Where’s the Outrage?

How the war was sold is the topic of Bill Moyer’s first Journal. It is also the subject of Frank Rich’s book, The Greatest Story Ever Sold (a wonderful book that hasn’t gotten its due in my opinion). We would have never gone to war if the president, the vice president and WHIG didn’t start a coordinated effort to confuse and fake out the public.

In this episode of the Bill Moyers Journal, the journalist looks at the press. He clearly points to some the great reporting that had been overlooked. He also points to some of the pressures that major networks were under. The pressure came from the right. It came from sponsors. It came from the public. The unwritten rule was not to really confront the president. Everyone was expected to be ultra-patriotic. The pressure that came from Fox News must of been unreal. Fox News more than any other network waved the red, white and blue then wrapped themselves in the flag. They were patriotic everyone else was not even close. (The Neocons made Fox their home but I digress.) If you were “unpatriotic” Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity would call you out and highlight you and your network. The Neocons would be calling you out soon after that. They would be followed by the radio noise machine. Soon you were out. Ask Donahue.

The relatively small Knight-Ridder outfit consistently got it right. While the Washington Post and the NY Times got it wrong. Moyers does a very good job at pointing this out.

This is a GREAT initial episode. I will be posting it in 5 parts. Here are the first 2 parts.

 

 Bill Moyers Journal - Lapdogs [14:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Bill Moyers - Lapdogs part 2 [18:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Bill Moyers - Lapdogs part 3 [11:51m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Bill Moyers - Lapdogs part 4 [22:31m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Bill Moyers - Lapdogs part 5 [16:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: 9-11, Bill Moyers, Media by ecthompson
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My blog looks like it has turned into all Tenet, all the time.  As usual, Keith Olbermann makes some great points.

 

 Countdown - Tenet's perfect in hindsight [8:49m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: 9-11, Countdown by ecthompson
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I don’t understand. I wrote a book. It was 1/5 as long as Tenet’s. I didn’t have a team of writers helping me. I didn’t get a $4 million deal. Yet, I believe that all of the facts in my book (A Letter to American: Is President Bush Leading Us in the Right Direction?) are correct.

How do you open your book with a story about Richard Perle and not check to make sure that you have the right date? You are the former Director of the CIA for Christ sake!! You are supposed to get your facts correct! The intellectual laziness is unforgivable. He knew that the neocons were going to attack this book. He had to get his facts right but in the very first chapter he fumbled the ball. It makes me want to scream!!!  (Think Progess has the evidence that Richard Perle was pushing a war with Iraq soon after 9/11. They checked the facts.)

 

 More Tenet [8:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: 9-11 by ecthompson
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Where’s the whitewash? George Tenet, in my opinion, is trying to made himself look better and who wouldn’t? He was there for so many missteps. He allowed torture. I don’t care how many times that he says the CI A didn’t torture. They tortured. He allowed secret prisons. Why? Fear? Okay, but fear isn’t a good reason for us to lose who we are. George Tenet allowed Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld and Bush to say things that he knew were wrong. He says that he wanted to work from within. Okay, that’s fair because folks that were outside of the Bush inner circle had NO influence on policy (think of Congress). Is there any evidence that Tenet tried to stop the mis-information? Yep, there is a little but not near enough. There is clear documentation that the yellow cake tale was taken out of the Cincinnati speech because of Tenet’s personal intervention. Why was it stuck back in the State of the Union speech? That’s harder to figure out.

Here’s the problem - outside of WMD, the CIA disagreed with everything else the Bush administration said. Everything. If Tenet raised his hand every time the Bush administration said something that the CIA didn’t agree with, they would have thought that he needed to go to the bathroom. He also would have been let go. He would have been labeled as NOT a team player. So, George could shut up or quit. He decided to shut up. That is a personal choice. He has to live with that.

 

 60 Minutes - George Tenet part 2 [14:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: 9-11, Bush Administration, Iraq by ecthompson
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Did you see the open letter to the Washington Post written by the Democratic Senators? Glenn has a great post.

Tags: Congress, Party Politics, Senate by ecthompson
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The actions of George Tenet and the CIA have been well documented. Dana Priest broke the story on the secret prisons. State of War by James Risen and the 1% doctrine by Ron Suskind clearly revealed the good, the bad and the ugly of the CIA. Torture happened. Secret prisons happened. Group think happened. George Tenet is correct when he asks us to wind the clock back. Remember the fear that gripped Washington. The CIA had no sources in Al Qaeda. They knew almost nothing about what was coming next. James Risan captures this state very well.

