ABC World News Tonight looks at Bush WMD lies

ABC did a great story on Bush's lies about the supposed biological weapons labs we found in Iraq (we didn't). They also showed, which I didn't realize, that Cheney also lied about the labs four months after Bush (that would be four months AFTER we determined the labs were NOT labs at all).

Ok, in all fairness to Bush and Cheney - maybe they didn't lie. Maybe they just never tried to find out the truth. Though that's pretty much called a lie as well.

Good job from ABC.

You can watch the video here, though it's a bit complicated. Wait for the commercial to end, then in the right-hand box click "World News Tonight." Then click on the top story, "Did the president declare existence of WMD in Iraq while it wasn't true.") Read the rest of this post...

Another open thread

I'm writing a larger post about Iran and what the Democrats' message should be. Have fun in the meantime. Read the rest of this post...

The White House's latest spin on Bush lying about WMD: Bush wasn't in the loop, but pretended he was anyway

Yes, their defense of Bush claiming Iraq had mobile biological labs, when Iraq did not, is that Bush didn't know that our intelligence agencies had already disproven the claim.

That's nice. Our president is selling us on a war when he's not even in the loop on the reasons, or lack thereof, for going to war in the first place. Nice. So who should we listen to next time the White House wants us to go to war, since Bush isn't in the loop?

The White House's second contention is even more laughable. You see, it takes many months for the intelligence folks to determine whether we did or didn't find evidence of WMD in Iraq, and Bush spoke BEFORE we had determined if the evidence was real or not.

Did you get that? Bush told us equivocally that we'd found WMD, when in fact, he knew the team sent to determine if we'd found WMD wouldn't reach its conclusion for months to come. So, Bush publicly confirmed we had found WMD when he knew we weren't sure yet, and wouldn't know for months. Tell me again how this makes things better?

So, either Bush is out of the loop and has no idea what the facts are regarding America's decision-making when it comes to going to war, or Bush likes to jump the gun and make definitive statements to the American people about why we need to go to war, but he uses evidence that he knows isn't even real yet.

So tell me again, Scottie, which one is it? Is Bush ignorant or simply a liar? Read the rest of this post...

Religious right Republicans promoting anti-Latino immigration message

Big surprise. The anti-gay, anti-Muslim bigots have a problem with Latinos too. Check out the latest incredibly biased anti-Latino article being published by the American Family Association.

If you are Latino in America, you'd better learn who the religious right Republicans are. They've been dehumanizing gays for decades, Muslims since September 11, and now they're coming after you.

And they have the ear of the Republican Congress and the Republican White House. This is what a Republican vote buys you. Bigotry. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Have we nuked Iran yet? Read the rest of this post...

White House demands media "apologize" for reporting, truthfully, that Bush lied about finding WMD in Iraq

Now that really takes chutzpah to demand an apology from the media for reporting the truth.

Then again, this is classic Republican strategy. If I point out something true and damaging about you, squeal to high heaven about how horrible a person I am until I either apologize or lose all my nerve to ever expose your failures again.

Yes, demand that the Washington Post apologize for reporting the truth that George Bush lied to the American people for a year when he told us they found biological weapons labs in Iraq, even though Bush's own people had already determined that we never found any labs at all.

Yeah, it's not like that's news or anything, that Bush lied about the war to trick the public, what with our finding out just 5 days ago that Scooter Libby testified UNDER OATH that Bush and Cheney authorized him to leak to reporters false information from classified documents to buttress public support for the Iraq war. No, news there.

Bad Washington Post. How dare you report the truth in George Bush's America. What do you think this is, a free country?

And by the way, what wimpy-ass TV network apologized, according to the White House today, for reporting this fact the other day? Was it ABC?

Come on ABC, was it you? Did you apologize to the White House for reporting the truth? Read the rest of this post...

Is Donald Graham the real problem at the Washington Post?

The fish rots from the head down.

It really doesn't, I hear, but that's the saying. And from my experience in the workplace, while the fish may not rot that way, organizations very much do. If you have a problem with an institution, nine times out of ten the real problem is the person heading the institution.

Which brings us to Donald Graham, the CEO and chairman of the board of the Washington Post Company.

I've had a growing sense, or suspicion, rather, that while Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt is clearly a pro-Bush neo-conservative not interested in the truth, perhaps Hiatt's uber-conservative leanings weren't a fluke, or an aberration. Perhaps Hiatt is doing exactly what his boss, Donald Graham (Hiatt reports directly to Graham), wants him to do - bring the Washington Post lurching to the far-right.

