John excerpted a portion of the Senate Intel report already; here are a few more bits from the executive summary:
* The Secretary of Defense’s statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information.
* The Intelligence Community did not confirm that Muhammad Atta met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in 2001 as the Vice President repeatedly claimed.
No wonder Pat Roberts parked his fat ass on this report for four years running. If your only care in the world is how well your party does in the next election, accountability like this means nothing but pain. They lied about f*cking everything. All those cynical advertisements and speeches waving the 9/11 dead like a bloody shirt? They were lying. They were lying in the somber speeches to international bodies. They were lying when they leaned forward on Meet the Press and said “Look, Tim, here’s what we know.” They lied in townhall meetings, in official reports and in anonymous leaks to the press. Judith Miller wasn’t “proved fucking right about everything.” She was lied to. The Iraq Study Group didn’t ‘reinterpret’ existing intelligence, it made up its own conclusions and then hunted around for irrelevant scraps to back them up.
After Bill Clinton got caught lying about blowjob, nobody took his word anymore on the topic of sex. I can’t think of a single Clinton partisan who didn’t acknowledge that his word was pretty much forfeit at least when it came to his unmentionables. The president! What will we tell the children!
So riddle me this. I think a fair case can be made that the Bush crowd lied more often and more meaningfully than about one crappy blowjob. Yet when noise comes out of an administration official concerning national security, some people still listen. This Sunday some Bushie will sit down for a chat show and the host will nod along as the administration has some credibility left.
It’s sad to think that America has fallen so far as a nation that we no longer care when the President lies to our face. Have we really debased ourselves so badly in such a short time, or were rightwing partisans faking their deep concern about the honor of the office? Six of one, half dozen of the other. Either way it’s a depressing spectacle to watch.
Jay B.
Maybe Tim. The media sucks.
That said, Bush is polling at 25%, so it seems that, despite the media, the American people know.
Extra special bonus point: Clinton’s approval rating spiked during Impeachment.
4tehlulz
Meh. It’s just Washington. No biggie.
/Washington Press Corps
TheFountainHead
What’s shocking isn’t so much how much they lied, what’s shocking to me is that there just doesn’t seem to be one damn thing they didn’t lie or distort completely out of context in the run up to this war.
Anything? Anybody?
Any honesty? Anywhere?
El Cid
When I talk to the people around me, it’s not that they don’t ‘care’ that they think Bush & co. lied to us about so many things — including the war — and still do.
Most are just pretty resigned to thinking that not much can be done to fix that problem.
Maybe this will be the plus side of the major news producers’ rediscovery of accountability if Obama is elected. It would be a sort of implicit acknowledgment that they would regard Democrats as more likely to care about such allegations while Republicans are pretty much willing to respond with a big couple of middle fingers.
Monica
I think a fair case can be made that the Bush crowd lied more often and more meaningfully than about one crappy blowjob.
Crappy? I take offense at that, as I pride myself on my blowjobs.
The Disgruntled Chemist
Yep.
Br'er Bear
Why do you assume that Clinton lied about “one crappy blowjob”?
I bet there was more than one and they were mind-scrambling good hummers!
At least I hope they were worth lying for. This war? Not so much worth it.
4tehlulz
>>one crappy blowjob.
How do you know it was crappy? Did Bill tell you?
Marcus Wellby
Republican Politico: What’s past is past, lets move forward.
Democratic Politico: Wah! I am scared of Republicans, lets place nice!
Me: Just don’t care anymore. My faith in this country, my fellow citizens, and our government is pretty much nil. I will focus on my wife, family and mind my own business. And, until a viable third party comes along, my voting days are over.
Dreggas
well it would be crappy if it followed the anal sex…just sayin’
r€nato
if you think that is bad, just wait until the current illegitimate occupant of the White House departs on Jan 20, and what we learn after that.
I’ll bet $1000 we find out that those illegal domestic spying powers we so desperately need to fight the terra-ists, were used to gather intel on Democrats including Kerry ’04.
kwAwk
I suppose we can blame Bill for this mess to some degree. Thanks to him and a bunch of right wing nutzos the word impeachment has come to mean political prosecution.
I suspect it is why the Bushies are so not afraid of the impeachment issue.
Dreggas
The only way real healing can begin is to have everything exposed and purged.
Marcus Wellby
Yeah, well cowardly Democrats kind of help too…
Caidence (fmr. Chris)
That’s a very interesting idea. “As President, if you choose to blatantly lie about something, let it be about something that the People can’t tread lightly.”
Dreggas
Gitmo Propaganda as well:
Disgusting H/T Sully.
4tehlulz
>>I suspect it is why the Bushies are so not afraid of the impeachment issue.
That and no Republican in the Senate would vote to convict.
Davebo
I’ve got to chime in with the others here.
The worst blowjob I’ve ever gotten was pretty fucking great!
