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7. Digital Ash in a Digital Urn released January 25, 2005
8. Motion Sickness: Live Recordings LIVE released November 15,
2005 9.
Noise Floor Rarities: 1998-2005 released October 24, 2006 10.
Cassadaga released April 10, 2007 11.
The People’s Key released February 15, 2011 Every generation has its iconic folk artist, and Conor Oberst is the folk
artist for today generation. His pained adolescent poetry of his early records earned Oberst a crowd of loyal fans, and his doe-eyed, fashionably shaggy look
made him a heartthrob of the indie rock set. He does not only sing for himself, but his songs speak to the others. He can express his inner feeling toward music and he
can also protest and give social commentary through music. Gerard Way, singer from emo band My Chemical Romance, stated in buzznet interview that Conor
Oberst is important to the future of music, “His lyrics are phenomenal. I think he speaks for our generation. Conor Oberst and his band Bright Eyes has become an
important figure
in music
scene of
today generation.
http:www.monstersandcritics.com
B. George W. Bush’s War Policies
George W. Bush was born in July 6, 1946 in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. He was the oldest of six children of George Bush Sr. who served as
the 41
st
President of U.S., and Barbara Bush. Bush was a faithful with his religion. Shortly after his 40
th
birthday, Bush gave up drinking alcohol. “I realized”, he later
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explained, “that alcohol was beginning to crowd out my energies and could crowd, eventually, my affections for other people.” His decision was partly the result of a
self-described spiritual awakening and a strengthening of his Christian faith that had begun the previous year. Duignan, n.d., p. 2
Bush formally announced his candidacy for Republican presidential nomination in June 1999. He described his political philosophy as “compassionate
conservatism”, a view that combined traditional Republican economic policies with concern of underprivileged. He won the Republican nomination, taking a
strong lead in public opinion polls over Vice President, Al Gore, the Democratic Party nominee, Ralph Noder, the Green Party candidate, and political journalist
Patrick Buchanon, the nominee of Reform party. Republican George W. Bush was elected as the 43rd President of United States in November 2000; replacing Bill
Clinton as the previous president. Before became a president, Bush was a businessman and served as governor of Texas.
He occupied the office for 2 tenures; from 2001 until 2009. His presidency brought a new era for United States History. It was noted by enormous challenges
for several years ahead such as terrorist attack in September 9
th
, American controversial war and invasion, and economic hardship.
His presidency was opened by terrorist attack in September 11
th
, 2001. At 08:46 a.m., clear Manhattan skyline, New York, was shocked by hijacked
American Airlines Flight crashing the World Trade Center’s North Tower. Minutes later, at 09:03 a.m., United Airlines Flight 175 hit the South Tower of
World Trade Center. The Two buildings collapsed, killing 2.800 American inside
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and around the buildings; including firefighters, and police officers. Adamski, n.d., para. 28
Thirty minutes after two planes hitting The World Trade Center, another airplanes crash the US military base, Pentagon, Arlington County,
Virginia. It was American Flight 77 departed from Dulles International Airport and bound for Los Angeles. The Boeing 77 was hijacked and crashed, loaded with
10.000 gallons of fuel, at 345 mph into the west side of the Pentagon, Roberts, 2006, para. 1
Immediately after the September 11 attacks, domestic security and the threat of terrorism became the chief focus of Bush administration at the top
priority of government at every level. Declaring a global “war on terrorism”, Bush announced that the country would not rest until “every terrorist group of global
reach has been found, stopped, and defeated.” primary source: Declaration of War on Terrorism Duignan, n.d., p. 5
Bush administration found the 19 suspects of terrorist attacks come from Muslim world. Bush claimed the one must be responsible to the attacks was Al-
Qaeda, an anti-America Organization. Later on Bush attacked Afghanistan; it is because Bush believed that Al-Qaeda’s leader Osama bin Laden was hiding in
Afghanistan. “The Bush administration accused radical Islamist Osama bin Laden
and his terrorist network, Al-Qaeda Arabic: The Base of responsibility for the attacks and charged the Taliban, government of
Afghanistan with harboring bin Laden and his followers in a videotape in 2004, bin Laden acknowledge that he was responsible. After
assembling an international military coalition, bush ordered a massive bombing campaign against Afghanistan, which began on October 7,
2001. Duignan, n.d., p. 4
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Besides Afghanistan, Bush also attacked Iraq. In March 2003, George W. Bush administration declared war against Iraq. They accused Iraq President,
Sadam Hussein, has any relation with the terrorist attack of 911. However, this war became controversial, considering that there was no suggestion that Iraq
President had any relation toward the attack. At that time no suggestion was made that Iraq was in way connected
with the September 11
th
attacks. But in September 2002 a US government and US media disinformation campaign was launched to
persuade the American people that it was really Iraq which was behind these attacks. http:www.serendipity.li, para. 3
In his pre-inaugural speech at Republican National Convention, the President said we have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom.
