Dont Look at me…

I got a call last night, and normally I don’t answer the house phone from numbers I don’t know, but I was feeling in an adventurous mood so I did.  It was a pollster.  Of all the people in the world to get a call from, I know right.  Of course I want to talk to them, so I put on my “nice” hat and start to answer their questions.  About four questions into it, something doesn’t seem right.  The multiple choice answers, although ambiguous at first, seemed to be leading.  As I answered, the questions and answers started to box me into answers that were not my actual views.  I could tell that they asked the first set of questions to find out if I was a supporter of Obama and the health care plan.  Once they had that information they used the a different set of questions to skew my answers, or should I say the choices of answers, in an unfavorable  way.  Almost making me out to be some sort of monster if I was to answer them.    Here is the question that set me into a frenzy on the poor pollster:   (Keep in mind this is the fourth question on health care, after they’ve determined that I’m a supporter of the current bill.)  —  Pollster : “Based on your current knowledge of the proposed health care bill, would you say you are – ‘in favor of’, ‘strongly in favor of’, ‘opposed to’, ‘strongly opposed to’, — senior citizens either loosing or having their Medicare benefits cut drastically?”

At that question, I lost it!  I immediately asked the pollster who was sponsoring the poll.  To which she said “I’m sorry I’m not at liberty to give you that information, moving on, would you say you are strongly opposed…”   I stopped her mid sentence and asked what company she worked for.  I don’t think she was listening because she said “sir your answers are very important to us and… “   I stopped her again and explained that the choices were misleading and could be used to throw the opinion poll.  Secondly why would my answers be important to “them” unless they had some sort of stake in the poll?  I asked again who she worked for, at this point she must have been flustered because she said “I’m not at liberty to give you that answer, so may we continue…”  I said “NOPE” and hung up.  I’m sure she realized later, that she was very much at liberty to tell me who she worked for, and it was probably their policy to do so.  The direct company, if not the sponsor of the poll, anyway.

But this whole thing raises some questions.  How many people out there were taken for a ride and at the end, were left with a feeling of  “I don’t think those answers were right?”  It’s not a fair practice to purposely sway polls to get them to say whatever you want.  I mean really, what kind of person would say that they are in favor of senior citizens loosing their Medicare benefits?  None that I know.  In this case the poll could very well have come out to say “Even supporters of Obama, say they are opposed to the proposed health care bill.”  And if you put a Conservative spin on the poll, you could get it to say  “Millions of Americans refuse to support Obama’s euthanasia style health care bill”.  Don’t laugh, I fully expect to see that thrown out there.  The conservative right are some evil mothers.  As long as we are paying attention, we can avoid pitfalls like this one.

First, I’d just like to cite this article in The New York Times, and add a few corrections, and notations.  I beg you to read the entire article.

(1). As I’ve stated before many times, lets get the facts straight.  The Taliban deemed the growing and selling of opium as a sin against their religion.  Before the war they had squashed the opium production in Afghanistan to almost non-existence.  This had happened after a fallout with the US government (for info on that, please read some of my posts from March 2008.) over an oil pipeline.

NOTE:  It is my belief that this dispute was over who was to control the pipeline, the local warlords, where the pipeline was to be laid, or the Taliban.  As Osama bin Laden was more closely tied to the Taliban, this was the cause of the rift between he and the CIA, who he worked for at the time.  The dispute over the pipeline splits the Afghan factions and the Taliban eventually takes control.  No pipeline was built until years later, only after our “second” occupation and the consequential ousting of the Taliban.

(2).  Ahmed Wali Karzai’s indisputable connection to the CIA, sheds some more light on a situation that is already on fire.  CIA funding and training of his personal paramilitary death squad, assures him the opportunity to seize opium farms that the CIA deem “uncooperative”.  Karzai is essentially the reigning war/drug lord in Afghanistan, and the CIA has no intention of seeing that cash cow dry up.  The CIA spins it as a Taliban opium farm, the DEA confirms it, Karzai’s paramilitary force (of thugs) moves in, arrests (but usually kills) the warlord responsible for it, and then Karzai takes control of it.  The money flows, and everyone is happy again.

This is not rocket science people.  The information is out there.

First, that’s a great band name.

But seriously folks… The lies coming out of the news media these days, makes me sick.  The right wing conservatives were back in full propaganda mode again, spreading lies and kicking little babies in the face.  Okay, they weren’t kicking babies in the face (that I know of ) but they were spitting in the face of everyone with a brain.  Unfortunately there aren’t too many people in the United States that have a brain, so things like this go unnoticed and unchallenged.

Here’s what the masses of asses have been saying.  According to Rush, and those predators over at FOX,  the Taliban is growing Opium, and responsible for the recent surge in opium production. 

Here’s the Facts people.   According to our own state department,  by early 2001 the Taliban had all but eliminated all production of opium, due to a ban on opium, by the leaders of the religious group.   

That’s from our own state department, and was followed up and confirmed by a 12 member U.N. drug control team, that went to Afghanistan.  Those are the facts!

Here’s what I find so interesting.  Has anyone else found it odd that every time we enter Afghanistan, the production of opium skyrockets?  And does anyone else other than me find it odd that the very minute we lost our grip, and lost favor with the Taliban, the production of opium came to a halt?   Why exactly are we in Afghanistan?

Here’s a thought.  What if the Taliban and the consequential terrorist organizations that came out of the area, were attacking us because they were fighting for their very survival?  What if they were trying to fight against a country that had been using them to produce a drug (that they would use against their own people) to supply 75% of the worlds opium, and that was also being used to enslave over 20% of the Afghan population as addicts.  Who wouldn’t fight back?

Don’t get me wrong,  911 was a tragic day in our history, and preformed by the lowest form of humanity.  Of that, I am sure.   But, our greatest teacher is our own history.  If we truly want to prevent events like 911, we need to find out what created the situation that would cultivate such hatred toward us.