ok, not to be too inquizitive, but lying about getting a blow job from someone who is not your wife is impeachable, but lying to the american public in order to garner support for an unneccessary war is not impeachable?
what ever happened to priorities?
Study: False statements preceded war By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 32 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
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The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."
The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration's position that the world community viewed Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat.
"The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world," Stanzel said.
The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both.
"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."
Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.
Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida.
The center said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning on Sept. 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews.
"The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war," the study concluded.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080123/ap_on_go_pr_wh/misinformation_study
"Some journalists — indeed, even some entire news organizations — have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq," it said.
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On the Net:
Center For Public Integrity: http://www.publicintegrity.org/default.aspx
Fund For Independence in Journalism: http://www.tfij.org/
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5 comments:
I think the main problem is the big businesses running the political parties have to control the elections in order to the perpetuate this environment that helps the top few get more power and wealth with corporate welfare (including war profiteering) and corporate mergers.
Everything going on is so wrong headed it is unbelievable. I think of it like this… There are what... 5 or 6 billion people in the world. Besides all the lives and destruction, we’ve pissed away almost $200 / person for every man woman and child on earth. That includes all the little girls taking showers in the gutters in India, all the people in China, starving people dying of AIDS in Africa, everyone in Iraq, Canada, New York, Cleveland, everywhere. (That’s the only way I can get a handle on how much money that is.) How did we pay for it? Not with our taxes (our leaders lowered those for the wealthy); we just printed more money. Heck, we couldn’t have enough printing presses to print that much money... we must be just making up numbers. Now, the economy is screwed up and what do we do? Print more money to buy votes with tax rebates. Maybe a better idea would be to put some people to work fixing the bridges that are falling down or something.
The establishment takes their control very seriously. They had to go to court in Nevada to appeal the decision that allowed Kucinich to participate in the MSNBC debates because including him “would deprive MSNBC of their free-speech rights”. People in Washington State tried to revive democracy by putting a referendum on the ballot that the top two vote getters in the primary would face off in the general election regardless of political party. It won overwhelmingly. The Democrats and Republicans teamed up and went to court and had the referendum declared unconstitutional.
For all the things Bush and Cheney have done to our country they should be impeached even if it is on the last day of their rule. There has to be consequences to be sure that this never happens to America again
ive been thinking about this issue alot....there is this apathy and lack of knowledge on the true nature of te world i tink
god as ijacked the country!!
someow, the right wing has convinced many folks that it is more important to vote on sexual preference, god in school, etc. etc. than it is to be financially ok.....not jobs, not health care, not fair playing fields, not sustainable communities, but instead, vote for god...
and yet, in many ways, these people preaching the god vote, tis is exactly the kind of thing jesus took issue with....you treat the poor and the lost kindly, help to raise them up and instead, we are raising up the money lenders...
Sorry this is so long…
I’ve been thinking about this stuff for at least 8 years, now. At first, I was really depressed about the future. Then, I decided people would deserve what got if they voted for someone who was obviously both stupid and evil (his father was smart and evil and grandfather…). After the shenanigans that occurred in Florida, I decided that the people didn’t deserve this and became really depressed again.
I think you are right about the religion problem, though there is more to it. Most of the “bible-beaters”, that I know, really are good people who want to do the right thing. Unfortunately, many think that faith means believing, trusting and following blindly without thinking. There are many, many insurance, sales of goods and services, etc. scams in the “Christian” community because the crooks take advantage of the followers’ blind faith that a fellow “Christian” would never rip them off. I think the religious community has been hijacked by scamsters (Pharisees?). In turn, the religious community has hijacked local politics by running a church candidate in both parties to insure they can take every office… also, school boards, teaching positions, etc. The political parties have also been taken over by the really big scamsters to insure that they keep their power and wealth and the rest of us in our place.
Look at what is happening with the presidential election. We’ve been told we have a choice between Bush Lite, a guy who gives nice speeches, and a bunch of doofuses. If they want nice speeches why doesn’t our media give us the second runner-up in Miss America contest? She’s female, Native American, Hispanic, and Japanese, has a gay father and is a lot prettier and more talented than the guy running. Oh, I forgot she’s not old enuf. They could start a movement to change the constitution. Sure beats covering real issues.
I think a big problem is the way people classify themselves and others into “us” and “them” groups. It makes is really easy for people to justify irrational hate of those not in the “us” group. For example, I remember talking to someone who is normally a good outgoing, civic minded person about the corruption involving Carlyle Group, Halliburton, and Blackwater and the irrational killing in Iraq and she said she agreed, but she was more worried about getting the anti-gay marriage amendment passed so she was voting for GWB. I asked how this amendment would affect her marriage and she just said she thought that marriage was supposed to be between a man and a woman. So, now we have this mess! And, she has her amendment? Sheesh!
As far as Cheney goes, I think when he went hunting and shot that old guy in the face was most telling. He was apparently hunting (while drunk) quail that were released from a cage with a $30,000 gun. If you give someone with this mindset the ultimate weapon… the US military… a chance to hunt a human being without leaving his stuffed chair… Remember his buddy, GWB, raising his fist and yelling, “Feels Good!” when the bombing started. Besides all the money and twisted political rational for Iraq, I think this is the real reason. And, the reason we have to somehow choose our leaders carefully.
The economic stimulus package seems really weird, though. I think George Washington said something like, “you don’t get out of debt by borrowing more money.” So what are they going to do? Borrow (print) more money to give to a bunch of people so they can go to Sprawlmart and buy more crap from China.
no, they are basically going to give you an advance on your tax return without calling it your tax return, and then if you didnt make enough money to cover the advance, you will have to pay it back in another way....
also, another interest cut is not going to do anything for the people who are not in a position to be spending money on credit cards or taking out loans...and even walmart is in trouble, whether due to political ire or poverty, their sales are way down ( check out the writing on the wal at
http://www.thewritingonthewal.net/)
i agree, it is a complicated issue, religion, but this is exactly what i mean, as if there is no awareness on how current policies are hurting them....cause afterall, bush is a christian, right?
You are right, it is complicated and interconnected. And I get really riled about the stupidity of it all; that’s why I started rambling about so many things at once. I was talking more about the USA debt than the individuals who finance what they think they should have but can’t afford and the greedy loan sharks who take advantage of them. (Though, both kinds of debt are connected and caused by the same mindset of indiscriminate borrowing.) The Fed can cut interest rates only a tiny bit more before they’ll be paying interest to get institutions to take their money.
I know first hand of a Hispanic couple in CA who “bought” a really nice house and a few acres. Their house payment was over $4,000 / month. To make the payments they rented it out for far less than 4,000, found a free place to stay, and both worked several jobs. Each month only about $50 was going on the principal. They soon fell behind in their payments and were begging everyone they knew that had money for a loan to catch up. The best thing they can do is walk away from it. You’d think anyone would have more sense than to make a losing investment like that. To make matters worse, property values have dropped because this happened to so many people.
The ignorance and apathy is indeed appalling and one of the causes is hypocritical religious fanaticism that blinds followers of reality and morality.
One good thing about this mess is that whenever someone loses money someone else is making it… which means there are opportunities to be had if you can find them.
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