Now I am 100% convinced that the "Bin Laden Tape" is a fake, put together by Rove & Co.

Think about it.

What is the archetypal Karl Rove strategy?

1. Attack your opponent's perceived strength aggressively and early;

2. Put the opponent in a defensive, rather than offensive posture on their issue(s) of perceived strength;

3. Always use surrogates rather than your candidate to stay above the mess;

4. Work with the surrogates and financial backers to feed the media beast;

5. Every day the media spends on non-issues is another day your candidate escapes damage.

The timing and content of this so-called "New Bin Laden" tape has Rove's fingerprints all over it. The Bush Administration has been reeling from the NSA spy scandal and revelations that Jack Abramoff was a frequent visitor at the White House. Whenever this Administration has been in trouble, the tactic is always the same: ratchet up the terrorism fears. The "alert color" hasn't changed from yellow from one minute since this bunch was safely re-ensconced in office last November -- not even in the aftermath of this supposed tape in which Bin Laden himself is alleged to be saying, in his own voice, almost the same words as those in the infamous August 6, 2001 PDB: "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S."

If this tape were real, and if it were a recent release, wouldn't the alert level be raised? And if it weren't, wouldn't that be irresponsible? But there is no increase in the alert level. Because the threat hasn't changed, because the tape is either old or an Administration fabrication.

And the contents of the so-called translation are a hodgepodge of talking points from the antiwar left. Think about it -- why on earth would someone like Bin Laden have to take his talking points from a group that has been as ineffective as the antiwar left?

Already there is some skepticism out there about the legitimacy of this tape. Duke University professor Bruce Lawrence, author of a book translating Bin Laden's writings, is among those skeptics:

"There's nothing in this from the Koran. He's, by his own standards, a faithful Muslim," Lawrence said. "He quotes scripture in defense of his actions. There's no quotation from the Koran in the excerpts we got, no reference to specific events, no reference to past atrocities."

While the CIA confirms the voice on the tape is bin Laden's, Lawrence questions when it was recorded. He says the timing of its release could be to divert attention from last week's U.S. air strike in Pakistan. The strike targeted bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, and killed four leading al Qaeda figures along with civilians.

Lawrence believes faulty Pakistani intelligence led to the strike and the civilian deaths, and the tape was leaked by Pakistani authorities to divert attention from their mistake.

"It led to a failed military operation where America got blamed, but they people who are really to blame are the ones who provided the intelligence," Lawrence said. "I think this is an effort to say were not going look at this terrible incident that happened."

Of course none of this is deterring the American broadcast media from its appointed task of whipping the public into a frenzy of fear in an election year by drawing parallels between not just Osama Bin Laden and the Democratic Party, but also the majority of Americans who oppose mass dragnet spying of every activity of the entire American population and who recognize that the Iraq war is a total botch job.

The self-appointed Bush Administration messiah is the so-called journalist who's been having orgasms over Bush ever since the latter appeared on the aircraft carrier in the codpiece: Chris Matthews.

Last night he and Joltin' Joe Scarborough waved the flag and saluted their Leader on MSNBC's Hardball:

MATTHEWS: Why is he doing it? Why is he trying to track what he picks up in the internet and from the media as the lingo of the left in America, like Moore? Why would he start to talk like Moore? People misunderstood what I said last night. I think he’s getting some advice from people, he’s getting some lingo, some wordage that he hears working in the United States about this thing for war profiteers and he’s jumping on every opportunity. Is that what you are saying Joe?

SCARBOROUGH: Listen, if somebody can’t look at the words that Bin Laden said last night and match them up with what Michael Moore said, with what John Kerry said on Face the Nation with he said Americans were terrorizing Iraqi women and children in their homes hat night, which is what Bin Laden in effect said. What Ted Kennedy has been saying. Remember he said after Abu Ghraib that Saddam’s torture chambers were turned over to — chambers were turned over to new management, U.S. troops, that’s the same thing Bin Laden hit on.

All the pieces are falling into place, just as they always do when Rove comes up with one of these things. And in case you think I'm just turning Rove into some kind of mysterious, all-powerful bugaboo, please note that after weeks of staying in the background in light of Patrick Fitzgerald's still-ongoing investigation, all of a sudden he appeared again yesterday to announce that the Administration is going to make the war on terrorism is going to be a central campaign issue this fall.

Now, if we had an opposition party that was capable of thinking, said party would seize on that and ask why, four years after 9/11, Bin Laden is still at large and a threat like this is still possible -- and ask exactly what kind of progress has been made. However, we don't have such an opposition party, we have the Democrats. So watch for more support for more government intrusion into your life. And meanwhile, when your friends tell you to vote Republican because they'll keep us safe, ask them why, if we're so safe, the media are whipping us into a fear frenzy again.

UPDATE: Chris Floyd agrees that this is all part of implementing a Bush dictatorship...and the Democrats are meekly going along with it.