Astroturf movements and blog comments

A comment left by someone on the 12th for my post about the recent Blackwater legal maneuver seemed a bit odd to me. After searching a bit I found the identical comment posted on three different blogs that were commenting on this story. While I can understand the desire to post a comment on a subject that you feel strongly about, the overall tone and attempt to redirect attention away from Blackwater and into “ambulance chaser” hatred didn’t sit right with me. While I only did a quick search for similar comments on blogs, finding 3 identical comments in only a minute from a loose search query makes me wonder if the anonymous poster of the comment (using the name “scar’d” in the other postings) has a dog in this fight, so to speak.

Astroturf movements get started in similar ways as this and viral advertising gets spread in a similar manner as well. Individuals with an agenda to spread an idea with ulterior motives do tend to seek out open comment sites such as message boards and blog comments. While I can’t say with certainty that the poster is an agent tasked with seeding this idea their action fits the mold. Is this comment poster hitting other blogs and message boards with this same message in an attempt to sway attention away from the direction of the Blackwater suit and stir anti-lawyer sentiment as the means of distracting us from the subject?

For your own thoughts here are links to the comment posted here at my blog as well as the other three blogs.

Blackwater gets serious

There has been quite a bit of discussion going on at various blogs and alternative news sites over the past few days regarding the lawsuit by Blackwater Security Consulting against the families of the 4 Blackwater contractors who were killed in Fallujah in 2004 in a now infamous attack. The background and shadowy details of Blackwater and it’s right-wing extremist president, Erik Prince, has been garnering more and more attention of late with books being published about him and this private army, as well as the troubling rise of contractors in Iraq. I’ve posted briefly about Prince in an earlier post but to get a more well rounded set of information about him I strongly advise the reader to spend some time Googling his name.

One of the most worrisome aspects of this lawsuit against the families is the effect it could have on other families who may wish to sue Blackwater in the future if their loved ones meet their demise in Iraq or elsewhere in the world. It could also have a chilling effect on any potential Government investigations into their work in the “War on Terror”. Among the attorneys who are pursuing the lawsuit against the families are Fred Fielding (current counsel to President Bush), Joseph Schmitz (former Inspector General of the Pentagon), Kenneth Starr (of the infamous Starr investigation of President Clinton) and Cofer Black (former Director of the CIA Counter Terrorism Center).

What Blackwater has done in retaining these lawyers in this case is troubling when you consider their connections to the upper echelons of the recent power structure in Washington. Fielding’s involvement is quite troubling as his presence creates a direct pipeline of information between the President, Rove, Cheney and Blackwater. Attorney/Client privilege is supposed to prevent information from leaking out of cases like this but do we really believe that these people care about the law and privacy? One thing about those who wield true power in this country is that they do not view the laws of this nation as something that applies to them.

The last thing Blackwater needs is to have it’s inner workings exposed before the American public, especially in a case that would generate public sympathy for the families of the deceased contractors. In fact, a full disclosure of the inner workings of Blackwater is what this nation needs. We need to wake up to the dangers presented by a rogue, private army being led by a far right-wing extremist that is being supported by extremist ideologues within our own Government.

FEMA says it is ready for hurricane season, residents say they aren't.

A recent poll discovered that 88% of the respondents who live in hurricane prone areas said that they have taken absolutely no steps to fortify their home, 61% have no hurricane survival kit and 16% said they would defy orders to evacuate to safety.

There has always been a certain amount of individualism that has caused folks to ride out storms they should run from. I saw that in the 4 years I lived on the gulf coast when I was in the Navy. We used to go to sea and ride the storms out, the locals just bought beer and drank it out. But in light of the government’s indifference and stories that have come out of Katrina, I can’t help but wonder if resignation is more of a cause to these poll findings than anyone is thinking right now.

At the height of the Katrina disaster I became quite calm. The cause was a sudden realization that we really are on our own from now on. Before Katrina, we could at least expect food shipments and the FEMA adjusters making their way to the scene to get financial assistance going for the victims so they could begin to rebuild their lives. With Katrina we saw an overt apathy, our government shrugging it’s shoulders and wiping it’s hands. The folks who live in hurricane prone areas saw this too and I can't help but wonder how many of them thought the same thing as well.

This is the way of the future. Let the poor suffer and die, let the wealthy take care of themselves, and when a mass of death rains down onto a concentrated area it’s to be considered a cleansing of souls. Let the weakest die and the fittest survive. When I saw the government’s inaction instead of becoming angry, I became calm because for the first time in my life I realized all those stories we conspiracy theorists have read for years about depopulation were true.

It’s a stunning feeling when theories you didn’t put credence into suddenly become true. Life changing epiphanies are made from even smaller events and this one illuminated (pardon the pun) many conspiracy theories that I had brushed aside for years. I try to be much more cautious and thoughtful before I dismiss a new theory or take a second look at an old theory because of this experience.

So, pardon me if I am a bit underwhelmed when I read that FEMA has announced that they are ready for the hurricane season. Now I wonder when they say ready if it means they have Blackwater on call, know how to more readily cause a media blackout and how to make the celebration of death a less than public affair.

We are all on our own, folks. Remember that.

Other blogs - Blackwater USA - Who's Private Idaho?

Relatively little media attention has been paid to the emergence of the Blackwater USA paramilitary group, but a recent posting at DailyKos provides an excellent overview to this group, it’s founder and it’s mission.

What is more troubling; the lack of oversight regarding the war profiteering money grab made by Blackwater owner Erik Price, or the fact that a billionaire extremist has his own private army complete with it’s own private air fleet?