RelentlesslyOptimistic

Because their lips are moving: Top Officials Planned Detailed Torture, Bush Approved

ABC News reports that top officials of the Bush Administration, including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and Ashcroft, discussed and approved detailed interrogation plans and methods of torture to be used. President "We-Don't-Torture" Bush said he knew about and approved of the discussions. The significance of this story is the shocking admission that top officials not only approved of the use of torture, but that they discussed and approved of specific techniques against specific prisoners.

Jan Crawford Greenburg's ABC News Blog posted a summary with links to key stories, and Digby sums it up by saying that:

"There was a time when the Village clucked and screeched about "defiling the white house" with an extra marital affair or hosting fund raising coffees. I would say this leaves a far greater stain on that institution than any sexual act could ever do.

The vice president, national security advisor and members of the president's cabinet sat around the white house "choreographing" the torture and the president approved it. I have to say that even in my most vivid imaginings about this torture scheme it didn't occur to me that the highest levels of the cabinet were personally involved"

Via Orcinus, image from ABC News

Because Their Lips Are Moving Special: At least 935 official lies to justify the war

The Center for Public Integrity, a non-partisan non-profit that produces responsible investigative journalism, released The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path To War that concluded that:

"President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq."

And

"...the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq"

As a part of preparing the study the Center produced, and has made available on their web site, a 380,000 word database of the statements made by top Bush administration officials that enabled comparisons between what they said and what they actually knew according to official documents and statements.

Via Mark Morford, photo from Political-News.org

Because their lips are moving: September 6, 2006 Bush says "We don't torture"

Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations - New York Times

"...soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency."

 

Via Amy Stein. Image source

Blackwater contractor conducts State Department's investigation of Blackwater incident. The conclusion: Blackwater did nothing wrong.

Talking Points Memo on the investigation of the Blackwater incident in Iraq:

"A few days ago the State Department released what it called a "first blush" report on the Blackwater incident in Baghdad, a report which largely exonerated the Blackwater personnel involved.

I noted at the time that "first blush" was something of an understatement since the report was based exclusively on statements the State Department took from Blackwater operatives on the scene. In other words, the Blackwater employees who did the shooting gave State an account that largely exonerated themselves. A truly shocking development.

But it seems that I was behind the curve on the level of caricature and self-parody that is the military contracting biz in Iraq these days.

The report was written out of the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, the folks who hired Blackwater to provide security for US diplomats in Iraq. But it turns out that the State Department employee who interviewed the Blackwater folks and wrote the report, Darren Hanner ... well, he wasn't a State Department employee. He was another contractor from Blackwater.

So yes, you've got that right. We've now reached what can only be called the alpha and the omega of contracting accountability breakdown ridiculousness. We're outsourcing our investigations of Blackwater to Blackwater."

Via For Your Entertainment. Image ABC News

Because Their Lips Are Moving: Daily Show catches Tony Snow Lying

Last Thursday Jon Stewart showed a video of Tony Snow from March 15th, saying of the fired US Attorneys "It's pretty clear that these things are based on performance and not on sort of attempts to do political retaliation, if you will."

He then showed a video of Tony Snow from Wednesday, June 13th, where a reporter asks about Snow's assertion. Snow interrupted the reporter to say "No, that is something we have never said."

Via Crooks and Liars

Because Their Lips Are Moving, Special Edition: Fox News

Jurassicpork of the Welcome to Pottersville blog has done a terrific job of collecting some astounding screenshots of Fox News stories that are, at best, dishonest. A few show simple mistakes, like putting a volcano in Indonesia instead of the Philippines, and some demonstrate Fox's militant fanaticism ("Why the fuss about torturing people who want us dead?"). But too many reflect clear attempts to mislead viewers, such as repeatedly referring to Republican gay pedophiliac predator Rep. Mark Foley as a Democrat.

 

Read all of Fox News at Its Finest

"Stay the Course" doesn't actually mean "Stay the Course"

The latest "Because their lips are moving" from President Bush:

June: "I saw people wondering whether the United States would have the nerve to stay the course and help them succeed," he said after returning from Baghdad

July: "We will win in Iraq so long as we stay the course"

August: We will stay the course. We will help this young Iraqi democracy succeed"

October 11: "The characterization of, you know, 'it's stay the course' is about a quarter right," Bush complained"

Last week: "Listen, we've never been stay the course, George," he told George Stephanopoulos of ABC News.

Media Matters notes that neither CBS nor AP challenged White House senior adviser Dan Bartlett's statement that the Administration's policy has "never been a 'stay the course' strategy."

From washingtonpost.com, photo Yahoo News

Because his lips are moving: Bush on domestic spying

George W. Bush, Saturday:

The privacy of all Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities. The government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval.

Except when they do.

 

Because their lips are moving: Fox News on Iraq

In an "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" kind of way, this was lifted entirely from Sisyphus Shrugged, in part because of the terrific title:

Oceana has or has not always been at war with itself

Sisyphus notes that these are presented in the order in which Fox broadcast them.

Because his lips are moving: He didn't really mean cutting oil imports from the mideast by 75% by 2025 literally. It was a metaphor.

Administration backs off Bush's vow to reduce Mideast oil imports.

One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

Thanks Terry!