KKKaren's Hungry For Flesh

She Has Risen!

The Bush administration signalled yesterday that it was stepping up its efforts to win hearts and minds in the Arab world, launching an international PR campaign to keep pace with an unprecedented attempt to influence domestic opinion.

After several years in which the Bush White House has surpassed all previous administrations in its efforts to build domestic support for its policies, the focus yesterday appeared to shift to the international stage, and an ambitious new programme of public diplomacy.

The New York Times reported that at least 20 federal agencies, from the defence department to the census bureau, had adopted the technique of distributing prepackaged reports and scripted interviews with Bush administration officials to television stations.

Many of the segments were broadcast as news without any acknowledgement from the broadcaster that they were government releases, and put on air in some of America's largest cities.

Congressional Democrats estimate that the government spent $254m on public relations contracts during its four-year term - nearly double the spending of the Clinton administration.

Karen Hughes, 48, an adviser to Mr Bush from his days as governor of Texas, played a crucial role over several years in crafting his domestic message. She gave up her White House job to return to Texas in 2002, citing family concerns, but was active in Mr Bush's re-election campaign.

In her latest reincarnation, she will be in charge of repairing America's tattered image in the Middle East, easing anger about the invasion of Iraq and dampening new fears raised by Washington's rhetoric against Syria and Iran.

The state department spent $685m (£356m) on public diplomacy last year, but critics say the department has failed to effectively counter the appeal of Islamist radicals in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.

Yesterday, the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, appeared to subscribe to that view, telling ABC television that she envisaged a far more ambitious programme.

"It is no secret that the US needs to revamp its public diplomacy role," she said, going on to speak approvingly of the propaganda efforts of the cold war, and the part played by broadcasters such as Radio Liberty. "It was not spin. It was getting people the truth," she said.

Didn't take her long to get sick of her family, did it?

Karen Hughes isn't going to be assuaging any concerns in The Middle East and it's patently absurd to swallow the Bush malAdministration's lie to the contrary.

Her return is about PR, alright - specifically, the vexing problem posed by fewer and fewer Americans remaining brainwashed on Bush's quagmire in Iraq. That's why they're so desperate to spin every development in the Middle East as Bush's "freedom on the march" shtick. Will she be effective? I guess that depends on how one defines "effective."

Bush, Inc., does have one thing going for it: Its co-conspirators. The same corporate news media which whipped Americans into a frenzy to invade Iraq - and condemned the doubters as traitors - are eager to have someone, anyone, get out there front and center to tell America how great everything's going. KKKaren's ugly mug will be hogging every TV camera between LA and NY; more often than not, her propaganda will go unchallenged, as planned. Everything's about marketing with this crew. Nevermind the fact your neighbors are coming home in flag-draped caskets. All that's missing is General Westmoreland telling us there's a light at the end of the tunnel.