Dennis - SGMM
The holder of the office is the person who imbues it with honor. If the president is someone like FDR who puts the interests of the people first then it’s an honorable office. Roosevelt’s supporters didn’t need to bludgeon his critics with the honor of the office, the honor was manifest. If the president is someone like George W. Bush, who acts as a smirking cheerleader for some of the worst ideas to ever come down the pike, then his partisans have to wrap themselves in the flag and beat his critics with the Presidential Seal.
D.N. Nation
FWIW, I don’t know anyone outside of the usual few who believe anything the administration says about Iran.
Dennis - SGMM
Know how to tell when you’ve received a great blowjob?
You have to pull the sheets out of the crack of your ass.
passerby
The silver lining to the 8 years of a lying administration is that the voting populace now knows how casually these lies can be proffered.
We know what the lies sound like, we know what they feel like and we know what they look like.
I think that’s a huge reason why Obama’s candidacy has resonated so widely. We believe he is telling the truth because we know the truth when we hear it.
Terry McCauliff appears batshit insane because he is still operating from a position of spin (=lies). It’s not so effective anymore.
T
BH-Buck
Or “park grass”.
Or bucket seat, leather upholstery.
Or…
This is fun. Join in! (hehehe)
Joshua
I was gonna make another post about the “crappy blowjob” comment, but I see its been well covered. As it should!
Anyway, this was the point John Stewart was hammering Scotty on a few days ago. Scotty was saying it wasn’t willful deception (actually I believe Scotty doesn’t really believe that, he’s merely hedging) and Stewart was saying all the evidence points to the fact that it was. Obviously.
BH-Buck
About the eight years of lying to our faces and no one giving a damn…
Trust me. When Obama becomes president, the dark, gray clouds of “not giving a damn” will part and republican oversight will kick into super-high gear.
You know, much like when Bill lead the country.
Crust
Time to start impeachment hearings in the House? I think (as I commented/hinted at in a previous thread) that’s the right thing to do. But there’s no getting around the fact that it’s politically difficult. The media would have a class A hissy fit, merits be damned. The Democrats are looking for a landslide as it is, why throw a massive monkey wrench into the system? Maybe impeach the lame duck president after November just to — belatedly — set the right precedent and maybe stem the flood of presidential blanket pardons?
As an aside, John Yoo of all people thinks impeachment is justifiable (though not on the basis of anything he was involved in, naturally).
passerby
Joshua,
You illustrate the point I was making upstream:
People know the truth when they hear it.
Why is it that you and I think that Scotty’s hedging? Without being part of an inner circle we “know” that of course it was willfully deceiving, AND we “know” Scotty’s not coming clean about it either.
“Fool me once, shame on…shame on you, fool me…uh…you can’t get fooled again.”
T
Dreggas
Push your nuts back through your penis?
Dennis - SGMM
By losing Congress, Bill handed the Republicans a club. They controlled the committees and they used their positions to mount endless investigations. When Bush was elected they went into reverse and launched no investigations – in fact when allegations of wrongdoing surfaced they went out of their way to quash them. The remainder of those fine patriots (Whomever of them is left after November) will spend Obama’s presidency whining loudly about lack of oversight and Democratic witch hunts.
The real good that could be done, although it will likely be left to historians or investigative reporters, will be to determine how the system of checks and balances so comprehensively broke down. Prosecuting any of the Bushies is likely to be a dead letter but preventing another president from trashing the Constitution isn’t.
BH-Buck
Dreggas, now THAT’S a BJ!
passerby
“…likely to be a dead letter…”
Take heart Dennis, depending on where we get our info, the prosecution of the Cheney/Bush cabal is close at hand.
Buckle your seat belts and get the popcorn: The current administration will be removed from office before the end of the year.
T
Crust
renato:
That would not surprise me. Nor would it surprise me if the Bushies spied on the press.
Dennis - SGMM
Win
Jay B.
Just don’t care anymore. My faith in this country, my fellow citizens, and our government is pretty much nil. I will focus on my wife, family and mind my own business. And, until a viable third party comes along, my voting days are over.
K. Bye.
Punchy
Isn’t this exactly what we were told we’d see if Bush ordered another attack on another country?
They’re claiming it’s becuz of the myriad screw-ups, but my guess is if you’re going to use the AF to bomb, you’d better have leaders in there that aren’t going to second-guess you.
Dreggas
*bows*
Dreggas
I always have this image in my head of an old playboy cartoon about the invention of the french horn, the inventor hands this long straight horn to some chick and says “give it a blow”. Of course she sucks and the end result is the french horn as it is now, of course he says “I didn’t mean like that”.
Liz
I think it boils down to three factions:
1. Those of us who point at the screen and scream in anguish, frustration and rage at the stupidity and lies.
2. Those who really, really don’t want to admit to themselves that they supported a fuck-up. Denial is a powerful force. No one wants to admit that they voted in a liar, and will ‘forgive’ a lot.
3. Those who are just so bloody stupid that they accept what the bobbleheads on the TV are saying as fact because it’s on TV.
cp
What drives me nuts is how people make the case that we don’t really _need_ or _we_are_better_off_not_knowing what the government is really up to because we are safer off not knowing. Are we really becoming communists where we have become so cynical that we just assume that we must trust “Dear leader” to take care of us?
