Letters to the Editor
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Ripped from the official White House website...
...here is text from Dubya's infamous speech delivered in October 2002 in Cincinnati:
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We know that Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy -- the United States of America. We know that Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade. Some al Qaeda leaders who fled Afghanistan went to Iraq. These include one very senior al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks. We've learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases. And we know that after September the 11th, Saddam Hussein's regime gleefully celebrated the terrorist attacks on America.
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(AND FROM LATER IN THE SAME SPEECH...)
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The attacks of September the 11th showed our country that vast oceans no longer protect us from danger. Before that tragic date, we had only hints of al Qaeda's plans and designs. Today in Iraq, we see a threat whose outlines are far more clearly defined, and whose consequences could be far more deadly. Saddam Hussein's actions have put us on notice, and there is no refuge from our responsibilities.
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How's that again, Tony? No effort to conflate 9/11, al Qaeda, Saddam Hussein and Iraq? It doesn't take a student of speech or rhetoric to realize exactly what impression Dubya and friends wanted to deliver -- and to acknowledge how well they succeeded! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, in spades.
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totally different issue?
How the hell is Dick Cheney making bold and confident assertions about Al-Qaeda and Iraq a "totally different issue" from the Bush Administration making bold and confident assertions about Al-Qaeda and Iraq?
And why can RichEmery of the Salon discussion forums find that speech and quote from it and the press corps cannot?
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Why is he Taken Seriously?
This seems like a question one of the former prez. podium perched weasels should handle.. Maybe someone wants to ask Ari Fleisher or Scotty McClellan this question to see how they'd answer. My guess is Tony's memory doesn't go back that far. Nevertheless, this is absolutely nauseating to the core.
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RichEmery
I remember that speech very well. But you must remember that Tony Snow is an Ex Fucks Broadcasting Jerk, that should explain a lot , since a normal person would certainly not stand up and lie without an end for the likes of Dubya (or is it Dumbo?).
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ya gotta hand it to 'em...
I think that what has most impressed me about the Bush Administration is the seemingly superhuman way in which its members can tell the most brazen lies, and then, later, when those lies are tossed back at them, they simply say "I didn't say that." And...this is the best part...they actually figure no-one will bother to confirm that, yup, they've lied again. And, even if both lies are shown to be exactly that, nobody who matters (the Base, MSM), will care.
Indeed, as Gary Kamiya has said elsewhere, the Base, in particular, regards regular lying about matters of life and death as mere policy.
I can't help thinking the mockery Bush and Cheney and their minions have made of the truth, and of the press, will be haunting us for a LONG time.
(Nice job RichEmery, on the quote. That's about as clear as it can be..you'd think)
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Or maybe the President can spell it out for Tony even more directly:
June 17, 2004:
Q Mr. President, why does the administration continue to insist that Saddam had a relationship with al Qaeda, when even you have denied any connection between Saddam and September 11th. And now the September 11th Commission says that there was no collaborative relationship at all.
THE PRESIDENT: The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and al Qaeda, because there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda.
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The Media miss the message
I think that what has most impressed me about the Bush Administration is the seemingly superhuman way in which its members can tell the most brazen lies, and then, later, when those lies are tossed back at them, they simply say "I didn't say that."
This is only possible because the mainstream American media have completely abdicated their responsibility to cover stories fully and properly. When the president and vice president are lying, they need to show what they DID say and present it to contrast what they're saying now. They're still way, way too deferential to this administration.
If they're "giving the public what it wants" -- then why is the public increasingly failing to tune into them, to buy their papers? They're falling down on the job, failing miserably, and are allowing themselves to be exploited by this administration, just as they're allowing the country at large to be misled.
Though a lot of it is just laziness across the board -- if people don't realize by now that the Bush League are bureaucratic buccaneers, if they're only waiting for Charlie Gibson on ABC Nightly News to tell them that, then they've failed in their role as citizens to keep tabs on their leadership, they've let them get away with this.
That's perhaps scarier -- we expect leaders to lie; but do we also have to expect people to care?
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What they did
...was they put out a lot of wink and nod garbage. People were left to draw their own conclusions. They never really spelled anything out, hence they now have deniablity.
The speech quoted below bears that out. It's just a bunch of disconnected assertions. The explict assertion that Saddam and Al Qaeda were in cahoots is not stated. In fact, no conclusion of any kind is explicitly stated.
"We know Mary often likes to wear sexy dresses and/or high heels. And John has free time after work. Mary has been involved in previous relationships and now both Mary and John have been spotted speaking together." That is exactly how the Bush administration made its case against Saddam--by making eyebrow raising assertions and leaving the listener to form an incorrect impression.
Why did they do that? Most likely because they had lousy evidence that they wanted to believe in anyhow. They were simply sweaty, dirty minded gossips with a hot story to tell but no actual facts to back their fantasies. They ended up deluding themselves along with the rest of the country.
IMO, Bush & Cheney should be impeached for being foolish dunderheaded asses rather than actual liars. They just aren't even smart enough to lie, if you ask me.
If there was a REAL lie, IMO, it came when Bush asserted that all options were on the table and that going to war in Iraq would be a last resort.