Interesting Article in the NY Times today

[lokeybloke]

June 3, 2003
Standard Operating Procedure
By PAUL KRUGMAN


The mystery of Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction has become a lot less mysterious. Recent reports in major British newspapers and three major American news magazines, based on leaks from angry intelligence officials, back up the sources who told my colleague Nicholas Kristof that the Bush administration "grossly manipulated intelligence" about W.M.D.'s.

And anyone who talks about an "intelligence failure" is missing the point. The problem lay not with intelligence professionals, but with the Bush and Blair administrations. They wanted a war, so they demanded reports supporting their case, while dismissing contrary evidence.

In Britain, the news media have not been shy about drawing the obvious implications, and the outrage has not been limited to war opponents. The Times of London was ardently pro-war; nonetheless, it ran an analysis under the headline "Lie Another Day." The paper drew parallels between the selling of the war and other misleading claims: "The government is seen as having `spun' the threat from Saddam's weapons just as it spins everything else."

Yet few have made the same argument in this country, even though "spin" is far too mild a word for what the Bush administration does, all the time. Suggestions that the public was manipulated into supporting an Iraq war gain credibility from the fact that misrepresentation and deception are standard operating procedure for this administration, which ? to an extent never before seen in U.S. history ? systematically and brazenly distorts the facts.

Am I exaggerating? Even as George Bush stunned reporters by declaring that we have "found the weapons of mass destruction," the Republican National Committee declared that the latest tax cut benefits "everyone who pays taxes." That is simply a lie. You've heard about those eight million children denied any tax break by a last-minute switcheroo. In total, 50 million American households ? including a majority of those with members over 65 ? get nothing; another 20 million receive less than $100 each. And a great majority of those left behind do pay taxes.

And the bald-faced misrepresentation of an elitist tax cut offering little or nothing to most Americans is only the latest in a long string of blatant misstatements. Misleading the public has been a consistent strategy for the Bush team on issues ranging from tax policy and Social Security reform to energy and the environment. So why should we give the administration the benefit of the doubt on foreign policy?

It's long past time for this administration to be held accountable. Over the last two years we've become accustomed to the pattern. Each time the administration comes up with another whopper, partisan supporters ? a group that includes a large segment of the news media ? obediently insist that black is white and up is down. Meanwhile the "liberal" media report only that some people say that black is black and up is up. And some Democratic politicians offer the administration invaluable cover by making excuses and playing down the extent of the lies.

If this same lack of accountability extends to matters of war and peace, we're in very deep trouble. The British seem to understand this: Max Hastings, the veteran war correspondent ? who supported Britain's participation in the war ? writes that "the prime minister committed British troops and sacrificed British lives on the basis of a deceit, and it stinks."

It's no answer to say that Saddam was a murderous tyrant. I could point out that many of the neoconservatives who fomented this war were nonchalant, or worse, about mass murders by Central American death squads in the 1980's. But the important point is that this isn't about Saddam: it's about us. The public was told that Saddam posed an imminent threat. If that claim was fraudulent, the selling of the war is arguably the worst scandal in American political history ? worse than Watergate, worse than Iran-contra. Indeed, the idea that we were deceived into war makes many commentators so uncomfortable that they refuse to admit the possibility.

But here's the thought that should make those commentators really uncomfortable. Suppose that this administration did con us into war. And suppose that it is not held accountable for its deceptions, so Mr. Bush can fight what Mr. Hastings calls a "khaki election" next year. In that case, our political system has become utterly, and perhaps irrevocably, corrupted.

[Shawn Simmons]

As I suspected all along. Bush is a crook. Blair is a crook. Iraq having WMDs was nothing but a lie to the american public. And where is bin Laden? Iraq was just a smokescreen.

Impeach Bush!

S

[DUC]

You know the world's fucked when the leftwing-commie Blair and the rightwing-fascist Bush are both wrong.

[DUC]

Oh yeah, and Sammy Sosa was caught with a corked bat. The world is really going to shit.

[zoetrope]

The thing that shocks me isn't that they lied, but that Bush will get away with it and be re-elected. Why? I just don't understand.

[lokeybloke]

Yeah - they're making it really hard to stay in the USA. And Canada just de-criminilized Mary-Jane. mmmm.... Vancouver never looked so good!

[cornsound]

Canada just de-criminilized Mary-Jane.

after my initial shock, I went and looked this up....it's still illegal in Canada, but they're proposing to lower the offense of possession of ~ 1/2 ounce of cheeba to something akin to a traffic ticket, not a huge criminal record type thing....

just so you know...

[lokeybloke]

oops. I misspoke. that's what I meant.
Still pretty awesome...

[trash180]

Just don't catch the SARS from some hash pipe...

Actually...I fear that most of these new virus' and potential pandemics aren't any more threatening than they were even a few years ago.
Another manipulation?

Hmmm...who uses fear to manipulate their people anyway?

[wing]

heh...

[cassembler]

Blah blah, blah blah blah blah blah: BLAH BLAH!!!! Blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah, "Blah blah blah, blah blah blah. Blah blah blah blah blah."

Blah blah blah, Blah Blahbla, blahed blah blah blah. (Blah blah blah).

(Source: Blah Blah Times)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All political systems are corrupt.
The media hyper-exaggerates stories for higher ratings.
Most elections are illegally tampered with, and Amercian citizens are double, tripple, and quadruple taxed on a daily basis.

What else is new?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So I make $1000 paycheck. Gravy. The government takes $165 off the top, 16.5%
I pay sales tax on everything I buy, 8% of what's left of my $1000.


The math is the fact that, for me personally, the government takes exactly 26.5% of my paycheck, right off the top (sales tax is adjusted to 9.6% of my paycheck before the Feds get a hold of it).

That means, every time I get paid, the government makes $265, which is $6360 per year.

If there are 250,000,000 Americans that pay the government the same thing, that makes the government $907.5 billion, per year.

Where does it go??? Why is that not enough???

I wouldn't mind them taking this if they would just fax me a detailed report of precicely how every penny was spent.

[dwelle]

i'm skeptical of anything that comes from the ny times. their agenda is about as self serving and convoluted as any political or big business regime....

....not to say that they're any more unscrupulous than any other mainstream media outlet in the u.s.....

[bedbug]

Bush will get away with it and be re-elected. Why? I just don't understand.

But we should all get out there and vote so it'll look more obvious when they steal the next election.

Bush's parents are rich right? What's the stereotypical picture of the spoiled child of rich parents? He kicked and screamed his way into the presidency. Kicked and screamed his way into the war. In the next couple of minutes it'll be illegal to burn a piece of fabric if it has the colors red white and blue on it. How is this shit happening?

[wing]

hahaha.. that should be their official flag now

[DUC]

Hey bedbug. Who are you going to vote for? Then let me laugh at you.

Left wingers = socialist commie dictators
Right wingers = fascist nazi dictators

Power mongers, all of them!