Robert Parry: Bush's Long War with the Truth

[ProSense]

Bush's Long War with the Truth
By Robert Parry
January 2, 2006


George W. Bush’s dysfunctional relationship with the truth seems to be shaped by two complementary factors – a personal compulsion to say whatever makes him look good at that moment and a permissive environment that rarely holds him accountable for his lies.

How else to explain his endless attempts to rewrite history and reshape his own statements, a pattern on display again in his New Year’s Day comments to reporters in San Antonio, Texas? In that session, as Bush denied misleading the public, he twice again misled the public.

Bush launched into a defense of his honesty by denying that he lied when he told a crowd in Buffalo, N.Y., in 2004 that “by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires – a wiretap requires a court order.”

Two years earlier, Bush had approved rules that freed the National Security Agency to use warrantless wiretaps on communications originating in the United States without a court order. But Bush still told the Buffalo audience, “Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so.”

On New Year’s Day 2006, Bush sought to explain those misleading comments by contending. “I was talking about roving wiretaps, I believe, involved in the Patriot Act. This is different from the N.S.A. program.”


a lot more...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/010206.html

[peaches2003]

1. Why does he lie?

Because he can. And there are never consequences. Why that's true is the real question.

[Peanutcat]

3. Why?

Because he and his cronies are in power, that's why. Anyone who speaks up against him is labeled a "traitor" or worse.

[Peanutcat]

2. Would Bush . . . . .

Know what a lie was if it bit him in the ass? It's like he doesn't realize that all his comments and speeches and such are preserved for posterity. We can go back and point out when he's lied on certain subjects, we can go back and point out where he's flipped-flopped on certain subjects. Does he not know that we can see him and his administration for what they are?