http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/01/opinion/01dowd.html?th&emc=th

June 1, 2008

Cult of Deception

By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON

They say that every president gets the psychoanalyst he deserves. And every Hamlet gets his Rosencrantz.

So now comes Scott McClellan, once the most loyal of the Texas Bushies, to reveal “What Happened,” as the title of his book promises, to turn W. from a genial, humble, bipartisan good ol’ boy to a delusional, disconnected, arrogant, ideological flop.

Although his analytical skills are extremely limited, the former White House press secretary — Secret Service code name Matrix — takes a stab at illuminating Junior’s bumpy and improbable boomerang journey from family black sheep and famous screw-up back to family black sheep and famous screw-up.

How did W. start out wanting to restore honor and dignity to the White House and end up scraping all the honor and dignity off the White House?

It turns out that our president is a one-man refutation of Malcolm Gladwell’s best seller “Blink,” about the value of trusting your gut.

Every gut instinct he had was wildly off the mark and hideously damaging to all concerned.

(I absolutely believe it is better late than never. Yes, McClellan should have stood up sooner, but at least he's the first to so publicly come out now, and not hide behind coded, read-between-the-lines comments of past Bush White House insiders . . . It's not an insignificant gesture . . . Many others had the opportunity, like Colin Powell, but they were cowardly, fearful or had misplaced loyalty and did not stand up . . . As far as the media's concerned, of course we all know the pressure came from the top on down. If we had a truly free press, we would not be where we are today. Betsy)

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/053108a.html

McClellan and the Media 'Enablers'

By Jeff Cohen
May 31, 2008

Editor’s Note: Scott McClellan’s new book may be welcome in that it corroborates many claims from George W. Bush’s critics. But it’s still galling that so many prominent journalists who bowed before Bush’s bullying in 2002-03 have only seen their careers flourish.
In this guest essay, media critic Jeff Cohen revisits the journalistic cowardice before the Iraq invasion even though many media stars would prefer Americans not remember:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20014.htm

Pain and Conscience

By Charles Sullivan

30/05/08 "ICH" -- -- It is evident that a substantial majority of U.S. citizens are, in principle, opposed to the most destructive governmental policies stemming from the nation’s capital. These include, but are not limited to—the continuing war and occupation of Iraq, as well as the pervasive consumer fraud that preys upon the innocent and the unwary and causes them undue hardship. These charges are born out by the abysmal approval rating of Congress and the president. It is equally evident that the government, while pretending to be sympathetic to these views, continues to carry forth those same policies both at home and abroad. It does so without the consent of the people and, therefore, it has abrogated its responsibility to them.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20013.htm

Can Truth Retain Its Independence?

By Paul Craig Roberts

30/05/08 "ICH' -- - Justin Raimondo has a good column this morning on Antiwar.com. It is written as a fundraiser. But what it shows is that journalists (and whistle-blowers) who tell the truth in America are more likely to be pummeled than rewarded, whereas those who lie for powerful interest groups live high on the hog.

It wasn’t just Bush, Cheney, and the neoconservatives who deceived us into an illegal war in behalf of a hidden agenda. It was the American media. Raimondo names some of the culprits who are complicit in the deaths of some one million Iraqis, an unknown number of Afghans, and thousands of American soldiers.

It was all for a lie. A lie told by the President of the United States and his handmaidens in the media.

This story (and Scott McClellan's book) should make our jobs a little easier . . . I wonder how many Americans will still believe that McClellan et al. didn't REALLY know what was going down in the White House?

McClellan's fooling himself (as) much the same way as Bush does (believes his own spin and propaganda) if he wants the reader to believe that "he and his subordinates were not 'employing out-and-out deception' to make their case for war in 2002".

Plausible denial, willful ignorance . . . (At least this book is a step in the right direction.)

The GWBush Administration will be remembered in history as a particular time when integrity and character were MIA in the extreme (and perhaps this will help reveal the truth behind 9/11) . . . . As one bumper sticker reads, "At least Nixon had the decency to resign."

Will anyone connected to the GWBush White House ever stand up and do the right thing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MInBl9ZB37Y&feature=related(Dave Matthews Band w/ Robert Randolph "Stand Up"

Betsy

A Quick Poll . . . Summer of Truth, 2008 . . .

