The "war on terrorism," writes historian Howard Zinn, has opened up the prospect of "a war without end." President Bush has already said that the war may not be finished during his administration. "He will pass on the war to the next president, and perhaps the next and the next," Zinn writes. "How useful to have an enemy who is so elusive, whose defeat will require an endless war. Because so long as the nation is in a state of war, it is possible to control the population by saying: we are at war, and this is no time for division, we must sacrifice our freedoms.

John Rendon of the Rendon Group likes to quote gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson's remark: "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." Jeff Stein thinks this is probably an apt characterization of Rendon's current PR work for the Pentagon. In a profile of Rendon's past work for clients such as the Kuwaiti Royal Family, the embattled Colombian Army and the CIA, Stein paints a picture of corruption and ineptitude.

Last week, Spin of the Day mentioned a report on Australia's SBS television, which used clandestinely filmed footage provided by the Canadian PR firm of Dickens and Madson that claimed to show Zimbabwe's opposition presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, plotting in December to assassinate incumbent president Robert Mugabe. However, the Mass Media Project of Zimbabwe, an independent watchdog organization, has reviewed the footage and says that it appears to have been doctored.