Panic in the White House
By Nicole Belle Wednesday Aug 08, 2007 5:44pmSalon (watch an ad for day pass)
Every movement, gesture and tic of the Bush administration is shadowed by its past. When National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell was deployed politically to overawe timorous legislators into approving unlimited and warrantless domestic surveillance, he was acting in the shadow of former CIA Director George Tenet, whose presence was used to lend credibility to intelligence being fixed to suit arguments for the invasion of Iraq. As Gen. David Petraeus prepares to deliver his report in September on the "surge" in Iraq, he is elevated into the ultimate reliable source, just as former Secretary of State Colin Powell's sterling reputation was exploited for his delivery of the case for invasion before the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, a date that will live in mendacity, for every statement he made was later revealed to be false; Powell regretted publicly that it was an everlasting "blot" on his good name. Meanwhile, during the dog days of August, the president's aides are preparing the fall public relations campaign to envelop Petraeus' report. On cue, neoconservative organs spew out good news of "progress on the ground" and thrash critics as "defeatist." "Defeatists in Retreat" trumpets William Kristol's latest screed in the Weekly Standard, repackaging old themes once again.
Behind the display of bravado, the West Wing is seized with anxiety. Any rustle in the brush, any sudden noise, upsets the president's aides. As they try to regain their composure and confidence, recalling the glory days when they constituted themselves as the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, a P.R. juggernaut before the invasion, they know who and what they have buried along the way and fear their return.
The release of a documentary on the administration's failures in Iraq, "No End in Sight," directed by Charles Ferguson, has the White House spooked. Bush's aides are not worried because the film is brilliantly shot and edited, or because it is compelling, but because of what -- or whose appearance -- it might augur to upset their September rollout.
Prepare for the media onslaught to keep us right where we are....
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"Every movement, gesture and tic of the Bush administration..."
Two tick stories on Bush in the same day?
C&L-PLEASE!
:P
I recall watching Colin Powell deliver that speech to the UN on 2/5/03. I was devastated that the one good guy left in power had switched sides. I was mortified that anyone fell for the nonsense he spewed, especially him.
In all of US history, that was one of our most shameful moments.
B.S. only goes so far..it's like the little boy who cried wolf
Is Congress on vacation yet? You guys want to start a pool on when Gonzales resigns to "spend more time with his family" and Bush recess-appoints a Reagents University grad to Attorney General?
I'm thinking it will be tomorrow afternoon.
Charles @ 2:
"A day that will live in mendacity." I like that.
Charles @ 2:
Powell always went along to get along. Wilkerson said that Powell made Tenet sit behind him at the UN so that Tenet's credibility would be on the line too. If Powell had such doubts about the intelligence, he had no business giving that speech.
Powel's a victim of his own hand.
The righties are reading from the same fax on a daily basis: perpare for a hug PR snow job, lockstep with rove and bush. You do not think that meeting at the white house w/ limbaugh, hannity beck and the rest of the loons last week was for tea and sympathy? I wonder how much public $$ was spent to bring these sh*t heads on board
The entire region could collapse into total chaos by sunrise this coming Sunday and the report we are going to be fed in September wouldn't change by a single syllable. It's already been written, the copies lie in wait for delivery and all that's left to be done is for the right wing noise machine to follow up by singing their syrupy chorus of "we told you so." Then Bush's approval ratings will go back up and the Democtrats will lose in '08.
Another great day in America, isn't it?
"Prepare for the media onslaught to keep us right where we are…."
And prepare for our pussified Dems in Congress to enable it.
As Andy Card once said: You don't roll out a new product in August.
The new product in September will be the turned corner in the never ending war. The light at the end of the tunnel.
-GSD
Thank goodness for the documentaries or most people would be totally in the dark regarding what is Truth. We definitely can no longer trust the corporate owned reichwing media which functions as the fascist neocon propaganda megaphone.
The people are ready for the typical smoke and mirrors bullcrap we now expect to come from lying, twisted neonazis caught up in the personal power trap of egomania. The people know there's no progress in Iraq; in fact, it's gotten worse...much, much worse.
It's always fascinating to see how evil a psychiatrically compromised mind works though in observing Bush as he thinks he's deceiving even the most unintelligent of americans. Comical, actually. It's become a "study in buffoonery" any time he give a press conference or speech.
Unless the show is aired on NBC/ABC/Fox/ or even HBO/Cinemax/Showtime. The media is probably going to Zzzz ZZzzzzzz ZZzzzzz.
