by B. R. GOWANI
Clockwise from top left: General David Petraeus with his girlfriend Paula Broadwell, General John Allen, Petraeus with his wife Holly, and socialite Jill Kelley. PHOTO/Daily Telegraph
The anonymous shirtless FBI agent in the above chart is Frederick Humphries II, according to New York Times. FLOW CHART/Gawker/Capitol Confidential
The presidential election in the US consumes the most time and are the most expensive anywhere in the world. Additionally, they stress out the public and the candidates–it’s a traumatic experience. In this situation, the news media, which is mainly responsible for creating this trauma by constantly polling and reporting on elections–the elections which never improves things drastically–also plays the role of a trauma reliever by reporting scandalous stories.
Two such stories are: Generals’ scandal and Romney’s idiocy
Generals’ scandal
Paula Broadwell (an author, she co-authored, with Vernon Loeb, All In: The Education of General David Petraeus, an anti-terrorism professional, and a PhD student) and the CIA Director General David Petraeus fell in love. But there was another woman, Jill Kelley (a socialite and volunteer social liaison to MacDill Air Force Base) who was also interested in Petraeus. Kelly was also friendly with General John Allen, the US commander in Afghanistan. Kelley and Allen had, between 2010 and 2012, exchanged emails amounting to about 20,000 to 30,000 pages of “inappropriate communication,” according to the Pentagon. In May, Allen was to meet Kelley which Broadwell came to know. So she sent an email under the pseudonym “Kelley Patrol” and warned Allen not to see Kelley. She also asked Kelley to “stay away from my guy,” that is Petraeus.
Kelley, known as “Tampa Kardashian,” is an “honorary consul” for South Korea. It’s just a feel-good title. She called Frederick Humphries II, the FBI agent she knew, to report about the harassing emails. Humphries II was later removed from handling the case because he had sent his topless photo to Kelley. He is known to hold “conservative political views and a reputation for aggressiveness.” His former colleague described him thus: “He’s kind of an obsessive type. If he locked his teeth onto something, he’d be a bulldog.”
Kelley is under lot of trouble but, at least, she is safe from this FBI bulldog. Petraeus resigned from his CIA post last Friday. Allen’s promotion as NATO’s supreme commander in Europe is on the hold now. Broadwell is in trouble too.
FBI can run over your emails like starving dogs scavenging for food on a heap of garbage.
Punishment
The Pentagon treats extra-marital affairs as adultery.
The Biblical punishment for adultery is stoning to death.
The questions are: where are the punishers going to get that many stones and if they themselves are innocent of this deed?
Just in April, the CIA, marines, and others were involved in a sexual scandal in Columbia.
There is a Gujarati saying: One who got caught is a chor or thief, and the rest are sAhukAr, that is, money lender or a banker or a CEO.
This is all too common and is between the people involved. But the way the news media works is different.
The role of news media
The news media’s philosophy is very simple: whatever goes up, has to come down. It is media which first raises a person’s stature in average people’s eyes through inflating little good act of that person. Then it is the same media which pulls that “hero” down by adding more spice to that person’s some bad act. The media is a firm believer in the law of gravity.
Petraeus is a good example. Dave Lindorff points this out.
Dicks and drones
Yes, the questions are raised about why so many generals and commanders are involved in ethical and legal problems. The news media and establishment worries about the damage dicks do, not the destruction drones do.
In simple words, don’t worry about how you use the men-made machine gun, but be very careful as to how you use the God-given-gun.
Petraeus’s power
Long ago, Aga Khan III, the religious leader of Ismaili Muslims, had, pointing to the wine in his hand, said:
This wine, when it touches my lips, turns into water.
In one of the interviews, Paula Broadwell said about Petraeus:
‘He can turn water into bottled water.”
Now that Petraeus is jobless and Broadwell has not much to do, they can do a great thing for humanity. They should embark on a journey to Asia, Africa, and Latin America in order to purify the water and thus save people from diseases and deaths. They shouldn’t forget a pilgrimage to India to bless the polluted Ganga or Ganges River.
They should try to perform this humanitarian task before they’re inundated with offers from publishers to write books beneficial to them and the publishers.
What Taliban should have done
The savage Taliban, instead of killing and injuring innocent people like Malala, and creating fear in Afghanistan and Pakistan, should have concentrated on opening up escort agencies in Afghanistan. The foreign soldiers and their commanders would not only have dropped their weapons but their pants too. Their application of their God-given-guns would have resulted in their early exit from Afghanistan.
It’s Romney again
Mitt Romney is notoriously skillful in hurting his own political campaign. The day before yesterday, in a conference call to his donors and fund-raisers, the reason he provided for his loss to Obama was that President Barack Obama’s “campaign, if you will, focused on giving targeted groups a big gift.” Who were the targeted groups? Hispanics, blacks, and young voters. And what were the gifts: Partial writing off of student debt; Dream Act, that is immigration reform; healthcare; and contraceptives to women. This filthy rich person is also a big fool. So he has already begun to undermine his own 1916 presidential bid by once again alienating colored people, young voters, and unmarried women.
In September, he had already alienated 47% of the population in his speech to wealthy supporters attending a $50,000-a-plate dinner. He said the 47% of the Obama supporters are “victims” who are “dependent upon government” and “pay no income tax.” In one of the three debates, he tried to correct his folly by reminding the viewers that he’s for 100% of the people. Probably, during the 2016 presidential candidates’ debate, he’ll offer his apology for the Wednesday’s nonsense.
But many Republicans, including Jindal, depressed by Obama’s reelection and having realized the increasing voting power of the people not on Republican agenda, have tried to distance themselves from this dangerous dividing line obvious in Romney’s conference call. The Louisiana Governor Piyush “Bobby” Jindal, of South Asian origin, slammed Romney: “I think that’s absolutely wrong.” He added: “We have got to stop dividing the American voters. We need to go after 100 percent of the votes, not 53 percent.“ You can sense Jindal’s presidential ambition in the above words. If a black person can live in the House which is White, why can’t a brown person do the same? Count him as one of the Republican presidential candidates for 2016
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com