Peters, 2004, p. 5 Bush Administration justified the war—and the American public accepted that justification—on the grounds that Iraq posed a terrorist threat
to the United States. These justifications included: 1.
Potential connections between Al Qaeda, the author of the 911 terrorist attacks, and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
2. The possibility that Hussein was manufacturing weapons of mass
destruction that might fall into the hands of terrorists. 3.
The safe haven Hussein gave to some terrorist organizations, such as that of Abu Nidal, who died in mysterious circumstances in Baghdad, in 2002.
Over time, it has become clear that none of these justifications were quite true when the war started. Zalman, n.d. para. 6
To convince people that Iraq was behind 911 attacks, Bush administration used media to propaganda. Major media like Fox news propagandized public to
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believe that Iraq was responsible for the attacks. According to Hal, such media like Fox news is a media controlled by government. It’s a media for the sake of
government. “And Fox is not what it seems to be” He said, “It’s not a news service, certainly nor even the sincere voice of low-rest nationalism. It’s a
calculated fraud” Crowther, 2003, para. 4 Government-media successfully propagandized American to believe that
Iraq Sadam Hussein was the one behind 911 attacks “…about 50 percents of the population now believes that Iraq was
responsible for the attack of the World Trade Center. This has happened since September 2002. In fact, after the September 11 attack,
the figure was about 3 per cent. Government-media propaganda has managed to raise that to about 5o per cent. Now if people genuinely
believe that Iraq has carried out major terrorist attacks against US and is planning to do so again, well, in that case people will support the
war.” Chomsky. 2003. Para. 29
Other reason that made George W. Bush administration invaded Iraq was their belief that Iraq possesed ‘weapon of mass destruction’ - lethal weapon that is
threatening for humankind and America. The President felt that America needed to destroy the weapon of mass destruction before Iraq used it to destroy America.
However, in September 2003, there were no evidences stating that Sadam Hussein was connected to 911 attacks. What Bush believed that Iraq attacked
World Trade Center and Pentagon and Iraq was a threat for America was totally unproven. The existence of weapon of mass destruction is unproven as well. After
scouring Iraq for several months, the United Nations inspector had found no evidence of the “weapons of mass destruction” existence.
http:www.serendipity.li, para. 10
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These notions gave evidence that Bush administration told big lies to the public. Iraq was attacked and invaded not because to establish democracy, to cut
off terrorist, or even to destroy weapon of mass destruction. However, the intention invading Iraq was for the sake of American profit. According to
Kaminski 2004, this war is a way for America to invade Iraq and rob its valuable resource. American did not go to war against Iraq to overthrow a tyrant. They
invaded Iraq just because they wanted to steel Iraq’ precious resource. para. 15 Furthermore, Kaminski explain more about the Bush administration’s intention to
invade Iraq
.
“Bush neocons and apologists lied to us about the Bush administration’s real ambitions and intentions. Their plan to invade
Iraq was never about exporting democracy. Nor was it about conquering Al-Qaeda, or finding weapon of mass destruction, or to
cure imminent thread. There were gigantic lies to cover for their real intentions.” Zimmerman, 2004, para. 3
All of these lies lead people of America to protest George W. Bush administration; especially their policy related to war and invasion. “On this
occasion, however, there was a massive protest before the war was launched officially and once again on the day it was launched – with no counter-
demonstrators” Chomsky, 2003, para. 59, Beside terrorist attack, war, and invasion, Bush administration was also
noted by economical hardships. Despite the Bush administrations rhetoric that an economic recovery is underway, there are abundant signs that for most working
families their situations are no better—and in many cases are far worse. Vives, 2004, para. 1 In his presidency, for about, 7.796.000 American losses their jobs
and there was no significant economic growth. One of his policies was tax
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giveaways to the rich to stimulate economic growth. However, according to American for Responsible Taxes p. 1, Bush tax giveaways did not create jobs,
did not create economic growth, and put American into debt to give the wealthiest American a break at the expense of the middle class. para. 1
Most of the jobless were women. Women workers have lost over 300.000 jobs between the start of the recession in March, 2001
through the March, 2004, report. According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, the proportion of single mothers who
are employed fell in 2003 and the unemployment rate rose markedly among single mothers, from an already-high 9.5 percent
to a desperate 10.2 percent. Shiozaki, 2004, para. 4
In Bush presidency, poverty aroused. Lower middle class families were slowly slipping below the poverty line and the poorest were becoming even more
destitute; and most of these families are headed by women. para. 5 Women faced their economic hardships in Bush administration era. Child
care was no longer subsidized by government. For many poor families, child care may cost 20 percent or more of their annual income. The Bush administration had
cut funding for programs such as child care, which were essential to single parent households, in favor of expanded unproven programs such as marriage promotion.
para. 9 This policy inflicted single parent, especially women, and cut off their annual income.
C. American Socio Cultural Background