Hate to say it, but the media is already shifting attention away from Iraq and now onto Iran. Iraq is old news. Iran is in, and its potential for nuclear proliferation (think mushroom cloud) makes for a much more scarier (translation peeps will glue their face and talk about it) story.
Iraq is grim yes. It's depressing, yes. It's done away with, and left to rot, and no story there, most accurately, yes.
Iran is hope, definitely. It's enlightening, and new playground for shock-and-awe bomb scenes, Grrreeeaaatttt !!!
GSD, don't you mean the light at the end of the neverending tunnel
Charles @ 2:
Yep. He was the turning pointman in the PR campaign.
The blood of tens of thousands are on his shoulders.
-GSD
dothehop @ 13:
Ah yes. The end is just on the horizon.
-GSD
Now that we know George was treated last year for Lyme Disease, it makes sense that he cannot complete an intelligent sentence when he's impromptu due to neurological impairment. Makes sense now. He's definitely gone downhill physically and mentally since the discovery of his Lyme Disease.
GSD @ 14:
Like well-honed "pimps", this administration USES anyone it can. Soon Gen. Be-Tray-us will be the next one to prostitute himself for a paycheck.
GSD @ 14:
Powell certainly could have and should have spoken up and now deserves to have the blood of our innocents on his hands.....a karmic debt he shares with The Chimp, Cheney, Rice, Rummy, and all of the PNAC war architects. I hope that I live to see them all serving time in jail someday.
I was never a supporter of the war, but I was convinced to be tepidly opposed by Colin Powell's speech at the U.N.
At that point I really believed that Iraq had WMD's, but I thought that we should try other options before invading.
I lost my next-to-last shred of faith and trust in our government when I found out there were no WMD's and Bush/CheneyPowell knew it.
I lost the very last shred when I discovered that we had become a nation that tortures and locks people up without trials or any kind of due process.
Powell should come clean now while the truth can still make a difference, not after more of our troops have to die.
Prepare for the media onslaught to keep us right where we are….
Trudat...and an attempt to make sure that the next Democratic Presidential Canidate they support follows the corporate line...like Hillarious (Soldout) Clinton or John (The GW Botch Suckup) McLame.
I'm with the non-corporate suckups!!! Not these two!! Please!!
colin powell was an arse that day and his wife knows it. the use of cartoons in the presentation was just too much
for me. if it wasn't for the those pesky kids, they would have got away with it!
miss_kitty @ 1:
They just tic me off ;)
Progress on the ground? Maybe. Until they regroup with all those new weapons and body armour we just conveniently lost..Then the public opinion will be over for some of the remaining loyalist to Herr Dubya...I'd love to be a fly on the wall right now in the west wing.......
You think Dubya will read any PDBs at the ranch this year? Nah, neither do I.
Aug 09
MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- Russia's strategic bombers have resumed the Soviet Union's Cold War practice of flying long-haul missions to areas patrolled by NATO and the United States, generals said on Thursday.
BBC News
Russia says its bombers flew to Guam for the first time since the Cold War, triggering a scramble by US fighters.
L.A. Confidential @ 25:
BU...BU...BUT HE LOOKED INTO HIS EYES.
Looks like Russia has gotten shrubs undies in a bunch......pucker up.....
mudshark @ 27:
But wait! I thought Reagan ended the Cold War!
L.A. Confidential @ 28:
Yeah, it was a Reagan... but it was Nancy. Ronny was senile by then.
Putin has too know what he is doing.He knows very well that shrub is teetering on the edge.Funny how this happens when Obama mentioned nukes though.
Old Billy @ 4:
Not that it has anything to do with this thread... but is Santorum a Regent grad?
Hmmm...Shall I slit my wrists when I'm hit with the nuclear fallout, or wait for my skin to fall off?
Petraeus (sp?) WILL betray US!
hang the DJ
Ben @ 32:
I would say FIJI would be a better option.....or the tip of Baja....
mudshark @ 35:
Yeah, but the tip of Baja is starting to look like and be as expensive as another Daytona Beach... too many Gringos.
Blue Buddha @ 36:
Last time I was in Cabo San Lucas (a year and a half ago), they just opened a Home Depot down there. There's something about a HD with a big assed Mexican flag hanging over it.
However, I was disappointed that there weren't any stranded tourists standing out front looking for day labor. ;)
I'm not holding my breath for Powell to make waves, and even if he does, they will just Swift Boat him like O'Neill and Clarke and all the others. What could he tell us that we don't already know? He wasn't even remotely in the loop. He could whine about how bad they treated him, but that doesn't sound like a page turner. All the lies are already out in the open. He missed the boat on being an administration critic just as he was cowed and bamboozled as a member of it. The guy had his moment when he stood at history's door, and he balked.
