A Government of Lies Must Be Brought Down

[babylonsister]

A Government of Lies Must Be Brought Down
Submitted by dlindorff on Wed, 2008-01-23 19:20.
By Dave Lindorff



When journalists are caught lying outright, they can be fired, and can even find their careers terminated. Take Janet Cooke, the Washington Post reporter who made up a story about a young drug user. A decade after her firing, she was earning $6/hour as a Liz Claiborne clerk in a department store. Or consider Stephen Glass, who famously made up stories at the New Republic. He landed on his feet as a fiction writer, but his journalism days are over.

So what to do about George Bush and his gang of fabulists, who now, thanks to a study by the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism, stand shown to have lied to Congress and the American people 935 times in what the two organizations say was "part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

Clearly we’ve come a long way from that first President named George who, at least in popular mythology, "couldn’t tell a lie."

And while it is a given in American political life that "politicians lie," we’re talking here about some whoppers that weren’t just about self-promotion, like Hillary Clinton’s claims that she was involved in all of the major decisions in Bill Clinton’s White House, or Obama’s claim that he has always opposed the war in Iraq, or John McCain’s claim that he is a "straight talker." We’re talking about lies that led to the US violating international law by invading a country that posed no imminent threat, lies that have led to the needless and pointless deaths of some 4000 American military personnel and to the maiming of nearly 80,000 others, lies that have left a nation of 34 million in ruins, with 4 million refugees, 1 million dead, and political chaos that is perhaps irremediable. We’re talking about lies that have cost the US upwards of $2 trillion in actual military outlays and future debt payments. Lies that have cast the US in the role of pariah nation and terrorist state in the eyes of the rest of the world.

The idea that Americans would be willing to impeach a president for lying about a sexual act, or that they would reject a candidate for plagiarizing part of a speech, but that they would then simply shrug at hard evidence that a president, along with his vice president, secretary of state, defense secretary and national security adviser had all lied in a conscious, coordinated conspiracy to trick them into a disastrous war is hard to believe.

At this point, we should have hordes of people pressing on the iron fences of the White House, armed with pitchforks, baseball bats and cattle prods, ready to storm the place and wreak vengeance. Where are the angry relatives of dead and maimed soldiers? Where are the idealistic students? Where are the taxpayers who’ve been robbed blind? Where’s the outraged Congress? Where are the incensed editorialists in the media?

Hey! Wake up! This is a goddamned outrage?

We all knew it, of course, but until now, thanks to a news media that has long since stopped reporting on serious issues, particularly where it involves criticism of the powerful, we could hide behind the belief that it was all "business as usual" in Washington, a truth-challenged city to be sure.

But now we know. Now there is no hiding from the truth. Now we have it documented and quantified in a way that makes the enormity of the offense clear and undeniable.

Now we are required to take action.

more...

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/30373

[andyrowe]

1. I agree but...

Nothing has come out to adamantly prove beyond all doubt (reasonable or otherwise) that Shrub knew he was lying. He can and will continue to argue that we all thought Saddam was a threat who had weapons.

Billary sure did.

And Billary will pardon her buddy Shrub.

[babylonsister]

3. Have you read about these two independent studies?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3151842

Also, here it is in detail from Dan Froomkin:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2008/01/23/BL2008012301758.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[andyrowe]

5. This gives me hope...

but I won't be holding my breath waiting for justice on this one.

[Winterblues]

2. "Now we are required to take action."

Boy how stupid can one be. Doesn't he know accountability is "Off the Table"

[backscatter712]

4. The French had the right idea.

I say we borrow some guillotines from them...