated on exaggerations and outright lies. And since then, we've ended up with more blood on our national hands than we've had since the Vietnam War. To date, more than 6,000 Iraqi civilians and nearly 300 American soldiers have died in the conflict, more than half of those since May 1.

Much has changed since last year's product rollout. First of all, as the second anniversary of Sept. 11 looms, we're no closer to knowing the truth about that attack on American civilians as we were on Sept. 12, 2001. Oh, we pretty much know who's responsible, but our interim President and his minions have killed the investigation and ignored the pleas of next of kin, and what we've been given is 28 blank pages of information related to Saudi Arabia. So, it is not a report. It is an insult to the people who want to know why their friends and family were incinerated. Not to mention, a colossal waste of taxpayer money.

Secondly, Bush's "invincibility" has been proven false, with poll after poll indicating a majority of Americans do not want him elected in 2004 (and yet, the American media will continue to flog the lie that he's a popular wartime President).

Third, there's not much in the way of product left to roll out that will halt the gaping hole that sits in the middle of Bush White House credibility. Even former supporters are realizing that this man is, as Michael Moore put it in his Oscar acceptance speech, "a fictitious President" who sends "us to war for fictitious reasons".

So, what can we expect in this year's rollout? Something violent, for sure. Something vicious, most likely, perhaps a National Homeland Security Department-generated Internet bug that gobbles up anti-Bush sites. Something fake and big and monosyllabic. Something easy to pronounce, easy to remember, involving duct tape and plastic sheeting, or axes of evil or bringin' 'em on.

Nothing, however, can hide the largest federal budget deficit in American history, a crumbling economy, a vanishing middle class, loss of jobs, corporate corruption, and environmental degradation on a scale never before seen, body bags returning from Iraq, weeping mothers, angry New York City residents wondering why they were lied to about the health-damaging air they've been breathing since 9/11, instability of Social Security, the giveaways to the rich while the rest of us scuffle to try to make ends meet, and - the coupe de grace - the largest spike in gas prices since cars were invented (one of the myths that was floated for the Iraq war was that we'd be swimming in cheap oil).

As a former U.S. Army intelligence officer told me: "Last year's fabricated September product was 'justification' for a pre-emptive war against Iraq. This year's fabricated September product will be that CIA man David Kay and his assistants will 'find' WMD. Well, if you want to keep a sailing ship afloat and on course, you have to keep it properly rigged."

Feeling pissed and powerless? Come air it out with kindred spirits at the "Hope Out Loud" festival in Bushnell Park this Sunday, Sept. 7. It features speakers, music, satire, and people of goodwill. And, as if to fan the flames of deja vu, a "celebration of Phil Ochs music" will be held at 4:30. As Phil may have put it, were he alive: "Here's to the nation you've torn out the heart of / Richard Cheney, find yourself another country to be part of."