The circus has started, the media whipped war fever is underway.

It’s almost inescapable—wafting through the drug store, the frenzied voice of radio DJs hyping the prospect of bombing which will be described the moment it happens so don’t touch that dial, the flow of idiocy on TV that pops up when the VCR is not yet on to play something sensible (Aaron Brown of CNN describing in detail the meaning of an Oval Office photograph as if he were describing a Polaroid of the Last Supper, only to be contradicted by his White House correspondent who says it was taken at an entirely different time with a completely other purpose, and then goes on to describe “riveting details” of the bombing’s beginning, how Our Lord Bush sayeth unto them the historic eloquent holy words, “Let’s go.” Jeez, whatever happened to Let’s roll? So 2001!)

In the meantime a couple of stories from the back pages: telephones in diplomatic offices in a European Union headquarters were bugged, and the U.S. is suspected. A similar charge was made concerning the offices of European officials at the UN.

And, that tape of Bin Laden that Colin Powell made so much of may be a fake. At least, Swiss audio experts cannot confirm that it is authentic. Brendan Koerner, a contributing editor of Wired, reports this as well as contextual evidence that suggests the tape is not authentic, including unusual mentions of U.S. officials Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Had to put yourselves in the story, didn't you guys?

Of course, the antennae on the alien heads of resident Paranoids here at American Samizat twitched immediately when Colin Powell announced the existence of this tape at the UN, and that it had been received at the A Jazeera satellite channel before Al Jazeera actually knew it received it.

But mitigating against it being an American-made fake is that the link it purported to establish between Osama and Iraq was unconvincing. Or considering the quality of disinformation coming from the U.S. and Britain up to now, maybe not.

Quote of the day

"Wilhelm II remains a poster child for all that is wrong with hereditary government. Vainglorious, desperately insecure, hugely ambitious, quick to take offense, ill-educated, boorish, narrow in his interests, knowledge and associations, the young Kaiser was both a patsy for those in his government and in his army who were gripped by the lust for power---and dangerous in his own right, as he dreamed of the glory that could be his as lord of a world-dominating state."
Thomas Levenson, of the monarch who launched the Great War
in Einstein in Berlin


HOMELAND SECURITY ALERT!

CODE BLEU! Homeland Security will now enforce certain provisions of the Homeland Security Act and monitor all VIDEO/DVD RENTAL stores for traitors and other malcontents who attempt to view any and all movies en francais, including dubbed and subtitled versions. The following films are on our terrorism don't-watch if you know what's good for you list. Innocents are hereby warned that said films may contain coded messages, with instructions to dissidents. These are the FORBIDDEN titles :

Grand Illusion Jean Renoir
J'Accuse Abel Gance
All Quiet on the Western Front (not actually French, but from a novel by a guy with a Frenchie kind of name, made by Hollywood dupes. Don't worry, we're watching them, too.)
Stolen Kisses and The Last Metro Francois Truffaut (disrespect to the military)
anything by Jean-Luc Godard (ditto)

Video stores are "requested" to sanitize other movies of objectionable references and/or francais for example, by eliminating the singing of a certain national anthem in Casablanca.

In addition, libraries will be monitored for so-called American citizens taking out books by Emile Zola, Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Andre Gide, Moliere, Jean Cocteau, Carolyn Forche, Erich Maria Remarque, and above all, Alexis de Tocqueville.

If we catch you reading these, we won't even have to read you your rights. (You don't have them anyway.)