Conservatives: Osama Bin Laden’s favorite Americans?

This video is from Thom Hartmann’s show that took place on January 6, 2010.

Thom makes the point that, with his nationally televised address to the nation on July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter set America on a course towards ending its dependency on foreign oil. Thom adds that this country was just a year away from ending the importation of oil from the Persian Gulf.

What type of world would we be living in today if that effort had been successful? Unfortunately we will never know. And why is that? Because Ronald Reagan came into office the following year and the big money that came from oil compelled him to rollback Carter’s energy policy and send this country down a path that is costing human beings their lives and the American taxpayer massive amounts of money to this very day. 

As Hartmann succinctly points out, Reagan’s policy made this country more dependent on Mideast oil, dictating an American presence in the Middle East that led to the emergence of Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda as social and political forces in the Middle East.

Notice that Thom’s guest- Dinesh D’Souza, former policy analyst for Ronald Reagan- tried to make the argument that America was only interested in establishing “stability” in the Middle East, which Hartmann easily shot down with some history points, particularly the U.S. government’s involvement in overthrowing the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953. This took place not long after Iran’s Prime Minister (Mohammad Mosaddegh) decided to kick American oil companies out of the country and exclusively control and benefit from the resources of their own land. 

Bin Laden’s stated goal is to “bankrupt America,” which he is pretty much succeeding in doing in collaboration with conservative and corporate profit-driven forces in this country. If Bin Laden is astute enough to recognize how easily these forces can be manipulated to the detriment of American citizens, then it’s imperative that we become even more astute…

The Cigar Guy Am I

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that we are living in a world where 15 minutes of fame can easily be forced upon us, whether we want it or not, whether we like it or not. The recent web craze of trying to figure out who the “Cigar Guy” was in the crowd at the Ryder Cup tournament is just the latest incident to drive this point home in a frightening manner.

I say that it’s frightening because, while there are those who crave attention no matter what the cost (choose any reality tv show), there are many of us who would rather not be exposed to viral fame.

It’s gotten to the point where you can be out anywhere, minding your business, acting goofy and having fun, or doing the most mundane and boring thing imaginable, and wind up having your image Photoshopped all over the globe, onto images that you might not want to be associated with. How crazy is that?

Sure, fame might appear to be fun from afar, but when it comes knocking on your door unexpectantly, it could turn out to be a totally different animal. Just ask Steven Holmes.

That’s the 19-year-old kid living in England whose life was turned upside down when megastar rapper Kanye West decided to follow him on Twitter, calling Steven “The Chosen One,” because he would be the only person that Kanye would follow.

It was a megathrill for Steven…for a few moments. You know what they say about fame, how fleeting it can be? Well, in this case the script was flipped: Steven fled from fame. Once it got out that Steven was Kanye’s only Twitter pal, Steven was overwhelmed by requests for interviews from the media and constantly hounded by his old and newfound Twitter pals, desperate to touch the hem of Steven’s viral garment. Steven wanted no part of the fame, saying that it was “vacuous,” and that “not everybody wants to be famous.”

You can also ask Steve Bartman about how it feels to catch a case of viral fame. If you can find him. Back in 2003 Steve made the mistake of trying to catch a foul ball at a playoff game between the Chicago Cubs and the Florida Marlins. At the time it happened there was a widely held view that he prevented the Cubs outfielder- Moises Alou- from catching the ball to get the batter out.

When that didn’t happen and the Cubs went on to lose the game, Steve was basically blamed for extending the curse on the Cubs that has prevented them from winning a World Series in over 100 years.

The next day Steve’s name and face were all over the place. He became the most reviled and despicable human being to ever walk the earth. It was astonishing. (If the U.S. government really wanted to find Osama Bin Laden, they should have enlisted the most rabid Cub fans to search for him during that time period, telling them that Steve and Osama plotted the Cubs playoff collapse. There wouldn’t be any talk of Bin Laden today.)

But seriously, going after a foul ball at a baseball game turned out to be a life-altering moment for Steve Bartman, in a very bad way.

During a segment of the NBC Today Show devoted to the Cigar Guy craze (Wow), the Cigar Guy- now identified as a London investment analyst named Rupesh Shingadia- was quoted as saying that he was “embarrassed and overwhelmed” by all of the attention he was receiving.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Steve Bartman was sitting somewhere saying to himself, “Really? You have no idea…”