Rhetoric

Since September 11 the FBI has issued 43 terrorism alerts, inducing feelings of fear, anxiety and helplessness in many Americans -- a condition that Washington, DC psychologist Rona Fields describes as Acute Prolonged Stress Syndrome. "After so many vague alerts, many based on uncorroborated evidence, it's fair to ask, What's the point? Why spook a country that's already spooked?" writes Geoffrey Gray.

"If a last-minute provision in the Senate farm bill becomes law, irradiated hamburger could become known by a more appealing name: pasteurized beef," New York Times reporter Elizabeth Becker writes. "Senator Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who heads the Senate Agriculture Committee, said today that he had inserted the provision in an effort to 'more clearly define pasteurization,' the process by which disease-producing bacteria have long been destroyed in some foods through heating.

"As the Enron scandal progresses, opportunistic politicians are trying their best to turn the company's name into political shorthand to discredit just about anything," writes Bryan Keefer. Terms like "Enronomics" and "Enronization" have entered the vocabulary as shorthand ways of discrediting political opponents. "In political parlance, 'Enron' has now become a verb and an adjective," Keefer writes.

An analysis of the rhetoric from presidential spokesman Ari Fleischer and Vice President Dick Cheney reveals a disturbing pattern of dissembling about the General Accounting Office request for information on the Vice President's energy task force. The two have consistently exaggerated the GAO's request to make it appear unreasonable and paint the administration as a victim.