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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (446364)	8/21/2003 6:55:24 PM
From: Gordon A. Langston	Respond to of 769667

cnn.com New crop of spooks.

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (446364)	8/21/2003 7:26:21 PM
From: Ish	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

<<I think I may have coined a good phrase; we need to end the Bush reign of error.>> And I think he's doing a good job. We each have our opinions.

To: cnyndwllr who wrote (446364)	8/21/2003 7:41:18 PM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth search.barnesandnoble.com Barnes & Noble has a new interview with the author... ____________________________________ An Interview with Joe Conason Barnes & Noble.com: Big Lies is subtitled "The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth." What is this machine, and how does it operate? Joe Conason: The "machine" can be pictured as a sprawling Wurlitzer organ with many keys, pedals, and pipes: the phalanx of conservative columnists and pundits featured in the mainstream media; the radio talkers like Limbaugh and Hannity; the big ideological media outlets such as Fox News, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, the Washington Times and the New York Post; the think tanks and advocacy outfits, including the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, and literally dozens more. Often, if not always, they seem to take their direction from a single fax machine churning day and night at the Republican National Committee. B&N.com: Since your book was written, there've been a few new "big lies news stories" running rampant. First, do you think that President Bush told the truth about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction? JC: I don't know yet whether he understood the truth or even cared whether his own statements were accurate. He didn't bother to read the report compiled by the CIA on the Iraqi regime's weapons programs. Ultimately I suspect he was less interested in what was true than in what might sell this war to the public. B&N.com: Why is it that many people don't seem to care about WMDs being found or not, considering that Mr. Bush used them as his rationale for launching the attack on Iraq? Isn't this a "big lie" that led to thousands of needless deaths, including those of our military? JC: Certainly, the evidence discovered so far suggests that the administration's warnings about Iraq's imminent acquisition of nuclear weapons -- the "mushroom cloud" argument -- were false. And so far, nothing resembling the huge arsenal of biological and chemical weapons we were told that Saddam Hussein possessed has been found. My sense is that many Americans are indeed concerned about the misleading arguments used to justify the war in Iraq, and that their anger is growing in proportion to the continuing loss of lives there. People can't help but notice that the administration's excuses and rationalizations change from week to week, which magnifies their distrust. B&N.com: As these questions are being written, it's been reported that one-third of those asked claimed that WMDs had indeed been found, and 22 percent say Iraq used WMDs against the troops. How do "big lies" become "facts"? JC: Most big lies win acceptance after that mighty Wurlitzer of conservative propaganda plays them incessantly for a while; sometimes the process takes weeks, and sometimes it takes years. I suppose some people may think that WMDs have been found in Iraq because certain media outlets played a few false "discoveries" big, without giving sufficient attention to the corrections that followed. I can't imagine why anyone believes that Iraq used chemical or biological weapons against our troops -- unless it's a rumor that has spread via the Internet or on talk radio. People come to believe many weird tales that way. B&N.com: There have been an alarmingly high number of military casualties since Bush donned his flight suit and dramatically announced "Mission Accomplished." Have the American people been lied to about the outcome of the war and how difficult it may be to preserve the peace? JC: There are lies and there are omissions that amount to lying. Obviously the fighting hasn't ended, regardless of Bush's stunt on the USS Lincoln. But the war's proponents have misled the country about its costs and dangers from the beginning, when they underestimated the number of troops that would be needed and told us that it would be a "cakewalk." And they have consistently refused to say how much the occupation and reconstruction of Iraq will ultimately cost us -- although we now know the price is likely to be no less than $50 billion and perhaps much higher. B&N.com: The GOP's anger over Bill Clinton's lies involving his personal life gave birth to countless investigations and, eventually, his impeachment. If Bush did lie about WMDs, what should happen to him politically? What will happen? JC: Evidently the Republicans care far more about ancient real estate deals and oral sex than they do about the possibility that this president and his top aides lied about an imminent threat to our national security. Their self-congratulatory babble about "restoring honor and integrity" to Washington would sound better if they were willing to spend a small fraction of the money and time we wasted harassing Clinton to discover the truth about Iraq. B&N.com: The Jessica Lynch POW rescue story is being picked apart by the foreign press -- it's entirely possible that the "rescue" may have been staged to buttress flagging support for the invasion. Did the military lie about the Lynch rescue? JC: Truth is the first casualty of war, as Philip Knightley said. The Pentagon's conduct in the Lynch case seems suspicious at best. But I don't think we will know what really happened unless and until Jessica Lynch recovers her lost memory. B&N.com: Why is it that the Democrats are seemingly afraid to challenge the GOP on these alleged lies? JC: Many Democrats aren't afraid to challenge the right or this right-wing administration. The Senate Democrats, for example, are standing up against the president's attempt to pack the federal courts with ideological extremists, and they also successfully threatened to filibuster the worst aspects of the energy bill. It's true, however, that the Congressional minority leadership isn't tough enough on many issues -- and certainly isn't as aggressive as the Republicans were when they languished in the minority. But as the Democratic politicians sense the anger in their base, I think that is changing, too. B&N.com: Since you wrote Big Lies, there's been another huge tax cut enacted, with the majority of the benefits going to the rich once again. Are lies being told about the long-term impact of tax cuts for the rich at a time of massive deficits and economic uncertainty? JC: The Bush administration changes its economic estimates so often that it's almost impossible to keep up with their fictional projections and analyses. They use bogus "average" figures to mislead the public about who will benefit most from the tax cuts -- and they create rosy scenarios to make the gigantic deficits disappear magically at some future date. Meanwhile, states and cities face ruinous budget problems, and the country has lost millions of jobs. It is telling that no matter what economic situation we face, the conservative Republicans always offer the same simple-minded solution: Cut taxes for our biggest campaign contributors. B&N.com: If you had to predict, what "big lies" are coming next, as we approach the 2004 election cycle? JC: The biggest lies -- like those that distorted the 2000 and 2002 elections -- will be floated against the political opposition. The nastiest lies will be told about whoever wins the Democratic presidential nomination. The closer we get to the election, the more we will hear the kind of harsh, personal attacks that were invented to destroy the reputation and character of Al Gore. At the president's press conference the other day, a reporter asked Bush how he could possibly spend the estimated $170 million that he will collect for his campaign war chest. "Just watch," he laughed.