What do YOU, 9/11 Blogger reader, think would be the most effective words, websites, google "this", etc . . . to put on an aerial banner?

This is a true marketing strategy . . . What will grab the most viewers' attention, the average American, who by now isn't totally oblivious to our current government's pattern of overt lies and deceit . . . What will make them want to learn more, or be angry enough to try to disprove it . . . ?

Here are the parameters: 45 characters, including spaces. All caps. No swearing or porn.

I've come up with 20 or 30 ideas . . . but would like outside input from the experts . . .

For July 4th, I'm thinking: "BE A PATRIOT, VISIT PATRIOTSQUESTION911.COM" or something like that. I also plan on another banner to tie in the troops "still dying for the 9/11 lie" as well as using "SOS" somewhere . . .

The plane banners will be flown on:

June 11th (Philadelphia to Exton, PA - 4 hours of High Exposure . . . )
July 4th (NJ shore, Cape May to Sandy Hook)
July 11th (" " )
August 11th (" ")

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19977.htm

War Abroad and Poverty at Home

By Paul Craig Roberts

23/05/08 "ICH" -- - The US Senate has voted $165 billion to fund Bush’s wars of aggression against Afghanistan and Iraq through next spring.

As the US is broke and deep in debt, every one of the $165 billion dollars will have to be borrowed. American consumers are also broke and deep in debt. Their zero saving rate means every one of the $165 billion dollars will have to be borrowed from foreigners.

The “world’s only superpower” is so broke it can’t even finance its own wars.

Each additional dollar that the irresponsible Bush Regime has to solicit from foreigners puts more downward pressure on the dollar’s value. During the eight wasted and extravagant years of the Bush Regime, the once mighty US dollar has lost about 60% of its value against the euro.

The dollar has lost even more of its value against gold and oil.

A huge thanks to Joe, and all, at "North Texans for 911 Truth" for creating and initiating the Plane Truth Project!!

http://www.911blogger.com/node/15538

I thought their idea was simplistically brilliant - remember KISS in high school (and I don't mean the band)?

So, duplicating their 9/11 truth action of May 11th, I am very excited to announce that a company has just been booked to fly an aerial 9/11 Truth banner across the Jersey Shore skies north from Cape May, the southern tip of New Jersey to Sandy Hook, NJ, on June 11, July 11 and August 11.

I am thinking, now, that I'll probably choose a different area for the banner to be flown on June 11th, since not too many people will be at the beach yet. I'm also looking into adding July 4th at the Jersey Shore, and possibly September 11th in NYC. (How cool would that be? V for Vendetta-esque.) There are new flight/zoning restrictions for NYC, but I was just told that they're still allowed to fly along the Manhattan River. Does anyone know if a banner could be seen from street level in Lower or mid Manhattan, in between buildings?

(This was in my emailbox this morning. Thought it worthwhile to share in that, like Cynthia McKinney, a rare breed in politics but maybe changing, she is willing to speak Truth to Power . . . . I'm unable to source this . . . find a url link . . . but there's this: www.CindyforCongress.org. -- Betsy)

The Uphill Battle
By Cindy Sheehan

A man may fulfill the object of his existence by asking a question he cannot answer, and attempting a task he cannot achieve.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

When one reflects on ones life, there are several ways to do it. We can look back in a linear fashion and say, for example: "When I was 11, my beloved grandmother died." "In 1975, I graduated from high school." "In 1977, I got married." "In 1979, I gave birth to my first child, a son." "In the 1980's, money was tight." You get the picture.

Or, we can look at life as a journey or path we are on. The road has been smooth, rocky, windy, narrow, or wide; we have descended into deep, dark valleys, or we have sailed along on cruise control, until an unexpected obstacle arises and there's either a crash or a near miss.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/usa/2008/05/former_clinton_whitehouse_aide.html

Former Clinton Whitehouse aide: We're in for a "cataclysmic" Bush endgame

Sidney Blumenthal says Bush feels "unconstrained."
May 20, 2008 1:52 PM

Sidney Blumenthal, journalist, former Clinton White House aide and senior advisor to Hillary Clinton, today spoke at Third Way to promote his new book "The Strange Death of Republican America".

