It Takes a Village - Of Hamsters

Why anyone believes pollsters is beyond me. CNN's latest poll "suggests support among Americans for the war in Iraq is dwindling to an all-time low. Just 34 percent of those polled say they support the war, while 64 percent say they oppose it." Note - every poll this year has been at "an all-time low." We should be in the negative numbers by now folks.

I'd say that 34 percent is and has been the same support since day 1. The current wars never had more than a third of the country's support. The "media" is just now getting around to perhaps publishing a truthful, albeit 3 years late, poll.

That one-third of Americans would support what the US is doing in the Middle East is a sad commentary of American stupid, and as the comic said 'you can't fix stupid.'

In the few weeks after the start of Iraqmire the 34% knuckle draggers thought we'd kick ass and be home by the fourth of July 2003. Today, the same low forehead set is disappointed the US wasn't an instant winner - they would support the nuke'em back to stoneage method.

The latest polling reflects the media coverage of dear boy leader Bush. From the haloed war president in the news Bush became the duped bumbler surrounded by manipulators. The monkey-hear monkey-repeat public will say they no longer support the war on Iraq simply because a few minutes of daily propaganda, found while channel surfing, handed them the opinion with a Bush lied talking point. A week of pro-war media and warm story fuzzies and a large number would reverse that opinion. Again.

One-third of the public supports empire at any cost, usually labeled republicans, conservatives, rightwing. One-third, known as liberal, progressive, or leftwing, also support maintaining the American way of life but in a manner less obvious. Kill 'em with sanctions, or labor markets and manufacturing, or as a last resort call it peacekeeping. You might say two-thirds of the public support the American way of life by any means necessary; some just prefer the death toll looks pretty, or moral, as in a "legal" war.

(All wars are devised by the ruling classes. All wars are immoral and illegal. All wars could be prevented if that were the preference of the ruling class.)

The remaining 33 percent I divide as approximately 23 percent who don't give a shit at all about what goes on around them, and 10 percent who know the game is so rigged the only thing one can do is self-protect and wait for the collapse (probably not in my lifetime) but this is the group in which I hold membership.

I call them the 10 Percenters, lonelier than the Maytag repairman. I once thought this group at 15 percent but have since revised downward. The internet, while connecting individuals to others of like mind, has also highlighted that realists are far fewer than once thought.

(Note: My numbers have a sampling error of 0-100% plus or minus.)

Regardless a person's IQ, education, or class there are compatible mouthpieces. PhD intellectuals and experts. Imus and Limbaugh and Franken. Horowitz and Chomsky. Socrates and Meletus. Celebrities and Generals. For every Michelle Malkin there's a Molly Ivins. Heroes and bad guys for both sides; even Bob Woodward type guys who work for both sides. And some guys who change sides – almost always epiphanic old men who secured their fortunes pre-epiphany, and having safely trust-funded to heirs the bulk of said fortune, with one foot nearing retirement and the other foot in a nursing home they become, apparently, kinder and gentler men.

And all the while Big Money is on the move - linking to other Big Money and the hidden State. As the village pep clubs cheer for red or blue or whatever color offered - the small global ruling class link arms, knowing the masses are spinning on the hamster wheel, running faster and faster, going nowhere.