We've Never Been Stay the Course...Dunk Away!

"Political language. . . is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind." - George Orwell

Welcome back to never never land. Just when one thought incredulity of Bush commentary could rise no higher, we have this gem. Last week, in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulus, Bush said that his administration has never been "stay the course" on Iraq. This after the past few years of saying nothing but "stay the course." See here.

But here are some lowlights...

Bush: ‘We’ve Never Been Stay The Course’

During an interview today on ABC’s This Week, President Bush tried to distance himself from what has been his core strategy in Iraq for the last three years. George Stephanopoulos asked about James Baker’s plan to develop a strategy for Iraq that is “between ’stay the course’ and ‘cut and run.’”

Bush responded, ‘We’ve never been stay the course, George!’

Bush is wrong:

BUSH: We will stay the course. [8/30/06]

BUSH: We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. [8/4/05]

BUSH: We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the temptation is to try to get the President or somebody to put a timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We’re just going to stay the course. [12/15/03]

BUSH: And my message today to those in Iraq is: We’ll stay the course. [4/13/04]

BUSH: And that’s why we’re going to stay the course in Iraq. And that’s why when we say something in Iraq, we’re going to do it. [4/16/04]

BUSH: And so we’ve got tough action in Iraq. But we will stay the course. [4/5/04]

STEPHANOPOULOS: James Baker says that he’s looking for something between “cut and run” and “stay the course.”

BUSH: Well, hey, listen, we’ve never been “stay the course,” George. We have been — we will complete the mission, we will do our job, and help achieve the goal, but we’re constantly adjusting to tactics. Constantly.

Let's see that again to belive it.

If that utter revisionism isn't enough, check out the recent amazing semantic juggling by the VP in charge, Cheney. Dick talks about the "no-brainer" (using water or a dunk in extracting info from detainees). Good thing for him that Bush passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Enter damage control. Squealer, aka Tony Snow(job), blows the spin, claiming nothing of the sort happened...nothing to see here...move along. Just when one thought things couldn't get stranger, the Orwellian Minitrue spew just keeps on coming!

See here or here or here or here! No biggie, right? Torture. It's the new Habeas Corpus. Or, better yet, as the LA Times Howard Rodman recently put it, McCarthyism without due process.

Just wave a magic wand and the past is not just forgotten, it's changed to match present agendas. Opportunistic flip flopping galore. Let the sheeple beware.

Nevermind the old Clintonian debates over what the meaning of "is" is. We've yet again surprisingly reached new ground in absurdity and outright lies. Who will notice? Stay tuned November 7. But, don't hold your breath. Many Dems have been marching to the same draconian beat of that same imperial drummer and many in the public simply continue to fiddle while the rest of the world burns.

Hard to say it better than this...

Pat Tillman gave up his NFL career to fight the so-called war on terror. He was killed in Afghanistan and was given hero status. The Bush administration lied about the nature of his death to his family and the public while they used him as a poster boy of courage, especially to recruit more young people to die in far away lands for ill defined and often factless purposes. However, Pat was killed by his own troops with "friendly fire." Would it be we all had such friends...and the lies and charades of our government and it's illegal war go on. In fact, there is some evidence of dissent in the ranks which cloud circumstances of Pat's death even more (especially since he grew to oppose the war!). The Tillman family has expressed their feelings of betrayal in public many times. Most in media have unfortunately yawned, as in virually all the cases of recent government scandal and deception.

Here is what Pat's brother, Kevin, who served with him, had to say about Pat on the occasion of his would-be upcoming birthday and on what is happening to the country they both served.

Hard to put it better than Kevin. Abroad we have endless wars against invisible enemies while mounting massive civillian casualties, and at home lies and deceit to justify the disintigration of our entire legal culture and tradition. As the Marine Major General Smedley Butler stated in the 1935 classic, War is a Racket. Just look at how much our country is sliding backwards...Kevin has noticed. Have we?

Historian Howard Zinn reminds us why war fails and states in "Just War,"

"Perhaps it will take a combination of factors to end war. It will become intolerable for the people and impractical for the Establishment. And the crucial factor making it impractical will be, as it was for the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the United States in Vietnam, that the citizens of the war-making nations will no longer tolerate the deaths of their offspring and the theft of their national wealth. There is still time to make this twenty-first century different from the last century. But we must all play a part."

Let's get busy...

More to Come...Hopefully not all bad...

Just back from all the travels, grading, and the busy busy...plus the upcoming big show.

Soon to come...9/11, Dogmatic Purity, and False Populism; 9/11 and collective memory; and a public lecture on 9/11, Propaganda, and the Culture of Fear here.

Meahwhile...Habeas Corpus, R.I.P. So sad. And don't forget...Torture is wrong. America shrugs...and then this...

What of charges of possible genocide? The Bush administration denied accounts while offering no explanation. The media have yawned. The new Military Commission Act covered everyone's asses, just like Alberto Gonzales said it would.

Even conservative estimates are double the Bush administration figures, which don't cite any sources. No accountability. No transparancy. No democracy. October surprises galore.

It is very difficult to call any of this "progress." Though the folks at Faux Knews (aka, Fox) sit and spin with all their might...

History could teach us a thing or two...