In spite of this fear, where was George? When Cheney, Rice and King George were talking about mushroom clouds where was George Tenet to say, “Our intelligence doesn’t support these conclusions.” Tenet is talking about his word and his reputation. Why wasn’t he thinking about his honor 3 - 5 years ago?
It is clear that Condi and the rest of the neocons were not interested in Al Qaeda when they entered office. The number 1 threat to America was Saddam Hussein. This is clear. They wanted Saddam out. The neocons wrote an open letter to President Clinton in 1998 pushing to start a war to remove Saddam.

This 60 minutes interview is okay. There are no major new information in it. Former CIA employees have a couple of words that they would like to say to George Tenet. (It is interesting how our President has seemed to have broken every major department and agency in the government.)

 

 60 Minutes - George Tenet [13:02m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Domestic Spying, Iraq, Torture by ecthompson
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Somehow, I skipped posting my March 24th show. I’m not sure what happened. Anyway, this is a great show if I do say so myse’f. Valerie Plame testifies in front of Congress. It was great to see her. She addressed several issues that the right were still playing with. She clearly stated that she was still covert at the time of her outing. Because so many on the Right have been trying to play this card, I go thru the exact definition of covert. Bill Scher and I discuss the US Attorney scandal. We also discuss that Murray Waas article in the National Journal about Alberto Gonzales. Seems that a Justice Department probe looking into the domestic spying was pointing to Alberto himself. He may have been the reason that the Justice Department officials couldn’t get security clearance to investigate the case. These topics and more.

Remember I’m on iTunes and several other podcasting services.

 

 The Errington Thompson Show 3-24-07 [52:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Domestic Issues, Domestic Spying, Podcasts, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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Damn, this man is fantastic. I watch PBS intermittently. I would like to have more time. Bill Moyers is about as good as there is in journalism. He is good not just for today but ever.

Friday, Bill Moyers sat down with Jon Stewart. This is a great interview. Stewart has been the only man who has been out there battling the Bush White House during the Dark Days. Stewart influence on the political landscape today can not be underestimated.

The next interview is with Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo. Until recently I didn’t get TPM. Now, I get ‘em and understand how they work. TPM is a must read for me every day. This interview is about bloggers but also about the fired US Attorneys. Josh has been all over this. The MSM completely ignored the fired US attorneys.

It is very good to see Bill Moyers, again.

Tags: Media, The Daily Show by ecthompson
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I will not even mention how behind I am in my podcast posting. I’ll just say that I somehow great guests continue to come on my show. For that I’m grateful.

This week SNOW. Yep, just before Easter we have snow and plenty of it. I start off with a clip from Ed Schultz show. Russ Feingold, who was on the Ed Schultz Show, again, shows why I believe that he is the leading progressive voice in the nation. The British soldiers are released. Why? What was this all about? We discuss this with Andy Grotto from the Center for American Progress. We then take it to the next level, Bang (I have been watching the food network again), and discuss Alberto Gonzales and the US Attorney scandal with Duke Law Professor, Christopher Schroeder. These stories and more…

Remember I’m on iTunes and several other podcasting services.

 

 The Errington Thompson Show 4-7-07 [50:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Podcasts, US Attorneys by ecthompson
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Dan Bartlett is Counsel to the President. He tries to swat the Tenet book before anyone has a chance to read the George Tenet’s book. Try to see how many false statements you can pick out in Bartlett’s comments.

Let’s start with his opening remark. The president weighed all of the options before attacking Iraq. Um, no. Not true. According to the warm and fuzzy Bob Woodward book, Plan of Attack, there was never ever a cabinet meeting on the pros and cons of going to war. There was no discussion. It just happened. The only meaningful discussion was between Colin Powell and the President. When you hire a bunch of neocons who all came into office believing that Saddam was the root of all evil then there really doesn’t need to be any discussion. Feith, Cheney, Wolfie, Scooter and Rummy. What was there to talk about? Feith produced information that was fed to Cheney and Rumsfeld. They bypassed the CIA so that Bush would get neocon info 24/7. Bush ate it up and served it to the public.

 

 Barlett lies to cover problems in war [5:13m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Books, Iraq by ecthompson
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Jessica Lynch testified on Capital Hill that she was not a hero and that the Military made up more than half of the stuff about her.  Her rescue video has surfaced.  It seems that CNN hasn’t figured out how to capture internet video so it looks like they video’ed the video.