Brachiator
No one wants to have to admit that a president, of whatever party, sent men and women to die or to be maimed, over a bullshit lie.
And we can talk about impeachment until you are blue in the face. Where do the people who supported or voted for this president go to atone for their responsibility? And what about the people who kinda opposed the war, but who could not be much bothered to get out of their comfort zone and more continually and actively support it?
Jody
I’ve been having a lot of fun with this one. I’ve been emailing it to my winger friends and relatives (and yes, they still support Bush) and saying “So, is it STILL about the lying?”
So far I’ve received one rambling screed about how this is different and excusable, and one “fuck you”.
Chris Johnson
Punchy- good! If they are all going to resign rather than carry out orders that would lead to the destruction of the military and then our country, I’m proud of them.
The truth will come out.
patroclus
The salacious Starr report detailed in full-blown factual style the existence of 9 blow jobs – not one. Doesn’t this blog know history??
Of course, none of those bj’s killed 4000+ U.S. troops, caused 30,000+ U.S. troop casualties, led to millions of refugees, countless thousands of innocent deaths and has cost us upwards of $3 trillion; nor did the bj’s ruin America’s reputation by shredding the Geneva Conventions, turning GITMO into a prison camp or started a worldwide gulag with extraordinary rendition galore.
ThymeZone
Ever notice how just a couple letters can turn a whole idea around? I mean, if somebody were to say that.
Jon H
“The Secretary of Defense’s statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information.”
But hey, they needed that propaganda to justify work on nuclear bunker busters.
Jon H
Ooh, look: Pat Roberts’ responses to Democrats’ “myths” about the Phase II report.
Can we get this guy a challenger for his seat?
Jon H
Apparently, Roberts is up for re-election this year. According to the Great Orange Satan, the polling has Roberts at 50, his Dem challenger Slattery at 38.
Might be worth throwing some money at Slattery. He might not beat Roberts, but we can make Roberts sweat.
Martin
People flew planes into our buildings. Most people would have believed anything told to them to get revenge for that.
loquacious mute
Bush misused Iraq intelligence: Senate report
WASHINGTON (Reuters)
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said: “We had the intelligence that we had, fully vetted, but it was wrong. We certainly regret that and we’ve taken measures to fix it.”
Okay maybe I have a problem with logic cause I am not a bright as Dana, but if you fully vetted something then wouldn’t you know it was wrong? I’m just askin.
Also a little too late to fix the intelligence since the war is 5 years old now. But if you are sincere than why not just give us the real intelligence that you fixed to look like the intelligence that you now say needs fixing.
4tehlulz
I know this is sarcasm because any adult that actually is not as bright as Dana would not be able to put together a coherent sentence.
Like that one. shi-
montysano
Jay B. said:
Oh, you crazy kids and your optimism 8-)
Grampa is polling even with the MUP, and around my workplace people are saying there’s no way they’d vote for Obama, ’cause:
a) he’s a socialist;
b) he’s a Muslim;
c) he’s a black supremacist;
d) Sean Hannity says there’s a tape coming out where Michelle O. says, if you squint your ears just right, “Whitey”.
I live in Alabama. YMMV.
gex
Sadly, just the other day hardest-core Republican at my work was complaining about how harsh the media has been towards Bush, that they gave Clinton a walk, and he hopes that if Obama wins, they’ll use their newfound backbone to challenge him.
I wonder what color the sky is there…
Blue Shark
…And one has to wonder
…about the third rail of politically sensitive subjects…
…Just what happened on September 11th 2001?
…Cause the Administrations “official story” is even less believable than the Iraq Threat story crap.
…Just sayin’
Rome Again
I might have been able to say that if I had given it to a better partner.
Dan
The reason some people still listen is fear. And also, what are the implications when you stop pretending they tell the truth? That’s pretty scary as well.
Rome Again
You had me (on this thread) until the word “nuts”.
Just sayin!
4tehlulz
SOCIAL SECURITY DID WTC
Rome Again
You lose membership in the “I’m with them” club. a
Personally I think that’s a good thing, but, I’m not typical.
Rome Again
We lost our footing when we sought revenge. Revenge never does anything for anyone.
dbrown
We could always hope that a few Iraqi fathers who lost their family’s will some day stop by and pay bush whack and bloody hands cheney visits to express their deep concern about the lies and war crimes; justices would finally be served.
justme
justme
WTF?
Sorry, let’s try that again…
Well, if one had, you’d have to admit that it was one holy hell of a blowjob. Forget the sheets, if you have to pull an entire mid-eastern country or two, the shreds of international law, and the sad, broken prospects of America’s economic future out of your buttcrack, that’s a hummer.
Bruce Moomaw
Ah, but Tim, this is DIFFERENT. They were lying in order to get us into a war, which for some reason is always a patriotic and therefore forgivable kind of lie (as people circa 1898 and 1964 would also assure you).