So I did a little reading on Donald Graham. And it appears that he may very well be the root of the Fred Hiatt problem (Graham hired Hiatt). From the Columbia Journalism Review:

Friends say that Graham has grown increasingly conservative in recent years, and that the op-ed page — which features Robert Novak, Charles Krauthammer, and George Will as regular columnists — is not inconsistent with his own views. What is clear is that it’s a page in which conservative voices are very strong and liberal voices are very weak.

The Washington Post: The Hannity & Colmes of newspapers. Read the rest of this post...

Kudos to the Washington Post

That would be the good witch side of the Washington Post, the side that writes actual news articles that are true and thoughtful. As compared to the bad witch editorial side of the Washington Post run by Fred Hiatt, the anti-"Katharine Graham" - devoted to lies, injustice, and the Bush American way.

Yesterday we reported that the Post was running an article claiming that Cheney got booed at the baseball game for throwing a bad pitch, when in fact Cheney got booed from the second he stepped out onto the field - i.e., he got booed for being Cheney, not for throwing a bad pitch.

The Post, to its credit, corrected the story. And to their credit, the Post's "Reliable Source" column - basically, the political gossip page - also got the story right.

Maybe we can get the Post's gossip folks to give Fred Hiatt a lesson in journalism. Hmm... what would such a course look like?

Journalism 101

• Lesson 1: Read your own newspaper.
• Lesson 2: Don't lie.
• Lesson 3: Don't assume your readers are stupid.

And while you're at it, Fred, you might want to pass a note to Donald Graham as well. There's an empty chair in class with his name on it. Read the rest of this post...

Wash. Times Post Editorial Board trying to save Bush's presidency

The Post is looking out for their President:

CAN THIS PRESIDENCY be saved? President Bush's approval rating has plummeted to a dismal 38 percent, according to the latest Post-ABC News poll. Democrats will rejoice at their improving prospects of recovering a majority in Congress. But a damaged president governing for nearly three more years in a dangerous world is no cause for rejoicing. With that in mind, we offer Mr. Bush, at no charge, some advice on a fresh start.

A fresh start would be to have the President tell the American people the truth. A fresh start would be to have a Congress and a media that hold the President accountable. We don't have that with the GOP-led Congress -- and we sure don't get it from the Washington Post Editorial page. Fred Hiatt and Donald Graham should take a gander at the Post's front page story today about biolabs. That's the lying President they're trying to save. Read the rest of this post...

Condi does her part to keep up the Iran drumbeat

This really is deja vu:

Denouncing Iran's successful enrichment of uranium as unacceptable to the international community, Secretary of State Conodoleezza Rice said Wednesday the U.N. Security Council must consider "strong steps" to induce Tehran to change course.

If the Bush teams sticks to their old script, the crescendo on Iran will come right before the 2006 elections. If the Bush team had a clue, they might actually do something to address the problems with Iran instead of exacerbating them. But, remember, Bush is on a mission. Read the rest of this post...

GOPers trying to back away from GOP's anti-immigration policy

The GOP knows they're in trouble over immigration so they are trying to re-write history. They're claiming the bad legislation passed by the House is somehow the fault of the Democrats....that's a pathetic strategy:

At issue is a bill passed by the House in December aimed at strengthening border security and cracking down on smugglers. Critics say several provisions, including one making it a felony to assist illegal immigrants to "reside in or remain" in the United States, could be used to prosecute anyone who offers humanitarian aid — including medical care — to undocumented immigrants.

The bill, drafted by Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), House Judiciary Committee chairman, also would make it a felony for a foreign national to be in the United States without a visa. That provision was designed to equalize penalties for people who enter the country illegally and those who enter legally but stay past their visa's expiration date.

However, before the House approved the legislation, Sensenbrenner offered an amendment that would have reduced the infraction from a felony to a misdemeanor. At the time he said he was making the change at the request of the Bush administration to ease court procedures: A felony would require a grand jury indictment, a jury trial and give the defendant the right to a public defender, but a misdemeanor would not.

Sensenbrenner's disingenuous amendment failed, in part, because a lot of Democrats in the House didn't want to criminalize the immigrants and those who aided them. Sensenbrenner and the GOP leadership were intent on including punitive measures. The GOP will try to lie and change the facts. It's all they know how to do.