He said that the US faces a "cataclysmic" final few months of the Bush term, and that Bush is determined to leave a lasting mark on the world regardless of who is elected the next president.

"Bush feels unconstrained right now, and a sense of urgency," Blumenthal said, later referring to a Jerusalem Post story that warns Bush plans to attack Iran before his term ends in January.

On the battle for the 2008 election, Blumenthal said the Democrats are mistaken in their effort to define John McCain as offering a third Bush term. He said that's inaccurate and the public won't buy it. "It's a hard sell," he said. McCain has other weaknesses the Dems should press harder, Blumenthal said.

(Note: Just a plug and an FYI . . . "War, Inc." is being released on DVD July 1, 2008 . . . . Betsy)

http://socialistworker.org/2008/05/20/telling-truths

Column: Anthony Arnove

Telling Truths That Can't Be Said

A look at John Cusack's satire War, Inc., and why we desperately need more commentary like it today.

May 20, 2008

IN THE Orwellian world of U.S. politics, often, it takes artists to say the truth that otherwise can't be said--or heard.

Stanley Kubrick brought home the reality of militarism and the madness of U.S. nuclear doctrine in Dr. Strangelove as no nonfiction work of the time could. Sidney Lumet's Network did the same for the corporate takeover of our culture.

Today, John Cusack's War, Inc. fires a similar shot across the bow of our tortured political discourse.

War, Inc. is a Swiftian allegory of the world not as it might be in some possible future, but as it is today, with a performance from Ben Kingsley as memorable as Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove. (It also features a deconstruction by Hilary Duff of her own fame and our twisted, sexist culture that has to be seen to be believed.)

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/052008.html

Bush's Endless Hypocrisy on Terror

By Robert Parry
May 21, 2008

Is a government guilty of terrorism if it harbors known terrorists? What should one say about a country that permits open fund-raising on behalf of a terrorist implicated in the mass killing of civilians?

What about a government that secretly arms a guerrilla army that wantonly kills and abuses civilians while seeking to overthrow an elected government?

If your answer to those questions is to recite George W. Bush’s dictum that a government that harbors or helps terrorists should be punished just like the terrorists, then you must turn your wrath on the U.S. government and the Bush family -- guilty on all the above points.

But the U.S. political/media system continues to view the world through a cracked lens that focuses outrage on “enemy” regimes while refracting away a comparable fury from similar actions by U.S. officials.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19946.htm

The Conservative Movement: From Failure to Threat

By Paul Craig Roberts

18/05/08 "ICH" -- - U.C. Berkeley tenured law professor John Yoo epitomizes the failure of the conservative movement in America. Known as "the torture professor," Yoo penned the Department of Justice (sic) memos that gave a blank check to sadistic Americans to torture detainees at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. The human rights violations that John Yoo sanctioned destroyed America's reputation and exposed the Bush regime as more inhumane than the Muslim terrorists. The acts that Yoo justified are felonies under U.S. law and war crimes under the Nuremberg standard.

Yoo's torture memos are so devoid of legal basis that his close friend and fellow conservative member of the Federalist Society, Jack Goldsmith, rescinded the memos when he was appointed head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel.

Yoo's extremely shoddy legal work and the fervor with which he served the evil intentions of the Bush regime have led to calls from distinguished legal scholars for Yoo's dismissal from Berkeley's Boalt Hall.

Four more short clips . . . .

Part 2, Daniel Hopsicker:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3089193736577617980

Part 3, Daniel Hopsicker:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4092037229001509820

Jon Gold:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6777378964416369440

Michael Jackman:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2738009372981067517

I will re-post this with the correct searchable title for Google Video (I'm new at this), but for the time being, here's Daniel Hopsicker's talk from this past Saturday (with a Jackman Jam intro) - one of the most fascinating and compelling speakers I've had the pleasure of listening to not only in the "9/11 truth" genre . . . As they say, you could hear a pin drop. - Betsy.

"It is natural for man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts ... For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst, and to provide for it."
-- Patrick Henry, 1736-1799, American attorney, orator, revolutionary.