 

 Lynch rescue [2:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bush Administration, Mess O'Potamia (Iraq/Iran/Israel/Palestine), Military by ecthompson
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I have been retardedly busy the last week.  Blogging has suffered.  I have a ton of stuff to post.  Our friend Jack Abramoff is back in the news.  There was a Democratic debate.  Henry Waxman has invited former CIA director, George Tenet, to Capital Hill for a little chat.  Tenet, who is in a really tough position and has been since 9/11, is critical of the White House’s rush to war in his new book.  Dan Bartlett, the official White House attack dog, has nothing worth while to say but says it any way.  (I’ll have the video in a new post, later)

Let’s start with Michael and Janet.

 

 Scream [4:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Music by ecthompson
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What CEO is worth $120 million? Under the category of the rich git richer -

From CNN.com:

Countrywide Financial Corp. said Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo received $121.85 million in compensation and gains from the exercise of options and vesting of stock awards in 2006, while shares in the largest U.S. mortgage lender rose 24 percent.

The Calabasas, California-based company disclosed the awards in its proxy filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. It also urged shareholders to reject a proposal at its upcoming June 13 annual meeting to give stockholders a say over executive pay levels.

Tags: Corporate Wrongs by ecthompson
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Now, ain’t that somethung.  Little Stephanie Miller!!!  Outstanding!

Tags: Media by ecthompson
5 Comments »

Let me say this, these poll numbers are interesting. Unfortunately, interesting is not going to get us out of Iraq. The Republicans, the folks that voted for Bush and his gang twice, will have to pressure the House and Senate Republicans to split with the President. Only when the R’s in Congress are feeling the heat of re-election or not being re-elected will the Dem’s have enough votes to override a veto.

Full text of poll.

——

From MSNBC.com:

As the Democrat-controlled Congress and the White House clash over an Iraq spending bill, with President Bush vowing to veto it because it contains withdrawal deadlines, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that a solid majority of Americans side with the Democrats.

In addition, a nearly equal number believe that victory in Iraq isn’t possible, and about only one in eight think the war has improved in the three months since Bush called for a troop increase there. (more…)

 

 NBC-WSJ poll [3:29m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Iraq, Media, War on Terror by ecthompson
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I’m not sure that O’Reilly is crazy or not.  I do know that he says things that he later “does not remember”.  He slams people on his show without giving them any time to rebut his falsehoods.

 

 Countdown - Factor Fiction [3:46m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Countdown by ecthompson
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Fired US attorney David Iglesias filed a Hatch Act complaint against Karl Rove.

Update - From WaPo:

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel is creating a task force to examine allegations that White House or Justice Department officials violated a federal law that insulates government employees from partisan politics.

Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch said yesterday that staffers from a unit in his office that enforces the Hatch Act will form the core of a wider group set to examine whether White House officials improperly used federal resources for partisan purposes, improperly conducted partisan political business on federal time or tried to coerce federal employees into taking partisan political actions. (more…)

 

 HB - David Iglesias fights back [11:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: US Attorneys by ecthompson
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Chris Matthews and the senior Senator from Illinois, Dick Durbin, discuss Iraq and the funding.  Will the democrats back down?

 

 HB - Durbin [7:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Bush Administration, Hardball, Iraq by ecthompson
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The problem isn’t that the Military decided to lie. The problem is the atmosphere that the Bush administration has created. Bush and the gang made it clear that anything goes as long as you support the team. Push the war. Push tax cuts. If you did that you could pretty much say anything and do anything.

2 of the stories that helped sell the war in Iraq turned out to be false. Pat Tillman did not die in a fire fight with the enemy. Instead, he was killed by friendly fire. Why? What happened? Jessica Lynch, who has as least 2 movies made about the story that the military made up about her, testified that she was not a hero. She did not go down in a hail of bullets. Instead, she was captured because she and her folk company mates were lost and took a very wrong turn. The rest of her story is here.

I guarantee that Bush administration officials are plenty isolated from this.  No one will have to pay for lying to the American public.  Yes, some Army officials are being called out but the folks in the White House are safe in their bunker.

 

 Tillman and Lynch [3:14m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Afghanistan, Iraq, Military by ecthompson
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How did he get a gun?

 

 NIghtly News - gun laws [2:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Virginia Tech Shooting by ecthompson
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