propoganda

From time to time we have Republican propogandists come by and regurgitate warmed over (not even fresh!) Republican talking points. When the complete falsehood of their claims is pointed out, they almost never respond, simply waiting around for another chance to regurgitate the pre-digested pap Rush Limbaugh or Bill "bomb America" O'Rielly have fed to them.

Our main pet regurgitator has been "MrMe," and his latest is here. Interestingly in that latest rant he seems to be claiming some kind of censorship around here even though we have been approving his comments for months and months despite their complete lack of substance. And, ironically, if he simply signed up he wouldn't need our approval to post, but that task seems to have evaded his abilities. So, instead, if we don't approve his comments fast enough, he claims censorship.

But that point aside, the simple fact is he is typical of a whole group of apologists for the right wing extremists and very little of what he says has a grain of truth. It isn't even traditional Republican conservativism he supports because traditional Republican conservativism didn't include the idea of giving the Federal government the power to push aside all states rights, Constitutional rights and checks and balances on the President to allow the President to run the nation like a dictator. But the current worshippers of the Bush Idol are more than willing to see unprecedented power concentrated in the hands of Bush.

This comes from Bob Fertik, our friend at Democrats.com. Seems the media jumped on a story about terrorists coming into the US on student visas. This is expected to be something Bush focuses on in his misState of the Union message and is the latest attempt by Bush to boost his sagging popularity (now finally dipping below Nixon's lowest low) using fear. There are two problems with this. First, people aren't turning to him and trusting him when he whips up the fear machine. They actually realize that if they are still afraid, it shows he has failed. But more importantly, it seems the whole story is based on one single document that has been unsubstantiated. This is reminiscent of the use of false intelligence reports to claim that Iraq was getting enriched uranium from Africa which was used as a (false) excuse to justify invasion. That was also unsubstantiated rumor.

So here, in Bob Fertik's words, is the scoop:

The incomparable Joseph Cannon has once again scooped the media by discovering the Big Lie that will be the centerpiece of Bush's SOTU: the fictional tale of an Al-Zarqawi plot (under direct written orders from Bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri) to send 19 terrorists into the U.S using student visas.

After reviewing the three published versions of this story [see Fertik's diary for his review of each version], it's perfectly clear there are no credible facts - no independently verified documents, no identified witnesses, and no suspects. The whole story hinges on a single document, which was not seen by any of the reporters and probably does not exist.

Bush is very proud that Saddam Hussein is captured even though this event has nothing to do with the 9/11 attack on America and does nothing what so ever to make us safer and hasn't really improved the lives of Iraqis, making the lives of Iraqi women worse.

But tonight (by 10 PM Easter time or 6 AM local Bagdhad time) there will be a circus of back patting as Saddam Hussein is executed in the name of false democracy. Somehow this will be some kind of "Mission Accomplished" moment.

But what I want to know is this:

Where is Osama bin Laden?

Why did we ever invade Iraq in the first place?

What is our exit strategy?

When will we get back to fighting al-Qaeda?

Meanwhile, the White House is dodging these very questions by saying that the capture of bin Laden is merely a "success that hasn't happened yet."

Yes...five fucking years after the attacks.