That's you, Colin, giving the big speech at the UN. Go back and watch yourself. You have to live with it just like we do. Meanwhile, watch that tally of how many people are dying for it, too. A tell-all book four years late won't stop any of that.
I knew long before the so-called 'war on terra' was ever declared that GWB was a tic-ing time bomb.
Richard Armitage turns up here regularly to have a love-in with the Australian media. He made lots of Aussie contacts in Vietnam, and has a big media fanclub here. (They love talking about their good friend "Rich". We had another US official named Richard here recently, but he turned out to be a Dick.)
On his most recent visit, he was talking up Australia's role in Iraq, even saying that our forces were 'doing God's work' there. (I kid you not.) Now that sort of talk might play well in Buttf@#k Mississippi, but it raises a lot of eyebrows in largely agnostic Australia.
So I await his revelations with keen interest. If he tips buckets of shit on the Bush criminals, I will be prepared to overlook his Bible Belt bs.
Old Billy @ 5:
Hear! Hear!
I hate to mention this, but this 'report' is not quoting anyone but seems to be making assumptions that there is 'panic' in the White House. I get the impression that the article is being used to flog the movie.
I'd be quite happy to be wrong, but I feel more comfortable with the credibility of a report when it has more foundations to its premise. I learned this lesson from the drum beat to the Iraq war.
Colin Powell's "good reputation"? Puhleez! The same Colin Powell who collaborated with his superiors in their attempt to whitewash the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War? That Colin Powell? The one who knew damn well that there was no solid evidence for anything being asserted about Iraq by the Bush / Cheney White House but who chose to "go along to get along".
Powell is a disgrace to his country, a disgrace to the military and a disgrace to himself. That he will not speak out forcefully today about all the lies and deceit that went on in the run-up to war simply underscores the man's lack of a moral compass. Throughout his career and his life he has placed loyalty to his superiors over loyalty to the Constitution and the country. The man is dispicable.
As emerged from the Q&A with Charles Ferguson here at C&L, he is virtually blackballed in the corporate broadcast media. There was a brief clip on the Situation Room last month with no interview, an interview on NOW four months ago, an appearance on Tavis Smiley tonight, I guess, and a dumped appearance on Charlie Rose (no explanation, no rescheduling). Contrast that with the bogus meme about Pollack and O'Hanlan. We need to lean on them and get Ferguson on the air and the film more firmly on the map, because the reason the WH is freaked is that the film is damned effective.
J² @ 31:
He graduated from the same school I did, Penn State. I guess he succeeded where I failed: not being brainwashed by ivory towered elites. BTW, with a net worth estimated at near $30 million, he is one of the richest people in the world.
Mr Pelicano @ 43:
And his son Michael is a complete tool...
Unless you live in LA or NYC, you probably will not have a chance to see this film.
ince again we find ourselves on the eve of a new product rollout from the buch co. pr department. if bush co would have planned post war like they plan bullshit promoting, we would be in a better place now. of course if bush co would have kept it all in their pants instead of whipping it out in iraq, we would be in a far better place. i have always marveled at the efforts and energies people go through to bullshit. if only there were some way to count the tax dollars spent by bush co. on the manure spreading ove r the past so many years. hiring effctive ad men is not cheap.
And his son Michael is a complete tool...
Does Colin Powell play with his tool?
Generals like nothing more than scrambled jets in the morning.
Is the next false-flag attack imminent? The fear card is no longer working and the current distractions (Minnesota bridge collapse and the Utah mine incident) isn't quite doing the trick in keeping attention off of the WarPigs regime.
Ozguy@40 you said,
(Re Armitage)
"On his most recent visit, he was talking up Australia’s role in Iraq, even saying that our forces were ‘doing God’s work’ there. (I kid you not.) Now that sort of talk might play well in Buttf@#k Mississippi, but it raises a lot of eyebrows in largely agnostic Australia."
Every damn time I see Armitage's face I see Don Martin's (Mad Magazine cartoonist) rendition of a one-toothed military jarhead,
No reason to believe the WH is 'really" spooked about this until the Grand Jury issues indictments on this. The WH is feinging concern. Keep up the pressure. Prosecute them.
I'll be shocked if Petraeus doesn't recommend that
we withdraw from Iraq immediately, shocked!
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