MEME Busting - The Art Of Cultural Truth In Narrative

The "Arab Spring" of 2010-11 — however bitter or sweet its fruits may grow in the fullness of time — didn't just happen. Bill Whittle makes a powerful case for GWB's foreign policy as a major catalyst in his latest YouTube sensation, "Memebusters! The Osama bin Laden Edition," where he asks "Why are all these Muslims in repressive regimes suddenly rising up for freedom and the right to vote? Why now, all of a sudden? That's why," he answers, pointing to the iconic image of a triumphant Iraqi woman who had just voted for the first time in her life in the wake of Operation Iraqi Freedom. Caption Credit: SISU | Image Credit: Declaration Entertainment

MEME Busting - The Art Of Cultural Truth In Narrative

In the biological world, genes carry hereditary information, whereas, in the human communications world, MEMES carry cultural information.

If one were to rely on only getting their information from the news narratives we receive from large media broadcast and political organizations, we run the risk of living live through the lens of a distorted cultural truth versus a narrative focused on facts.

Take, for example, the MEME of "Mission Accomplished" and how it is being used to translate success and/or failure in our cultural landscape.

This excerpted and edited from Declaration Entertainment -

FIREWALL: Memebusters! The Osama Bin Laden Edition
By Bill Whittle

We used to have an immune system -- called the "press" -- that caught errors. Now the "press" generates most of the falsehoods themselves.

Memes are cultural beliefs that were not taught in school or in religion but that take on a life of their own because large numbers of people have emotional reasons for wanting them to be true …
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My joy about hearing about the death of Osama bin Laden lasted for about 20 seconds until I turned on the TV to see Andrea Mitchell crowing about how this really was "Mission Accomplished," not the premature "Mission Accomplished" that Cowboy George Bush claimed during his speech on that aircraft carrier, which happened, coincidentally, eight years earlier to the day …
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Only George Bush didn't claim "Mission Accomplished." In fact he said just the opposite.

So, where did this meme come from?

Well, the press made it up out of whole cloth. They not only distorted, they actually reversed everything that George Bush said on the deck of that aircraft carrier …

The Middle East before the 9/11 terror attacks. At this time, UBL was building a palace in Afghanistan from which he would be able to rule the Islamic caliphate he was working to establish. Image Credit: Declaration Entertainment

The Middle East after Bush's actions taken in response to the 9/11 terror attacks. Image Credit: Declaration Entertainment
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Now that day on the carrier, President Bush didn't say "Mission Accomplished," but he did say this:

"The advance of freedom is the surest strategy to undermine the appeal of terror in the world … Where freedom takes hold, hatred gives way to hope … When freedom takes hold, men and women turn to the peaceful pursuit of a better life … American values and American interests lead in the same direction: We stand for human liberty."
[Reference Here]

Where does all of this leave our current administration, the 44th Presidency of the United States? It is left to try and dismantle the good work previous generations had put in place in the name of Liberty with the allies in the United States press ... while reaping some of the benefits. UBL is dead, and is still dead, because of the larger strategy the 43rd Presidency had the foresight to put into play. Iraqi's can vote and express their human liberty our military and its strategy left behind.

The uprisings in Egypt, Yemen, Syria, and even Libya are actions that have been brought about because people can see what one country, with a similar demographic can do. The biggest problem with these developments lay in the fact there remains the risk that the desires of the people in the streets will be hijacked through jihad control freaks and, of course, the MEME agenda of the press ... led by Al Jazeera, and aided by our own administration through the lack of strategy used by the 44th Presidency ... Carter's Second Term!

Google's Blogger Down For Over 24 Hours!

Blogger Logo - Image Credit: Blogger.com

Google's Blogger Down For Over 24 Hours!

Blogger ... Google's web log hosting portal, has been down for a full 24 hours at the time of this posting.

This seems like a modern era record for this usually very reliable communications service and personal publishing arm of the giant search powerhouse, Google.

With all of the push Google has been putting in on Chrome, one has to ask - Is Blogger now becoming just an ugly stepchild to the array of focused services that Google has to offer? What - isn't Blogger sexy enough for Google to keep outages down to a minimum?

If this is the case, Google's shine is losing its luster.

This excerpted from Blogger's Status Link:

Push-Button Publishing

Blogger Status

Friday, May 13, 2011

We’ve started restoring the posts that were temporarily removed and expect Blogger to be back to normal soon.

Posted by at 06:07 PDT

To get Blogger back to normal, all posts since 7:37am PDT on Weds, 5/11 have been temporarily removed. We expect everything to be back to normal soon. Sorry for the delay.

Posted by at 04:25 PDT

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UPDATE May 13, 2011 - 9:50am PT:

Blogger back online after nearly 30 hours of non-service.

Thanks, Google ... but we will be keeping an eye on you.

One Week Later ... UBL Is Still Dead!

Last known image of UBL just after Seal team #6 visits his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Image Credit Edmund Jenks (2011)

One Week Later ... UBL Is Still Dead!

... but the information he left behind lives on.

Also, the Obama Administration believes it is O.K. to Kill bin Laden ... just don’t Waterboard him as discovered by Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday.

UBL is still dead but the President still insists on broadcasting every small detail of HIS involvement (why, is HE this insecure?) ... while HE should be dealing with all of this.

The Sad Blow-By-Blow Of Obama WH Storytelling On UBL

The White House has said that the story changes because of the "Fog of War". How about the "fog of insecurity" - maybe what we are really witnessing is the "fog of Alinsky". Image Credit: Daily Mail (2009)

The Sad Blow-By-Blow Of Obama WH Storytelling On UBL

Here in Carter's Second Term, we are beginning to learn that this 44th Presidency of Barack Obama has nothing on the 39th Presidency of Jimmy Carter when it comes to getting a story straight.

