Molly Ivins: An old, ugly, mean trick (BushCo attempts at intimidation)

[Dudley_DUright]

We've had two nifty opportunities to study the Bush spin machine at work here lately, both offering such a neat schematic of how it's done one is tempted to applaud. Or something. (Molly, may I suggest :puke: is what you are looking for here?)

The first was the counter-offensive launched by President Bush on Veterans Day against those who have the nerve (!) to notice that the administration manipulated intelligence in order to justify an unnecessary war. Bush, indignation to the fore, righteously denounced his critics for "baseless attacks," "false charges" and "rewriting history" because they are "fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments."

That may be true, but it's also true that the Senate investigation did not look at whether the administration manipulated information once they got it. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence specifically refrained from looking at whether or not the administration manipulated pre-war intelligence. Got that? All it has done so far is look at the pre-war intelligence by the agencies. It has yet to do the second part of its job, looking at how that intelligence was used or misused.

<snip>

The treatment of Rep. John Murtha is a classic example. Murtha, stalwart supporter of the military, described Iraq as a "flawed policy wrapped in an illusion" and called for pulling troops out "at the earliest practicable date." White House spokesman Scott McClellan promptly denounced Murtha for "endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic Party.'

more...

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=19917

[papau]

1. Another Great Molly Ivins report - thanks for posting! :-)

:-)

[Bluzmann57]

2. Our local paper carries Ivins

and sometimes someone will write in to "demand" that she either be replaced or that they add some other idiot, like coulter. They also carry Krauthammer, so Ivins balances him out. It's gotten pretty funny actually, to see the whining that goes on about her columns. It is rare when people write in to gripe about Krauthammer because we know about true balance. I did email someone and threaten to pull my subscription though, if Ivins got pulled. The guy emailed me back and said they had no intention of dropping her.

[acmavm]

3. Ours doesn't. Maybe because I live in Omaha, NE (redneck central). n/t

[Cassandra]

4. "harmonic convergence of b.s."

A truly great line, although it apparently is Eric Alterman's.