The NY Times has a very nice editorial today, People Power, which captures the spirit of the march here in DC on Monday....from my vantage point, it was one of the most moving and patriotic events I've ever witnessed. Any GOPer who looked down the mall in Washington on Monday has to be worried.... Read the rest of this post...

Does AP know who Ken Mehlman is?

Saw this AP headline "Ex-Bush Aide Denies Calls on Phone Jamming" and wondered which "Ex-Bush Aide" they were talking about. Then I read the first paragraph:

A former White House political director denied Tuesday that he or anyone on his staff spoke with New England Republicans about a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002.

Still wondering....

The next paragraph finally tells us the aide in question is, in fact, Mehlman:

Ken Mehlman, now chairman of the Republican National Committee, acknowledged that local GOP officials had called a White House operative in the days surrounding the election. But he said none of the conversations involved the phone-jamming incident.

Hello AP. Talk about burying your lede....Ken Mehlman isn't just an "Ex-Bush Aide" or the former White House political director. Besides being the chair of the RNC, he ran the President's re-election campaign in 2004. It's a VERY big deal that the top GOP political operative is even being linked to this matter. The Associated Press really doesn't seem to get that.

TPM Muckraker has been all over this story...Josh Marshall's been on it from the beginning. There have been three federal convictions in the phone-jamming case already. Yes, even the Bush Justice Department found criminal action. And, some of those convicts were calling the White House political affairs office on election day. Also, AP, you forgot to mention that the RNC, which Mehlman now chairs, has paid a lot of legal fees for those jammers.

One other thing. Just because Ken Mehlman issues a statement or says something doesn't mean it's true. He is, after all, part of the Bush team. And, veracity isn't one of their virtues. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

So the "biolabs" weren't real either....Is there anything Bush hasn't lied about?

What's on the agenda for today? Read the rest of this post...

Rummy-robot changes story to defend failure in Iraq

General Pace pulls out the old "don't criticize Rummy for his work ethic" routine which of course, has absolutely nothing to do with the valid criticism of Rummy by retired military brass for the mess he created in Iraq. Big deal, Rummy works long hours. Get in line with plenty of people who work long hours. That has nothing to do at all with the reality that he botched the war in Iraq so let's get back to the subjects of incompetence and mismanagement. General Pace has proven himself to be a world class boot licker, but he ought to get back to figuring out how to get the US out of this disaster instead of defending Rummy from an argument that doesn't exist. Read the rest of this post...

Summer gas prices expected to be higher

Imagine that. Continuing problems in oil producing countries as well as continuing high demand will bump up prices this summer an estimated $0.25 per gallon compared to last summer. The good news in the US is that even with the estimated $2.62 per gallon that you can expect this summer, it's still a fraction of what consumers pay at the pump in Europe. The bad news is that some experts think that the cost could be higher since these prices are already out there and a lot could happen between now and the summer vacation season. Read the rest of this post...

In 2003, Bush announced we found bio labs in Iraq - he did this 2 days after a secret fact-finding mission determined they WERE NOT bio labs

Bush then pushed the story for the next year - we found WMD, Bush claimed for an entire year after his own people had told him we found nothing at all.

The President of the United States lied to the country in order to justify war.

Are there are any real Republicans left who find this the very least troubling? Do you people stand for anything any more? You all thought Clinton lying under oath about sex was bad, and now we have a president lying to the nation about why we went to war? Again, do you people have any sense of decency left at all?

Add this to the just-revealed Scooter Libby testimony UNDER OATH that Bush and Cheney declassified the parts of the intelligence briefing about WMD in Iraq that they already knew to be wrong. In spite of that, they let Libby spread the false justification for war to journalists across the country.

Our president lied to us in order to justify a war.

Is there a single Republican left in this country with the courage to finally say enough is enough? You people thought Bill Clinton debased the presidency? What is the presidency NOW? The man doesn't even obey the law. He's spying on American citizens illegally. He's run our military into the ground, our country into a massive deficit, and now wants to start yet another war, this time nuclear.

Is no Republican willing to stand up and challenge this incredibly incompetent, dangerous man?

Amazingly, this story comes from the Washington Post. Maybe we should all pitch in and buy Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt a subscription to the Post. He might learn something. Read the rest of this post...

Open thread

Bedtime Read the rest of this post...