In the Carter era, we were used to hearing a change of the narrative in a story (or correction) maybe once or twice. Here in the Obama edition of Carter's Second Term it is not uncommon to hear at least two or more corrections on the information communicated to us down in the lowly masses and that is just the way it is - take it or leave it. The problem with this is we live here, we know that credibility relates directly to the accuracy of what one communicates, and having to correct one's account of a situation, often, over a period time, is never good.

Employment numbers are commonly corrected at least twice, usually to a more negative direction (as reported today, we are now back at 9% up from 8.8% ... expect this to be adjusted upward a tenth or two in a couple of weeks).

The reporting on what is in the new healthcare law - ObamaCare - gets to the point where the only thing that this law doesn't effect is the daily outside temperature and that is only because one can not control the forces of nature or God ... unless, of course, you belong to one of this Administration's favored companies.

The President was consistent on stating that under this new healthcare law, we would be able to keep our Doctor and current healthcare plan. Yet, over this last year the law has been in effect, over 1,000 institution exemptions/waivers have been issued in order for some to have this statement remain true ... temporally.

It is great that Barack Obama and his administration acted and killed Usama bin Laden (UBL) but, again, what can anyone trust in regards to the truthfulness of the account of what happened May 1, 2011. Here is what we know that has been said by this 44th Presidency of Barack Obama during Carter's Second Term.

Obama as his motorcade navigates through the fog. Image Credit: Daily Mail (2009)

This excerpted and edited from Michelle Malkin's Facebook Posting -

The Fog of Fog
by Michelle Malkin on Friday, May 6, 2011 at 5:36am

Take One: Bin Laden died in a bloody firefight.

On Sunday night, Obama dramatically told the world that “after a firefight,” our brave men in uniform “killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body.”

Embellishing the story the next morning, White House deputy national security adviser John Brennan said at his briefing that bin Laden “was engaged in a firefight with those that entered the area of the house he was in. … And whether or not he got off any rounds, I quite frankly don’t know. … It was a firefight. He, therefore, was killed in that firefight.”

Take Two: Bin Laden did not engage in a firefight.

The day after Brennan disclosed such vivid details, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney walked them back Michael Jackson-style. Bin Laden, he said in version 2.0, “was not armed.” Brennan had clearly implied that bin Laden “resisted” with arms. Carney amended the narrative by insisting that “resistance does not require a firearm.” How exactly bin Laden resisted, Carney would not say.

It’s been all downhill, uphill, K-turns and 180s ever since. Fasten your seatbelts:

Take Three: Bin Laden’s wife died after her feckless husband used her as a human shield.

Take Four: Bin Laden’s wife did not die, wasn’t used as a human shield and was only shot in the leg. Someone else’s wife was killed, somewhere else in the house.

Take Five: A transport helicopter experienced “mechanical failure” and was forced to make a hard landing during the mission.

Take Six: A top-secret helicopter clipped the bin Laden compound wall, crashed and was purposely exploded after the mission to prevent our enemies from learning more about it.

Take Seven: The bin Laden photos would be released to the world as proof positive of his death.

Take Eight: The bin Laden photos would not be released to the world because no one needs proof and it’s more important to avoid offending peaceful Muslims who supposedly don’t embrace bin Laden as a “true” Muslim in the first place.

Take Nine: Bin Laden’s compound was a lavish mansion.

Take Ten: Bin Laden’s compound was a glorified pigsty.

Take Eleven: Bin Laden’s compound had absolutely no television, phone or computer access.

Take Twelve: Bin Laden’s compound was stocked with hard drives, thumb drives, DVDs and computers galore.

Take Thirteen: Er, remember that statement about bin Laden being armed? And then not armed? Well, the new version is that he had an AK-47 “nearby.”

Take Fourteen: A gung-ho Obama spearheaded the “gutsy” mission.

Take Fifteen: A reluctant Obama dithered for 16 hours before being persuaded by CIA Director Leon Panetta.

Take Sixteen: Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and close advisers watched the raid unfold in real time — “minute by minute,” according to Carney — and a gripping insider photo was posted immediately by the White House on the Flickr picture-sharing website for all to see.

Take Seventeen: Er, they weren’t really watching real-time video “minute by minute” because there was at least nearly a half-hour that they “didn’t know just exactly what was going on,” Panetta clarified. Or rather, un-clarified.

Take Eighteen: Stalwart Obama’s order was to kill, not capture, bin Laden.

Take Nineteen: Sensitive Obama’s order was to kill (SET ITAL) or (END ITAL) capture — and that’s why the SEAL team gave him a chance to surrender, upon which he resisted with arms, or actually didn’t resist with arms, but sort of resisted without arms, except there was an AK-47 nearby, sort of, or maybe not, thus making it possible to assert that while Decisive Obama did tell the SEALs to kill bin Laden and should claim all credit for doing so, Progressive Obama can also be absolved by bleeding hearts because of the painstakingly concocted post facto possibility that bin Laden somehow threatened our military — telepathically or something — before being taken out.

Take Twenty: “We’ve been as forthcoming with facts as we can be,” said an irritated Carney on Wednesday.

And they wonder why Americans of all political stripes think they’re blowing smoke.
[Reference Here]

How about the "fog of insecurity" - we could only wish this crowd children acting in adult roles would get their act level up to "Bush League"! Maybe what we are witnessing is the "fog of Alinsky".

The truth has a funny way of bubbling to the surface. How many times has the story changed and why can't this 44th Presidency get its story straight? On this issue it doesn't matter because UBL is STILL dead and not an intelligence node (but we got his thumb and hard drives - best of both worlds) or a terror threat here in Carter's Second Term.