Rudy Giuliani's Five Big Lies About 9/11

For an excellent and most thorough debunking of Rudy Giuliani's elaborately constructed and completely fallacious framework of his heroism at 9/11 and his expertise as a mayor, you must read Wayne Barrett's article on Giuliani from the August 7 edition of the Village Voice. It is devastating in its detail. This is the man who would be president. Really, really, really, everyone should read this.
Rudy Giuliani's Five Big Lies About 9/11

Gonzales Testifies Yet Again Before the Senate

Alberto Gonzales, The Best and the Brightest??




What an appalling spectacle! This poor excuse for a lawyer, and worse, for a person who, however inexplicably, managed to pass law school and the bar exam, is so patently incompetent, there simply are no words.

I mean just look at his performance. When asked how he could justify asking then Attorney General Ashcroft to sign a legal document while he was ill and under the influence of mind altering medications, precipitating a frantic call from Ashcroft's wife to acting Attorney General Jim Comey when she heard Gonzales et al were en route, all he could say was that there is nothing in the rules that prohibits doing so and Ashcroft could always have said no.

Or how about his testimony in support of his previous claim that there was no dissension over the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP) despite reports of threats of mass resignations in the Justice Department. The real reason for the raid on Ashcroft's hospital room, alleged Gonzales, was not the TSP, but another secret program. Said he, the visit was made at the urging of the so-called Gang of Eight after an emergency meeting, because of concern about this other secret program expiring that night. Only, some of the Gang of Eight have already come out with denials of Gonzales' version, saying that discussion did not happen, the only matter discussed was the TSP. Oh, and by the way, back then the Justice Department sent a document to then House Speaker Dennis Hastert documenting that the matter discussed at the meeting was the TSP. It is, in fact, still in the Speaker’s records. So...nobody as yet recalls this other secret program including the folks at the meeting where it was supposedly discussed, and documents produced at the time identified the subject as the TSP. Hummmhhh...kind of sounds like a bald faced lie, don't you think?

Obviously george bush and his rottweiler cheney believe they can do whatever they damn well please, and keeping this incompetent nincompoop, who can't get his lies straight, pleases them for the moment. If only Congress had the balls to actually take action to restore some of the balance of power and give this guy the boot.

Ah well, I can dream can't I?

Wouldn't it be great if he won???

Intellect or Mass Hypnosis????

So much has happened since my last post. Where to start??? Gonzales? The "surge"? How about the Democratic majority that thus far has been stymied by this Svengali? Through it all I am overwhelmed with my dismay with the American public, which now seems to be aware that something is rotten in Denmark, but still is willing to believe anything bush and his cronies say without requiring substantiation. They are still awed by the office and give him the benefit of the doubt because they don't want to believe the president would lie.

It is startlingly clear to any who would look, that bush and his cronies have lied and manipulated over and over again. Worse, the media, or as I like to call them, the steno pool, until recently has dutifully recorded all the crafted versions of the facts coming out of the administration with nary a challenge, nor even a clarification. Although they regularly characterized what Clinton said while in office, usually in terms of "what he's really saying here is....", the media has been glaringly absent on such analysis of bush, cheney or rove speak. In my darker musings, I have pondered whether the media types have been in bed with the bush folks.

The problem with this is the so called "smart" American public is way too preoccupied with American Idol and Anna Nicole to inform themselves on something so unrelated to their daily lives as the activities of politicians. They are content to allow themselves to be played, to be pandered to, to be manipulated by savvy pols who know just what to say to scare the public into submission. And the compliant media has been the perfect conduit for spreading the propaganda.

I can't help but wonder where we would be if the people and the media made them back up their assertions, no longer accepting the blanket statements just because they came from the president or one of his flunkies. Until that happens, there is really no reason for them to do anything different because what they are doing works. Whenever the public seems to be wondering off the reservation, just say "9/11", "al Kaeda", and "Osama" a couple of times, mention how we're doing this over there so we don't have to do it here, and we all dutifully fall in line.

"Oh judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts. And men have lost their reason."

Supporting Our Troops?

Am I the only one struck by the irony implicit in so many right wingers wrapping themselves in the flag, using the troops as their own sort of personal beaning bat to beat up on anyone who dared come between them and their beloved war? Think about it. Anyone who says its time to end the war is not "supporting the troops". Anyone who complains about the poor prosecution of the war, is "demoralizing the troops" and so on. To listen to them, one would think that they are very concerned about the welfare of our troops, right?

Yet, when one compares the right wing rhetoric with their actions, there is a bit of a disconnect. Those same folks who pay so much lip service to supporting our troops sit quietly by while our troops are allowed to go to war with unarmored Humvees and inadequate body armor. They lose not a moment of sleep even as they ignore the reality that few, if any, of the troops are supplied with helmet liners that are known to prevent the concussive brain injuries that have proven so damaging to the mental functioning of those with these injuries. Click on this link for more information about helmet liners Operation Helmet

Now we learn that for a least the past two years, our brave war injured have been living in squalid conditions while undergoing outpatient treatment at Walter Reed. For more details see Dana Priest's Washington Post article here Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility (free subscription required). These past two plus years, the soldiers' complaints about the conditions have been minimized, or worse yet, ignored until Ms Priest's series blew the lid off the scandal.

Appalling. Wake up America! Use your brains and figure out who really supports the troops.

Sigh....

I miss Al Franken.