Misinformed, uneducated Americans

I have a lovely neighbor across the street with whom I talk occasionally, usually when we are both outside tending to our gardens. She is a woman in her sixties, recently retired and caring for a husband who has begun to have disturbing neurological symptoms which aren't yet diagnosed. As my father sees a neurologist for his degenerative brain disease and as I am familiar with some of the neurologists in this geographical area, I asked who her husband was seeing. She gave me a name I didn't recognize, then said "He is a Muslim, but he seems like a good doctor though I can't understand him very well."

I acknowledged the second part of her statement, the difficulty understanding a foreign doctor, as my dad's doctor has a thick Chinese accent which always reminds me of the character Peter Sellers played in the movie Murder by Death.

What I didn't do, because it didn't connect at first, was ask her how she knew the doctor was a Muslim. As far as I know, most doctors don't advertise their religious affiliation, and I don't think most Muslim professionals do or say anything that would give that away. Did he drop down on a prayer rug while they were there? Did she spot a copy of the Koran in his office? Was his first name Mohammed?

What I think is that she made the same mistake a lot of Americans make when they don't know a lot about Islam or the Arab world. She confused being an Arab with being a Muslim. She may not realize that not all Arabs are Muslims, that many are in fact Christians, and others are atheists.

He may not have even been an Arab. He may have been Indian, or Pakistani, or some other nationality and she simply saw him as "Muslim." As to his religion, he could have been Hindu or Sikh.

I don't think my neighbor is unusual in her confusion regarding religion and nationality. I think more Americans are confused about this than are knowledgable, which is why it is so easy for opponents of Barack Obama to disseminate the lie that he is a Muslim. If all it takes for many Americans to believe someone is a Muslim is for that person to be dark skinned and/or have an unusual "Arab sounding" name, then Barack is an easy target.

I find it amazing that in this day, with the internet, hundreds of cable television channels, newspapers, radio, thousands of political books, and more people attending college than ever, that so many voters in this country still don't understand the difference between being an Arab and and being a Muslim, and don't know that not all Arabs are Muslims and not all Muslims are Arabs.

With such an uneducated populace, and FOX News and right wing radio working overtime to keep them misinformed, it will indeed be a miracle if Obama can overcome the smears and falsehoods, and actually become the next president.

A question for mothers

Here are a few questions every mother who also supports Hillary Clinton should ask:

If that infamous trip to Bosnia was as dangerous as Hillary Clinton claimed it was, and if she knew that ahead of time, as she claims she did, why on earth did she take her only child with her?

If there was indeed sniper fire as they landed, and sniper fire when they walked out onto the tarmac, why did she stop and greet an eight year old girl? Why did she not insist she and her daughter stay on the plane or return to the plane so that the pilot could fly them out immediately?

What kind of a mother takes her only child into a war zone and risks her life?

Is this good judgment?

If this is how Hillary treats her daughter, how will she treat the rest of us?

If this is an example of Hillary's honesty, what can we expect if she becomes president?

Big Brother emerges from retirement

Most of my friends on the left have re-read Orwell's 1984 within the last five years and have noted the many similarities between the fictional world of Big Brother and the real world of George W. Bush, especially in the distorted use of words and language. The three slogans of Oceana, the fictional country in which 1984 takes place ("freedom is slavery," "war is peace," "ignorance is strength"), remind us of some of the titles of legislation offered up by the Bush administration ("clear skies initiative," "no child left behind," etc) which mask the real purpose of the laws. It doesn't require too much stretching to see how the Bush administration, with its mastermind Karl Rove (who just might qualify as the modern embodiment of the mythical "Big Brother"), learned how to distort language in order to fool the public.

The Bush administration also has a long history of distorting facts, as in the infamous WMD rationale for the Iraq War. Again, the truth is the exact opposite of what the administration tried to claim. And again, like the mythical country Oceana, which would be at war one day with Eastasia, and then the next day with Eurasia, with all references to the war with Eastasia gone from the public record, the Bush administration went to war in Afghanistan one day, and a few months later was at war with Iraq, with references to Afghanistan all but gone from the news. Likewise, just as Oceana was involved in a perpetual war that bestowed unlimited power on its leader, so George W. Bush has begun a permanent "war on terror" which he insists gives him unprecedented powers.

However, the blatancy of the lying has gone one step further with the re-emergence of Rove from his recent "retirement." Now Bush's Brain is blatantly rewriting history, accusing the Democrats of being the ones pushing for war with Iraq in the year 2002, when they were in fact the ones trying to delay a vote even as Rove's boss was preparing for a war he was determined to wage, even without a Congressional vote. Peter Baker of the Washington Post does a good job of proving Rove a liar by quoting former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer and former Bush chief of staff Andrew Card. According to Baker, Card said Rove's "mouth sometimes gets ahead of his brain" and Fleisher asserted "It was definitely the Bush administration that set it in motion and determined the timing, not the Congress. I think Karl in this instance just has his facts wrong."

Now if we really were living in Orwell's 1984, Card and Fleischer, like Winston, the hero who rebelled against the mind control of Big Brother, would have their faces stuck in rats' cages to have their noses eaten off. But this is Bush country, 2007, and Rove cannot stop the news media and the Democrats from refuting his lies.

But it doesn't matter to Rove. He knows he doesn't have to use torture and thought police to be effective. In a country of couch potatoes and mindless consumers, and a media controlled by a few corporations who care more about profit than truth, all he has to do is get the lie out there, just like the Swift Boat ads, and he can create a stir. Even with a few reporters finally rebutting him, the lie is still there and some people will believe it.

Rove has always implemented a strategy of winning with narrow majorities. He doesn't have to discredit the Democrats with a large number of voters, he just has to fool or confuse enough people to allow his side to win. So he lies, the lie is spread on page one of the major papers, the media belatedly and unenthusiastically rebuts the story on page nine, and he has "catapulted the propaganda," as his great leader once said.

This has been the Rovian strategy for the past two presidential elections, and now that Rove no longer has an official job in Washington, he is free to make similar mischief in this election. And, so far, just as the citizens of Oceana were powerless to confront Big Brother, the Democrats do not have an effective strategy to fight him.

And that is very bad news for all of us.