At the end of every long weekday of fighting for what I believe in, I settle into my couch and punch in the DVR code for the Daily Show/Colbert Report on Comedy Central. I love this little defragging ritual very much, as it keeps me from completely going bananas over conventions in politics which already really bother me.
Monday night John Stewart invited our favorite former Governor of Arizona, Janet Napolitano, onto the Daily Show for a little softball Q&A about the H1N1 Pig Flu vaccine. John glazed over questions about the flu vaccines with leading questions he already answered negatively to the effect of, "There aren't microchips in the vaccines headed towards your brain..?" He let the DHS Secretary off almost completely when asked about tracking systems for the vaccines. Napolitano answered with little more than a head shake and safety blanket answer.
It's pretty much established policy on this blog that we are harsh critics of DHS/FEMA. However, if Stewart cowed down and played softball with Napolitano, I have to ask myself one question: what the hell would I have done if I were in the same situation? The Daily Show has a reputation for hot-seating everyone from Barack Obama to the President of the Council on Foreign Relations. However, none of those guys hold the elevated levels of sheer death & crazy that CNP/Pentagon vets possess or the tangible creep factor that say a long time iron horse veteran of CIA has or one Cheney's circle of close intelligence friends.
As a long time watcher of the Daily Show, the closest I have seen Stewart come to that level of spook factor is probably Secretary Janet Napolitano. I'll take 3 Rod Blagojevich's and one Bill Clinton to 1 Ollie North or 1 Dick Cheney for spook tolerances.
BUT ON THE OTHER HAND... he rather quickly brushed off any legitimate faults that one might find with the vaccines per his personal penchant for comedic hypochondria. He had an amazing opportunity to: delve into some of the problematic contents of the vaccines and the evolution of problems across the country with labor and employment policy, vaccination mandates, the fact that military personnel don't have the option to refuse the vaccines, or even cover what a real worst case scenario would look like in the event of a rediculously prolific spell of a seasonal flu, which is not especially deadly - just rediculously publicized.
My thought here though is that those questions could have easily been answered by someone from a National Center for Disease Control. So what was the point of having Napolitano on the show? Here's where it gets tricky, I think, for Stewart. Napolitano is not a medical expert. She's a National Security administrator. Homeland Security doesn't make anyone with civil liberties or medical reservations over the vaccines "feel safe". DHS is good, rather, at making US citizens feel surveilled and uncomfortable.
Even if no one asked me, I believe Napolitano's presence on the Daily Show was DHS spin to try to assure everyone of the "safety" of a medical shot which may not fundamentally be in their best interests. People are intuitive enough to understand that if you can't let medical doctors or practitioners perform their jobs without a strong American national security presence something is amiss.
So when given the opportunity to take the shot, we tell folks; don't take it. We do know it contains Thimerosal, a mercury derived product. We do know it can cause an incurable paralyzing neurological condition called Guillen Barre syndrome and the risk is listed as a potential side effect in current vaccines. We do know that medical staff are losing work over it. We do know that our leaders are more than a little panicked if we don't have an immunity for a little stomach flu. We do know that VeriChip worked dilligently on patenting internal microchips with a relationship to tracking & detecting flu viruses.We do knowtheir stock went up in close relationship for doing so.We know the H1N1 vaccines are administered via the nose to vaccinate for the flu.We also are aware of nanotechnology which performs that function.
So the hardball question Stewart didn't ask with extra-large gonads made from old cast iron skillets was: what's up with, among other things, the market for injectible microchips to track the flu viruses and who, if not CDC or FEMA, is buying?
Even if I could have asked for Stewart, he couldn't deal with the answers on National television. Even if Napolitano was the nicest, most truthful DHS Secretary in the whole wide world, it wouldn't remove the ensuing pantload that comes with getting that information out in front of millions of viewers on national television.
Nice try, John. I swear to God... I'll still watch the show.
No comments:
Post a Comment